Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Nancy and Sarah discuss the very online experience of watching both the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and the capture of the man named as his killer, Luigi Mangione. We discuss the memes, conspiracies, tasteless jokes, and crushes on the alleged shooter. Did the tragic incident offer a pressure-valve release to Americans frustrated by a limping healthcare system, or is it an inflection point for something more dangerous? And how should we feel when murder becomes entertainment?

Also discussed:

* The Daniel Penny verdict

* The floating-in-space feeling between election and inauguration

* Activism ain’t what it used to be

* “Will you forgive me for loving to say his name?”

* Piers Morgan, the Jerry Springer of political shows

* “The brain is a dangerous thing”

* Bonnie & Clyde and glamorous crime

* “Desire knows no ethics”

* The detail that helps Luigi Mangione’s capture in a McDonald’s make sense

* Caitlin Flanagan, the master storyteller

* “What will survive of us is love”

* Did Sonny Liston take a dive?

Plus, Sarah’s brain makes “popcorn” in the middle of the night, Nancy thinks CBD makes her sing better, Ben Dreyfuss talks with Taylor Lorenz (let’s listen), and more!

As the poet says, what will survive of us is love. As the podcasters say, we survive only if you become a paid subscriber

Smoke ‘Em welcomes favorite repeat guest and self-proclaimed “absolute newspaper romantic” Matt Welch. He talks with Nancy and Sarah about whether legacy papers can ever make a comeback and how they ignore local news at their own peril, plus whether civility might be on the upswing.

Also discussed:

* Pink hair don’t care

* How the Los Angeles Times “changed the physical landscape of the West.”

* Scott Jennings joins the editorial board at the LA Times. And?

* “Like perestroika, incivility starts in the home”

* They’re still counting votes in California!

* Is activism dead or just sleeping?

* “Throw any Russian in a skirt at Hegseth and he’s going to loosen his tie”

* “A dark sky had fallen over Nantucket, Mass., on Saturday evening when President Biden left church alongside his family after his final Thanksgiving as president …”

* Meghan McCain, flashpoint

* “Mono-politics is bad for governance”

* Maybe people should disengage from politics and take up streaking and fart books?

* People who voted for Kamala, but were pulling for Trump?

* Nancy thinks “raw-dogging” means …

* Sarah interviews Ken Burns, American treasure

Also, a wretched New York Times “Ethicist” question, thoughts on why Biden pardoned his son, dick-shaped cookie cutters, and much more!

Greetings from Nancy’s 31st hotel room! Our roving reporter is on the scene in Asheville, North Carolina, where she gives Sarah the scoop on hurricane damage, what the politicized coverage has gotten wrong, and why it’s good to live near churches when catastrophe strikes. The two of them talk Ted Cruz vs. Colin Allred, as well as Kamala Harris vs. Bret Baier. Then it’s on to the New York Times’ latest story on University of Michigan’s DEI double-down.

Also discussed:

* What up with those shower half-doors?

* Fewer “talking points” Kamala, more Feisty Kamala

* Name someone more weasely than Ted Cruz. We’ll wait …

* “Whore’s bath”???

* FEMA controversy = not that controversial

* Does DEI cause plane crashes?

* How long will colleges ignore the ROI?

* Anatomy of Lies: Next week’s topic?

* What does it say about us that we love exposing liars?

Plus, the problem with the docu-series, the man who puts Sarah to sleep every night, Nancy needs a bath, and more!

Nancy here. Among the things I learned reading Sophie Scott’s fabulous, super-smart and sexy new book, The Brain: 10 Things You Should Know: The brain itself has no feeling, I could be poking your exposed brain with my fingers (though I wouldn’t!… I don’t think) and you’d be like, “Pass the salt, please.” That everything we experience is the brain’s best guess at what is out there. And that while your body constantly renews itself - the lining of your gut in 2 - 4 days; all your red blood cells in 40 - there is one and only one body part you keep from birth to death.

