The Audacious Roundup
For the weeks of February 10th and February 17th
AUDACIOUS BOOKCLUB HAPPENINGS
Our February selection is Homeseeking by Karissa Chen. We will have a live book club discussion with the author on February 25th at 8pm EST/5 am PST. Registration is open! I hope to see many of you there.
THE NEWSLETTER WEEK IN REVIEW
PERSONAL PROFESSIONAL NEWS
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).
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.
This is nonsense. But Mexico is not playing around.
A Delta plane crashed in Toronto and landed upside down. Everyone survived.
I’m sure it’s not related but Trump is firing a bunch of air traffic controllers. Worry not! A team from Space X is going to fix air traffic control. (THIS MEANS WORRY!)
Trump is ruining marriages which… good. Don’t be married to a Trump voter!
Cows eating chicken shit may be why bird flu is spreading to cows.
Who among your friends has secret money? In truth, this is none of our business but as I get older I do find it really… interesting to see who has parents who give them a down payment or much more to buy a house. I only wish more people were honest about what made home ownership possible for them. For me, it was Bad Feminist, and I’m not mad at it! Also, during COVID, well the lockdown part, I was fascinated to learn that I know many people with like country homes to which they absconded. Anyway. Remember when we could talk about semi-trivial things like this because the world wasn’t on fire? That was nice.
Rebecca Traister reminds us that wokeness is not what ails us right now.
Congestion pricing works. IT WORKS!
Publishing’s hunt for the next big young thing continues apace.
I really appreciated what Kate Manne had to say about negligent relationships.
Hanif Abdurraqib offers some lessons for the end of the world.
Venus Williams is returning to the tennis court after a long playing hiatus… Curious to see how this goes. She’s such an elegant player.
Actress Hunter Schafer is misgendered on her passport. This timeline is rancid and also, this is also and primarily happening to non-famous people who won’t get articles written about them.
Young trans activists are looking to build their own networks and solutions.
A profile of Nara Smith who, I admit, intrigues me. I think she is far wittier than people give her credit for. A profile of Parker Posey. A profile of Demi Moore. A profile of Zaddy Seth Rogen. A profile of Sophie Thatcher. A conversation with Ed Yong. A Grub Street diet with Torrey Peters. A review of Nnedi Okorafor’s new novel. A profile of Tilted Axis. A brief history of the “ditz” voice.
RIP Voletta Wallace.
The Superbowl happened and there was a one-man protest and Kendrick Lamar did the damn thing. He wore some awesome boot cut jeans and TikTok is all over it.
The pope is sick.
Here are the 2025 women of the year, according to TIME Magazine.
The blessing and curse of mineral riches.
Gen X women are having the best sex. I am Gen X. Infer from that what you will.
A grocery store date sounds… interesting.
You have until the 26th to download your Kindle books.
In The Yale Review, new short fiction in translation.
There are patterns in everything.
That one guy, who invented the annoying password rules involving characters and capitalization and whatever, well, he regrets what he did.
When a teacher survives a mass shooting.
Should kindergartners learn gun safety in schools? A district in Utah thinks so!
MSNBC is removing all the people of color and/or women from the air. Or so it seems. Among those losing their jobs, is Joy Ann Reid.
In federal agencies there is a lot of firing and re-hiring going on. It’s incredible that this administration is willing to so publicly be so incompetent.
Fascism continues apace, this time, in New Orleans libraries.
The dream of a Silicon reich.
Musty McCrackhead sent out a missive to all federal employees demanding that they send an email with five bullet points of what they accomplished last week. He also noted that not sending the email would be taken as a resignation. This, of course, is not how anything works. Also, never trust someone who can only synthesize information in a bulleted list. He was also deeply weird at CPAC. And he’s not working alone. Finally, he tried to buy OpenAI but they were like…nah.
All these assholes are Nazi saluting all over the place. Stop wondering if they’re doing what they are CLEARLY doing. Jesus christ.
For whatever reason, Trump voters didn’t think they would be affected by his policies.
Oops! Target shareholders were not happy about the store’s dumb decision to end their DEI efforts. The stock price, no bueno.
The national parks are in crisis.
More Eric Adams nonsense. This dirty cat has like eleven lives.
The secondary president fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Is he…? Yes! Yes he is. The administration is also interested in dismantling the postal service. I’m sure this bodes well for voting. Also, he’s mad that his airplanes aren’t ready. Also, his approval rating sucks.
Stories of detained migrants are pretty horrifying.
Judith Butler on Trump’s sadism.
Stephen Miller had a temper tantrum. Just positively ridiculous, these people.
The leader of the German far right party is a lesbian partnered to a woman of color. W T actual F?
Texas is bringing back the classics. This week, measles. Louisiana wants to get in on that action.
In functioning countries, corrupt presidents face consequences.
J.B. Pritzker is one of the few Democrats with a backbone but he’s a billionaire. Win some, lose some.
Also, in Los Angeles, Karen Bass fired the fire chief which is… a choice.
President Zelensky is not shrinking in the face of intimidation.
The effects of war on men and boys in Ukraine.
In Ohio, neighborhood militias are sprouting up. Sure this will end well.
Watching all twenty-four hours of The Clock.
How do you tell the story of the end of a marriage?
After a protracted “battle,” Barbara Broccoli has given up control of the James Bond franchise and now, I reckon, it will become very terrible. This is surprising because she held out for a really long time.
Rihanna’s husband was found not guilty.
An essay on the color white.
James Baldwin’s sartorial choices tell us a lot.
Space is cool.
Get to know Gerri Major, the original Black travel influencer.
In the Bronx, bodegas are selling egg loosies.
There’s a spicy writing group in Hollywood.
When you’re not the one, the two, or the three.
If you want to support excellent theater the Soho Rep gala is on April 21st.
At a time when it feels like crises in our country and around the globe are intensifying daily, I invite you to join me in supporting bold, inspirational solutions for a more just and equitable world. Please be my guest on Tuesday, March 11 in NYC to celebrate four decades of global activism and the 40th anniversary of MADRE - an international human rights organization I support and work with. You'll have the opportunity to meet courageous grassroots women activists–from Guatemala, Palestine, and Iraq—and see why MADRE's work is needed now more than ever, while enjoying great music, food, and a dance party. Kindly RSVP (free) at your convenience. I hope you'll join MADRE for this special evening!
Thank you