This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com

Graham Platner is not having a good week. Nancy and Sarah discuss the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate whose high-profile campaign hit yet another snag with recent revelations of sexting. But wait: What kind of sexting? And is sexting “cheating”? We debate these topics, along with the old Nazi tattoo issue (which gets surprisingly heated), whether authenticity and politics can coexist, and if Sarah is just a hopeless moral-relativist degenerate (probably).

Also discussed:

* Nancy shows off her scar

* Shit going down at 60 Minutes

* Nancy mispronounces Scott Pelley’s last name, multiple times

* Sarah mispronounces Ross “Douthat,” mostly as a troll to get him on the pod

* The Democrat’s dude problem just got a … dude problem

* American morality is a confusing mess

* Do blowjobs count as sex? The debate!

* Anti-rape … underwear?

* Trump, the heavyweight champ of indiscretion

* But how DOES a man have sex with an octopus?

* What is a “New York Knick,” anyway?

* Fuck a dead chicken: cool or nah?

Plus, Nancy says “swatsticker,” Sarah claims the title of king idiot, Lolita in a post-#MeToo era, and more!

REMINDER: First Sunday is this Sunday, June 7! 8pmET/5pmPT. Paid subscribers get link day-of.

It’s never considered cheating to become a paid subscriber.

The little photo that could…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com

Nancy and Sarah discuss a New York magazine story called “The Big Little Penis Panic,” about how social media, a modern detachment from the body, and the derangements of porn have fueled anxiety for Gen Z men, who are more body-conscious than earlier generations of dudes. (Remember the olden days when only women had neuroses about their body?) Nancy thinks looksmaxxxing is “unmasculine.” Sarah thinks we’re moving from sex as a tactile/physical act toward one that is visual, aka mediated through screens. As old hang-ups lift and new ones get introduced (“catching print”??), we are reminded that every generation gets to reinvent misery.

Also discussed:

* No glue traps!

* Nancy goes viral

* CAGE MATCH ON THE WHITE HOUSE LAWN!!

* UFC and the male brain

* Looksmaxxing, the saddest modern trend?

* The truth in a man’s pants is private

* Meanwhile, everyone knows Sarah has big boobs

* When was the last time you saw someone else’s penis IRL?

* The case against Barbie vaginas

* Sarah and Nancy debate vulva-casting

* Should men have a bulge in their pants?

* Two words: “Wrong hole”

* Corndogs that Sarah has loved …

* Nancy notes Barry Gibbs’ attribute(s)

Plus, Sarah goes down the Stanley K-hole, Nancy on Gen X at 60, Freedom Mouse rides again (?), and much more!

Is that a paid subscription in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

REMINDER: First Zoom hang on Sunday, July 7, 8pm ET / 5pm PT

How was your Saturday morning?

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com

Nancy and Sarah talk to journalist Mary Lisa Gavenas, whose new biography of cosmetics queen Mary Kay, Selling Opportunity, also traces the profound role that direct sales had in selling the American dream. It took a while for women to enter the salesforce, but once they did, oooh, watch out. Mary Kay, in particular, had a genius for sales, which she turned into an empire that exists to this day. Although the company largely sells skin care, Mary Kay also sold inspiration, a better life, transformation. As a pop-historical figure, she’s part self-help guru, part social media influencer, part girlboss — but entirely a self-made woman.

We talk about the resilience of 20th-century women who cared less about having the correct politics and more about feeding their family, the line between opportunity and exploitation, and (of course) those pink Cadillacs.

Also discussed:

* “I like women. Nancy is undecided.”

* The power of a good sob story

* Yankee peddlers!

* Mary Kay seminars: Where tent revival meets Las Vegas floorshow

* Billy Graham put himself through divinity school as a Fuller Brush salesman

* Want to come over and see my new dust mop?

* Mary Kay had six husbands

* The Night of the Mary Kay Commandos

* The founder of Tupperware was actually someone named “Tupper”

* Also, Mr. Tupper thought he was the Leonardo DaVinci of his time

* Pink bathtubs as aspirational

* Did your grandmother work?

* Is Mary Kay a Ponzi scheme?

* The power of a “thank you” note

Plus, Sarah learns the definition of “pin money,” Nancy creams over a new tinted moisturizer, Mary Lisa’s dream of Aix-en-Provence includes hunting dogs, and much more.

Gee, that paid subscription looks good on you ..

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com

Nancy and Sarah talk with Helen Lewis, whose latest for The Atlantic, “The Men Who Want Women to Be Quiet,” introduces us to a new breed of religious, cultural, and political figures with very retro ideas about women’s roles. Where did this come from? Where is it going? The trio talk manosphere, the excesses of Tumblr feminism, and Helen and Sarah have an old-fashioned disagreement about the viral essay, “The Great Feminization.”

