Happy January! We’re officially a week into 2025. Sounds fake, but sure! I know the new year can bring lots of complicated feelings with it, so I hope you’re taking the time to care for yourself—and remembering that if you can only handle the bare minimum, that’s totally fine. You actually DON’T have to set any resolutions this month! You can just do whatever. We’re giving you permission!
Read on for the monthly dispatch from the girlies. Hope it makes you smile and maybe feel some coziness during the darker days of the winter.
is back! Leena joined Hannah and Marcelle to discuss Wicked Part I and the paratexts surrounding the film. If you've been targeted an Elphaba eyeshadow palette, a Glinda-themed popcorn bucket, or anything online that says "holding space," then you've engaged with Wicked's paratexts. And guess what? We've got some theory to help you make sense of it all!
Next up, it’s a new Material Concerns! In this episode, Marcelle and Hannah are joined by Coach, Zoe, and Gaby for a holiday bonanza! We answer listener questions, discuss the wildest bits of marketing for Wicked seen out in the world, and even more chaotic goodness. As a reminder, for just $5 USD/month you'll get part two, our extensive backlog, and ad-free episodes, oh my!!
Everything is as it usually is over on Patreon! There you can find part two of all our Material Concerns episodes, unedited episodes from our original run, and bonuses with our guests. BUT, this is a friendly heads up that in our upcoming Coach’s Corner (the segment featuring Coach in conversation with Hannah and Marcelle after the episode), we talk a bit about the meme-ification of Luigi Mangione, internet meme curators and what it means to de- and re-contextualize people, characters and ideas on the internet. And, well, we just think you’ll enjoy it. To get access to that and other perks, be sure to become a Patreon supporter at a $13/month+ tier!
Note — If you join before February 15th, you can join our upcoming watch along (and vote for what you’d like us to watch!).
Zoe Has a Podcast
And episode one is available to stream! Everyone say “Hell ya, Zoe!”
Visiting is a podcast that aims to explore and develop Métis publishing practices. Visiting draws its methodology from Métis scholar Janice Cindy Gaudet’s approach “keeoukaywin” (the visiting way) to interview Métis publishing professionals who are already doing the work of implementing decolonial practices in the field.
Our Youtube is Popping OFF
Or rather, we’ve just passed 500 subscribers. Thanks to everyone who follows us! Our channel features regular episode content, as well as our NOW PUBLIC Making Worlds episodes. If you subscribe to our channel, you’ll be notified when we post a new episode, so really it’s just a convenient way to stay up to date! Check out our very own Zoe Mix on the latest episode. She’s talking about Phantom of the Opera and she SINGS.
I saw this Instagram graphic once on a bad day and cried for hours because yeah, sometimes you just need to hear this!! Winter is hard but we will persist. We have some hibernation-oriented tunes this month if you need softness and hope and perhaps some Sondheim. Get yours here. Xoxo.
I love reading poetry, but I rarely read a book of poetry all the way through. Instead I leave a book I'm reading somewhere close at hand and pick it up for five or ten minutes when my brain needs a buff and polish (poetry is like a carwash for your brain, there, I said it). The book I'm slowing making my way through right now is Sue Goyette's Monoculture, published by Gaspereau Press, which I mention because I think Gaspereau makes the most beautiful books in the world. In Monoculture, Goyette imagines a future in which there is only one forest left in Nova Scotia, preserved as a tourist attraction and historical oddity. The book is comprised entirely of imagined comments on the forest's website, like yelp reviews for trees. By turns hilarious and devastating (classic Sue!), it's an ode to the beauty of forests and an elegy for the world we're losing right now. It's a crack-your-heart-open-and-heal-it-at-the-same-time kind of book, and I couldn't recommend it more.
