2023 was when I finally took a step back from the social media expectation frenzy. I just couldn’t say enough or keep up with all the things you’re supposed to say on social media to be “a good person.” So I backed waaaay up. Now I’m completely off social, and it feels very freeing.
I will get on a soap box anytime someone says that some new tech will turn us into a leisure society because IT HAS NEVER HAPPENED IN ALL OF HISTORY! The only time a big new technical advancement makes us work less is when it makes our jobs obsolete. Otherwise, it just makes you do more work in less time and do the work of those people’s jobs no longer exist. Desktop computers gained popularity around the time I graduated college with a degree in graphic design and I became the typesetter, the print production tech, the proofer, etc….. I’m convinced we need a whole new way to define and measure productivity.
Also….I watched that NYT interview with Peter Thiel and Ross Douthat and I am totally creeped out and think that Palantir is designed to be just as nuts as Peter Thiel is.
I am sorry people were terrible to you around your opinions about Israel and Palestine. I don’t know how to relate my thoughts to what you’re saying, exactly.. but I have a very firm stance, that Israel is committing a genocide against Palestinians. And I don’t feel a need to speak out against that to like prove I am a good person.. but because I feel a moral need to try to do anything I can to step up and stop it, and for me that means speaking about it wherever I can, like in places like this. I don’t think people are evil for disagreeing with me, but I do feel a moral imperative to try to talk about what’s happening wherever I can, because this conversation matters to me.
I think one of the things I struggle with right now, that I hear expressed in the episode, is.. what do we put our energy and attention towards? I believe there’s a genocide happening in Palestine. And I believe there’s a genocide happening in China, a genocide against Ukrainians. There are inhumane concentration camps in MY country. There are unhoused people whose dignity it being threatened in my communities. I often feel overwhelmed and struggle to know what to speak and think about. So far, I move towards the things my heart feels pressed to speak about, to do something about, and that I feel I have an ability to impact. But it’s tricky and hard and a lot
I know you ladies are cringing a little with the Bonus episodes, but I am really enjoying them as a newbie to PSP.
There were so many signs in 2023 that I completely missed.
Like 2022, 2023 was the year I was waiting patiently for Joe Biden to say he was not running and for the Democratic Party to wake up and realize we are going insane screaming the same thing over and over and not coming up with ways to fix the party.
But l like a lot of people, I went along with everything and did not question much. If the WH was saying Joe was fine, I was believing it. If popular people were saying Joe and Kamala got all this in their podcasts, I wasn't questioning it because I figured all had better access and insight on what was going. I believed it and did not go with my own instincts and what my eyes were seeing. Also, I was heavily on X at the time when I really needed to get off it to see the big picture.
I feel like both you ladies have guilt in voices, but you SHOULD NOT feel guilty or hard on yourselves on how you covered Joe Bide and his administration. I joined PSP a few months and I did not hear what your both were discussing but I think a lot of people were on the same page at that time. In their minds, the Biden Administration may have believed they were doing right, but the reality is they weren't. They failed us IMO.
The only thing I remember about Taylor Swift in 2023 was how so many people and fans of her kept saying Taylor and her fans were going to be the ones to stop Trump because GenZ were fans, a lot of young women love Taylor, etc. That talk seemed silly and never made sense. Taylor is pop star. Travis is a NFL Player. 🙄
I'm still figuring out to who feel about October 7th and everything that has happened after it. Even when you go on X, people still want you chose a side like it's a football team.
I watched Wall-E. I always thought that the life in the ship sounded very good to me. I am fat and love a recliner. I understand that I am part of a very small minority that watched the movie and got the wrong message out of it.
Sarah, don't be too hard on yourself about fighting the narrative that Biden was too old to run. The people around him were keeping a lot of things close to their chests, and many people who worked a little further down the chain in the White House also didn't realize how much he had declined. And he has never been a good speaker. I don't know if many people of any age could handle the grueling job of being president, but there are many people who are Biden's age who still successfully perform difficult and complicated jobs.
I agree so much with Sarah's point about not letting strangers on the internet tell me who I am or what's in my heart based on a tiny little slice of my life. Yes, I have plenty to learn. That's part of being human. But I hold myself up to enough scrutiny without letting the internet add to it.
And I'd extend that sentiment to not letting people tell me who my family members are. I have family members who voted for Trump, and based on everything I know about their character, I think they're basically decent people who got taken in by a professional con artist backed up by a whole system of hucksters and liars who've been at it for years. People on the Internet who do not know them won't convince me that the family members I love are secret racists who hate all immigrants and gay people. I know them. The Internet does not.
