The Week In Recommendations 10.9.24
Voting plans, Kamala Harris meets the Daddy Gang, fall basics, and one great thing from Hinge!
This is the free edition of Rich Text, a newsletter about cultural obsessions from your Internet BFFs Emma and Claire. If you like what you see and hear, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Our latest podcast was about “Love Is Blind” S7’s first drop! An episode about the next “LIB” drop is coming soon. Rich Text is a reader-supported project.
Before we get into this week’s recommendations, a call to action! Today is the last day to register to vote in Missouri, and voter registration deadlines are rapidly approaching in Idaho, Oklahoma and North Carolina (10/11), and Delaware (10/12). If you live in or know anyone in these states, encourage them to check their voter registration status and — no matter where you live — make a voting plan by texting VOTER to 26797.
Claire has been reading… 📖
A Washington Post article by Catherine Rampell on one of my personal hobbyhorses: accessible child care as essential infrastructure for working parents. She opens the piece by listing some of the policies that have been floated this year for helping workers.“Turns out that with One Weird Trick,” she writes, “politicians could massively increase Americans’ earnings: Just expand child care.” The article is based on a new study conducted on families participating in the universal pre-k lottery in New Haven, Connecticut, showing that “spending on child care [is] one of the most effective, pro-work policies ever evaluated in the United States.” One thing that the study found that rang true to me as a parent is that “the outside option from free child care isn’t zero child care; rather, it’s less child care.” We have done the cost/benefit analysis many times, wondering whether it’s worth the extra cost to do extended hours (our daycare’s regular hours end at 4:30 pm), or whether we should save some money by juggling our pre-schooler during a random school break or send him to day camp so we can actually work. For families with less resources, these calculations have thinner margins and greater consequences, but I’m not surprised that often the result is a decision to trim down childcare bills at the expense of a parent’s availability for paid work. The mental and financial burden that managing childcare creates for working parents is a huge cost for businesses as well as families, and it often falls disproportionately on women and their earnings. Universal childcare now!
Emma has been reading… 📖
I really loved
’s latest essay about selfies and self-conception, despite the fact that my own mirror selfies have not decreased over the last few years. (In large part, probably, because we do this newsletter!) But I did really relate to Haley’s exploration of her own self-consciousness and the way that she found herself addressing her own physical insecurities in photos “with an invisible orchestra of instant, subconscious adjustments,” which ultimately took her out of the very moments being documented.It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot as I select a photographer for my wedding, and prepare to cede control over what is captured I’ve found myself already considering all the ways in which my own appearance will fail me — very useful, I know! I hope that I can ultimately let that go on the day. Haley’s essay was a great reminder of what we lose when we fixate on image in this particular way.
Claire has been watching… 📺
More “Industry,” which is getting wilder and wilder. This is Yasmin’s season, and Marisa Abela was SO ready.
Also, I haven’t been watching “Dancing with the Stars,” but I’ve been watching Joey and Jenn’s dances, and they are KILLING it. It’s dangerous for me to watch, as it’s reigniting my Joey obsession. The backflip! The way he’s singing along with the music as he hits every step! I can’t.
Emma has been watching… 📺
The new season of “Sister Wives.” I know Claire recommended this TLC show already when the premiere aired, but four episodes in, I am absolutely gripped. Watching the heads of a patriarchal, polygamist family go through varying degrees of deconstruction over the course of nearly 15 years (the show’s first season aired in 2010) is fascinating. This season, which was filmed in 2022 and 2023, finds the family structure completely splintered. Kody Brown has gone from having four wives to having just one. His relationships with a lot of his children are strained, his remaining wife Robyn is struggling to adapt to their new reality, and his former wives — Christine, Janelle and Meri — are navigating what life looks like after divorce. I feel like the fact that I have been casually watching this show since I was finishing college is really now paying dividends.
This segment is sponsored by Hinge:
Emma: As a self-declared devotee of all things romance — reality dating shows, swoony novels, classic rom-coms — there are few thrills as gratifying as being able to step inside someone else’s sweeping, love story. It’s easy to forget that with a few key flourishes and a trained storyteller’s deft hand, our own seemingly mundane love stories can be cinematic too. Enter Hinge’s “No Ordinary Love” campaign and zine, featuring the stories of IRL couples, written by beloved novelists.
This campaign holds a special place in my heart, because Adam and I wouldn’t be together if not for Hinge. We technically met while boarding an airplane in San Juan in 2012, just days before he was set to go on a first date with one of my closest friends. (Spoiler alert: That date was pretty mediocre, and the three of us all laugh about it to this day.) But in 2019, after years of dating experiences in New York City, Adam and I matched on Hinge. And now we’re planning a wedding. Life is nuts!
I’m a little offended that Adam and I didn’t get asked to share *our* Hinge-facilitated love story with Roxane Gay (I kid, I kid), but I’m grateful for the reminder that meeting your love on an app can be as full of twists and turns as any Nora Ephron film!
Claire: The best love stories are obviously the ones that end with my friends being as adored and cherished as they deserve, so Hinge is the plot device that kicked off several of my personal favorite romances — including Emma’s!
