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Hosted by michael hobbes
Hosted by michael hobbes
8 episodes with michael hobbes
7 episodes with michael hobbes
3 episodes with michael hobbes
4 episodes with michael hobbes
2 episodes with michael hobbes
3 episodes with michael hobbes
4 episodes with michael hobbes
Michael Hobbes and Peter Shamshiri of If Books Could Kill visit In Bed with the Right to talk about the life, times and very, very milquetoast opinions of Pamela Paul, who recently departed from her perch as the New York Times columnist Bluesky loves to hate. Paul emblematizes many aspects of public discourse over the last 5-10 years -- from the emergence of "reactionary centrism" to the renewed freakouts over campus speech, from the panic over trans kids to Gen X's drift to the right. Also this one has an airhorn.
Only a few weeks into his second term, Donald Trump and his billionaire buddies are doing their best to dismantle the federal government's regulatory agencies. So today, we're revisiting a compelling conversation we had in 2020 with journalist and podcast host Michael Hobbes about a piece he wrote in HuffPost titled "The Golden Age of White-Collar Crime." Initially reported against the backdrop of Trump's first presidency and its alarming erosion of regulatory oversight, Hobbes breaks down the staggering prevalence of elite deviance—where the wealthy evade accountability for crimes that cause immense social harm—and also offers insight into why white-collar crime often goes unchecked. It's a timely reminder of the consequences of allowing the ultra-wealthy to operate above the law. This episode originally aired on March 10, 2020. Michael Hobbes is a journalist, podcaster, and former senior reporter for HuffPost, known for his in-depth investigations into social issues, economics, and media narratives. He is the co-host of If Books Could Kill and Maintenance Phase, and previously co-hosted You're Wrong About, where he debunked cultural myths and misconceptions. Hobbes has also contributed to outlets like The New Republic, Pacific Standard and Slate covering topics ranging from housing policy to moral panics. Social Media: @michaelhobbes.bsky.social Further reading: The Golden Age of White Collar Crime Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Threads: pitchforkeconomics Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer, @civicaction YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics Substack: The Pitch
In what is already being described as a Festivus miracle, we present you -- at long last! -- the second part of the Second Annual Cursties! It's Moira, Adrian and special guest Michael Hobbes doing the annual airing of the grievances (we're deferring the feats of strength until next year). Featuring the most cursed discourses of this particularly cursed-discourse rich year: with walk-on cameos by Octavian George Collins, the Power Gay, Charli XCX and many many more.
2024's hottest awards show is THE SECOND ANNUAL CURSTIES. Conjured up by Adrian, Moira and special returning guest Michael Hobbes, this all-gay gabfest has everything. Rapid onset transphobia! How to divorce Matt Walsh! The White Lotus! That thing where a heterosexual is so heterosexual it ... seems kind of gay? Stay tuned for the second half of this episode (and for another Episode Note referencing an SNL skit that's so old it can now legally apply for a learner's permit) next week!
The “Daddy Election” did not go as Cancel Me, Daddy planned. Everyone seems to have an opinion about what woulda, coulda, shoulda changed the outcome of the “Loser Election,” in which we're all losers reading and skeeting our way through the Orange Fallout.This week, Katelyn and Christine make sense of the “multiverse” of election takes with “Cancel Gunkle” Michael Hobbes, journalist and co-host of Maintenance Phase and If Books Could Kill. Kate, Christine, and Mike discuss checking our priors and checking each other, turning what could have been a hot mess into a thoughtful discussion and mutual thirst for Paul Newman (RIP), both of which we encourage you to contribute to via Bluesky. Everyone has an opinion, and we want to hear yours. Keep up the infighting! And take care of each other. That act is more important than any opinion poised to change over the days and weeks to come.Links: Michael Hobbes: Bluesky edition Follow Katelyn at @transscribe and Christine at @yourombudsmom on Bluesky! Blueprint poll asking voters whether “Kamala Harris is focused more on cultural issues like transgender issues rather than helping the middle class”: Katelyn Burns via Bluesky: The rent is too damn high Katelyn Burns for Xtra: Trans issues didn't doom the Democrats Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
The “Daddy Election” did not go as Cancel Me, Daddy planned. Everyone seems to have an opinion about what woulda, coulda, shoulda changed the outcome of the “Loser Election,” in which we're all losers reading and skeeting our way through the Orange Fallout. This week, Katelyn and Christine make sense of the “multiverse” of election takes with “Cancel Gunkle” Michael Hobbes, journalist and co-host of Maintenance Phase and If Books Could Kill. Kate, Christine, and Mike discuss checking our priors and checking each other, turning what could have been a hot mess into a thoughtful discussion and mutual thirst for Paul Newman (RIP), both of which we encourage you to contribute to via Bluesky. Everyone has an opinion, and we want to hear yours. Keep up the infighting! And take care of each other. That act is more important than any opinion poised to change over the days and weeks to come. Links: Michael Hobbes: Bluesky edition Follow Katelyn at @transscribe and Christine at @yourombudsmom on Bluesky! Blueprint poll asking voters whether “Kamala Harris is focused more on cultural issues like transgender issues rather than helping the middle class”: Katelyn Burns via Bluesky: The rent is too damn high Katelyn Burns for Xtra: Trans issues didn't doom the Democrats Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Since the advent of smartphones, a simmering and increasingly boiling panic has been about whether too much “screentime” is ruining the nation's youth. Michael Hobbes joins us to help trace past moral panics surrounding kids, from such terrifying inventions as the jukebox, to television (okay maybe kinda bad), and texting, up to where we are now: the “Great Rewiring.” That's the theory as younger generations are exposed to technology at earlier and earlier ages, it fundamentally changes how they approach the world, and other people. But is it really rotting their brains? Our guest Michael Hobbes is a journalist and podcast host. You can find his work on his Substack “Confirm My Choices,” or his podcasts “If Books Could Kill” and “Maintenance Phase.” Want even more Panic World content? Like ad-free episodes, bonus episodes, and access to the Garbage Day Discord? Sign up for a membership at https://www.patreon.com/PanicWorld. Want to sponsor Panic World? Ad sales & marketing support by Multitude http://multitude.productions. Credits - Host: Ryan Broderick - Producer: Grant Irving - Researcher: Adam Bumas - Business Manager: Josh Fjelstad
The health and wellness industry is currently thriving, but this success can come at the expense of accessibility and authenticity. Dr. Phil Wagner is a Clinical Associate Professor at William & Mary. He is also an instructor with Les Mills, and he hosts the podcast Diversity Goes to Work with the Mason School of Business. Today, we chat about wellness as a business, the toxic messaging that can result from the pursuit of profit, and the future of accessibility in fitness and health.Resources:W&M Health & WellnessW&M Campus RecreationDiversity Goes to Work podcast -- Phil Wagner & Mason School of BusinessMaintenance Phase podcast -- Michael Hobbes & Aubrey Gordon
Everyone's in the mood for love but nobody seems to be able to make a connection in this week's episode, “Dancing in the Dark,” with Angela longing for a kiss from Jordan, Patty hoping Graham will sweep her off her feet, and Brian hoping against hope to get some extra credit (and not just the academic kind). I'll be talking to the delightful Michael Hobbes (Maintenance Phase, If Books Could Kill, You're Wrong About), a first-time viewer whose opinion of the show is starting to change; and also the delightful Terrence Moss, who knows everything there is to know about television and has a few critiques of my fashion choices. And as always, James is here to share his insights — including a shocking comparison of My So-Called Life to the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion and the Christopher Isherwood novel on which Cabaret is based. I promise it'll all make sense.Join me on Patreon at patreon.com/mattbaume.Music by Caleb Martin - www.MartinMusicMedia.com
Hello and welcome to the first episode of Matt's So-Cast Pod!This week, I'm chatting about the pilot episode of My So-Called Life with some very special guests: Writer and podcaster Michael Hobbes (Maintenance Phase, If Books Could Kill, You're Wrong About), fashion designer Samantha Rei (Project Runway), and renowned drag queen, producer, writer, and director BenDeLaCreme (Drag Race, The Jinkx & Dela Holiday Special). And of course, my co-conspirator, James.Join me on Patreon at patreon.com/mattbaume.Music by Caleb Martin - www.MartinMusicMedia.com
Send us a Text Message.This week I grabbed my good friend Ela Law from @elalawnutrition to chat about the Your Fat Friend documentary, by Jeanie Finlay which followed Aubrey Gordon across 6 years, since she released an anonymous blog from an account called @yrfatfriend .Aubrey has since written 2 New York Times Bestselling books (You Just Need to Lose Weight and What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat) and along with Michael Hobbes (adamantly NOT on instagram!) has created something truly special with the informative, endearing and forever engaging Maintenance Phase podcast .Ela and I chat about weight bias and how it permeates our society. Neither Ela nor I have lived experience of being in a fat body and both of us were truly touched by being able to see the world even for a brief time through Aubrey's eyes.At one point in the film, Aubrey alluded to the fact that she has been struggling with an eating disorder but really struggled to get the help and support she needed. Eating disorders do not discriminate. They impact people of all body sizes, of all ages, ethnicities and genders. We chat about repairing our relationship with food AND finally finding peace with our bodies when we live in a dieting culture and thinness is a value praised above all else. It is the air that we breathe and the sea that we swim in. Ela and I then segway into the world of Intuitive Eating.I hope you enjoy this episode and let us know what you think. If you can PLEASE find an opportunity to watch Your Fat Friend It is a triumph and Aubrey and Jeanie IRL are simply a joy to be around and were both SO generous with their time. Are you feeling stuck in the 'earn and burn' cycle with your exercise routine, or as summer approaches, are you feeling self-conscious about wearing a swimsuit on the beach? Maybe you just want to stop worrying so much about food or how your body looks.You are not alone and your body is NOT the problem Please reach out if you would like some support. We both have limited slots for Intuitive Eating Coaching, so get in touch with Christine or with Ela.AND if you enjoyed this episode, please share and follow the 'Find Your Strong podcast' and if you have time, write us a short review. It would honestly mean the world. Love to you all, Ela & Christine x
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com“I Was a Heretic at the New York Times,” an Atlantic essay by Adam Rubinstein, exploded on the old Twitter/X/Hate Machine. The story opens at a staff orientation where Rubinstein expresses love for Chick-Fil-A's spicy chicken sandwich and gets rebuked. Did it happen? Can we know? What sauce goes best with a spicy chicken sandwich ? That one we know: Honey-roasted BBQ.So what is this journo-kerfuffle about? Why should we care? Nancy and Sarah get down and dirty about this week's lightning-rod essay, and along the way …* Nancy goes viral …* We're hawking Fifth Column merch, because Nancy needs closet space* Shane Gillis sighting! Shane Gillis hug!* Throwdown! Chick-Fil-A vs. Shake Shack* “Running this puts Black @NYTstaffers in danger.”* Sarah takes out her personal-essay scalpel, slices carefully* Who is Michael Hobbes, and why did he block you?* Southern writers are like chicken sandwiches (we swear)* Nikole Hannah-Jones = untouchable?* Jesse Singal = always hungry* Why are people fighting so hard over this?Plus: Do French fries need ketchup? Does Nancy's face look and different after the treatment she got yesterday? Should we sell merch?
Maintenance Phase hosts Aubrey Gordon and Michael Hobbes join Jameela as we revisit this classic I Weigh episode. They discuss why the BMI is bunk, how we clinically don't have a non-surgical weight loss method and how that should inform our medical health conversations. Aubrey & Michael point out how as a society we blame fat people instead of helping people live healthier lives, why we shouldn't lecture people on their diets or physically remove food from their supermarket shopping cart (!), and more. You can listen to Aubrey & Michael on their podcast – Maintenance Phase – where you listen to your podcasts or try the SiriusXM AppYou can follow Aubrey Gordon on Instagram and Twitter @yrfatfriendYou can follow Michael Hobbes on Twitter @rottenindenmarkYou can find transcripts from the show on the Earwolf websiteI Weigh has amazing merch – check it out at podswag.comSend what you 'weigh' to iweighpodcast@gmail.comJameela is on Instagram @jameelajamil and TikTok @jameelajamilAnd make sure to check out I Weigh's Instagram, Youtube and TikTok for more!
