This week, our friend and colleague, Taffy Akner, chats with us about her viral article, "How Goop’s Haters Made Gwyneth Paltrow’s Company Worth $250 Million." We trace some similarities and differences between Gwyneth and fellow mogul, Oprah, and ask why the wellness industry, ironically, can make us feel bad. Taffy helps us understand how oftentimes, when our current healthcare systems fail to take the pain and suffering of women and gender non-conforming people seriously, Goop can offer a seductive alternative — that comes at a price.

Discussed this week:

• "How Goop’s Haters Made Gwyneth Paltrow’s Company Worth $250 Million" (Taffy Akner, The New York Times Magazine, July 25, 2018)
• "Our First Podcast: GP Sits Down with Oprah" (The Goop Podcast, March 8, 2018)

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This week, we celebrate summer and present to you our 2018 Summer Faves. From tech to treats, tunes to TV, and of course, summer looks, we make some recommendations to help you live your best life in these warmer months.

Special thanks to James McCombe of Maple Street Creative and Taylor Wizner for remote recording support.

Discussed this week:

• Native Land app (by Victor Temprano, 2015)
• "Mission: Impossible — Fallout" (directed by Christopher McQuarrie, 2018)
• "Vida" (Starz, 2018)
• "Freeway of Love" (Aretha Franklin, "Who's Zoomin' Who?", 1985)
• "Lucid Dreams" (Juice WRLD, "Goodbye & Good Riddance," 2018)
• "Afro-Harping" (Dorothy Ashby, 1968)
• "The greatest five-minute tomato pasta on earth" (Francis Lam, Salon, 2010)
• "A burger, but better" (Samin Nosrat, The New York Times Magazine, 2018)

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This week, we trace the evolution of black American cinema from blaxploitation in the 1970s to what we’re calling "blaxplaining" in 2018. While blaxploitation sought to showcase black actors in dramatic, action-packed films, today’s blaxplaining centers on the challenges of being black in America. We examine three films — "The Hate U Give," "Blindspotting" and "Sorry to Bother You" — and ask if they accurately depict aspects of contemporary black life, or instead merely seek to make some black experiences more palatable to white audiences.

Discussed this week:

• "The Hate U Give" (directed by George Tillman Jr., 2018)
• "Blindspotting" (directed by Carlos López Estrada, 2018)
• "Sorry to Bother You" (directed by Boots Riley, 2018)
• "Coffy" (directed by Jack Hill, 1973)
• "Slaves" (directed by Herbert Biberman, 1969)
• "Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song" (directed by Melvin Van Peebles, 1971)
• "The Devil Finds Work" (by James Baldwin, 1976)
• "Lady Sings the Blues" (directed by Sidney J. Furie, 1972)
• "Mandingo" (directed by Richard Fleischer, 1975)
• "Jaws" (directed by Steven Spielberg, 1975)
• "Hammer" (directed by Bruce Clark, 1972)
• "Truck Turner" (directed by Jonathan Kaplan, 1974)
• "Shaft" (directed by Gordon Parks, 1971)
• "Blacula" (directed by William Crain, 1972)
• "Proud Mary" (directed by Babak Najafi, 2018)
• "The Equalizer 2" (directed by Antoine Fuqua, 2018)
• "White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism" (Robin DiAngelo, Beacon Press, 2018)
• "Super Fly" (directed by Gordon Parks Jr., 1972)
• "Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde" (Directed by William Crain, 1976)
• "Cotton Comes to Harlem" (Directed by Ossie Davis, 1970)
• "Mahogany" (Directed by Berry Gordy, 1975)
• "Dancing in the Moonlight" (Still Processing, 2016)

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It’s the 20th anniversary of the release of Ms. Lauryn Hill’s 5-time Grammy-winning debut solo album, “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.” Still very much a part of our contemporary musical landscape — being sampled by everyone from Drake to Cardi B to Kanye — her prophecies on fame, artistry and the music industry reflect her own career trajectory and serve as a cautionary tale for other artists on the rise. We take a closer look at “Miseducation,” alongside her follow-up “MTV Unplugged No. 2.0” album, and try to understand both her meteoric rise, and what she means when she says it “all falls down.”

Discussed this week:

• “The Score” (The Fugees, 1996)
• “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” (Lauryn Hill, 1998)
• “MTV Unplugged No. 2.0” (Lauryn Hill, 2002)
• “Ooo Baby Baby” (Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, “Smokey Robinson and the Miracles LIVE!,” 1969)
• "They Won't Go When I Go" (Stevie Wonder, "Fulfillingness' First Finale," 1974)
• “All Falls Down” (Kanye West, “The College Dropout,” 2004)
• “Dave Chappelle’s Block Party” (Directed by Michel Gondry, 2006)

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Jenna's back in New York after spending last week at the Tin House Summer Workshop in Portland, Oregon. An explosive moment at the workshop prompted us to consider what it means for an institution — from a writing workshop to a TV network to a social media platform — to really commit itself to inclusion, and whether inclusion is even enough.

