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Planning a family reunion can be stressful, because there are so many ways it can go wrong. Someone gets too drunk. Someone gossips loudly about something they shouldn’t. A few key family members simply opt out altogether which gives everyone even more to gossip about! You know the kind of family we’re talking about… the one where everyone dates everyone else, and then some of them get engaged sight unseen, and then eventually all of them break up?

That kind of family. A reality television family.

That’s right, babies, we’re talking about the cast of the second season of Netflix’s ~experimental~ dating show, “Love Is Blind.” And because any family reunion is bound to be full of chaos, that’s exactly what the second 3-episode “After The Altar” special delivered.

In some ways, the whole thing was kind of a bummer. After all, weeks before the special dropped, both married couples — Iyanna and Jarrette, and Nick and Danielle — announced in quick succession that they would be divorcing. “After The Altar” provides some insight into why Iyanna and Jarrette may not have been fundamentally compatible, but Nick and Danielle’s split remains a mystery. We also see the ways in which on-screen conflicts and the audience reaction to season 2 can work to create festering resentment, which we see play out between Sal and Mallory (and Sal’s extremely-hot-theater-kid-energy new gf!), as well as Natalie and Shayne.

But it’s not all cringey sadness. There is always something comforting about checking in with characters (humans?) who you have grown to feel an affinity to. And we get some heartening updates from Deeps and Kyle… the semi-convincing will-they-or-won’t-they couple.

Either way, we knew what the task was for this viewing. We ranked these characters during the season, so we simply had a duty to check in with our feelings. Some people held steady in our BFF rankings, and others precipitously dropped. Plus, we have a new minor nemesis. Hope you enjoy the episode! xo

We’ve been watching…

I am officially obsessed with “Bad Sisters,” the new Apple TV series from Sharon Horgan (of “Catastrophe” brilliance). It’s an adaptation of a Swedish show about five sisters and their nightmare of a brother-in-law. After watching their sister become diminished in an emotionally abusive relationship — and after he enacts his own unique brand of torture upon each of his four sisters-in-law — the sisters decide to take matters into their own hands. Like John Tucker and Earl… John Paul has to die. The show is dark and comedic and full of raw insights on what it looks like to be a woman backed into a corner. -Emma

Season 2 of “Rutherford Falls,” the Peacock comedy about a Native museum curator (Jana Schmieding) who is passionate about preserving her people’s cultural heritage — but whose best friend (Ed Helms) happens to be a clueless scion of the white family that colonized the land generations ago. In season 1, their friendship, and the balance of power in the town, was turned upside-down after a podcaster comes to town and unearths secrets about the history between the town and the (fictional) Minishonka nation. Schmieding is fantastic as Reagan, the self-deprecating but ambitious curator, and it’s wonderful to see a fat, Native woman not only in a starring role, but at the center of an extremely charming love triangle. I didn’t realize it had been picked back up for a second season, but it’s a delightful, easy watch — “Parks and Rec” energy — and I’m glad to have it back in the rotation. -Claire

We’ve been reading…

Finally started Gabrielle Zevin’s “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow,” and it turns out that the debut novel about two friends who meet as children and go on to become video game designers is just as good as everyone says it is. (Also… the gaming elements should not deter anyone who, like me, has zero interest in gaming.) -Emma

Friend of the pod Esmé Weijun Wang wrote the foreword to a new Penguin Classics edition of Joanne Greenberg’s “I Never Promised You a Rose Garden,” so I had to get it. The title was familiar, but I never knew anything else about the book until I heard about it from Esmé, and it’s absolutely fascinating. An autobiographical novel about a teenage girl, Deborah Blau, who is sent to a mental institution by her desperate parents, the book takes us deep into Deborah’s inner world of Yr, the fantasy realm she first retreated into and then felt trapped within. -Claire

We’ve been listening to…

The Mindy Kaling episode of Meghan Markle’s new Spotify podcast, “Archetypes.” She speaks openly about being an unmarried woman in her 40s, professional success, and more. It’s a really beautiful episode, and I have to shout out my BFF (and our OG Here To Make Friends producer!!!) Katelyn Bogucki who is the Executive Producer on the project. I recommend listening with a glass of wine and a good cry. -Emma

I’m just on my usual rotation this week! I think I might be running out of room in my listening schedule for new shows… -Claire

We’ve been buying…

I mean… is it any surprise? There was a new Hill House drop for the beginning of fall, and I snagged a few pieces I am super excited about, including this cozy Grandpa Cardigan in cream (the pearl buttons!!), this wrap skirt in pink (I have this in another pattern/fabric and I really love it), and this “Nap Top,” which I hope will be a good, slightly elevated layering piece, in the artists’ edition print. -Emma

A safety hair-cutting razor and Jayne Matthews’ DIY shag classes! Remember that early part of the pandemic, when everything was locked down and people were getting really into cutting their own hair and baking their own bread? I was a bit busy doing my own childcare and working at my own job and cooking my own meals and breastfeeding my own baby, so I just watched enviously on Instagram as people learned, from the hairstylist whose famous retro shags inspired my 2019 bangs revival, how to cut their own hair. And now, bitches, it’s my time. I watched, I hyperventilated, I awkwardly used a straight razor to “carve petals” into my hair. It is definitely edging closer and closer to mullet territory (because I CAN’T STOP) but I love how capable I feel and how proud (on good hair days at least) of what I have made. -Claire

As Netflix has turned its hand to mass-producing romantic comedies, there have been some truly delightful successes — movies that capture the sweetness, humor, brightness and sizzle of a ‘90s or ‘00s classic (“Always Be My Maybe,” “Set It Up,” and “Wedding Season” are among our favorites). But many of the platform’s romcoms are aiming more for the Hallmark Channel audience than the cinematic release one, and of those, the movies tend to fall into two categories: oddly melancholy, and intensely zany. It’s “A California Christmas” (mopey, muted colors, plot points revolve around someone dying of cancer) or “Love Hard” (pratfall-heavy, bright colors, plot points revolve around a kiwi allergy making someone’s face look puffy).

This week, entirely by accident, we ended up watching one of each. We chose to pair “Love in the Villa” with “That’s Amor” because they both featured sad American women healing from rejection by exploring a new culture and finding love with hot European men. As it turned out, “Love in the Villa” is the epitome of a zany romcom, with over-the-top comic escapades that should have ended with mutual restraining orders rather than true love, and “That’s Amor” is such a sadrom it’s almost mumblecore.

But the movies share a great deal of DNA: lonely, unlikable heroines who don’t know much about life outside their particular corners of the U.S., handsome heroes who spar with them and then fall in love with them, lessons in appreciating foreign cuisines, and, of course, everyone’s exes showing up to ruin things right when it seemed like true love was about to blossom.

