Maybe Baby: Recent Episodes

Haley Nahman

The Maybe Baby podcast is a a mixed bag of interviews, advice, and unfiltered thoughts on the topics of culture, politics, the internet, and being alive. It's a supplement to my weekly written newsletter. New episodes every Tuesday.

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Today we’ve got: a recently out queer person who’s new partner is pressuring them to become poly for political reasons, a friend who’s gone “eyebrow blind,” a boyfriend who recently confessed to being a “deeply closeted bisexual,” a toxic ex our questioner wants to sleep with, an in-law’s mortgage gift offer gone wrong, and finally a boyfriend who eats so much junk food it’s giving our questioner the ick. Love the questions, you guys are unstoppable.

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Hey!

Last week I wrote about personal and political scapegoats and the heaven/hell of having something to blame all your problems on. The original inspiration for that essay was, randomly, a recent experience I had taking a new license photo, which had me thinking about the beauty industry in a new way, as a kind of scapegoat industrial complex. In the end, I didn’t mention beauty in the essay because it felt like a whole separate topic, one I’d rather explore in conversation. So I invited beauty critic Jessica DeFino on the podcast to discuss it.

Jessica writes FLESH WORLD and is, to me, a consistently steadying voice in the headache of modern beauty discourse. I asked her to help me explore the idea of scapegoating in beauty and naturally this lead us all over the place, from the classic cosmetic procedure debate (a mini version of which took place in my podcast comments a couple weeks ago) to our own beauty scapegoats. I hope we were delicate enough with our language to avoid making anyone feel attacked! I think and hope we all have the same goals and are just trying to collectively figure out a humane way forward. (If you missed Jessica’s first appearance on my podcast, you can find it here.) (Also shout out to my episode with the GOAT Barry Schwartz, who I mention in this ep.)

If you’re a free sub, welcome to the podcast! The episodes normally run on Wednesdays for my paid subs only, but I’m sharing today’s with everyone as a kind of part 2 to last week’s essay. You can listen through Substack (the site, the app) or your favorite podcast app by clicking the “Listen via…” button underneath the podcast player above.

Also, trust I tell the (stupid) license story in detail, and on account of my journalistic integrity, have provided the photos below…

Thanks for listening,Haley

p.s. ICYMI:-Lots of good discussion/analysis about Hannah Horvath and Fleabag in the discussion thread comments last Wednesday.-So many good recs for movies to watch with your kids (that don’t suck) under 15 things last week.

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Hello and welcome back to Dear Danny!

Today we’ll be discussing the ethical boundaries of “boys night,” who should foot the bill on a date, the complexities of addiction inside a relationship, the reason men love-bomb (from a love-bomber himself), how to handle a relative falling for a romance scam, and a bachelor trip gone sus. Reallllly good questions everyone. We love you so much.

Also, if you’re reading this as a free subscriber, the free Q&A this round is the ethical boundaries of boys night (a civilized 20-minute episode).

Thanks for listening!Haley

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Hey!

It’s mid-month which means it’s time for Danny and me to answer your burning questions. So hard to choose. This round we picked six: On navigating PMS-inspired fights (when you don’t want your feelings invalidated but also know you’re being a little cuckoo), how to have a serious reckoning with some difficult in-laws, how to be less depressed in the…

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Hi!

Welcome back to Dear Danny. Today we’ve got NINE questions to answer: on “innocent” cheating, a boyfriend with a coke habit, a clingy coworker, a 12-year relationship that’s never felt exactly right, a friends-to-lovers arc, three separate questions on sex-troubled relationships, and a regretful ex-boyfriend. So much to cover so little time! Thank yo…

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Hey!

Welcome back to Dear Danny. Today we’ve got: an anxious husband, a bad kisser, a two-year breakup pattern, a move-in crisis, a narcissistic brother, a boring relationship, and the mystery of love! I already published the introduction to this episode on the 3rd, so we’re going to be diving straight in. I apologize for the diarrhea story—was ultimately a non sequitur.

