Podcast appearances and mentions of Allie Rowbottom

Welcome, writers and book lovers. The Bleeders is a podcast about book writing and publishing. Make sure you subscribe to the companion Substack: https://thebleeders.substack.com/welcomeToday's guest is Allie Rowbottom. Allie is the author of the memoir/family history/cultural commentary Jello Girls, which I love, and the new novel Aesthetica, which is incredibly zeitgeisty in its subject matter and has been getting rave reviews. Not only is Allie Rowbottom a super hot lit queen who can string together a hell of a sentence, but she's also really nice and generous with information in this interview. She shares a top-secret tip for writing good fiction, how she handled writing about her family, THE most thoughtful and honest takes on publishing, and more in today's episode. Follow Allie on Instagram @allierowbottom. The Bleeders is hosted by Courtney Kocak. Follow her on Instagram @courtneykocak and Bluesky @courtneykocak.bsky.social. For more, check out her website courtneykocak.com.Courtney is teaching some upcoming workshops you might be interested in:Land Big Bylines by Writing for Columns: https://writeordiemag.com/workshops/p/land-big-bylinesStart a Newsletter to Supercharge Your Platform, Network and Business: https://writingworkshops.com/products/start-a-newsletter-to-supercharge-your-platform-network-business-zoom-seminarThe Multi-Passionate Writer's Life: https://writingworkshops.com/products/the-multi-passionate-writers-life-zoom-seminar-with-courtney-kocak

Akil Kumarasamy, Josh Riedel, Allie Rowbottom, Nina Schuyler, and Colin Winnette, moderated by Noah Stern The authors in this session aren't afraid to use their fiction to contend with the looming future of tech, but their new novels, like so much timeless fiction, are really about the pricelessness of human connection. This provocative discussion will equip attendees for a bold new future—or at least be prepared with a good book at the ready. With the support of SACHI Buy the books here 

Who are you when no one is looking? This question came to mind when reading Allie Rowbottom's incisive debut novel, Aesthetica. The story follows Anna, a former Instagram celebrity, on her path of reflection and redemption as she seeks to undergo a high-risk elective surgery called Aesthetica™, which is said to "reverse all her past plastic surgery procedures, returning her, she hopes, to a truer self."  As readers bounce between Anna's past and present, Allie paints a nuanced portrait of a woman stepping into herself while considering her relationship with fame, family, and the trappings of a landscape predicated on image and youth. In this interview, Allie shared more about why Aesthetica is a continued conversation from her memoir JELL-O Girls, her thoughts on privacy and pace, and embracing womanhood. This episode also opens with a story by Dakota Bossard. A transcript of this episode is also available on our website: https://slowstoriespodcast.com/allie-rowbottom  — Learn more about Allie's work: https://allierowbottom.com/  Follow Allie: https://www.instagram.com/allierowbottom/  Purchase Aesthetica: https://bookshop.org/p/books/aesthetica-allie-rowbottom/18180848?ean=9781641294003 Follow Dakota: https://tiktok.com/@dakotabossard 

An excerpt from the debut novel by Allie Rowbottom. Propulsive, dark, and moving, Aesthetica is a Veronica for the age of “Instagram face,” delivering a fresh, nuanced examination of feminism, #MeToo, and mother-daughter relationships, all while confronting our collective addiction to followers, filters, and faux realities. “This brutal tale of a teenage Instagram model teases out the ugliness of influencer culture against our rather ancient tradition of performative femininity. Under Allie Rowbottom's patiently literary hand, this novel's true gem lies in its central mother-daughter relationship—a reminder that our obsession with youth is never too far removed from what binds us to our lineage.” —Vanity Fair https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/709304/aesthetica-by-allie-rowbottom/ https://allierowbottom.com/

