What do you MEAN 4 billion people are voting this year?
+ Your 2024 Oscar Nominees are in, Ron DeSantis is out, and Bel Chimes In about girlhood 𓆩♡𓆪
Hi angels!!! Last night I went to see the new Mean Girls musical/film and while I think Reneé Rapp is one of the greatest vocalists we’ve seen in a LOOOONG time, I don’t think the movie as a whole was as good as the OG Mean Girls (of course) or the Original Broadway production (where I saw Reneé playing Regina George on stage, not to flex.) I feel like you should also know that I started watching Love Island All Stars and am deeply obsessed with Chris (no spoilers - I don’t want to know if he’s gone downhill - I’ll find out on my own.) Let me know if you’re watching too tho!!
Over on Close Friends I TOOK YOU CAMPING and gathered Shit You Should Cook About inspo.
In the Book Club we sent out a BUMPER book list of everything you’ve been reading lately, introduced our Feb pick (Good Material by Dolly Alderton) and over in the Geneva chat we’re talking about the CUTEST new book tracking app I found and deciding whether we like it or not.
And your bonus essay this week was all about you and your podcast listening speeds (or me and mine.)
what your podcast listening speed says about you
I’m not proud of it, but I’d be lying if I said that midway through the odd real-life chat I hadn’t thought “god, I wish I could put this conversation on 1.5x speed.”
⊹˚. ♡.𖥔 ݁ ˖ IN THE NEWS⊹˚. ♡.𖥔 ݁ ˖
4 billion people are eligible to cast a vote this year
Yep. You heard it here first (actually you may have heard it on The Shit Show first) but 2024 is going to be democracy’s biggest year ever. Over 40 countries - including (but not limited to) the United States, India, Indonesia, Russia, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Taiwan, Mexico and South Africa will be having national elections this year, and as a cherry on top, the European Union will be having an election too.
Of course, we’re all smart people and we know that not all the elections will be as ‘free and fair’ as we would like, as described by Nicholas Reece in The Conversation:
“Bogus elections
Special mention must be made of the 2024 elections which will not be free and will not be fair.
Russia, Rwanda and Belarus are governed by tyrannical rulers who jail opponents and run bogus elections that deliver 90% majorities or higher.
Then there is the charade elections occurring in Bangladesh, Iran and Tunisia where leaders allow the opposition to compete, but not to win.”
If you want to hear Squish and I try to make sense of this, we’ve got a brand new episode of The Shit Show for you to listen to here:
Or to read more about the other countries having elections (and how things are looking for them) read this!
Ron DeSantis is outies
Speaking of elections, over in the US, things are going exactly as expected. Ron DeSantis, the hard-right governor of Florida, has gone ahead and ended his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination and endorsed Donald Trump. This just leaves Trump and Nikki Haley in a one-on-one match for the Republican nomination, but recent polls have suggested that a majority of DeSantis supporters view Trump as their second choice, so do with that what you will.
Oscar noms are in!
They’re all here if you care! Naturally, Barbenheimer is still eating up all the nominations they can get their hands on.
✿⊰𖡼𖥧𖤣❀ BEL CHIMES IN ❀𖤣𖥧𖡼⊱✿
This section is written by my all-time crush - and co-author of our debut book Make It Make Sense - Bel Hawkins. Each week Bel comes here to chime in about the things she’s been loling at, yearning for, or totally mystified by. Luckily for us, she also writes our Sunday newsy for all our paying supporters who want to make sense of the world!! Upgrade your plan to get her newsy here!
Hey crushes 🌹
Reporting to you live from an attic in the magical fairy mountain land of Sintra this week, wondering how you are! God, I must say, it's gorge to be back. I used that word with a friend recently and they Googled it and came back with "what? it's a narrow valley? Or greedy? Have a greedy day? I don't get it??". Gorge is short for gorgeous and I'm pretty sure it's on the in list this year, and when anything feels out of control it's a great word to temper your feelings with ~
This week's Chime is about the wild rush of teen girls at Sephora to buy high end skincare (which Luce and I podded about in Culture Vulture last week), the phenomenon of girlhood and wondering why we’re always trying to rush ahead to get to some imagined time period where everything's perfect? Oh, because the world's chaos, that's why. Enjoy!
☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★ ON THE WEB ☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★
Watched this video essay by my crush
about overconsumption, third spaces & loneliness - I think you’ll LOVE IT.Also
How Group Chats Rule the World (The New York Times)
(◔_◔)✓✘ TODAY’S MUNDANE POLL (◔_◔)✓✘
☆Other good shit☆
Pre-order our book Make It Make Sense here!
Join our Book Club here!
Become a Close Friend on Instagram here!
Support the independent media you love by becoming a paid supporter here!
PS, if you wanna chat to me about anything I’ve written today, your latest crush, or if you just want a pen pal, reply to this email and we can be friends 𓆩♡𓆪
That video essay was awesome, thank you so much for including!
The whole young girls in Sephora thing is starting to bug me because it's derailed into just mocking young girls who don't know any better. Maybe the kids are acting out, but I'm gonna put the blame on the parent's rather than young kids who don't know anything.