Recommendation Roundup
A list of recommendations on everything from Glennon Doyle to basement tok.
I’m listening to Christmas music as I type this. I still have my Halloween decorations up. A friend of mine has decided to slow roll her Christmas decorations by putting a few of them out with her Halloween decorations. For instance, we both bought the cute, red and green felt garland from Trader Joe’s and she wrapped hers around her ghosts and pumpkins. I had to hide mine because I also bought the garland for cats that has mice woven in. Would you believe that cats don’t know the difference between garland for the Christmas tree and garland for them to play with?
In addition to buying Christmas decorations and confusing my cats, I’ve been keeping a list of things to tell you about. It’s a combination of stuff I’ve watched, read and listened to. Plus, just the tip.
One of my go-to jokes, or a bit, if you will, is saying, “That’ll be a chapter in my memoir.” Like maybe a lot of you, I was an OG Glennon Doyle fan and then at some point, I drifted away. Not for any specific reason, although there have been some missteps, for sure. I think I was just overwhelmed with the enormity of her brand. But then I heard Corinne Fay say on one of Virginia Sole-Smith’s Burnt Toast podcasts that she’s been listening to Glennon’s podcast because she’s talking about being in recovery for an eating disorder. Suddenly, I was interested again. I’ve spent the better part of this year listening to all of these episodes and seeing myself in them in a way that surprised me and made me sad about how lonely my own recovery journey has been.
In my memoir, this chapter will be called ‘My Glennon Doyle Year.’ In her latest episode, she talks about how if she’s giving up controlling the size of her body, shouldn’t she also give up controlling her appearance via botox and dying her hair? This is a topic I am fascinated with. I appreciate her curiosity and earnestness. She’s willing to talk to a very large audience about something she’s doing and learning in real-time, and to me, there’s value in that.
But … after you listen to Glennon’s latest episode, read Virginia Sole-Smith’s essay “The Anti-Fatness of Good Hair?”
Virginia talks about some of the insidious ways those of us in plus-size bodies might be performing a “good fatty” through things like having good hair. An aggravating thing I keep re-learning is that even though I may see myself in the stories of straight-sized women (Glennon), it is fat women and femmes who 99.9% of the time are the ones adding context and nuance to the conversation. I say all of this to say, I am deeply grateful for Virginia’s work.
Abrupt pivot! It’s soup season, mf. I love soup. I live for this time of year. You can have this crockpot when you pry it from my cold, dead hands. I made Roberto this week! IYKYK. If you don’t know, Roberto is the soup-child of Helen Rosner. I neither like, nor understand how to use kale, so I skip it and instead add a bag of shredded cabbage. Shrabbage, if you will. Don’t skip the lemon at the end. It really does do a thing.
Speaking of food, friend of the pod, Joy the Baker closed The Bakehouse. I met Joy back in the early days of the internet when people were still nice and you could make friends in comment sections. We solidified our friendship in 2018 when I participated in her first big Bakehouse retreat called The Bakeaway. I was so blown away by the weekend and how she was able to turn her house into a business that I basically copied it (with her permission) and a year later started teaching my own workshops, which I still teach! I just taught one last weekend. Joy is starting a new chapter in Texas, but before she officially left New Orleans, she wrote a beautiful tribute to The Bakehouse and everyone who helped make it what it was.
Man, this whole post is about women on the internet. Maybe I should re-name my Substack. Much to consider.
If you were on the internet this week, you saw that Jezebel closed. But prior to that news, Anna Holmes, who founded Jezebel, wrote an essay about Jezebel for The New Yorker. The essay is about the Jezebel readership, the infamous comment section and women’s rage in general.
I work in news in Nashville, so it is my duty to talk to you about the new Taylor Swift reporter Gannett hired. In her Substack The Present Age, Parker Molloy talked to eight writers, including one of my faves, Jessica Hopper, about the new T-Swift reporter and whether or not a self-professed Swiftie can objectively cover this beat.
Are you on TikTok? And if so, are you on basement tok? Because I am and I am confused. The other night a woman in red lipstick, a hard had and a green dress came across my FYP. She was loading up a mining cart full of rocks in her basement and transporting them via conveyor belt to a dumpster outside. I saved it to show John because I knew he’d want to see a women faux-mining in her basement. Well, the joke was on us. She is kind of legit mining. In her basement. In the days since I saw this, she has blown up and is now being discussed on reddit and even has a Wikipedia page. Her name is Kala and she is creating a system of tunnels underneath her suburban home in order to mine enough rocks to build a castle. That is a fairly direct quote from her Toks. Also on basement tok: Eel City. But I’ll save that for next time.
And now, as promised: Just the Tip!
In my old newsletter (RIP, Mailchimp), I ended every post with an eggplant emoji and a social media tip. I called it “Just the Tip” and sadly only one of my friends got it. I digress! Here’s your tip. If you’re trying to grow your followers on Instagram and you use Stories, once every few days, or once a week, use one of the tools IG wants you to put in your Stories: poll, ask me a question, music, etc. It’ll give you a little boost in engagement. Someone who does a great job doing this is my beloved barre instructor Lauren Leavell.
Thanks for being here! See you again soon, friends.