2023 was a year rich in truly cursed discourses, In Bed With the Right has already analyzed many of them. In this episode — our first annual CURSTIES — your able hosts (with guest Michael Hobbes) analyze a few that have fallen through the cracks, and vote for the most cursed discourse of the year!
Last week, an hbomberguy YouTube video about plagiarism swept across social media and Katelyn found herself right in the middle of the discourse. This week we welcome back guest Michael Hobbes (If Books Could Kill, Maintenance Phase, formerly You're Wrong About) to talk about YouTuber and plagiarist James Somerton's plagiarism and the larger systemic issues that enabled it all. If you appreciated this episode please consider supporting us on Patreon. Citations:Plagiarism and You(Tube) - hbomberguy video I Fact-Checked The Worst Video Essayist On YouTube - Todd in the Shadows video J.K. Rowling's transphobia is a product of British culture - Katelyn's article that was plagiarized by Somerton (All James Somerton videos have been taken down from his channel) Reddit post documenting the plagiarism of the Vox article Michael Hobbes links: If Books Could Kill podcast, Maintenance Phase podcast
A philosopher, a historian, and Tucker Carlson walk into a bar… Welcome to Episode 2 of Massively Disabled, the one where Élaina lays out her methodology and rolls it up in a rucksack, ready for the road. We're talking narrative medicine, citational practices, and the philosophical uses of history (whatever that is) to better understand how we are going to approach the topic of long COVID. The clip from Hannah Sullivan-Facknitz was taken, with permission, from a longer interview for Philosophy Casting Call: "Ethics of Kinship in the Archive w/Hannah Sullivan-Facknitz" Sources mentioned in the episode: Rosemarie Garland-Thomson's “Eugenic World Building and Disability: The Strange World of Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go” The Scottish Healthcare Workers Coalition calling for the return of mask mandates in hospitals The House of Lords' Long COVID debate on 17 November 2022 Department for Work and Pensions' “Households below average income: for financial years ending 1995 to 2022” Sara Ahmed's “On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life” Michel Foucault's “Discipline and Punish” and “History of Sexuality: Vol . 1” American Press article on Dominion Voting suing Fox News about 2020 election claims Annemarie Mol's “The Body Multiple” Ian Hacking's “Mad Travelers: Reflections on the Reality of Transient Mental Illness” Rita Charon's “Narrative Medicine: Honoring the stories of illness” Danielle Spencer's “Metagnosis: Revelatory Narratives of Health and Identity” Mich Ciurria's “Disabled People Should Define Disability” In the spirit of intentional citing, it must be noted that the title of this episode employs the term “methodology queen”, first heard on the health and wellness debunking podcast “Maintenance Phase”, co-hosted by Aubrey Gordon and Michael Hobbes. Full transcripts and references are available at www.massivelydisabled.com Please rate and review Massively Disabled on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. This helps other people find the show. You can follow the show on Instagram and Twitter @massdisabledpod Hosting, producing, and editing is done by Élaina Gauthier-Mamaril Music is by Morgan Kluck-Keil This podcast is made with the support of the Centre for Biomedicine, Self and Society, Usher Institute, at the University of Edinburgh.
Emmy and Natalia unpack some of the baggage around Halloween and where it comes from and why it matters to simply be aware of the ways we celebrate (and don't celebrate) this season. Suppport the show at http://patreon.com/cafeteriachristian Links: Spooky season - mpr: https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/10/24/559502238/this-halloween-what-does-it-mean-to-call-something-spooky Michael Hobbes and Sarah Marshall: https://rottenindenmark.org/2019/10/31/halloween-re-release-urban-legends-spectacular/
On this episode of Podcast Like It's 1992, journalist/podcast host Michael Hobbes joins us to discuss School Ties.We talk about other 90's boarding school movies, where this film stands among them, and the portrayal of angsty teenage antisemitism.Patreon: patreon.com/PodcastlikeitsTwitter: twitter.com/podcastlikeits Instagram: instagram.com/podcastlikeits Reddit: reddit.com/r/podcastlikeits Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Like so many other mostly imaginary topics, human trafficking is in the news again. Michael Hobbes—ever heard of him??—came by so Sarah could tell him about Sound of Freedom, a surprise hit summer movie that promises it can end child slavery, but only if you buy as many tickets as you can. Then, you can hear the episode we released on "human trafficking"—what it isn't, and what it is—back in 2019. You can find Mike's shows here:Maintenance PhaseIf Books Could KillSupport You're Wrong About:Bonus Episodes on PatreonBuy cute merchWhere else to find us:Sarah's other show, You Are Good[YWA co-founder] Mike's other show, Maintenance PhaseLinks:https://www.maintenancephase.comhttps://www.patreon.com/IfBooksPodhttps://www.teepublic.com/stores/youre-wrong-abouthttps://www.paypal.com/paypalme/yourewrongaboutpodhttps://www.podpage.com/you-are-goodhttp://maintenancephase.comSupport the show
Mina interviews writer, podcaster, and activist Aubrey Gordon! Find Aubrey's books (and other relevant info) here and columns she's written here. Listen to her podcast with Michael Hobbes, Maintenance Phase. Keep up with High Brow on Instagram! Subscribe to the Patreon! and keep up with Mina on Youtube, Instagram, and Tiktok! Edited by Sophie Carter Music by Olivia Martinez Cover by Lindsay Mintz
Link to YouTube videoI watched that Tubi movie about Johnny Depp and Amber Heard and it's not good. Help me be less poorOther places you can find meOther pro-Amber (or at least not Anti-Amber) YouTubers to check out:(smaller)Raeden Greer_PlanetSydStaircasewritTagzBelle Antoinette Mechantechatonne(larger)Leeja MillerPrincess WeekesKidologyRo RamdinVerilyBitchieRebecca WatsonOwen JonesUseful Reading:Info on Johnny Depp/Amber Heard's relationshipDepp v. NGN judgment in UK "The Trouble With Johnny Depp" by Rolling Stone "Johnny Depp will not be buried" by GQ "Amber Heard: I spoke up against sexual violence — and faced our culture's wrath. That has to change." by The Washington Post "The Bleak Spectacle of the Amber Heard-Johnny Depp Trial" by Michael Hobbes
We're so excited to be joined by Aubrey Gordon (she/her) for an episode about anti-fatness in the Harry Potter series. We begin with a quick review of disability studies, monstrosity, and sentimentality before jumping into a conversation about anti-fatness, body positivity and fat liberation. Aubrey is the co-host of (beloved podcast) Maintenance Phase and the author of What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat and "You Just Need to Lose Weight" and 19 Other Myths About Fat People. With her help, we talk about the relationship between eugenics, white supremacy, mass media (specifically young adult fiction) and anti-fatness as it shows up in our relationships, the books we read, our political landscape and beyond.If you've been waiting for us to do a deep-dive on Dudley, then this episode is for you! What can we make of his forced dieting throughout the series? What ideology underpins the characterization of Petunia as it relates to her son's weight? Why do we read Molly Weasley's parenting differently? We also discuss Hagrid, Madame Maxime and Horace Slughorn as they align with familiar stereotypes of fat people. We love Aubrey and we figure you're already a super-fan! Still, it's worth noting that if you want more Aubrey you can learn more about her at her website, check her out on Twitter or Instagram, read her books, and listen to her incredible podcast with Michael Hobbes, Maintenance Phase.***HEY YOU! We're launching a new show! We've shared our pilot on Patreon to get the input of all our Patreon supporters as we develop the series which will launch this summer after we wrap up the Appendix Season. Join our Patreon today to listen to the first episode of our new show and to get access to a ton of audio perks like unedited audio, bloopers, comics, Q&As, and so much more! Become a supporter at patreon.com/ohwitchplease. If becoming a paying subscriber isn't in the cards right now, no stress! Please leave us a review instead — it truly helps sustain the show. Of course, you can always follow us on Instagram or Twitter @ohwitchplease to stay connected. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
We're so excited to be joined by Aubrey Gordon (she/her) for an episode about anti-fatness in the Harry Potter series. We begin with a quick review of disability studies, monstrosity, and sentimentality before jumping into a conversation about anti-fatness, body positivity and fat liberation. Aubrey is the co-host of (beloved podcast) Maintenance Phase and the author of What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat and "You Just Need to Lose Weight" and 19 Other Myths About Fat People. With her help, we talk about the relationship between eugenics, white supremacy, mass media (specifically young adult fiction) and anti-fatness as it shows up in our relationships, the books we read, our political landscape and beyond.If you've been waiting for us to do a deep-dive on Dudley, then this episode is for you! What can we make of his forced dieting throughout the series? What ideology underpins the characterization of Petunia as it relates to her son's weight? Why do we read Molly Weasley's parenting differently? We also discuss Hagrid, Madame Maxime and Horace Slughorn as they align with familiar stereotypes of fat people. We love Aubrey and we figure you're already a super-fan! Still, it's worth noting that if you want more Aubrey you can learn more about her at her website, check her out on Twitter or Instagram, read her books, and listen to her incredible podcast with Michael Hobbes, Maintenance Phase.***HEY YOU! We're launching a new show! We've shared our pilot on Patreon to get the input of all our Patreon supporters as we develop the series which will launch this summer after we wrap up the Appendix Season. Join our Patreon today to listen to the first episode of our new show and to get access to a ton of audio perks like unedited audio, bloopers, comics, Q&As, and so much more! Become a supporter at patreon.com/ohwitchplease. If becoming a paying subscriber isn't in the cards right now, no stress! Please leave us a review instead — it truly helps sustain the show. Of course, you can always follow us on Instagram or Twitter @ohwitchplease to stay connected. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Happy 50th Episode!!!
Today we've got Evan Urquahart and Michael Hobbes on to talk about the ongoing frenzy of bigotry directed at trans people, and why centrist and liberal reporters are feeding it. Evan covers trans issues at Assigned Media, while Michael is a journalist currently working on the Maintenance Phase and If Books Could Kill podcasts. Also check out Evan's coverage of detransitioners, Tom Scocca's critique of the Times coverage, and this open letter to New York Times management from many of its employees and contributors.
In this rollicking conversation, Aubrey Gordon (she/her) explores her own journey with fatness, the levels that fat folks explore on their own liberation journeys, and what level she's currently puzzling over. Oh, and there's also some talk about her new best-selling book, her Maintenance Phase podcast, and how the heck do we find joy amidst the world of anti-fatness.Aubrey Gordon is the author of What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat and co-host of Maintenance Phase. You might know her as Your Fat Friend.Aubrey Gordon started writing as Your Fat Friend in 2016. She published exclusively under the pseudonym for four years, writing anonymously about the social and cultural realities of moving through the world as a very fat person.Since starting the project, her work has been published in Literary Hub, The New York Times, Vox, SELF, Health, Roxane Gay's Unruly Bodies and Jameela Jamil's IWeigh. She is a regular columnist at SELF Magazine. Her debut book, What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat was released by Beacon Press in November 2020. It is available for purchase at Indiebound.Today, she cohosts the podcast Maintenance Phase with Michael Hobbes. Together, the two debunk and decode wellness and weight loss trends.Please connect with Aubrey on her website.This episode's poem is called “Ritualised Return,” and it's by Lauchie Murdoch. If you'd like to purchase his poetry chapbook, you can use the Contact Me on his website.All things Fat Joy can be found here…Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fatjoy.life/YouTube: https://youtube.com/@fatjoyWebsite: http://www.fatjoy.lifeIf you'd like another 12 minutes of Aubrey's brilliance, then support the Fat Joy podcast on Patreon. You'll get immediate access to Some Extra Fat Joy: 10 Q's with Aubrey Gordon.Deep thanks for their hard work go to Hi Bird Designs and AR Media for keeping this podcast looking and sounding joyful.
