The Week In Recommendations 2.12.25
Immersive reads, a guide to calling your reps, and a cozy cardigan!
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 subscriber podcast was about “The Traitors” episodes 4-6. Rich Text is a reader-supported project.
Civic challenge of the week:
Keep calling your senators and representatives, or showing up to in-person protests and town halls! Sustained pressure is necessary to make both Democrats and Republicans in Congress feel the outrage of constituents who don’t support Donald Trump’s unhinged nominees and executive orders, or Elon Musk’s trashing of the federal government. It’s our only hope of convincing Democrats to use the tools at their disposal to slow down Trump and Musk’s agenda, or of spooking Republicans into changing their votes.
A good ask this week is to urge your Senators to vote NO on Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon. And this guide on calling your reps from
is very helpful!
Claire has been reading… 📖
As an erstwhile member of the literary media, I watched with fascination when Pamela Paul left her coveted job at the head of the New York Times Book Review to join the Opinion section, where she specialized in bland anti-woke faux-liberal pablum. So I could not have clicked any faster on critic Andrea Long Chu’s scathing elegy for Paul’s column (which was axed last month by the Times). In “Goodbye, Pamela Paul,” she close-reads Paul’s oeuvre, from the column to her books, and finds a political philosophy that she deems “reactionary liberalism”: “liberal, in that its highest value is freedom [...] reactionary, in that its vision of freedom lacks any corresponding vision of justice.” Her politics, as expressed in her work, seem to be organized around being able to live in peace, reading books that express humanist values, without ever being bothered by the continuing problem of inhumanity. “One gets the sense that politics has gone off, like a cell phone, in the darkened theater of Pamela Paul’s mind,” writes Chu. “It is worse than wrong: It is rude.” Perfect.
, a bleak assessment of where things stand in Washington, and a stirring call to recognize what’s happening and to take action: “The screws are being loosened on America’s wheels. It may take some time before the wheels fall off, but when they do, remember that the vandalism happened here and now.”On a lighter (?) note, I was fascinated by “The Leaning Tower of New York,” a New Yorker piece by Eric Lach on the stymied construction of the 1 Seaport luxury building in Manhattan. Along with a brief history of leaning buildings (e.g. Pisa), Lach details how numerous flaws in the construction, workplace safety failures that led to a worker’s death, and disputes between the developers and construction firm have left the building orphaned and slightly banana-shaped.
Emma has been reading… 📖
“Yesterday, Tomorrow, and Banished Forever,” by Justine Harman in Vulture. This feature has it all: a super-exclusive club, petty chatter, and a window into a particular subculture. In this case, the subculture is the wild world of hardcore Disney adults who spend years and years trying to get into Club 33, the luxe, high-rollers private club at Disney World. Harman follows one couple, the Andersons, who got kicked out of the club and sued to get back in. It’s fascinating.
I also loved this ELLE essay about motherhood indecision, “The Purgatory of Being a Fence-Sitter,” written by Ilana Kaplan. Some deeply relatable content in there!!!! Like this passage: “Indecision is a lonely—and scary—place to be when you’re starring in your own version of Sliding Doors. My life felt like it had become a constant pro-and-con list, ever-shifting as I weighed factors like job insecurity, abortion bans that have made pregnancy more dangerous, climate change, the rising costs of child care and housing, the recent election results, and the general state of the world.”
Also, our friend Kelsey McKinney, of “Normal Gossip” fame, has a book out this week! Her book of essays, “You Didn’t Hear This From Me: (Mostly) True Notes On Gossip,” is a sharp look at a topic that has consumed her life for the last four years — gossip. McKinney dives into the gendered nature of gossip, why we love it as a culture, and what it even means. The references she brings in are a diverse high/low mix, from West Elm Caleb to Kierkegaard. We may be biased, but it’s pretty brilliant.
Claire has been watching… 📺
Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime show, which I do recommend if you somehow haven’t seen it yet. Greg was at a Super Bowl party with our older son on Sunday night, so I finished up the toddler’s bedtime and turned on the TV moments before Kendrick performed part of his smash hit Drake diss track “Not Like Us” (what timing!). Later I found the whole thing on YouTube, marking the first time I’d ever sought out a Super Bowl halftime show for repeat viewing. A medley of mostly newer tracks, punctuated by Samuel L. Jackson as a hectoring Uncle Sam urging him not to make it “too loud, too reckless, too… ghetto,” the show also leaned on staging and choreography to express a clear political point of view. The beef with Drake was spotlighted (and pretty conclusively won at this point), but the full show, with its mashup of video game references and Americana, explored themes of race and privilege, American idealism and its dark underbelly. Also, as someone who’s never really gotten into rap, I finally immersed myself enough in some of his work for it to click for me. So, Breaking News: Kendrick Lamar Worth Getting Into. (I’m still not sure how I feel about the return of bootcut jeans, but he pulled them off.)
(For the record, I loved both Kendrick’s Super Bowl halftime show AND the bootcut jeans. Did I look them up on the Celine website and discover that they are $1300? Yes. Yes, I did. -Emma)
Emma has been watching… 📺
The “Scamanda” documentary on Hulu. I absolutely devoured the “Scamanda” podcast, so I had to watch the docu-series. Both the series and podcast follow the story of Amanda C. Reilly, a young mom who claimed to have terminal cancer over the course of years, soliciting funds and sympathy from her community. Two out of the four episodes have aired on ABC, and while they aren’t particularly revelatory if you’ve already listened to the podcast, I find it gratifying to put faces to names and voices. There’s also one substantial reveal at the end of the first episode.
