Welcome to our first Side Quest, the shorter episodes where we grab one idea and see where it takes us.

This time, we’re talking about Kirsten King’s A Good Person and its gloriously awful protagonist, Lillian. Why is female neediness so embarrassing when male obsession is so often framed as devotion? From Lillian’s fake social media accounts to the Channing Tatum finsta saga, and the backlash to R. F. Kuang admitting she pays people to manage her socials, we’re asking why women are expected to attract attention while pretending they never wanted it.

We also want your recommendations for brilliantly unlikeable female protagonists, and a better name for this growing category of women we’d avoid in real life but absolutely love reading about.

Tepid Takes Podcast is by January Gilchrist and Tatia Power.

Music licensed through Soundstripe.
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For our first episode of Tepid Takes, we’re launching The Story Edit, our monthly dive into the stories we tell, the stories we’re sold, and the ones that deserve a rewrite.

We look at why the Lindsay Clancy case has become such a powerful and divisive storytelling moment, attempt to reclaim gossip from its bad reputation, dig into the history of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald whose contribution deserves more attention, and finish with the most interesting publishing deal of the month.

Expect strong opinions, big laughs, a few feminist rants and a genuinely good time pulling stories apart to see what’s really going on underneath.

Strong opinions. Loosely held.