Also discussed:

* Sarah goes viral!

* “Real-estate novelist,” explained

* The many life cycles of Russell Brand: shock jock, shagger of the year, insta-Christian, forever attention addict

* “Meddlesome, medicated, quarrelsome” is a T-shirt we’d wear

* But Larry Summers really was kind of bad…

* Does Nick Fuentes just need the love of a good woman (or man)?

* “Gyno-fascism”

* “Bitches be crazy, and I stand with them!”

* The saddest moment in that Louis Theroux documentary

* Jordan Peterson has a crying-on-camera problem

* America loves a flimflam man

* Master and Commander: Not just for the mens

* NY Mag contributor Ross Barkan’s very bad week

Plus, Nancy has a groyper story, Sarah thinks Timothée Chalamet got robbed, Helen proclaims Trump “camp as knickers!” and much more!

Stand with bitches! Become a paid subscriber.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com

Nancy speaks with war correspondent James Verini, who reported from Ukraine about the devastating 2022 bombing of a theater in Mariupol housing 1500 refugees. James (and photographer Paolo Pellgrin) made his way to survivors of the bombing, and later tracked down every survivor he could find. The result is The Theater: Courage and Survival in the Defining Atrocity of the Ukraine War, a new book that tells stories of ordinary people—students, actors, metal workers, a doctor, a cook—called upon to do extraordinary things.

The Theater is cinematic (calling Christopher Nolan!) and horrifying, beautiful and essential, a battle between freedom and authoritarianism that Russia is determined to win—and Ukraine more determined not to lose.

“You had the fact that this theater represented Ukrainian culture and the dream of an independent Ukraine,” says James. “On the dark opposite side of that, it represented what Putin and Russia were trying to wipe out, the idea that there is such a thing as Ukrainian culture, that there is such thing as a Ukrainian language... The theater was, if not exactly a metaphor, then the perfect setting for this kind of story, of a young republic now barely more than 30 years old that was fighting for its life.”

(Sarah was unable to sit in on this episode, but she’ll be listening!)

Also discussed:

* On why first-person war books should be under 200 pages

* A “glandular nostalgia” for the Soviet Union

* When you’re reporting overseas, “someone is always going to think you’re CIA”

* One advantage to not speaking the local language

* “You can’t do what I do and care about money”

* Nancy gives thanks for Reason’s editorial freedom

* How James covered up the smell of pot smoke back in the day

* Nancy: still not Jewish!

* The Nazi high command was “a cabal of mediocrities”

* Salad days at Vanity Fair

Plus, props for reporters William Langewiesche and Evan Wright, what to eat if you want to be a competitive eater, a great audiobook on New York City excesses in the ‘90s, and much more.

Pre-order The Theater, out on May 19. Also on May 19, James will be in conversation with recent Smoke guest Sebastian Junger. Tickets here.

Nancy note to self: Less ambition when flipping salmon will forestall another armpit burn

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com

Nancy and Sarah discuss “Should I Marry a Murderer?,” the grabby new Netflix docuseries about a fiancee turned key witness. Caroline Muirhead is a smart, beautiful doctor in Glasgow swept up in a romance where things gets … dark. Sarah wanted to talk about this show, because it illustrates troubling habits of female accommodation she’s seen in MeToo cases, a tendency to get caught in a trap of people-pleasing. Nancy isn’t sure she agrees with that interpretation — she’s most disturbed by the Olympic record-level of videos this woman filmed of herself — but they have a free-ranging discussion about refusing to let go of the dream, whether the cops failed Muirhead, drama-seeking mixed with substance abuse, the challenge of confronting someone you’re dating, and the grand opera of the show’s climax, which deserves to be turned into a novel (we’re looking at you, Kat Rosenfield.)

Also discussed:

* Nancy bonds with childhood friends from pre-Lena Dunham Brooklyn

* When the Pulitzer happens to a colleague

* “I welcome the insufferability”

* FBI opens investigation against Atlantic journalist?

* White racial grievance at the New York Times

* Anthony Scaramucci = not just good for f-bombs

* “Murder as snack”

* The high-wire conversations demanded by intimacy

* What violence is my partner capable of?

* Fiction writing is “the spooky art”

* Toni Morrison is whoa, channeling from another dimension

* Yes, Nancy is STILL reading Anna Karenina

Plus: The prison documentary that made Sarah want to quilt, Nancy on an NBA great, the ick of “Mind of a Serial Killer: The Experience!” exhibition — and more!

April showers bring … May paid subscribers?

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com

It’s a special day and by some miracle, Nancy remembered: It’s SMOKE ‘EM’s third anniversary, thus making this podcast the longest committed relationship of Sarah’s life. We celebrate with a quiz, riffing on a news week that brought us a bizarre manifesto, a podcast about eating the rich, a former politician who still inspires, the latest twist in a post-Roe landscape, a mac-and-cheese heist scheme and MORE! Also: What the New York Times’ 30 Greatest American songwriters got wrong and why his name is Billy Joel.