Hard agree with the second point. I refuse to believe that 40% of the voting population is evil, and hating Trump voters in this way keeps us from seeing the log in our own eyes. Also, speaking this way is not going to get fence-sitters to vote Democrat!
2023 was when Beth had Chad on over the summer to talk about their solar panels, and listening to that episode gave us the final nudge to explore and invest in solar panels for our own home... and it was a great decision! Thank you guys so much for all the positive impacts that you have had
I’d like to put forth Taylor dating Matty Healy in 2023 as an example of everything can’t be about everything. I remember the discourse around that relationship reaching a fever pitch in the fandom. I always thought it was kind of ridiculous that people were so mad about it. So many of us have had a messy situationship with a guy who maybe wasn’t the best but also definitely wasn’t the worst. And we all thought we could fix him. It’s so utterly normal and didn’t make her a nazi sympathizer! I get being frustrated with her politics or choosing not to listen to her, but goodness gracious, let the woman get the sleaze bags out of her system in peace. Lord knows I’ve done it. And it all led to one of her best pieces of work since Red, so it all worked out in the end.
Y'all perfectly captured my feelings about AI, especially this summer. *go away I just don't want to deal with youuuuu/I am tired/have we learned nothing?!* plus, now in addition to fretting over making a more regular return to working post second baby, I now have to contend with AI and not just the general woes of being a mom who wants to work?! Wtf and no thanks. Really feeling for the recent grads in this vein, too. Ugh.
Hard hard agree that Taylor, the Eras Tour and Travis encapsulated the culture for me in 2023. It was like reading a delicious romcom, my heart grew so many sizes and I was delighted. Watching live-streamed concerts, my instagram algorithm perfectly curated to show me Taylor content, just so good.
It was what Maggie said. Maggie, Beth, Sarah saw things they won't make public, but some of it spilled over into the public comments. And it was rich. We are here to see nuance. Oct 7 happened, Beth and Sarah said "here is the nuance" and this subset of listeners said "no more nuance."
To be fair and balanced, they were also vile to Beth. (both Sarah and Beth have moved on in healthy ways, but I, personally, hold on to that wrong on their behalf. And, if you need anyone to hold onto a lifelong grudge on your behalf, it is a special skill of mine. Not necessarily my best trait as a human person, but I just try to be honest with myself about who I am).
I joined PSP a few months ago and I had no clue what Sarah was talking about. Out of curiosity, what happened? It's hard for me to imagine anyone being vile to Beth and Sarah on anything, even if they disagree.
Okay. So, depending on how much attention you were paying during and in the wake of the October 7th Terrorist Attack in Israel, you may have noticed that people had big feelings.
And, big feelings, lots of death, hostages, and general horror is a breeding ground for disinformation and misinformation and tribalism and "you're not doing enough" and "you're not saying the words I want to hear" and "you're not listening to the people I am listening to and therefore you are wrong and also evil and also want babies to die."
If I may, Sarah and Beth were in a real "WOAH this is a lot. There is a lot of information to sort through. We want to be REALLY careful in what we say because it's so hard to tell if this video is legitimate or misinformation. And we don't want to make a terrible situation worse"
And some people took that to mean "you don't care about Jews" "You don't care about Palestinians" "You want people to die." - Which I hope you know is not true. But there was a real "if you're not saying these words in this order at this volume then you obviously don't care" in our comments and DMs during this time.
In the words of Taylor Swift "long story short, it was a bad time."
Got it. I was on X a lot during that time, and I should not have been. X was a cesspool of all those types of comments who were having a strong reaction to what happened on October 7th. Sarah and Beth approach was the right approach. I wish others with platforms had the approach at that time.
Deep in my heart, I get it. A friend of mine lived in Palestine in the West Bank for a year after we graduated from college, and so I’ve been on a couple of mailing list for Churches for Mideast Peace and a few other organizations working in the region to provide medical and other aid in Gaza and the West Bank for a long time. And, the way the world has turned their back on Palestinians is shameful. And, the way people love to blame the Jews for bad things that happen is truly shocking. It’s definitely a “wow, this is a recipe for horror” situation. So, I am not mad that people who became aware of the situation for the first time thought it was really bad, because it is. But I do wish that that we…as a group…could have a little more humility about what we need to do to help. And also have a little more skepticism of everything we see online about it.