On this episode, we recap every unsettling beat of “Love in the Villa,” followed by “That’s Amor.” We unpack the movies’ romcom tropes, analyze their romantic leads, and discuss the most jawdroppingly awful moments in each (no spoilers, but they involve potential police brutality and bad graphic design, respectively). Uncork a nice Barolo, slice your Spanish tortilla, and enjoy! xo

We’ve been reading…

Romcoms! I read and loved Elissa Sussman’s “Funny You Should Ask” after seeing Emma recommended it, and then tried Mia Sosa’s “The Wedding Crasher” and “The Worst Best Man,” which are the ultimate candy fluff reading (with some steamy scenes as the cherry on top). I also took a little break from my “Persuasion” reread to plow through “The Rabbit Hutch,” and now I’m savoring the last few chapters of Anne Elliot’s dramatic journey to find love — which, by the way, pair perfectly with the slight nip of fall we’ve had in the air lately. -Claire

I finally discovered the brilliance of Elin Hilderbrand’s Nantucket books? (I know, I know… I’m VERY late to the party.) I read “The Perfect Couple,” and then went right into “The Hotel Nantucket,” and wow do I love the breezy fun of these perfect summer novels. -Emma

We’ve been watching…

“Frozen”! Y’all, it happened! I’ve spent my adulthood saying I would watch each hot new kids movie with my own children, and my toddler is now old enough to sit and watch an entire movie. We resorted to this a couple times over the course of an end-of-summer daycare break that extended from the Wednesday before to the Tuesday after Labor Day (a week during which, funnily enough, we still had to work). I never caught a whole sitting, but finally I have managed to piece together what happens in “Frozen.” And not to be, like, so controversial but also so brave, but there are only two good songs in it? I was led to expect more. “Let It Go” does slap though — even more so with your two-year-old trying to sing along. -Claire

My boyfriend and I have gotten really into “Delhi Crime,” a Netflix India series in a mix of Hindi and English, which follows the Delhi police department’s attempts to solve inspired-by-real-life cases. Each season follows a different major case, and the show wisely does not idealize the police detectives at its center, and even dives headfirst into the ways policing can easily become a corrupting force. -Emma

We’ve been listening to…

The 1986 season of Slate’s history podcast One Year, which recently kicked off. Each episode takes on one event from that year, but it’s a smart mix of the most well-remembered events and the ones that have totally dropped out of the collective consciousness. This season has featured episodes about two things I had never really heard of: then-Pistons star Isiah Thomas’s quixotic “No Crime Day” campaign in Detroit, and a misbegotten TV special in which Geraldo Rivera promised to show audiences the hidden vault of Al Capone live on air. It also tells the story of the Challenger explosion through the eyes of the finalists who competed with Christa McAuliffe to be the first teacher in space, a perspective that made a more familiar story completely new (and still utterly horrifying). -Claire

Podglomerate’s new investigative podcast about literary scandals, Missing Pages! Hosted by literary critic Bethanne Patrick, Missing Pages re-explores stories about the publishing industry that you probably remember seeing headlines about, but may not recall all of the details. With the benefit of time, Patrick revisits scandals such as Caroline Calloway’s rise and fall, Kaavya Viswanathan’s alleged plagiarism, and the larger implications of Dan Mallory’s lies. It’s fascinating stuff, and very well-reported. Highly recommend. (Claire note: WHAT HOW HAVE I NOT HEARD OF THIS?? NEED!) -Emma

We’ve been buying…

Jeans. The glorious season of floaty dresses is coming to an end, and that means I’m re-entering the hell of finding a pair of jeans that I actually want to wear all day, every day. (Tights just aren’t a satisfying daily wfh option, given that I live with a cat who sheds white hair and refuses to let me trim her claws.) I tried a couple pairs of washed black jeans from Madewell, which has been driving me crazy with inconsistent sizing and fit for the past couple of years but will occasionally serve me up the perfect pant, and hit the jackpot with the curvy perfect vintage jean in lunar wash. (Sadly, the amazing promo discount I got seems to be over.) I’ve tried this same cut in a different wash that didn’t fit in the waist properly, but these? Perfect. Just hoping I can find an equally good everyday jean in a classic blue before spring comes again! -Claire

Skincare products! A handful of my very sweet friends gifted me a fancy facial for my birthday, which I went to this week. I hadn’t had anyone properly evaluate my skin in awhile, and I ended up buying a few of the products my esthetician recommended, including the Biologique Recherche Lotion P50 1970, which so many people swear by. It’s an exfoliating toner which also hydrates, and so far I am loving it. It’s a little pricey, but you only need to use a few drops at a time so I think it will end up lasting me a long time. I also had been looking for a cleanser which my sensitive, breakout-prone skin didn’t react poorly to, so I grabbed a bottle of the iS Clinical Cleansing Complex as well. -Emma

“Selling the O.C.” almost has it all. It has the Oppenheim twins. Brittany Snow’s hot husband. Double-digit listings with infinity pools. Acres of cleavage sheathed in bandage dresses.

But it does lack a few key things — a protagonist, for example. Deliriously fun fashion. Any overt mention of the MAGA energy dripping from several of its main cast members. A clear and compelling narrative arc behind the chaotic and superficial drama that drives the season.

Naturally, as soon as we could get our grubby little hands on the first season of Netflix’s “Selling the O.C.,” baby sister to reality soap smash “Selling Sunset,” we watched every episode. And yes, there was some joy to be found in there, in ogling the garish, soulless modern palaces being flogged by the O Group and trying to unspool the threads of conflict behind each confrontation.

But so much of the show was lackluster compared to its big sister. The cast is mostly quite bland and, frankly, unlikable; it was actually surprising to realize how appealing many of the “Selling Sunset” agents actually are, despite the constant drama. Mary, Chrishell, Amanza, Maya, and even Heather look grounded and pleasant compared to their counterparts in Newport Beach, who are constantly in a competition to be more two-faced and nasty than their colleagues. The drama that ensues seems ginned up and shallow, perhaps in part because it is such a new office — most of these agents barely know each other. And yet the show didn’t manage to capture what conflict did happen onscreen; there’s always vague, poorly explained off-screen beef that translates into confusing, unsatisfying fights.

We discuss how the show’s characters and storylines disappointed us, as well as the show’s fashion (sexy conservative, á la Fox News host), real estate aesthetic (inside of a cruise ship) and much more in this week’s episode. Hope you enjoy! xo

We’ve been reading…

I’m nearing the end of Tess Gunty’s “The Rabbit Hutch,” which, as it unfolds, is digging more into some familiar sociopolitical questions: The #MeToo era and exploitative sexual relationships; life under the shadow of Trump; late capitalism and the distortions created by massive wealth and fame; and the void that once was, or could be, filled by religious faith and community. Two of her characters, in particular — the ethereal, anguished teenager Blandine Watkins and the troubled grown son of a famous TV star — give voice to aching screeds about the brokenness of the lives they’ve been given. Her pain involves loneliness, heartbreak; his also involves Morgellons disease, a controversial syndrome in which those afflicted claim to find fibers emerging from their skin. With increasing urgency, they try to find a religious, or at least quasi-religious, meaning to transmute their suffering into transcendence. This may sound plodding, but it’s actually a page-turner! -Claire