I'm so excited to have Allie Rowbottom on the show today! Allie is the author of the memoir/family history/cultural commentary Jello Girls, which I love, and the new novel Aesthetica, which is incredibly zeitgeisty in its subject matter and has been getting rave reviews. Not only is Allie Rowbottom a super hot lit queen who can string together a hell of a sentence, but she's also really nice and generous with information in this interview. She shares a top-secret tip for writing good fiction, how she handled writing about her family, THE most thoughtful and honest takes on publishing, and more in today's episode. Follow Allie on Instagram and Twitter @allierowbottom.RSVP for the LA Writer Meetup on Monday 1/30: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/la-writer-meetup-a-party-for-writers-thrown-by-the-bleeders-podcast-registration-495544726617Find the transcript here: www.bleeders.co/episodes/21-allierowbottomWelcome, writers and book lovers. The Bleeders is a new podcast about book writing and publishing. Make sure you subscribe to the companion Substack: https://thebleeders.substack.com/welcomeThe Bleeders is hosted by Courtney Kocak. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @courtneykocak. For more, check out her website courtneykocak.com.

after covering her work last week, we spoke with allie rowbottom, author of aesthetica and jell-o girls. joey and allie share some memories about her book's launch party/reading before we talk about the publishing world being separate from this type of content, how allie focused on the deep emotional underpinnings of the characters and the world, and how it's more than just an “internet novel.” joey delivers another non-question that leads to a compliment before we discuss whether there was more story to tell toward the end, how the novel could be adapted into a three-season tv series, and who would play anna in the adaptation. we talk about a weird thing in allie's wiki. she shares picks for a mini-module. we discuss the risk of recommending media to other people and give allie an award. we discuss the weirdness inherent in instagram comments sections, @paigeuncaged and @dudesinthedm, and lana del rey. allie's mini-module: body high by jon lindsey heartbroke and godshot by chelsea bieker long live the tribe of fatherless girls by t kira madden a year without a name by cyrus dunham boys of alabama by genevieve hudson a cigarette lit backwards and life of the party by tea hacic-vlahovic reading list for season three a touch of jen by beth morgan the shore by katie runde literally show me a healthy person by darcie wilder amygdalatropolis by b r yeager shitstorm by fernando sdrigotti liveblog by megan boyle 17776 by jon bois snow crash by neal stephenson no one is talking about this by patricia lockwood aesthetica by allie rowbottom things have gotten worse since we last spoke by eric larocca neuromancer by william gibson we had to remove this post by hanna bervoets fake accounts by lauren oyler

the newest episode of lotto pod is also the newest book we'll cover this season: aesthetica by allie rowbottom. first, some news: shreds is dead; long live tulsa, who shares his thoughts on saying “happy birthday.” we then talk about how the internet has changed over the course of this season, how “the real world” keeps popping up in our conversations, and how phones have changed the ways we socialize. we wonder if surgery will ever become obsolete. tulsa shares the research he did for the episode (and describes some tiktok memes) before he accidentally engages in self-harm, gets vulnerable, and shows his age. reading list for season three a touch of jen by beth morgan the shore by katie runde literally show me a healthy person by darcie wilder amygdalatropolis by b r yeager shitstorm by fernando sdrigotti liveblog by megan boyle 17776 by jon bois snow crash by neal stephenson no one is talking about this by patricia lockwood aesthetica by allie rowbottom things have gotten worse since we last spoke by eric larocca neuromancer by william gibson we had to remove this post by hanna bervoets fake accounts by lauren oyler

This New York Times Book Review podcast, hosted by Nora Ami, delves into 'The Intimate City: Walking New York' by Michael Kimmelman, a collection depicting journeys across New York City reflecting history, architecture, and urban life; and 'Aesthetica' by Allie Rowbottom, a novel illuminating the obsessive pursuit of beauty in the age of cosmetic surgery and social media.

READING THE ROOM PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/readingtheroomWatch the Interview Here: https://www.youtube.com/c/thebarandthebookcaseEmail: thebarandthebookcase@gmail.comJaylen's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebarandthebookcase/Reading the Room Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/readingtheroom.podcast/Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/64819771-jaylenStorygraph: https://app.thestorygraph.com/profile/thebarandthebookcaseTikTok: tiktok.com/@thebarandthebookcase?

