Welcome back to The Monthly Hoot: Witch, Please Productions' Newsletter!
Feb 04, 2026
Hey lovely people!
It’s February, and in honor of the short month, we’ll keep this intro short too.
Material Girls is back from winter break! That means regular episodes resumed this week with a Material Concerns featuring (*checks notes*) all Hannahs! Though we were on break, we kept it fun last month with Pitty Party! Our first four episodes are on the main feed, but from now on new episodes will be on Patreon only. More on that below!
Hope you’re staying warm and taking care of yourselves!
Hugs,
Gaby — and Hannah, Marcelle, Coach, and Zoe
Material Girls is back, baybee!! We’re kicking off our third (!!!) season with a brand new episode of Material Concerns that is 100% Hannahs. Hannah and Coach discuss the incredible anti-ICE community-organizing in Minneapolis and beyond, and follow up with Apocalypse Toolkit and Fixation Station (which will give you a hint about next week’s episode…).
Gaby, Zoe, and Marcelle have also had a blast recapping the first four episodes of The Pitt! Thank you to those of you who have listened, sent us memes, and explained how to give yourself the Heimlich if you’re ever choking alone (one of Gaby’s biggest fears).
Pitty Party is on Patreon & WE ARE RUNNING A PROMOTION!!!!!!!!!
Now that Material Girls is back (hell yeah), our weekly recaps are going to be available on Patreon for patrons of any tier. Never fear, though: if you join our Patreon in the month of February, you’ll get 50% off your first month with the code RINGWATCH. Pretty cool! Your Patreon support is the reason why we’re able to do what we do, so we’d love it if you considered joining at a tier that makes sense for your budget. <3 New episode out today!
We’re watching The Trotskyon Saturday, February 21st, 3-5 pm ET!
WHY??? Because this Canadian classicis a Jacob Tierney production! And Jacob Tierney is a master of craft.
Watch-Alongs are available to $10+ Patreon supporters! All you need to do is find the movie on your streaming platform (or through other methods), and come hang out with us on the Discord server while we watch. We’ll make comments, critiques and have a nice chat about the film and other tangents that crop up! Join us, won’t you?
It’s the Heated Rivalry soundtrack again but THIS TIME it’s the instrumentals. I’ve been listening to this while I work which is awesome except sometimes I get smacked in the face with the music that plays during the “she would have loved you” scene and I have to get up and walk around. iykyk!!!! Spotify here, Apple Music here.
Because life is busy and brain is bad, I'm currently midway through a rewatch of Brooklyn Nine-Nine. This is a top comfort show for me, for one reason: Andre Braugher. His portrayal of Captain Raymond Holt, a stoically deadpan, classical-music-loving, rock-painting, gay police captain ranks in my top five all-time television characters. I swear to god I would watch Raymond Holt actually paint rocks. As a show, it's aged okay. There are a few episodes, especially in the earliest seasons, that are painful to watch, as characters delight in the prospect of putting human beings in cages. As the show progresses, it grows increasingly self-critical and nuanced in its relationship to policing. But most importantly: Captain Raymond Holt.
My Heated Rivalry binge (and yours) has reminded me of many epic Canadian musicians and bands that dominated the Canadian airwaves in the aughts and teens. To quote Kathleen Edwards, “heavy rotation on the CBC (whatever in Hell that really means).” So who am I recommending for you to dive into? You simply MUST listen to Feist’s masterpiece The Reminder. Two songs from this album appear in Heated Rivalry (“Sealion” (a kind of cover of “Sea Lion Woman”) and “My Moon My Man”), and the whole album is perfection. Some of my favourites are the heartbreakers “The Limit to Your Love” and “The Water,” as well as the bop “1234,” and the banger “I Feel It All.” If you’ve never heard the album before, you are in for a TREAT. If you remember the Heated Rivalry tracks from your own youth, you are going to love rekindling your relationship with the album.
I think I maybe already recommended this shortbread recipe, but it’s soo good and I just made it again. And while I have you, here’s a recipe for vegetarian caesar salad dressing that I make almost weekly. Shoutout to my mom who shared it with me and to her best friend Julie who shared it with her!
I think it's common knowledge that January is the worst month of the year, but this January was really rough! I tried my best to have a good month and I kept not succeeding at it, for a multitude of reasons. So, when everyday feels pretty hard I need to turn to little treats to keep things going! I'm only human! This month, I my little treat was buying Barbet water. I first saw these at the little French bakery I used to live next to. And now that I’ve moved and I can't get my little treat at my French bakery I have to settle for a taste that reminds me of that place. The flavors combinations are like a decadent treat and I highly recommend if you need a little boost in your day.
I’m reading a few things at the moment, and because I recommend them all, I’m going to tell you about them. First, I religiously read Obsessions This Week by our collective friend Hope Rehak, sister of Coach. Hope is so smart and her Substack is funny, digestible, and a major highlight of my week. Second, I am reading Role Model by Rachel Reid, which is smoothing the folds of my brain (affectionate). Third, I just started reading In the Woods by Tana French, which came as a recommendation from my friend Jess after I requested books that feel like season one of True Detective. My partner and I just finished watching True Detective last week (11 years late, whateverrrr) and I am still thinking about Rust Cohle!!!! Okay and finally, I am slowly working my way through The Sexuality of Care by M. K. Thekkumkattil. This is an essay collection about the intersection of kink practices and the nursing profession, and I’m finding it incredibly well-written and extremely thought-provoking! I’ve been thinking a lot about the things they discuss about critical care work as I watch and recap The Pitt this season. It’s not out until July, so add it to your preorder list!
We love it when you do! Here are a couple recent chatty highlights to assuage Gaby’s fears of choking while alone. Thanks everyone, she needed this!
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Love that the Monthly Hoot is becoming this mix of media recs and actual substance like the anti-ICE organizing coverage. The little treats section totally got me though, I've been doing the same thing to get through rough months lately. Barbet water looks kinda fancy but tbh sometimes thats exactly what makes a treat feel special.
Love that the Monthly Hoot is becoming this mix of media recs and actual substance like the anti-ICE organizing coverage. The little treats section totally got me though, I've been doing the same thing to get through rough months lately. Barbet water looks kinda fancy but tbh sometimes thats exactly what makes a treat feel special.