"I am also interested in the expression of emotion in the voice, especially laughter,” writes Scott, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and director of the Institute for Cognitive at Neuroscience at University College in London, who joins me to talk about:

* “The good glue” that is laughter

* Why left-handed people pay attention to the world differently

* “Synaptic exuberance,” or humans’ terrific inventiveness and flexibility in adapting to different environments, all of which relies on our brains’ ability to change

* The endorphin rush that made Scott fall backwards into a bath while attempting to take off her coat

* The reason my brain once created the sound of a hard hat striking cement

And much more!

Intro/outro music: “Sleeper Awake” by Kelly Hogan

In this week’s episode:

* Nancy’s pro tips on trying to stitch herself

* The TikTok lady on the plane who claimed “that m***erfucker isn’t real” prompts a talk on the dangers of mixing Ambien and alcohol, the nature of religion, and what technology is doing to our sense of reality

* The New Yorker’s story on penis enlargement surgery makes Nancy yelp

* The REAL reason men want larger penises is…

* What is tetanus anyway?

* Nancy makes squoogy food sounds while talking about The Bear

* Sarah has a new reality show addiction

And much more!

The hosts behind the podcasts The Unspeakable and Smoke ‘Em were just sitting around being all heterodoxy when lo! The call came from the newly formed University of Austin: Want to come to Dallas to discuss the current state of media, whether feminism has impacted the desire to raise children, how we treat the work of artists whose behaviors we don’t agree with, and to answer student questions along the lines of, for instance, how are you a “feminine woman”? Yes please!

And so Meghan Daum, Sarah, and Nancy took the stage last Thursday at Old Parkland, an eye-popping and glorious campus founded in 1984 and now owned by real estate billionaire Harlan Crow (yes, that Harlan Crow). The conversation was hosted by the Mill Institute, an initiative that works in “educational settings to explore and challenge the entrenched thinking that leads to a breakdown of conversation on contentious issues.” Our moderator was Ilana Redstone, the faculty director of the Mill Institute and associate professor of sociology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

See if you can guess which one of us remembered to take pictures!

No paywall because we love you AND because we trust you to become a paid subscriber right… now!

Nancy here. It was 15 minutes before sound check when my daughter and I decided to scoot around Old Parkland for a few minutes. I mean, the place is crazy gorgeous, very grand, we get a few steps out of the building and …

“Is that a bar?” my daughter asks. It is, right there on campus and a stone’s throw from where we will be speaking, and I mean, we do have 15 minutes.

It’s a Negroni for Tavie, a glass of rose for me, which we might have had plenty of time to sip but for the bartender, a guy who had many many stories to tell before making the drinks. Which was fine! He was entertaining and sweet and very funny, and if I had to lay money, I’d say he might also do stand-up (or should). As he went finally to grab the drinks, Tavie looked at who was at the bar with us, maybe 15 people, all dudes, in button-down shirts but not fancy.

“These guys are probably younger than me,” said Tavie, who is 33. Maybe so. Also, we were definitely not in Fort Greene.

“I like preppy guys,” she said. Me too.

We brought our cocktails with us for sound check. The camera guy told me I better keep my legs crossed, because the way the cameras were positioned, below the stage, made it, um …

“It is kind of Sharon Stone,” said Sarah, referring to the then-scandalous scene in Basic Instinct, and you know what? She was right!

Anyway, Stone is not the beautiful girl I referred to above. That would be my girl. Thanks for subscribing!

Nancy reports from storm-strewn Tulsa while Sarah reports from the future, where they discuss:

* The worst storm in Tulsa since 2007, not that the news is covering it

* Sarah has a new boyfriend, and he is exactly one day old

* The predictive genius of the movie Her

* Is it cheating if you’re fooling around with an AI?

* Do we have to tell our partners everything?

* The future where Siri becomes personalized, and we all get AI assistants

* The difference between “falling in love” and “being in love”

* A new season of The Bear is coming

* Is Nancy’s Native American accent offensive?

* Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

* Black Mirror is back, baby!

