Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em Podcast

Adventures in failing to become a movie star, from chocolate "blood" squirted onto peignoirs to having a Times Square "agent" ask me to stand on his chest. Next chapter of my book, FORTY BUCKS AND A DREAM: STORIES OF LOS ANGELES, being published on Substack This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit smok...

Linda Evangelista’s appearance on the cover of British Vogue sparks controversy over beauty and fantasy. The ladies discuss "quiet quitting": Is it good, bad, a sign of progress, not a story at all? Is "House of Dragons" worth it? And how did Andrew Dice Clay get memory-holed? This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus...

“I Regret Being a Slut” is the provocative title of an essay published this week by writer and podcaster Bridget Phetasy, who writes, of her earlier sexual adventurism: “At the time, I would have told you I was ‘liberated’ even while I tried to drink away the sick feeling of rejection when my most recent hook-up didn’t call me back. At the time, I would have said one-night stands made me feel “emb...

We look at a post-Roe landscape, as Nancy talks about a recent reporting trip to Kansas to cover a surprising vote, where citizens affirmed the right for women to have access to legal abortion. Sarah updates us on what’s happening in Texas, including the rise of crisis pregnancy centers, how abortion providers might set sail on the “lawless oceans,” and a possible uptick in male vasectomies that m...

“I don’t need any more reasons to hate the human race,” a friend said, about his aversion of watching the new Netflix series “The Most Hated Man on the Internet.” Is its subject, Hunter Moore, who revels in posting revenge porn and tweeting things like, “Fuck bitches, get money, do blow,” easy to hate? That would be a resounding yes. And yet, as Nancy and Sarah discuss, the internet of the aughts...

As I wrote a few months ago, with regard to true crime books , "All stories are worth telling well, but especially the difficult ones, when we need the writer's assurance as we walk down the dark passage." As someone who occasionally takes on such stories, I'm interested in how and why other true crime writers approach the work. My lead-off interview is with Kathryn Miles, author of " TRAILED: One...

A New Yorker employee slags the company for lack of diversity on Twitter, and things get messy from there. Nancy and Sarah try to untangle the strange case of Erin Overbey, who was fired by the magazine earlier this week, following accusations that editor-in-chief David Remnick inserted errors into her own work. Nancy looks at a few other recent cases where attempts to oust the higher-ups have bac...

It’s mid-July. Sarah’s sizzling in the hell mouth that is Dallas, Nancy’s mired in NYC’s hot human grime, and both think it’s a really good idea to stay inside and watch some television. “The Bear” on FX/Hulu turns out to be the distraction they need, a high-octane but humane adventure set in a Chicago kitchen. Nancy is moved to tears by the sight of broken people trying to be better. Sarah gets s...

Does college need to be reimagined? A new experimental university committed to free speech called the University of Austin drew mockery on Twitter when it was first announced, but the place is no joke: The college got 3,500 inquiries from professors in its first week, and has since raised $100 million dollars. Nancy and Sarah can’t help feeling invigorated by this kind of innovation (even if Sarah...

Are land acknowledgments meant to honor Indigenous people little more than feel-good gestures? Is wanting to be a TikTok star the impulse to be acknowledged? Nancy and Sarah discuss acknowledgement — Nancy acknowledges tying into her neighbor’s wifi! Sarah acknowledges the hotness of firemen! — and why Natives and the arts are getting buckets of it right now, and rightfully so, including for the T...

Did forgiveness go out of style? Nancy and Sarah want to bring it back. We talk about a current vogue for vengeance in the “progressive id” and where it may have originated, plus our own stubborn belief that understanding is better than judgment. We turn toward the tricky politics of sex, including Biden’s new campus codes, which return us to a troubled era of Title IX tribunals stripped of due pr...

Nancy here. After receiving a heartbroken text from Sarah a little ways back, I sent a pep-up message and a power pop playlist, which I made when writing the lead essay for Go All the Way: A Literary Appreciation of Power Pop . … and speaking of Bill Pullman, I cannot highly enough recommend his reading The One Inside by Sam Shepard, which is seriously transcendent. Here’s a sample: Also, this boo...

We knew it was coming, but the overturning of Roe v. Wade is still huge news, and sadly for Sarah, it’s too hot to smoke. (Pardon the coughing.) Let’s talk data: How do other countries handle abortion? Why wasn’t abortion codified into law during Obama’s presidency? What will a post-Roe America look like? And what’s going on with that bounty-hunting law in Texas? Now let’s talk complications: How...