I have friends like this and it’s actually really lovely to have people who are like - I will cut them- at any moment just to show me their love and rage 🤣
The videos of Taylor coming off stage in Buenos Aries and running into Travis’ arms with that kiss hit my feed right as I was newly pregnant and riding sky high on those first trimester hormones. When I say I watched EVERY angle of that kiss, on repeat, I really mean it 😂 one night, I watched them over and over and just sat there crying out of pure joy. I came out of our room, my husband saw my face and said “what’s happened? What’s wrong?!” And I began to WEEP saying “I’m just so happy for them!” He will never let me forget it!
I loved what Beth said about enjoying watching "the beginning". It got me some how too. Maggie is working hard (cultivating work begun by...our dad...) to make me a Swiftie. But this part didn't need any music. It was just fun to enjoy their joy.
Sarah, I just want you to know that I also think about Wall-E at least once a week. I remember sitting in that theater with my now 20 year old in a state of anticipatory grief.
Me, too. I think about Wall-E all the time and bring it up in conversation fairly regularly. I was happy to see that it made it onto the NYT's 100 best films list, which says a lot about its impact.
Yikes it’s the lack of thinking that shocks me over and over as the Wall-E world seems to creep into people. I often walk past a small group of healthy able bodied young people who are waiting for an elevator that will take them down ONE floor and I open the door to the stairway and go down 10 steps to come out where they’ll land in a few minutes. We seem to be losing what we were given as mammals that like to move and instead would rather stand still to wait for an elevator to move us. It’s scary.
Add me to the traumatized by Wall-E list. I still shudder thinking about it. Once was enough and I make my feelings known each time someone mentions it. I'm happy I have found my people.
2023 was when I finally took a step back from the social media expectation frenzy. I just couldn’t say enough or keep up with all the things you’re supposed to say on social media to be “a good person.” So I backed waaaay up. Now I’m completely off social, and it feels very freeing.
I will get on a soap box anytime someone says that some new tech will turn us into a leisure society because IT HAS NEVER HAPPENED IN ALL OF HISTORY! The only time a big new technical advancement makes us work less is when it makes our jobs obsolete. Otherwise, it just makes you do more work in less time and do the work of those people’s jobs no longer exist. Desktop computers gained popularity around the time I graduated college with a degree in graphic design and I became the typesetter, the print production tech, the proofer, etc….. I’m convinced we need a whole new way to define and measure productivity.
Also….I watched that NYT interview with Peter Thiel and Ross Douthat and I am totally creeped out and think that Palantir is designed to be just as nuts as Peter Thiel is.
I am sorry people were terrible to you around your opinions about Israel and Palestine. I don’t know how to relate my thoughts to what you’re saying, exactly.. but I have a very firm stance, that Israel is committing a genocide against Palestinians. And I don’t feel a need to speak out against that to like prove I am a good person.. but because I feel a moral need to try to do anything I can to step up and stop it, and for me that means speaking about it wherever I can, like in places like this. I don’t think people are evil for disagreeing with me, but I do feel a moral imperative to try to talk about what’s happening wherever I can, because this conversation matters to me.
I think one of the things I struggle with right now, that I hear expressed in the episode, is.. what do we put our energy and attention towards? I believe there’s a genocide happening in Palestine. And I believe there’s a genocide happening in China, a genocide against Ukrainians. There are inhumane concentration camps in MY country. There are unhoused people whose dignity it being threatened in my communities. I often feel overwhelmed and struggle to know what to speak and think about. So far, I move towards the things my heart feels pressed to speak about, to do something about, and that I feel I have an ability to impact. But it’s tricky and hard and a lot
I’ve worked at a Holocaust museum this summer, and this article thoroughly describes much of what I’ve felt and reflected on during my internship
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/opinion/israel-gaza-genocide-scholar-response.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Yk8.Iaqm.OtPOnUQ1WR-v&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
That was a great piece.
I know you ladies are cringing a little with the Bonus episodes, but I am really enjoying them as a newbie to PSP.
There were so many signs in 2023 that I completely missed.
Like 2022, 2023 was the year I was waiting patiently for Joe Biden to say he was not running and for the Democratic Party to wake up and realize we are going insane screaming the same thing over and over and not coming up with ways to fix the party.
But l like a lot of people, I went along with everything and did not question much. If the WH was saying Joe was fine, I was believing it. If popular people were saying Joe and Kamala got all this in their podcasts, I wasn't questioning it because I figured all had better access and insight on what was going. I believed it and did not go with my own instincts and what my eyes were seeing. Also, I was heavily on X at the time when I really needed to get off it to see the big picture.
