The Audacious Roundup
For the week of March 3
AUDACIOUS BOOKCLUB HAPPENINGS
Our March selection is Back After This by Linda Holmes. We will have a live book club discussion with the author on March 26th at 8pm EST/5 am PST. Registration is open! I hope to see many of you there. You can see Karissa Chen, author of Homeseeking, in conversation with Meg Pillow, here.
THE NEWSLETTER WEEK IN REVIEW
PERSONAL PROFESSIONAL NEWS
I was in conversation with my dear friend Saeed Jones at Harvard Medical school. We had a time. A time was had.
The Portable Feminist Reader is out on March 25th, 2025. Pre-orders are now open and it is always a huge help when you pre-order. Stay tuned for tour dates in Boston (3/25), Chicago (3/26) and New York (4/4). Here’s a review!
The Answer Is in the Wound by Kelly Sundberg is available for pre-order. So is Ravishing by Eshani Surya. (Both are forthcoming Roxane Gay Book titles.)
Debbie and I gave some dating and relationship advice for Hinge.
Debbie Millman has a new book, Love Letter to a Garden, out on April 15th. Also included in the book are 10 recipes by me—a mini cookbook if you will.
Book and project buying links: The Portable Feminist Reader, Opinions, Do the Work, Stand Your Ground, Bad Feminist: Tenth Anniversary Edition, Hunger, Difficult Women, An Untamed State, Not That Bad, Rebind: The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton.
Trump and Vance held a meeting with President Zelensky of Ukraine and tried to bully him but he lives in a warzone so he remained plussed. Really, it was a shakedown of a man who could not be shooken down. Most of the world was, appropriately, aghast at the shameful display. They even lost the Wall Street Journal.
While most of the media is presently shitting the bed as they try to cover the coordinated chaos of Trump 2.No, some of the most unexpected publications are doing accurate reporting and headlining. (See also: Teen Vogue)
After showing his entire ass on the global stage by trying to bully a world leader, JD Vance went skiing but he wasn’t necessarily welcome. As it should be.
At HUD, someone made a video of Trump sucking Musty’s toes. Hilarious but also gross because of the “people” involved.
The superintendent of VMI has been removed from his post. I wonder why. What could it be?
In Idaho, three men dragged a woman out of a town hall meeting because they didn’t like what she was saying. And people sat there and watched it happen. This is, of course, illegal.
While Trump tried to find undocumented immigrants to deport, if you’re rich, come on through!
Iowa, in the race to the bottom, has removed gender identity protections from the state’s civil rights laws.
A child in Texas has died of measles, a disease for which there is a vaccine.
Andrew Tate and his brother are back in the U.S. to do more crimes I guess.
A straight woman didn’t get a job she wanted but a lesbian did so, of course, now that case is in front of the Supreme Court.
Early career researchers are struggling to figure out next steps as the rug continues to be pulled out from under them.
DOGE is dismantling civil rights offices (predictable) alongside the rest of the government. They’are also cutting veteran’s services but the VA is pausing that.
If you happen to catch Musty’s attention, you too can sway public policy, as an unelected. And Musty is still trying to get federal employees to send him lil emails because he has no real friends.
Volunteer patrols are working in L.A. to protect people from ICE raids.
The pope is still infirm.
Raymond Santana, one of the Central Park Five, is running for office in NY.
More alarming plane incidents. Bodes well. Better think and pray for a safe flight.
Some good reporting on how well WIRED is doing in covering Doge/Musty.
Bezos Bozos has decided that the WaPo opinion page will only cover writing in support of personal liberty and free markets. WTF does that even mean? The opinion editor was like, no thanks, I’d rather be unemployed.
Another day, another Trump voter who is sad about the leopard eating her face.
Politicians are feeling the heat at local town halls so keep up the pressure. Hold your elected officials accountable.
Prison guards in NY went on strike because they couldn’t put incarcerated people in solitary confinement in the ways they wanted to and, well, that tells us everything we need to know, doesn’t it?
A great many of the contracts Doge is canceling have already been executed and/or they won’t create any savings. It’s all smoke and mirrors.
Global warming is causing all kinds of harm, including endangering languages.
It’s a little surprising just how many cults are out there wreaking havoc.
Basketball star Diana Taurasi is retiring from the WNBA after an absolutely epic career.
Ummm…. Fyre Fest 2.0? Girl, I guess.
The Jellycat Diner sounds like a place where the cats from CATS might hang out. Or perhaps it’s the venue for the Jellicle Ball!
The weirdest things happen in the Hamptons.
An essay about the long reach of an eating disorder.
The amount of reporting on eggs over the past year is astonishing.
I too am a fan of the corner of TikTok where we can watch dogs riding on the dog bus.
The party at Party City is coming to an end.
Hundreds of people disappeared as Pinochet rose to power in Chile and this piece looks at what happened and the aftermath.
Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins profiled in Vogue. A profile of Bill Burr.
An appreciation of Demi Moore and a meditation on the idea of celebrity. And a thoughtful essay about Luther Vandross and how public prurience contributed to his death.
What’s going on with young people?
In Berlin, young people are worried about the rise of the far right.
No matter how many glossy profiles she gets, never forget that Candace Owens is a rabid antisemite who lives in profound denial of reality and advocates for things she doesn’t do herself.
A massive ski date for singles which sounds really not fun.
On the evolving relationship between rappers and alcohol brands.
That Asteroid that was going to hit the earth isn’t anymore which….
JoAnn Fabrics is closing and my mother, god rest her soul, would be SICK over this.
This one really hurts but… RIP Angie Stone. And also, with equal sorrow, RIP Roberta Flack who was flawless and could sing on down and had marvelous hair. RIP Gene Hackman, who died alongside his wife Betsy Arakawa, and is remembered, fondly, by many. RIP Michelle Trachtenberg, so charming and only 39!
Teen! Vogue!
Also, was in Florida last week and was chatted up at a bar by a civil servant who was about to lose half her team to DOGEfest. She was absolutely SHOCKED that "government efficiency" was playing out like this. Ma'am, the leopards are indiscriminate in their face eating.
Wow, I clicked on the link for the TikTok Dogs on a bus, as recommended in the Audacious Roundup newsletter, only to be led to the Washington Post paywall. What the fuck? Signed, a paid subscriber.