We're back and up to our usual hijinks! In this episode, Katelyn delves into this past weekend's transphobic article in the New York Times with the newly declared mascot of the show, Michael Hobbes. The two discuss this year's slew of anti-trans articles at various publications, why this disinformation keeps getting elevated and the concerning lack of trans voices in media. Plus, we cancel paperwork, bosses and Katelyn for making the worst joke in all of history at the end of out of context cancellations. You can submit your requests for out of context cancellations, support our work and join our community by visiting www.patreon/CancelMeDaddy.
It's tempting to blame misinformation on social media, but it turns out fake news has been around for longer than you'd think. From Slate, the history podcast One Year recaps the moments that transformed politics, culture, science and religion in one year from American history. In the fourth, and latest, season the series covers 1942, a year when inflation threatened to sink America, a worker revolt changed music forever and disinformation was rampant. And, whether or not you enjoy it, working from home does have its benefits. We'll listen in on an episode from advice show Work Appropriate that tackles the great remote work debate. We'll showcase those stories and several more this week and make sure your 2023 begins with the very best podcasting has to offer. Podcasts featured this week: One Year: 1942: "Every season of One Year tells the story of one year in history, and this season is focused on 1942. In this episode, host Josh Levin tells the story of the propaganda war that played out on radio waves during the Second World War." Work Appropriate: "Author Anne Helen Petersen invites guest experts in the world of work to answer listener questions and give advice about navigating modern working life. In this clip, Anne and her guest Jessica Grose unpack the tension around returning to the office post-lockdown, and why it's particularly hard on working parents." The Prince: "In this series from The Economist, host Sue-Lin Wong takes listeners through the life of Chinese president Xi Jinping, from the son of a political outcast to the most powerful man in the world." Pop Chat: "How come horror movies never seem to win any Oscars? Since the first Academy Awards in 1929, only six have even been nominated for best picture." If Books Could Kill: "Each week on If Books Could Kill, hosts Michael Hobbes and Peter Shamshiri break down "the airport bestsellers that captured our hearts and ruined our minds." In their first episode they take aim at the 2005 book Freakonomics." Pale Blue Pod: "Pale Blue Pod is an astronomy podcast for people who are overwhelmed by the universe but want to be its friend. Astrophysicist Dr. Moiya McTier and comedian/science educator Corinne Caputo demystify space one topic at a time with open eyes, open arms, and open mouths (from so much laughing and jaw-dropping). By the end of each episode, the cosmos will feel a little less "ahhh, too scary!" and a lot more "ohhh, so cool!" New episodes every Monday."
This is an interview from our archives. It was part of a series called Think Again — a guide to reimagining work, home, relationships, and more. In this episode, Apple News In Conversation host Shumita Basu talks with Aubrey Gordon and Michael Hobbes, hosts of the Maintenance Phase podcast, about how to outsmart the wellness industry, spot junk health science, and find information that will actually help you live healthier. Below are excerpts from the interview.
This week, 5-4 invites you to check out an episode of If Books Could Kill, featuring Michael Hobbes, of Maintenance Phase, and 5-4's own Peter.If Books Could Kill deconstructs the airport bestsellers that captured our hearts and ruined our minds. FromThe Game to Freakonomics, if an idea is bad enough, someone has written a book about it, and Peter and Michael are here to rip it to shreds. If you like the show, you can find more wherever you get your podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
You know those IDIOT REPUBLICANS who think that SCIENCE hasn't TOTALLY PROVEN that puberty blockers and hormones are AWESOME????? And TOTALLY REVERSIBLE????? Well two MOUTH-BREATHING IDIOTS who probably also HATE CRT and PUPPIES are so BIGOTED they don't even ACCEPT the MEDICAL CONSENSUS.(Show notes a bit longer and more in-depth than usual this week to help everyone follow along, double-check stuff, etc.)Show notes/Links:Carole hooven DESTROYS jon stewartThe state lawshttps://www.kff.org/other/issue-brief/youth-access-to-gender-affirming-care-the-federal-and-state-policy-landscape/Jesse on the state laws in 2020The vote went down after the episode was recorded, but Florida has now banned yuth gender medicine, with exceptions for those already receiving it and future research projectshttps://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/04/health/florida-gender-care-minors-medical-board.htmlThe full episode of Stewart's show: https://tv.apple.com/us/episode/the-war-over-gender/umc.cmc.1jj39s607lehulo4k0iscsarp“I don't send someone to a therapist when I'm going to start them on insulin.”https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/07/when-a-child-says-shes-trans/561749/“Historically, mental health professionals have been charged with ensuring ‘readiness' [she puts that in scare quotes] for phenotypic transition, along with establishing a therapeutic relationship that will help young people navigate this very same transition. These 2 tasks are at odds with each other because establishing a therapeutic relationship entails honesty and a sense of safety that can be compromised if young people believe that what they need and deserve (potentially blockers, hormones, or surgery) can be denied them according to the information they provide to the therapist.” This excerpt strongly suggests she doesn't believe in the traditional gatekeeping role a mental-health clinician might play in a situation like this, helping to determine if a young person will benefit from transitioning.https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abstract/2504256Kids — sorry, sorry — “adolescents” — getting double mastectomies at 13 or 14https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29507933/“Suicide Attempts among Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Adults: Findings of the Naitonal Transgender Discrimination Survey.”https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/Trans-GNC-Suicide-Attempts-Jan-2014.pdfn.b.: “Without such probes, we were unable to determine the extent to which the 41 percent of NTDS participants who reported ever attempting suicide may overestimate the actual prevalence of attempts in the sample.” And:Finally, it should be emphasized that the NTDS, like all similar surveys, captured information about suicide attempts, not completed suicide. Lacking any information about completed suicide among transgender people (due primarily to decedents not being identified by gender identity or transgender status), it may be tempting to consider suicide attempt data to be the best available proxy measure of suicide death. Data from the U.S. population at large, however, show clear demographic differences between suicide attempters and those who die by suicide. While almost 80 percent of all suicide deaths occur among males, about 75 percent of suicide attempts are made by females. Adolescents, who overall have a relatively low suicide rate of about 7 per 100,000 people, account for a substantial proportion of suicide attempts, making perhaps 100 or more attempts for every suicide death. 13 suicides per 100,000 in a GIDS samplehttps://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-022-02287-7Insanely high rate of 2.8% in a Belgian clinical samplehttps://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8706800/file/8707586.pdfT H E G U I D E L I N E SStewart: So these, the guidelines that you wrote, because you were responsible with the endocrine board for writing guidelines of care for endocrinology.Safer: The Endocrine Society, yesStewart: The endocrine society.Yes.Stewart: And that was based on, uh, research papers, data, the things that you saw. Intervening with gender affirming care which may be just being respectful or, as they get older some of these other things. You've seen that have a reduction in depression, a reduction in suicide — that's what you've studied.Safer: Absolutely.Nothing about mental health improvement, lotta assessment-talk, “low evidence” at best https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/102/11/3869/4157558?login=false#99603239The Ibuprofen System For Evidence Assessmenthttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470778/table/app2.t2/Erica Anderson and Laura Edwards-Leeper take their concerns to the Washington Posthttps://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/11/24/trans-kids-therapy-psychologist/Jesse's interview with Anderson on BARPodRutledge: We don't have enough data, we don't have enough to show that these drugs are effective and that these children are better off. And that we should encourage…Stewart: You don't have enough, or it's not enough for you? I've got some bad news for ya. Parents with children who have gender dysphoria, have lost children, to suicide, and depression. Rutledge : They absolutely have.Stewart: —because it's acute. And so these mainstream medical organizations have developed guidelines through peer reviewed data, and studies. And through those guidelines, they've improved mental health outcomes.Rutledge's read on the evidence is perfectly reasonableHere's Sweden's National Board of Health and Welfare:For adolescents with gender incongruence, the [National Board of Health and Welfare] deems that the risks of puberty suppressing treatment with GnRH-analogues and gender-affirming hormonal treatment currently outweigh the possible benefits, and that the treatments should be offered only in exceptional cases. … To minimize the risk that a young person with gender incongruence later will regret a gender-affirming treatment, the NBHW deems that the criteria for offering GnRH-analogue and gender-affirming hormones should link more closely to those used in the Dutch protocol, where the duration of gender incongruence over time is emphasized.https://www.socialstyrelsen.se/globalassets/sharepoint-dokument/artikelkatalog/kunskapsstod/2022-3-7799.pdfAnd here's Finlands' Council for Choices in Health Care, via an unofficial translationIn light of available evidence, gender reassignment of minors is an experimental practice. Based on studies examining gender identity in minors, hormonal interventions may be considered before reaching adulthood in those with firmly established transgender identities, but it must be done with a great deal of caution, and no irreversible treatment should be initiated. Information about the potential harms of hormone therapies is accumulating slowly and is not systematically reported. It is critical to obtain information on the benefits and risks of these treatments in rigorous research settings.https://segm.org/sites/default/files/Finnish_Guidelines_2020_Minors_Unofficial%20Translation.pdfNHS headed same wayhttps://www.engage.england.nhs.uk/specialised-commissioning/gender-dysphoria-services/user_uploads/b1937-ii-specialist-service-for-children-and-young-people-with-gender-dysphoria-1.pdfDutch stuffhttps://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0092623X.2022.2121238https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0092623X.2022.2046221Depression and suicidality linked to blockers, perhaps rarelyhttps://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2016/019732s042,020517s038lbl.pdfThttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3693622/“Testosterone Therapy is Associated With Depression, Suicidality, and Intentional Self-Harm: Analysis of a National Federated Database”https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1743609522012449#:~:text=Testosterone%20use%20was%20independently%20associated,testosterone%20deficient%20sub%2Dgroup%20analysisThe book to read on Thttps://www.amazon.com/Story-Testosterone-Hormone-Dominates-Divides/dp/1250236061The desistane literature is by no means “debunked,” and if you actually read the studies, no, the clinicians who wrote them did not confuse a bunch of merely gender nonconforming kids for genuinely gender dysphoric onesThese studies aren't perfect and come from different contexts, but they consistently tell the same storyhttp://www.sexologytoday.org/2016/01/do-trans-kids-stay-trans-when-they-grow_99.htmlThat story probably doesn't apply to kids who socially transition at a young age https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/04/health/transgender-children-identity.htmlhttps://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/150/2/e2021056082/186992/Gender-Identity-5-Years-After-Social-Transition?autologincheck=redirected%3fnfToken%3d00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000Even at the bigger clinics that do take a multidisciplinary approach, and where kids could theoretically get comprehensive, holistic care, that isn't always happeninghttps://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-transyouth-care/In interviews with Reuters, doctors and other staff at 18 gender clinics across the country described their processes for evaluating patients. None described anything like the months-long assessments de Vries and her colleagues adopted in their research. At most of the clinics, a team of professionals – typically a social worker, a psychologist and a doctor specializing in adolescent medicine or endocrinology – initially meets with the parents and child for two hours or more to get to know the family, their medical history and their goals for treatment. They also discuss the benefits and risks of treatment options. Seven of the clinics said that if they don't see any red flags and the child and parents are in agreement, they are comfortable prescribing puberty blockers or hormones based on the first visit, depending on the age of the child. “For those kids, there's not a value of stretching it out for six months to do assessments,” said Dr Eric Meininger, senior physician for the gender health program at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis. “They've done their research, and they truly understand the risk.”2020 Finnish studyhttps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31762394/Those who did well in terms of psychiatric symptoms and functioning before cross-sex hormones mainly did well during real-life. Those who had psychiatric treatment needs or problems in school, peer relationships and managing everyday matters outside of home continued to have problems during real-life. … Medical gender reassignment is not enough to improve functioning and relieve psychiatric comorbidities among adolescents with gender dysphoria. Appropriate interventions are warranted for psychiatric comorbidities and problems in adolescent development.Jack Turban misinterpreting it:https://archive.ph/wip/x6LGWGIDS study comparing a group of kids with serious mental health problems who were delayed access to youth gender medicine to a group of kids who were able to start sooner because their mental health was solid enoughhttps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26556015/Severely distorted UW study also found no improvement among kids who went on youth gender medicineYet another study out of GIDS, on kids from 12 to 15 years old who went on blockers, found no mental-health improvements, full-stophttps://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0243894Littman defends Littman's research methodshttps://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-020-01631-zThat dumb chartWe also have chartshttps://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21929361-000-multiple-personalities-takedown-of-a-diagnosis/http://www.fmsfonline.org/?ginterest=RecoveredMemoriesInTheCourts“Another significant issue raised with us is one of diagnostic overshadowing – many of the children and young people presenting have complex needs, but once they are identified as having gender-related distress, other important healthcare issues that would normally be managed by local services can sometimes be overlooked.”https://cass.independent-review.