This podcast is sustained by sales of our debut book, Meow: A Novel (For Cats).  Episode 9: Allie Rowbottom's Aesthetica, Erasure of the Flesh, and the Polymorphic Self Allie Rowbottom's Aesthetica (available for preorder here) is a near-future peek into the inevitable. At 35, rudderless and lost, the protagonist, a former Instagram influencer, undergoes a dicey elective procedure to erase the years of fillers, lifts, laser and peels that extruded her form into one precision-engineered to resonate with a now-obsolete algorithm. We look back on the circumstances that led to her physical transformation and wonder whether yet another procedure could possibly allay her existential woes. In this episode of MEOW, we extend this scenario further into the future, positing ever-more-radical forms of physical transformation as the natural pursuit of the aging narcissist: human bodies, we suggest, will be reshaped into those of animals, insects, sculptural objects, architectural flourishes, and a variety of unfathomable machine-generated forms. Representing a compromise between Rowbottom's vision and our own, this week's narrator is a man who has had his vocal canal reconfigured in such a way as to only be able to produce the word “meow.” Human-language translation of this week's podcast is available upon request.  MEOW is the first and only literary podcast for your cat, conceived and presented in its native language. This podcast is sustained by sales of our debut book, Meow: A Novel (For Cats).  To pre-order Allie Rowbottom's Aesthetica, click here. Praise for Meow: A Novel "Breathtaking... a revelation." - Stubbs, Unaltered Domestic Shorthair "Meow meow meow meow meow, meow meow meow. Meow? Meow." - Joan Didion Follow us on Instagram: @meowliterature and Facebook: facebook.com/themeowlibrary  

This week, Dave and Alana are joined by the fabulous writer Allie Rowbottom, author of Jell-O Girls: A Family History and the upcoming novel Aesthetica. We dig into the thorny topic of self-improvement, both physical and emotional. Why does LA love plastic surgery, injectables, and other body modifications? Marvel at Dave trying to understand what a "unit" of Botox means! Today's episode is sponsored by Dirt.fyi, a daily(ish) newsletter about pop culture and entertainment. Subscribe here.

Allie Rowbottom's great-great-great uncle bought the patent to Jell-O from its inventor in 1899 for $450, then sold it in the 1920s for $67 million — nearly a billion dollars in today's money. Lately, Allie's been obsessed with how all that Jell-O money shaped America, and her own family. It's funded generations of Rowbottom women, including Allie, but it's also been a shadow they can't escape. Jell-O became a twisted metaphor for all the bad things that happened to them, to the point that they started to wonder: Are we cursed?Please note: This episode deals with eating disorders. If you or someone you know is affected by an eating disorder, you can get more information from the National Eating Disorders Association online or by calling their helpline: 800-931-2237.This episode originally aired on September 24, 2018, and came to us from the podcast Household Name. It was produced by Claire Rawlinson, Sarah Wyman, Dan Bobkoff, and Anna Mazarakis, with help from Anne Saini, Aviva DeKornfeld, and Dan Pashman. Peter Clowney and Gianna Palmer edited the episode, and Casey Holford and John DeLore contributed sound design and original music, with additional engineering by Dan Dzula. The Sporkful production team now includes Dan Pashman, Emma Morgenstern, Andres O'Hara, Johanna Mayer, Tracey Samuelson, and Jared O'Connell.Transcript available at www.sporkful.com.