I also, at Claire’s urging, watched “Apple Cider Vinegar,” the Netflix show about real-life, Australian cancer scammer Belle Gibson. Something that I appreciated about the series — which stars Kaitlyn Dever pulling off a near-flawless Aussie accent — is that it didn’t just focus on the scam perpetrated by Gibson, but on the way that unproven alternative treatments proliferate. There were a lot of resonances for me with this show’s themes at the MAHA movement currently wreaking absolute havoc on our country’s already-precarious public health.
Claire has been listening to… 🎧
“MAGA x DOGE, So Far,” a much-needed breakdown by “Know Your Enemy” of what’s going on with the Trump/Musk takeover. Sometimes, during dark political times, I crave escapism. Right now, I spend a lot of time feeling crazy because our government and our future is sliding rapidly into the sea and everyone around me is acting normal, so I’m finding a weird comfort in listening to trusted voices explaining exactly how fucked things are. Matt Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell seem to me to have been pretty on point in their past commentary, as has their guest for this episode John Ganz, so it was grounding to hear them dissect the ideological forces at play in the Trump administration and, specifically, the Musk/DOGE wing of it. (Sadly it’s a paywalled episode.)
In this vein, I also enjoyed the recent “On the Media” episode about recent political developments, including Wired’s success in covering the tech broligarchy takeover and how Democrats in Congress are (or aren’t) responding. Brooke Gladstone’s reassuring voice and knack for always asking the right follow-up question are what I need right now.
Emma has been listening to… 🎧
“Blood Vines,” a new Wondery+ podcast. It’s about a murder, sure, but it’s really about the White Zinfandel craze of the 1980s and the wine industry at large. It starts with the creation of White Zinfandel, which was accidental, and then traces the massive grape fraud operation that developed as Americans went nuts for the sugary starter wine. (Basically the precursor to the more refined rose craze.) It’s super interesting, and I feel like I’m genuinely learning something new!
Claire has been buying… 🛍️
My Beyond Nine obsession, which has guided me deeper and deeper into the realm of giant pants and sweaters, got me again last month. The Maggie cardigan is a merino/cashmere blend that’s bulky and warm but also divinely soft. The details – its cropped length, wide body, and raised placket – make it a fun twist on a classic wool cardigan. The shape is ideal for pairing with high-waisted jeans or roomy pants, or for throwing over a casual dress. I got it in green, which is waitlisted now, but the navy, vermillion and oat are in stock.
I also had to buy a new round of sippy straw cups for my toddler, because they kept disappearing into the ravenous maw of his daycare class. The first time, his teachers told me it had been accidentally sent home with another child. The next time, I didn’t even want to mention it. The third time, they asked me why I didn’t send in his water cup that day, though I had. Finally, we pieced it together: He’s been throwing them in the garbage. My younger child loves cleaning (may he always hold on to that passion) and, like Marie Kondo, believes you might as well toss something if it’s not sparking joy. His process is, however, a little more impulsive. He may have also trashed one (1) baby shoe, barely worn. I love my minimalist child.
Emma has been buying… 🛍️
Two new skin care / makeup faves! I recently got Sofie Pavitt Face’s Mandelic Clearing Serum. This line, created by aesthetician Sofie Pavitt (who is known as New York City’s “acne whisperer”) is specifically developed for acne-prone skin. I’d never tried a product with mandelic acid before, so I was curious how my skin would react. I’ve been using it for a few weeks now in the morning, without a bunch of other actives, and I’m really loving it! It’s a pretty gentle exfoliator, formulated with hyaluronic acid for hydration. (Pavitt talks a lot about the way that people with acne-prone skin tend to be skin cell “super shedders” so regular exfoliation is key.) This will be a repurchase for sure!
I’m also loving Merit’s Minimalist Perfecting Complexion Stick, which I’ve been using instead of full face liquid foundation most days. It goes on really nicely, and most days I just blend it with my finger under my eyes and on top of any spots of acne or discoloration. I wear the shade Chiffon.
Claire has been making… 🧶
Calls to my senators and representative, which I have written into my daily to-do list every day going forward. Continued pressure is essential, because Democrats seem mostly happy to go back to business as usual (in other words, doing bipartisanship so as to make the coup easier), and Republicans won’t even consider breaking with Trump unless they feel a huge amount of constituent backlash.
Post-bedtime mugs of cinnamon apple tea with honey, lemon and bourbon, to “treat” my latest daycare cold.
Emma has been making… 🧶
I’m taking
’s advice to save your reps’ office #s in your cell phone so that you can just work a call to them into your daily routine. Besides making those calls, I’ve been making some dinner reservations in Paris, where we are (most likely) taking our mini-moon post-wedding.It’s truly bizarre to be deep in wedding excitement while at the same time watching the world fucking crumble around you. My nervous system is… unwell.
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Really appreciate all the resources this week of where and how to engage more.
And the sippy cup mystery had me on the edge of my seat…and what a sweet conclusion. 🥹
I love to hear that you're getting into Kendrick Lamar, Claire! I feel like anyone who loves literature and the written word in general should be a fan of rap music. Rap artists use literary and poetic devices with greater complexity than artists in any other genre, and Kendrick is arguably the greatest of all time on those terms. Plus he has a million bangers regardless of whether you dig into the lyrics.