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Cass-Review-Interim-Report-Final-Web-Accessible.pdfNHS changes course on the safety/reversibility of blockers in 2020https://www.transgendertrend.com/nhs-no-longer-puberty-blockers-reversible/[Michael Hobbes got mad at me for posting this because he doesn't like Transgender Trend, but holy hell is that stupid: They are simply summing up and putting into writing a change to the NHS website, and they're citing a BBC report on the same subject. -Jesse]OLD LANGUAGE: The effects of treatment with GnRH analogues are considered to be fully reversible, so treatment can usually be stopped at any time after a discussion between you, your child and your [multidisciplinary team]NEW LANGUAGE: Little is known about the long-term side effects of hormone or puberty blockers in children with gender dysphoria. Although the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) advises this is a physically reversible treatment if stopped, it is not known what the psychological effects may be. It's also not known whether hormone blockers affect the development of the teenage brain or children's bones. Side effects may also include hot flushes, fatigue and mood alterations.Serious Lupron side effectshttps://www.statnews.com/2017/02/02/lupron-puberty-children-health-problems/For years, Sharissa Derricott, 30, had no idea why her body seemed to be failing. At 21, a surgeon replaced her deteriorated jaw joint. She's been diagnosed with degenerative disc disease and fibromyalgia, a chronic pain condition. Her teeth are shedding enamel and cracking. None of it made sense to her until she discovered a community of women online who describe similar symptoms and have one thing in common: All had taken a drug called Lupron. Thousands of parents chose to inject their daughters with the drug, which was approved to shut down puberty in young girls but also is commonly used off-label to help short kids grow taller. The drug's pediatric version comes with few warnings about long-term side effects. It is also used in adults to fight prostate cancer or relieve uterine pain and the Food and Drug Administration has warnings on the drug's adult labels about a variety of side effects. More than 10,000 adverse event reports filed with the FDA reflect the experiences of women who've taken Lupron. The reports describe everything from brittle bones to faulty joints. In interviews and in online forums, women who took the drug as young girls or initiated a daughter's treatment described harsh side effects that have been well-documented in adults.Caroline Jemsbyhttps://www.journalismfund.eu/journalists/carolina-jemsbyGULDSPADENhttps://archive.ph/wip/GFuryClip in questionhttps://drive.google.com/file/d/1bL4WWMCs46dCKweZzz0gBj1AqE62k3oj/view?usp=sharingFull unlocked interview with JesseGLAAD is glad journalists are falling in linehttps://www.glaad.org/blog/jon-stewart-sets-record-straight-gender-affirming-carehttps://www.glaad.org/blog/john-oliver-explains-why-gender-affirming-care-is-so-importantBut sometimes nothttps://www.glaad.org/gap/jesse-singalJesse's response to the original version of his page (he hasn't yet responded to the new one, which went up after this, because life is short): The TikTok Doc yeets some teetshttps://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/26/health/top-surgery-transgender-teenagers.htmlWhoops:Dr. Gallagher of Miami said that she follows up with patients for up to a year. “I can say this honestly: I don't know of a single case of regret,” Dr. Gallagher said in May, adding that regret was much more common with cosmetic procedures. But one of her former top surgery patients, Grace Lidinsky-Smith, has been vocal about her detransition on social media and in news reports. “I slowly came to terms with the fact that it had been a mistake born out of a mental health crisis,” Ms. Lidinsky-Smith, 28, said in an interview.So basically, these clinicians are claiming top surgery has incredibly low regret rates, but they're simply not bothering to keep in touch with their patients. And one year is not very long for followup on this — if you give a kid top surgery at 15 or 16, one of the questions is whether, as their peers sexually develop and start families, they'll at some point wish they had breasts. It's a totally natural, important question, and you can't answer it if your patients are disappearing into the void just one year after you perform surgery on them.Age guidelineshttps://www.cdc.gov/hiv/policies/law/states/minors.htmlOliver: So the benefits of providing care are immense and the risks of withholding it are dire. A survey of around 28,000 trans people found that of those who wanted hormone therapy and didn't receive it 58% reported suicidal thoughts in a given year, which is why the three major professional associations of Child and Adolescent doctors, psychologists and psychiatrists have endorsed gender affirming care and condemned efforts to deny it. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0261039This study is ridiculous and doesn't even show any correlation between access to hormones and improvement on the more serious suicide measures anywayOliver: You may have seen or heard from a small subset of people who D transitioned but it is worth noting such cases are rare and highly individualized. Studies show an average of just 2% of people who transition expressed regret. And the vast majority of those who have opted to detransition did so not because of changes in their gender identity but due to external factors such as stigma and lack of social support. Supposedly 1% - 2% regret ratehttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8099405/Lost to follow datahttps://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Yog0cUgVufxoTY64q-ll1wr7XcBhuqKD/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=102378063559486309340&rtpof=true&sd=trueOliver is relying not on a study of detransitioners, but on individuals who currently identify as transhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8213007/Littman study of detransitionershttps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34665380/Reasons for detransitioning were varied and included: experiencing discrimination (23.0%); becoming more comfortable identifying as their natal sex (60.0%); having concerns about potential medical complications from transitioning (49.0%); and coming to the view that their gender dysphoria was caused by something specific such as trauma, abuse, or a mental health condition (38.0%). Homophobia or difficulty accepting themselves as lesbian, gay, or bisexual was expressed by 23.0% as a reason for transition and subsequent detransition. The majority (55.0%) felt that they did not receive an adequate evaluation from a doctor or mental health professional before starting transition and only 24.0% of respondents informed their clinicians that they had detransitioned. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.blockedandreported.org/subscribe
Lou and DMR are back to fill your ears with the best podcast recommendations! Join the Podworld hosts as they recommend two new and noteworthy shows for you to discover and two classic podcasts. As well as some bonus standalone episodes recommendations too! Every episode we chat with some of the most amazing podcast creators, and for this episode DMR zooms in with Haifa and KJ, the hosts of the Love & Stardust podcast. And just in case, you don't have enough to listen to, we finish up with recommendations from you, our wonderful listeners! Follow us on Twitter or Insta (@podpodworld) and send us feedback or comments about the show. If you want to send in a podcast recommendation or a promo for your own podcast, just record a voice note of 30 seconds, starting with "Hi Podworld... " and email it to us hello@podworld.fm --- episode notes --- Here's a list of all the podcasts that we recommend and talk about in this episode (in order of when we mention them): New & Noteworthy podcast recs: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/fed-up/id1633479565 (Fed Up) (Wondery); https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/missed-fortune/id1636560953 (Missed Fortune) (Apple TV+) Classic podcast recs: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/maintenance-phase/id1535408667 (Maintenance Phase) (Aubrey Gordon, Michael Hobbes); https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/changes-with-annie-macmanus/id1465937091 (Changes) (Annie MacManus) Standalone episode recs: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/south-pole-race-david-and-goliath-on-ice/id1484511465?i=1000569694191 (Cautionary Tales: Race to the South Pole) (Tim Handford, Pushkin); https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/episode-172-roselle-and-michael/id809264944?i=1000534893936 (Criminal: Roselle and Michael )(Vox Media Podcast Network) Recommendations from our guests (Haifa and KJ): https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-love-bomb-with-nico-tortorella/id1151512926 (The Love Bomb with Nico Tortorella) (at Will Media); https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/almost-30/id1148183612 (Almost Thirty) (Krista Williams & Lindsey Sumcik); https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/expanded-podcast-by-to-be-magnetic/id1419732648 (Expanded) (To Be Magnetic); https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/u-up/id1313996383 (U Up?) (Betches Media); https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-mindset-mentor/id1033048640 (The Mindset Mentor) (Rob Dial and Kast Media); https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/marcus-aurelius-meditations-for-modern-life/id1535985618 (Marcus Aurelius' Meditations for Modern Life); https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-diary-of-a-ceo-with-steven-bartlett/id1291423644 (Diary of a CEO) (Steven Bartlett). Listener rec: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/well-thats-interesting/id1523089512 (Well... that's interesting) (Jill Cha Cha) --- If you want to have your recommendation featured on the show, just record a voice note on your phone (try to keep it to 30 seconds) and send it to us >> hello@podworld.fm Credits: This episode of Podworld was produced and edited by Louise Blain (@shiny_demon) and David Maher Roberts (@dmrpod). Graphics by Dylan Channon. Research by Ella Maher Roberts. Theme music by Dan Phillipson (via Premiumbeat) additional music via Artlist.io. Podworld is supported by Dialect - a leading integrated digital marketing agency for the world of tech and gaming.
This week, Mike and Sarah reunite to hunt for serial killers, and try to figure out whether they're really endangered. Digressions include crow funerals, Carrie Bradshaw, and how we feel about being called mom and dad.An extended cut of this episode is also available for Patreon supporters and Apple + Podcast subscribers. Here's where to find Mike:NewsletterTwitterMaintenance Phase Support us:Bonus Episodes on PatreonBonus Episodes on Apple PodcastsDonate on PaypalBuy cute merchWhere else to find us:Sarah's other show, You Are Good [YWA co-founder] Mike's other show, Maintenance PhaseLinks:https://michaelhobbes.substack.com/https://twitter.com/rottenindenmarkhttps://www.maintenancephase.com/http://patreon.com/yourewrongabouthttp://apple.co/ywahttps://www.teepublic.com/stores/youre-wrong-abouthttps://www.paypal.com/paypalme/ywapodcasthttps://www.podpage.com/you-are-goodSupport the show
This interview is part of a new series from Apple News In Conversation called Think Again — a guide to reimagining work, home, relationships, and more. In this episode, In Conversation host Shumita Basu talks with Aubrey Gordon and Michael Hobbes, hosts of the Maintenance Phase podcast, about how to outsmart the wellness industry, spot junk health science, and find information that will actually help you live healthier. Below are excerpts from the interview.
This episode, Katelyn and Oliver sit down with Michael Hobbes to discuss the awful discourse from the usual cancel culture suspects around the violent attack on author Salman Rushdie. A special thanks to our Cancellation List and above Patreons Megg, I Beauregard, Adrienne Stewart, Diego Sanchez and Siobhan Green for making this episode possible. You can submit your requests for out of context cancellations, support our work and join our community by visiting www.patreon/CancelMeDaddy.
Join Adrian and friend of the pod Michael Hobbes for the second half of their conversation on Moral Panic Mythbusting.Michael Hobbes is a journalist and co-host of the podcast Maintenance Phase. He previously was a reporter at The Huffington Post and co-host of the podcast You're Wrong About.
Join Adrian and friend of the pod Michael Hobbes in part one of Moral Panic Mythbusting.Michael Hobbes is a journalist and co-host of the podcast Maintenance Phase. He previously was a reporter at The Huffington Post and co-host of the podcast You're Wrong About.
