Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em Podcast

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comThe 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 Paul Thomas Anderson, Sean Combs, Sydney Sweeney, Charlie Kirk, Billy Joel, Chappell Roan, old classic books, and the AI future that awaits us.Also discussed:* FaceTime doesn’t work in Australia?* Hard times for America’s bourbon industry* Nancy doesn’t flunk the pop quiz!* Sarah favorite 2025 pop song is actually from …* Nancy explains VistaVision; gets it wrong* Sarah’s love-hate thing with Yorgos Lanthimos* Olivia Colman gives an all-time performance* The time-weathered face of Ethan Hawke* American Studies is a bangin’ major* A John Travolta gifting story* Whoodoggie, did things get hot on the set of CleopatraPlus, Sarah invents Drinking School, Nancy accidentally chugs weed lemonade, we all have Moby Dicks to climb, and much more!

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comThe 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 “get what you deserve.” Plus, each of the ladies builds her Mount Rushmore of Hotness, but only ONE MAN makes the cut on every woman’s list. Who will it be??Also discussed:* Will people ever stop freaking out about Bari Weiss?* “I don’t want a birthday party!”* Sarah would like to man-keep, thanks* Kat and Nancy have thoughts on pie crust* Epstein: Is the media trying to make “fetch” happen?* Nobody likes the word “deserve.”* Crying in trees, sleeping in trees …* A totally unironic Leo DiCaprio calendarPlus, sorrow over Ben Sasse’s announcement that he has terminal cancer, animatronic milk in Connecticut, what Kat texted her husband after watching that scorching “Wuthering Heights” trailer, and much more!It’s Christmas and Kat has a special gift for you, if you’ll just step right into this post office, so cozy, so inviting, what could go wrong? All we want for Christmas …

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comAndy 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 war of public shaming.” Plus: Books books books!Also discussed:* Gotta love a rotund tree* “The thing about when you’re making your sauna …”* The country mouse/city mouse ideal* Are we really living in “unprecedented times”?* The secrets of how Andy builds a podcast* The trend to exaggerate victim status is REALLY UNHEALTHY* Bringing down a deer with a bow-and-arrow is harder than you think* When pain comes your way, don’t add regret to it* The Wall Street Journal is crushing it* Make centricism sexy again! * One was joyous, one was meh: Apple vs. Free Press holiday parties* Andy explains frog embryology to Nancy* Andy and Sarah are Magnolia stans* Alexander Hamilton got what he deserved* Demon Copperhead: Even funnier than Moby Dick! * “There’s so much comfort in history.”* WANTED: Presidential biography recommendationsPlus, three cheers for Bari Weiss and building new media, everyone loves Anna Karenina, “to be alive is to be heartbroken,” and much more!Give yourself the gift of deep conversation. Become a paid subscriber.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comThis 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 long and juicy story, one that includes a J.K. Rowling column, a “lot of dishonesty and fear,” and an email dispatched in the middle of the night, a story that caused Nancy’s and Sarah’s jaws to literally drop. (It’s on video!) Paul joined the Opinion section in 2022 to “create space for liberal opinions that had been snuffed out,” the thorny topics most journalists in 2020 were afraid to write about — and might still be. “It’s really unsettling when an Opinion section is afraid of opinions,” says Paul. “You cannot pretend culture out of existence.”Also discussed:* How were things inside the New York Times in 2020? “Really awful.”* George Will, 2014: “Victimhood [as] a coveted status that confers privileges.” NYT 2020: “Hold my beer.”* “You’ve lost the room…”* We are not finished talking about the defenestrations of Times’ James Bennett, Bari Weiss, Donald McNeil Jr….* New York Times readers are smarter than we give them credit for.* Props for Jesse Singal, Michael Powell, whoever Pamela’s editor was at Opinion, whose stand-up-ness makes Nancy tear up* “The truth is a motherfucker.”Plus, tasty bits in the hotbox: a Disneyland for Netflix grown-ups, the 1000-page book about revenge and justice you should be reading, a new old-skool medical drama, and much more!Aren’t you tired of the paywall yet? Become a paid subscriber. we told you…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comGoing 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 faxed it to the editor - this was 1994 - who told…