I have been ripping through some perfect beach reads during my vacay. I finished “The Arc,” which I loved, and then moved onto Elisa Sussman’s “Funny You Should Ask,” Jean Meltzer’s “The Matzah Ball,” and Lizzy Dent’s “The Setup.” Rom-coms in novel form? Inject them right into my veins. -Emma

We’ve been watching…

I just started Nathan Fielder’s new show, “The Rehearsal,” and I think I need a full week to recover from the first episode. Fielder is the creator and star of “Nathan For You,” a comedy reality show in which he would use his very slight business expertise to dream up unhinged strategies for struggling businesses. In “The Rehearsal,” he spends each episode guiding an ordinary person through an elaborate rehearsal process for a task they’ve been dreading; episode one featured a man who wanted to come clean to his bar trivia friends about his lack of a graduate degree after years of misleading them. The show builds an exact replica of the space in which the event will take place on a giant soundstage and casts actors to play anyone else who might be present. Fielder drills the guest star over and over again, intentionally introducing interruptions and unpleasant reactions so that there’s an effective script in place should that actually happen on the day in question. It’s social anxiety made manifest, an attempt to ward off one’s worst fears by making them concrete. I cried at the end of the first episode. That’s a recommendation, I think! -Claire

Honestly… nothing? Taking a little bit of a break from TV while I’m traveling. -Emma

We’ve been listening to…

Nothing new lately! -Claire

The “Scarsdale Diet Murder” episode of Maintenance Phase, featuring Sarah Marshall! I love this perfect Maintenance Phase / You’re Wrong About crossover event. -Emma

We’ve been buying…

The Tradlands Paloma pants in black! I love these pants, and am excited to transition them into fall — so imagine my excitement when they were marked down in the end-of-season sale! Now I’m just trying to resist getting them in olive as well. -Claire

Do hotel rooms count? I’ve been traveling these couple weeks, and just had the most wonderful stay at Waya Narbonne, on the Mediterranean coast of France. An absolutely sweet Dutch couple runs this low-key but elegant “domaine,” and it was a complete delight to stay there. Also… I did get an emerald gingham nap dress because I have an illness and the simple pattern is divine. -Emma

Nothing scratches that romcom itch for us better than a slightly absurd but well-executed comedy about two hotties who are just pretending to date… or are they? And while “Marry Me” fell completely flat, and “I Want You Back” was delightful but sizzle-free, Netflix has a new movie that truly delivers on the promise of a fake relationship romance: “Wedding Season.”

The premise, in brief: microfinancier Asha and startup guy Ravi are set up by their pushy parents, who long for each of their children to finally marry. To avoid matchmaking pressure during a summer of weddings, they agree to pretend that they’re an item… only to slowly fall for each other. There are yearning eyes, misunderstandings, secrets that come out at the most inopportune times, and above all, a happy ending.

What is it that makes Fake Dating the ideal romcom trope of our time? Why do we crave it? There are obvious advantages to the construction: It requires the leads to spend a lot of time onscreen together, enabling plenty of flirtation and doe-eyed wistful looks. It seamlessly transitions from a way to enforce togetherness between people with no other reason to hang out into a psychological barrier to starting a real romantic relationship (e.g. “we already agreed this is just pretend”). It’s also perfectly ludicrous, the kind of thing that pretty much never happens in real life and yet constantly happens in this specific genre. Like a superhero leaping over a skyscraper with a single bound, it assures us that the humdrum disappointments of every day life won’t be holding us back in this fictional escape.

But maybe it’s also a trope well-suited to a time when courtship seems more confusing than ever before and the process of dating to find a relationship is Sisyphean and baffling — swiping endlessly on the apps, going on promising first dates that go nowhere, getting ghosted, getting funneled into situationships. The Fake Relationship echoes another form of courtship, one that “Wedding Season” also considers: arranged marriage. Asha’s parents had one, and in a heart-to-heart late in the movie, Asha’s mother admits that she was heartbroken to be married to a man who wasn’t her choice. At first, she says, she pretended to love him. But then she realized it had become real. Asha’s mother wanted her daughters to choose their loves, but in the end, Asha also finds love by, at first, pretending to love someone. Overburdened by freedom, we have to imagine ourselves into romantic prisons in order to find our way to a person worth choosing freely.

In this episode, we talk about those parallels, break down all the absurd plot details, and revel in our favorite swoony details. Hope you enjoy! xo

We’ve been reading…

“The Rabbit Hutch” by Tess Gunty, a buzzy debut novel poised to meet a moment when the Catholic aesthetic and the slow decline of a capitalism-ravaged country are in the zeitgeist. It unfolds over a week in the fictional Indiana city of Vacca Vale, which is decades into a long decline after the bankruptcy and closure of the automobile company that made the town prosperous. Our heroine Blandine Watkins, an eccentric teenager obsessed with female Catholic mystics, has been spat out by the foster care system and left to cope with the end of an emotionally consuming affair with her high school theater director. The alienated, abandoned characters inhabit an alienated, abandoned city. Everyone is seeking an escape.

I actually picked up this book because of a personal connection: Gunty’s mom was my (wonderful) art teacher, and her brother was my elementary school classmate. The book is deeply informed by the pervasive Catholicism and post-Studebaker travails of our shared hometown, South Bend, and it’s fascinating to see how she grapples with them in her work. Also noted: a fair amount of jabs at the plans to revitalize Vacca Vale as a tech industry hub (*cough* Mayor Pete). Putting aside my indisputable hometown bias, “The Rabbit Hutch” sometimes strains a bit harder for showy prose than it needs to, but it’s an ambitious, imaginative, compelling meditation on the search for meaning in the wake of despoliation and decline. -Claire

I’m still making my way through “The Arc” (I am not on vacation, so I’m reading at a much slower clip) and I’m still really enjoying it. Excited to see if this thoroughly modern/app-dating-centric romantic novel sticks the landing. -Emma

We’ve been watching…

The upcoming Netflix reality show “Dated & Related,” which sounds more incestuous than it is. A modern mash-up of family-matchmaking cable reality shows like “Parental Control” and the new generation of villa-based, IG-model-populated, teeny-bikini-clad dating competitions like “Love Island,” this show features sibling pairs who are challenged to wingman and wingwoman (wingperson?) each other to true love. We’ve often advocated for more reality daters to come in paired with preexisting BFFs or confidants, and so it’s interesting to see this play out in the ensemble format! While it actually seems to help tamp down drama (hardly a reality TV producer’s goal), the relationships between the siblings (both same and mixed-gender duos, all pursuing hetero relationships) are genuinely sweet to watch. Please let me know if I should make Emma watch this for a pod! I’m ready!! -Claire

“Look Both Ways,” Netflix’s updated, much more rosy spin on “Sliding Doors,” starring Lili Reinhart as a young woman graduating college. In one life path, she has a one-night stand with her friend and gets pregnant. In the other, she doesn’t. It isn’t anything revelatory, but it’s a sweet movie and Reinhart shines. The lack of exploration of abortion as a viable option to an unplanned pregnancy feels really weird given where we are post-Roe, but otherwise it’s a lovely watch. -Emma

We’ve been listening to…

I’ve been in catchup mode lately. For a while, I wasn’t in the mood to listen to “Know Your Enemy,” Matt Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell’s podcast on the intellectuals of the right, and I’m getting back in the groove with their most recent episodes on the terrifying Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters and the historian Christopher Lasch and his cooptation by the new right.

