Greetings, Meteor readers,

I wish I could kick this off with something quippy, but it’s been a difficult week for all of us. Six days ago, Hamas carried out an attack on Israel—killing more than 1,000 civilians and taking hundreds hostage. Friday morning, Israel issued a warning to Palestinians in the northern half of Gaza, advising them to evacuate within 24 hours, a move the UN called “impossible”; the very same day AP News reported that Israeli airstrikes had killed Palestinians who were fleeing the region, children among them. The situation has also had reverberations across the U.S. and Europe as anti-semitism is on the rise.

But Friday also offered a moment of collective pause. For Muslims, it is a day of communal prayer and for Jews, the beginning of the Sabbath. Finding the small things that unify us—those tiny windows of peace—is so important in an uncertain time. Know that if you’re reading this and you’re in pain, you are not alone. As one of the good books reminds us, “verily with hardship comes ease.”

In today’s newsletter, a change of pace—what we learned from the wise speakers at Work Shift—and some weekend reads to keep you informed.

In prayer,

Shannon Melero

THIS WEEK AT THE METEOR

On Thursday afternoon in New York City, we got to leave work to discuss work—gathering with workplace leaders and changemakers at The Meteor’s first Work Shift event. Some of my personal favorite moments:

• The wisdom of business titan (and fellow New Jersey-an) Bobbi Brown who in her 60s—her “fuck you decade”—is continuing to encourage women to use makeup as a tool to embrace their faces at every age. “My goal is to make lines in the face absolutely okay,” she said to Cindi Leive.

• One of our youngest panelists, Rhodes scholar and union-building badass Jaz Brisack, who led the effort to unionize the first Starbucks in Buffalo, New York, made the excellent point that workers who unionize are the ones most invested in their workplace and not the enemy of businesses (listen up, AMPTP).

• Sherry Cassano the SVP of Pfizer’s People Experience Team reminded us that if there’s one lesson we should all be taking from the height of the pandemic it’s the importance of checking in with our co-workers. And not just one of those fake how are yous but REALLY digging in because “not everyone is doing fine.”

• The effervescent Chani Nicholas and her work-and-actual-wife Sonya Passi explained why they decided not to accept venture capital when building their business: “How big do you need to actually get to feel like you’re doing the work you want to do?” asked Nicholas.

PHOTO BY MONNELLE BRITT

More exclusive highlights to come from us next week—and if you were there send us an email with your favorite moments at [email protected] and we’ll share your takeaways.

WEEKEND READS 📚

On mothering through war: Two women from opposite sides of a border share their suffering. One reflects on her son being captured by Hamas, the other explains what’s like to raise children in Gaza. (The New York Times & Rampant Magazine)

On Hamas: Isaac Chotiner talks to an expert about the group’s origins and the paradigm shift its attack has created. (The New Yorker)

On history repeating itself: For some, the last few days have felt like the heydays of the early post-9/11 era. (n+1)

On the X of it all: Twitter was once a vital location for minute-by-minute updates in conflict areas. But Elon Musk’s X is something far less useful. (Slate)

On loneliness: One Jewish writer shares his feelings of abandonment from his leftist community in the wake of the Hamas attacks. (The Atlantic)

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Good evening, Meteor readers,

Over the last few days, the world has held its breath as we’ve witnessed new levels of violence and destruction in Palestine and Israel. Decades of turmoil, resistance, and failed peace efforts have come to a boiling point. The situation is apocalyptic for the innocent civilians in both Israel and Gaza, where the Israeli government has ordered a complete siege.

And for diaspora Palestinians and the global Jewish and Muslim communities, it has been doubly difficult. Not only are they being asked to choose a side in one of the longest-running conflicts in human history, but, on social media, there’s also the pressure to do so in a way that is digestible to everyone else—often without context and nuance. What is happening cannot fit in an easy tweet or cleverly worded Instagram post. Honestly, it can’t even fit in this newsletter.

So tonight, we invite everyone to slow down for a moment. Give yourself room to learn, to grieve, to step away from your screens if that works for you. And we also ask our community to be vigilant in a moment when the internet is awash with even more propaganda and misinformation than usual.

In today’s newsletter, our team (composed of people with differing views and backgrounds) shares some learnings that have been useful to us—about what’s happening, why it’s happening, and what it will mean for women and girls. Know that we are with you.

In mourning,

Your Newsletter Team

WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW

• For a steady stream of ongoing updates, take a look at Al Jazeera’s live blog.

• Here’s what a “complete siege” of Gaza will mean for Palestinians.

• One Israeli man, whose family lives close to the Gaza border, tells the story of being trapped in his home for 10 hours awaiting rescue after Hamas began its attack.