Allie Rowbottom is today's guest! Allie is the author of the New York Times Editors' Choice memoir Jell-O Girls (Little Brown) and the upcoming novel Aesthetica (SoHo Press). Allie's writing has appeared in Vanity Fair, Salon, Lit Hub, No Tokens, NY Tyrant, The Drunken Canal, Bitch, and elsewhere. She has a PhD in literature and creative writing from the University of Houston and an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts and has taught fiction and non-fiction at the University of Houston, CalArts, and Catapult. In this episode, we discuss her upcoming book at length, explore the depths of Instagram and influencer culture, and Allie gives us invaluable lessons on incorporating the language of the social media into our work. Thrilled to have Allie on the show. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram and keep your eyes out for Aesthetica, coming soon. If you like the show, please leave me a REVIEW on Apple Podcasts and/or support us on Patreon. Music by @SighPilot

Allie Rowbottom is today's guest! Allie is the author of the New York Times Editors' Choice memoir Jell-O Girls (Little Brown) and the upcoming novel Aesthetica (SoHo Press). Allie's writing has appeared in Vanity Fair, Salon, Lit Hub, No Tokens, NY Tyrant, The Drunken Canal, Bitch, and elsewhere. She has a PhD in literature and creative writing from the University of Houston and an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts and has taught fiction and non-fiction at the University of Houston, CalArts, and Catapult. In this episode, we discuss her upcoming book at length, explore the depths of Instagram and influencer culture, and Allie gives us invaluable lessons on incorporating the language of the social media into our work. Thrilled to have Allie on the show. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram and keep your eyes out for Aesthetica, coming soon. If you like the show, please leave me a REVIEW on Apple Podcasts and/or support us on Patreon. Music by @SighPilot

Greenlight neighbor J. Nicole Jones discusses Low Country, her new memoir of her South Carolina family, with Allie Rowbottom, Allie Rowbottom (author of the memoir Jell-O Girls). The two talk about the writing process, the book's grounding in Southern storytelling traditions, and the act of reclaiming stories through the retelling, especially for women. (Recorded April 14, 2021)

SILVER LAKE / HARLEM — Allie Rowbottom is the author of Jell-O Girls (Little Brown, 2018). She recently wrote this story in Hobart: https://www.hobartpulp.com/web_features/auralift She teaches writing classes for Catapult and lives in Los Angeles with her husband, the writer Jon Lindsey. Buy her book: http://www.allierowbottom.com POD CONTENTS: 3 min - pod start 6 min - how jell-o girls written thru reading her mom’s writing 10 min - on the blend of her / her mom’s pov .. influences 11 min - Jane (2005) by Maggie Nelson 15 min - speaking oneself into selfhood / marketing of the book 20 min - on sharing / generosity , exhibitionism 22 min - the survival instinct as energizing 25 min - on myopia/linearity vs empathy/panopticality 29 min - on radical superficiality / Botox 30 min - taking theory outta the classroom 32 min - articulating the unsayable 34 min - whether one can objectify oneself for power or nah 35 min - Marguerite Duras 41 min - botched Lil B the BasedGod riff 42 min - hysteria = ‘wandering womb’ (hyster-ectomy) 45 min - me admitting im a toxic male 47 min - privilege vs pain 49 min - how able to manage health issues explored in the book, now 52 min - person you wrote about as character vs real person 54 min - edging on the pull. Till it’s time 58 min - real life ramifications of book 1 hr - dating another writer = double suicide pact Intro song: "Thank You" by Yamz https://soundcloud.com/yeums/thank-you-master Sean Thor Conroe lives in NYC and tweets @stconroe and grams @seanthorconroe