Thanks for listening,Haley

p.s. If you’re a free subscriber, you’re seeing this because I’ve shared one Q&A (bad kisser) with you today in lieu of an essay, similar to how I share one free Q&A every month of my advice column, Dear Baby. Hope you enjoy!

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Hey!

As a followup to my conversation with Harling and Crystal, I wanted to home in on my most frequently asked question: What’s surprised me about motherhood? In this episode I tell you nine things about having a baby that have turned out totally different than I expected, in good ways and bad.

Also curious to hear your own answers to this question, or reactions to mine!

Thanks for listening,Haley

p.s. If you’re the type to notice, Wednesday is my new podcast publish day!

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Hi!!

I’m back on the sauce (listening to my own voice a sickening amount). Kicking things off with an episode about having a baby, with my friends Harling and Crystal, who also just had babies. I do want to apologize for talking about our buttholes, but certain things needed to be said. This will be a 2-part conversation. This week we’re covering:

-What’s going on with our bodies postpartum-Birth and the days after-What’s surprised us the most (I’ve thought of like 20 things I didn’t include since recording this…)-Sleep deprivation-& more!

Next week we’ll be covering: Whether we bonded with our babies right away, relationship stuff, philosophies about sharing our kids online, how we’re relating to friends without kids, and whether we have anything to add to the “kids or no kids” question now that we’re on the other side.

Hit us up in the comments with your thoughts! I know you asked so many other good questions—I plan to cover them in future episodes. (Gotta get Avi in here too.)

Thanks for listening!Haley

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Hello!

I got a great question in my Dear Baby bank last month that felt better suited to a solo podcast than my written column, so I’ve decided to dedicate an entire episode to it. It concerns influencing, sponcon, advertising, selling out, and what constitutes a morally impactful choice in any of those realms. This episode is sort of a sequel to my answer to last month’s question about navigating immoral desires.

Thanks for listening!Haley

P.s. Here’s the question in full if you’d like to read it yourself versus hear me read it at the beginning of the episode:

Hi Haley! I'm trying to work through some of my own thoughts on fame/influencer culture and sponcon and have been thinking a lot about the costs associated with doing good when many societal structures seem to incentivize greed, ambition in all its forms...aka doing bad. This prompted me to reread your “When I was an influencer” newsletter and while I admire your dedication to your ideals, and often turn to you for clarity and understanding, my unsolicited POV is: I do wonder if you're being too hard on yourself?

I also wonder how you manage to uphold such strict values of no brand deals without becoming bitter or resentful that so many other people are profiting off doing a lot worse. As well, writing and many artistic pursuits are notoriously precarious and fraught with financial distress. Even so, writers and people who are similarly public about their desire to "do good" are often held to standards of purity politics which to me feel unfair when we don't hold people in other professions (investment bankers, tech engineers, etc.) to the same standards.

To be clear, I don't think doing sponcon (depending what it is) is even bad, necessarily, (perhaps neutral?) so I wonder why you think it is antithetical to what you are trying to do with your writing. I feel like writers deserve some kind of opportunity to make money, too...they are more deserving than so many people who are exploiting systems IMO. Judging by the products you do share (which are by no means "needs" but lovely recommendations, many of which I've purchased and enjoyed), I wonder why you think opting out of sponcon entirely is the best form of activism?

Women (and people in general) are always buying products (some that we need, some that we genuinely want that make our lives better, and some that we don't want but are indoctrinated into wanting and lead us to a cycle of needless purchasing to mask our feelings of inferiority.) That is to say, I don't think all consumption is the same and perhaps if you advertised product that you believed in, it could have greater impact than promoting nothing? Isn't there a road where you could actually amplify and share brands you love that are making quality products or which are sustainably made? Like, is sharing an Amazon link of a cervical neck stretching device bad in and of itself because it's from Amazon and Jeff Bezos does not need more money, or is it only bad if you're profiting off that recommendation?

