Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em Podcast

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com It’s been a rough few weeks, especially in the city of Minneapolis, which saw two citizens engaged in protest gunned down in the streets. Nancy and Sarah talk about how much has gone wrong, including statements from federal officials that directly contradict video evidence, a hiring spree at ICE that seems to...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com Nancy and Sarah speak with Ellie Avishai, who offers an inside look at how the ambitious project to build a bold new university — based on liberalism and open dialogue — fell victim to some of the same censorious behavior it sought to oust. The University of Austin was announced in 2021 with big names attache...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com Emily Zanotti is a writer, a Catholic, a political operative, a mother of three, and a professional chicken tender, which is a thing. Nancy and Sarah know her from Twitter, where she is a great follow, but they’re taking this relationship to the next level. Podcast guest! The three talk about the mental healt...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com The end of 2025 is here, whether we like it or not. Nancy and Sarah celebrate with a year-end episode that includes a pop quiz, their favorite culture recommendations, and even a few resolutions. Have and attend more parties! Don’t pay attention to nonsense! It’s an annual look-back with cameo appearances by...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com The great Kat Rosenfield, Free Press columnist and novelist, joins Nancy and Sarah for a very special Christmas-themed conversation that includes: a new holiday short story by Kat, the whole man-keeping/emotional labor debate, the role dirty socks can play in the unraveling of a marriage, and what it means to...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com Andy Mills, audio storyteller extraordinaire, joins Nancy and Sarah to talk about the “AI hinge moment” we’re living in, the subject of his new podcast “The Last Invention.” How scared should we be? Let’s discuss. They talk creative process, journalism’s inflection point and what was lost and gained in “the w...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com This is a hot one! Pamela Paul — longtime editor of the New York Times Book Review , author of nine books, current writer-at-large for the Wall Street Journal — tells Nancy and Sarah about her unceremonious exit from the New York Times , where she had been an Opinion columnist. What happened? Well, it’s a lon...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com Going to Gacy: A Cross Country Journey to Shake the Devil’s Hand , tells the story of a drive I made cross-country with a pen pal of John Wayne Gacy’s, to visit the serial killer in prison in the weeks before his execution. I originally sold the piece -- my first feature -- to Details. I wrote a draft and fax...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com Mary Katharine Ham is a journalist and political commentator who’s worked for both CNN and Fox. Her book End of Discussion: How the Left’s Outrage Industry Shuts Down Debate, Manipulates Voters, and Makes America Less Free (and Fun) came out in 2015 but basically predicts the next decade. A “natural contraria...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com Nancy and Sarah discuss political writer Olivia Nuzzi, who became the main character on Twitter this week when an excerpt from her new memoir, published in Vanity Fair , coincided with a bombshell story by ex-fiancee Ryan Lizza. The scandal included cameos by broadcaster Keith Olbermann, politician Mark Sanfo...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com Nancy and Sarah discuss a viral essay from British Vogue , “Is Having a Boyfriend Embarrassing Now?” The free-wheeling conversation touches on dating changes over the generations, the different ways women tell stories about their relationships online, and how women over the past half century have tried to bal...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com Mike Pesca, host of the longtime daily news podcast “The Gist,” joins Nancy and Sarah to talk about sports betting scandal that threatens to destroy an entire industry. Marked cards, special contact lenses, the mafia: This is deep Scorsese territory. Sarah is so checked out on sports she didn’t know Pete Rose...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com Nancy and Sarah talk about “The Great Feminization,” a Compact essay that’s stirred the hornet’s nest of social media. The recent story, by Helen Andrews, argues that many recent cultural shifts — cancel culture, wokeness, safetyism — can be explained by the influence of women, who tend to prioritize empathy...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com Nancy and Sarah discuss a leaked Telegram group chat among Young Republicans with at least 251 slurs. Is it bad? Yes. Is it THAT bad? Let’s discuss, but let’s also ask the question: Does anyone care about privacy anymore? A conversation about gossip, the contagious nature of bullying, when we expect people to...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com Nancy and Sarah talk Portland, where Nancy just returned from her forever-beat. The city of Portland is not on fire. What it is, instead, is a reminder of 2020’s worst political violence, and Nancy and Sarah talk about how it’s changed, and who wants that old feeling back. Then we discuss One Battle After Ano...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com Nancy and Sarah talk about a lightning-rod conversation between NYT podcaster Ezra Klein and award-winning writer Ta-Nehisi Coates. The two men spar on the political project of Charlie Kirk and the problem with / way forward for Democrats, and pretty much every side of the audience gets ticked off. Nancy was...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com Welcome to episode #2 of The Sociopaths Among Us. If you haven’t listened to the disclaimer at the opening, go ahead and do that. I’ve been wanting to write about Candace Owens since 2019, when I engaged in a very short interview with her backstage at a political event. Was she charming and poised? Yes. Also,...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com Nancy and Sarah speak with Meghan Daum, the podcaster behind The Unspeakable and author of a great new collection of essays, The Catastrophe Hour . They talk about writing, Charlie Kirk, young people casting around for meaning, and a very eye-raising report in the New York Times about a recent blockbuster mem...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com Nancy and Sarah discuss the Charlie Kirk memorial. Was it a Nazi rally? Of course not. Was it a turning point in saving Western Civilization? Hmm, sounds like a high bar. But it was: Huge, culturally important, occasionally annoying, occasionally profound, mixing feel-good megachurch vibes with a saber-rattli...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com Investigative journalist Michael Tracey is hard to pin down, maybe because he doesn’t play for one team. A journo in the old-fashioned “stick-poking” mode, Michael started debating Sarah on his own introduction before she was half-way through. Fair enough! We go on to discuss Charlie Kirk — whom Tracey sees a...

Nancy and Sarah discuss the killing of Charlie Kirk, the 31-year-old founder of Talking Points USA. He was a husband and the father of two young children, and he was shot yesterday while engaging with college students at a Utah College. There is no version of the world that makes his murder anything but a horror. We talk about political violence, radical movements, violence versus microaggressions...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com Nancy and Sarah go deep on Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love , whose new memoir has been excerpted in New York magazine. We have thoughts! Does Gilbert have her finger on the tender heart of what women want? Is she a serial grifter who makes millions off women’s low rattle of unhappiness? We talk abo...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com Nancy and Sarah chat with Bryan Burrough, author of Gunfighters: How Texas Made the West Wild . Bloody history is something of a specialty for Burrough, a former Vanity Fair scribe whose other (great) books include Days of Rage , about violent radical movements of the ‘70s, Public Enemies, about the ‘30s crim...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com Nancy and Sarah interview journalist Paul Kix, author of the award-winning book on the Civil Rights movement, You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live. Paul writes about the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s ten weeks in Birmingham through fully realized characters and complicated...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com Nancy and Sarah take on the kerfuffles of the week: Chris Rufo mines the anti-woke vein by digging up the old tweets of a New Yorker writer, the Minnesota Vikings introduce two male cheerleaders (and people lose their minds), hunky provocateur-lite Matt Rife stars in a commercial for ELF makeup (and at least...