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Welcome back to Sylly, a podcast for the curious and critical. We’re your hosts, Mbiye Kasonga and Tembe Denton-Hurst. In episode 11, we’re discussing the transactional nature of modern dating. We’ve noticed a trend of women online who post content about finding rich men to date and marry, alongside conversations about how couples split their finances, and we wanted to explore the macro trends that might be informing this behavior. 

We leveraged two primary texts for this conversation. The first is a journal article by Megan Sawey that explores the reasons why women engage in sugar dating, while the second is, of course, Toni Childs. We use both of these ‘texts’ as a vehicle to discuss the dating market, how women invest in beauty to increase their perceived value, and how, ultimately, the “sprinkle sprinkle” mindset is a class mobility fantasy that could have negative outcomes for women.

As always, if there’s anything you want us to talk about on the pod during our office hours, email us at: [email protected]. Thanks for listening, and we’ll be back with a new episode in a couple of weeks!

• Heartburn by Nora Ephron
• Exit Lane by Erica Veurink
• The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy
• Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico

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Welcome back to Sylly, a podcast for the curious and critical. We’re your hosts, Mbiye Kasonga and Tembe Denton-Hurst. In episode ten, we’re diving deep into our favorite contemporary fiction read of 2025 so far: Dominion. In this spoiler-filled episode, we delve into the book’s intricate characterizations, thematic complexity, and how it offers a rich commentary on patriarchy and gender roles within a tight-knit community. We also touch on Citchen’s compelling depiction of women’s roles in the church and their struggle for autonomy and self-worth.

Thank you for listening! As always, if there’s anything you want us to talk about on the pod during our office hours, email us at: [email protected]. Thanks for listening, and we’ll be back with a new episode in a couple of weeks!

Dominion by Addie Citchens

Lonely Crowds by Stephanie Wambugu

Gwyneth by Amy Odell

Anna: The Biography by Amy Odell

The Power Broker by Robert Caro

Babel by R. F. Kuang

The Mothers by Brit Bennett

Sula by Toni Morrison

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

Erasure by Percival Everett

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

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Welcome back to Sylly, a podcast for the curious and critical. We’re your hosts, Mbiye Kasonga and Tembe Denton-Hurst. In episode nine, we’re throwing it back to the very first podcast we ever recorded together. I (Mbiye) interviewed Tembe for my book podcast Unbound last summer. We dove deep into Tembe’s debut novel, Homebodies, her early reading habits, and her writing practice.

As always, if there’s anything you want us to talk about on the pod during our office hours, email us at: [email protected]. Thanks for listening, and we’ll be back with a new episode in a couple of weeks! 

• Erasure by Percival Everett
• Here Comes The Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn
• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
• The Color Purple by Alice Walker
• Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga
• Homebodies by Tembe Denton-Hurst

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Welcome back to Sylly, a podcast for the curious and critical. We’re your hosts, Mbiye Kasonga and Tembe Denton-Hurst. In episode eight, we each share three book recommendations perfect for summer reading in August, emphasizing literature that explores deep relationships, identity, and personal transformation.

As always, if there’s anything you want us to talk about on the pod during our office hours, email us at: [email protected]. Thanks for listening.

Subscribe on Substack

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Welcome back to Sylly, a podcast for the curious and critical. We’re your hosts, Mbiye Kasonga and Tembe Denton-Hurst. This week we’re talking about legibility from a different perspective, thinking through how it protects us. We do this by examining the work of two artists: Simone Leigh and Amy Sherald, thinking of what they’re work is saying and how it impact us. It’s worth mentioning that Amy Sherald has a major show on right now at The Whitney and it’s brilliant. Everyone should see it.

As always, if there’s anything you want us to talk about on the pod during our office hours, email at: [email protected]. Thanks for listening.

• Friends of the Museum by Heather McGowan
• Long Division by Kiese Laymon
• Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
• Erasure by Percival Everett
• Babel by R.F. Kuang
• Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
• The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

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Welcome back to Sylly, a podcast for the curious and critical. We’re your hosts, Mbiye Kasonga and Tembe Denton-Hurst. This week we’re thinking about legibility and what it costs us, as human beings and more specifically, as Black women. To investigate we dove into two primary texts. Tembe brought Sula to the table (again), and Mbiye analyzed a TikTok by kadencecentana, which asks the question—is content creation the new hoop dreams? (yes).

As always, if there’s anything you want us to talk about on the pod during our office hours, email at: [email protected]. Thanks for listening.

For a full list of the books we discussed, check us out on Substack.

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Welcome to Sylly, a podcast for the curious and critical. We’re your hosts, Mbiye Kasonga and Tembe Denton-Hurst. This week, we talked about community. more specifically, we spent some time with Mbiye’s primary text, What is Community Anyway, an article from the Stanford Social Innovation Review. In a world where community is diluted by the internet and weaponized by brands to get us to buy stuff, it’s important that we come to a shared understanding of community. Tembe’s text, Sula, rounds out our discussion of community and friendship, helping us dive deeper into the question underneath it all: what do we owe each other?

As always, if there’s anything you want us to talk about on the pod during our office hours, email at: [email protected]. Thanks for listening.

• Dream State by Eric Puchner
• Sula by Toni Morrison
• Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
• Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
• The Power Broker by Robert Caro

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