Where is all of the literary love for Queens? It’s right here at LIC Reading Series. Join them each week for stories, readings, and discussions with acclaimed writers, recorded with a live audience in the cozy carriage house of a classic pub in Long Island City, Queens, New York, and hosted by founder Catherine LaSota. This week, the podcast features the reading and panel discussion from the LIC Reading Series event on July 10, 2018, with Chelsea Hodson (Tonight I’m Someone Else), Allie Rowbottom (Jell-O Girls), and Amanda Stern (Little Panic). Chelsea Hodson is the author of the book of essays Tonight I’m Someone Else and the chapbook Pity the Animal. She teaches at Bennington College and she co-founded the Mors Tua Vita Mea workshop in Sezze Romano, Italy. She has been awarded fellowships from MacDowell Colony and PEN Center USA Emerging Voices. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Frieze Magazine, Hazlitt, and elsewhere. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. Allie Rowbottom‘s essays can be found in Vanity Fair, Salon, The Florida Review, No Tokens, The South Loop Review, PQueue, Hunger Mountain, The Rumpus, A Women’s Thing and elsewhere. Her essay “Ghosts and Houses” won the 2015 Editor’s Award from The Florida Review and received a “notable” mention in The Best American Essays of 2016. Her long lyric work, “World of Blue” received her a “notable” mention in The Best American Essays of 2015. She has taught fiction and non-fiction at the University of Houston and CalArts, as well as at Boldface, an undergraduate creative writing conference. Allie has been the recipient of fellowships from Inprint and Tin House, where she was a 2016 scholar. Amanda Stern is the author of the novel The Long Haul and the nine book Frankly Frannie middle grade series. Since 2003, she has helmed the Happy Ending Reading series and she’s been a NYFA Fiction Fellow and held residencies at the MacDowell Colony and Yaddo. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, New York Times Magazine, Salon, Post Road and St. Ann’s Review. * This event was made possible in part by the Queens Council on the Arts, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Where is all of the literary love for Queens? It’s right here at LIC Reading Series. Join them each week for stories, readings, and discussions with acclaimed writers, recorded with a live audience in the cozy carriage house of a classic pub in Long Island City, Queens, New York, and hosted by founder Catherine LaSota. This week, the podcast features the reading and panel discussion from the LIC Reading Series event on July 10, 2018, with Chelsea Hodson (Tonight I’m Someone Else), Allie Rowbottom (Jell-O Girls), and Amanda Stern (Little Panic). Check back Thursday for the discussion! Chelsea Hodson is the author of the book of essays Tonight I’m Someone Else and the chapbook Pity the Animal. She teaches at Bennington College and she co-founded the Mors Tua Vita Mea workshop in Sezze Romano, Italy. She has been awarded fellowships from MacDowell Colony and PEN Center USA Emerging Voices. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Frieze Magazine, Hazlitt, and elsewhere. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. Allie Rowbottom‘s essays can be found in Vanity Fair, Salon, The Florida Review, No Tokens, The South Loop Review, PQueue, Hunger Mountain, The Rumpus, A Women’s Thing and elsewhere. Her essay “Ghosts and Houses” won the 2015 Editor’s Award from The Florida Review and received a “notable” mention in The Best American Essays of 2016. Her long lyric work, “World of Blue” received her a “notable” mention in The Best American Essays of 2015. She has taught fiction and non-fiction at the University of Houston and CalArts, as well as at Boldface, an undergraduate creative writing conference. Allie has been the recipient of fellowships from Inprint and Tin House, where she was a 2016 scholar. Amanda Stern is the author of the novel The Long Haul and the nine book Frankly Frannie middle grade series. Since 2003, she has helmed the Happy Ending Reading series and she’s been a NYFA Fiction Fellow and held residencies at the MacDowell Colony and Yaddo. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, New York Times Magazine, Salon, Post Road and St. Ann’s Review. * This event was made possible in part by the Queens Council on the Arts, with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To cool-headed, fastidious Pricilla Messing, Italy will be an escape, a brief glimpse of freedom from a life that's starting to feel like one long decline. Rescued from the bedside of her difficult mother, forty-something Cilla finds herself called away to Rome to keep an eye on her wayward teenage niece, Hannah. But after years of caregiving, babysitting is the last thing Cilla wants to do. Instead she throws herself into Hannah's youthful, heedless world—drinking, dancing, smoking—relishing the heady atmosphere of the Italian summer. After years of feeling used up and overlooked, Cilla feels like she's coming back to life. But being so close to Hannah brings up complicated memories, making Cilla restless and increasingly reckless, and a dangerous flirtation with a teenage boy soon threatens to send her into a tailspin. With the sharp-edged insight of Ottessa Moshfegh and the taut seduction of Patricia Highsmith, The Worst Kind of Want is a dark exploration of the inherent dangers of being a woman. In her unsettling follow-up to Catalina, Liska Jacobs again delivers hypnotic literary noir about a woman whose unruly desires and troubled past push her to the brink of disaster. Jacobs is in conversation with Allie Rowbottom, author of Jell-O Girls.

