Friday Flames | 5.26.23
A weekly synopsis of what we figured out.
This week’s Friday Flames comes to you earlier than usual, in case you’re getting an early start on Memorial Day weekend. Or if, say, that winsome little towhead you walked to kindergarten a few minutes ago is graduating high school tonight. #gah
Episode 3 of the podcast (see below) features our first anonymous guest! Jessica has served on the school board since 2020, and she’s working hard to find common ground with other members who want nothing to do with gender-affirming care.
She asked us to withhold her last name because she wanted to speak frankly about how uncommon that ground has become, widened by the influence of extremist groups who preach willful ignorance and no surrender.
Jessica has researched gender dysphoria since the 90s, long before her own child came out as trans-masculine. And she can still describe the stresses of her job with humor and qualified optimism, since these ginned-up culture wars follow similar patterns until opinion shifts toward acceptance. (Grab the transcript here.)
We’re also closely watching the now three-weeks-old writer’s strike, which should strike a chord for anyone who has seen their job become “gigified,” or reduced to an execrable gig that requires more work for less money. The WGA is still one of America’s most influential and visible unions, and we’re eager to learn just how much power it still wields.
New Platforms of the Week
If you’re more accustomed to listening to podcasts on Apple, Stitcher, or Pandora, guess what! We’re now available on all three!
Topic of the Week
As our family makes plans for tonight’s graduation ceremony, we're both at a loss for words about it (probably temporarily). Does anyone else out there with a graduating senior have deep thoughts about this that you want to share? Are you feeling victorious or verklempt?
Currently reading
Magda finished her Advanced Reader copy of Kate Flannery’s Strip Tees: A Memoir of Millennial Los Angeles, about working for American Apparel fresh out of college in 2005. Kate’s writing skillfully sucks you into that doomed environment that fully lives up to its self-description as a “fever dream.” It’s available for pre-order now and arrives on July 18.
Doug is re-reading The Coddling of the American Mind, which seems like an entirely different book in the context of the five years (and COVID, and our son’s college experience) since it arrived.
Currently watching
Magda is about a year behind on Days Of Our Lives, which has been a part of her life for 40 years. (Currently wondering who murdered Abigail. If you know, don't spoil it.) At her current binge rate, she should be all caught up by the end of June—right when the writers’ strike suspends all new episodes. But, just as no one ever stays dead in Salem, the show won't be off the air for long.
Currently not watching
Doug has canceled his Netflix subscription, in part because the company that pioneered streaming and changed how we watch forever is notoriously stingy with its streaming data. And the CEO is being kind of a dick about how prepared they are to outlast the writers, whom they’ve done so much to screw over. So until further notice, no more Seinfeld reruns.
Coming next
No podcast next week, but on June 7 we'll launch Episode 4, a talk with Akil Bello, testing and admissions contrarian and Senior Director of Advocacy and Advancement at FairTest. We've known Akil for 25 years, so this was a possibly-too-honest and direct conversation about a really bizarre, feckless industry and rite of passage for a lot of parents.
Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!
Magda and Doug
Congratulations on graduation! Feeling victorious and relieved after 11 years of fighting for my 2e kid’s rights and then last two years of homeschooling. We’re celebrating on the solstice which is the last day of class.