Bitch Media: Popaganda and Backtalk

Dahlia and Amy ring in the new year (yay!) talking about how the world is burning down (boo!). The beginning of this decade can feel hopeless, but all hope is not lost: stay informed, organize, and create change.    WATCH Not to be confused with “Celebrity Couples Therapy,” “Couples Therapy” on Showtime is a really interesting look at the work of being a therapist. There’s also a very strange and engaging new “Dracula” miniseries on Netflix.    READ “Severance” by Ling Ma is the apocalyptic dystopian consumerist novel of our times.    LISTEN “Fresh Blood” by Eels

This week, Dahlia and Amy talk about the latest in the impeachment inquiry and whether it means we’ll finally kick Trump out of office. A whole crew of former and current government officials have appeared to testify as to whether Trump engaged in a quid pro quo with the Ukrainian president. The testimonies have revealed a Trumpian shitshow that points directly at that quid pro quo—but will it be enough to dethrone him?   WATCH “Parasite” by director Bong Joon-ho is a film for our times. Bong shows us how capitalism has failed us all in this smart, funny, and anxiety-inducing film.   READ “The Beautiful Ones,” a memoir that Prince was working on before his death, was meant to "be a handbook for the brilliant community," "a radical call for collective ownership, for black creativity," and “a book about freedom.” Featuring Prince’s own handwritten memoir pages, the book is also filled with photos, letters, and other rad Prince ephemera.   LISTEN “Rich Man’s World 1%” by Immortal Technique

This week, Dahlia and Amy talk about the meme that’s the perfect digital eye roll. “OK Boomer” is the millennial and Gen Z clapback that has some people clutching their pearls. But what does this meme say about calling out people in power and starting a conversation about what young people stand to inherit?    WATCH Last Week Tonight with John Oliver’s “Eat Shit, Bob Murray” episode is a perfect middle finger to a wretched coal baron who silences critics with frivolous, expensive lawsuits.    READ "In the Dream House" by Carmen Maria Machado LISTEN The Muffs “Sad Tomorrow”

This week, Dahlia and Amy talk Facebook’s bid for world domination and what Mark Zuckerberg’s latest appearance before Congress revealed. Ahead of the 2020 elections and in the wake of influence campaigns that have led to violence around the world, it’s been asked if the social-media giant is capable of growing responsibly. (Hint: nope).    Extra reading: [New York Times]   READ  “Fake Like Me” by Barbara Bourland is part art-world exposé, part murder-mystery, and all-engrossing.    WATCH  Jenny Slate’s Netflix Special “Stage Fright” is a quirky mix of her stand-up and documentary footage with her family.    LISTEN  “Which Witch” by Florence + The Machine

This week, Dahlia and Amy get into the recent campus conflict when white students with hurt feelings thought it’d be a good idea to burn books written by a visiting author. Jennine Capó Crucet was invited to Georgia Southern University to speak about her novel, which was required reading for some freshmen students at the school. Students confronted her during the Q&A and burned her novel after Capó Crucet’s lecture! Plus, we celebrate Indigenous People's Day and what it means to decolonize a federal holiday.    READ  In “Molly Fox’s Birthday” by Deirdre Madden, an unnamed narrator spends the day in her friend’s home. Molly is an actress visiting London, and the narrator, a playwright inhabiting Molly’s Irish cottage on her birthday, reflects on their friendship and the crafts of writing and acting.    WATCH  “Doubt,” starring Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, and the incomparable Viola Davis was released in 2008 and worth a re-watch in this #MeToo moment.    LISTEN “Aute Couture” by Rosalia