Ashlee and Daniel discuss the August LOVEland Cookbook Group title: I Dream of Dinner (so You Don't Have To) by Ali Slagle. They also give a sneak peak of the season two LOVEland Cookbook Group titles, and Ashlee shares some culinary newsletters that she has been following. Newsletters: Andrew Janjigian's Wordloaf Grace Kelly's The Messy Kitchen Debora Robertson's Lickedpoon Dorie Greenspan's xoxo Dorie Aubrey Gordon and Michael Hobbes's podcast on the junk science of health and wellness fads can be found here. Books Mentioned: What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubrey Gordon People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry More books by David Herbert Donald Music: Joy Jumping by Richard Myhill
Odds are, you're probably not going to be kidnapped and sold into sex trafficking in a Target parking lot in broad daylight. On the fantastic podcast You're Wrong About, Michael Hobbes and Sarah Marshall debunk the thinking that leads to moral panics. Michael explains what we're all getting wrong about trafficking and why it matters. Listen to You're Wrong About: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/human-trafficking/id1380008439?i=1000465289965 Want to support the show? (thank you!) Subscribe, tell a friend, leave a review, or buy some merch at There Are No Girls on the Internet's store: TANGOTI.COM/STORE Join our newsletter: Tangoti.com/newsletter Say hello at hello@tangoti.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The reason people are angry at thin women is because they hate fat. Yes, of course, we should not be yelling at skinny people. But it’s important to hold that together with, when those jokes get made, they’re actually anti-fat jokes. They’re not anti-thin jokes.You’re listening to Burnt Toast! This is the podcast where we talk about diet culture, fatphobia, parenting, and health.Today we are doing another Ask Me Anything episode! Corinne Fay is back by popular demand, and we’re both answering a whole bunch of your questions. We intended this one to be writing-themed but we ended up talking about houseplants a lot. You’re welcome. If you enjoy this episode, please subscribe, rate and review us in your podcast player! It’s free and a great way to help more folks find the show. Of course, the other best way to support the show is with a paid subscription. And as we wrap up June and Burnt Toast’s one year anniversary, I’m giving you a week to take a permanent 20 percent off your subscription price! That gets it down to just $4/month or $40 for the year ($3.33/month, the cheapest this ever gets). Yes, you can both get this discount AND enter the Burnt Toast Book Giveaway. Sometimes life rewards procrastinators. Also: I’m always happy to offer comp subscriptions if paying isn’t feasible for you. And you can still enter the giveaway by completing our reader survey!PS. If you’ve already done the survey or gotten/renewed a subscription and aren’t sure you entered the giveaway, please fill out this form. And keep sending in your questions for Virginia’s Office Hours! If you have a question about navigating diet culture and anti-fat bias that you’d like to talk through with me, or if you just want to rant about a shitty diet with me, you can submit your question/topic here. I’ll pick one person to join me on the bonus episode so we can hash it out together.Episode 49 TranscriptVirginiaAll right, we’ve got a whole big list of questions we’re gonna work through. Where do you want to start?CorinneThe first question is: How did you get started as a writer?VirginiaI have written about this before, so here is one of the early episodes of the podcast where I give the whole story. I was an English and creative writing major in college. I went to school in New York, so I did a bunch of free internships at magazines. My first job out of college was as an editorial assistant at Seventeen magazine. That is where I got my start writing, so a lot of “get your best bikini body” stories and prom bodies. Lots of event-based bodies in the teen magazine world. We did also do some really good health reporting. I remember doing a big story about vaginas. A misconception about women’s media is that everyone who works there hates women, when it’s actually mostly run by feminists who are up against advertising and always caught in that vortex. So, I learned a ton. There was a lot of very good journalism happening there, but always under this umbrella of how do we sell beauty products and clothes to teenage girls. From there I went to another women’s magazine and then in 2005, I went freelance and that’s what I’ve been doing ever since. Okay the next question is for you! How and why did Corinne start @SellTradePlus? It is such a unique community and vision. CorinneI started @selltradeplus in 2018. I started it because I was addicted to looking at other buy/sell/trade accounts on Instagram and was never seeing my size. I just thought, if I were going to a used clothing store, I would just go to the section that was my size. So why not just make a size-based Buy Sell Trade account? And that’s kind of how it got started. And then I really liked the people that I was meeting. And I think it’s turned into a bit more of a community.VirginiaIt is a lovely community. You’re very good at community building. Corinne Thank you. VirginiaI hear a lot of Corinne love from people who find my work through you.CorinneThat’s so nice. VirginiaAs well they should be. And we will also link back to the first time you were on the podcast, because you kind of told your whole origin story in more detail there, too. So folks can catch up there. And you do those weekly discussion posts where people chat about all sorts of different things. It is much more than just the clothes, although the clothes are excellent. CorinneIt’s a fun place to be. Okay, the next question is: Can you share a little bit about your own progression from dieting to anti-diet mentality? VirginiaI think we should both answer this one, if you’re up for it. So, as I mentioned, I started in women’s magazines and wrote a lot of shitty diet stories. Very much in the diet world, while also feeling conflicted about it and rationalizing many of those stories to myself. Like, “this one’s not really a diet, it’s just about portion control.” Or, you know, “this one’s not really a diet, it’s eating the way Michael Pollan told you to eat, so that’s fine,” etc, etc, and increasingly getting frustrated about that. But not really understanding a different way to think about food. The turning point in my story is around the time my first daughter was born, and she was born with a rare congenital heart condition that required her to be on a feeding tube. We spent two years helping her learn to eat again, so it was like the reverse of dieting. I was grasping for all these external rules, wanting someone to tell me how to do this, how to get eating right for her, and then increasingly realizing there were no rules. There was nobody who could fix it. We had to get her back to a safe place with food by helping her learn to trust her body again. And that started to connect a lot of dots for me about the way I had been eating over the years and not trusting my body. Diet culture separates all of us from being able to trust ourselves. That was my big, “okay, I’m done with this,” moment, even though it wasn’t like one moment. I mean, it was a long process. I can remember when she was around 18 months old, saying something shitty about my body and having her repeat it back to me, and then thinking like, Well, okay, I’m done with that now. This kid has fought too hard to feel safe in her body. I’m not going to be the one to screw it up for her. CorinneThat’s a lot of pressure. VirginiaIt is, but it also made it so clear. Do you know what I mean? This is one of those things that in a way I sort of hate, being like, “becoming a mother liberated me from diet culture,” because it feels like, honestly, sort of a b******t narrative. I hate when we credit motherhood with being this mystical thing. It’s honestly mostly just diapers. It’s not that glamorous. But it is true that it is often easier to do things for other people than it is to do them for ourselves. And since I had this very clear goal of not wanting to pass this on to her, it was like failure is no longer an option, in that sense. CorinneThat makes sense.I feel like I don’t have a good answer. I’m not a mom and I think it hasn’t always been just like a linear progression for me. I’ve wavered back and forth, and I think I also, even from a younger age, had kind of an oppositional personality where I was always just kind of like, “Screw anyone who’s telling me what to do.” There was a long time where I went back and forth between being on one hand, f**k diets or whatever anyone else is telling me to do, and on the other hand, thinking the only way I can be happy is by losing weight. I wish I had a moment when I was just like, I’m done. But I mean, I think eventually it just is exhausting and you’re tired of it.VirginiaYou realize how much mental energy it takes, and physical energy. And it’s like, other things are more interesting? I think everyone can relate to it not being linear. I mean, mine wasn’t linear. I thought I was fully out of diet culture and in 2015, I wrote a story about detox diets where I went on a detox diet for a month to write the story. And at the time, I would have been like, No, I’m not dieting anymore. I’m very much out of diet culture now. And I reread the article recently, it was like…CorinneIt’s very easy to get sucked back in. VirginiaYeah, it really is. CorinneThey’re always finding new ways to get you.VirginiaThey really are. They’re very good at that. I understand why this person asked that question because getting to the anti-diet mentality feels like a goal and it is because there’s obviously a lot of benefits that come with it. Like, you are not obsessing about food and beating yourself up when you eat and that’s really lovely. But I am almost wary of framing it as a goal to work towards because that can be a sort of parallel dieting experience. Do you know what I mean?CorinneYeah, that’s a good point. I don’t think it feels like you ever get to a point where you’re just like, “now I’m at peace forever.” I still am sometimes like, “oh, I don’t want to deal with airplane seats.”VirginiaIt’s maybe more like getting to a place where you can more quickly recognize the pattern of, “Oh, I am responding to this larger cultural situation. It’s not my fault.” Being able to place the blame where it belongs is in some ways more the goal, if we’re going to talk about it as a goal.CorinneSo that the next question is: Is there a balance between slamming the thin ideal, but inadvertently slamming, less fat, slender-ish, petite bodied people as crappy?VirginiaThis is a very interesting question. It does remind me of the column we did where the question was, “what if I just don’t want to be fat?” I think there’s often something that comes up for less fat, slender-ish, petite-bodied people, when they start to hear us pushing back against the thin ideal, and they take it really personally. I’ve interviewed lots of women in thin bodies who talk about the constant shaming they get for being thin. And this is a real thing, right? People will say to a thin woman, like, “I hate you. You’re so skinny,” or “How can you eat whatever you want and never gain weight? Oh, my God, I’m so angry.” They get a lot of hostility for their thinness. But, the hostility is rooted in anti-fat bias. The reason people are angry at the thin woman is because they hate fat. Like, yes, of course, we should not be yelling at skinny people, but I think it’s really important to hold that when those jokes get made, they’re actually anti-fat jokes. They’re not anti-thin jokes. So in terms of finding this balance, personal attacks help nobody, but it is fine to be critical of the thin ideal that is oppressive to all of us, and particularly oppressive to people in larger bodies. In doing that, you are not causing harm to thin people. CorinneThe next question is part two of the previous question: Is there a balance of accepting nutrition or GI research as beneficial and informative and slamming probiotic supplements, foods, and quick convenience powders?VirginiaOkay, so I would flip this. As it currently stands, nutritional research is not terribly beneficial or informative for individuals. In part because it tends to be very poorly done. Most nutrition studies rely on people self reporting. People are really bad at self-reporting what they ate. A lot of nutritional research will do stuff like study what broccoli does if we feed it in huge quantities to a rat, and you’re not a rat who eats huge quantities of broccoli, so the fact that it prevented cancer in that rat is not applicable to your life. There is a lot about nutritional science that is useful to nutrition scientists. But it gets reported on and marketed and communicated to the public as if we should be living by these lessons. It gets turned into best selling diet books. And then when you look at the source material, it’s like, this was a study on 30 people and we didn’t follow them very long. We didn’t ask them the right questions and it was only men, or something like that. There are all these limitations to the research. So I think that it’s really good to be critical and curious about nutritional science and to realize that it often doesn’t have a big place in your life. At the same time, I’m much more forgiving of people finding a quick convenience protein powder as an efficient way to have breakfast in the morning. In my house, we have protein powder in smoothies every morning because my kids are both cautious eaters and they like it. It’s a useful way of making sure they get like a good amount of energy for the day, if they want to otherwise live on, you know, carpet lint, and Tic Tacs or whatever. I will certainly be critical of the marketing hype that these products come with. I don’t love when they’re claiming to be super foods, and everyone’s heard my rant on Athletic Greens. But if your take is, “These Clif Bars are so helpful to keep in my bag because I work an eight hour shift and I don’t get a lunch break and I can eat one and not starve,” that’s great. When I say let’s not shame foods, I mean all of the foods. We don’t have to shame any of the foods. But you don’t have to buy into the hype around these foods. You don’t have to buy into the claim that they should replace other foods in your diet or anything like that.CorinneThat seems like a good distinction. Okay. The next one is a parenting question: How do you deal with judgment from health care providers who disagree with choices you make, i.e. breastfeeding past one year, not doing cry it out. So, not harmful choices, but choices