Also, my favorite short-lived indie band of the aughts, Voxtrot, is reuniting for a small tour and putting out some new songs, so I’ve been reconnecting a bit with my angsty 20-year-old self. -Claire

The Kardashians episode of our bud Amanda Montell’s podcast “Sounds Like A Cult.” I love a sharp, smart conversation about traditionally low-brow fare, and this really delivers. -Emma

We’ve been buying…

This swingy prairie-girl minidress in the Madewell pre-fall sale. I essentially quit above-the-knee dresses cold turkey after my toddler was born, but now that he is a nimble walker and I’m rarely called on to bend all the way over in public anymore, I hear the siren song of the short skirt again — especially with the approach of fall and cozy tights. -Claire

This versatile black midi skirt from Pixie Market that a fashion influencer I follow who specializes in showing you how to remix classic pieces in your wardrobe #influenced me to buy. (I know, I know, I’m weak.) At least it was on sale? -Emma

True Jane-heads know that “Persuasion,” though not one of her flashiest, best-known works, is nevertheless among her finest. Like “Pride and Prejudice,” it takes as its subject the question of how minds and judgments are changed through new information or perspective. But where Lizzy Bennet is a young, bold, headstrong woman who has never made a mistake worth losing sleep over before, Anne Elliot has lived through the first blush of her youth and has had the opportunity to live with regrets about how she made up her mind during those innocent years. She comes to the events of the novel with a great deal of hard-earned perspective on how decisions are made, and the terrible consequences of making the wrong one.

Anne Elliot was, as a 19-year-old girl, desperately in love with an ambitious but hard-up naval captain, Frederick Wentworth. Her loving, conservative-minded godmother, Lady Russell, convinced her that a marriage to Captain Wentworth would be an unwise one for both parties, and so she ended their engagement. He was deeply wounded, and she was heartbroken — and over the course of the following eight years, she came to feel that her pain and loss were far greater than any advantage they’d gained from separating. She has spent almost a decade grieving for the loss of her love, physically withering, losing her beauty, and becoming a spinster.

But Anne is not just a sad, bitter woman. She has grace for her younger self and for her godmother; she does not conclude that receptivity to persuasion is inherently bad. She only develops her finely tuned understanding of the human heart. She is surrounded by ridiculous, vain people (her immediate family), and she has both the discernment to see their flaws and the loving heart to persuade herself of their best qualities. She values them despite their inability to properly value her. Perhaps her greatest gift is the ability to put herself in the right state of mind to meet everyone, no matter how silly or selfish, at exactly where they are, to expect little enough not to be disappointed or hurt, and to appreciate what good she can take from their company.

This is not the Anne Elliot that Dakota Johnson gives us in “Persuasion” (2022). The Anne Elliot of the movie is a recklessly beautiful mess, intelligent and ruthlessly critical but prone to social faux pas and thoughtless insults. She papers over her sadness with self-loathing and bottles of red wine consumed alone in her room. Oddly, everyone else in the movie still reacts to her as though she’s the restrained, cultivated Anne of the book. One can’t overstate how much she is Fleabag, all lack of impulse control and caustic remarks to the camera; but while Fleabag is recognized as a bit of a narcissistic nightmare by her associates, Anne is perceived as saintly. This does not add up! It just doesn’t.

The rest of the cast of characters have been punched up, by which we mean “flattened into paper dolls.” Her vain family members are now akin to clinical sociopaths; her good-natured but silly and selfish sisters-in-law, the Musgroves, are now “beautiful people in every way.” Instead of a textured world of imperfect humans for Anne to navigate with shrewd generosity, Anne is now the only textured, imperfect human helplessly adrift among a sea of saints and villains.

And then there is the endless list of anachronisms (“A London 5 is a Bath 10”), think-piecey dialogue (“marriage is transactional for women!”) and incongruous details (faded, romantically disregarded Anne is always wearing lipstick and looking like the most eye-catching woman in any room).

There are delightful performances (Richard Grant as Sir Walter Eliot and Henry Golding as his smug heir are particularly fun), luscious visuals, and some pleasures to take from this movie. But mostly it’s a bit infuriating. The story has been followed faithfully and yet hollowed out; the characters have been reimagined into modern archetypes that no longer make sense for the play they’re enacting.

We discuss all this and more in this week’s episode. Hope you enjoy! xo

We’ve been watching…

“The Bear,” the Hulu drama series that spawned a million posts about how sexy Jeremy Allen White’s arms look emerging from a plain white tee. If you haven’t watched it yet, I do recommend it so far. It’s an unexpectedly palatable blend of gritty family drama, comic yelling matches in broad Chicago accents, workplace intrigue, Jeremy Allen White’s undeniable sex appeal, and vibey cooking montages set to tootling jazz. -Claire

“Indian Matchmaking” season 2! Matchmaker Seema Taparia is back again to match couples in both India and the United States. It’s a sweet and easy watch, and some familiar faces from season 1 pop back in. -Emma

We’ve been reading…

“Persuasion,” fittingly enough. Also, Kelsey McKinney’s fantastic essay over at Defector about Sydney Sweeney, nepotism babies, and how the executive class have found more and more effective ways of capturing all the wealth created by people who actually make things. -Claire

“The Arc,” a slightly dystopian, satirical romantic novel by Tory Henwood Hoen about a 35-year-old woman in New York City who is so exhausted by dating that she pays $40,000 to a bespoke service called, of course, The Arc, to find her perfect match. It has the tone of Leigh Stein’s “Self Care,” but the romance of an Emily Henry or Jasmine Guillory novel. -Emma

We’ve been listening to…

The finale of “Fed Up,” which came WAY too soon! I need approximately 150 more episodes please. -Emma

We’ve been buying…

Merit Beauty’s Signature Lip in Millennial, a classic pink. I was a bit skeptical of this lipstick when it came out, but I finally bought it in Cabo (a warm red) and found that it wasn’t as greasy as I’d feared, it applies smoothly, and it looks and feels great to wear all day (as someone who tends to get dry lips from most lip colors).

Also, I saw someone style a really cute outfit on Instagram (I know, I know) around a sheer long-sleeve top, so I bought a sheer long-sleeve top. It’s not exactly long-sleeve weather right now, but I am obsessed with it as a top layer over a cute bralette and as a bottom layer for my dresses in the fall. -Claire

I needed some comfy heels for an upcoming wedding that is largely taking place on grass. I found these Sam Edelman platform sandals which match everything and can easily take me from summer to fall. The best part is — they’re on sale at both Saks Fifth Avenue and Shopbop!