* UATX event with Nancy, Sarah, and Meghan Daum

Good morning from the Delta Lounge at LaGuardia airport. Got here from the pad in Chinatown and through security (thanks, Clear!) in 25 minutes, a record. En route to Oklahoma, where this happened yesterday.

Also in Texas, where I’ll be headed Monday or Tuesday, and eventually on Thursday to Dallas, for an on-stage event with the University of Austin (yes in Dallas, though apparently there are more local digs in the works) with Hepola and Meghan Daum. The event is for students-only but UATX is growing - check them out.

I interrupt the usual Pie Talk by reading an essay as, alas, I have not been making much pie or anything else, the only thing in my refrigerator are condiments and Diet Coke and maybe a half-bottle of wine. At least Cameron Diaz’s has some salad…

So I mention in the episode a short book/manual/pdf thingie written by two genre authors about 15 years ago, about the ways and whys of self-publishing. I thought it was called “Be the Monkey,” and maybe it is, but alas, I cannot find it. What I can find are oodles of other books about self-publishing as it’s gone so mainstream and become for many so lucrative. I mean, hello Colleen Hoover, who knows the trick to success (and practices it better than any of us) is to write write write; there lies the radiance.

I did yesterday, over on Make More Pie, and the response has been gratifying. It’s the piece I read for you here. Go ahead and subscribe over there if you have not already, and thank you.

Onto the deliciousness! Do try this one, which is just in time for zucchini season, which lasts at least a week (though it won’t) and, I am told, freezes beautifully.

Must-Try, Super-Moist Zucchini Bread from Alexandra’s Kitchen

* Scant 2 cups (227 g) flour

* ¾ teaspoon baking powder

* ¾ teaspoon baking soda

* 1 teaspoon cinnamon, optional

* 1 teaspoon kosher salt

* 1 cup light (213 g) brown sugar

* ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar

* ¾ cup vegetable oil

* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, optional

* 2 eggs, lightly beaten

* 2½ cups grated zucchini (12–16 oz.)

* Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Grease a 8.5 x 4.5-inch loaf pan or a 10 x 5-inch loaf pan if using as much as a pound of zucchini (see notes above). For easy removal, line the pan with a sheet of parchment paper that hangs over the edges. 

* Whisk together first five ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk remaining ingredients except zucchini. Add zucchini to the flour mixture and toss to coat. Add dry to wet and stir till until combined. Pour into pan. Bake until toothpick comes out clean, about 45 minutes to 1 hour. If you have an instant read thermometer, it should register 205ºF or above. (Note: Every oven is different, and different pans conduct heat differently —  be patient with the cooking. It may take 20-30 minutes more. With the longer cooking time, the bread shouldn’t burn, but if you are noticing the bread getting too brown, cover it with foil.)

* Let bread cool for 15 minutes in pan, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely before slicing. 

She also offers a step-by step video!

This week, we tackle:

* Elizabeth Gilbert’s para-social relationship with her fans

* Victimhood as status, online campaigns as feel-good mirage

* Will Sarah defend Elizabeth Gilbert? Yes, she will.

* Our Moderate MILF watched “The Idol,” and she has thoughts!

* Is HBO’s new show a critique of our hyper-sexualized world, or a victim of it?

* Which Britney Spears was the hottest Britney Spears?

* Tom Wolfe gives a wedgie to the world

* The greatness that is Rick Rubin

Nancy has messy beach hair, and Sarah is expanding her yin, so this week we tackle:

* The meltdown at CNN

* Who is Chris Licht, and no, it’s not L-i-c-k-e-d. (Note: This episode was recorded before Licht resigned on June 7.)

* Can cable news be saved?

* FAIR vs. FIRE, and the push from the center

* Walking is not exercise?!?

* A New York Times arts critic skewers Hannah Gadsby’s Picasso show

* Sarah and Nancy take the over-under on said show’s popularity

* The sleazy 90s bad-good thrill that is HBO’s The Idol

* The line between women’s sexual agency and women’s sexual exploitation

* The joys of local news

And much more!