Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em Podcast Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em

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Our guest Kat Rosenfield is one of the best cultural critics of our day: Funny, incisive, fast-moving, and a great novelist to boot (see You Must Remember This). She’s a third-timer on this pod, which might be a record, and she’s just landed a plum gig as a columnist for the Free Press. You may know Kat from her podcast Feminine Chaos, with Phoebe Maltz-Bovy, or you may know Kat from Twitter, where she always keeps it interesting. She came on to talk about her latest column for the Free Press, “Does Divorce Make You Hotter?”
Also discussed:
* Divorce rings
* So many Emilys
* Bad-mouthing your former spouse in public
* Tom Wolfe: “The right to shuck overripe wives”
* Red flags in men are somehow not red flags when women do it?
* The point of a personal esssay
* WE LOVE MEN, good husbands edition
* The people who crow their happiness on social media are almost never happy
* Rasputin, the cat
* Social media breakup announcements: We are the celebrities now
* In defense of the “over-ripe” demographic
* Sarah announces her new boyfriend, which almost certainly means she’ll break up tomorrow
* But what does he eat for breakfast?
* Do real criminals rap about their previously undetected crimes?
Plus, Diddy and the potential dangers of confusing the artist with his art, some Andy Mills love, the origin story of Sarah’s new romance, and much more!

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

Olivia Nuzzi is the Washington correspondent for New York Magazine, and a total fox, not that it’s AT ALL relevant to the work she does, which is top-tier. She began her career as a teenager at an alt-weekly in New Jersey and worked on the Anthony Weiner campaign (oh boy), and a story she wrote about that experience brought her to prominence. These days, she’s a rock-star writer with bylines in Politico, GQ, Esquire, and The Washington Post, and she was a finalist for the 2023 National Magazine Award for feature writing. She’s been covering the recent Trump trial from the courtroom — until she got kicked out, that is — and her insight into that uniquely American character has made her reporting a must-read. “Trump is not really there if he’s not being looked at by other people.”
Also discussed:
* “It’s certainly ‘Weiner.’”
* How an obsession with comedy led a political beat
* The peculiar power of being professionally curious
* Olivia did not steal Corey Lewandowski’s photo album!
* The journalist’s question: What the fuck is going on here?
* How to NOT bribe a cop
* Donuts as micro-aggression
* Is Trump sleeping during his trial, and if so, why?
* The beige oppression of a courtroom
* Why Trump needs a beauty blender
* Stormy Daniels: “I slept with THAT?!”
* Trump as the classic American striver
* “Bimbo eruptions”
* But ARE we living in a simulation?
* The greatness of Eddie Pepitone
* “Just because something is not true doesn’t mean it can’t be a problem”
* Olivia is named after who?!
Plus, how being unable to say “More Ovaltine, please” changed the course of Olivia’s career, one of the great movie soundtracks according to Sarah, Olivia’s predictions about the trial and the 2024 election, and much more!

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

Everyone knows gun violence is a problem, but whose problem, exactly? Big cities or rural areas? Republicans or Democrats? Most people respond to these questions with emotion, best guesses, knee-jerk anger, but our guest Magic Wade responds with data. A professor in Illinois, Wade started the profound 1000 Cities Project on Substack to show that “gun violence isn't merely a ‘red state’ or ‘blue city’ problem. It's a widespread, worsening phenomenon affecting too many American communities. This isn't moral panic, it's rational outrage.” The old storylines about gun violence aren’t working, but if we’re going to confront one of the great social catastrophes of our time, we need more robust information, and Magic Wade (her real name!) has it.
Also discussed:
* Growing up in Alaska with homesteader parents
* Sometimes Mom sleeps with a loaded gun beside the bed
* Assault-rifle deaths are a drop in the bucket
* Why some victims of gun violence elicit more sympathy than others
* When journalists turn academic research into hot takes
* “When conflict escalates past a certain point, the conflict itself takes charge. The original facts and forces that led to the dispute fade into the background. The us-versus-them dynamic takes over.”
* How Salon went hyper-partisan …
* Mike Schmidt, ouuut in Portland
* A better de-carceration movement
* That time Minneapolis wanted to abolish the police
* Surveillance vs. safety
* Requested: More men dancing!
* Two Degrees of Nancy Rommelmann
Plus, tips from a homicide detective that Sarah once dated, the feel-good caper of the summer, and the masculine hotness of Gene Kell