Hold onto your butts, kids, because this one is a two-parter! Part one. Did you know that you can set a recurring reminder into your phone calendar to change your toothbrush? Maybe you did, but when I discovered THIS use for the "repeat" function in Google Calendar my life changed. So part one is literally free: set a reminder in your phone calendar to change your toothbrush every X months (I do 3 but I'm not about to judge unless we're kissing). And this brings us to...Part two. I adore a fresh toothbrush. It's right up there for me with a freshly made bed. Simple pleasures in my twilight years, I guess? I am not a person who is diligent about important things unless they feel good, either physically or emotionally. Like, I have to ritualize my bedtime routine otherwise I'll go to sleep with my makeup still on. My favourite toothbrush is the G.U.M. Technique Deep Clean (soft or extra soft because I'm a delicate flower). This toothbrush rules. If (like me) you have gum recession, this toothbrush is great because the bristles really get in there even with gentle brushing. It also comes with its own little cap to protect the head from the MANY VILE PARTICLES that float around your bathroom (not just poop, you guys!). I'm a big weirdo with a prepper's soul, so whenever I see these toothbrushes on sale I buy a cart full. But individually I usually see them for under $5. (Have you guys seen the price of toothbrushes lately? Holy shit!) So this January, treat yourself to a luxurious oral experience. Get yourself a new toothbrush, and then set a reminder in your phone calendar to repeat in 3 (or whatever) months.
On NYE I met some charming fellas in their mid-twenties and later found out they're part of this band. One of them told me to listen to their music because I would “definitely like it.” He wasn't wrong! This song makes me emotional though I'm not entirely sure why! All to say, support your neighborhood 26-year-old indie musicians! ***Since writing this rec, LA, a place I have happily, temporarily and disjointedly called home over the last few years, has started to burn down. This song is in my head and I’m thinking of all the people who are becoming climate refugees in real time. I don’t have anything to say except climate change is real and billionaires can go fuck themselves. ***
I rang in the new year in an empty theater watching the final moments of Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu. I walked out of the theater into the early darkness of 2025 thinking “this is going to be my new personality.” For a year that promises to be full of horrors (and hopefully pleasures), this felt like the right way to start it. I’ve been a fan of Eggers since I saw the VVitch when it came out in 2015. And I’ve been a fan of Nosferatu since that Spongebob episode. My favorite literary genre is gothic horror. Don’t even get me started on the similarities between the Phantom and Nosferatu. See: My episode of Making Worlds on Phantom of the Opera to understand the beginnings of my love of gothic literature. But I digress. Onto the film itself! First let’s talk about the cast: Wow, Lily Rose Depp has the juice. She was demonic and beautiful, and fragile while also being the strongest character of all. She really works those formless nightgowns. Nicholas Hoult played a very scared sweety pie so well. And of course, Willem Defoe is perfect always, as well as Ralph Ineson as Dr. Sievers. As a horror girlie I have been interested in Bill Skarsgard since he played It. I love when a beautiful person is also a weird feral little guy, and Bill is absolutely that. His Orlock voice was otherworldly, and I loved learning about how he took operatic voice lessons to be able to access that deep dark sound. I also loved that Orlock is a gross rotting corpse. There is nothing hot about that guy, which makes his magnetism all the more interesting. The internet has been atwitter with the meaning of Nosferatu- whether it’s about abusive relationships, or a metaphor for desire and repression, or representing something in your past that you feel ashamed about- I welcome it all. It can mean many things for many people. I’m just happy that the monster fuckers have this moment.
Uh oh, you’re getting me on a day where I feel like kind of a bummer! As such, my cooking recommendation is more of a way to elevate something already very beautiful: toast. Did you know you can fry your bread in a little olive oil and salt and you get delicious toast? For some reason it just tastes better than using a toaster. I don’t know why! Yes, it’s another pan you have to clean, but if you just put the pan in the sink with some Dawn Powerwash for a few hours, a lot of the work gets done for you. Bonus book rec: If you, like me, deal with seasonal depression where the thought of cooking is unbearable, I really want to suggest checking out You Gotta Eatby Margaret Eby. It’s a part cookbook/part pep talk/part action plan for when you can’t find the energy to cook but know you have to eat. I’m biased because I’m Margaret’s publicist, but I have used my own copy in my kitchen more times than I can count. Also reading the Am*zon/Goodreads reviews always makes me cry.
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I'm interested in Monoculture, but apparently it's not really available in the US. :(