Did you know we’ve started “ Smokeshow Specials ” for subscribers to answer your burning questions? We’re just getting started. Sarah sings the praises of Nancy’s recent articles, which leads to a riff on dads and daughters at the movies, how to protect tender things, and the wisdom of Nancy’s late father-in-law ’s M.O.: “Do it, then talk about it.” Our main course is a discussion of the controver...

For those of you who prefer to listen to your longform narratives, we offer this low-fi audio recording of the essay I wrote on the Depp-Heard trial, which you can read in full here . Please excuse my stumbles, occasional coughing, and the flip-flopping over the pronunciation of Harvey Weinstein. We’re learning as we go around here. — S.H . This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this w...

We start with a discussion of Sarah’s Depp-Heard opus, “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Depp v. Heard,” about which one reader on Twitter commented, “This is a Persian rug. It is exquisite, and among the finest things I've ever read. Sarah Hepola is what writers aspire to.” (See, Twitter can be nice too!) The story reminds Nancy (and readers ) of what magazine writing can be, and why we will do more...

Hello lovely Smoke ‘Em people, Nancy here with a newsletter/update-y thingy. It’s been a BIZZEE week (not to be confused with the greatly-named WaPo executive editor Sally Buzbee, who herself has a bizzee week last week, and more on that below) for the Smoke ‘Em gals. Sarah has been rassling a 10,000-word story about… wait for it… Depp-Heard, which that should be ready for you within the next 24 o...

Can we talk about that Deep End finale? The saga of Teal Swan comes to a riveting close, and we discuss a group therapy session turned exercise in projection, the moment Sarah found herself sad for Teal Swan, and how putting fish in a tank became haunting television. Teal is a woman who “buries herself in a prison of her own making.” It’s becoming a running theme. We turn to Felicia Sonmez, the co...

Journalism is having a hell of a week. At least, the Washington Post is. Nancy and Sarah launch with the curious case of tech reporter Taylor Lorenz and her much-corrected story on social media influencers in the Depp-Heard trial. Discussed: Stealth editing, Twitter blocking, when journalists become the story. Then we turn to the saga of Dave Weigel, whose dumb joke (a retweet!) got him suspended...

Nancy is reporting from San Francisco, because your roving journos go where the story leads, whether that’s a discount motel room in Fairfax, Virginia, or a 30-room mansion with a view of the Painted Ladies . First order of business is not The Verdict, but Teal Swan and recent episodes of Hulu series The Deep End , whose jaw-dropping scenes of alternate therapy have pushed Sarah from her neutralit...

It’s the day after Memorial Day, and we reflect on our distance from military conflict and Sarah’s first podcast-related injury. After revealing our new summer looks (Nancy looks very Gwen Stefani in her lavender chiffon; Sarah’s wearing the same yellow housedress she has on every day, a la Jeff Goldblum in The Fly ), we share notes on Ricky Gervais and Super Nature , comedy’s right to offend, and...

After Sarah makes Nancy blush by talking about vibrators, we turn to the buzz that is Depp v. Heard . Kate Moss, TMZ leaks, potential ethical violations on the stand — the final days of testimony brought the bombshells. Lawyers: We have questions! Restraining order protocol? Can you talk to anyone about a trial when you’re on a jury? Tell us in the comments! About that Smoke ’Em merch … The real f...

by Sarah Hepola I met Nick Wallis in the cafeteria of the Fairfax, VA, courtroom on my first day. I was still looking for the gaggle of reporters I assumed I’d find, but I was also looking for an outlet. My phone was nearly dead. I asked a reporter tapping away on his laptop in the mostly empty room, and he pulled out his ear buds long enough to politely motion to an outlet beside him. He was in a...

Nancy and Sarah launch by talking about a slavering press desperate for sensational stories — but we’re not discussing today’s climate, we’re talking about the 1920s, when Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle became the doomed villain in a crime he never committed. We contemplate boobs (again), the greatness of Mariska Hargitay, the cruel online backlash against Amber Heard, and why we don’t like gender tribal...

From a motel room five miles from the site of Depp v. Heard in suburban Virginia, Sarah describes the fascinating culture around the courthouse: The mother-daughter fans screaming as the star waves from his black SUV; the hard-cores who queue up before midnight in a parking garage to secure a spot at the next day’s trial; the YouTube brand builders; the Depp lawyers who have become online folk her...