I also grabbed this cropped t-shirt bralette from Aerie in both True Black and Blue Lion. It works for going out if you pair it under a blazer with some high-waisted pants, or working out. I recommend sizing up at least one size. -Emma

Where all else falter, “FBoy Island” delivers. Season 2 started strong, with three impeccably cast leads — all of them charming, beautiful, and completely up to the task of handling male shenanigans — sorting through an outrageous cast of peacocking fboys and soft-spoken nice guys. The last two episodes, from the Mansplain to the final decision night, stuck the landing.

They stuck the landing so well that it’s hard not to wonder how much producers shaped the narrative we see. Without spoiling the season (though we will do so enthusiastically in the actual episode, so be warned), both seasons offered different but entirely satisfying final twists; taking the show as a whole, there’s a palpable narrative arc. It’s so tight, so adept at giving us a new shock, a new but similarly cathartic climax, that it almost feels scripted. Then again, much can probably be accomplished with excellent casting, sharp editing, and a strong concept. Suffice it to say that by the end of the finale, our heart rates were more elevated that watching it technically counted as a cardio workout. In our opinions.

In this episode, we recap the final two episodes, getting more into the nitty-gritty than in our previous discussion of the first eight. We examine the appeal of the Mansplain, scrutinize the depth of Tamaris’s connection with Niko, close-read the final dates, try to unpack the chaos that was the decision ceremony, and speculate wildly about how much producer control went into creating such a perfect season. And, above all, we’re just grateful for the content. A show that makes us feel good after we finish watching? That’s something we can get behind.

Hope you enjoy! xo

We’ve been reading…

God, hardly anything. I’m exhausted! So much TV to watch! But I’ve managed to read a few chapters of Jane Austen’s “Persuasion,” in preparation for another Rich Text we’ve already taped. It had been some years since I reread it, and it’s still absolute perfection: the classically cutting Austen narration, the veins of melancholy and regret, the faded wallflower given the chance to be a romantic heroine once more, the oceans of repressed yearning. -Claire

After my impressive beach reading streak, I’m back to just watching a lot of TV for work. But I did absolutely love this Allison P. Davis piece on 10 years of Tinder. Anyone who has used the apps will find something to relate to. -Emma

We’ve been watching…

So, I also watched “Persuasion” (2022) this week! Keen readers may be picking up on what our next Rich Text pod will be about. No spoilers, save to say that it is truly an assemblage of brain-melting decisions that left me absolutely reeling. -Claire

I really enjoyed “Wedding Season,” another Netflix rom com about two singles who, under pressure from their parents to just get married already, pretend to date to get through a long wedding season. Does it have some plot holes? Sure. Is it delightful? Also yes. -Emma

We’ve been listening to…

“Celebrity Memoir Book Club,” one of the two celebrity memoir book club podcasts that I adore, is my current binge of choice. It’s been in my rotation for a while, but lately I have been plowing through the back catalog. Claire and Ashley discuss the books I truly do want to know about without reading (“#Girlboss,” “Girl Wash Your Face,” “The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo”) and I giggle freely throughout. At this point in my brain-deadening summer, it’s the medicine I need. -Claire

I too have been obsessed with this podcast! The Danielle Bernstein episode truly broke my brain! I’ve also continued to love “Fed Up.” (Maybe I just really enjoy consuming stories about respectable white lady legal grifters from Long Island?) -Emma

We’ve been buying…

Belts! For some reason I had a spasm of wishing to have a belt styling option with all my summer dresses. I rarely wear belts, and I’m never satisfied with the ones I purchase. This time, in hopes of an effortlessly summery look, I went with raffia, in spite of my fears that it may be a more, idk, Lilly Pulitzer vibe than I’m going for. So far, though, I think I like it? I got this stretch raffia belt from Anthropologie (in natural), and it’s very stretchy, comfortable, and great for a casual cinch. -Claire

I snagged these chic J. Crew slides in white on big sale and I am OBSESSED. As a short girl, I always feel like my outfit doesn’t look quite put together if I’m in flats, but I have finally come around to the idea that fancier slides are simply the answer. I also bought this Abercrombie poplin puff sleeve shirt dress in two colors (also on sale!). It’s breezy, easy and can transition from summer to early fall nicely. -Emma

Ah, to be washed up once more on the shores of “FBoy Island”: what a perfect summer escape. The frothy tropical dating show, hosted by Nikki Glaser and dreamed up by former “Bachelor” producer Elan Gale, whisks us away to a mysterious, sun-drenched island populated by three women looking for love, 13 fuckboys in need of reform, and 13 nice guys (self-proclaimed).

We recapped season 1 for Love to See It last summer, and it sparked so much joy. Season 2 brings new twists, new heights of comic fantasy, and a few familiar faces (some more welcome than others). Our three new leads are savvy, spunky, and more than up to the challenge of going toe-to-toe with a houseful of smooth talkers, and the fboys are more convincing than ever.

The TikTok-like interstitial videos have been toned down, but otherwise the show’s concept feels heightened. The three women are more outré in their styling and more choreographed in their movements (at times they very much resemble a girl group taking the stage). Nikki commits even harder to her riffs. The show leans into its concept, expertly producing every set-piece for maximum comic impact and weird factor. Episode one opens with the contestants prying themselves out of the sand like beached zombies stumbling toward the promise of hot babes and a party called “Bro-chella.”

On this week’s episode, we discuss the eight episodes that have dropped on HBO Max thus far; the central characters and relationships that have emerged; the show’s special blend of fantasy, reality, and absurdity; what it means to depict fboys as capable of reform rather than inherently bad; and whether nice guys can make for good reality TV.

Hope you enjoy! Watch out for our recap of the final two episodes, coming soon. xo

We’ve been watching…

Friend of the pod Phoebe Robinson’s new Freeform show, “Everything Is Trash”! The show is a classic, easy-watching sitcom, and Phoebe, an incredibly charming lead, plays a podcaster who makes a living talking about her messy dating life — which causes a few problems for her older brother, who is trying to launch his political career. Listen, a podcaster has to give her audience what they crave. -Claire

I truly binge-watched FX on Hulu’s “The Bear” after a week of seeing other people’s horny “yes chef” tweets. By the end, I not only understood them, but was weeping at this brilliant, intimate, frenetic, stressful, beautiful bite-sized season of TV. -Emma

We’ve been reading…

“Coventry” by Rachel Cusk, which is apparently my vacation book. I got through a few more essays during our week in the Finger Lakes with my side of the family, during the occasional down moments between hiking, swimming, and berry-picking. (I had no idea that having a child would lead me to say, with a completely straight face, things like “we have to be up by 7 or we’ll miss the waterfall hike,” but apparently toddlers want to do things on vacation other than watch you finish your TBR pile.) -Claire

I spent my birthday weekend at the beach, where I get my best reading done. I breezed through Alison B. Hart’s “The Work Wife,” a fast-paced novel set over the course of one significant day, told alternately from the perspectives of a major Hollywood producer’s first wife, second wife, and executive assistant (the titular work wife). After that, I moved onto friend of the pod Hannah Orenstein’s breezy and delightful modern romance novel, “Meant To Be Mine.” Very much recommend both! - Emma