that may fall outside the mainstream.VirginiaI almost didn’t answer this question because I did not breastfeed past five months and I definitely did cry it out. So, I’m not judging your choices, but I am someone who can only offer the other side of this. But, if you only breastfeed your baby for four to five months, you’re gonna get judgment for not doing it long enough. So, I do know what you mean in terms of making a choice that’s different from “gold standard” advice about parenting. I think it’s so hard with your first because you don’t know what the hell you’re doing and it’s very easy to feel super unnerved by it all. I think that confidence is something that just comes with time. The more you parent your own kids and see what works for them, you feel more comfortable saying, “that best practice doesn’t actually apply to our life in any way.” Where I do certainly relate is the advice on kids below two should have zero added sugar. I mean, what? That’s not useful, it’s not realistic. If your kids are eating food at daycare, if they have an older sibling who gets given a cupcake, you’re of course going to let your toddler or your baby have some sugar. And they’re going to be great and suffer no consequences from it. So, certainly around nutrition is a piece where I find myself often making the “unpopular” decision with a healthcare provider. We can link to that episode Sara Louise Peterson and I did on gentle parenting. We went a lot deeper into this. Because it’s not just healthcare providers, it’s also social media and mom friends and mom groups on Facebook that can get like really weird and dogmatic fast. All those places where they tend to present parenting in a binary state, that you’re either doing it right or you’re doing it wrong. And anyone who’s actually spent any time with a kid knows that you’re always doing it a little bit wrong, but it’s fine. That’s the best we can do on any given day.CorinneMan, I do not envy parents.VirginiaIt’s real fun to be doing something that requires you to be regularly sleep deprived and hungry at odd hours.CorinneAnd always slightly failing. VirginiaI do have one quick story. So, my four year old has been home sick like every week for the past month with some nonsense because ever since we took masks out of schools, the kids are getting all of the diseases they didn’t get for the last two years. Last week she was home for three days straight. It was the third week in a row with this really bad cough. We’ve tested and tested and it’s not COVID. So by the end of the third day, I was like, we’ve got to get out of the house. We’ve got to go do something. It’s a beautiful day. She’s been watching TV for three days straight because Dan and I have to work and she’s here. So, we pick up her older sister. We go to get ice cream and we’re down by the river. It’s a beautiful afternoon. I’m feeling so successful. Like, I got both kids out. We’re getting ice cream. How lovely. She inhales her ice cream, spills it all the way down herself, and then gets a coughing fit and throws up her ice cream all over herself and the park bench and multiple other surfaces. And I was just like, why do I try? There was an older woman on the park bench next to us, dramatically turning her head to the side. Literally like, “I can’t look at you, this is so revolting.” And then another mom from school and her kids were a little further down. Here’s my kid starting to gag and she’s like, “Do you need help?” And I’m just like, what help can you even offer?CorinneOh my God. VirginiaSo there’s quite an audience for this whole experience. The parenting win there is that I had remembered to bring baby wipes. I was so f*****g proud of myself because we’re past the stage where we need baby wipes all the time so I don’t always think to have them. But I went through a pile of baby wipes. I got a bottle of water, I was cleaning puke off the sidewalk and off this park bench. And then, I want to get her back in the car, but I don’t want her to puke again. So I’m like, “Okay, guys, why don’t you just play while we make sure she’s done puking?” And other people are clearly like, WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE? There was a lot of judgment. CorinneI am so sorry. VirginiaIt was fine. I was rage texting Dan while I’m cleaning puke off the park bench. But once you’ve survived your first—I mean, it’s not even my first, it’s probably like my dozenth—public vomiting, it’s like whatever! They can think what they want. Unless you’re the one here cleaning the puke off the park bench, you don’t get to judge. I’m sorry for that disgusting story. We can move on.CorinneNo, I love it. Well, this is also kind of a tangent, but where does that advice about not giving kids sugar before two years come from? VirginiaOh, I think it’s the American Heart Association.CorinneIs that based on facts? VirginiaWe should do a deep dive on this. CorinneOr is this where we’re like take nutritional studies with a grain of salt. VirginiaYes, I think it’s definitely that. I would have to look into the source material on this, but based on where some of these other guidelines have come from, my guess is they’re taking a large-scale study and they’re finding a small correlation of kids who ate less sugar had lower rates of X, Y, and Z health conditions later on. So, it is correlation, not causation, right? Because you cannot prove a negative. You can’t prove that not eating sugar prevented it. All you can say is some households feed their kids more sugar than others and those households correlate to these other conditions. But what else might be contributing to that? Like, if you’re a low-income family, and McDonald’s is a really reasonable way for you to get calories in your kid, your kid is consuming more sugar than the Whole Foods mom’s kid has consumed.The other thing that research doesn’t tell us is the harm caused by restricting sugar. It may be that you could even prove a causal link between kids who eat less sugar and future heart disease risk, but you may also be able to prove a causal link between kids who eat less sugar and kids who have eating disorders. And if I’m worrying about my kid’s mortality, kids are more likely to die of eating disorders than they are of heart disease. So, if we’re really gonna get serious about health risks, we have to consider all aspects. Being restrictive around sugar leads to kids who fixate on sugar. We see this over and over. We’ve seen this in experimental studies that are really well done. So we know that that is just not practical advice for parents.CorinneWell, too bad it’s not practical, because it’s everywhere.VirginiaYep, they’re still gonna make you feel bad about not doing it.CorinneAll right. Let’s move on to our favorite topic! What’s your favorite house plant? And how do you keep it alive?VirginiaI mean, I cannot pick a favorite house plant, people. It’s is really hard.CorinneOkay, do you have a least favorite? VirginiaOh, that’s a good question. CorinneI have a least favorite. VirginiaLet me think. Okay, what’s your least favorite? Because I’m thinking…CorinneMother of Thousands? It’s the one that makes a million babies and I hate it. I literally just threw it away because I was like, I can’t. Too prolific.VirginiaIt is very prolific. I have one of those that my stepdad brought back from a trip. My mother was like, “please take this thing out of my house.” Because they can get really tall, too. They’re quite enormous. CorinneIt’s messy. I don’t want to be just throwing away all these little things all the time. VirginiaYeah, you actually don’t need thousands of that one plant. CorinneI don’t even want one. Virginia I have it in a very small pot, so I think I’m containing it a little bit. One plant that I am frustrated by, because I love it, but I’m having trouble with is my string of bananas. I’m doing really well with a string of pearls. String of bananas is similar to string of pearls, but instead of little pearls, they are shaped like little bananas. They’re just so finicky! If you overwater them, they don’t like it, but they do want some water and so we’re kind of in a little love/hate relationship where I’m like, I really like you but you don’t seem happy here. Is it me? We’re trying to work it out. One of my favorite houseplants is my polka dot leaf begonia. She’s just really lovely. And also a little high maintenance but I get it, you’re very pretty, you’re loud. I’ve got her in a good spot and she’s doing well. They’re really, really cool. Any of the fancy leaf begonias are pretty cool if you have the right conditions for them.CorinneDo you have a fiddle leaf fig?VirginiaOh God no. I’ve killed two, if not three, fiddle leaf figs.CorinneI killed one and I was like, that’s enough.VirginiaYeah, because they’re expensive if you buy a big one. I don’t think I have the right conditions in my house for a fiddle leaf fig because we have only have one south facing room and I don’t have space in there to get another giant plant in. I don’t know, figs are so hard. They’re the hardest.CorinneThey seem like they’re always just slowly dying.VirginiaYeah, and they look so gorgeous when they’re working and then they’ll just drop all their leaves. And then they are just a stick. I had one that was just a stick for a year. I kept hoping it would come back. I feel like if you like a big leaf plant like that, which of course I love big leaf plants, like you can do a Monstera. That’ll get just as giant for you. I have a Dieffenbachia that’s got pretty big leaves. And Elephant’s Ear. Elephant Ears can be a little finicky in the winter but they’re worth it. There are other options. You don’t have to fall for the fiddle leaf fig, is what I’m saying.CorinneThe next question is: What does work life balance look like for you right now? And what do you wish was different?VirginiaI was thinking about this because last month there was a question about how I get time for myself and I realized I forgot to share in that question that one of the main things I do is wake up really early. The rest of my family sleeps till like 7:30 and I get up at five and I have time to myself then. When my work life balance is not great, I get up at five and I work before my kids are awake for two hours. And since I’m finishing my book right now, a lot of my early morning time is working. So, when I’m done writing this book, I will get that chunk of morning time back, and then I really like to go out in the summer and be in the garden during that time, or read, or just not be talked to by my family. In terms of general work/life balance: I love my family very much, but I am the only member of my family (of origin) who doesn’t work weekends. And it’s a really big accomplishment for me to be breaking the generations of workaholism, in that sense. My sister is an urban education high school teacher. It’s really hard not to work nights and weekends with that job. My dad and my stepmom are college professors. Working on weekends is what I grew up with. And I totally get it and I didn’t want it. So I’m very proud that I don’t work weekends, for the most part. What about you, you’re kind of going through a big transition right now. Do you want to talk about that?CorinneSure. I don’t know what my work life balance is gonna look like. I just left my full-time job and I’m focusing some time and energy on @selltradeplus and Burnt Toast and some other freelance-y things. I’m very much figuring it out and I’m trying to have a little break where I’m just spending less time on my phone, hopefully. VirginiaYeah, because you have been working weekends, as I know, because you often do Burnt Toast work on the weekends. You have been doing a lot.Corinne Yes, for a long time my schedule was do @selltradeplus before work, go to work for eight hours, do @selltradeplus after work, do Burnt Toast on the weekends. So, just trying to shift that a little bit!VirginiaI think we all want you to have more downtime. I’m really a big fan of changing that. CorinneThis past week has been my first week without going into my job and I have felt really weird. Just, it’s really weird not having like coworkers. But yeah, I’m sure I’ll adjust.Alright. This is kind of a follow up question: Could you talk about finding time to write with young children? Especially making mental space for it. Young children being under four.VirginiaWell, so, as I said, getting up at five in the morning. I realize it’s the least sexy advice ever. Something about having kids broke me and made me a morning person. I also go to bed at like 8:30 at night now. I just became my mother immediately when I had kids and got on that schedule. Obviously, if you are wired differently, you could make it a nighttime writing time. I know lots of folks who do that. Once the kids go to bed, that’s when they get time. I’m assuming with this question, this is not your full-time job. Because I do want to acknowledge the privilege of, I was already a full-time professional writer before my children came on the scene. I was making a full-time income from it, therefore it had to continue because it was bringing in 50 percent of my household income. We’ve had daycare or a nanny, or now they’re in school, but we’ve had childcare built into our lives from the time they were really little, because it was necessary for both of us to work. Of course, COVID made that very different because then they were home all the time. The hardest point for me is the days I pick them up from school and have them in the late afternoons. Because young children are terrible in the late afternoons, they’re really grumpy and need snacks. That’s why the ice cream seemed like such a good idea at the time, before it ended in puke. And my brain is still really in my work at that point, like I don’t have a transition. This is where I can understand having a commute must be nice, because you have thirty minutes in the car to transition out. So, often I’m parenting and still looking at my phone to check work emails or I’ll think of something and want to make notes. It’s really hard, having half attention for both. My advice is, whenever you can, even if it’s not a lot of time, carve out whatever time you can separate and protect that ruthlessly as your writing time. Even if it’s a couple hours a week when you can get a babysitter. Don’t try to do the half in both worlds thing because I think that’s where the burnout really comes.CorinneThe next question is: Recommendations for a new homeowner to learn about gardening? VirginiaThis is a fun one. This came from Instagram because I’ve been sharing incessant garden pictures because this is the best time of year for my garden. So you’re just going see it constantly, at the moment. If you are on the East Coast, and you want to be a gardener, my number one tip is the blog A Way to Garden by Margaret Roach. She