"Talent is not enough. You have to have luck. You have to have drive," says Allie Rowbottom (@allierowbottom) Allie Rowbottom, author of Jell-O Girls: A Family History is on the show to talk shop. She grew with an artist mother who empowered her to pursue her own art.  Keep the conversation alive on Twitter @CNFPod or Instagram @cnfpod. Subscribe to the show and consider leaving a kind review on Apple Podcasts. Thanks to Goucher College's MFA in Nonfiction and Bay Path University's MFA in Creative Nonfiction for the support. 

Acclaimed literary essayist T Kira Madden’s raw and redemptive debut memoir is about coming of age and reckoning with desire as a queer, biracial teenager amidst the fierce contradictions of Boca Raton, Florida, a place where she found cult-like privilege, shocking racial disparities, rampant white-collar crime, and powerfully destructive standards of beauty hiding in plain sight. As a child, Madden lived a life of extravagance, from her exclusive private school to her equestrian trophies and designer shoe-brand name. But under the surface was a wild instability. The only child of parents continually battling drug and alcohol addictions, Madden confronted her environment alone. Facing a culture of assault and objectification, she found lifelines in the desperately loving friendships of fatherless girls. With unflinching honesty and lyrical prose, spanning from 1960s Hawai’i to the present-day struggle of a young woman mourning the loss of a father while unearthing truths that reframe her reality, Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls is equal parts eulogy and love letter. It’s a story about trauma and forgiveness, about families of blood and affinity, both lost and found, unmade and rebuilt, crooked and beautiful. Madden is in conversation with Allie Rowbottom, author of Jell-O Girls.

Episode 28: Jell-O Girls with Allie Rowbottom Jell-O: we've all eaten it, swished it around, gulped it down and watched it wobble. But who knew this innocent dessert has a complicated past, one where money, greed, love, hate, cocktails, and misunderstandings lie beneath its sweet, jewel toned exterior? Allie Rowbottom, author of Jello-O Girls - A Family History, puts it all together for us. Allie is the great great great niece of O.F. Woodward, the man who in 1899 bought the patent for Jell-O, and the man who sold it to General Foods for what would now be worth billions of dollars. Mr. Woodward's money has supported his many descendants ever since, Allie Included. In this episode Allie shares her story, one that's woven into that of her mother's, her grandmother's, and the many other women who were part of the Jell-O legacy. We talk women's roles, the importance of finding a voice, an outlet, a purpose, and how to break free from the Jell-O mould, on this episode of The Food Podcast. http://www.allierowbottom.com/ T https://twitter.com/allierowbottom IG https://www.instagram.com/allierowbottom/ Lindsay Cameron Wilson IG: https://www.instagram.com/lindsaycameronwilson/ Twitter: @lcameronwilson Website: http://lindsaycameronwilson.ca/the-food-podcast/

