This week’s roundup is brought to you by my Depression and Inability to write anything coherent when waking up in a world that would rather I and others not wake up at all. And apparently Canada is not so easy to move to, like, let me into the country??? So here I am, in America, stress listening to podcasts, paralyzed. There’s some dark stuff on this list, some light, and a bit of magic. Enjoy it all while it lasts.
podcasts & audiobooks: ezra klein meet angela davis and covid…again
If you want to hear about what’s really happening in the U.S—and why it’s worse than you think:
This podcast articulates the precise concerns (in their scale, urgency, and scope) that I have been trying to hammer into people over the last few weeks as many continue to mince words over the true implications of the Trump administration’s deployment of thousands of National Guards in D.C and his plans to triple ICE’s budget for 2026.
What is going to happen when, predictably, a protester throws a rock at an agent? Klein asks. Or a Marine hears a car backfiring and thinks it’s a gunshot? In an instant, this could all explode. You could have American troops firing on American civilians in an American city in a country-defining crisis. What happens then?
His guest, journalist Radley Balko (author of Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Force), argues that all this is not about immigration (completely) or crime (at all), but Trump’s desire to build a paramilitary force, one that, this time-around, will carry out his agenda unquestioningly.
That violence is the inevitable outcome of this is evidenced by Trump’s suggestion to ‘just shoot’ George Floyd protestors during his first term. Well, Balko argues, now he can. There are no functioning mechanisms to stop him.
I do not see enough people in my life (even as troops patrol our city) doing the wretched work of wrapping their brains fully around this fact, that the foundations for a cataclysmic act(s) of violence against American civilians is being built this minute, is already happening to non-citizens. It’s past time to imagine the worst because the worst is likely coming (read: here) whether you have the heart to imagine it or not.
If you’re looking for inspiration from someone who’s put their neck on the line in dire times:
I have not gotten far into this audiobook but I’m obsessed with the way Davis casually says things like, “Before-uh I-uh LEFT the communist PAR-teee,” in her notorious drawl. We were about the same age when she first wrote her autobiography so I’m very interested in what she has to say about living out your twenties in turbulent times.
If you want to know wtf is going on with the new covid vaccine—and why you probably can’t get it:
YES, I’m including a show I produced because even I learned a lot from it.1 Last week, our host, Jenn, was in conversation with the inimitable infectious disease experts Angie Rasmussen and Dr. Paul Offit. They pulled no punches when it came to explaining the new Covid strain, Stratus, now the dominant one in the U.S, the spike we’re seeing this summer, concerns over tracking the virus and, if Health Secretary Kennedy’s ultimate goal is to pull the vaccine from the market entirely (which is not unlikely), how he could actually do this.
During the show, when asked why the Trump administration would make vaccines less accessible, Angie replied: “It’s the rise of authoritarianism and fascism is really what it is. In 1938, the Nazis did the exact same thing. They depleted completely areas of scientific research and inquiry and health that would’ve benefited everybody in favor of things that benefit the authoritarian who is consolidating power. And this is really what it’s all about.”
music: sabrina carpenter and sombr should get married
Some FUN, finally, thank fuck!!!!!!
If you want to feel cute and sexy with a dash of disco and some plucky country chords
“That boy is corrupt / Could you raise him to love me, maybe? / He sure fucked me up / And yes, I’m talking bout your baby.”
I don’t care what people say about Sabrina Carpenter getting on her knees so some faceless man can pull her hair: sign me up. I’ve listened to Nobody’s Son 4,34dn3ur4535 times. My favorite part? The bridge where it sounds like someone’s getting whipped in the background, maybe Somebody’s Son???
If you want to dance to something sweet, sultry, and sweaty while quietly falling in love with a dark-haired 20 year-old noodle
“In a room full of people, I look for you / Would you avoid me or would you look for me too? / Tell me, is our story through? (Through) / Or do our hearts still beat in tune?”
It was like sombr was created in a petri dish in someone’s basement. I had never heard of him and now it’s like I’ll never not hear about him. And I’m totally here for his takeover. This album makes me MISS clubbing in the kind of place with strobing lights, where everyone is sticky with sweat, and that’s just the way things were. 12 to 12, crushing and come closer are my repeat offenders.
Reading lately has been like pulling teeth. I know I’m not the only one whose reading slumps are epic and existential (Hello, Depression and Dread, you Bitches!!). But I had to pop into say that Mona Awad’s follow-up to BUNNY is FUCKING NUTS. My favorite character of all is a new one. Spoiler: he’s a hot, dumb not-totally-human himbo and I’m obsessed with that man.
This title is something I’ve tried to remind myself as I re-learn how to do my job at a time when the traditional container for that job feels much too small and frankly, inadequate (more on this at some point). Obvi, Lorde is a superb writer. And one thing about me? I love a pink book.
I never thought I’d be listening to negro spirituals as a morose child who once rolled her eyes at songs like “This Little Light of Mine,” and “Swing Lo,” when forced to sing them in school.2
Ah, the Privilege, the Ignorance, the Arrogance of the post-Civil Rights middle-class Black child!! That little prick. If only she could see herself now, darting into the night to buy two candles (one black, one white, to represent balance, and because capitalism is involved even when a bitch is just trying to engage in a bit of witchcraft) to light and summon her ancestors from their graves to protect the powerless, to balance the scales of justice.
So: if you see angry formerly enslaved undead wandering your town, I might’ve done That.
Oops.
BTW, this aired just hours before the FDA announced it had approved the new Covid vaccine but with limitations. If anyone cares, I have not been able to get the new vaccine, at least not through CVS. I even put down that I was part of a vulnerable population on the online questionnaire just to see if that changed anything. It didn’t.
And now we’re fighting for this shit to be in schools, AGAIN!!!
Ezra Klein + Angela Davis, I feel so seen 🥰