Presumably, not all your purchasing decisions align with your ideals either, so then is the issue not your individual purchase but propagating it to a larger audience? I'm sure you use skincare products but where is the line between advertising something you actually like for money versus making women feel deficient about their natural skin? (I'm thinking of Jessica DeFino's wonderful writing.) Also, if a brand came to you and wanted to invest in Maybe Baby in a way that would give you more freedom, money, time off, etc. and if you actually liked the product, would that be a bad deal? Isn't it a good thing for a brand to use some of their money to invest in the development of art or thinking...which is what you do?

All of this being said, I do think maybe I am missing something and I'd like to better understand what led you to maintaining a hard NO on sponcon now that you're in a position of financial stability. Do you ever waiver? Do you ever feel like you incur costs as a result of your moral code? Is it frustrating to do good and incur the financial losses when most people around you aren't holding themselves to the same standard?

I struggle with this but I also don't want to conveniently self-mythologize to make it easier to sleep at night, ya know?! Isn't it an oversimplification to say “selling out is always a prerequisite to fame”? To some people, you're famous (I know you don't think so but you still have a considerable IG following and are recognizable to many) and you certainly haven't sold out. Of course, you perpetuated certain structures to get to this position and then stopped when you felt secure which I think is so admirable. But even still, what is selling out? Is it one brand deal? Is it multiple? What is fame? Is it reaching Oprah status or is it just trying to break six figures as an influencer?

Help me make sense of this please. I hope none of the above came across as a criticism. I just truly adore everything you write and I felt like having you engage with my nonsensical brain might help me better understand my own views.

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Hey!

After revealing on Sunday that Avi and I are trying to have a kid, I am finally prepared to unload the 1,000+ thoughts I have on this process, the decisions that led to it, and what I’ve learned since I started. I have neverrrrrr recorded this long of a solo podcast. I had so many things to stay I was literally out of BREATH, lol. Since this one has a pretty clear topic breakdown, I am bestowing timestamps (rare):

0-4:58: Intro/why I’m recording this episode

4:58-27:50: How I decided I wanted kids and when I knew it was the right time (+ some bones I have to pick with the discourse around this!)

27:50-34:25: How I feel about sidelining my creative/intellectual pursuits

34:25-39:36: How I’m navigating fears around labor imbalances in my relationship that having kids may create/exacerbate

39:36-40:35: How I feel about having a kid without being married

40:35-43:51: What not to say to a friend who is struggling with the “trying” process (based on what I do/don’t prefer to hear)

43:51-47:56: Whether Avi and I have seen a specialist/how I feel about medical intervention

47:56-1:05:06: My experience with the literal trying process: Details on how I prepared, what it’s actualllllly like, how I’ve felt, perspectives that have helped me as it’s gone on

1:05:06-1:10:26: How I’ve talked to friends and fam about “trying”/what I decided to share

1:10:26-1:17:38: Whether it’s made sex weird/more fun/worse/awkward

1:17:38-1:21:36: The fun, exciting (and dare I say beautiful) parts of this process

Thanks so much for your great questions. I’ll be hanging around the comments to discuss!

Haley

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Hey!

Welcome to another episode of Dear Danny, Danny’s-on-a-haunted-ranch edition. Today we’ll be answering six questions, about asymmetrical friendships, whether to rat out a lying boss, an ethical-non-monagomy-related pickle, how to trust yourself, how to deal with friends who won’t stop talking about the same problems, and how to stop moving your own …

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Hey!

It’s Dear Danny time. This week we’re answering questions about friend envy, birthday sadness, romance on drugs, regrettable favors, body hair, and falling in love with a friend.

Thanks for listening,Haley

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Hi!

Back with a Voice Note today about aging, and especially the cultural scripts around what happens as you do it. On Sunday I mentioned that my 30s have been more dynamic than cultural scripts indicated they would, and in this episode I talk more about what I meant by that. This is not a diatribe about what it means to be any particular age, but rather what I think it means to age (a.k.a. continue to be alive) in general.

