October was a difficult month. We are so, so grateful to those of you who donated to our fundraiser benefitting the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. As of writing, we have surpassed our goal of $5,000 with a whopping $8,025. Thank you, thank you, thank you. In the face of unfathomable atrocities and tragedy, it’s immensely comforting to witness your generosity. The fundraiser will remain open, so if you feel inclined to donate or share, we welcome it.
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Here’s some ducks Coach saw on a walk a few weeks ago when they were having a rough day. Marcelle said they were geese and ultimately bullied Coach when she was already down. Sound off in the comments.
Lots of love,
Hannah, Marcelle, Coach, Zoe and Gaby
It’s a love story, baby, just say “in this essay I will!”
We’ve got three new episodes that are, quite frankly, lightning in a bottle. Incredible stuff all around.
We were joined by Vanessa Zoltan to discuss Bridgerton (the book series) and its move into the mainstream through the Shondaland adaptation on Netflix. Vanessa gives us some insight on romance fiction as a genre and Hannah leads us through theory from Janice Radway's book Reading the Romance.
Next, we talked about space fascism! Marcelle led Hannah through a conversation about one of her favorite franchises, Star Wars, by first taking a close look at George Lucas's politics and the state of Hollywood in the 1970s. Pulling on the work of Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, Marcelle offers a Marxist reading of the film's lasting legacy and asks: what is conservative about the film? How does the film work to undermine and/or reinforce the ideology of repressive state apparatuses?
Finally, we talked about Taylor Swift with the incomparable H. Willison (she/her). We start with a conversation about Taylor as an artist and Margaret provides context to help us understand how and why Taylor's Eras Tour and the ten studio albums that led to it have created such a buzz. Then Marcelle leads Hannah and Margaret through Lauren Berlant's theory of intimate publics with an eye towards the Swiftie fandom and Taylor's fluid feminist politic. We finish the episode with Marcelle's incredible thesis and a discussion about capitalism, what makes an icon, and what might be next for Swift.
Sister of the show Hope Rehak (okay fine, she’s only Coach’s sister but universally beloved by the rest of us) is hosting a class with Not Sorry all about queer TV history! If you like Hope’s substack then you’ll love this course.
From Will & Grace to Our Flag Means Death, Hope will lead class participants in discussions that engage critically with beloved, messy, outdated, radical tv and film enterprises from the last 60+ years. If you’re curious about the history of queer representation, eager to chat with like-minded folks about what works, doesn’t work, what feels like representation and what feels like stereotyping, then this seminar is for you!
And another thing!
We’re doing a bonus episode about Taylor Swift! And, once again, it’s a Q&A! Submit your questions before Monday and we’ll be sure to get to as many as possible! We know our episode only covered so much, and had a very specific angle (once again, *materialist critique*), so this is your chance to have us talk about whatever you want!
Hey! As you’ve likely seen, Gaby is doing the good work over on TikTok and Instagram! But they’re also doing it over on our Patreon with the perk Gaby Recommends (for our $10/month+ tiers!). If you want Gaby to recommend you something to read, head over to our page and consider becoming a supporter today. Gaby recommends books monthly, so you could be in November’s perk if you join today! If you don’t have the budget to support us on Patreon right now, you can always subscribe to our Youtube Channel for free and be notified whenever we post new content!
Every month, I give the team a vibe and ask them for their bangers. The November vibe was soft bops, updated covers of classic tunes, music for a dinner party full of loved ones, songs to listen to on your hot girl walks in the autumn, and THEY UNDERSTOOD THE ASSIGNMENT. We hope this playlist holds you closely as the days get shorter.
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Have a strongly worded comment about this newsletter? You can now reply right on Substack and we’ll be able to see it and even reply! Just be nice to us.
