The Audacious Roundup

For the week of August 21st

Our August bookclub selections are Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter and The Militia House by John Milas. We will be in conversation with Sarah Rose on August 30th and with John Milas on August 29th at 8 pm EST/5 pm PST. Registration is open for both.

If you’re looking for a nice notebook, check out my Draft Writing Journal from Baron Fig. It’s pretty swank if I do say so myself. To accompany my Draft Writing Journal, there is now a pen! It’s beautiful and satisfying to hold. And if you’re looking for some writing instruction, you might want to check out my Masterclass. Debbie Millman’s Remarkable Life Deck is a useful tool for taking stock and looking forward.

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Debbie and I are taking her incredible podcast, Design Matters, on the road. We will be co-hosting live episodes in Brooklyn (September 18th), Boston (September 19th), Washington D.C. (September 20th) and Philadelphia (September 21st). You can BUY TICKETS HERE! And even if you can’t make it, it would be a huge help if you could spread the good word to your friends and frenemies in those cities! Guests will be announced in the coming days but as a teaser, in D.C., we will be in conversation with the one and only Kara Swisher!

RIP, Ron Cephas Jones, a formidable talent. RIP Bob Barker, longtime host of The Price is Right. He always seemed so invested in contestants getting the price right.

Looks like the Pulitzers are going to open their prizes to non-Americans. And it’s way past time.

Adele tried to get everyone to go on mute at her concert but they were not up to the challenge on that day.

The Spanish women’s soccer team won the world cup finals against England. Prince William couldn’t be bothered to attend even though he is the head of the English football federation. The head of Spain’s federation kissed a player without her consent, offered a ridiculous non-apology and refused to step down. Then the women said they wouldn’t play again until he was ousted and now he has been suspended.

Kelis and ::checks notes:: Bill Murray have broken up after two months of dating. Alas. And Britney Spears and her husband are divorcing. Alas.

Here is how the WGA strike is going. Instead of making a credible offer of any kind, they’re hiring a new crisis management firm. And the trades are also being forced to do some soul searching about how they go about their business. Meanwhile, the studios pre-emptively released their absurd counter offer and they thought it would work in their favor but the move backfired spectacularly. Why are they so bad at this and so overpaid?

The Republicans had a debate. I didn’t watch because I was on vacation and I don’t care about any of those idiots and I’m fine with reading about it in the newspaper. DeSantis is still struggling to approximate a human.

Donald Trump was arrested and arraigned in Georgia. He posted bond. He now has a mugshot, where he looks ridiculous, so just another day ending in Y. End the carceral state but leave one cell for him, that’s for sure! Let’s not forget that this is Trump’s fourth arrest this year. Related: there may or may not have been some funny business involving the ownership of Mar-a-Lago. His supporters remain wildly delusional and weird.

Congratulations to Jackie Woodson, the new New York state author.

A small preview of major fall book releases.

A profile of Andy Roddick, a tennis player I’ve always enjoyed.

Your kink is okay and all but… this defense of negging just makes me sigh, heavily.

Lady Gaga’s bodyguard likes to serve FACE.

A bit more on that unlawful police raid on a Kansas newspaper publisher’s home.

An excerpt from Alicia Kennedy’s new book, No Meat Required, out now.

Teach the children: an oral history of Lilith Fair.

Next year, the MET is going to do a Harlem Renaissance exhibition. I’m curious to see how they approach such a rich period of American history.

A short story by Allen Bratton in Granta.

Three NYU classmates make a funny movie!

In Hawaii, locals are turning to ritual as Maui begins the work of rebuilding.

Barnard is hiring an assistant professor in their WGSS department.

The Other Black Girl has been made into a TV series!

Yevgeny Prigozhin “died” in a plane crash.

Southern California was dealing with a hurricane (yes, really) and the Texas governor thought it was a good time to bus migrants to L.A. These Republican politicians are so shamelessly craven.

Nothing is sacred.

The code has been cracked!

Congratulations to Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian, who have welcomed a second daughter.

A radicalized far right man saw a pride flag hanging in front of a store in Lake Arrowhead and murdered the proprietor, Laura Anne Carleton. She was a business owner and mother of 9. It’s no wonder that so many members of the LGBTQ community feel unsafe right now. It’s because we are unsafe. And so are our allies.

A 25th anniversary tour for the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.

Ronan Farrow went deep on Elon Musk and the unholy amount of power he wields, for The New Yorker.

Forty-six schools in Ohio have armed teachers and guards. That will not… end well.

A meditation from Daniel Finney about how sometimes, our lives don’t go the way we thought they would.

IYKYK.

Cornel West has some child support and tax debts…

Sage Steele is sharing oddly timed stories about herself.

Administrators at West Virginia University are trying to gut its programs for “austerity” reasons though it wasn’t even being asked of them. People there saw this coming.

The real housewives are, increasingly, women with something to sell.

On Bama Rush.

The family behind the movie The Blind Side, sure did live well on Michael Oher’s back.

When abortion rights are on the ballot, those initiatives win. Probably because women like bodily autonomy. And because we should protect children from having children.

KeKe Palmer stays winning.

A woman was awarded $1.2 billion in a revenge porn lawsuit. Good for her.

The scorpion will always bite you. You reap what you sow. Etc.

Did you know the Smithsonian had a racial brain collection? YUP.

Toni Morrison really was singular. We KNEW. But it’s also nice to be reminded.

A conversation with Megan Rapinoe as she looks both forward and back on the eve of retirement.