Hope you enjoy!Haley

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This week I invited Avi and Harling back on the podcast to debrief on Nathan Fielder’s new show The Rehearsal and all the dramatic discourse surrounding it. Two pieces we reference are “The Cruel and Arrogant Gaze of Nathan Fielder’s The Rehearsal,” by Richard Brody for The New Yorker and “Missed Connections: How to Tell if Nathan For You Is For You” a 2016 essay by Emma Healey for The LA Review of Books. We also dabble in some Love Island discussion and weigh in on The Bear.

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Good morning,

I asked my good friend Harling Ross to come back onto the podcast today to discuss Leslie Jamison’s essay “Dreaming in Broad Daylight” for Astra Mag, which we both loved. This conversation is about the piece specifically, but also about what it means to write honestly (versus “authentically” or through confession), why a lot of modern writing falls short, and in the last segment, what we secretly daydream about, no holds barred. We also randomly talk about going to the gym…

Pardon the New York City sounds in the background, we recorded in my office downtown.

Thanks for listening!Haley

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Hi!

Danny’s back and rested up like a good boy. Today we have a full ep for you answering five questions: on finding a boyfriend’s secret Twitter account, on grappling with the politics of weddings, on dreading going to weddings, on the loneliness of living alone, and how to know if it’s worth committing to a partner forever. Thank you so much as always for calling in. Your messages literally make me cry…

Hope you enjoy,Haley

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(70 mins) | Very excited to welcome the psychologist Dr. Barry Schwartz to the podcast today. Barry is famous for his research on choice (especially how, at a certain point, freedom of choice increases anxiety). In this conversation we touch on: comparison culture on social media, class differences when it comes to choice, the benefits and perils of individualism, political in-fighting, choice feminism (lol), dating and marriage (!), college admissions, and more. And I feel like we could have talked so much longer!

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(81 mins) | Welcome back to Dear Danny, my podcast version of Dear Baby wherein my friend Danny and I discuss your questions and more. Today we’ll be talking about cologne, body image, infidelity, moving in with a partner, road trips, how to make friends as an adult, and whether Danny is nice enough on this podcast. I also randomly throw in a Dave Chapelle take in the beginning of the ep that I regret! Lol. Because ultimately I’m less interested in whether Chapelle is worthy of being a thought leader and more interested in how we, as a culture, respond to bad ideas. But I guess that’s an essay for another time. Anyway thank you for being here, and thanks for dealing with Danny’s underground-sounding audio (he literally was underground when we recorded, in his defense).

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(74 mins) | Welcome back to Pop Quiz, my semi-regular pop culture roundup, this time with returning expert Avi Bonnerjee and perfect human Michelle Uranowitz (maybe you remember her from this ep about spiraling on Instagram). This week we discuss everything from Lorde’s rebrand to John Mulaney’s PR disaster to my latest Instagram follow. And so much more!

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(90 mins) | Today we’re back with another episode of Dear Danny, in which my friend Danny comes on to discuss and debate five reader questions with me. 

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(74 mins) | Today, random man Avi Bonnerjee comes on the pod to discuss this month’s Dear Baby newsletter, which covered woke culture, turning 30, going to therapy, putting out creative work when you’re not confident in it, and getting a tattoo as an overthinking type. Avi has a few different perspectives to add to the mix. Here’s our most recent pic in a little town called Atlantic City:

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(68 mins) | This week I invited beauty critic Jessica DeFino on the pod to talk about beauty culture. This is a followup to my Sunday newsletter about beauty anxiety. We discuss everything from Botox and the problem with “clean beauty,” to the source of beauty standards and the costs and benefits of divesting from them.

