Episode description

Hello from a cruise ship! 

This week, we welcome book critic and Philly basketball devotee Jennifer Wilson back to the show. We discuss [1:00] the epidemic of belligerent airline passengers; [6:25] the surprising (and not so surprising) firings of Tucker Carlson from Fox News and Don Lemon from CNN; [15:10] Jen’s favorite 76er, James Harden, and his ejection for nut-punching; and [27:40] journalist Lauren Oyler’s recent piece on Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop cruise and the sexist genre of wellness writing.  

In this episode, we ask: 

Why do so many basketball players punch and kick one another in the crotch? 

Are the Tucker Carlsons and Don Lemons of the world easily replaceable?

What (besides capitalism, duh) makes us so obsessed with wellness? 

How is vulnerability (especially in women) used to sell products, activate people online, and smooth out social relations? 

For more, see: 

* This week’s viral airplane video (baby screams; man yells) 

* A breakdown of James Harden's and Joel Embiid's fouls 

* Lauren Oyler’s dispatch from the Goop Cruise

* The David Foster Wallace cruise piece that the Goop story references 

* Oyler’s 2021 essay on writer W. G. Sebald 

* How Goop’s Haters Made Gwyneth Paltrow’s Company Worth $250 Million, by Taffy Brodesser-Akner 

* The TikTok influencer video that led to the intense doxxing of two young women 

* A rumination on the rise of astrology among millennials by Christine Smallwood

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