The Cut

Every week, host Avery Trufelman and The Cut's editorial team bring you interviews and stories about the moment we live in. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Old emails are a fossil record of our lives. What were you doing this time last year, or two years ago, or ten? Even if you don’t keep a diary, you’ve got email... and this week, we're digging through ours. With Allison P. Davis, Mona Chalabi, Maddie Aggeler, Lisa Miller, Andrea Long Chu, and Stella Bugbee. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meet a stranger, get married, do LSD, follow a band, buy a van, swear off men, go sit on a pyramid.... and other ways to change your life forever. Two women look back over decades of committing to big change, and Molly’s husband demonstrates the fathomless mysteries of the people we know best. Plus, a show announcement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Once upon a time, Carmen Maria Machado met a woman who was beautiful and smart and funny and (amazingly, to Carmen) wanted to be her girlfriend. They got together, and at first, it was everything Carmen had been waiting for... and then things started to change. We spoke to Carmen about her new memoir, In the Dream House, and her search for more women with stories like hers.  Learn more about your...

Jenny Slate never had stage fright at all... then suddenly, in her late 20s, she did. In this episode the comedian, actress, and author of the new book Little Weirds tells us about feeling like she was losing the thing she most loved. And she shares some of the ways she's learned to deal with her anxiety — from finding a supportive partner, to deciding not to drink, to establishing a morning routi...

When you start a new job, maybe you’ve got a fantasy of the life you want to lead—the new and improved person you want to be. But then you walk in the door, and your fantasy future collides with reality. So: What comes next? In this episode, we talk to Congresswoman Lauren Underwood and Uncanny Valley author Anna Wiener about intense new jobs, and how to embrace the optimism of a fresh start witho...

On August 18, 2012, Cher tweeted: "Whats going on with mycareer." In this episode we ask what's going on with OURcareers—how do we know when it's time for a change, and what does it feel like to actually quit? Esther Perel offers some advice about work, friends, and feelings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Eva Chen is Instagram's resident queen of fashion... but she's also a life-long Babysitters Club obsessive who just published her third book for kids. She sat down with Stella Bugbee to talk about how she gets it all done, from sanitizing her airplane seats to the sneaky email trick that keeps her sane. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When Alison called a Lyft after a night out with friends, she was looking for a quick ride home. Instead, she was driven across state lines, to a park — and the next morning, she woke up with no memory of what had happened there. Two years later, she's still looking for the truth about that night. On this week's show, Alison tells her story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.c...

Ben Lerner is not known for freestyling. He's known for writing novels (also poems). But as a kid growing up in Topeka, Ben was deep in a world of male anger—anger that found outlets in debate championships, drunken fistfights, and, yes, also white-guy rap battles. And while Ben was growing up, his mom, Harriet Lerner, was navigating a world of anger, too. In this episode, Ben and Harriet talk abo...

This week, we want to know: What does it ACTUALLY feel like to be pregnant? We asked women to tell us what they didn't expect when they were expecting... and we heard about everything from extra nipples to extreme horniness to the benefits of being a pregnant war correspondent. With Rukmini Callimachi, Angela Garbes, and many more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoi...

It’s that time of year again—and this week, we’re re-releasing one of the first episodes we ever made. It’s all about what happens when women’s whisper networks become visible... which happened on a bathroom wall at Brown in the 1990s, and in our own inboxes two years ago. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When sperm donation first became widespread, it was supposed to stay a secret. That didn’t happen. Here’s what did...Featuring crazy coincidences, heartwarming reunions, sister moms, turkey baster twins, and a stadium full of siblings. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rebecca Traister checks her phone first thing in the morning: It's always full of bad news, but that bad news is her job, and she wants to know what she's getting into right away. On today's episode, Traister — the politics writer for New York Magazine and the Cut — tells us how she gets it all done, from profiling presidential candidates to constantly reminding her four-year-old to "PEE AND BRUSH...

An episode all about anxiety—from panicky thought-spirals to private self-soothing techniques. Featuring Aparna Nancherla, Jenny Odell, Sarah Wilson, our extremely anxious colleague Ruth Spencer, and many more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Eve L. Ewing has spent years living in Chicago, working in Chicago, and thinking about Chicago — she knows the place. Then she found an 800-page document that changed the way she saw her hometown. On this week's show, Eve tells us the story of what happened in Chicago in the summer of 1919. Eve's book, 1919, is out now.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

By the time Toni Morrison died last week, a whole generation of readers had come of age in a world where she was already a legend. So, on this week’s show, we’re talking to women about growing up with Morrison’s books—how they first discovered her work, and what it’s meant to them over the years. Featuring: Brittany Luse, Zoe Haylock, Aminatou Sow, Glory Edim, Kaitlyn Greenidge, Angela Flournoy, a...

Elizabeth Warren has spent most of her career as a teacher. Before she faced off with a stage full of opponents for the Democratic nomination, she was facing off with a room full of rowdy 5th graders intent on cutting each other's hair. So what would it mean to have a teacher-in-chief? On this week's episode, Rebecca Traister pays Warren a visit to talk about her life in the classroom (and drink t...

How can you fight back against online abuse? Writers Clementine Ford and Ijeoma Oluo tell us about a few go-to tools, like screenshots, mass-blocking, and the mute button. But what if you don't live your life online — and you’re dealing with a troll who seems to know everything about you? That's what happened to Francesca. Featuring Carrie Goldberg, whose new book Nobody’s Victim: Fighting Psychos...

Tiffany Cabán’s outsider campaign for Queens district attorney could come down to just 16 votes. But Rebecca Traister says this race was thrilling long before it came down to an election night dead heat.  On this week’s show, she talks to Tiffany, and tells us what’s made her candidacy so exciting—and why it matters way beyond Queens. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adch...

Brittany Packnett is an activist who rose to prominence after she became a leader of the protests in Ferguson back in 2014. Since then, she’s worked with politicians on the federal and state level on ending police brutality, and was appointed to President Obama’s task force on building relationships between communities and police. Brittany talks with Stella Bugbee about how she gets it all done, i...

Alison Roman is a cookbook author, New York Times and Bon Appetit columnist, and the brain behind The Cookies and The Stew, those chocolate chip cookies and chickpea stew that you’ve likely seen in your Instagram feed. This week, Alison sat down with Stella Bugbee to talk about how she gets it all done, including how she develops her recipes, deals with online critics, and embraces her inability t...

When Hannah was a kid, everyone knew she was dying. All over town, donation cans showed a picture of her: a sweet little girl with cancer who needed help. But it turned out that Hannah's story wasn't so simple — in fact, she still doesn't understand everything that happened to her, and all the lies she was told.  In this episode, Cut writer Anna Silman follows Hannah as she gets a chance to talk t...

Taffy Brodesser-Akner is perhaps best known for her profiles of celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow, Tonya Harding, and Jonathan Franzen — turning her subjects into characters through the irresistible drama of being famous. Now, she's turned to fiction, and has just published her first novel, Fleishman Is In Trouble, about the painful dissolution of a marriage. Taffy talks about her long-standing fas...

What is life really like inside an immigrant detention facility? In this episode, we talk to Karla, who came from Honduras to the United States as part of the much-discussed migrant caravan. When she walked over the US border six months ago, she thought she’d be reunited with her kids in South Carolina. Instead, she spent months in a terrible limbo. And when Karla's family is finally reunited, she...