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(58 mins) | So happy to have on my friend Michelle Uranowitz this week to discuss Instagram. Michelle is an actor, filmmaker, teacher, and person I genuinely love and I knew she’d be a thoughtful and funny person to bring in for this topic. In this ep we rehash my Sunday newsletter on a more personal level, I make Michelle spiral when I analyze her Instagram, I spiral about whatever I’m always spiraling about, and together we imagine what it could look like to embrace social media as a fundamentally inauthentic medium.

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(66 mins) | Today I have two guests! A couples sex therapist name Ciara who also binge-watched and cried after Couples Therapy, and my friend and writer Meghan Nesmith, who loves going to couples therapy with her husband and has written about it before.

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(72 mins) | My friend Danny is back for another round of Dear Danny, the darker-but-more-fun counterpart to Dear Baby, wherein the two of us review the questions and answers in my last advice column and go deeper/wider/weirder. Today we discuss feeling uncool in New York, wanting to flee your life, aging, and the experimental CBD trial Danny is currently participating in/high on. And also a bunch of other things I forget!

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(85 mins) | This week’s episode is about getting married and having kids, or choosing to do neither. I invited on my friend and former editor Leslie Price, my favorite deadpan person on Earth, who is both married and a parent and has never been afraid to talk about the downsides. 

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(61 mins) | This week I brought on my friend Connie Wang, executive editor of Refinery29, to talk about consumerism and the pathologies we develop around what we buy. Connie is a cultural commentator who has written about style for years, and I happen to love her taste, so I was curious to get her perspective this week (after my last newsletter #50 on beautiful dining chairs). We confront questions like: What’s the difference between having good taste and being on trend? Is it okay to feel defined by your things? Is it possible to vote with your wallet? What does it actually mean to take care of yourself?

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(36 mins) | Part 2 of my convo with Verena von Pfetten, in which we discuss aging, f*g up as a good thing, and how to deal with writer’s block.

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(53 mins) | Part 1 of my conversation with my friend, mentor, and Gossamer co-founder Verena von Pfetten. We discuss feeling like it's "too late" to do things in your life (in an existential sense), how to deal with bad news (career or otherwise), and the worldview that is "everything happens for a reasons."

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(63 mins) | This week I invited Allison P. Davis onto the podcast to talk about horniness!!!! It would be really fun if I chose that topic arbitrarily but I didn’t: Allison is writing a book right now about horniness (it’s called, if you can imagine, Horny) and my last newsletter was all about anticipation, which is basically existential horniness. We found some much to talk about in the liminal space between these two things! The nature of desire, the upsides and downsides of centering your life around it, etc.

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(89 mins) | So happy to say it’s time for another round of Dear Danny: my monthly visit with fan-favorite Daniel Nelson, where he weighs in on the questions I answered for Dear Baby. This time, for Dear Baby: Weird Edition, we also brought in a few bonus questions I didn’t originally answer. This one had me laughing a lot…we swap funny stories about New York, we talk about having body dysmorphia and losing our virginity, we even put a stake in the ground re: the evergreen human quandary of whether farts are funny or embarrassing. Much to cover much to cover.

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(31 mins) | Last week I aired part 1 of my conversation with my friend Catherine Saint Siena, which was about workism (shitty jobs, following dreams, living to work vs working to live, etc). This is the second part of our conversation, which is about relationship doubt. These were topics I covered in my last Dear Baby ICYMI, but they’re also relevant to my and Catherine’s friendship, since we first bonded over leaving jobs and relationships that didn’t feel right. This part of the conversation is shorter and less in depth in that we didn’t exactly prep for it (we’d already talked for 90 minutes at this point), but we couldn’t not! So it’s getting its own baby episode.

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(81 mins) | This week’s podcast is special because the guest is my friend and comedian Catherine Saint Siena, whom I was this close to starting a podcast with earlier this year before everything imploded, so I’m considering this ep a peek into a parallel universe. For the first time I’ve split this one into two parts. This first one is all about workism: the American zeal for work-as-identity, the unlikely impacts of that, the ways we’ve felt it, and how we want to challenge it. (In case you missed it, I answered a question about this in my last newsletter.)

