Jessie and Olivia are BACK for season three! We started with a book we both read, 'I Who Have Never Known Men,' and discuss its themes, genre, and the nature of freedom and existence (we know, super light topics). The conversation explores the impact of relationships on personal growth and the importance of community. It’s really fun! Some light plot spoilers between around 8 minutes and 20 minutes, but we hope small spoilers will make you even more interested in reading this book we both loved. Also: is sending six women to space in a Blue Origin ship feminist?

https://bookshop.org/a/81323/9781945492600

After an unintentional break, we're back to discuss what's been going on in the world -- really, not a lot, right?! The U.S. presidential election gives us yet more opportunity to talk through a key feminist ideal, that the personal is political. Jessie's also kept reading in the ACOTAR series. In true form, she also brings us the story of some everyday women who lived in a neighborhood that happened to be built on a chemical waste landfill (turns out, this is not good!) The book follows the actions they and allies in Congress and the New York health department took to stand up to corporations, many of them experiencing activist awakenings in the process. When it's families' lives and health on the line, women truly show UP.

Jessie's book: Paradise Falls: The True Story of an Environmental Catastrophe by Keith O'Brien. Also published with the subtitle "A Deadly Secret, a Cover-Up, and the Women Who Forged the Modern Environmental Movement."

If there was a way to connect WWI to the Blake Lively PR controversy, you know Jessie and Olivia will find it. Today, a robust conversation about media literacy, freedom of the press, and how many of our issues with access to accurate information and using essential critical thinking skills are not new problems. Jessie talks about one postmaster general's single-minded mission to prevent sharing any minority opinions, even after wartime (ostensibly the justification) ended. Olivia talks about her personal journey through recognizing the motives that can be at play in cultural drama. Then we go on a whole tangent into the things we distract ourselves with when life is overwhelming. Jessie has discovered the wide world of racecar-driving-themed romance novels, which Olivia points out has always been the way of thriving spaces for publishing and reading the stories we love. We discuss the ways we engage(d) with stories as fledgling writers.

Demure, mindful: Jools Lebron on TikTok

Books Jessie talks about: American Midnight by Adam Hochschild; Getting Lost by Annie Ernaux; Drive Me Crazy by Carly Robyn