gardens here in the Hudson Valley. She was a garden editor for Martha Stewart a long time ago and has the most exquisite garden in the world. She’s a genius. She has a wonderful podcast. She knows just everything about everything. And the website is like a treasure trove of what kind of mulch to get, how to use mulch, how to start seeds, how to think about design, all of these different things. So that would be my first step. I think it’s probably useful even for people in other gardening zones, like the specific plants change if you’re in the Southwest, like Corinne, or on the west coast. But a lot of the principles are the same. Otherwise, what I did with our second house that was more useful, was I did spend some time making a master plan of all the different little areas. Like, this is where eventually a fire pit might go. This is where a shade garden could go or whatever. And then like, just tackle one of those projects per year instead of trying to do it all at once. So we’re now five years into what is probably a ten year list of projects, but I’m more realistic about what we can get done. The other tip I will give if you are a new homeowner and this is your first season in your house: Don’t do much this year, because you haven’t lived there through a whole growing season. You don’t even know what you have, where the light is, what your soil is like. So even though you want to get going and there’s stuff you want to change, like, just take a break. Get some containers and pot some stuff up and put it on your porch instead. Because doing too much before you really understand your property, I think can lead to wasting money and effort. What about you, you’re starting to work on a garden now, right, Corinne? Corinne I have lived in my house for a couple years and that advice is definitely good. There’s still stuff I’m discovering, like, “Oh, there’s irises planted here, which makes no sense because they’re getting no water.” But yeah, someone definitely put a lot of like time and thought and care into my backyard. So, we’ll see. I’m hopefully going to start doing some more work. I’m very envious of your raised beds. I’m also curious if you’ve ever watched any Monty Don?VirginiaOh my god. We could do a whole Monty Don fan episode. CorinneOkay, great, because I was going to recommend Big Dreams, Small Spaces or Gardener’s World.VirginiaYes, Gardener’s World, for sure. I can’t believe I didn’t start there. He was my COVID survival strategy. My older daughter and I would watch it together in the evenings and make lots of plans. I love it so much.CorinneIt’s so soothing. VirginiaSo soothing. CorinneAlso less relevant for the Southwest, but still just great to watch.VirginiaI know. I’m interested that you like it because you’re gardening in such a different climate.CorinneI mean, I’m always like, “Maybe they’ll do an episode in the desert.” But yeah, I mean, I just think Monty Don is so lovely.VirginiaYes, and his dogs are so lovely.CorinneHe has great style. VirginiaOh, yes. My mom is British, so the reason I’m a gardener is because of my British DNA. Like, everyone in England gardens, pretty much. CorinneI mean, there’s a gardening celebrity.VirginiaLiterally one of their number one celebrities. My grandfather was a really intensive gardener, my aunt, both my cousins garden… It’s a big part of our family. And, yes, he’s the epitome of British gardening style. It makes me so happy. He’s always in a little cardigan and Wellington boots and it’s just delightful. Everything about it so good and there’s tons of really practical advice.CorinneYes. And tons of episodes if you need something to watch for hours.VirginiaYeah. They’ve been making that show for like a hundred years. Definitely recommend a Monty Don deep dive.CorinneOkay, here’s another fun one. What is your dream vacation?VirginiaThis is hard because since we’ve been travel-starved for so long and we’re just getting back to travel, I have such a long list. A dream vacation that I am waiting until my children are older to take is, I really want to do a very foodie trip in Italy. I did a trip like that when I was in my 20s and it was amazing. It’s the kind of trip I want to recreate with my kids, but I want them to be more fun to eat with first. Because right now, going out to restaurants is still hard with my four year old. And the fact that Italians eat dinner at 10 o’clock at night, all of that would be tricky right now. So we’ll get there. That’s a big one. I also have never been to Greece and that’s been on my list forever. What about you?CorinneI would love to go to Italy and Greece. The one that comes to mind for me, which is kind of a never-gonna-happen one, I think. But have you heard of Amangiri?VirginiaNo. What is it?CorinneIt’s a crazy resort, I think it’s in Utah. It just it’s like it looks very beautiful. Like it’s just like this kind of stark…VirginiaI’m googling.CorinneIt just looks beautiful and incredibly serene. I feel like celebrities always go there. I know one time I tried to guess how much it was, and I was like, maybe like $500 a night? Like thinking that was like wild. It’s so much more than that.VirginiaNo, it’s so much more than that. I’m on their website now, I can confirm it’s definitely going to be more than $500. CorinneBut it looks awesome, right? It just seems fun to go there and like turn off your phone for a week. It’s also on an incredibly large, like hundreds of acres, property where you can hike around and stuff. VirginiaOh my gosh, this looks beautiful. This is a good fantasy one. Speaking of completely over the top hotel fantasies, I’m so mad at Highlights Magazine for this. Highlights Magazine had an article that was like cool hotels, which, like, why?CorinneWhat? For kids? That makes no sense. VirginiaIt was supposed to be hotels that would be like very kid friendly. So there was like a Disney one, which whatever. But then there was one in, I want to say, I think it was in Bali? And it’s literally under the ocean. So it’s like the bedroom was like a giant aquarium basically. I will find it and link it.CorinneThat sounds incredible. VirginiaAnd it’s $10,000 a night.CorinneAnd now your daughter’s like, “Please? For my birthday?”VirginiaAnd I couldn’t stop laughing and she was like, is that a lot of money? She’s a kid, she doesn’t get money. She’s like, “What do you think? Are you saying we don’t have $10,000?” I’m like, “We’re not gonna spend it on that!!”[Virginia’s Note: After we recorded Corinne did find this underwater hotel room for the comparatively bargain price of $1840 per night. I’m still not taking my 8-year-old!]CorinneYeah, that’s very reasonable. Okay, what about favorite podcasts?VirginiaWe have to give Maintenance Phase a shout out. Obviously, if you’re looking for anti-diet content and you’re listening to us and not Maintenance Phase, you did that backwards because you should have started there. They do excellent work, Aubrey gordon and Michael Hobbes. That’s a big one that I never miss. I’m also really into Everything Is Fine with Kim France and Jennifer Romolini. It is a podcast for women over 40, which I admit just hearing that tagline I was like, fine, put us in a box. But it’s so good. They’re both former women’s magazine people. Kim France was the editor in chief of Lucky magazine during like Conde Nast’s big towncar heyday years. They’re very funny and smart. They did a great episode on Roe. They have really interesting authors on and the chitchat between the two of them is really good. It’s a great listen. And not just for women over 40, I feel like anyone could enjoy it. What about you?CorinneI’m really into this astrology podcast, Ghost of a Podcast. So if you’re into the woo side of things, I recommend that. I also love Reply All, which I know is very popular. I’m sure everyone’s listening to that. VirginiaThat’s a good one. CorinneThe last question is, what’s the most destructive health or diet culture message you’ve received?VirginiaI think one message that has taken me personally the longest time to work through was the message that exercise is only for weight management. When I was a kid, I was a skinny kid, and I hated sports and hated moving my body. I was an indoor cat, for sure. I just wanted to read and play pretend and not be physical. And it was fine because I was skinny, right? But that meant that then when I was no longer skinny, I felt like this obligation to exercise to get back to my thinness, which did not work. I had a pretty disordered relationship with exercise in my 20’s. No one ever said, maybe you would love moving your body for other reasons, right? There was no option on the table to enjoy exercise or just joyful movement, whatever you want to call it, on its own terms or for its own pleasures. So it has taken me most of my 30’s to really get to a place where I do notice implicit benefits to exercise that are not related to body size. I want to do it when I wake up in the morning. I feel joy when I do it. And I don’t even have that all the time still, you know? There was a long time where I really couldn’t do any cardio because it was too triggering. What about you?CorinneWell, that’s a really good answer. I think for me it would be that the path to happiness is thinness. Like, don’t you just want to be happy? Stuff like that, I guess.VirginiaLike feeling like your life needs to be on hold until you lose weight?CorinneAnd also just that being thinner will make you happier. That has not been the correlation in my life. VirginiaNo, it very often is not. I think that’s a really common and super insidious one. And it’s holding a lot of people back from just living their lives. Butter For Your Burnt ToastVirginiaAll right. Well, let’s bring us up. I realized when I ordered these questions, I picked a sad one to end on. “Let’s talk about terrible diet messages. Okay, goodbye!” No. We will bring it up now with Butter for your Burnt Toast. Corinne, last time you were on, you set a very high bar for yourself.CorinneI know I was actually struggling a little bit because I don’t think I can really live up to that.VirginiaI don’t think anyone ever can, so you can release yourself from that pressure.CorinneOkay. My endorsement is slightly related to what you were just saying, which is that sometimes, I’m just living my life and I get a feeling in my body of , I want to do something other than walk the dog and garden, which are like my usual exercise activities. I subscribe to a lot of Substacks, but one of my favorite is She’s a Beast, which is Casey Johnston’s newsletter about being strong and lifting weights. She recently started a couch-to-barbell program called Liftoff, so I decided that I would just look into it. I don’t have a good track record with finishing programs or following programs. But it’s divided into three phases and the first phase requires only your house and a broomstick. And there’s a YouTube video that you can follow along with and it takes less than 15 minutes, which is incredible!VirginiaOh my gosh!CorinneYou just do like six exercises maybe? And they’re all probably stuff you’ve done before. I love that it starts off like so simply and I don’t know if I’ll make it to phase two, but I’ve done phase one.VirginiaYou’re enjoying phase one. That’s awesome.CorinneI’ve done it six times or something. I just think it’s great. So I want to just recommend that program and also Casey’s newsletter which is about fitness-y stuff, but she definitely has an anti-diet lens.VirginiaYeah, very fat-positive, strong critiques of fitness culture which are really well done. I want to do this, too, now. You’re influencing me. This looks great. CorinneWell, let me know if you do.VirginiaI will. I am endlessly in physical therapy, as people know, because of my back and ankle. I’m trying to get out now, but I can’t. The other week I was like, “I feel like I’m done.” And she was like, “No, I feel like you’re in that place where you’re no longer in active pain but if you leave, you will re-injure yourself immediately.” And I was like “Touché.” But I am getting bored. For a while I was an A student with physical therapy and would do my exercises every morning and now I’m just losing interest. I need a new program, so I’m gonna check this out.CorinneYeah, it’s really so fun and easy to just follow a YouTube video. I just put it on and like put it on silent and listen to a podcast while I’m waving my little broomstick around.VirginiaSo, I am recommending an absurdly large water jug. A while back I posted on Instagram that I get migraines and I loosely tie getting migraines to the days when I drink only Diet Coke. This is not a criticism of Diet Coke, it’s necessary to my wellbeing, but I should drink water, too, to be a person. Sometime I want to do a reported piece on hydration culture. It’s a whole thing, for sure. However, I do need to drink water and I asked for recommendations and a couple of people recommended this. It is the Stanley GO IceFlow 64oz Stainless Steel Flip Straw Jug. It’s a beast. It’s enormousCorinneIs 64 ounces a gallon?VirginiaIt is a gallon. Yes.CorinneOkay, I also have a gallon water jug.VirginiaThis is maybe why we were destined to be friends. CorinneYours looks really good though.VirginiaI appreciate the size, but I have never once drunk 64 ounces in a day. I’ve had it for a couple weeks now, I have never once drunk 64 ounces in one day. Like, that’s just, I cannot drink that much water in a day. That’s a ridiculous amount of water. But what I love about it is, it is so well insulated that it stays cold all day long. I do not like drinking tepid water. That is not interesting to me. It was 90 degrees here all weekend. We were out at the pool. I was out gardening the whole day. And I would fill this thing up in the morning with a bunch of ice cubes and cart it outside with me. And last night at eight o’clock, I was like Dan, you have to drink this water. It’s so cold. And he was like, thank you for sharing with me that your water is cold. CorinneDo you have to like lift it over your head to drink it?VirginiaNo! You don’t have to lift it. It is not a barbell workout. You can just hold it up and tilt it a little bit to drink. I have been self conscious to drink out of it like on a Zoom. Because I don’t know, it’s so preposterous. I want to get their 20-ounce one, I feel like that might be more for daily use. But this is very useful for being outside when I’m out with my kids and like we all need water and they don’t have to carry multiple water bottles. CorinneIt looks sleek, too, at least.VirginiaI have the petal, the light pink.Well, Corinne, thank you so much for doing this again. This was really fun! Do you want to remind people where to find you once again?CorinneOh, sure. You can find me on Instagram at @selltradeplus that’s where I spend most of my time. And then my personal Instagram is @SelfieFay.Thanks so much for listening to Burnt Toast! Once again, if you’d like to support the show, please subscribe for free in your podcast player. Leave us a rating or review and tell a friend, maybe a mom friend, about this episode.And consider a paid subscription to the Burnt Toast newsletter. Until June 30, you can take 20 percent off and pay just $4 per month or $40 for the year! You get a ton of cool perks and you keep this an ad- and sponsor-free space.The Burnt Toast Podcast is produced and hosted by me, Virginia Sole-Smith. You can follow me on Instagram or Twitter.Burnt Toast transcripts and essays are edited and formatted by Corinne Fay, who runs @SellTradePlus, an Instagram account where you can buy and sell plus size clothing.The Burnt Toast logo is by Deanna Lowe.Our theme music is by Jeff Bailey and Chris Maxwell.Tommy Harron is our audio engineer.Thanks for listening and for supporting independent anti-diet journalism. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit virginiasolesmith.substack.com/subscribe