• President Joe Biden has authorized sending weapons and the largest warship in the world to Israel.

• The nation of Qatar is facilitating talks between Hamas and the Israeli government for a possible hostage swap. Experts on warfare in the region believe that Hamas’ large-scale attack in Israel was aided in part by the Iranian government.

• At least six Palestinian journalists have been killed so far during the strikes on Gaza.

HISTORY AND CONTEXT

• Sometimes it’s best to go back to the beginning. Here’s how the UN facilitated the creation of Israel, and here’s an explainer on the start of the occupation during the Six-Day War.

• What is Hamas?

• The Israeli government played a meaningful role in Hamas’ rise to power.

• Despite the sharp increase in violence committed by Hamas, Palestine has a long history of non-violent resistance during the occupation.

• The current wave of violence in Gaza is an extension of the first expulsion Palestinians experienced in 1948 during al-Nakba, as Dr. Shirin Zarqa-Lederman wrote for The Meteor last year.

• Many American Jews are feeling the pain of witnessing anti-Jewish violence in Israel at a time when it’s also rising in the United States—even though, of course, anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism aren't the same thing.

WOMEN IN WAR ZONES

• Read Gloria Steinem’s 2012 piece in The Atlantic on the historical use of rape as a weapon of war.

• Last year we asked women living through the Ukraine war what they wanted us to know, and their message still rings true.

• This summer, women in Afghanistan shared the reality of living amidst never-ending wars.

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Hey, Meteor readers,

Yesterday, I stayed up quite late (9:30 pm) watching the 45th season premiere of Survivor, and my body hasn’t quite recovered from listening to Emily talk her way into the Crappiest Player Hall of Fame. But it’s always worth it to see Jeff Probst, who is aging like fine Italian wine. Drop the skincare routine, Probst!

In today’s newsletter, we explain what led to an unexpected win in Montana, confront the “childcare cliff,” and share some weekend reading.

Calling it an early night,

Shannon Melero

WHAT'S GOING ON

Horse dewormers for trans rights (somehow): Yesterday morning, a Montana judge blocked SB99, the state’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth—the same ban that State Representative Zooey Zephyr spoke out against last spring, leading to her censure and removal from the House floor. Many parties can be thanked for this win, among them the relentless Zephyr and the Montana citizens who showed up in force to testify against the bill. But one factor might surprise you: Republicans’ fondness for using ivermectin, a horse dewormer, to treat COVID-19.

In the same session that saw SB99 become law, Montana Republicans also passed SB422, protecting people’s “right to try” experimental medication not approved by the FDA (such as ivermectin) as long as they—or, if they’re a minor, their parent/legal guardian—have given informed consent.

Now listen: Is using ivermectin to treat COVID-19 safe? Survey says no. But in the interest of bodily autonomy, and as someone who’s been receiving gender-affirming medical care for some time now, I’m all for a “you do yours, I’ll do mine” policy when it comes to what we choose to put in our bodies.

So why, for these legislators, does informed consent and the “right to try” medication apply to one drug but not another?

Zephyr noted this glaring hypocrisy back when SB422 was first introduced. Thankfully, the court agreed: Missoula County District Judge Jason Marks, who was appointed by a Democratic governor, wrote in his decision yesterday that these two laws together allow parents to give consent for their child’s medical treatments “regardless of efficacy or risk…unless the minor is transgender.” He ended up concluding the same thing Zephyr did: that “the purported purpose given for SB99 is disingenuous.”

Right wing legislators’ cherry-picking embrace of bodily autonomy is well-documented; they love it when it comes to the right to refuse vaccines or wearing masks, but hate it when it comes to any right exercised by trans or pregnant people. So it’s a real treat to see that, for once, the courts aren’t buying it.

—Bailey Wayne Hundl

AND: 

• Hot Labor Summer is rolling into Labor Spice Autumn™ with the movement’s latest victory: After holding 450 strikes over two years, fast food workers in California are now entitled to $20 an hour under the Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act, which was signed into law today.

• A group of young activists is suing 32 countries over their roles in the climate crisis. The lawyer representing the group noted that “it’s within the power of states to do vastly more to adjust their emissions, and they are choosing not to do it.”

• ICYMI: Wednesday night was the second Trump-less Republican presidential debate. We’ll cut through the mistruths to highlight this doozy from New Jersey’s pre-eminent teacher-hating former governor, Chris Christie, who accused President Biden of “sleeping with a member of the teachers union”...lifelong educator Dr. Jill Biden, aka his wife. Chris, there’s people that are dying.

