This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comSarah and Nancy are together in New York, along with a pink tree and some confusing Christmas lyrics. In this season of love and war, we discuss:* Which holiday standard will make us millions?* What is “parse and brown” and what does it have to do with Christmas?* What was Nancy’s Not Finest Hour and does it involve yelling at protestors on the Manhattan Bridge?* Macy’s Day Parade protesters apply Super Glue directly to their hands* Your hosts decline to “pick a lane”* Susan Sarandon says a dumb thing, gets the boot* Matti Friedman educates us* Is Nancy the last person to realize her unconventional reporting from Portland might have impacted her career?* The steep decline of family dining and the rise of solo-everything* The younger the woman, the more they report “disrespect from the opposite sex”* Who’s lonelier: Boomers or Gen Z?* Sarah mixes up Leonard Cohen and Leonard Bernstein* Nancy mixes up the actress from The Gilded Age with the actress from DeadwoodPlus, delightful new hot boxes, and a sultry money pitch you won’t want to miss.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comThe Fall of Minneapolis is a crowd-funded documentary that raises serious questions about the George Floyd trial. Was officer Derek Chauvin actually following protocol? Why didn’t jurors see critical body cam footage? And what was going on with that autopsy? Buuuut the documentary comes from a Minnesota group with right-wing politics, so you likely won’t read much about it outside Fox News. Too bad, because one of the biggest news stories of the decade deserves real scrutiny. We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the documentary, plus:* Minneapolis as special source of white guilt* Revolution is not getting with the season of gratitude* When evidence doesn’t fit a public narrative* Are protests getting more violent, or is Nancy cherry-picking?* Did the sexual revolution mostly serve men?* Attachment-free sex is not a good end point* A new beauty box (or, as Sarah calls it, “dirty hair ahead”)* Albert Brooks (and Tom Arnold?) love* An outro song that captures what it means to make a place at the table, to know that “everyone's a little broken, and everyone belongs.”And much more!

Good morning! There are five days to Thanksgiving and a lot of us are already making shopping lists, if as yet for me only in my head. I love grocery shopping, a love I passed down to my daughter, and somewhere on the interwebs is a short video of her surfing her shopping cart through Fred Meyer market in Portland saying, “Wheeeee!” I love New York City, but the grocery shopping experience after nearly 30 years of well-lit, wide-aisled west coast supermarkets? Abysmal. As I mention in the audio, my plans this year got a little kiboshed. But! From adversity, opportunity, and I’ll now go to two Thanksgivings, one day-of event with a lot of people I don’t know and to whom I will get to feed pie, and a smaller one with family, for which I am not going go the whole 9 yards, there will be only 5 or 7 of us, a number likely to swell. We will not have turkey at this one but a roast goose, because one of the guests ate it once 30 years in Prague and remembers it fondly. I have never roasted a good but did watch some YouTubes and scanned for recipes and feel pretty confident, though will be very happy for your tips, and especially for a not-too-sweet glaze with which to baste the bird. I like sweet-and-meat but others do not so, hit me up. I am also going to be making a change to a standard recipe, if not a change this horrific. As I mentioned yesterday on the Twitter* machine, the correct number of eggs in mac-and-cheese is zero. What a I changing? The stuffing. Let me be clear: THIS WOULD NEVER BE THE CASE WERE I MAKING THE TURKEY. Stuffing, the kind I learned from my mom, is my favorite food, and while this means I should make it more than once a year, maybe just to stick in a chicken, I do not. A lack of at-hand giblets (which I knew meant the whole mess of innards you find in the bird; in the audio I meant gizzards, which I think is probably a fake word but anyway) might contribute, but mainly it’s because to my mind you need to make vat of stuffing because it’s so delicious and you want to feed it to many people and, if you are me, you need eat a great deal of it for yourself, before it goes into the turkey, and while you’re stuffing the turkey, and at the dinner (three helpings), and cold from the fridge. I already look forward to 2024’s repast.This year, along with the goose - and the potatoes that will be roasted in the goose fat - I will try a new stuffing recipe, one from my girl Alison Roman. As mentioned in the audio, I am already making changes to the recipe in my head. Here she is making it.Food is love (say it with me), and we’ve had a lot of both in this apartment these past few weeks, dinner parties and late-night hangs, including a few nights ago with a lot of the Reason mag peeps as well as the Fifth guys and their most recent guest, the awesome, funny, super-cute, whip-smart Mary Katherine Ham.Then two two nights ago - I am typing this at 8:39am on Sunday, hoping to get this up in time! - we welcomed our beloved Yael Bar Tur back from Israel. She was on the pod last month and in our hearts always. We ate all the food and drank all the wine and sang some songs and gave each other shirts we picked up in war zones. These friends, this life, I love it so much.A few links mentioned in the audio:“Sam Harris: The Bright Line Between Good and Evil,” Honestly podcastAnd the recipe! This, too, I love to much, and am sending all buttery love to you and yours xxThanksgiving Stuffing* 3 loaves white bread, supermarket variety, not too dense. I am liking potato bread these days. * 2 good-sized yellow onions, small dice* 6-8 stalks celery, small dice* 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter* salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, thyme if you have it* 6 - 8 cups turkey stock, plus the giblets you’ve simmered in the stock, choppedA day or two before you plan to make the stuffing, let bread slices dry out a bit. Turn then a few times so somewhat evenly dried but don’t stress. Once semi-dry, cut bread into cubes.In a large heavy-bottomed pot, melt the butter. Add onions and celery and cook, stirring frequently, until translucent and onions are starting to brown just a bit. Add your chopped giblets. (You are of course welcome to add the meat you chop off the turkey neck. I eat the neck, sending all squeamish people running from the room.) Unless your pot is massive, remove half of the onion mix; you’ll be making the stuffing in two batches.Add half your cubed bread to onion-mix, stir to start coating the bread, sprinkling with salt, pepper, poultry seasoning and some thyme. Stir stir. Now start adding your stock, a cup at a time, until stuffing is moist but not wet.Stuff your turkey - or not! Any that does not fit in the bird, and there will be plenty, you can put in a buttered dish, maybe drizzle a little melted butter, and bake at a 350F oven until crisp on top.*And some outro love from the original X (man). Would that I could, I would feed him a wheelbarrow of stuffing and it would not give him half the joy he’s given me. Happy Thanksgiving John Doe! This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit smokeempodcast.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comProtests are the gift of a free society. But also: Annoying! We talk about three recent stories on the explosion of activism over the Israel-Hamas war, and when “building a better world tomorrow” ends up tearing apart the community today.* Nancy stans Dave Barry; Sarah needs convincing* Humanity is hard. Protesting is easy.* Why has the 21st century seen a threefold increase in protests?* What would you do if your kid tore down posters?* “We need to stop acting like these are serious people.”* The moral rot of anti-Semitism* Political cartooning as latest culture war battlefield* Ayaan Hirsi Ali is down with Jesus* Do you feel comfortable in church?* A Beach Boys confession* We ❤️ Jeff TweedyWhere else are you going to hear about Home Goods, Philip Roth, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and Rammstein in one convo? Plus a listener request (in episode notes), and what’s in our hot boxes!

