STARGIRL

By Emma Glenn BakerSociety & Culture

STARGIRL episodes

May 02, 2024 Ep. 41: Paige Bueckers w/ Nell Baker
Helloooo!!! Today we’re tackling the phenomenon of Paige Bueckers, college basketball star who has captured the nation’s attention with her skill, swag, and heart of gold. I talk about her TikTok explosion, the sexuality that’s projected onto her, and how her wholesome silly vibe makes me excited to be alive.
Then, we’ll hear from my little sister Nelly, a D1 runner who fills us in on all things NIL sponsorships, injury and recovery narratives, and the way Paige carries herself as a fun and faithful team leader. We also discuss the dynamic among the other top NCAA women's basketball players—Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Cameron Brink, etc.—and Paige’s choice to not declare for the 2024 WNBA draft.
Follow Nell!
Discussed:
Ann Manov eviscerates Lauren Oyler in Bookforum
Paige and Janae Sims at the WNBA draft
WNBA red carpet
Amazing Paige videos: here, here, here, here
Paige’s speech at the ESPY Awards 2021

Follow STARGIRL on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠TikTok⁠ for more!
1 hr 35 min
April 25, 2024 Ep 40: The Body Series w/ Tao Lin
*Subscribe to the STARGIRL Patreon!*

This May marks two years of STARGIRL! As a birthday gift from me to you, I’m unlocking the most recent episode of The Body Series, my conversation with Tao Lin. I decided it was so important that everyone needed to hear it! Subscribe to the whole series at Patreon.com/STARGIRLpod.
Tao and I talk about how we live our lives—our exercise and caffeine routines, experiences with pharmaceutical vs. naturally-occurring drugs, seeking magic, conceptions of the afterlife, the healing powers of beef, and much more. We also chat about Tao’s next book, on the environmental factors causing autism, and why it’s scary to submit ideas to a public who’s ready to tear you down.
Follow Tao on Twitter!
Discussed:Trip: Psychedelics, Alienation, and Change Tao’s book (2018)“The Story of Autism: How We Got Here, How We Heal” Tao’s essayLife After Life, Raymond Moody (1975)
1 hr 25 min
April 02, 2024Ep 39: Lauren Oyler w/ Alana Pockros
This week we welcome my friend and writer/editor Alana Pockros to tackle the work and persona of Lauren Oyler. We discuss how Lauren seized authority as the millennial literary critic, how her abandonment of the “rules” makes her work difficult to engage with critically, her famous distaste for Vulnerability, the Berlin piece (...), and what it means to be both brave and mean.
Plus, in my quarterly pulse check on Culture, I declare a massive return to all things folklore: earthy spirituality, magic, psychedelics, freak folk, boho chic, metal music, and more.
Follow Alana on Twitter!
Discussed:
Evidence of the Folkloric Return:
Joanna Newsom upcoming tour
Timmy as Bob Dylan
Kacey Musgraves profile by Allison P. David in the Cut
“The runway—not TikTok—brought back Boho Chic” Madeleine Schulz in Vogue Business
Rebecca Yarros books
Sotce and @sighswoon
Shanin Blake ayahuasca singer vibes
Shawn Mendes + Hitomi: Page Six, Hola.com (lol!)

Regarding Lauren Oyler:
Lauren at SantaCon for VICE (2017)
“The Miseducation of Lady Bird” Oyler in The Baffler (2017)
“Ha ha! Ha ha!” Oyler on Trick Mirror in LRB (2020)
“Lauren Oyler thinks she’s better than you” Becca Rothfeld in Washington Post (2024)
Interview with Lauren Oyler in Lit Hub (2024)
Fake Accounts, Lauren Oyler (2021)
No Judgment, Lauren Oyler (2024)
“Dance Factory” Lauren in Harper’s (2024)
“What’s Your Type?” Merve Emre in NYRB (2024)
Rachel Comey x NYRB collab

Follow STARGIRL on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠TikTok⁠ for more!
1 hr 27 min
March 26, 2024 Ep 38: The Body Series w/ Emmeline Clein [teaser]
*Full episode on Patreon*
This week, we welcome the writer Emmeline Clein to discuss her new book, Dead Weight, a history of eating disorders. She explains how the medical establishment created a diagnostic hierarchy that feeds into the latent competitiveness of the disease, how the impulse to ritualize your diet can both life-affirming and self-destructive, and how cultural characters like Karen Carpenter, Mischa Barton, and Simone Weil shaped her adolescent vision of the type of woman she should be. Thank you Emmeline!
Buy Dead Weight
Emmeline’s website

Follow STARGIRL on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠TikTok⁠ for more!
7 min
March 20, 2024 Ep 37: Rachel Sennott [teaser]
*Full episode on Patreon*
Happy Spring! This week we explore the legacy of @treaclychild (RIP) in her ascent from Twitter darling to HBO executive producer (!!!). We explore why ironic self-debasement felt so electric in the late 2010s (and feels so boring now), the "Our Girl Made It" feeling, and what we lost as her persona drifted into caricature.
Mentioned:
Treadmill video
Shiva Baby poster
Weird moment after Balenciaga show?
Polyester Zine shoot (2022)

