Ann Bauer is a top-notch personal essay writer, who built a reputation for eloquence and honesty at Salon.com, back in the aughts when the site was still a cultural force. (Sarah was lucky enough to work with Ann back then.) More recently, Ann has become a spitfire on Twitter, where she’s sounded off on COVID-related school closures, the progressive politics of Minneapolis, where she lives, and the various absurdities of our culture-war era.
Nancy and Sarah had a far-ranging and often profound conversation with Ann: About what speaking her mind on social media cost her (professionally, personally), about the potential link between RenFests, polyamory, and Rachel Maddow, and about the son she lost a few years ago, whose autism diagnosis Ann now questions (along with many scientific “certainties”).
Also discussed:
The ickiness of self-promotion
“You’re trying to kill me and my family”
Getting dropped by the Washington Post
Bruno Bettelheim, somehow
Writing: It’s all in the execution
Ann did NOT burn down Minneapolis’s Third Precinct
The Stations of the Cross for Trump Derangement Syndrome
“Why are you dressed up as druids and maidens?”
Big love for Tablet Magazine
No love for an author who promotes autism as magic that makes you special
The Cinderella story of Kamala Harris
The lonely estrangement of the white male in culture
Writing about your own children: good? bad? both? all?
What is autism, really?
Plus, people who should not wear leather, Sarah gets sucked into a classic 70s mini series, the coolness of Debbie Harry, and much more!
Footage of reaction after Ann spoke her mind on Facebook
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