The Week In Recommendations 2.26.25

No-Buy Day Friday, a time-travel Hallmark saga, investigative podcasts, and wedding makeup.

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 episodes 7-8 of “The Traitors.” Rich Text is a reader-supported project.

Civic challenge of the week:

Plan for a general boycott on Friday! An organization called The Peoples Union USA has been gaining grassroots support for an economic blackout this Friday, February 28 — particularly geared toward major corporations. (In other words, if you have to buy something on Friday, buy it from a small business.) The broad goal is to “send a message” to corporations that exploit everyday Americans; considering that many major companies have fallen in line with Trump, pulled back on DEI initiatives, or even have leaders in bed with the administration, this message is particularly timely. (Bonus: Don’t buy a Tesla — maybe even protest at a Tesla showroom!)

Claire has been reading… 📖

Though I kept up with the news this week, I didn’t do much in-depth reading – the wonderful whirlwind of Emma’s wedding didn’t just fill up my weekend, it also led me to spend far too much time googling things like “medium hair updo bangs” and “simple updo shoulder-length hair” instead of enriching my mind. I’ve also, as I promised myself not to let happen during this Trump administration, been struggling to reserve mental energy for deep reading. I just started Halle Butler’s latest novel, “Banal Nightmare.” I’ve loved her claustrophobic narratives of millennial flailing amidst late capitalism since her debut “Jillian,” so hopefully this will help me steer out of my rut.

Emma has been reading… 📖

Liz Plank

’s latest on her Substack,

Airplane Mode with Liz Plank

, aptly titled “Millennial Hate Is Just Internalized Envy,” about the ways in which our much-maligned generation actually had it great as young adults in so many ways. She specifically dives into the particular experience of being in your teens in the early aughts, and 20s in 2010s. “The world felt like a place of infinite possibility instead of an over-policed performance space,” she writes. “We owned our cringe because we had hope.”

Liz and I went to college together at McGill University in Montreal, so this essay also led to a serious trip down memory lane about Tokyo Thursdays and dressing in business casual and snow boots at the club. (IYKYK.) It all made me so nostalgic and a bit weepy. Sometimes you don’t realize how lovely things are until they take a turn for the dire.

Millennial Hate Is Just Internalized Envy

Claire has been watching… 📺

The first episode of “The Baldwins,” a show that is somehow equally dull and ghoulish. Alec and Hilaria Baldwin have seven children, a number they discuss as if it happened by accident rather than through deliberate family planning and the use of at least one surrogate. Their chaotic home life may be compelling for some viewers – shows like “Jon & Kate Plus 8” and family vloggers have never wanted for audiences – but I remain unmoved and uninterested. In the first episode, “Along Came Hilaria,” they destroy a birthday cake while decorating it as a family, get the four boys and Alec a haircut, and drive to the Hamptons. Riveting stuff! As expected, Hilaria dips in and out of her Spanish accent, which she explains as a very “normal” product of being bilingual (to be clear, she was raised in Connecticut and certainly remembers the English word for cucumber), but she somehow alienates me even more in this episode. First, she describes buying four cats despite her husband requesting that they not get cats due to his allergy – and is also very amused by her decision to put them all in his car to the Hamptons, again despite his specific request. When the couple comes up with words to describe each of their kids, she suggests words like “funny,” “sweet,” and “smooshy” for her sons (“they’re my babies!” she chirps), but offers “Venus fly trap” and “monster” for her daughters. Charming!

Many of the reviews have correctly pointed out how cynical it is to film this show amid the lead-up to Alec’s trial for involuntary manslaughter in the death of Halyna Hutchins, a cinematographer who was killed when the prop gun he was holding discharged on a movie set. Though Hilaria punctiliously references the vaster grief of Hutchins’ family and young son, Alec’s pain – and the effects of his suffering and his trial on the family – are at the center of this show. It’s a transparent attempt to humanize him in order to rehabilitate his public image, but at what cost to Hutchins’ loved ones? Personally, I don’t plan to keep watching.

