Clean Countertops with Sara Petersen & Emily J. Smith

It's summer. The season of beaching, swimming, romping through flower gardens, and enjoying barbecues. But for Emily and I, depression can hit just as easily in the hopeless doom of February as it can in the sunny bliss of June. So if YOU TOO find yourself mired in sadness from time to time, this one's for you. We attempt to describe how our respective depressive moods feel, what triggers them, an...

Summer is officially here and vacations are being scheduled and planned and enjoyed—or at least endured!—en masse. While the word alone may put some people’s entire body at ease, others may freeze up at the thought of endless decision making, managing children on the road, and a grab bag of unexpected costs. So this week on the pod, we’re discussing all things vacation! In fact, Sara is on a vacat...

Both Emily and I are huge fans of Amil Niazi. She writes about middle age, motherhood, womanhood, and most recently ambition. You might be familiar with her excellent column at The Cut , where she always manages to write about the exact thing I've been fruitlessly ruminating on with clarity, humor, and insight. She's a delight. And so is her new, bestselling book, My Life After Ambition: A Good En...

In which Emily and I discuss the many revelations of Famesick, a book positively brimming with Hollywood gossip (Adam Driver! Jenni Konner! Nora Ephron! Fucking Bruce Springsteen!) and themes near and dear to our hearts (feminism! bodies! performance of self! people-pleasing as women!) We also review our personal histories with Girls and whether or not we were on the right side of history as it pe...

As mentioned in Wednesday's newsletter , which was a self-indulgent rant about my hair woes and from whence they sprang, Emily and I spent an hour talking about why hair haunts us. And listen, while much of the episode is us bitching like BFFs at a slumber party, I legitimately think we landed on some actual insights as to why HAIR is such a fraught fucking thing for so many of us. Plus, a lot of...

This week, Emily and I talked to Anna Rollins about her beautiful memoir, Famished: On Food, Sex, and Growing Up as a Good Girl Anna grew up in an Evangelical Christian community in Appalachia and was taught from a very young age that gender, sexuality, appetite, and thinness were toxically intertwined. Eating disorders were very much normalized in her community, and girls were taught to fear thei...

Today, Emily and I discuss something we've been discussing since the day we became friends. What does it mean to bring children into the world? What does it mean to want to become a mother? And is that the same things as wanting to raise kids? There are just as many reasons not to have kids are there are reasons to have them, but so often cultural conversations about maternal ambivalence, pronatal...

I occupy a certain corner of the internet that's been closely following all things Lindy West. My group chats have been ABLAZE. In today's episode, we talk to author Leigh Stein about her viral newsletter post about reading Adult Braces through the lens of gothic literature and domestic abuse. We also (BRAVELY) talk about Adult Braces as a memoir, rather than merely an asterisk to a million think...

This week, Emily and I bravely unpack the perennial problem of dinner. We have to think about it, we have to cook it, we have to clean it up, and most of all, we need to eat it otherwise we die. Let's get into it. ALSO DISCUSSED 🍿🥘🥬 Stir-fry being THE college girl dinner of our day Ina Garten as ultimate comfort watch The unlimited joys of popcorn Big Kale Dawson's Creek and the passing of Jame...

This week, Emily and I had the juiciest conversation with Emily Adrian, author of The Seduction Theory , which Emily and I both obsessively read in tandem. It's a delicious novel about the stories we tell ourselves and each other, the nature of infidelity, and how desirable women are both embodied and objectivized. Other Topics Covered: Sara's questionable notion of aspirational womanhood The nove...

In which Emily and I discuss an article from The Cut about 44 as a milestone age and whether or not our journey over the alleged bridge of 44 has changed us. ALSO! Emily and I sort of disagree about Pluribus but get equally enraged about one particular scene Plantar fasciitis The disappearance of "mom" clothes Tracking our cycles Aspirational healthcare Not wanting MORE DATA jfc Age as the "great...

EEEEE! I'm so beyond excited to share the first episode of Clean Countertops! Topics covered: My past tradwife aspirations Emily's past girlboss aspirations Behind-the-scenes podcast LEARNING MOMENTS Elizabeth Holmes' hair, lipstick, and black turtleneck Men wanting to fuck themselves? Youth as integral to both tradwife and girlboss branding Emily's shocking lack of countertop agita Our meet-cute...

I'm so excited to share a little taste of my podcast, Clean Countertops, the first episode of which comes out NEXT WEEK! Here's a bit about the pod. Clean Countertops examines the endless examples of ideal womanhood pulsing through every aspect of our culture. Hosted by me (obv) and feminist writer Emily J. Smith, each episode examines a different cultural touchpoint that pushes on expectations of...