This very morning I finished the most epic podcast binge of my life. Since June I have listened to 275 episodes of Hey Riddle Riddle, resulting in a backlog of other podcasts so long that my Overcast is starting to get mad at me. But I can’t help myself—it’s a perfect podcast! The conceit is that three (originally) Chicago-based improvisers try to do riddles and puzzles, but from the very first episode it becomes clear that two out of the three—future Material Girls guest/perfect angel Erin Keif and chaos goblin JPC—actually don’t like riddles all that much, leaving show creator Adal Rifai as the sole riddle apologist. Come for some of the worst riddles you’ve ever heard in your life, stay for a glorious friendship and a perfectly unhinged improv dynamic that has produced such timeless lines as “Smacks the frog, please don’t fuck my mom.”And here’s a special bonus treat: in a 2021 episode Erin improvised a song so perfect that I asked friend-of-the-pod Marshall if he’d make a remix of it. Here is that remix, which I intend to listen to on repeat every day for the rest of my life.If you've been a listener of Witch, Please then you probably know that I almost exclusively read books in audio format. Something about doing a PhD really scorched my ability to sit and read a paper book for pleasure. So I'm going to do something a bit weird, here: I'm recommending a book that I absolutely detested listening to. I think you should pick up a copy of Mexican Gothic by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia. The novel was so good that I willingly suffered through 11 hours of some of the worst audiobook narration I have encountered in my life. It's a gothic novel, as the title indicates, so it's creepy and disturbing and fantastical, yet also seamlessly set in the 1950s, arguably the least gothic decade of the 20th century! I don't want to say too much, because the pleasure of reading a gothic novel is letting it surprise you and thrill you until you can't stand it any longer. But I will say that it is clearly informed by an intersectional feminist analysis of colonialism. WHAT MORE COULD YOU WANT?! (I do not recommend listening to the Random House Audio production because the reader has no coherent sense of how to narrate a story. The cadence is infuriatingly rhythmic and not at all consistent with what is happening on the page.)As has been noted plenty of times in this newsletter, I have been bopping around the country figuring out where and how to live for the last few years. This little guy came with me everywhere! If you like to nest wherever you are and want to keep your toothbrush clean, it's a must! Just pop it on the friend you're crashing with's sink and don't worry about them thinking "huh, she really moved in, didn't she." You just have a great eye for travel-sized home decor!Do you remember that scene in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (2005) when the White Witch feeds Edmund turkish delights and they look like the most delectable thing in the entire world? Yeah, I do too. But I’ve already lived out my turkish delight fantasies by eating them every time I visit Pike Place Market in Seattle, WA (there’s an amazing bakery that also makes their own turkish delights there). But a close second movie food that I’ve always hungered for is none other than butterbeer from The Three Broomsticks. That hot creamy golden beverage has haunted my dreams for years. So, this Halloween season I was determined to make my dreams a reality. I scoured the Internet, but was mostly met with recipes that recreate the butterscotch soda version they sell at Harry Potter World at Universal Studios. Not the vibe I’m looking for. Finally, I stumbled upon this recipe. It’s modeled after a butterbeer recipe from the 1500’s (according to the man in the video). And it looks hot, gorgeous, and like a distant cousin to eggnog! Unfortunately I failed for a few reasons: I used the wrong kind of ale, and not enough at that; had only nutmeg on hand (the recipe calls for ginger, nutmeg, and a few others); and only used two eggs (the recipe calls for five). So I shouldn’t have been surprised when the mixture turned out like an overcooked omelet stew with a hint of nutmeg. BLEH! I still have faith in this recipe, however, and I think if you actually follow the directions you are sure to have a tasty fall treat! Tag us on socials if you end up making it!Okay, yes, I’ve been watching season after season of Survivor, but I’m not going to recommend that this month (however if you do want a primer on getting into the Survivor-verse, slide into my DMs @gabyiori, I got you). Instead, I’m recommending MUNA’s NPR Tiny Desk concert, because if I think about it too much I go absolutely feral, and I think you should experience that too. I love MUNA, they’re the greatest band in the world, and my favorite place to be isatoneoftheirshows (CW for flashing lights at those links). Their Tiny Desk is kind of a beautiful antithesis of their shows—a MUNA concert is a time to go absolutely buckwild, dancing, singing, crying, etc.; their Tiny Desk is quiet, acoustic, with a little bit of yeehaw realness brought to their most-known hit “Silk Chiffon.” I love it because I can hear them all so clearly, and it’s such a beautifully raw performance from all of them. MUNA forever!
Okay, bye! xoxo
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