In the aftermath of the spectacle of the Depp and Heard trial, we needed to shine light on a perspective that goes against the mainstream views on the meaning and implications of the trial. We base the episode around the article by Michael Hobbes, co-host of the Maintenance Phase podcast, The Bleak Spectacle of the Amber Heard-Johnny Depp Trial. Content warning: SA, violence Sources: The Bleak Spectacle of the Amber Heard-Johnny Depp Trial Support the pod on Patreon www.patreon.com/itsbecomeawholething *Get an extra episode every Wednesday* Follow Sammy P: On Instagram @sammywholething Follow Emily Rose: @itsbecomeawholething on Instagram @itsbecomeawholething on Tiktok Book an Astrology Reading with Emily: 30 Minute Astrology Reading 60 Minute Astrology Reading
The B team is Back, Besties. Dr. J, Leeann & Tryce are dropping truth bombs. The following elements are contained within: Call outs! Cleaning house (literal)! Chaos! Cancellation! Huffing! Being a hero! Plus, ~The Letter~ from the Thursday show, Soft Swingers and more. Tryce's Pod Recs: -Just Between Us episode (6/8/22 "Good News with Upworthy's Alison Rosen, Not Feeling Heard and Gabby's Hatred of Comedy", feat. Alison Rosen) & -On the Media episode (6/2/22 "How the Media Failed Amber Heard", feat. Michael Hobbes)
This time, Daniel and Jack talk about Uvalde, Buffalo, the cops, guns, and the discourse. This episode is respectfully dedicated to the victims of these crimes and their families. Content Extremely Warnings Show Notes: Please consider donating to help us make the show and stay ad-free and independent. Patrons get exclusive access to at least one full extra episode a month plus all backer-only back-episodes. Daniel's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/danielharper Jack's Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4196618 IDSG Twitter: https://twitter.com/idsgpod Daniel's Twitter: @danieleharper Jack's Twitter: @_Jack_Graham_ IDSG on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i-dont-speak-german/id1449848509?ls=1 Episode Notes: Shannon Foley Martinez Patreon: Shannon Foley Martinez is creating a different tomorrow | Patreon Last Week Tonight: LastWeekTonight - YouTube Michael Hobbes on Depp vs. Heard: Cancel Me, Daddy: Deep Depp-ception (ft. Michael Hobbes) on Apple Podcasts The bleak spectacle of the Amber Heard-Johnny Depp trial (readthepresentage.com) Buffalo News, Authorities investigating if retired federal agent knew of Buffalo mass shooting plans in advance “These were like-minded people who used this chat group to talk about their shared interests in racial hatred, replacement theory and hatred of anyone who is Jewish, a person of color or not of European ancestry,” said one of the two law enforcement officials with close knowledge of the investigation. “What is especially upsetting is that these six people received advanced notice of the Buffalo shooting, about 30 minutes before it happened. “The FBI has verified that none of these people called law enforcement to warn them about the shooting. The FBI database shows no advance tips from anyone that this shooting was about to happen.” Agents from the FBI are in the process of tracking down and interviewing the six people, including the retired agent, and attempting to determine if any of them should be charged as accomplices, the two sources with close knowledge of the probe told The Buffalo News. 4plebs archive on Buffalo shooter and "Sandman" https://boards.4chan.org/pol/thread/379701704 5-4 podcast on Castle Rock v. Gonzalez. 01:47 Peter: Today's case is Castle Rock v. Gonzales, a case that features two of my least favorite things in the world, procedural technicalities and the brutal murder of innocent children. [laughter] 02:01 Michael: In no particular order are those two things, yeah. 02:06 Peter: This case is, I think maybe the most tragic and poignant in a long line of cases in the Supreme Court and in other courts that have allowed police officers and police departments to escape any legal responsibility, even in cases where their actions are grossly negligent and lead directly to the loss of human life. 02:25 Michael: Right. 02:25 Peter: The issue here, simplifying a little bit, is whether the police are liable under the 14th Amendment's, Due Process Clause, when they don't even attempt to enforce a restraining order involving a rather insane husband, shall we say? 02:40 Michael: Right. 02:42 Peter: We'll get into the semantics, but the real question is this, I think, "Do the police owe the public, anything at all?" [chuckle] And the Court thinks probably not. Ben Collins tweet about toothaches and Peyton Gendron. Buffalo News, Authorities investigating if retired federal agent knew of Buffalo mass shooting plans in advance “These were like-minded people who used this chat group to talk about their shared interests in racial hatred, replacement theory and hatred of anyone who is Jewish, a person of color or not of European ancestry,” said one of the two law enforcement officials with close knowledge of the investigation. “What is especially upsetting is that these six people received advanced notice of the Buffalo shooting, about 30 minutes before it happened. “The FBI has verified that none of these people called law enforcement to warn them about the shooting. The FBI database shows no advance tips from anyone that this shooting was about to happen.” Agents from the FBI are in the process of tracking down and interviewing the six people, including the retired agent, and attempting to determine if any of them should be charged as accomplices, the two sources with close knowledge of the probe told The Buffalo News. 4plebs archive on Buffalo shooter and "Sandman" https://boards.4chan.org/pol/thread/379701704 5-4 podcast on Castle Rock v. Gonzalez. 01:47 Peter: Today's case is Castle Rock v. Gonzales, a case that features two of my least favorite things in the world, procedural technicalities and the brutal murder of innocent children. [laughter] 02:01 Michael: In no particular order are those two things, yeah. 02:06 Peter: This case is, I think maybe the most tragic and poignant in a long line of cases in the Supreme Court and in other courts that have allowed police officers and police departments to escape any legal responsibility, even in cases where their actions are grossly negligent and lead directly to the loss of human life. 02:25 Michael: Right. 02:25 Peter: The issue here, simplifying a little bit, is whether the police are liable under the 14th Amendment's, Due Process Clause, when they don't even attempt to enforce a restraining order involving a rather insane husband, shall we say? 02:40 Michael: Right. 02:42 Peter: We'll get into the semantics, but the real question is this, I think, "Do the police owe the public, anything at all?" [chuckle] And the Court thinks probably not. Ben Collins tweet about toothaches and Peyton Gendron.
This Wednesday afternoon, in Fairfax County Circuit Court in Virginia, a jury awarded Johnny Depp $15 million in damages in libel suit against Amber Heard, and gave her $2 million in her countersuit against him. All this, over a December 2018 op-ed she wrote in The Washington Post describing herself as "a public figure representing domestic abuse." Depp's lawyers say he was defamed by the article even though it never mentioned his name. This case, argued over six weeks before a seven-person jury and judge, and a noisily expanding online audience, drove much of the internet crazy with guilty pleasure. Thus ensued a collective hurling of feces at Amber Heard, despite the evidence gathered meticulously in a 2020 British libel case also focused on Depp's spousal abuse. The only quarter of the media that seemed reluctant to engage in the facts of the case was the progressive press, or the liberal media. There you could find coverage of the social media chaos, but not the underlying reality. This bothered journalist Michael Hobbes, host of the podcast Maintenance Phase, who observed that usually reliable outlets tended to steer around the facts, and sold an already victimized woman down the river.
This Wednesday afternoon, in Fairfax County Circuit Court in Virginia, a jury awarded Johnny Depp $15 million in damages in libel suit against Amber Heard, and gave her $2 million in her countersuit against him. All this, over a December 2018 op-ed she wrote in The Washington Post describing herself as "a public figure representing domestic abuse." Depp's lawyers say he was defamed by the article even though it never mentioned his name. This case, argued over six weeks before a seven-person jury and judge, and a noisily expanding online audience, drove much of the internet crazy with guilty pleasure. Thus ensued a collective hurling of feces at Amber Heard, despite the evidence gathered meticulously in a 2020 British libel case also focused on Depp's spousal abuse. The only quarter of the media that seemed reluctant to engage in the facts of the case was the progressive press, or the liberal media. There you could find coverage of the social media chaos, but not the underlying reality. This bothered journalist Michael Hobbes, host of the podcast Maintenance Phase, who observed that usually reliable outlets tended to steer around the facts, and sold an already victimized woman down the river. On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.
This week Katelyn talks to Maintenance Phase co-host Michael Hobbes about the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial, the plethora of minformation around it and the social media fallout. Plus listeners submit a delightful collection of out of context cancellations and Katelyn tells Oliver a story about how an odd dream probably saved her life once.
***This is a preview of a short bonus episode just for Patreon supporters. Become a Patreon supporter of The War on Cars for ad-free access to this and all our exclusive content. Plus, we'll send you stickers!*** Michael Hobbes, a journalist and podcast host known for his work on Maintenance Phase and You're Wrong About, joined The War on Cars for episode 72 to discuss what bikelash has in common with moral panics. In this short bonus episode, hear a part of our conversation that was left on the cutting room floor. We cover everything from how newspaper headlines absolve drivers who hit vulnerable road users and offer some advice to people who are freaking out about the #BanCars slogan. TheWarOnCars.org
What does bikelash have in common with moral panics? Has Paris really descended into anarchy because of all the cyclists? Are e-bikes and scooters the biggest threats to pedestrians on the mean streets — and sidewalks — of New York? What happens when reporters misunderstand statistics and rely on anecdotes to paint a picture of an urban transportation landscape that's spinning out of control? To answer these questions and more, we're joined by journalist Michael Hobbes, the co-host of the podcasts Maintenance Phase and You're Wrong About. Michael explains what a moral panic is and helps us debunk some commonly held misconceptions about what happens when cities make streets for people, not cars. This episode is sponsored in part by Rad Power Bikes and Cleverhood. Support The War on Cars on Patreon and cool stickers, access to exclusive bonus content, merch discounts and more. SHOW NOTES: Subscribe to Confirm My Choices, the newsletter from Michael Hobbes. Listen to Maintenance Phase and You're Wrong About wherever you get your podcasts. Follow Michael Hobbes on Twitter. "As Bikers Throng the Streets, 'It's Like Paris Is in Anarchy'" (New York Times) "As E-Scooters and E-Bikes Proliferate, Safety Challenges Grow' (New York Times) "Cycle lanes, scooters and terraces — is Paris still safe for pedestrians?" (The Local) Get official War on Cars merch, including our new "CARS RUIN CITIES" sticker, at our store. Check out The War on Cars library at Bookshop.org. Follow and review us on iTunes! This episode was recorded by Josh Wilcox at the Brooklyn Podcasting Studio and edited by Ali Lemer. Our theme music is by Nathaniel Goodyear. Additional music by Michael Hearst. Our logo is by Dani Finkel of Crucial D. TheWarOnCars.org
To watch the rise of viral content is always an interesting exercise. From "Charlie bit my finger" to the "Lulz That Broke Wall Street," the internet is capable of elevating any story, meme, joke, or idea through the ranks of digital fame. This week, we unpack one story, and one question, that took twitter by storm: "Who is the Bad Art Friend?". The Robert Kolker piece from The New York Times Magazine proved digital catnip, but why? Brooke sits down with Michael Hobbes, journalist and host of the podcast Maintenance Phase, to discuss his review of the story, the Twitter storm, and why we're even talking about all this in the first place. On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.
Over the last couple of weeks we've taken on some of the battles in the ongoing culture war. The granddaddy of them all is cancel culture. Michael Hobbes, co-host of the podcast You're Wrong About, told us that there isn't a situation that has been labeled a cancellation that couldn't benefit from a more accurate word to describe what had happened. So and so was fired...such and such was met with disagreement on twitter. Cancel need not apply. He also explained on his own podcast with Sarah Marshall that there were a few pivotal events along the way that led to the term cancel culture becoming the moral panic that it is today. One of them was the 2015 release of Jon Ronson's book “So You've Been Publicly Shamed.” A series of case studies of people who were canceled before we started using that word. On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.
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