Sami, Kaitlin, and Amanda react to two headlines related to the far-right and reflect on the judge’s insane behavior at the Kyle Rittenhouse trial. Then they pivot to this week’s flood of negative news articles about Vice President Kamala Harris and her working relationship with the White House. We discuss: Is this criticism fair? Is it still sexist? Who is responsible for the vice president’s success? Why isn’t Joe a better boss? And what does this all mean for 2024? We process it all Learn mor...
Nov 17, 2021•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast Amanda, Alise, and Bryan start the show with some huge retirement news out of the Senate, and what it means for 2022. Then they share updates from redistricting processes around the country that suggest Republicans have already flipped the House of Representatives. They unpack what can be done before imagining an alternate reality when we’ve already lost but have nothing to lose. Cancelled debt and legalized weed is involved. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nov 16, 2021•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast Alise, Sami, and Amanda start by reacting to Beto O’Rourke’s announcement that he’ll run for governor. Then they discuss how female icons of the 2000s went from tabloid punching bags to feminist heroes. From Taylor Swift owning her music to Britney Spears owning her life and Jessica Simpson owning her name, they unpack an intense week of headlines that restored justice to women previously scorned by our own patriarchal narratives. Also, is Jake Gyllenhaal ok? Learn more about your ad choices. Vi...
Nov 15, 2021•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast Milly, Amanda, and Sami discuss the reaction to NFL player Aaron Rodgers and comparisons to how the league treated Colin Kaepernick. Is this a false equivalence that unnecessarily causes division, or an important contrast to highlight? They react to similar questions posed by the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, and consider how social justice activists can better frame our message for new audiences. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nov 11, 2021•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast Alise, Kaitlin, and Amanda break down some significant updates from the investigation into January 6 and what Trump’s been up to this year. They also react to members of Congress receiving death threats because of… each other. Finally, they give the “University of Austin” the very short segment it deserves. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nov 10, 2021•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast Milly, Amanda, and Alise start with a healthy appetizer naming their favorite parts of the freshly passed infrastructure bill. Then they get into the main course, a delicious roast of Josh Hawley’s misguided attacks of feminism, liberal politics, and critical race theory. Is he angling for a 2024 male grievance platform? They unpack his intentions and where he might have success before naming three personal issues they’d also like to blame on feminism, from traffic to nut butter shortages. Learn...
Nov 09, 2021•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast Amanda and Sami react to details from the tragedy at Astroworld. Then, they discuss updates from two high-profile trials related to racial justice: the men who killed Ahmaud Arbery as well as Kyle Rittenhouse, the teen who killed protesters in Kenosha last year. They explain odd events involving each set of juries and consider the likelihood of charges against Arbery’s killers. Finally, they discuss what needs to change after Engracia Figueroa, a disability activist, died as a result of an infec...
Nov 08, 2021•36 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sami, Amanda, and Kaitlin are back with additional thoughts on the fallout from the 2021 off year elections and share some very simple action steps for the Democratic party. They spend more time unpacking white women’s swing to Republicans and get frank about how much we can actually influence this group. Finally, they react to a hilarious headline about Facebook and discuss how its metaverse will turn us all to goo. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nov 04, 2021•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Milly, Alise, and Amanda debrief on Tuesday’s election results, including Democrats’ defeat in Virginia. They explain how Glenn Youngkin got white women to vote for him and what lessons we can and can’t learn from Virginia’s internal culture wars. What does an infrastructure bill in Congress have to do with parents mad about Toni Morrison? They discuss how Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress should react before ending with some positive news from election night. Learn more about your ad choices....