Already being a fan of several of the writers included in the campaign, I was eager to see what they would do with very real, very modern love stories. They are charming, swoon-worthy reading, and though the strictures of nonfiction are somewhat apparent — the stories feature far less dialogue and fewer specific, everyday moments than a fictional romance typically would — the result felt like a genre of its own. More intimate than a Vows column, more honest than a love letter, each piece explores the real story of a real, complicated couple with tenderness and a poet’s attention to language.
One standout for me was Isle McElroy’s “Only One Rule,” in which two dancers overcome a self-imposed rule one of them holds against dating other dancers. After their first date, on the subway home, they kiss: “A perfect splash of a kiss. But a kiss on the subway! What type of person kisses on the subway!?” (Subway kisses! Talk about forbidden love!) I also loved Roxane Gay’s “Work in Progress,” in which a successful stylist falls for a musician who has never had a relationship before. Gay leans into including moments of dialogue, which allows the couple to leap off the page more fully, and it ends with a cinematic gesture that made my heart squeeze. Gauzy photos, cheeky cartoons, and snippets of interviews with the subjects fill out the pages of each story. I am now accepting offers to have such a story written about my own relationship.
Read the zine here! And share YOUR love stories in the comments!
Claire has been listening to… 🎧
The new season of Slow Burn, on the rise of Fox News. I’ve had entrenched beliefs about Fox News for as long as I can remember knowing of it. We had all those Al Franken books about the right-wing media (“Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them,” etc.) lying around the house, and I read them before I really understood the political events they were, at several layers of remove, commenting on. But there’s a great deal about the network that I didn’t know much about, especially in its early years, and so every episode of this Slow Burn season so far has been illuminating.
Emma has been listening to… 🎧
Kamala Harris on Call Her Daddy! I thought it was a really savvy move for VP Harris to do a 45-min interview, focused on women’s issues, with CHD host Alex Cooper. Politicians need to be meeting potential voters where they actually are, and we all know that young people no longer go to traditional media sources for most of their news. Plus, there’s something particularly intimate about a podcast setting. It allows guests to be in a place of relaxed ease, and allows listeners to spend some quality time with whoever is being interviewed. (We also got a great viral moment with Harris’ “It’s not the 1950’s” retort to a previous jab made by Sarah Huckabee Sanders.)
Highly recommend reading Evan Ross Katz’s analysis of the interview after you listen. And hats off to Alex Cooper for risking the wrath of the right-wing internet by even wading into the political sphere.
Claire has been buying… 🛍️
Nothing for myself! I’ve been obsessively window-shopping certain things (like this Noble long utility dress which sold out in the color I wanted just as my resolve was weakening, and this buttoned Tradlands midi dress… nursing-friendly midi dresses continue to be my kryptonite). Hill House and Christy Dawn have fall drops coming soon that will test me, so I’m trying to be as disciplined as possible. As I’ve admitted here before, I’ve been in a bit of a shopping fever since the early pandemic restrictions began to lift and I realized I had a new postpartum body, a new work-from-home lifestyle, and a vibe shift involving pants styles to contend with. Now that I have a closet full of clothes I actually like (and a budget I’m trying to adhere to), it’s been easier to hold back.
But I did a little fall shopping for the kids, especially our 4-year-old, who doesn’t get any hand-me-downs: fall puffer jackets in the Primary friends and family sale, and a bunch of long-sleeve tees, sweaters, and jeans from Carter’s.
Emma has been buying… 🛍️
The Maddy jeans from Nelle Atelier’s new drop! I’ve raved about this petite denim brand for awhile now, and I continue to absolutely fangirl over everything they release. But these relaxed, straight-leg Maddy jeans with a cute slit at the ankle might be my favorites?? I’m so used to rigid denim fitting me so poorly that it’s virtually impossible to buy, and I truly thought that straight-leg denim was just never in the cards for me. And yet, Nelle Atelier has delivered. Plus, the small slit at the bottom of the leg is great for fall/winter footwear, like boots and even my platform UGGs. I will be living in these jeans for the foreseeable future.
Claire has been making… 🧶
Pumpkin apple muffins, using the leftover half-cup of pumpkin purée from last week’s muffins. I was inspired by this Jenn Lueke recipe, so I went ahead and followed it as well as I could with the ingredients I had on hand: regular granulated sugar instead of coconut (cut down to ½ a cup so they wouldn’t be overly sweet), dairy milk, and all-purpose flour. Despite taking the approach of the worst kind of recipe blog commenter, I think I pulled it off! They still taste delicious and autumnal, perfect on a crisp morning with a mug of hot coffee.
Also, a Tuscan orzo dump and bake (off-putting name, but tasty) that was served to me by the Instagram algorithm. This is great for discoverability – I’ve made more than a few IG recipes recently because I can just absent-mindedly save them as I scroll – but it’s annoying when it comes time to actually use the recipe. I had to watch through the reel once or twice so I could take a screenshot of the instructions. Despite the dish being essentially cheese, pasta, and chicken, my children refused to eat this. Greg and I loved it, and I particularly loved how easy and quick it was to put together.
Emma has been making… 🧶
Cucumber salads! Inspired by logansfewd, I’ve been slicing cucumbers and tossing them with peanut butter, chili crisp, soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic and green onions. A truly elite midday snack.
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Anyone know why I don’t get notifications for the recommendation posts? Tried to look for settings but didn’t see anything
Also I cannot wait to hear the part two discussion about the refusal to wear condoms on LIB