In this lively conversation, Mary Katharine Ham, a seasoned journalist and political commentator, shares her journey from liberal roots in Durham to becoming a contrarian conservative. She discusses the impact of her late husband on her perspective in the political arena and reflects on Trump's influence on the GOP. With humor, she critiques cancel culture and media panic while emphasizing the importance of diverse viewpoints in political discourse. Ham’s insights challenge conventional narratives, making for a thought-provoking exchange.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comNancy 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 Sanford, and Livvy, a pop-music persona Nuzzi created at 16. Nuzzi is a talented journalist who’s appeared on this podcast. Last year, she lost her gig at New York magazine after news hit about an entanglement with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. This sordid new chapter created a feeding frenzy among (many less talented) journalists, but Sarah and Nancy try to push past the schadenfreude to understand how we got here: the little girl drawn to the spotlight, fluent in the double-speak of politicians, and the ambitious young woman who lost both parents by 30. Also discussed:* That time Patty Hearst and the SLA hid out in Disneyland* The magic of the open road* “I like messy people.”* A political profile vs. a celebrity profile* Rule #1: Don’t sleep with your sources.* Rule #2: Do not look through your significant other’s stuff* The Keith Olbermann of it all* Vanity Fair and glamour of the 90s* Remember that time a governor from New Jersey was caught having sex with a dude, and it became a whole giant scandal? Yeah, us neither* More Monmouth Musings could use a better name …* Livvy, the “morally bankrupt” and “undeniably infectious” pop tartlet* The dirty-girl era of Ke$ha and Lady Gaga* The exhibitionism of the iPhone * Sarah will lay her chips on Nuzzi’s futurePlus, Sarah can see alcoholism in people’s eyes, Nancy reconnects with a former flame, a nearly unbelievable story about a 38-year-old unopened letter from Ken Kesey and much more!Make your world bigger. Become a paid subscriber.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comNancy 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 balance independence and attachment. Also discussed:* First Kurt Rambis reference, for those who celebrate* Sarah gets her colors done, has hair problems* We need a producer!* Our email, for the record: smokeempodcast@gmail.com* Please, we beg you, no more videotaped marriage proposals* On men traveling alone: “Who did that guy kill?”* Influencer culture and the egg-freeze flex* Was the world built for “men’s comfort”?* Do men want to be protectors? Do women want them to be? A debate!* Having a boyfriend is… Republican?* Might we have a moratorium on quotes from content providers living in Dimes Square?* “I just want a spinach salad…”* The Hulu show that almost broke up your podcastersPlus, a flashback to an early 20th century Edith Wharton banger, the glory that is Sebastian Junger, and much more!The rich jewel box colors of fall will be yours when you become a paid subscriber

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comMike 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 was dead, but she has questions about how betting went from taboo to industry goldmine. Pesca is Smoke’s resident “voice of men,” whether he likes it or not, so we also talk about his take on the Great Feminization (last week’s pod controversy) and women taking testoserone to boost their sex drive.Don’t miss the backstage drama on Pesca’s podcast interview with former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. He’s done thousands of celebrity interviews, and only spiked a few. This was one of them.Also discussed:* A burning UTI of a question!* Over-under and point spread, discussed* Eight Men Out, a good movie* When the mafia ruled porn …* Three cheers for the red, white and corrupt* Theo Von, Louis CK, Chris Rock, greatest sex addicts anonymous group ever?* Longing for a “she-pee” that plays “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor* Norm MacDonald, poster child for gambling addiction* But what is addiction?* Mike suggests Karine Jean-Pierre should have called her book Incoherent* Sarah’s parents were Cuomo-sexuals* Nancy tries to explain “boofing”* A tone-deaf article about harm reduction* Women, sex drive, and Nancy’s testosterone levels * Andrew Cuomo: “I’m not perverted. I’m Italian.”* “Get me off the Lady Testosterone ride!”* Ozempic kills the urge to gamble* Pesca’s wife has complaints* Sarah’s Ethnic Stereotypes Corner! Plus, Sarah reconsiders One Battle After Another, Nancy’s erotic gym-class epiphany, Mike explains how to read marked cards, and much more!REMINDER: First Sunday this Sunday! Come one, come all, link sent out day-out. 8pm ET/5pm PT.Nancy’s birthday is October 30, and a girl likes presents. You know what to do …

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comNancy 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 over rationality and cohesion over competition. Is it true? Is it offensive? Let’s discuss! Also discussed:* Compliment sandwiches* Twelve-year-old Nancy gets piled on by the older girls at camp* Dreamy Argentinian boys causing trouble* Spilling to a journalist = tattling to the teacher?* “Math is hard”* Male bosses versus female bosses* Mean-girl behavior* “I think” versus “I feel”* Am I allowed to get an orange soda?* Nancy equates cancel culture with communism; Sarah says, WTF?* No adults in the room* What is a “meta-textual performance? Is it a puppet show? * “Misogynist howlers”Plus, a true-crime documentary that exposes surveillance culture, Nancy on the chef whose recipes actually work — and more!Thank you to Andrew Wimsatt, who snatched our video from the jaws of defeat. It’s one battle after another with technology around here! As penance for being later than we’d like, please accept an image of the homemade lasagna Nancy is making, more on that in the hot boxIt’s a chunky lasagna of a time when you become a paid subscriber.