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comAfter an update about how mice might have gotten into Nancy’s apartment (human trafficking, anyone?), she and Sarah discuss the 44 minutes of footage Nancy recently saw at a screening in New York, “Bearing Witness to the October 7th Massacre.” Nancy wrote about it in a recent essay, “This is Terror,” and they talk about the carnage, sorrow, and soul murder that is war.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comIt’s our 100th episode! Time for a pop quiz, then on to the following:* HBO president caught secretly striking back against critics* But is working on HBO’s The Idol grounds for any lawsuit?* Love for Alan Sepinwall, fastest TV critic in the West* Behind the scenes at Tucker Carlson’s exit from FOX* The “c-word”* “She said Tucker Carlson is a messenger from God, and he said nope.”* The word Nancy cannot stand, and the phrase that makes Sarah blush* Can The Real Housewives ever be a moral enterprise?* How RHONY’s Leah McSweeney became “Hurricane Leah” and the lawsuit she recently filed* Drinking and reality TV* “If you go to a whorehouse, you’re gonna get fucked”* Wild, hopeful, morally fraught stuff in the fertility industry* A baby made with the DNA of three people: Wait, what/how?* We cannot countenance an image of the Fleshlight, but if you mustPlus, a “pretend-ian” scandal and a smoking-hot sports star in the hot box

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comOur guest is the “Long Island-accented, turbocharged” Mike Pesca, host of The Gist. We begin — and end! — with fabu tech failure, but along the way, we talk to the intrepid podcaster about getting thrown on the funeral pyre at Slate, why he can’t stand slow talkers, Israel-Hamas press coverage and culture clashes, and his high metabolism for information. Also discussed:* Pesca’s podcast listening hack* When is a testicle like avocado toast?* The Jeopardy! question that cost Pesca the championship* How NYT journalist Donald McNeil Jr. got fired and won a Pulitzer the same year* Which publications are failing in their coverage of Israel-Hamas, and which might be getting better?* Is there any proper context for the tweet, “How great you are Hitler”?* Pesca suggests new Smoke ‘Em segment: “Kneejerk Nancy”* Is “from the river to the sea” the new “All Lives Matter”?* Wiccan priestesses at NPR? Bring ‘em on* Is Sarah crazy to think Joe Biden’s kinda rockin’ it these days?* Can anyone beat Donald Trump?* Our “I ❤️ Mike Pesca” tattoos will be inked soon …* Let’s not over-catastrophize about the world right now* Sarah remembers Matthew PerryPlus a cavalcade of hotboxes, and even Sarah is following the World Series.

The podcast discusses recent incidents of anti-Semitism on university campuses, the campus fight to be seen as "oppressed," someone denying the Holocaust, Israel losing the battle for TikTok, Schlubs dressed as Nazis at Torchy's Tacos in Fort Worth, and the opportunities for personal brand advancement during geopolitical tragedies.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comAn air raid siren went off the moment we sat down to interview Yael Bar Tur. “Give me five minutes,” said the co-host of the “Ask a Jew” podcast. “I have to go to the bomb shelter.” An Israeli who lives in New York City, Yael was visiting her family in Tel Aviv when Hamas massacred 1400 Israelis and kidnapped 220 others on October 7. She has so far decided to stay, documenting the conflict and terror on her Twitter feed, which has become a must-read of incredible human drama and, sometimes, the world’s horrifying response to that. “The thing about antisemitism is, there’s something for everyone,” she said. She also talks about:* The eerie quiet of Tel Aviv* Are Israelis united? You bet. Do they agree politically? Not so much.* The Twitter story on Yael’s feed that brought Nancy and Sarah to tears* WTF with people tearing down Israeli hostage posters?* BDS should not be confused with BTS, the K-Pop band* Viet Nguyen, an Open Letter supporting Palestine, and literary chaos at 92NY* Should colleges even make public statements of political support?* The celebrity who likes every one of Yael’s tweets* Papa Joe, the most popular man in IsraelAlso: Thomas Sowell is suddenly everywhere, a must-listen podcast, and a documentary that dares to humanize insurrectionists

Topics discussed include media failure in covering the Gaza hospital missile strike, the release of Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon, the controversies around the film adaptation, and the success of Taylor Swift's concert movie.