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

People are mad, version five million: A recent anti-celibacy ad on Bumble sparks outrage, a Catholic commencement speaker touting Catholic values sparks outrage, a rap mogul caught enacting violence that rap moguls are only supposed to rap about (not actually do) — well, you see the pattern.
Nancy and Sarah find themselves out-shouted by the online hordes of angry social media users, ticked-off feminists, Benedictine nuns, Change.org users et al as they discuss the culture news of the past week.
Also discussed:
* “I Choose JIF”
* What is a Harrison Butker, and why did it take over the news cycle?
* The tyranny of “I don’t agree with everything they said…”
* Should Nancy spring for a billboard protesting bleu cheese?
* S. Korea floats the idea of paying people $70,000 to have a baby, which gives Sarah an idea for her next vacation…
* The toxic stew of rom-com fantasy and porn kink that is online dating
* Sarah takes a vow of what now?
* Door-slammy feminism
* “I like dick.” / “Thank you for sharing that.”
* Can Diddy ever come back from this moment?
Plus: Creative solutions for accidental boners, the Studio 54 of Dallas, and will Nancy and Sarah ever find a yacht rock song they both love?
Go follow our new Facebook page. But don’t forget about our Instagram page.
First Sunday Zoom is June 2, 8pmET/5pmPT. Our group watch/discuss is Pulp Fiction, which Nancy watched last night and about which she will say, while John Travolta’s charisma may be undeniable, there’s also…
Choosy moms choose JIF, and choosy podcast listeners choose to be paid subscribers …

Ken Ilgunas may be the coolest writer you haven’t heard of yet. Sarah worked with him at Salon, where he wrote personal essays about: living in a van while attending Duke University; camping in the rain at Occupy Wall Street; and hiking the XL Pipeline. He’s since written memoirs about discovering the natural world and himself, including Walden on Wheels. He’s lived in Alaska and now lives in Scotland, but as a boy, he never went hiking, never went hunting, knew nothing of the natural world outside his small upstate New York town. Recently, he wrote in his newsletter about the profound effect podcasts had on him, and we’re here for it. Where else are you gonna get a primer on oral health, a disquisition on Jordan Peterson, and a plug for JIF peanut butter?
Also discussed:
* How to make a nasal strip look sexy
* Ken will fly to Dallas and bang on the door if Sarah tries to date Tucker Carlson
* Cardinal podcast sin = slow starts (#guilty)
* Chronic dreams about grizzly bears
* Studying journalism as journalism circles the drain
* Liberal arts education: Yay or nay?
* Van life before #vanlife
* “Can we make this podcast sponsored by peanut butter?”
* Radiolab and chill
* Great moments in IDW
* Bibliotherapy
* Would you rather wake up to an hour of bird sounds or an hour of Twitter?
* “A battering-ram kind of schlong”
* That time Ken was a wet blanket in The New Yorker
Plus, the first podcasts we remember listening to, the YouTube video that Sarah has watched 100 times, Ken chooses a hot box especially for each of the hostess (did it just get warm in here?) and much more.
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Episode Notes:
“I live in a van down by Duke University" by Ken Ilgunas (Salon)
Ken Ilgunas’ website
More Ken Ilgunas stories at Salon
Walden on Wheels: On The Open Road from Debt to Freedom by Ken Ilgunas
Columbia University faces calls for tuition refunds as school moves to hybrid classes for rest of term in wake of anti-Israel protests
Morning After the Revolution: Dispatches from the Wrong Side of History by Nellie Bowles
What’s in your hot box?
Ken, for Sarah:
Ken, for Nancy:
Sarah: Black Water, by Joyce Carol Oates
Nancy: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Anne Fadiman
Ken picks the outro (great song)


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You may not recognize Andy Mills’ name, but you likely know his work: He co-created The Daily podcast for The New York Times, where he also produced Rabbit Hole, a fantastic series on the internet, and – quite fatefully! – the war on terror podcast, Caliphate. Shit happened. It was complicated. Andy is no longer at The New York Times. 
But he’s struck out on his own. Last year he gave us The Witch Trials of JK Rowling, one of 2023’s best podcasts, and now he’s back with a new podcast, Reflector, which tells “stories about the strange experiences of being human — sparking wonder, unveiling complexity, and igniting curiosity.” The first episode tackles a familiar topic, over-drinking, and centers on an unexpected subject: Katie Herzog, the very funny host of Blocked & Reported, who shares her experience with the anti-drinking drug Naltrexone. Nancy and Sarah chat with Andy about addiction, storytelling, faith, and how to push back on the media’s excesses.
Also discussed:
* The burden of knowing who is going to hell
* The Bible, it has slow parts
* The love of God is a very hard thing to lose
* Drinking as a spiritual experience
* How the social justice movement is deeply Protestant
* The Caliphate scandal
* About Andy’s exit from the New York Times …
* Sarah, the black belt of dumping beer on people’s heads
* Jealousy’s role in the media meltdown
* More on Donald McNeil Jr. ouster, and Nancy could not be happier/angrier
* Did Infinite Jest predict social media?
* Naltrexone: Miracle drug, or “quick fix” that doesn’t address what’s wrong?
* “You’re a smoker? Lucky you.”
* A civil war on the movie Civil War
* “I wanna listen to a podcast that’s just Nancy saying, ‘William Langewiesche.’”
* The Harry Potter of adult romance novels
Plus, video texts equal love, why no stories are actually neutral, why alcohol is an “analog drug,” and much more!


This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com/subscribe