We’ve been listening to…

The soundtrack of “Moana,” now a road trip standby. -Claire

“Fed Up,” Wondery’s new podcast about the Emily Gellis / F-Factor founder Tanya Zuckerbrot influencer dust-up. I followed this story casually while it was unfolding, but there was apparently a whole lot more to it. Cannot wait for more episodes to drop. -Emma

We’ve been buying…

The Anise Nightdress from Salter House, a Brooklyn shop that sells romantic nightgowns straight out of a period film: floaty cotton, whimsical embroidery, broderie anglaise and delicate pintucks. They’re designed by shop owner Sandeep Salter, a former archivist and bibliographer who previously opened Goods for the Study with bookstore owner Sarah McNally, and I am totally obsessed with her whole aesthetic. And, of course, I am obsessed with wafting around my truck-sticker-strewn apartment like a reclusive Victorian poet. -Claire

I’ve been making purchases in vacation mode. I’m taking a big Europe trip for the first time since 2018 in a few weeks, and because luggage keeps getting lost (thanks to massive understaffing on airlines), I’m trying to find the most largest, most efficient carry-on luggage I can. I decided to try Roam’s large carry-on, because it’s beautiful, customizable AND practical (and they’re having a sample sale!).

I was also on the hunt for some comfy, chic, multi-purpose walking shoes that could take me from day to night. I settled on these Arizona Chunky platform Birkenstocks, with a bouncy, ridged low platform bottom in white, and classic black suede straps with black buckles. Chic and super comfortable! I have been breaking them in all over Brooklyn and am obsessed. -Emma

Opinions vary, but personally, we believe there’s room for a lot more high-concept fantasy in reality dating. More eerie entrances, more mystical moments, more —let’s just go with it — smoke machines. Why can’t a reality series inject a bit more “Brigadoon” into our “Bachelor”?

This is what we crave, and it’s what “The One That Got Away” delivers. Since leaving “The Bachelor,” producer Elan Gale has been trying his hand at more experimental dating shows (see: “FBoy Island,” also gloriously back this summer), and his newest is a 10-episode series on Prime with a time-travel twist. Six singles await missed romantic connections from their past, who arrive through a magical portal (some rocks surrounded by purple uplighting and smoke machines) for another chance at love. There are Confirmation class buddies, high school classmates, exes and friends’ exes — even current best friends — and they’re all ready to shoot their shot with one of the leads.

The concept is absurd and absurdly fun, and it leads the show into some interesting directions. Some aspects are, frankly, pretty troubling! For one thing, the implications of bringing back people from someone’s past for them to date again are simply different for women than for men. While the men are mostly brought peers, friends, and old hook-ups to date, the women are often faced with people they have never really had a connection with and share little in common with. The women then face pressure to give a real chance to whichever random men who showed up expecting a date, even if they feel uncomfortable with the romantic attentions of those men. One woman is sent a man who had a crush on her when she was just 18 and he was almost 30; another is sent a man she’s never spoken to who follows her on Instagram. Like…. yikes!

But the leads do have a fair amount of power within the show; they alone decide when their love interests are sent away, and while they decide, up to two of their possible connections live in a house together with all the other portal arrivals. The non-leads, dealing with a fair amount of emotional anxiety about their fate, quickly bond with each other and become vital supports, but their new friends can disappear at a moment’s notice, without even saying goodbye, if the leads choose to send them away. The dichotomy between the two groups — leads and arrivals — is stark, and creates a class hierarchy so notable that it is openly commented on by the arrivals and bubbles to the surface in at least one dramatic confrontation.

We dug into all this, plus our favorite love story of the season and all the spiciest drama, in this week’s episode. Hope you enjoy! xo

We’ve been watching…

Seasons 2 of “The Flight Attendant” and “Only Murders in the Building” have been keeping me and Greg occupied on our rare free nights. -Claire

I breezed right through the first season of Hulu’s “Maggie,” a moderately charming romantic comedy of errors about a psychic who begins seeing visions of her own romantic future. -Emma

We’ve been reading…

Elain Hsieh Chou’s madcap satirical novel, “Disorientation,” which follows a miserably directionless PhD student as she undergoes a disillusionment with her course of study that leads her to a political awakening. Ingrid Yang is a Taiwanese-American graduate student in the East Asian Studies department of Barnes University, a fusty New England college not far from where she grew up. She’s studying a Chinese-American poet, Xiao-Wen Chou, but has little interest in his work, let alone any idea what to say about him in her dissertation; at every step, her course of study has been nudged along by (mostly white) advisors who promised her job security and acclaim if she chose the right research subject. It’s a sedate place to start, but the novel soon turns into an academic mystery, an investigative caper, and a raucous send-up of American academia. As Ingrid herself — someone who always longed to fit in — begins to see the white supremacy that permeates the university hierarchy and how seeking its acceptance has left her alienated from herself, she takes the reader with her on a consciousness-raising journey. (And stay tuned for the Jordan Peterson-esque turn taken by one of her professors.)

Also, I have been feeling complicated things about the new Dakota Johnson “Persuasion” adaptation (mainly despair mixed with an unwilling fascination), and I absolutely adored Brandon Taylor’s newsletter on the movie. In it, he really digs into what makes Jane Austen’s novels tick — especially her more melancholy later novels, which include “Persuasion” — and what makes an adaptation of them successful (that is, understanding what the novel itself is actually about, rather than getting distracted by the most superficially appealing plot points). On the novel: “Where some Austen novels chronicle the bright, flashing episodes of youth, Persuasion follows a young woman who has to go on living after those episodes have concluded prematurely.” YES. I was almost crying by the end of this essay, which made me want to reread the book instead. Highly recommended: Jane Austen’s “Persuasion.” -Claire

I too was obsessed with Brandon Taylor’s “Persuasion” essay. (Honestly, his newsletter always makes me think and emote and become very jealous of his immense talent!!!)

I felt the same way about Jia Tolentino’s gorgeous, affecting New Yorker essay about the sacredness of abortion care. “Even within the course of the same pregnancy, a person and the fetus she carries can shift between the roles of lover and beloved, host and parasite, vessel and divinity, victim and murderer; each body is capable of extinguishing the other, although one cannot survive alone,” she writes. “There is no human relationship more complex, more morally unstable than this.” -Emma

We’ve been listening to…

Call me a narcissist but I DID listen to our appearance on “Sounds Like a Cult,” which is currently doing a “Cult Girl Summer” run of bonus episodes. We talked about the cult of dating apps, and even remembering the two years that I tried to date on OkCupid was difficult, but we all felt much better by the end. -Claire

The Top Hits of 1997 playlist on Spotify in preparation for the Backstreet Boys concert I went to over the weekend with my friends Liv and Alison. Speaking of which, the show was fantastic! It was nostalgic and full of pure, unadulterated joy. Also — A.J. is now the hottest and most talented one? -Emma