Discussed this week:

• Tin House Summer Workshop
• "The Danger of a Single Story" (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, TED, 2009)
• "Oscars 2016: Here's why the nominees are so white — again" (Rebecca Keegan and Steven Zeitchik, The Los Angeles Times, 2016)
• "Hannah Gadsby: Nanette" (Netflix, 2018)
• "A Canadian Museum Promotes Indigenous Art. But Don’t Call It ‘Indian.’" (Ted Loos, The New York Times Magazine, 2018)

Correction: In this episode, the story read by Wells Tower that was the subject of controversy at the Tin House Summer Workshop was misidentified as having appeared in "Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned," a collection of short stories. The piece in question was a nonfiction article, "Own Goal," published in Harper's Magazine in 2010.

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This week, we take a deep dive into "Pose," Ryan Murphy's new show on FX, and unpack the role of queer chosen families in pop culture. We dissect some of our favorite scenes — featuring Blanca Abundance Evangelista (Mj Rodriguez), Elektra Abundance (Dominique Jackson), and Angel (Indya Moore) — and celebrate the nuanced stories told of queer and trans characters of color by queer and trans people of color. Are we free to create chosen families that support who we are and who we're trying to be, or are we destined to replicate the burdens and blessings of our biological families?

Discussed this week:

• "Far From the Tree" (dir: Rachel Dretzin, 2018)
• "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" (dir: Morgan Neville, 2018)
• "Whitney" (dir: Kevin MacDonald, 2018)
• "Review: ‘Whitney,’ a Pop Music Tragedy, Is Sad, Strange and Dismaying" (Wesley Morris, The New York Times, July 5, 2018)
• "Three Identical Strangers" (dir: Tim Wardel, 2018)
• "Whack World" (Tierra Whack, 2018)
• "Pose" (FX, 2018)
• "Queer Eye" (Netflix, 2018)
• "My House" (Viceland, 2018)

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It’s the second installment of our two-part series on anti-Asian racism. Once again, we hand over the mics to our Asian-American colleagues, friends and listeners to hear about their experiences with dating, work and more as they relate to race and identity. We hear varied and nuanced perspectives — from the writer Jen Choi, the musician Simon Tam, the podcaster Andrew Ti and others — on what it feels like to be a part of the diverse community of Asian-Americans, which makes up almost 6 percent of the United States population. If you haven’t already, check out last week’s episode for Part 1 of this series.

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This week and next, we’re doing something different. After witnessing an awful instance of anti-Asian racism at a movie theater, we couldn’t stop thinking about how this type of racism is rampant in American culture, both on the screen and off. At first, we wanted to talk about it. But then, we realized that we needed to listen.

For the next two episodes, we hand the microphones over to our Asian-American colleagues, friends and listeners to hear about their experiences with racism. From Pablo Torre (of ESPN) to Emily Yoshida (of Vulture) to Parul Sehgal (of The Times) and more, we hear about childhood traumas, politicization, pop culture and hierarchies of oppression as they relate to Asian-American identity. The ideas are varied and complicated, conflicting and nuanced — which makes sense for a hugely diverse community that makes up almost 6 percent of the American population. We’ll bring you the second part of this two-part series next week.

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Beyonce and Jay-Z. Donald and Melania. Kim and Kanye. Harry and Meghan. We're compelled by the performance of marriage in culture. And with The Carters' new surprise album, "Everything Is Love," we wonder what it means for our beloved Beyonce -- and Jay-Z -- to position their marriage as a black cultural institution -- akin to the Huxtables or the Obamas -- that everyone should believe in. From writing their legacy into The Louvre in their "Apes**t" video to documenting the turmoil and triumph of their relationship in "Lovehappy," The Carters remind us that marriage, like everything, is performance -- and that matters.

Discussed this week:

• "Everything is Love" (The Carters, 2018)
• Zerina Akers' Instagram
• Vince Aletti's Interview with Madonna in Aperture 156 (Summer 1999)
• Deana Lawson, Photographer
• John Edmonds, Photographer
• Carrie Mae Weems, Photographer
• "Consecration of the Emperor Napoleon I and Coronation of the Empress Josephine in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris on 2 December 1804" (Jacques-Louis David)

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After watching the blockbuster hit "Ocean’s 8" and BBC America’s cat-and-mouse drama "Killing Eve," we noticed some similarities in these leading women - they’re all “bad.” They’re indulgent and driven. They care about their work more than your feelings. They perform for each other more than they do for men (do they even perform for men?). They’re complicated and that’s why we like them. So we wonder: is our current cultural climate — specifically around this #MeToo moment — making space for more dynamic women characters?

Discussed this week:

Philadelphia Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins uses signs to advocate for criminal justice reform

Actor Ari'el Stachel delivers moving speech at the 72nd annual Tony Awards

"The Man Behind the Music of 'Broad City'" (Stacey Anderson, The New York Times, March 22, 2016)

"This is America” (Childish Gambino, 2018)

"All Mine" (Kanye West, 2018)

"Why 'You are loved' & 'please reach out' are crappy things to post after someone has died by suicide" (Deanna Zandt, Medium, June 8, 2018)

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline - 800-273-8255

"Dykes to Watch Out For" (Alison Bechdel, 1983-2008)

"Ocean's 8" (dir: Gary Ross, Warner Bros., 2018)

"Killing Eve" (Sid Gentle Films, 2018)

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