This week on Relationships 2.0 my guest is Allie Rowbottom author of The Jell-O Girls: A Family History About the book: In 1899, Allie Rowbottom's great-great-great-uncle bought the patent to Jell-O from its inventor for $450. The sale would turn out to be one of the most profitable business deals in American history, and the generations that followed enjoyed immense privilege - but they were also haunted by suicides, cancer, alcoholism, and mysterious ailments. More than 100 years after that deal was struck, Allie's mother Mary was diagnosed with the same incurable cancer, a disease that had also claimed her own mother's life. Determined to combat what she had come to consider the "Jell-O curse" and her looming mortality, Mary began obsessively researching her family's past, determined to understand the origins of her illness and the impact on her life of Jell-O and the traditional American values the company championed. Before she died in 2015, Mary began to send Allie boxes of her research and notes, in the hope that her daughter might write what she could not. JELL-O GIRLS is the liberation of that story. A gripping examination of the dark side of an iconic American product and a moving portrait of the women who lived in the shadow of its fractured fortune, JELL-O GIRLS is a family history, a feminist history, and a story of motherhood, love and loss. In crystalline prose Rowbottom considers the roots of trauma not only in her own family, but in the American psyche as well, ultimately weaving a story that is deeply personal, as well as deeply connected to the collective female experience. A "gorgeous" (New York Times) memoir that braids the evolution of one of America's most iconic branding campaigns with the stirring tales of the women who lived behind its facade - told by the inheritor of their stories. A New York Times Editors' Choice One of People Magazine's Best Books of Summer An Amazon Best Book of the Month An Indie Next Pick A Real Simple Best Book of 2018 About the author: Allie Rowbottom received her BA from New York University, her MFA from the California Institute of the Arts and her PhD in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Houston. Her work has received scholarships, essay prizes and honorable mentions from Tin House, Inprint, the Best American Essays series, the Florida Review, The Bellingham Review, the Black Warrior Review, The Southampton Review, and Hunger Mountain. She lives in Los Angeles.

In today's episode, Cathy speaks with Allie Rowbottom, the author of the harrowing memoir, Jell-O Girls: A Family History. As an heir to the Jell-O fortune, Allie writes about her family's unique story as well as the cultural history of an iconic American product, and how it has shaped the lives of women in her family as well as America as a whole. Allie tells us about the history of Jell-O, from an elite European dessert to a democratizing, inexpensive product sold to American housewives and children. And she tells us why she thought it was important to take up the job that her mother began in telling her family's story.

Playing Monster :: Seiche is a book-length poem by Diana Arterian that incessantly dodges between two narratives: the speaker's childhood experiences with an abusive father and, as an adult, increasingly aggressive acts made toward her mother by strange men. It is a piece of noir poetics. It is also memoir and documentary. Through tight, spare poems, Arterian's unflinching descriptions of difficult life experiences fight aestheticization, engaging directly with the events as through the poetry of witness. In 1899, Allie Rowbottom's great-great-great-uncle bought the patent to Jell-O from its inventor for $450. The sale would turn out to be one of the most profitable business deals in American history, and the generations that followed enjoyed immense privilege - but they were also haunted by suicides, cancer, alcoholism, and mysterious ailments. More than 100 years after that deal was struck, Allie's mother Mary was diagnosed with the same incurable cancer, a disease that had also claimed her own mother's life. Determined to combat what she had come to consider the "Jell-O curse" and her looming mortality, Mary began obsessively researching her family's past, determined to understand the origins of her illness and the impact on her life of Jell-O and the traditional American values the company championed. Before she died in 2015, Mary began to send Allie boxes of her research and notes, in the hope that her daughter might write what she could not. Jell-O Girls is the liberation of that story.

Allie Rowbottom's life is built on a Jell-O fortune, just like it was for the lives of her mother and her grandmother. But along with the wealth from America's most famous dessert, there came a curse. Now the most recent heir to the Jell-O fortune, Allie tries to make sense of her family history, and all the strange ways Jell-O showed up in their lives. In the process, she learns what the curse means to her.PLUS: Household Name Uncut on all the weird things we used to put in Jell-O molds.Allie Rowbottom is the author of The Jell-O Girls, A family history, which you can find here, or at your favorite bookstore.