We’ve been buying…

Megababe natural deodorant! I have been wearing some kind of antiperspirant deodorant since adolescence, and recently I became fed up with two things: My pits still get wet and stinky by the end of the day, and the chemicals in the deodorant make me more likely to get yellow armpit stains in light-colored shirts. While searching for a replacement, either highly chemical or highly natural, I learned that basically every deodorant gives a significant amount of people an armpit rash, and they WILL leave close-up photos of this in the Target reviews section. However, the reviews for Megababe’s Smoothie Deo, a fruit-enzyme-powered natural deodorant, were pretty good. I got it, I’ve worn it for a couple days, and it seems to work better than my previous Dove antiperspirant deodorant. As of now, I’m a convert, but stay tuned for any future rashes. -Claire

I hadn’t checked out J. Crew much since it’s Jenna Lyons days, but a recent newsletter from my friend Mattie Kahn about how the brand had gotten good again, made me curious. They were having a giant sale, so though I usually resist buying final sale items, because I am a big returner, I took a risk and bought a handful of elevated basics I thought would probably work — and I was NOT disappointed. My absolute favorites include this lightweight linen beach button-up (in the perfect shade of blue), these silky drapey white cargo-style trousers, a very practical cropped tank, these extra chic cat eye sunglasses in tortoise, and these waterproof cross-strap EVA sandals which feel like walking on clouds. -Emma

Quick reminder: We’re having a virtual live show with Moment House on Sunday, July 10! We’ll be recapping the premiere episode of Kaitlyn and Britt’s (briefly) two-Bachelorette season. Plus, there will be exclusive merch, and we’ll be using the tipping function on Moment House to raise money for The Brigid Alliance, a fantastic organization that provides people with the money and support they need to travel for abortion care. Get tickets here.

After “To All the Boys I Loved Before” stole our hearts (and about 50 full hours of each of our short lives on this Earth), it was a foregone conclusion that we would watch the next Jenny Han Y.A. romance adaptation — and the next, and the next. We watched the rest of the TATBILB trilogy (though with less rapture), and now we’re watching “The Summer I Turned Pretty” — the Prime series adaptation of Han’s Summer Trilogy, which came out before her “To All the Boys” books.

Like “To All the Boys,” the new series tells the story of a high school girl who has long nursed a crush on an unattainable childhood friend — but who suddenly blossoms and is soon pursued by not one, but several hot boys.

Isabella “Belly” Conklin (Lola Tung) has spent every summer of her life at the vacation home of her mother’s best friend Susannah Fisher. The two families’ fathers visit here and there, but mostly it’s the two moms and their four children: Belly and her brother Steven, and Conrad and Jeremiah Fisher. Belly has always had a crush on Conrad, but he’s never seen her that way — until she showed up this summer with boobs. Yes, Belly is pretty now, and Conrad is taking notice.

However, so are other boys — like Cam, a sweet boy she met at a middle-school Latin convention and who dreams of being a marine biologist. Oh, and Jeremiah, who she’s always seen as more of a best friend. Meanwhile, Susannah has invited Belly to make her debut at the country club this summer, and so Belly spends her vacation learning the waltz, attending teas, and dealing with a love pyramid.

Though the love triangle is almost absurdly dramatic (what’s worse than dating the son of your closest family friend? Dating both of them within the space of a week, maybe), it’s perhaps the least compelling part of the show. Susannah and Belly’s mom, Laurel, are also working through their own problems — Susannah has a troubling secret, and Laurel, recently divorced from the kids’ dad, is struggling to write her next novel and get back out there — while trying to keep their tight friendship of many years on track. Conrad has become inexplicably withdrawn. Steven begins dating a gorgeous, wealthy rising fashion influencer, but his insecurities about his middle-class background present an obstacle. It’s truly an ensemble show, which may be what saves it from the relatively lackluster central romance.

In this episode, we discuss the tipping point between identifying with teenagers and their mothers, the soothing and yet infuriating coastal grandmother/Nancy Meyers aesthetic (with its lavish wealth; enviable, impossibly clean kitchens; and the hidden labor of making them so continually homey and luxuriant), the desire to both inhabit and critique these aspirational enclaves of white wealth, and the joys and perils of young love. Plus, Claire gets candid about life as a woman who never got boobs pretty. Mix up a big pitcher of pomegranate margaritas á la Marfa, lounge by your immense marble kitchen island, and enjoy! xo

We’ve been watching…

I binged my way through Amazon’s new bonkers reality dating show (also by producer Elan Gale who created FBoy Island and was an exec on The Bachelor), “The One That Got Away.” Singles are brought to a ~magical location~ to date people from their pasts. I didn’t find it quite as fun as “FBoy Island,” but it certainly scratched the itch for new mindless content, which frankly I needed this week. -Emma

Season 2 of Hulu’s “Only Murders in the Building,” the increasingly meta murder-mystery comedy. I have to admit, my memory is so leaky that I might have to go back and rewatch season 1, because I have forgotten an embarrassing amount of plot, and it’s heavy on plot twists and callbacks. (It’s so into callbacks it will call out callbacks.) When season 2 opens, Mabel (Selena Gomez) — and, it begins to seem, all three of the amateur true crime podcasters, including Charles (Steve Martin) and Oliver (Martin Short) — is under suspicion of murdering the board president of the building, who admittedly was trying to get the three of them evicted. Plus: Amy Schumer moves in (playing a very broad version of herself) and a titillating plot emerges involving a stolen piece of erotic art that might reveal a secret part of Charles’s past. -Claire

We’ve been reading…

This excellent (and depressing and timely) essay in TIME by Taylor Harris (and edited by my friend Lori Fradkin!), aptly titled: “America Insists It Is Great. It Should Work on Being Decent.” -Emma

Elif Batuman’s “Either/Or,” which I’m now about half-way through. Our tortured heroine, Selin, is deep in mourning over the end of her first love — an unconsummated but in some sense romantic relationship with an older Hungarian student, Ivan. Now an English major, she’s reading and reading and reading, and much of the book consists of her emotional altercations with classic literature. Provoked by her reading, she wrestles with her relationship with her mother (who she both adores possessively and feels suffocated by the love of); with Ivan (who she sees in every rake, seducer, and male author who depicts a contemptible female love object in his work); and with herself and her own writerly ambitions (she is bored and infuriated by self-indulgent memoir-esque fiction like “In Search of Lost Time,” but she also recognizes that it’s the only kind of fiction she herself wants to write).