Nov 04, 2021•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast Alise, Bryan, and Amanda discuss their voting plans and races to watch today. Then they react to the surprising number of cops and firefighters who did (and didn’t) get vaccinated. Finally, they break down yesterday’s spirited Supreme Court hearing on the Texas abortion ban and explain why Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh are mad about it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nov 02, 2021•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast Amanda Litman is back with Sami and Amanda to break down the elections you need to watch this week, from coroners (who can literally decide who died of COVID) to 100 seats in the Virginia House of Delegates. They explain what Tuesday’s results can and can’t tell us about Democrats’ 2022 chances, what actually matters and what’s meaningless, and warn against creating a defeatist self-fulfilling prophecy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Nov 01, 2021•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast Milly, Sami, and Amanda react to the reality that paid family leave likely isn’t happening. How did this historic opportunity fall through Congress’s fingers? Plus, reacting to the short-lived billionaire tax. Then they do some spooky segments including who they would put a light (non-lethal) hex on this Halloween season and which historical figure they’d let haunt them for life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 28, 2021•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast Alise, Amanda, and Kaitlin analyze this week’s Facebook doc drop, summarizing the new takeaways from the biggest bombshells and how the developments might seriously jeopardize Facebook’s plans for world domination. They call out how new findings highlight Facebook’s hypocrisy and its particularly deadly apathy abroad. Finally, Amanda explains why Facebook is Erica Jayne and the algorithm is Tom Girardi. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 27, 2021•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast Amanda and Alise chat with the host of Betches’ new podcast Money Please, Berna Anat. She shares why the advice to stop buying lattes ignores the structural barriers to financial success for most women and minorities, and how she balances giving financial advice with recognizing that some factors are out of people’s control. She explains how she’s worked to redefine typical benchmarks of financial success, unpacks financial trauma and shame, and details the specific ways that women are locked ou...
Oct 26, 2021•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast Today, Sami hosts labor, criminal law and civil rights practitioner Lee Adler to talk all about the labor market and the recent uptick in union strikes and activity. To kick things off, Lee starts with some background to unions and the labor movement across the years. He also covers how unions can use their leverage to change the power dynamic that has put corporations on top and how we attempt to alleviate the power imbalance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 25, 2021•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast Milly and Amanda break down the most shocking statistics related to Latina Equal Pay day, and why Latinas are the most poorly paid women in America. Milly details her own family and personal experience with pay discrimination and how the pay gap also impacts small businesses in Latine areas. Then they pivot to Netflix’s apology tour after permitting the dehumanization of trans people, and consider why older male comedians should have to take continuing education courses. Learn more about your ad...
Oct 21, 2021•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast Alise, Kaitlin, and Amanda share a shocking update on the Zebras on the run in Maryland. Then they break down what you should know about the House’s investigation into the Capitol attacks and attempts to hold Trump allies in contempt. They connect this to other Democratic efforts in Congress and debate whether voting rights ought to get more attention. Is Joe Manchin getting closer to supporting the voter protections we need? Finally, they break down what it will take to get Steve Bannon in shac...
Oct 20, 2021•34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Alise, Bryan, and Amanda start by detailing a weekend of NFL football in London. Then they react to Tucker Carlson’s homophobic and misogynistic comments about Pete Buttigieg taking maternity leave. They explain how the comments play into hateful stereotypes about same-sex couples while reinforcing the idea that men are not primary caretakers. They explain why Carlson’s comments -- while unusually offensive -- manifest in more subtle ways every day, and what needs to happen to permanently change...
Oct 19, 2021•26 min•Transcript available on Metacast Milly, Sami, and Amanda discuss how the increased activity around striking and labor rights has intersected with the white-collar “Great Resignation.” Why are workers across the country finally saying “no thanks” to the late stage capitalist hellscapes that have dominated our lives? How did the pandemic put a spotlight on these inequities? They also check in on the latest bullshit from Joe Manchin, this time related to needy children and the burning planet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visi...
Oct 18, 2021•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast Alise, Sami, and Amanda break down the upcoming governor’s election in Virginia and push back against calling it a “referendum” on Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress. How can we more constructively frame Biden’s challenging few months without being so dramatic? Then, Betches Podcast Director Sean Kilby is back to discuss “Squid Game,” the dark Korean series that’s become a global phenomenon. Why does the show resonate so strongly at this particular moment? Who were our favorite games and charac...
Oct 14, 2021•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast Senator Tammy Duckworth joins us to discuss a topic hugely personal to many of our listeners: miscarriage and pregnancy loss. Sen. Duckworth describes the Support Through Loss Act, which would provide paid leave to those experiencing pregnancy loss, a failed adoption, or unsuccessful fertility treatments. She shares how her own experience with pregnancy loss makes the bill personal and why men need to be a bigger part of the conversation around miscarriage and mourning. Finally, she shares how t...