When Allie Rowbottom lost her mother to cancer, she dove headfirst into writing. Having already completed an MFA and a Ph.D. in Creative Writing, Allie was no stranger to writing but something changed after her mother died. She felt an increased urgency to tell the story her mother had invested many years of her own life writing: the story of the women and generations impacted by the money made from an icon of mid-century America: Jell-O. The story that is ultimately told in Rowbottom's book is multifaceted: it's her grandmother's story, her mother's, and her own, but it's also the story of Jell-O and how this product came to represent a particular kind of femininity that all these women felt pressured to mold themselves into, much like Jell-O itself. We dive in deep to what it felt like to write this story so soon after losing her mother and what it's like now as the book comes out and so many more people are reading and reacting to the book. This was such an inspiring interview, both because Allie was so open about her feelings and experience, but also because we haven't touched on writing and grief with this kind of depth, and it's a topic I think deserves much attention. I'm very grateful to have had this conversation and look forward to discussing this topic more in the future. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Which moments have been Pierre's worst? Is Tolstoy an unreliable narrator? Jennie heralds Gossip Girl's value in raising lexile levels! And Alex insists that what the 1812 Moscow fire really needs is zombies. This week's references include: Joseph Joffre, commander in chief of the French forces on the Western front during the initial stages of WW1, who, insisted on sticking to his usual schedule, even during battle. Pete learned about him in Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast episode, Blueprint for Armageddon 1 "Gossip Girl" by Cecily Von Zeigesar   Palate cleansers Megan is reading "Many Love" by Sophie Lucido Johnson, "The Clothes Make the Girl (Look Fat)?" by Brittany Gibbons, "Educated: a Memoir" by Tara Westover, and is watching Bored to Death. Pete is watching Disenchantment Jennie is watching early seasons of The Simpsons and is looking forward to reading Tessa Dare's new book, "The Governess Game." Alex is reading "Jell-O Girls" by Allie Rowbottom and "A Duke by Default" by Alyssa Cole.  

Today we learn about people who modify their bodies in unconventional ways & we debate whether it is healthy behavior. We discuss the documentary Tickled, which blew Susie's mind. Sarah reveals how the Hasidic Jewish community is flocking to BDSM. We learn about duct tape bathing suits. Plus, we interview Jell-O Girls author Allie Rowbottom about her life as an heir to the Jell-O fortune, the "Jell-O curse," & how she overcame her family's painful past.

My guest is Allie Rowbottom. Her debut book is Jell-O Girls: A Family History (https://www.amazon.com/JELL-Girls-History-Allie-Rowbottom/dp/0316510610). It's a memoir that braids the evolution of one of America's most iconic branding campaigns with the stirring tales of the women who lived behind its façade - told by the inheritor of their stories. In 1899, Allie Rowbottom's great-great-great-uncle bought the patent to Jell-O from its inventor for $450. The sale would turn out to be one of the most profitable business deals in American history, and the generations that followed enjoyed immense privilege - but they were also haunted by suicides, cancer, alcoholism, and mysterious ailments. An examination of the dark side of an iconic American product and a portrait of the women who lived in the shadow of its fractured fortune, JELL-O GIRLS is a family history, a feminist history, and a story of motherhood, love and loss. Throughout, Rowbottom considers the roots of trauma not only in her own family, but in the American psyche as well, ultimately weaving a story that is deeply personal, as well as deeply connected to the collective female experience. Special Guest: Allie Rowbottom.

Brad Listi talks with Allie Rowbottom, author of JELL-O GIRLS: A FAMILY HISTORY (Little, Brown). Her essays can be found in Vanity Fair, Salon, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. She has taught fiction and non-fiction at the University of Houston and CalArts and holds a PhD in literature and creative writing from the University of Houston. She is lives in Los Angeles with her husband Jon, French bulldogs Butter and Jammy, and Ham the Morgan horse. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Join us for an exclusive chat with author, Allie Rowbottom, as she talks about the food and feminist themes that infuse her new book, Jell-O Girls: A Family History, available on July 24th, 2018. "A gripping examination of the dark side of an iconic American product and a moving portrait of the women who lived in the shadow of its fractured fortune, Jell-O Girls is a family history, a feminist history, and a story of motherhood, love, and loss. In crystalline prose, Rowbottom considers the roots of trauma not only in her own family but in the American psyche as well, ultimately weaving a tale that is deeply personal and deeply connected to the collective female experience."  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices