Podcast appearances and mentions of Nancy Rommelmann

Andrew Walworth, Tom Bevan, and Carl Cannon discuss the Supreme Court's decision to uphold a lower court ruling that says the Trump Administration must bring back Kilmar Abrego Garcia - the man they mistakenly deported to a prison in El Salvador, and the administration's response. Also, a look ahead to the 2028 midterm elections. Then, they talk about HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy's claim during a cabinet meeting that his agency will launch a massive research effort, and will report to the President what caused the recent increase in autism cases by September of this year. Also, a look at the group's choices for most outrageous political story of the week just past. Next, Carl Cannon talks to former Trump White House press secretary Sean Spicer about the president's handling of immigration, and the state of California politics today. And lastly, Andrew Walworth talks to RealClear Investigations contributor Nancy Rommelmann about her in-depth article about Joe Ziegler and Gary Shapley, the two IRS agents who for seven years were at the heart of the investigation of Hunter Biden's tax case. The article features the first in-depth interviews granted by the two, who have recently been hired by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to help reform the IRS.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.houseofstrauss.comAuthor/Podcaster Nancy Rommelmann stops by to discuss a myriad of subjects both morbid and inspiring. This is the week I am, out loud, sorting out the current cultural moment. Nancy, in all her wide ranging curiosity, is an ideal thought partner in this venture. Topics include but aren't limited to…* Freddie's “After Liberal Cultural Hegemony”* Last Boys at the Beginning of History* Will legacy magazines become interesting again?* What young men see in Trump* Meghan Markle's dry pie* Why Mark Halperin has the best political podcast * Cannibalism* Why do people do political violence?* Why is Nancy interested in violence as a writing topic?

We are said to be a fed-up nation pushed to the brink, and the result is political violence … or maybe just hack comedy. Also, Nancy Rommelmann joins us to discuss her latest book, 40 Bucks and a Dream: Stories from Los Angeles. She shares insights from her extensive journalism career, including her experience interviewing infamous serial killer John Wayne Gacy. And Trump's presidential library gets a healthy donation. Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara Email us at thegist@mikepesca.com To advertise on the show, visit: https://advertisecast.com/TheGist Subscribe to The Gist: https://subscribe.mikepesca.com/ Subscribe to The Gist Youtube Page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4_bh0wHgk2YfpKf4rg40_g Follow Mikes Substack at: Pesca Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nancy Rommelmann is an investigative journalist, columnist, and author - most recently of To the Bridge: A True Story of Motherhood and Murder. Her work appears in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Reason Magazine, and her Substack, Make More Pie.Sarah Hepola is the author of the bestselling memoir, Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, The Guardian, the Atlantic, Texas Monthly, and Salon. She is a staff writer at the Dallas Morning News.Together, Nancy & Sarah host the Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em Podcast.8. What Do Women Want? - Smoke 'Em  If You Got 'Em PodcastThe Things I'm Afraid to Write About, by Sarah Hepola for The AtlanticOn John Wayne Gacy, Actor Michael Chernus, and Why We Do the Work We Do - Make More Pie (Nancy's Substack)Was Alice Munro An Art Monster?, by Meghan DaumIf You Liked This Conversation, You'll Probably Like These Episodes of Where We Go Next:115: Spaceships, Silicon Valley, and Psilocybin, with Ashlee Vance110: The Mounting Evidence That COVID-19 Leaked from a Lab, with Alina Chan108: Investigative Journalism Is in Jeopardy, with Nancy Rommelmann105: Religious Cults, Fringe Science, and the Need for Belief, with Ross Blocher & Carrie Poppy104: The War for Critical Minerals and Our Electrified Future, with Ernest Scheyder101: Uncovering the Hidden Truths in Political Memoirs, with Carlos Lozada100: When Victimhood is Leveraged for Personal Gain, with Andrew Boryga91: Free Speech Isn't Just for People We Like, with Kat Rosenfield81: Mining Universal Truths From Personal Stories, with Sarah Hepola 65: Untangling Partisan Narratives and Fixing Political News, with Isaac Saul40: Great Writers Must Be Vulnerable in Public, with Andrew Sullivan33: The Struggle to Stay Heterodox in a Tribal World, with Meghan DaumFollow Nancy on X: @NancyRommFollow Sarah on X: @sarahhepolaFollow Sarah on Instagram: @thesarahhepolaexperience----------If you liked this episode, consider sharing it with someone you think might like it too.Email: michael@wherewegonext.comInstagram: @wwgnpodcast

Mike Pesca and Nancy Rommelmann sit down with Michael Moynihan and Batya Ungar-Sargon from The Free Press to react live to Kamala Harris' keynote speech at the DNC. They also get into the party's division over Israel. Head over to TheFP.com/LIVE to watch the conversation in full. Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara Email us at thegist@mikepesca.com To advertise on the show, visit: https://advertisecast.com/TheGist Subscribe to The Gist Subscribe: https://subscribe.mikepesca.com/ Follow Mikes Substack at: Pesca Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Writer and podcaster Sarah Hepola returns to The Unspeakable to talk about love, sex, #MeToo, Harvey Weinstein's overturned rape conviction, her new job at The Dallas Morning News, her book in progress, and why she thinks local reporting will lead the way out of the media abyss. GUEST BIO Sarah Hepola is a features staff writer at the Dallas Morning News, the cohost with Nancy Rommelmann of the Smoke ‘Em If You Got Em podcast and author of the 2015 best-selling memoir Blackout. She was also the host and creator of the Texas Monthly podcast "America's Girls," about the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. Read her work at the Dallas Morning News here. Listen to her podcast about the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, “America's Girls,” here. Want to hear the whole conversation? Upgrade your subscription here. HOUSEKEEPING ✈️ 2024 Unspeakeasy Retreats — See where we'll be in 2024! https://bit.ly/3Qnk92n

In this installment of Best Of The Gist, Mike and his first-born son Milo appeared on the Smoke Em If You Got Em podcast this past week. The two Pescas discussed toxic masculinity with the show's hosts Nancy Rommelmann and Sarah Hepola, and they graciously allowed us to play the interview in its near entirety on this weekend's Best Of show. Enjoy.    Produced by Joel Patterson and Corey Wara  Email us at thegist@mikepesca.com  To advertise on the show: https://advertisecast.com/TheGist  Subscribe to our ad-free and/or PescaPlus versions of The Gist: https://subscribe.mikepesca.com/  Follow Mike's Substack: Pesca Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nancy and Sarah are one-on-one today for a roving conversation that covers: Nancy's Portland story in a Nicholas Kristof NYT column about West Coast liberalism, a violation of privacy in the latest Free Beacon scoop, and revisiting the Gen X fever that was The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's Fire.Also discussed:* Civics Bee!* In defense of plastic straws …* Purple states = the place to be* Keeping the memory of Rachael Abraham alive* West Coast liberalism, so bad even Nicholas Kristof admits it* Who cares what BuzzMuffin43 says, anyway?* Hepped Up, the fragrance * No cameras in our bedrooms, please!* She-Pee, denied* Which Brat Packer turned out best? * That weird tension between Andrew McCarthy and Emilio Estevez* Journalist, meet your disgruntled subject* John Hughes and British synth-popPlus, an emergency cookie recipe, some Demi Moore goddess love, a new media podcast that's doing it right, and more!This episode is free for all so share it with your friends.Learn about the world long before the NYT reports it. Become a paid subscriber.Episode Notes:“What Have We Liberals Done to the West Coast,” by Nicholas Kristof (New York Times Opinion)“A Murder in Portland,” by Nancy Rommelmann (Washington Examiner)“Columbia Administrators Fire Off Hostile and Dismissive Text Messages, Vomit Emojis During Alumni Reunion Panel on Jewish Life,” by Eliana Johnson and Aaron Sibarium (Washington Free Beacon)”Hollywood's Brat Park,” by David Blum (New York Magazine, 1985)“I Called Them Brats, and I Stand By It,” by David Blum (Vulture)Stories I Only Tell My Friends: An Autobiography, by Rob Lowe, highly recommended on audio!What's in your hot box?Sarah:Nancy: Horror Movie: A Novel, by Paul TremblayGot 20 minutes and $2.99? Read The Queens of Montague Street, “journalist Nancy Rommelmann's memoir of growing up in Brooklyn Heights in the 1970s, and excerpted in the New York Times Magazine as the essay, ‘Dazed and Confused.'”Outro suggests itself: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com/subscribe

Nancy Rommelmann is an investigative journalist, columnist, and author. Her on-the-ground reporting includes covering the war in Ukraine, the fight over abortion rights in Kansas City, and Donald Trump's New York trial. Her work appears in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Reason Magazine, and elsewhere, and she posts on her Substack - titled “Make More Pie” about “Portland, New York, media, murder, culture, and pie - both literal and figurative.” She also co-hosts the Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em podcast with Sarah Hepola.Make More Pie - Nancy's SubstackSmoke 'Em If You Got 'Em Podcast - cohosted with Sarah HepolaBubba: A Cancel-Culture CasualtyDestruction and Hope in PortlandThe Last #MeToo: Part 1The Last #MeToo: Part 2The Slow Leave Taking: On Watching My Mother Slip AwayTo the Bridge: A True Story of Motherhood and MurderIf You Liked This Conversation, You'll Probably Like These Episodes of Where We Go Next:101: Uncovering the Hidden Truths in Political Memoirs, with Carlos Lozada95: The Government Is Seizing Innocent People's Property, with Billy Binion 91: Free Speech Isn't Just for People We Like, with Kat Rosenfield81: Mining Universal Truths From Personal Stories, with Sarah Hepola 65: Untangling Partisan Narratives and Fixing Political News, with Isaac Saul58: Making Andrew Yang a Household Name, with Zach Graumann45: Filming the News as It Happens, with Ford Fischer40: Great Writers Must Be Vulnerable in Public, with Andrew Sullivan6: Every News Story Is a Kind of Fiction, with Shaun CammackFollow Nancy on X: @NancyRomm----------If you liked this episode, consider sharing it with someone you think might like it too.Email: michael@wherewegonext.comInstagram: @wwgnpodcast

This week on Blocked and Reported, Katie is joined by journalist Nancy Rommelmann to discuss her trip to Alabama to discover the story behind the Bubba Copeland story. Plus, Nancy's cancellation origin story, and why is Portland so Portland?To the Bridge: A True Story of Motherhood and MurderNancy Rommelmann, Author at Reason.comControversial YouTube Show Lands Portland Coffee Company in Hot Water - The StrangerPortlandization: It Can Happen to a Place Near You - Tablet MagazineBubba Copeland | 1819 NewsAmerica's tragic war on LGBTQ+ people extends its collateral damage - Los Angeles TimesAlabama Mayor Bubba Copeland Kills Self After Right-Wing 1819 News Outs His Cross-DressingBubba Copeland Death: How His Outing and Right-Wing Media Brought Tragedy To hear more, visit www.blockedandreported.org

Writer, Substacker, and podcaster Nancy Rommelmann joins Noam to discuss being a defiantly un-woke female skeptical of #me-too accusations (even rape). https://substack.com/@UCng-b4AdOBk2UmAyDug3N7A https://substack.com/@smokeempodcast podcast@comedycellar.com

Writer, Substacker, and podcaster Nancy Rommelmann joins Noam to discuss being a defiantly un-woke female skeptical of #me-too accusations (even rape). https://substack.com/@UCng-b4AdOBk2UmAyDug3N7A https://substack.com/@smokeempodcast podcast@comedycellar.com

In this conversation, Karol interviews journalist Nancy Rommelmann about her experience of making friends and building a community in New York City. Nancy shares her secret to attracting people and creating a welcoming environment, which involves opening her home and cooking for others. She emphasizes the importance of human connection and the joy of bringing people together. Nancy also discusses her career as a writer and the challenges and rewards of being in the industry. The Karol Markowicz Show is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Monday & Thursday.Follow Clay & Buck on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/clayandbuckSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Karol interviews journalist Nancy Rommelmann about her experience of making friends and building a community in New York City. Nancy shares her secret to attracting people and creating a welcoming environment, which involves opening her home and cooking for others. She emphasizes the importance of human connection and the joy of bringing people together. Nancy also discusses her career as a writer and the challenges and rewards of being in the industry. The Karol Markowicz Show is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Monday & Thursday.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, we discuss the personal stories of two fallen IDF soldiers - Ahmad Abu Latif and Cedrick Garin. You can read more about Ahmad in this story from our friend Nancy Rommelmann, and see a video of both young men on our substack, askajew.substack.com.We also share stories and photos from a visit to the site of the Nova massacre and Kibbutz Kfar Aza, warning - it gets a little heavy. But fear not - we leave plenty of time to talk about a bunch of NYPD cops going out for kosher sushi, the pros and cons of herring, and a personality breakdown based on your favorite Ninja Turtle.Have a question? Send it to askajewpod@gmail.com   Joing the AAJ conversation on Susbtack! askajew.substack.comEmail us your questions askajewpod@gmail.com ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Want to help us grow? Rate and review us 5 stars on Apple podcasts and Spotify ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.houseofstrauss.comNancy Rommelmann is one of my favorite journalists, so I looked to her on the question of whether there are any actual rules in journalism. She did not disappoint. In this pod, we discussed Portland expert Nancy's live reaction to the Damian Lillard trade, her take on WaPo vs. Portnoy, and that “Has the Sexual Revolution Failed” debate down in Los Angeles. Topics in this podcast include by aren't limited to….* Aforementioned Lillard live reax* What Emily Heil did wrong when confronted by Dave Portnoy* How you handle the subject of a “hit piece” * How Nancy was denied comment when she was the subject of a hit piece* LA Times vs Bari Weiss' Sexual Revolution Debate* Nancy's take on the “Has the Sexual Revolution Failed?” question* Is the trans kids in sports topic a real subject? Or a boogeyman subject? * What's wrong with certain cities right now? And what's with the denial?

https://nancyrommelmann.substack.comhttps://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/31/health/portland-oregon-drugs.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleSharehttps://www.opb.org/article/2022/09/11/portland-freedom-fund-terrence-hayes-bipoc-low-income-defendants-post-bail/?outputType=amphttps://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/a-murder-in-portlandhttps://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1542048419/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr=https://www.wweek.com/news/2023/02/01/they-left-portland-is-losing-some-of-its-biggest-fans/https://x.com/rationalinpdx/status/1692876000915607672?s=46&t=wFu7yCZP1FJsCx-IyCH8hwhttps://x.com/rationalinpdx/status/1681908483648815105?s=46&t=wFu7yCZP1FJsCx-IyCH8hwhttps://www.wsj.com/articles/what-the-data-say-about-police-11592845959https://www.multco.us/multnomah-county/news/multnomah-county-board-approves-36-billion-spending-plan-2024

Fan favorite Sarah Hepola is back! Sarah has visited The Unspeakable to talk about everything from alcoholism to #MeToo to the changes in the media landscape and literary world. Today she returns to discuss a recent solo episode she recorded for Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em, the podcast she co-hosts with journalist Nancy Rommelmann. In that episode, Sarah reflected on a semester spent teaching literature and writing to college undergraduates in Dallas, Texas, where she lives. Contrary to public assumptions, the students turned out to be relatively open to new ideas and not hell-bent on canceling their teacher. In this conversation, Sarah talks about what literature the students responded most positively to, what assignments they didn't like (spoiler: Joan Didion) and what they taught her about the ever-changing English language. Sarah and Meghan also talk about writing memoir, the contradictory social codes of dating, and why little girls touch each other's hair so much—and why Meghan hated it!   Sarah stayed overtime for bonus content that was so good that Meghan decided to release it along with the main episode. In that portion, they talk about motherhood, non-motherhood, aging, dating, sex and pornography and why older women are so popular with young men on dating apps.    Guest Bio:   Sarah Hepola is the co-host, with Nancy Rommelmann, of the podcast Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em. She is the author of the bestselling memoir Blackout and her essays have appeared in the New York Times magazine, the Atlantic, Elle, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Guardian,  Salon, and Texas Monthly. Find her at https://sarahhepola.com.   Relevant links: https://smokeempodcast.substack.com/p/smoking-diary-16-college-kids-today#details   https://smokeempodcast.substack.com/p/on-not-being-a-mother  

In an attempt to overcome the trauma that developed after his recent visit to Portland, Jonah invites the prolific author and journalist Nancy Rommelmann onto the Remnant for the first time to explore how the city descended into something resembling Escape from New York. They discuss when Portland's decline began, whether it can fairly be compared to the New York of the 1970s and ‘80s, and whether these problems will be fixed anytime soon. And shockingly enough, no references to The Warriors are included.Show Notes:- Nancy's Substack, Make More Pie- Nancy's page at Reason- Nancy's podcast, Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em- Jonah: “A Pox Upon Portland”- Nancy: “The Dream of the ‘90s Died in Portland”- Nancy: “Is Portland the new Neverland?”- Nancy: “A Murder in Portland”- Nancy: “You're Not Allowed to Film”- Tom Wolfe: “The Great Relearning”- An exhibitionistic GLoP

A reading of "The Collateralists," by Nancy Rommelmann, published on Make More Pie Substack on January 18, 2023.Related: "A Murder in Portland," by Nancy Rommelmann, published in Washington Examiner Magazine on December 29, 2023."A Pox Upon Portland: Progressivism is Killing the City," by Jonah Goldberg, published in The Dispatch on January 20, 2023 

This week we talk to journalist, author, and podcaster Nancy Rommelmann about the perils of Portland and the sad case of Rachael Angel Abraham. Support the show

A reading of "The Reality Portland Does Not Want to See," by Nancy Rommelmann, published on her Substack, Make More Pie, on December 30, 2022.Related: "A Murder in Portland," by Nancy Rommelmann (Washington Examiner Magazine)"Good Luck, Portland," by Nancy Rommelmann (Tablet)Ask a Jew podcastThe Fifth Column podcast

A reading of "A Murder in Portland," by Nancy Rommelmann, published January 3, 2023 in Washington Examiner MagazineRelated: "The Reality Portland Does Not Want to See," by Nancy Rommelmann

We’re joined today by the journalist Nancy Rommelmann, whose shocking article, “A Murder in Portland,” exposes the nature of the existential threat posed to ordinary people by progressives committed to freeing criminals. Give a listen.

Find this and all chapters on Nancy Rommelmann's Substack, Make More Pie

Advisory: Today's conversation includes talk about a heinous murderer in the Chicago, Illinois area, and another case of murder in the Portland, Oregon area. In 1994, journalist Nancy Rommelmann accompanied Rick Gaez, a 26-year-old pen pal of John Wayne Gacy, on a road trip from Los Angeles to Illinois to visit the serial killer before his execution. Along the way, she took the moral temperature of people asking how they felt about Gacy and his being sentenced to death for the torture and murder of 33 young men and teenage boys. Her journey resulted in the publication of Destination Gacy: A Cross-Country Journey to Shake the Devil's Hand. In this episode of Policing Matters, host Jim Dudley chats with Rommelmann about her meeting and interview with one of America's most heinous serial killers.   This episode of Policing Matters is sponsored by Utility. Utility provides a universe of intuitive solutions for effectively capturing, analyzing, managing, and sharing video evidence. Technologies include a variety of cameras, sensors, and devices, as well as situational awareness software solutions for law enforcement, first responders, transportation agencies, and utility providers. To learn more about Utility and its technology solutions, visit utility.com. 

A reading of "'The Police Van Abductions': A Response," by Nancy Rommelmann, published on Substack on Oct. 20, 2022.

A reading of, "Men Without Work," by Nancy Rommelmann, published October 12, 2022 on Rommelmann's Substack, Make More Pie.Related: Men Without Work, by Nicholas Eberstadt"All the (Unemployed) Young Dudes" (The Fifth Column)"Men Are Very Necessary" (Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em)"Americans Are Losing Their Work Ethic," by Matt Welch (Reason)"Americans Are Losing Their Work Ethic" (audio) (Paloma Media podcast)"The Code of the Cop Bar," by Nancy Rommelmann (Make More Pie) 

A reading of "Punch Drunk" by Nancy Rommelmann, which first appeared on my Substack, Make More Pie.I am serializing "Forty Bucks and A Dream: Stories of Los Angeles" on Substack. New chapters drop Mondays. Below is the Table of Contents, with links to what's posted before. Please subscribe!PROLOGUEHungry TownSTARLETS1: Forty Bucks and a Dream: The lives of a Hollywood motel2: The Camera and the Audience3: Jena at 15: A childhood in Hollywood4: The Waxer5: The Biggest Dick in the WorldLEADING MEN6: Brown Dirt Cowboys: Meet your Mexican gardening crew7: Punch Drunk8: Us Versus Them: The code of the cop barLEADING LADIES9: Who She Took With Her: The husband, the son, the boyfriend… a drunk's tale10: Giving: the Hollywood way11: No Exit Plan: The lies and follies of Laura Albert, a.k.a., J.T. Leroy12: Porn for WomenBACKGROUND PLAYERS13: Sanctuary: Days and nights at the King Edward Saloon 14: Why Not to Write About the Supreme Master of the Universe: A day with the disciples of Ching Hai15: Playboy: The next generation16: J. Lo in the HouseCUT17: The Marrying Room18: Meet the Neighbors19: The Pathos of Failing20: Bite and Smile

A reading of "Hollywood's Immortal Sucking Machines: On the eternal rot in the movie Blonde," published Sept. 29, 2022 on Nancy Rommelmann's Substack, Make More Pie.See You Next Tuesday vlog, with Nancy Rommelmann and Matt Welch, (almost) every Tuesday at noon EST on the Paloma Media YouTube. Tune in live to heckle and bring your questions! 

The Crying Game, recorded 9/20/22. From the weekly See You Next Tuesday vlog, with Nancy Rommelmann and Matt Welch, (almost) every Tuesday at noon EST on the Paloma Media YouTube. Tune in live to heckle and bring yer questions! 

"Urban Blinders," recorded 9/27/22. From the weekly See You Next Tuesday vlog, with Nancy Rommelmann and Matt Welch, (almost) every Tuesday at noon EST on the Paloma Media YouTube. Tune in live to heckle and bring yer questions! 

Nancy Rommelmann was fortunate, through accident and the fog of war, to stay with Oksana Hutnyk and her family in Lviv, Ukraine this past March, two weeks after Russian forces invaded the country. Now, in mid-September, Oksana and her daughters, ages 13 and 7, have received special permission to leave Ukraine and visit America. First stop: Nancy's cramped apartment in NYC, where Oksana has a chance talk about why Ukraine banded together so quickly to fight Russia (hint: super-not interested to again live under a murderous Communist regime), why Ukrainian schoolchildren draw chalk pictures of "dead Putin," and what up with all the Boris Johnson adulation?Episode notes:"Dispatch from Ukraine: the Hutnyks of Lviv," by Nancy Rommelmann (Reason)  "Dispatch From Ukraine: Living as a Russian in Ukraine," by Nancy Rommelmann (Reason)"Dispatch From Ukraine: 'Let's Go. Let's Not Go.'" by Nancy Rommelmann (Reason) This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com/subscribe

A New Yorker employee slags the company for lack of diversity on Twitter, and things get messy from there. Nancy and Sarah try to untangle the strange case of Erin Overbey, who was fired by the magazine earlier this week, following accusations that editor-in-chief David Remnick inserted errors into her own work. Nancy looks at a few other recent cases where attempts to oust the higher-ups have backfired, and we talk about how so many attempts at instant justice turn into circular firing squads. Also on deck: Is Twitter the new Gawker? Is the word “cocky” demeaning? Why does Sarah find middle names so interesting? And what up with all the last names ending in “-ola”? Sarah HepOLA shares her confused delight over Nathan Fielder's “The Rehearsal” on HBO and Nancy ANN Rommelmann explains why baseball is America's sport forever and always amen. But before we go, we must get to the bottom of why Adam Driver gets us so hot.Adam - we call him Adam - says he'll buy you a drink if you become a paid or free Smoke ‘Em subscriberEpisode Notes:A list of Finnish last names, including many ending in “ola”Wilcox Park in Dutchess County, New York, also the site of Paloma Media north, a site you should peruse and subscribe to!“Small Business Owners Sound Off on Crushing Inflation,” by Nancy Rommelmann (Common Sense)“Hulk Hogan's Gawker lawsuit bankrolled by Silicon Valley billionaire” (CBS News)Nobody Speak official trailerSome corroboration that Twitter is the new Gawker, from Freddie deBoer“Rest in Power, White Ladies,” Sarah Hagi on the death of Joan Didion (Gawker)“Bloodbath at the New York Times,” Nancy Rommelmann on the defenestration of Donald McNeil Jr. “The New York Times Succumbed to Another Mob. Journalism Is Unrecognizable” and “Kids and Cowards: What Really Happened to Donald McNeil at the New York Times” by Nancy Rommelmann (Newsweek)“Words as Weapons: How Activist Journalists are Changing the New York Times,” by Nancy Rommelmann (The Dispatch)Erin Overbey June 19 tweet threadDavid Remnick, editor-in-chief of The New YorkerErin Overbey June 25 tweet threadPolitico follow-up on Overbey story confirms there were emails with Remnick that contained the two errors she was later dinged for“The NYT Enters The Youth Gender Fray And Philadelphia's Mina's World Coffee Shop Melts Down Spectacularly,” Blocked and Reported podcastDoc Marie's bar in Portland closes in less than a week after employees demand owners turn over the business to them“The Rehearsal” official trailerNathan Fielder has job interview using 7-year-old's answers: “Why Baseball Fans Might Find the Hall of Fame Interesting!” Matt Welch and Nancy Rommelmann on Paloma Media YouTubeUnderworld and White Noise by Don DeLilloA robot-voiced trailer for White Noise film that features many images of Adam DriverOutro song: “Blue,” by The JayhawksAnd speaking of! Wonderful listener Dorothy made a Smoke ‘Em Spotify playlist! Share the Smoke with your peepsStudies show you are at least 75% more likely to be a free or paid subscriber if you sign up to be one This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com/subscribe

This week on the podcast, author and podcaster Sarah Hepola is back!  On her last visit to The Unspeakable, back in March, Sarah and Meghan talked about Sarah's bombshell Atlantic Magazine article, The Things I'm Afraid To Write. But they got a little sidetracked by some other subjects, including the barely-known details of the Stanford swimmer rape case, which Sarah has researched in depth. In this conversation, which was recorded exactly a week after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Sarah talks about the immediate aftermath of that decision in Texas, where she lives, and why the alarm bells on social media don't necessarily correspond to the actual mood on the ground. She reflects on her own choices and wonders if those who will now be forced to become parents will find their positions change—in both directions—as the result of their circumstances. Finally, she and Meghan reflect on being called “neocons” by someone on Twitter and wonder what happened around 2014 that caused some of the freest and most privileged women in the world to reimagine their lives as a chronic struggle.    Note: The Unspeakable Podcast will be on summer hiatus until Labor Day. In the meantime, you can check out Meghan's new podcast with Sarah Haider, A Special Place In Hell, at aspecialplace.substack.com or wherever you get your podcast. You can also learn about The Unspeakeasy, Meghan's community-in-progress for freethinking women at theunspeakeasy.com    Guest Bio: Sarah Hepola is the author of the memoir Blackout, the host of the Texas Monthly-produced documentary podcast America's Girls and the co-host, with Nancy Rommelmann of the podcast Smoke 'em If You Got Em. She lives in Dallas, Texas.

Your two favorite Jews and backup Jew Nancy Rommelmann are back to talk about everything but abortions!We start with a historical overview of the hotness of First Ladies, a certain Israeli first lady's fondness for cases of pink champagne (I mean, who amongst us?), the royal family, getting older (related), gardening (super related) and Jews surviving in the wild in Peru (the Jews are related to the host).Also:* The Holocaust weight loss challenge* Bodega guy - friend or bro? A crisis communications disaster.* USA! USA! USA!* Stealing silverware from a country club.* Traveling during Covid is a human right.* Working out in the heat is a human right's violation.* Check out friend Meghan Daum's and future friend Sarah Haider's new podcast, A Special Place in Hell Happy Anniversary to Chaya Leah and Baruch, the world's most patient British Orthodox Jew.Make sure to check out Nancy's podcast with Sara Hepola, "Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em" And Nancy's writings at Make More Pie 

Did forgiveness go out of style? Nancy and Sarah want to bring it back. We talk about a current vogue for vengeance in the “progressive id” and where it may have originated, plus our own stubborn belief that understanding is better than judgment. We turn toward the tricky politics of sex, including Biden's new campus codes, which return us to a troubled era of Title IX tribunals stripped of due process that resulted in hundreds of (successful) law suits, and why one Title IX coordinator referred to her gig as running “The Break-Up Office.” Every generation tries — and fails — to hack sex, which is one reason the subject is so fascinating. We look at the imminent dangers of a post-Roe landscape, and how it coincides with a sexual malaise brought on by hookup culture. “Don't catch feelings” became a sad mantra in the online dating world, even as feelings were given free rein in so many other corners of life. We travel back to a pre-sexual revolution America, when a poor kid from Mississippi electrified the repressed audiences of the 1950s, a reminder of how dangerous even the mention of sex was once. Yes, Sarah saw the Elvis movie, and it gave her a new appreciation for the young performer before he became king. We stopped recording before talking about the moonlight in Elvis's voice …… but not before Nancy asked that you share this episode with friends. Even better…Episode Notes:Rumble: the Indians Who Rocked the World official trailer“Who Gets To Be A Criminal Versus A Victim Versus A Human? On one of the most telling responses to ‘Canceled at 17,'” by Jesse Singal (Substack)Blocked and Reported podcast, with Jesse Singal and Katie Herzog“Canceled at 17,” by Elizabeth Weil (The Cut)“Ah, Carceral Liberalism,” by Freddie deBoer (Substack)“Consequences are Good, Actually,” by Jessica Valenti (Substack)“5 Ways Biden's New Title IX Rules Will Eviscerate Due Process on Campus,” by Robby Soave (Reason)Unwanted Advances, by Laura Kipnis“The Alcohol Blackout,” by Sarah Hepola (Texas Monthly)“Biden's Sex Police,” by Emily Yoffe (Common Sense)Rethinking Sex: A Provocation, by Christine Emba“Women's Orgasm and Sexual Satisfaction in Committed Sex and Casual Sex: Relationship Between Sociosexuality and Sexual Outcomes in Different Sexual Contexts,” Val Wongsomboon, Mary H. Burleson, Gregory D. Webster (The Journal of Sex Research)Key scene from The Ice Storm“What Does Overturning Roe Mean in Texas?” (Houston Chronicle)Pew Research Center study: America's Abortion Quandary “This Is What a Pro-Life Feminist Looks Like,” by Geoff Johnston (D Magazine)“Roe is Reversed, and the Right Isn't Ready,” by David French (Substack)Baz Luhrmann's Elvis official trailerElvis Presley: The Searcher (HBO) official trailerElvis ‘56 documentary Elvis Presley's longtime Graceland cook, Mary Jenkins, makes his favorite sandwichSelf-promotion alert! Kindle version of Nancy's book, To the Bridge, a True Story of Motherhood and Murder, is on sale all of July for 99¢. Outro song: “Suspicious Minds,” by Elvis PresleyAre you lonesome tonight? You won't be when you become paid or free subscriber!What happens when Sarah texts, “I'm glad you're part of my world, Nancy Rommelmann”? smoke ‘em This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com/subscribe

A reading of "The Doom Crusades," by Nancy Rommelmann, published on Substack on June 20, 2022. 

We start with a discussion of Sarah's Depp-Heard opus, “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Depp v. Heard,” about which one reader on Twitter commented, “This is a Persian rug. It is exquisite, and among the finest things I've ever read. Sarah Hepola is what writers aspire to.” (See, Twitter can be nice too!) The story reminds Nancy (and readers) of what magazine writing can be, and why we will do more of it, and how you can make that happen …Oh look at that, the perfect moment to ask you to become a free or paid subscriber. We talk about the cultural delusion of celebrity, our own childhood craving for fame, and enjoy a short sidebar on heels and the times we were mistaken for sex workers. But back to Depp: Nancy loves how Sarah described teen heartthrobs, “the low testosterone of their beauty,” and this leads to a discussion of how threatening sex and masculinity can be to a girl. Sarah makes Nancy all squeamish describing the way she could see the outline of Baryshnikov's penis through his ballet tights (and just typing that makes Nancy re-squeam). We talk about Amber Heard's big sit-down interview (meh) on Today and Dateline, and why it frustrates us when women don't acknowledge their own agency and power. A juror appeared on Good Morning America to discuss how “a majority of the jury felt she was the aggressor” and found her unconvincing on the stand. True strength means owning your own behavior, but as Sarah wrote: “Her empowerment was ghostwritten.”Sarah celebrated 12 years of sobriety this week, and she talks (and cries a bit) about that turning point when she left behind a thing she loved to become the woman she wanted to be. Our last order of business is that Nancy needs a new TV series to watch: Help her find one in the comments! A mysterious sound descends in our last 15 minutes (apologies), and Nancy swears it's a lawnmower, but it also might be aliens beaming her into a space ship. We wish her luck.Episode notes:“The Agony and the Ecstasy of Depp v. Heard,” by Sarah Hepola, brought to you by …What the heck are the AANs?Nancy and Sarah sincerely apologize (not!) to Jesse Singal and Katie Herzog for unconsciously cribbing the “What's the name of this podcast?” line. We have nothing but warm gushy feelings for them and “Blocked and Reported” and you will too.Circus Circus may be the most emblematic hotel/casino in Vegas, with all its all-you-can-eat desperation and dead-end-ness and it's kind of horribly glorious.The Real Real World, by Hillary Johnson and Nancy Rommelmann, which stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for 13 weeks, getting to #2, and we were each paid $7500 flat, and that's all Nancy is saying.Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, by Cheryl Strayed… speaking of beautiful boys, we give you Tim Sampson, late father of Nancy's daughter, here at about, oh, age 13. Miss you, Tim.White Knights trailer“Johnny Depp Through the Looking Glass: Examining the madness that male beauty elicits,” by Rhonda Garelick (NYT Opinion)“Uniquely Stupid and Incredibly Coddled: Jonathan Haidt On How We Lost Our Collective Minds (And Whether We'll Ever Find Them Again),” The Unspeakable podcast, Meghan DaumBilly Wirth, Kevin Dillon, Tim Sampson in War PartyAmber Heard in, All the Boys Love Mandy LaneThe Fifth Column (A Podcast): 354 w/ Sarah Hepola "Barack's Misinformation Warfare Unit b/w Teenage Blackout"Amber Heard interviewed by Savannah Guthrie on Today: part one, part twoJuror interview on Good Morning America“Get Out of My Bedroom, Andrew Cuomo!” by Nancy Rommelmann (Tablet)We Are the Luckiest: The Surprising Magic of a Sober Life by Laura McKowen1883 official trailer“1865” podcast, an old-fashioned radio dramaOutro song: “Take it With Me” by Tom WaitsWe promise to rescue Nancy from the alien spaceship if you become a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com/subscribe

by Sarah Hepola It was my third morning at an Austin spa so dedicated to self-care they charged $375 if you lit up a cigarette. The sky was still dark, and I was sitting at a wedding spot tucked off the highway, a mile from where I was staying. I'd stumbled upon this place the first morning of my low-key rebellion, because I needed a quiet spot to smoke, and I'd followed a sign that said “historical landmark.” I expected a bench, a sweeping view of the Hill Country; I discovered a wedding tent with empty tables and chairs, a couple plastic floral arrangements on the floor, like everyone had just been raptured.The wind was picking up, the cords of the tent creaking, and while this woodsy paradise was surely a lovely place to get hitched in daylight, it was downright spooky in the dark. A real Stephen King vibe. I took a seat at a nearby fire pit flanked by five small logs; they weren't comfortable, but a hole in the center of one made a nice nest for a styrofoam cup I was using as an ashtray.I held the flat black rectangle of my iPhone close to my mouth. “OK here I am at my wedding retreat,” I began, in my raspy early-morning voice. “I feel like you and I have used this tent more than any other couple in the Austin area.” The voice memo was for Nancy Rommelmann, my new buddy and co-conspirator in a podcast we had named, in part because of my retro commitment to stogies, Smoke 'Em if You Got 'Em. I'd made her a voice memo on the first morning, as I wandered the surreal matrimonial landscape, and she enjoyed it, so I sent her one the next morning, which she also liked, and now we had a habit. My morning had gone from “Where can I smoke?” to “Where can I record my voice memo for Nancy?”Smoking is a bad habit, but it's mine, and ever since I picked it up again during a rough patch in the pandemic (after more than a decade of abstinence), everyone in my life who cared about these things had made a deal, either silently or quite directly, to keep their opinions to themselves. It seemed to be a phase I needed — and since booze had been a more dangerous phase I'd once needed, and I was determined not to pick that up again after nearly 12 years of sobriety — I was mostly left to smoke in peace. “I hate that you smoke,” more than one person told me. But often they expressed a guilty affection for this once-common habit turned taboo. “I shouldn't say this, but smoking looks cool.” This post is public so feel free to share it.But back to the voice memo. “I was driving over here,” I continued, not sure where I was going with this, “and I'm driving my mom's car, which beeps at you whenever you do anything.” The road was winding and largely unlit, and every time I strayed from the parabolas of the yellow lines, the car beeped at me, even though no other cars were around, and the robotic fusillade made me feel as though I were being pelted with pebbles. “I don't feel comfortable about our automated future,” I said, and proceeded to free-associate through a rambling monologue that somehow covered the disappearance of customer service, the secret lives of trees, a girlhood crush on Johnny Depp, a DoorDash order to the Cheesecake Factory, of all places, and why Nancy (though it was a low bar) was my #1 Nancy.The voice memos were not new, but making them for Nancy was. We'd only met a month ago, though we'd technically never met, having only connected through phone calls and text messages and a podcast app called Zencaster. But I'd been making voice memos for at least six years — waking up early, capturing some fleeting moment in audio form, usually when I was traveling, something I mostly did alone. California, London, a place in Tennessee — I'd find myself with all these thoughts and no place to put them, which is the writing impulse, except I was tired of writing that year, tired of staring at the glaring white screen, so I started the voice memos.“I'm sitting on the lip of the Pacific,” one began. “I'm standing near a swamp. Can you hear the noises?” They were love letters of a sort for a man to whom I'd been profoundly attached, though I didn't send most of them, because he and I were in the slow process of untangling our lives. Also, he shared a bed with someone else, and I was never certain what kind of communication was allowed between us, what would mark him as unfaithful, and what that word even meant.This was 2015, or 2016, and the iPhone with all its fantasy-scapes was swiftly supplanting hand-to-hand contact. IRL was the acronym, in real life, but sometimes it was hard to tell which was RL: the black rectangle where I shared sumptuous conversations, songs and video clips, intimate pictures of my days and my body, or the mundane solitude of me and the cat, me at the laptop, me watching Netflix. That guy didn't live in my neck of the woods. Even during the years we enjoyed a beautiful physical connection, we were largely bound by texts and emails and phone calls that could last for hours, me holding a hot glass brick to my face for such extended periods that I googled “can your phone give you brain cancer” more than once. (Eventually, I got a headset.)My mother tells a story about me as a baby, how we were talking to each other before I could speak, the two of us going back and forth in a nonsense babble that must have been very gratifying to a one-year-old who had no words for what she wanted. Bluh-bloop-bluh-bloop? I'd ask, and my mother would respond, in a tone meant to convey reassurance, Bluh-BLOOP-bluh-bloop. I was learning the rhythm of communication before my tongue could master nouns and verbs, and this deeply mutual exchange delighted my mother so much she nicknamed me Word Bird.My mom went back to school to become a therapist the year I enrolled in kindergarten. Good timing, at least from a distance, but she grew estranged in other ways — camping trips, newfound friends, a life that was not our family — and while this is a story of liberation for her, it was for me (at least briefly) a story of feeling left behind. I searched for her in the top drawer of her walnut dresser: a pink cameo ring, a sprig of lilies-of-the-valley, dried and pressed, a tiny vial of Diorissimo perfume I could dab on my pale inner wrist to summon her smell. I was seven when I got my own bedroom, exiled from the bunkbed I once shared with my swashbuckling 12-year-old brother. It was a converted utility space, cold and creepy with shuffling noises in the dark, and after I went to bed, I had long conversations with myself, and maybe this is storytelling, and maybe this is prayer, and maybe this is just a survival instinct: We make the company we need.Word Bird turned out to be a good nickname for me. I became a writer, an editor, a podcast addict on her way to starting her own podcast. I wrote text messages so long they required scrolling, the opposite of an emoji. By 2017, that guy had disappeared from my life, but a new one appeared the next year, a connection that was profound and complicated in its own way. Fourteen years younger than me; family stuff; a resistance on his part that even he professed not to understand. When we were together, things felt right, but when we were apart, he seemed to find new and creative reasons for the two of us to remain that way. (Long story, read the forthcoming memoir.) But I sent voice memos to him, too.“Your voice,” he responded. Sometimes that's all he said: Your voice.“I'm sitting outside, it's 9 o'clock at night. I like to sit out here and listen to the night sounds,” one voice memo began, though I never sent it, because by then, we were estranged too, and even though he was the one who requested the memo, the recording wasn't good enough, or interesting enough, I was just babbling. But I kept recording memos for him that I never sent: in the desert, at the beach, but mostly on my outdoor smoking couch in Dallas. He was also sharing a bed with someone else by then, but the voice memos gave me a feeling like I was still talking to him; it was strange and wonderful to discover he could comfort me, even when he wasn't there.Was this “real life”? What is real life? Over the years I've had colorful debates about our technological transformation: Does Twitter matter? Is sexting cheating? What about porn? What about long text exchanges with a man who is not your husband, full of secrets you don't tell the others? Infidelity was blurry, but for that matter, so was connection. Can you really be close to someone so far away, or are you merely having a love affair with your own fantasy projection (and doesn't that describe most romance)? Facebook and Instagram were holograms, press releases for the happiness most of us never quite felt (otherwise why were we spending so much time online)?“Instagram is stupid,” an editor declared one morning when we met for coffee, and I asked why, and he launched into a short critique of its performative nature: look at my toes in sand, look at my fancy hotel, look at the book I just read. “But what if that isn't performance so much as an attempt to share some experience?” I asked, because he was married with kids, and I was single without them. I couldn't count the number of vistas I'd looked upon in the last few years, wishing someone were at my side, and they weren't, but I could post a picture on Instagram and, voila, suddenly people were there. The editor didn't buy this, and maybe I didn't either, but I understood loneliness to be a modern affliction, as well as a personal one, and the world had given us so many ways to feel connected, even as we remained alone.The voice memos, though. I began to wonder if the late-night dispatches to absentee partners, squirreled away in the cabinets of my phone like a 21st-century Emily Dickinson, was the best use of my voice. I started working on a podcast for Texas Monthly about the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, and voice memos were part of my mandate. I'd leave interviews and football games and unload some experience into my phone. “OK, I just left the stadium,” one began. “Well that was wild” began another. We used a few in the podcast, America's Girls, and I liked the intimacy they created, the sound of my mind latching onto an audience, unseen at the time.So I began sending voice memos to Nancy. I never planned what I'd say; I was mostly following an intuition, tugging on a thread, and it was nice to share space with her, even if I had yet to actually share space with her, because she lived in New York City. I'd fallen into friend-love with Nancy, one that was mutual and easy (nice for a change), and even though the memos were getting a bit out-there, wandering down corridors that surprised even me, I didn't feel queasy or embarrassed after I sent them, because the stakes were quite low. What was she gonna do? Stop talking to me because I sent a 17-minute missive on AIs and DoorDash delivery?“Sarah this is amazing,” she wrote back that morning. “This is so Joe Frank it's insane.” I had no idea who Joe Frank was, but she sent me a video that cleared that up. A radio legend who'd worked in New York and Los Angeles, Frank was known for atmospheric audio rambles that seemed to take place on a road to nowhere.The Frank audio reminded me of Tom Waits, the moody spoken word of “9th & Hennepin,” and while audio commentary on Johnny Depp and the Cheesecake Factory doesn't quite match this transcendent arena, I was still proud of the association she'd made, that whatever my mind had cobbled together in the wee hours had some slight adjacency to these masters. Then she told me something I probably already knew: We had to share this on our podcast. I felt embarrassed and triumphant at once; I'd only been talking to #1 Nancy, I hadn't known I was on a stage, but then again, the story wasn't terribly personal, far less personal than other parts of my life I'd exposed in books and essays, and I knew I could keep doing this, easy. Voice memos were my thing. Voice memos for everyone! Every! Body! Gets! A Voice Memo!And thus we arrive at my debut, embedded at the top of this page. I have no clue how many of these I'll do (I have a couple queued up already), but I travel often, and I find myself in the quiet lonely hours quite a bit, and the voice memos need somewhere to go, so why not here? This one is open to the public, but we'll make the following voice memos part of our paid subscriber content, because people who pay real money deserve rewards, and because Nancy bakes cookies and pies and makes delightful videos of herself, but voice memos are what I do.So I submit this first entry in a series, which is a love letter to you, or Nancy, or maybe only to myself. The sound of my voice in the dark, creating the company I need.To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Voice Memo Notes:“Ultimate Hill Country Tour,” by Joe Nick Patoski (Texas Monthly)“The Rise of Human Agents: AI-Powered Customer Service Automation,” by Brad Birnbaum (Forbes)Sarah Hepola on Twitter: This screenshot prompts a small correction, which is that my DoorDash AI was actually named Caroline, though I stand behind my assertion that Nancy Rommelmann is #1 Nancy. Her, official trailer (YouTube)That Joan Didion line from Blue Nights: “As adults we lose memory of the gravity and terrors of childhood.”“The Social Life of Forests,” by Ferris Jabr (New York Times magazine)The Overstory, a novel by Richard PowersJohnny Depp centerfold in my seventh-grade bedroom This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com/subscribe

A reading of, "What Man Can Do To Man: 13 True Crime Books That Get It Right," by Nancy Rommelmann, which ran May 8, 2022, on  Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em on Substack. Head over there for all the deets! But quick crib/links for the books:Shot in the Heart, by Mikal GilmoreLost Girls, by Robert KolkerBlood Will Out, by Walter KirnThe Adversary, by Emmanuel CarrereColumbine, by Dave CullenDown City, by Leah CarrollI'll Be Gone in the Dark, by Michelle McNamaraSay Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern IrelandThe Journalist and the Murderer, by Janet MalcomHelter Skelter, by Vincent BugliosiIn Cold Blood, by Truman CapoteCrossed Over, by Beverly LowryUnder the Banner of Heaven, by Jon Krakauer

YouTube link to episode"American Journalism's Most Successful Politician To Step Down From Running The New York Times," by Matt Welch for Reason (audio version)Donald McNeil Jr.'s four-part series on Medium on his dismissal from The New York TimesMcNeil on Baquet's departure from the NYT and on whether or not incoming executive editor Joe Kahn realizes the paper is engaging in struggle sessionsThe Inside Man, New York magazine profile on Joe KahnDonald McNeil Jr. and the State of Play at the NYT, by Nancy Rommelmann for Paloma Media

Nancy Rommelmann and Sarah Hepola are back! Talking about: + Why they love the Ben Dreyfuss essay "The World is Not Full of Monsters" + Who they listen to in the bathtub (Nancy: Elon Musk's new TED talk; Sarah: Ben Franklin by Ken Burns) + "Who is Max Boot? Did he write for Gawker?" + And speaking of Gawker... + The NYT interview with 8 "conservative" men + Who's allowed to say the C-word and why they're in favor of bringing back "twat" (it's funny!) + The hell that are women's spas and why the one they'd open would be called Fuck Your Intentions + Are 100% of hitchhikers murdered by serial killers or nah? + Virtual romances are intense! + Why Nancy is the "#1 Nancy" of the two Sarah knows. (The other is a robot.) And much more!EPISODE NOTES"9th and Hennepin," by Tom WaitsMuseum of Jurassic TechnologyJoe Frank official website"The World is Not Filled with Monsters," by Ben DreyfussBen Dreyfuss SubstackElon Musk TED Talk 2022Benjamin Franklin by Ted Burns (PBS)The Witches, by Stacey Schiff"The Things I'm Afraid to Write About," by Sarah HepolaNormal People, by Sally Rooney"The 'Pity Me!' Personal Essay" in Gawker"The 8 Conservative Men Are Making No Apologies" in NYT This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com/subscribe

Nancy Rommelmann and Sarah Hepola hop back into the studio to talk Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, faking orgasms, crying (women v. men), why young Ben Franklin is hot (electricity!), why Sarah always dated Tom Waits, Nancy's religious experience at a Trail Blazers game, and much more!EPSIODE NOTESFan-cam dancing to "Since You Been Gone" at Spurs game"America's Girls," podcast about the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders that Sarah Hepola co-created and narratesBlackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget, by Sarah HepolaTo the Bridge: A True Story of Motherhood and Murder, by Nancy Rommelmann"I Always Dated Tom Waits," by Sarah Hepola (Salon)"Blackouts and Sexpots" podcast with Nancy Rommelmann and Sarah Hepola This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com/subscribe

Journalist, author, and podcast series creator Sarah Hepola and Nancy Rommelmann met online two weeks ago and decided they needed to speak for about 80 hours. On deck today: Hepola's recent essay "The Things I'm Afraid to Write About" and why she isn't afraid anymore; her 2015 memoir, "Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget" and the difference between a blackout and passing out; why both she and Rommelmann needed to keep up with dudes (and some hazards therein), and how cancel culture is like bulimia. Tune in for what turned out to be the first Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em convo!"The Things I'm Afraid to Write About", by Sarah Hepola, published in The Atlantic on March 12, 2022Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget, by Sarah Hepola This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com/subscribe

Entanglements, they're everywhere! In this episode, Nancy Rommelmann and Sarah Hepola look at: + The Will Smith-Jada Pinkett Smith turmoil + The Johnny Depp-Amber Heard mess + Online's "cruelty in the name of justice!" flamers Plus the modern complications of monogamy, Veronica Lake's hair (good!), the world of child actors in Hollywood (mostly bad), why John Updike got it right when he said, "Celebrity is a mask that eats into the face," why Sarah stands with the bed-poopers, and more!EPISODE NOTES"You can't just use me for social media." Jada Pinkett-Smith/Will Smith video"Dread Carpet," Bill Maher on 2020's Depressing Oscar Best Pics"I spoke up against sexual violence—and faced our culture's wrath. That has to change." Amber Heard Opinion piece (WaPo)"Julia Louis-Dreyfuss's Last Fuckable Day" "The Things I'm Afraid to Write About," by Sarah Hepola (Atlantic)"Jena at 15: A Childhood in Hollywood," by Nancy Rommelmann (LA Weekly) This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com/subscribe

"You can't just use me for social media." Jada Pinkett-Smith/Will Smith video"Dread Carpet," Bill Maher on 2020's Depressing Oscar Best Pics"I spoke up against sexual violence—and faced our culture's wrath. That has to change." Amber Heard Opinion piece (WaPo)"Julia Louis-Dreyfuss's Last Fuckable Day" "The Things I'm Afraid to Write About," by Sarah Hepola (Atlantic)"Jena at 15: A Childhood in Hollywood," by Nancy Rommelmann (LA Weekly)

Fan-cam dancing to "Since You Been Gone" at Spurs game"America's Girls," podcast about the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders that Sarah Hepola co-created and narratesBlackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget, by Sarah HepolaTo the Bridge: A True Story of Motherhood and Murder, by Nancy Rommelmann"I Always Dated Tom Waits," by Sarah Hepola (Salon)"Blackouts and Sexpots" podcast with Nancy Rommelmann and Sarah Hepola

This week, Ben sits down with journalist and founder of Paloma Media, Nancy Rommelmann, to discuss her on the ground reporting inside the war zone in Ukraine. Nancy gives her first-hand insight into how the war is going, and what message Ukrainians have for those who have helped in the war effort. Later, Ben switches gears with author and Wall Street Journal columnist, Jason Riley, to discuss race and politics during the Biden era, covering everything from Critical Race Theory to his latest book, The Black Boom. Then, Ben discusses what lessons can be drawn from the recent events in Ukraine. Follow Ben on Twitter: @BDomenech Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matt Taibbi thrives on the absurd. He used to revel in journalism's culture: caustic, independent, collaborative, and adversarial to those in power. Now, the former Rolling Stone writer and author of Hate Inc. sees little to love in the toxic, "credentialist" media world. We discuss Matt's transition to Substack (the future!), the psychotic break Trump inspired in "mainstream" media, and the future of our broken industry.Find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podcast Addict, and Stitcher. Check out our Patreon for behind-the-pod updates. Follow @UncertainPod on your social media of choice.On the agenda:-Journalism cultures, past and present* [3:38-20:22] -Protest subscriptions, absurdism, and economic anxiety [20:33-37:14]-Gerrymandering hate and victimhood [37:15-45:39]-The pernicious chaos of totalitarianism [45:40-50:01]-A Trump-induced psychotic break [50:02-1:01:54]-Tech troubles [1:01:55-1:05:35]-What's Next for Media? [1:05:36-1:09:05]-The Blindspots Q [1:09:06-1:14:25]For more media musings……check out our conversations with Batya Ungar-Sargon, Nancy Rommelmann, Matt Welch, and Katie Herzog.Uncertain Things is hosted and produced by Adaam James Levin-Areddy and Vanessa M. Quirk. For more doomsday rumination, subscribe to: uncertain.substack.com. Get full access to Uncertain Things at uncertain.substack.com/subscribe