Lolita Podcast iHeartPodcasts

I wish I could put into words how much I adore and appreciate the effort put into this series. I only meant to listen to an episode while I was doing housework, and found myself unwilling and practically unable to take my earbuds out, wanting to binge it from beginning to end. This was a book that has some personal meaning to me (in the way it did for some of Jamie’s guests) and I’m just so touched at how this subject was treated with such care and thoughtfulness.

A great listen that goes deep into Lolita - the book, the movies, and more I didn't even know existed. Episodes can be long but always held my interest throughout.

There is an extraordinary attention to detail, charisma, and presentation of information so artful, I can’t think of a peer in the podcasts I listen to. The nuance and depth of this has cleared up so many misconceptions I had and despite the nature of the topic, I’m really enjoying that this conversation feels v safe and takes an unambiguous stance against CSA without being excessively triggering or heavy. I felt nervous initially, but strange as it may seem, listening to this podcast has changed me and made me think deeply things that I’ve only considered in passing. I can comfortably say without exaggeration that this is a masterpiece.

My only critique in the entire spotless show is that while I love the idea of having friends voice act some of the quotes, some are a bit too unnecessarily theatric imo. Although I understand the need for levity in very serious discussions like this, some of it is a bit too silly for the subject matter. The overdramatic and clearly affected accents coupled with theatrical pauses often make it hard to actually follow what’s being said in the quote and can be a bit jarring. Although I love the energy when it’s poking fun at an abuser or weirdo at times, most of the time it just doesn’t feel right, especially when the quote itself is literally discussing sexualization and CSA. Attempts at comedy in these instances just seems to undercut the topic (which is odd given the awareness and critique of the stage plays making the similar strange choice to try to make CSA funny) and I keep having to rewind multiple times to string together the full thought bc I’m distracted by the accents or bc of the reading is done one or two words at a time like an overdone recitation of Shakespeare or smth. That could be funny in another context, but here it just feels..off. The quips and snarky comments by the host are great, we need fun moments like that to break through the seriousness, but we are still talking about grievous trauma. Let’s not turn actual lecherous comments by abusers or discussions of abuse into a joke please. Otherwise, the show is handled extremely deftly and has in many ways destigmatized discussions of CSA for me by modeling how to do that in a thoughtful, empathic, and very intentional way and has illuminated the ways that CSA is so normalized. It’s occurred to me that Call Me By Your Name was a very exploitative, similar to Lolita but was dishearteningly unanimously treated like a romantic love story both by the media and people I knew irl, and it always made me uncomfortable. Because of this podcast I now have a solid foundation of language and cultural context to articulate why.