The Breakroom
We're having a DTR with Social Media
Welcome to the Breakroom
As you’ve likely heard, our team went on a retreat before Thanksgiving to re-evaluate how we will approach our work post-election. We asked ourselves questions like
What’s working?
What are our consistent pain points?
Can those be fixed?
What isn’t working?
Can that be fixed?
We’re trying some things like adjusting our schedule so Sarah and Beth don’t have to work on the weekends and decreasing our episode turnaround time so we stay as current as possible in (what we expect) to be a chaotic news environment. We’re trying to slow down our pace so that the episodes we make for you go deep, are well-done, and relevant to the world we’re living in. We’ve talked about it a lot, and we know that change is the ABSOLUTE WORST, and we appreciate you being in it with us. We know that staying “in it” with the news is hard, and we want it to be doable, sustainable, and (dare I say) pleasant, even with *waves hands around* all this going on.
One area of ongoing tension (I hesitate to use the word pain) is our relationships with social media. Because sometimes, Instagram sends us things like this delight of a meme that fans of the Good Morning News Brief will appreciate from the.language.nerds:
And sometimes…it does not. In her substack,
, Katie Morely recently wrote a piece called “Babe, just delete your Instagram already” about the way her life changed after she stopped trying to curate it for the gram.TL/DR: We’re in a DTR1 moment with social media as a team. On the one hand, we want to be social with all of you. We want people to find our podcast. We want to have political conversations on the internet.
We also don’t want to spend our one wild and precious life2 being blown about by the winds of internet controversy, chasing likes/shares/comments, and figuring out if this post/person is real, a bot, misinformation, disinformation, etc.
Which leads us to our reimagined Friday newsletter.
I learned from Instagram last year that penguins bring their friends and loved ones special rocks to let them know they are thinking of them. It’s called “pebbling”3
I envision our Friday newsletter as that place. Please imagine that I am a penguin who thinks you are great, and I am going to share the notes from our audience that we thought were amazing. Here are the memes and articles and songs and ideas that were interesting to us.
We’ll gather it up for you in this one little package and avoid the scrolling, scrolling, scrolling that can suck so much of our lives away.
We hope you enjoy the pebbles and share your own here.
Have the best weekend available to you,
What We Made for you this Week
On Tuesday, Sarah and Beth discussed Joe Biden’s Pardon of Hunter Biden, what he should be doing while he’s still President, and where the Democratic Party goes next (also, Sarah and Beth’s different takes on Wicked, which you had SO MUCH to say about)
Since y’all had some thoughts about their conversation, they responded in our Thursday More to Say (now on video!)
Spicy MTS: This Election is a Rich Text
Sarah and Beth are together to do more post-election analysis, particularly in light of their conversation on Tuesday’s main show. They get into Democratic messaging, economic populism, and what will eventually make people dissatisfied with Donald Trump.
Today, on Pantsuit Politics, a lot happened around the world this week, and we’re talking about it:
If you only look at one resource from today’s episode, this graphic about how the attempted coup unfolded in South Korea is so interesting.
More to Say: In a tragically timely turn of events, Beth has been talking about our healthcare system this week on More to Say. You can listen to the second episode here:
She’ll share parts 3 and 4 next week.
On this week’s Good News Brief, Sarah mentioned that she’s going to A Nostalgic Night with Macaulay Culkin, so if you share her deep love of Home Alone…here’s the tour schedule.
Pebbles from the Spice Cabinet
2024 Space Telescope Advent Calendar (The Atlantic) you know we love advent calendars: unlock a new picture from the James Webb Space Telescope Every Day
From Amy: In case you would like to donate time and energy for Giving Tuesday and beyond. I am the co-founder and ED of TRIBE Yoga Mobile Studio .We are looking for people who are dedicated to finding new and innovative ways to support our active military members and families through mindfulness tools to serve on our Board of Directors. (Which seems like an increasingly important mission in the next 4 years) We are a small, consistent, and dedicated, non-profit with clear results each year. I would love to meet with anyone to discuss our mission.
From Katy: A brain cleanse A Home Library Can Tell Your Life Story (The New York Times) gift link
From Basically Everyone: That feeling when you wonder if someone at the White House listens to Pantsuit Politics Biden White House Is Discussing Preemptive Pardons for Those in Trump’s Crosshairs (Politico)
A fascinating read from Norma on the intersection between video games, online harassment, loneliness, and how things don’t always turn out how we think: Silent but Deadly: I met some of my closest friends through multiplayer games. Then a strange happening turned everyone (literally) speechless. (Slate)
Copyright (C) 2024 Pantsuit Politics. All rights reserved.
DTR: Define the Relationship (a real throwback for those of you who weren’t teenagers in the early 00s).
ICYMI: What is pebbling? All about the love language inspired by penguins (The Today Show)
Lovely! And thank you! I collect heart shaped rocks - will send a picture of one with love to you and yours!
Love the pebble idea. Definitely need this! Also... 2020 also started with WTF. I'm trying to Taylor-Swift-Shake-It-Off but I don't like the implications.