Also discussed:

* Sarah’s visit to Colossal Biosciences: Bring back the woolly mammoth!

* “We’re headed into Nutville”

* Blowing up pipelines

* The more freedom you give people, the more freedom they want?

* Would Sarah hate-f*ck Hasan Piker?

* More tragic attempts to pronounce “Douthat”

* Sarah’s first SUPERlove

* How telehealth changed the abortion landscape

* What would a GOOD biopic of Michael Jackson look like?

* Shout out, Amy’s frozen dinner macaroni and cheese

* Whither Tom Waits and Paul Westerberg?

REMINDER: Zoom hang for paid subscribers TOMORROW, Sunday, May 3, 5pm PT / 8pm ET, link sent day-of.

We have the perfect anniversary gift …

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com

Jake Siegel talks about his new book The Information State, which explores how government and technology joined forces over the past century to squash dissent. Siegel is an editor at Tablet, an original thinker with great writing chops (our kinda guy), and he talks with Nancy and Sarah about the tools of information warfare he saw while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, how the “war or terror” evolved into the “war on disinformation,” why Obama still has a lot to answer for, and the bizarre story of how a review of his book (on censorship, keep in mind) was mysteriously taken down.

Also discussed:

* Jake has the best voice

* “I held my anger very dear …”

* The hoax of the century, explained

* Cynical v. honest deception

* Why the DSA will always run your request up the comms chain

* What is it that constitutes property online?

* How much damn time did we spend on the Steele dossier?

* Did Jake go soft on Trump?

* Nancy credits Jake with getting her to report on Portland

* Institutional journalism is valuable (NR: Suck it, Nick Sortor)

* “The recognizable aesthetics and attitudes of American manhood by figures as diverse as Andy Griffith, Muhammad Ali, and Kurt Cobain.”

* “I feel like Dallas has the best-dressed people in America.”

Plus, R. Crumb comix, a movie that defies categorization, a visit to West Point, and much more!

Fight the digital leviathan. Become a paid subscriber.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com

Eric Swalwell did not have a good week. Actually, last week was very bad, when articles hit CNN and The San Francisco Chronicle within hours of each other, a one-two punch alleging a series of unsavory acts, including sexual assault. Then earlier this week, another woman accused him of drugging, choking, and raping her. She’s filed a criminal complaint.

Swalwell has ended his run for governor, resigned from Congress and possibly public life. But what went on back there? The downfall was so fast, it’s worth slowing down the tape, especially if (like Sarah) last week happens to be when you learned a person named Eric Swalwell existed.

Nancy and Sarah’s conversation includes a discussion of drinking and consent, what we know (and don’t know) about roofies, and the strange impulse to return to a bad sexual situation and try to wrest back control.

Also discussed:

* Ft. Worth is the Brooklyn of Dallas

* Nancy confuses what she heard on The Fifth Column with real life

* If Katie Porter is the best California can do …

* PSA: Don’t fuck the interns

* “sexual revictimization cycle”

* Nancy offers a translation: If he has not seen you in five years and says he cannot stop thinking about you, he wants in your pants

* “Will you help me out?” 🤮

* A NYT story on fertility and aging … leaves out some details

* Why are younger women dating older men?

* Nobody likes the acronym MILK

Plus, 38-year-olds should not be on Snapchat, Michael Tracey has a point, a rare sports Hot Box, and much more!

Get the full story. Become a paid subscriber.

Swalwell’s downfall makes way for…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com

Nancy and Sarah talk about how watching Artemis II was the injection of awe we all needed. Nancy is reminded of a podcast she recently heard with former senator Ben Sasse, who has pancreatic cancer and talks about facing the end of his life with grace. That’s a different psychic universe than the dysfunction of “What Broke the Beckhams?,” about Brooklyn Beckham (son of David and Victoria), a cautionary tale about extravagant wealth and celebrity. Then it’s on to a recent NYT story on single women throwing weddings for their birthday, which is NOT an actual trend, but still worth talking about.

Also discussed:

* It’s awe, baby

* “Our friend Ross”

* No spaceships for Sarah, no submarines for Nancy

* Oh, to be rich enough to never download another app

* “God’s plan,” discussed

* The awesomeness of Kyle Dunnigan

* The Real Housewives of … Schenectady?

* “I found a handbag that looks like a sandwich…”

* Tyrone, the cheerful doofus

* Sarah makes a date to try on wedding dresses

* Don’t arrest us, Netflix

Also, how long do you keep old laptops, Sarah parties at Area-Club-Studio 51, Nancy considers a new tattoo, and much more!

Journey into the unknown. Become a paid subscriber.