Why is Nancy in Tel Aviv? Was it Nick Gillespie or the ghost of Michael Moynihan who gave Sarah COVID? We dive into the mid-terms, or “the normie elections,” as one person on Twitter called them. Not a red wave, but a repudiation of political extremism, a reminder that MAGA is a losing hand, that abortion matters, and that election polling doesn’t work.
It’s possible the only thing this country can agree on is Steve Kornacki, MSNBC data analyst and khaki-wearing dreamboat who also happens to be a friend of the pod. We delight in KorSNACKi fan-fiction generated on election night, and contemplate which Dem should run in 2024, given that the current guy is — well, you know.
Then it’s on to the barnburner of a Britney Spears profile by Kerry Howley in New York magazine, “House of Spears,” about why the singer’s father placed her under a conservatorship. It’s also a sprawling intergenerational tale of violence, poverty, and mental illness told like a Southern gothic. We doubt anyone will write a better story this year.
Episode Notes:
Nancy learns a new word! Endogenous. Also, that perquackey, a word she thought meant mixed-up or scattered isn’t a word, or not exactly!
“Abortion rights won the US midterms” by Annalisa Mereli (Quartz)
“The Coming Out Story I Never Thought I’d Write” by Steve Kornacki (Salon)
Nancy mentioned that she fed Steve Kornacki (here with Matt Welch and Kmele Foster of
) poundcake but, grabbing the photo, sees now that it was pecan pie. Management regrets the error.
George Will: For the good of the country, Biden and Harris should bow out of the 2024 election (Washington Post)
Election 2022: “This is what democracy looks like. And it kinda sucks.” (Reason Roundtable)
“House of Spears,” by Kerry Howley (New York)
“Who Is Reality Winner?” by Kerry Howley (New York)
Thrown, by Kerry Howley
What’s in your hotbox?
Nancy: Spies of No Country, by Matti Friedman. Also, We Stand Divided, by Daniel Gordis and the podcast “The Re-Education of Eli Lake,” including the recent episode, “Red Wave Over Israel,” with guest Lehav Harkov
Sarah: Ray Bradbury, “There Will Come Soft Rains”
Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, by Nick Flynn
Being Flynn official trailer
Bag Of Mice, by Nick Flynn
I dreamt your suicide note
was scrawled in pencil on a brown paperbag,
& in the bag were six baby mice. The bag
opened into darkness,
smoldering
from the top down. The mice,
huddled at the bottom, scurried the bag
across a shorn field. I stood over it
& as the burning reached each carbon letter
of what you'd written
your voice released into the night
like a song, & the mice
grew wilder.
Outro song: “... Baby One More Time”
42. Democracy Lives in Darkness!