Follow STARGIRL on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠TikTok⁠ for more!
10 min
February 27, 2024 Ep 36: Hitomi Mochizuki w/ Callie Hitchcock [teaser]
*Subscribe to the STARGIRL Patreon to listen to the full episode and gain access to more exclusive content
Hello, earth angels! This week Callie and I delve into the sensual world of our favorite YouTuber, @yaknowme_hitomi. We discuss her spiritual evolution from depressed NYC thrifter to fully realized health goddess, explore the Dream/Threat of the ethereal travel vlogger, and relish in our shared nostalgia for West Coast wanderlust circa 2013.
Mentioned:
Follow Hitomi on Youtube and Instagram
Hitomi’s life story video (2017)
Hitomi on Know Thyself podcast (2023)

Follow Callie on Twitter and subscribe to her podcast, Nonfiction with Callie Hitchcock!
Follow STARGIRL on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠TikTok⁠ for more!
40 min
February 20, 2024 Ep 35: The Body Series w/ Jordan Castro [teaser]
*Full episode on Patreon*
STARGIRL 2.0 is here! Introducing: The Body Series.
Embodiment has always been a central theme of STARGIRL, and we tackle it head on in The Body Series, a Patreon exclusive. In this sequence of conversations, I chat with writers and artists, fitness professionals, athletes/dancers/yogis, etc. whose work centers on the body.
Our first guest is writer Jordan Castro—we discuss his recent Harper’s essay on weightlifting, how exercise changed our relationships to the world, why certain literary/culture scenes dismiss fitness as anti-intellectual, and why lifting need not be politicized.
Subscribe to the STARGIRL Patreon for access to the full episode, as well as monthly collections of other STARGIRL-y resources.

Follow STARGIRL on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠TikTok⁠ for more!
7 min
February 15, 2024 Ep 34: Shiva Rea
Shiva Rea is credited as a key popularizer of modern yoga in the United States: She transformed the physical practice and in so doing, helped to define our mainstream conception of what yoga “is.”
In this episode, we discuss the roots of her Prana Vinyasa style, the aesthetic evolution of yoga chicks from the 1980s to now, yoga’s waning counter-cultural status, and why the knee-jerk response to accusations of cultural appropriation—to further divide the spiritual from the physical—does no one any good.

Discussed:
“Planet Yoga,” Vanity Fair (2007)
“Yoga Without Love Beads” LA Times (1987)
“Tending the Sacred Fire” Shiva at Burning Man (2011)
“The power of embodying your energetic heart” Shiva’s TEDxMalibu talk (2014)
Shiva Rea Yoga | Earth Flow Practice
Shiva Rea Yoga | Dancing Warrior
Special thanks to Michelle Chambers, (E-RYT 500, MPA, Pulse Yoga Collective), Kristen Lynch, and Becky Simon for all their help on this ep!

Follow STARGIRL on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠TikTok⁠ for more!
1 hr 35 min
February 01, 2024Ep 33: Willa Cather w/ Sam Cummins
Today we're joined by Sam Cummins of Nymphet Alumni to discuss the timeless American novelist Willa Cather. We talk about the needless politicization of Cather, why Nature is the ultimate identity cleansing force, and how frontier literature has evolved today.
Discussed:
Cather novels:
O, Pioneers
One of Ours
My Ántonia
Death Comes for the Archbishop
Willa Cather and the Politics of Criticism, Joan Acocella (2000)
The Kingdom of Art, early Cather essays collected by Bernice Slote (1966)
“Becoming Noncanonical: The Case Against Willa Cather,” Sharon O’Brien (1988)
(Homework!: “Getting the Pump,” Jordan Castro in Harper’s)

Follow Sam and subscribe to Nymphet Alumni!

Follow STARGIRL on ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠TikTok⁠ for more!
1 hr 14 min
January 11, 2024Ep 32: Gwyneth Paltrow
Happy New Year! Today we take the opportunity to look back at how Gwyneth and Goop defined Wellness in the 2010s. I argue that while Goop lacked a soulful center, Gwyneth is working in the grand Esoteric tradition of seeking the sublime through one's relationship to the body. I look at the current aesthetic detritus of exercise culture, challenge the bad rap on “self-optimization,” and meet Gwyn in her New Age quest for Something Beyond.
Discussed:
“How Goop’s Haters Made Gwyneth Paltrow’s Company Worth $250 Million,” Taffy in NYT Magazine
Lauren Oyler on the Goop Cruise for Harper’s
“Gwyneth Paltrow Looks Back at 15 Years of Goop and More,” Marisa Meltzer in NYT
Outlive by Peter Attia
My fave episodes of the Goop podcast:
with Michael Pollan
with Peter Attia
with Monique Melton
15th Anniversary Special Episode

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https://www.instagram.com/stargirl.podcast/
https://www.tiktok.com/@stargirlpodcast
1 hr 14 min

About STARGIRL

From the publisher's feed

STARGIRL is a mythology I created to make sense of things. It’s a show about girls who stand out, but it’s also a way to understand the world through patterns, both externally (by examining the type of women who reign over public life), and internally (by exploring how we deploy our own forces of projection). It’s a call to get into your body and follow your intuition—to explore your admiration and judgment of the Stargirls, and let that be a guiding light.