It makes me laugh, and, like Selin herself reading this kind of navel-gazing fiction, it sometimes makes me annoyed, but it really captures the process of coming of age in a way few novels do — the raw and somehow shameful emotion, the sea of internal contradictions, the struggle to reconcile the self you want to be with the one you’ve been given to work with, the many attempts to compare and contrast yourself against others to pin down what that self is and what makes it special. -Claire

We’ve been listening to…

“Smoke Screen: Puppy Kingpin,” a podcast from Neon Hum, and hosted by Alex Schuman, about the puppy mill industry, and the great — fraudulent! — lengths that invested parties will go to make money while covering up the origins of their product — in this case, PUPPIES — from buyers. The series specifically hones in on Jolyn Noethe, a puppy broker and businesswoman from Iowa who is accused of spearheading a nationwide puppy laundering (yes, like money laundering) scheme. It’s a fascinating deep dive into an industry I knew very little about. -Emma

Nothing new this week; daycare closures always cut into my podcast listening, and this past week we had two (2) Covid shutdowns in my son’s class — one from Saturday-Wednesday, and one from Friday afternoon-Tuesday. (That 1.5 days of daycare were really cherished, but I’m still behind on all my pods). -Claire

We’ve been buying…

So I first tried Neutrogena’s Hydro Boost water-based gel moisturizer because they sponsored our other pod, Love To See It. But I genuinely loved the product so much that I finished it and have now purchased a refill. It’s not oily! It soaks into the skin without leaving a weird film! And it’s affordable! Highly recommend. -Emma

This week I’ve mostly been making returns. I hate online shopping for its waste — all the shipping to my place and shipping back — but it’s been a long year and a half of trying to figure out what I like wearing now that I am in my mid-thirties and spend a LOT of time at the playground and almost none at happy hour, and it involves a lot of ordering stuff and then returning it so that I don’t drown in debt and unworn clothes. So this week, I shipped a bunch of my “not for me” purchases. I also saw a mom wearing her hair clipped up in an open gold claw clip, so I bought one, obviously. I found this Kitsch open shape gold claw clip, which seems sturdy and is definitely beautiful. -Claire

Content warning: In this podcast, we discuss some very difficult topics — notably, suicide/suicidal ideation, sexual assault and child sexual abuse. Please listen with care.

On Friday, the Supreme Court released its opinion on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. In it, the court overturned Roe v. Wade, denying the existence of a constitutional right to an abortion. The majority opinion, authored by Justice Samuel Alito, was substantially unchanged from the draft opinion leaked last month, so there was little surprise as to the outcome and the reasoning. But this time, it’s real. Across the country, state trigger laws went into effect to outlaw abortion in all or most cases, and pre-Roe laws criminalizing the procedure became relevant once again. Many clinics were forced to immediately stop providing abortions, sending distraught patients home from the waiting room mere minutes before their scheduled appointments.

This is not what we talked about on the podcast this week. We had already put the episode to bed when the opinion came down, and we both spent Friday in a haze. (In Emma’s case, the haze included writing an important and clear-eyed essay for MSNBC about whether an abortion ban violates the religious practice of Jewish people.)

But this episode ended up being, unintentionally, rather apt. Last week, we watched the Netflix docuseries “Keep Sweet: Pray & Obey,” about the FLDS (an extreme Mormon sect) and the depravities inflicted by its current leader, Warren Jeffs. We also watched “The Deep End,” a Hulu docuseries about the controversial spiritual guru Teal Swan and the dramas of her devoted inner circle. And the control and physical violation of women — and the reaction against that control and violation — are, respectively, central to those two groups.

The FLDS — especially under Warren Jeffs, a particularly cruel and power-hungry leader, but also more generally — treats women and children as forms of wealth for high-status men. To be awarded more wives is to reach a higher status in heaven; to have more children is to have more to offer the community in free, unregulated labor and in wives to offer other men. Women and girls in the FLDS were married off young — increasingly, under Warren, long before they reached legal age — and were expected to bear as many children as possible.

Teal Swan, a YouTube-popular spiritual influencer, is diametrically opposed to the FLDS in most ways. She proclaims to be an all-knowing, supreme female leader, and she espouses women’s freedom and equality; she’s also been public about having suffered serious sexual abuse at the hands of a family friend, and in her work, she looks to heal the trauma left behind by this kind of abuse. Her schtick tends toward the girlboss, in true millennial form, and she masterfully deploys feminist rhetoric to deflect criticism of her methods (which include practices that could implant false memories of trauma in the minds of her followers).

In this episode, we discuss the appeal of dangerous spiritual groups like these, the horrors of Warren Jeffs’ FLDS, the insidious girl-power faux therapy of Teal Swan, and the anxieties about gender roles and hierarchies that emerge in each.

Thank you for listening!

And a quick reminder: we’re having a live show with Moment House on Sunday, July 10! We’ll be recapping the premiere episode of Kaitlyn and Britt’s (briefly) two-Bachelorette season. Plus, we’ll be using the tipping function on Moment House to raise money for The Brigid Alliance, a fantastic organization that provides people with the money and support they need to travel for abortion care.

We’ve been watching…

“The Summer I Turned Pretty” on Prime, based on the first book in author Jenny Han’s first trilogy, which she wrote before “To All The Boys I Loved Before.” It is sweet and sad and joyous, and a beautiful meditation on both coming of age and the longevity of female friendships. -Emma

Oh, me too! Coincidence or… pod incoming? -Claire

We’ve been listening to…

I binged my way through both seasons of the “Snapped” podcast by Lucy Taylor, which I discovered by way of the “A Little Bit Culty” pod. The first season is about her personal (hellish) experience with elite Greek life, and the second season compellingly builds a wider case for the fact that sororities remain, essentially, white supremacist cultic structures. Highly recommend. -Emma

I relistened to “The Gateway,” Gizmodo’s podcast on Teal Swan, hosted and reported by Jennings Brown, before taping this episode. Then I got curious about his new podcast, “Revelations,” in which he infiltrates the Fellowship of Friends cult. The group’s founder, Robert Burton, teaches that God is expressed and sought through classical beauty, including opera, the Western literary canon, and fine wine. Being in the FOF sounds like an unusually luxurious experience for a cult. Orchestral performances and elegant dinners served by tuxedoed waitstaff are a quotidian part of life in the community. Also, allegedly, a horrifying pattern of sexual predation on male followers. -Claire

We’ve been reading…

I’ve been re-reading some books for a project that’s in its early stages, including “Big Friendship,” “Bachelor Nation” and “Trick Mirror.” -Emma

I just started the sequel to Elif Batuman’s “The Idiot,” after an indulgent reread of her 2017 novel. “Either/Or” picks up right where “Either/Or” left off, but there’s a definite shift in attitude toward the enigmatic love interest Ivan — and a new bent in our heroine Selin’s intellectual/romantic proclivities. Rather than trying to understand love through linguistics, she’s taken up an English major, and with it, an interest in the mistreated and malcontent women of the literary canon. So, a book written for 20-year-old me! What a gift. -Claire

We’ve been buying…

My absolute favorite swimwear brand, Marysia, is having a big sale on their Resort 2022 line. Their stuff is pricey, but so flattering. (I am obsessed with scalloping, their high-waisted bikinis, and all of their gorgeous, non-granny-feeling one pieces!) I never shop their line full price because I simply can’t afford it, so I jump on it when theses suits go on sale. I grabbed the Chesapeake bikini top and bottom, as well as the East River top in fern and the matching bottoms. (I was also tempted by this gorgeous Garden Maillot.) -Emma

So many iced coffees, even though I have a coffeemaker at home. Ah, summer!

Plus: breezy long summer shorts from Tradlands. (I sized down for a slightly less billowy look, but both ways are mom schlub perfection to me.) -Claire