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(81 mins) | Thrilled to share I’ve invited my team of pop culture analysts, i.e. Avi Bonnerjee and Harling Ross, back on the podcast today to discuss nepotism in America (especially Hollywood), as inspired by the Twitter discourse around Cazzie David’s essay in The Cut last week. We also, in the name of literary critique, weigh in on whether we ever get too full to f**k. Come for the goss, stay for Avi’s dead-serious cover of LMFAO’s “Party Rock Anthem.”

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(84 mins) | Today I brought on my favorite sad girl, Nora Taylor, to discuss melancholy, sadness, and depression, as explored in my last newsletter, #32: Stimulants. But it’s also fun! Nora is an editor at Clever for Architectural Digest. We met at Man Repeller (where she wrote about things like Sauce Men, the Caesar haircut, and Tom Hanks) and initially bonded over our love of Phoebe Bridgers (yes…that’s me and Avi coving “Smoke Signals” for today’s intro song…lol!). Nora is a strange bird whom I truly cherish and I’m livid that I forgot to ask her about her dream of being a mailwoman. Here we are just before our “writers retreat” upstate in 2018—a very special story we save for the end:

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(63 mins) | This week I brought on my friend and talented writer Laura Bannister to discuss the themes I explored in Sunday’s newsletter (#31: Lunacy), such as Looney Tunes, the US election, and whether art needs to be “relevant” to be worthwhile. Laura’s a fellow TuneHead (just made that up), an Australian witnessing her first US election up close, and an art critic obsessed with American chain restaurants, so I knew she’d be the perfect guest…and she was! We reference a ton of internet stuff—all the links below. I also do an audio reading of #31 at the end in case you’re interested. That’s around the 55-minute mark.

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(71 mins) | This week I invited my favorite people in the world, Kelly and Andy Nahman, my older siblings, onto the podcast to discuss my last newsletter, #30: Intrusive thoughts. We talk about anxiety spirals, insomnia, and the strange neuroses we tend to leave out of small talk. I may be biased because I love my siblings and want to know everything going on in their brains all the time, but this one made me laugh a lot. I do want to warn that our tone may come across as insensitive or cavalier due to the gravity of the topics…so if dark humor isn’t your thing, or you’re not in a place to make light of serious things, this one might not be for you. 

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(53 mins) | This week I brought on culture, food, and climate writer Alicia Kennedy to talk about what it’s like to be a semi-public figure (and receive public criticism), how to get yourself to write when you’re not in the mood, and what it’s like to make subscriber-funded work. This conversation is in response to my last newsletter, #29: On s**t-talking, clickbait, and politics (in bed). Remember adding “in bed” to the end of fortunes? Thinking about bringing that back. Anyway, Alicia and I have actually never met! Or spoken anywhere other than via Twitter replies. So it was nice to finally talk face to face, even though we didn’t actually do that because there’s a pandemic and she lives in Puerto Rico.

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(81 mins) | Welcome to a special Emily in Paris extravaganza, featuring my boyfriend Avi Bonnerjee, lover of awful pop culture (and singer of today’s intro song), and good friend Harling Ross, professional peer of Emily Cooper. We discuss everything from Emily’s sex life and fashion choices to the show’s impact and place in the canon of American art. I’m been so blue lately and this conversation really cheered me up, so I hope it does the same for you! Please add all your EiP thots in the comments below.

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(88 mins) | This week I brought on my good friend and brilliant writer T Wise to talk about the themes in my last newsletter, #27: The pain/pleasure paradox. I met T when I was his editor at Man Repeller, and every time we published one of his essays people would comment “MORE OF THIS PLEASE!!!!” And I agree. Today we discuss everything from death to Judaism, gender, The Vow, and (dare I say it) cancel culture. Our conversation wraps around 1 hour 15 minutes, at which point I do an audio reading of the newsletter.So skip that if you already read it! In the future I may break out the audio readings, so thanks for dealing in the meantime.

