Happy June! Happy Pride! I hope you’re celebrating safely and joyfully.
I love the month of June—it’s finally starting to feel like summer, maybe the workload slows down a little bit (if it doesn’t, I feel you and I’m sorry), and strawberries and soft serve ice cream are at their peak. Some of life’s great joys!
If you’re gay, happy birthday! If you’re not, congratulations on being one of the only straight people to read this newsletter. <3
Read on for the latest from your pals at Witch, Please Productions!
Queerly yours,
Gaby, Hannah, Marcelle, Coach, and Zoe
p.s. Have you listened to our Gender Playground episode about celebrating Pride with kids? Have you left us an Apple Review? Shared the show with friends? If ever there was a time for that, it’s NOW!
We’re enjoying a summer slowdown over here at Material Girls HQ, meaning we're still releasing episodes every two weeks, but every other episode will be a Material Concerns episode; an unscripted, more casual conversation between Marcelle and Hannah. In these episodes, they talk about how they're doing, what they're up to, research they didn't get to in "regular" episodes, content they're consuming and more! The first half of a Material Concerns episode is published on our main feed and the second half on our Patreon.
Other than that, in the last month or so we released an episode on Dirty Dancing and an episode about The Last of Us! In the former, Marcelle and Hannah are joined by Andrea Warner (she/her), the author of The Time of My Life, an exploration of Dirty Dancing as a deeply feminist film. Together, Hannah, Marcelle and Andrea discuss postmodernism, nostalgia, late capitalism and the construction of history to get a better understanding of why Dirty Dancing is such a compelling film.
In the latter, Hannah and Marcelle talk all about The Last of Us and think through the ways art gets transcoded across media! Together, they consider the process of adaptation and the intertextuality between original content and adaptation(s). Of course, for all you Last of Us fans, they also talk about Long, Long Time — aka the Bill and Frank episode. And without spoilers!
Hot News from Coach
July 25th marks one year since we launched Material Girls and in celebration of our upcoming birthday, I’m so thrilled to announce that we will be doing a live episode recording open to all paying Patreon supporters. Join at any tier and you’ll be invited to the recording. I’m telling you, it’ll be a BALL. We’re going to dress up and we think you should too!
The topic? The final four episodes of Bridgerton Season 3! The date? Friday, July 12th at 1 pm PST, 2 MT, 3 CST, 4 EST, etc. The vibe? Thirst. Chaos. Joy!
For Carly: I’m terribly sorry, but this book isn’t out yet. It’s out in October, but this is your sign to request it from your library or preorder it from your favorite indie! Feast While You Can by Mikaella Clements and Onjuli Dutta is a queer speculative horror novel that gripped me by the THROAT. It has hot lesbians with some gender fuckery going on, small town horror, and illicit romance. I hope you enjoy it!
For Amy: You mentioned wanting something cozy, and this is the coziest one in my repertoire: Small Joys by Elvin James Mensah (CW for discussion of suicide). This book genuinely fills me up. It’s contemporary lit fic about male friendship, masculinity, and queerness. It makes me so happy and feels like a hug.
For Ryan: The last book you read and loved was Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams, which means I have to recommend one of my favorite nonfiction books ever written: An Immense World by Ed Yong. It’s an immaculate audiobook experience, and you will definitely laugh! It’s an exploration of the vast arrays of animal senses, and Yong uses them to help us better understand our own world. It is beyond excellent.
I know I make up all the playlist themes, but this one was honestly truly made for me. Blast it while you get ready for your gay little weekends!
Get your playlist on Spotify here or Apple Music here.
Have a topic you want us to tackle? Feel free to submit to this form!
Want to talk to us all the time? Join our $30 Patreon tier and find us on Slack, where we live.
Want to sponsor an episode of Gender Playground? Learn more here!
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You can also leave us a review for Material Girls or Gender Playground on Apple Podcasts! We love that. Thank you AwolfnamedEarl for your review of Material Girls!
Okay, bye! xoxo
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