I feel like both you ladies have guilt in voices, but you SHOULD NOT feel guilty or hard on yourselves on how you covered Joe Bide and his administration. I joined PSP a few months and I did not hear what your both were discussing but I think a lot of people were on the same page at that time. In their minds, the Biden Administration may have believed they were doing right, but the reality is they weren't. They failed us IMO.
The only thing I remember about Taylor Swift in 2023 was how so many people and fans of her kept saying Taylor and her fans were going to be the ones to stop Trump because GenZ were fans, a lot of young women love Taylor, etc. That talk seemed silly and never made sense. Taylor is pop star. Travis is a NFL Player. 🙄
I'm still figuring out to who feel about October 7th and everything that has happened after it. Even when you go on X, people still want you chose a side like it's a football team.
I watched Wall-E. I always thought that the life in the ship sounded very good to me. I am fat and love a recliner. I understand that I am part of a very small minority that watched the movie and got the wrong message out of it.
Underrated opinion.
Sarah, don't be too hard on yourself about fighting the narrative that Biden was too old to run. The people around him were keeping a lot of things close to their chests, and many people who worked a little further down the chain in the White House also didn't realize how much he had declined. And he has never been a good speaker. I don't know if many people of any age could handle the grueling job of being president, but there are many people who are Biden's age who still successfully perform difficult and complicated jobs.
I agree so much with Sarah's point about not letting strangers on the internet tell me who I am or what's in my heart based on a tiny little slice of my life. Yes, I have plenty to learn. That's part of being human. But I hold myself up to enough scrutiny without letting the internet add to it.
And I'd extend that sentiment to not letting people tell me who my family members are. I have family members who voted for Trump, and based on everything I know about their character, I think they're basically decent people who got taken in by a professional con artist backed up by a whole system of hucksters and liars who've been at it for years. People on the Internet who do not know them won't convince me that the family members I love are secret racists who hate all immigrants and gay people. I know them. The Internet does not.
I feel this 100%!
Hard agree with the second point. I refuse to believe that 40% of the voting population is evil, and hating Trump voters in this way keeps us from seeing the log in our own eyes. Also, speaking this way is not going to get fence-sitters to vote Democrat!
2023 was when Beth had Chad on over the summer to talk about their solar panels, and listening to that episode gave us the final nudge to explore and invest in solar panels for our own home... and it was a great decision! Thank you guys so much for all the positive impacts that you have had
I’d like to put forth Taylor dating Matty Healy in 2023 as an example of everything can’t be about everything. I remember the discourse around that relationship reaching a fever pitch in the fandom. I always thought it was kind of ridiculous that people were so mad about it. So many of us have had a messy situationship with a guy who maybe wasn’t the best but also definitely wasn’t the worst. And we all thought we could fix him. It’s so utterly normal and didn’t make her a nazi sympathizer! I get being frustrated with her politics or choosing not to listen to her, but goodness gracious, let the woman get the sleaze bags out of her system in peace. Lord knows I’ve done it. And it all led to one of her best pieces of work since Red, so it all worked out in the end.
Y'all perfectly captured my feelings about AI, especially this summer. *go away I just don't want to deal with youuuuu/I am tired/have we learned nothing?!* plus, now in addition to fretting over making a more regular return to working post second baby, I now have to contend with AI and not just the general woes of being a mom who wants to work?! Wtf and no thanks. Really feeling for the recent grads in this vein, too. Ugh.
Hard hard agree that Taylor, the Eras Tour and Travis encapsulated the culture for me in 2023. It was like reading a delicious romcom, my heart grew so many sizes and I was delighted. Watching live-streamed concerts, my instagram algorithm perfectly curated to show me Taylor content, just so good.
delicious romcom. EXACTLY!
Beth I loved your reflection around October 7th. Sarah, I’m sorry people were so vile to you.
It was what Maggie said. Maggie, Beth, Sarah saw things they won't make public, but some of it spilled over into the public comments. And it was rich. We are here to see nuance. Oct 7 happened, Beth and Sarah said "here is the nuance" and this subset of listeners said "no more nuance."
To be fair and balanced, they were also vile to Beth. (both Sarah and Beth have moved on in healthy ways, but I, personally, hold on to that wrong on their behalf. And, if you need anyone to hold onto a lifelong grudge on your behalf, it is a special skill of mine. Not necessarily my best trait as a human person, but I just try to be honest with myself about who I am).