Emma has been watching… 📺

My not-so-secret favorite Hallmark show, “The Way Home.” We’re most of the way through the show’s third season, and yet again, I need to let the people know about this much-better-than-you’d-expect-from-Hallmark drama. It involves time travel, three generations of women (two of whom are played by Chyler Leigh and Andie freaking McDowell), and some great overarching mysteries. This season’s time travel is largely set in the 1970s, and it’s just a really fun and sweet escape.

Claire has been listening to… 🎧

More Kendrick Lamar, obviously. I’m starting to dip into “To Pimp a Butterfly” this week, and though it’s known as one of his more avant-garde and less commercial albums, it’s still infectious. (“King Kunta” is my current play-on-repeat track.)

But the obsessive haze lifted a bit this week, and I was able to focus on a podcast again for the first time in two weeks. One of my all-time favorite investigative podcasts, Sold a Story, is back with a new episode (hell yeah). Emily Hanford visits Steubenville, a town in Ohio which has seen uniquely remarkable success in teaching children in underprivileged neighborhoods to read. Now that I have a preschool student myself — he’ll be starting kindergarten in the fall and is exactly at the age when reading instruction begins — learning about the quirks of Steubenville’s program is even more fascinating, because it is quite different from what I’ve seen in my son’s instruction.

Emma has been listening to… 🎧

Lucky Boy, a new investigative podcast by Tortoise Media, the same media company that produced Sweet Bobby. Lucky Boy tells the story of Gareth, who was sexually abused by a female teacher when he was in high school in the 1980s. But at the time, he didn’t look at the relationship as abusive. The podcast examines how trauma is processed, how gender roles contribute to the way that we view victims and perpetrators, and what it means to re-interrogate this kind of abuse in a post-Me Too world, when it happened decades before and was once an open secret.

Claire has been buying… 🛍️

Last-minute wedding-guest needs — a new Glossier Pro Tip liquid eyeliner, a tube of Merit Clean Lash mascara, and a fresh bottle of Estée Lauder Double Wear Stay-in-Place foundation, which works so well that when a tiny bit got dabbed into my eye, it stuck firmly to my contact lens and half-blinded me until I found a sink and physically scrubbed it off. Now that’s a stay-in-place formula! Handle with care!

I also want to plug my lip combo, though I’ve recommended the components before. I wanted to do a bright red lip (I don’t really feel dressed up without one), but that seemed like a risky combination with Chinese food. I ended up layering a red Wonderskin lip stain masque under the Tarte maracuja juicy liquid lipstick in cherry, and the combined staying power was pretty impressive! One light touchup took place, since it wore off a little inside my lips during dinner, but I would have looked fine all night without it. And I was eating plenty of egg rolls and soup dumplings.

Finally, I kept getting served devastatingly well-targeted ads for a giant knit scrunchie from a brand called Kmellia, featuring stunning women wearing effortless chignons wrapped in the scrunchies and claiming to owe all their French girl chicness to these hair accessories. I’m a sucker for this shit! I ordered one in dark brown, and I actually do love it. I hate that after years of growing my hair, I still have a scraggly little bun, and I like giving it an illusory fullness. It’s also super gentle on those still-growing tresses. Did it turn me into a French model? Alas, it’s only a scrunchie.

Emma has been buying… 🛍️

Final wedding things! Like this Meshki Carver Boucle Coat in Ivory, which I wore for the rehearsal dinner — and absolutely will get a lot of use out of in non-wedding settings. I also grabbed the famed Patrick Starr setting spray, which is basically shellac for the face. (Will no longer be using any other setting sprays for events. This is THE one.).

On a non-wedding note, I am newly obsessed with Fruit Riot, frozen fruit chunks soaked in lemon juice and a sour candy coating. You feel significantly less ill when you eat a bag of these than a bag of Sour Patch Kids, I’m happy to report. My favorites are the Sour Grapes.

Claire has been making… 🧶

I’ve continued to be so useless — aside from continuing to make calls to my senators and representative about an ever-growing and ever-shifting list of governmental crises — and have barely cooked all week.

Emma has been making… 🧶

Plans for our very-unplanned mini-moon to Paris! Have to pack in a lot of food and museums — and a bit of shopping — into a few short days. Also… literally have to PACK for this trip. We’re currently leaving the house in 2 hours and I have… some piles. We’ll see what I wake up in France with tomorrow!

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