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(65 mins) | Today I brought on my parents to discuss what it’s like to read my writing when it involves them (or parts of my life I might not otherwise share with them). I also brought on Amalie MacGowan, my friend and former Man Repeller colleague, to talk about her experience writing about her complicated childhood, including what led to her at one point pulling a story within an hour of publishing.

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(66 mins) | Thanks so much for all your thoughtful engagement under my last newsletter, “#24: The Emily Ratajkowski effect.” It’s been one of the more nerve-wracking but ultimately satisfying writing experiences I’ve had in a while. This week I brought on my friend and former editor Mallory Rice to discuss all of it—Emrata’s essay, her brand of feminism, my response, and your responses to my response (both positive and critical). 

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(72 mins) | In today’s episode I chat with my good friend Danny about everything from peeing in the shower to middle school style, fashion week, and the point of siblings (he’s an only child). Around the 20-minute mark we tell the famed story of when I took Danny to a fashion show, one of my favorite New York memories.

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Listen now (53 min) | Excited to share that not unlike my peers I have yet again recorded a podcast. This week I brought my boyfriend Avi back to discuss death, recklessness, and David Blaine, and for some reason I admit to cheating in college. Is it material that we didn’t change out of our pajamas until 4pm the day we recorded? Because that was the energy we were bringing.

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(83 mins) | In "#21: Dear Baby," which you received on Sunday, I answered 5 reader questions. Today I’ll be tackling 3 of them: I’ll be discussing moving in with a partner with my very own partner, Avi, and then I’ll be talking about both editing and influencing with Harling Ross, my former Man Repeller colleague and good friend.

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(23 mins) | I’m here to present you with the next episode of the Maybe Baby podcast, which includes a reading of #20: “Who are you online?” along with some truly off-the-leash monologuing.

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(25 mins) | Here’s the latest episode of the Maybe Baby podcast: It’s a reading of newsletter #19 + some extra context and excerpts that I didn’t include in the written version. Hope you enjoy! Please don’t tell Avi I just ate all the m&ms out of our trail mix.

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(26 min) | This time I’m reading #18: Notes for therapy, which you received in written form on Sunday. I also include, as always, a little eXtra conteXt. I will warn that due to the list format this one might be slightly easier to read, but who am I to stop you from consuming this while folding your laundry/watching paint dry/walking aimlessly around your kitchen? Whatever you do is the right thing.

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(24 mins) | This week I’m doing a reading of #17: Xanax for the human condition, with the help of a brand new mic that makes me feel deeply professional. I also offer a little context behind why I wrote about nostalgia this week, and why I recommended some of the things I did (like the article about having kids during perilous times). Hope you enjoy!

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(27 mins) | This week includes a reading of the newsletter (#16) you received on Sunday. In it I answer these five reader questions: How did you come to accept that you were ready for a major career change? What are your thoughts about everything that went down at Man Repeller in June? How can I trust my own voice? When do you know someone is "the one" to commit to?What are your thoughts on the gender fluidity of style?

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(36 min) | ‘Tis my plej and honor to present the third episode of the Maybe Baby podcast. This week I’m talking about my decision to “go paid” (lol) and exploring some criticism I received on my last newsletter. It also includes an audio reading of #15 and more context behind my recommendations, if that’s your kink.

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(28 mins) | Excited to share episode two of the Maybe Baby podcast, now featuring music! (I watched a YouTube video on editing and am feeling EMPOWERED.) Just like last week, this is a reading of my latest newsletter, “My brain is melting in suburbia,” plus some extra thots & context. 

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(23 min) | Some people have expressed interest in listening to my newsletter instead of reading it, so starting today I’m going to experiment with sending an audio version a couple days after the written one. These recordings will always come with a little behind-the-scenes info on what I’ve written and some extra context around my recommendations, so whether you didn’t have time to read or just want to know more, there should be a little something for you.

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