Can confirm. Maggie holds all my grudges also.
I joined PSP a few months ago and I had no clue what Sarah was talking about. Out of curiosity, what happened? It's hard for me to imagine anyone being vile to Beth and Sarah on anything, even if they disagree.
Okay. So, depending on how much attention you were paying during and in the wake of the October 7th Terrorist Attack in Israel, you may have noticed that people had big feelings.
And, big feelings, lots of death, hostages, and general horror is a breeding ground for disinformation and misinformation and tribalism and "you're not doing enough" and "you're not saying the words I want to hear" and "you're not listening to the people I am listening to and therefore you are wrong and also evil and also want babies to die."
If I may, Sarah and Beth were in a real "WOAH this is a lot. There is a lot of information to sort through. We want to be REALLY careful in what we say because it's so hard to tell if this video is legitimate or misinformation. And we don't want to make a terrible situation worse"
And some people took that to mean "you don't care about Jews" "You don't care about Palestinians" "You want people to die." - Which I hope you know is not true. But there was a real "if you're not saying these words in this order at this volume then you obviously don't care" in our comments and DMs during this time.
In the words of Taylor Swift "long story short, it was a bad time."
Got it. I was on X a lot during that time, and I should not have been. X was a cesspool of all those types of comments who were having a strong reaction to what happened on October 7th. Sarah and Beth approach was the right approach. I wish others with platforms had the approach at that time.
Deep in my heart, I get it. A friend of mine lived in Palestine in the West Bank for a year after we graduated from college, and so I’ve been on a couple of mailing list for Churches for Mideast Peace and a few other organizations working in the region to provide medical and other aid in Gaza and the West Bank for a long time. And, the way the world has turned their back on Palestinians is shameful. And, the way people love to blame the Jews for bad things that happen is truly shocking. It’s definitely a “wow, this is a recipe for horror” situation. So, I am not mad that people who became aware of the situation for the first time thought it was really bad, because it is. But I do wish that that we…as a group…could have a little more humility about what we need to do to help. And also have a little more skepticism of everything we see online about it.
Maggie! You are so dear. 🥰
I am also skilled in holding lifelong grudges against anyone who has wronged people I love.
It’s a gift and a burden. 🤣💜If it is me, I will move on. But you hurt someone I love, totally different story.
I have friends like this and it’s actually really lovely to have people who are like - I will cut them- at any moment just to show me their love and rage 🤣
The videos of Taylor coming off stage in Buenos Aries and running into Travis’ arms with that kiss hit my feed right as I was newly pregnant and riding sky high on those first trimester hormones. When I say I watched EVERY angle of that kiss, on repeat, I really mean it 😂 one night, I watched them over and over and just sat there crying out of pure joy. I came out of our room, my husband saw my face and said “what’s happened? What’s wrong?!” And I began to WEEP saying “I’m just so happy for them!” He will never let me forget it!
I loved what Beth said about enjoying watching "the beginning". It got me some how too. Maggie is working hard (cultivating work begun by...our dad...) to make me a Swiftie. But this part didn't need any music. It was just fun to enjoy their joy.
Sarah, I just want you to know that I also think about Wall-E at least once a week. I remember sitting in that theater with my now 20 year old in a state of anticipatory grief.
Me, too. I think about Wall-E all the time and bring it up in conversation fairly regularly. I was happy to see that it made it onto the NYT's 100 best films list, which says a lot about its impact.
I love that movie too. I especially I love it because of the robot watching the old movies. Wall-E - existential hero.
Same - I think about it all the time, and get that same sense of dread
Yikes it’s the lack of thinking that shocks me over and over as the Wall-E world seems to creep into people. I often walk past a small group of healthy able bodied young people who are waiting for an elevator that will take them down ONE floor and I open the door to the stairway and go down 10 steps to come out where they’ll land in a few minutes. We seem to be losing what we were given as mammals that like to move and instead would rather stand still to wait for an elevator to move us. It’s scary.
Wall-E is a terrific movie, but I would rather not have it become a prophecy.
We have Idiocracy for that.
Add me to the traumatized by Wall-E list. I still shudder thinking about it. Once was enough and I make my feelings known each time someone mentions it. I'm happy I have found my people.
And Wall-e is the nice version. H.G. Wells was probably closer with the morlocks and the eloi, and sometimes I think that was too optimistic.
I came here to say the same thing- I saw it in the theater with my almost 20 year old too and I have been shaken ever since!!