We look at a post-Roe landscape, as Nancy talks about a recent reporting trip to Kansas to cover a surprising vote, where citizens affirmed the right for women to have access to legal abortion. Sarah updates us on what’s happening in Texas, including the rise of crisis pregnancy centers, how abortion providers might set sail on the “lawless oceans,” and a possible uptick in male vasectomies that makes her wonder: Will male contraception ever be a thing? They both discuss their mutual love of being on the road, of driving into the story and into the unknown.
This week also marks the loss of a beauty with a clear voice, Olivia Newton-John: songbird, champion for breast cancer awareness, and certified babe. After the shock of finding out Nancy has never seen the movie Grease, Sarah serves up some hand-crafted Olivia Newton-John trivia. How will Nancy fare? (Not bad.) Sarah then dives into the 6,600 (!!) pages of unsealed Depp-Heard documents that have helped push public opinion toward the Heard camp, but are the revelations really so damning? Sarah’s not so sure …
Plus: this week’s hot and tasty offerings from the Hot Box!
Episode Notes:
The “Value Them Both” amendment, on which 58% of Kansas voters voted “No” on Aug. 2
“Pregnant at 16,” The Daily (The New York Times)
“Snipped in solidarity: the American men getting vasectomies after Roe – while they can” (The Guardian)
“Why There’s Still No Birth Control for Men,” by Allyson Chiu (Washington Post)
“Everything You Need to Know About the Male Birth Control Injection” (Healthline)
“Olivia Newton-John’s Tale of Two Sandys,” by Rachel Syme (New Yorker)
If you’ve never seen the roller-skating, time-traveling, costume-changing finale of Xanadu, you really owe yourself.
(And don’t sleep on the amazing “What’s the Name of This Podcast? Songs from Smoke ‘Em If You Got ‘Em” Spotify put together by the wonderful Dorothy!)
“Anne Heche ‘Not Expected to Survive’…” by Nellie Andreeva (Deadline)
Better days…
“Unpacking the Allegations Against Ezra Miller,” by Danielle Cohen and Olivia Truffant-Wong (The Cut)
Better days…
Lawyer Andrea Burkhardt, who crowd-sourced the funds to get the unsealed documents, on what she was looking for and what they found …
Viral tweet thread on how the unsealed documents make Depp look bad.
Counter-argument tweet thread on why the motions quoted in that thread are misleading.
“As celebrities rush to unlike Johnny Depp's posts, is public opinion shifting in favour of Amber Heard?,” by Lucy Morgan (Glamour UK)
“The Agony and the Ecstasy of Depp v. Heard,” by Sarah Hepola (Smoke ‘em)
David French on the FBI raid on Trump and Mar-a-Lago
“Walk, Don’t Run to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum,” by Nancy Rommelmann (Paloma Media)
Hot Box picks and the miscellany that came rolling out!
The Boys of Summer, by Roger Kahn
The Thorn Birds, by Colleen McCullough
The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt
The Corrections, by Jonathan Franzen
“Trainwreck: Woodstock 99” official trailer
Outro song: “Magic” by Olivia Newton-John
Nancy and Sarah haven’t spoken much about their first road trip together — it wasn’t the best time of life for either of them — but anyway, they did unearth some video …
smoke ‘em
29: Tell Me More, Tell Me More edition: Life after Roe and Olivia Newton-John