Oct 13, 2021•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast Milly, Alise, and Amanda are joined by Betches Podcast Director Sean Kilby to react to NFL head coach Jon Gruden resigning over racist, homophobic, and misogynistic emails. They detail the weekend of revelations that ultimately led to his resignation and why the specific makeup of the NFL -- 70% of players are Black -- makes them so problematic. They react to allegations of “cancel culture” and compare Gruden’s commitment to hateful language with Dave Chappelle’s doubling down on transphobia. Le...
Oct 12, 2021•42 min•Transcript available on Metacast NYC Councilmember Carlina Rivera joins Milly and Amanda to discuss access to abortion among Latina communities. While much has been made about the Texas ban on abortions, Latinas around the country -- even in New York City -- have struggled to access abortion services because of onerous government restrictions like Title 10 and the Hyde Amendment. She breaks down the abortion fund she helped create to help out-of-state women access abortion care in NYC. Then Milly joins to chat with the Coucilwo...
Oct 11, 2021•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this week's Afternoon Tea, Sami is joined by journalist, author, podcast host and MSNBC anchor, Alicia Menendez. To start, they begin with a conversation on Alicia's background, how she became a reporter, and finally making the jump as the anchor of her own show, "American Voices With Alicia Menendez." They chat about the key to being a great interviewer, the qualities of a good guest, and what it means for a guest to really show up. Next they discuss Alicia's book, The Likability Trap, and s...
Oct 08, 2021•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast Alise, Milly, and Amanda start with a quick update on the debt ceiling agreement before discussing Instagram’s impact on teen girls. Then, Secretary Julian Castro joins us for a special interview tied to Hispanic Heritage Month. He shares the songs, stories, and sayings that defined his upbringing in Texas raised by a Chicano activist in San Antonio’s Mexican-American community. The hosts share common Latine experiences that often get lost in the monolithic narrative, how they relate to Selena, ...
Oct 07, 2021•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sami, Kaitlin, and Amanda debrief on Democrats’ path to raising the debt ceiling with no Republican help. Will this be the push they finally need to end the filibuster? Then they react to the Facebook whistleblower’s Senate testimony. What is different about these revelations? Finally, they run through the most absurd lines from Mark Zuckerberg’s response. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Oct 06, 2021•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast Alise, Bryan, and Amanda debrief on the Instagram outage and how they made use of the time. They discuss how the worldwide disruption highlights how deeply Facebook’s platforms are embedded in our lives -- and why that should scare us. They also detail a FB whistleblower’s allegation the company knowingly drives hostility and anger to help its bottom line. Finally, they settle into congressional corner to share updates from the Dems’ breakthrough and why it’s absolutely no problem that protester...
Oct 05, 2021•45 min•Transcript available on Metacast Amanda and Sami sit down with disability advocate Kelsey Lindell to discuss urgent issues for the disability community. Kelsey describes her experience as a child with a disability and later as a disabled woman in the workforce, and details the challenges she’s faced ensuring accomodations and equality. She gets candid about how workplaces think they’re supporting people with disabilities vs. their actual impact, and shares the harmful representations that perpetuate dehumanizing stereotypes abo...
Oct 04, 2021•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode of Afternoon Tea, Sami is joined by critically acclaimed historian, educator, and influencer living at the intersections of Black, Muslim, and bisexual identity. They discuss her forthcoming book, Read This To Get Smarter, the stresses and rewards of being an educator on the internet, and how the past several years have been a time of learning and unlearning for all of us. Blair shares how she teaches complete concepts in an easy and condense way, dealing with hate comments on so...
Sep 30, 2021•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast Alise, Kaitlin, and Amanda catch up on congressional negotiations and do their daily brainstorm of WTF Kyrsten Sinema could be thinking. Then they discuss the success of vaccine mandates for health care workers, looking at cases from North Carolina and New York. Finally, they react to YouTube’s decision to ban all anti-vaccine content, and how tech platforms failed to moderate the anti-vaxx movement long before the pandemic. What catastrophic oversight could tech companies be making as we speak?...
Sep 29, 2021•33 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