• At the end of this month, the U.S. will find itself at the foot of what advocates and politicians are calling a “childcare cliff.” That’s the day pandemic-era federal funds specifically designated for child care programs will expire, “closing a pipeline to $24 billion,” Fast Company reports. What does this mean for working parents? The closure of 70,000 daycares across the country. Parents will now have to figure out how much of their already overstretched budgets will be going to more expensive child care options—if they have any options left at all. (And yes, I did type this with my seven-month-old on my lap as Ms. Rachel played in the background.)

• If that last item doesn’t paint a clear enough picture of how bad the state of child care is, allow me to draw your attention to two horrific incidents at home-based daycares this month. In the Bronx, one child died from fentanyl poisoning after the drug had been stored near nap mats and under the floorboards. Then, earlier this week, investigators found that a Harlem daycare center was being used as a 3-D print shop for ghost guns (real guns made from plastic and without serial numbers to make them untraceable). How many toddlers need to die or be endangered before we start talking seriously about safe, federally funded, universal child care options?

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WEEKEND READS 📚

On censorship: In America, most book bans are driven by a group of 11 people. Jennifer Petersen, a Virginia mom, is one of them. She has already challenged 73 books—and she has no plans to stop. (The Washington Post)

On gender politics: Women and children who fled Afghanistan have been denied entry to the United States in astounding numbers. One family tells their story. (Slate)

On the floor: Get ready for the literal Olympics of breakdancing. (The Athletic)

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Hey there, Meteor readers,

Many, many people in my life have inquired and I want to confirm to all of them—and you—that yes, I did see that Taylor Swift was at Sunday’s Kansas City Chiefs game. Allegedly Taylor is dating tight end Travis Kelce, but if you ask me, a certified Swiftologist, I’d say this is all part of a larger riddle connected to the re-release of her next album and not an actual romantic relationship. The signs are there if we just connect the dots…

Today’s newsletter is sunnier than normal: We tick off labor’s recent wins, celebrate Carson Pickett’s history-making moment, and share a little good news.

Yours in Swiftness,

Shannon Melero

WHAT'S GOING ON

Bigger than Hollywood: There’s light at the end of the tunnel for WGA workers! While SAG-AFTRA is still on strike, the writer’s union reached a tentative agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on Sunday after a 146-day strike. (The WGA’s board and members are set to vote on the terms today.) The agreement comes on the heels of another, less publicized victory: a WGA-backed California law that was recently passed in the state’s senate. The bill would allow striking workers to collect unemployment benefits—a pro-labor law that exists in only two other states: New York and New Jersey.

If you ask us, this is a Big Deal. Gov. Gavin Newson has yet to sign the bill, but its success and timing is just the latest example of labor’s growing power. Organized labor has been flexing its muscle all over the place lately, and not just in Hollywood: President Biden joined the auto worker’s picket line today in Michigan, UPS workers won a favorable five-year contract in August after they threatened a work stoppage, and American Airlines’ flight attendants recently voted to authorize a strike. Even though the share of workers who are unionized continues to shrink, there’s still an unmistakable pro-labor energy sweeping the country. As Sarita Gupta (who oversees the Future of Work(ers) program at the Ford Foundation) remarked last week at the Free Future summit, “We’re just seeing workers across the economy organize in ways that, at least in my lifetime, I have not experienced.” Let’s be real: The president wouldn’t join a strike unless he knows it’s politically popular.

And it’s popular with—and important for—women. When someone mentions “union,” many will think of dudes in hard hats, the kinds of manual laborers that Biden joined today. But that stereotype is inaccurate, both now and throughout history. Nearly half of today’s organized workers are women, and Black workers are more likely to be represented by unions than members of any other racial group. The labor movement is increasingly making headway in industries that are more likely to hire women and people of color, from retail to Amazon warehouses. These are “the exact workers that common wisdom or whatever has told us are not organizable,” labor journalist Kim Kelly told The Meteor last spring. “They are organizing, and they’re winning.”

AND:

• Did you know that in America, we actually have five seasons? It’s the four usuals, plus the-government-is-about-to-shut-down season, which we are currently in. Fun! If Congress doesn’t push through the latest spending package in the next four days, a shutdown will go into effect.

• Speaking of spending, three U.S. senators have introduced a new bill called the School Lunch Debt Cancellation Act, which would, as you may have guessed, cancel the debts of schoolchildren across the country. Yes, that’s right: Lunch debt exists—an especially appalling fact when you consider the 30 million grade-school kids who rely on school meals as their only source of food during the week. This change is absurdly overdue.

• Bet you never thought you’d read video game news in this newsletter, but here we are: Soccer player Carson Pickett of Racing Louisville FC has been added as a playable character in EA Sports FC 24, set to be released on September 29. Why is this big news? Pickett was born without a left forearm and hand, making her the first athlete with a limb difference to be featured in EA’s history.

• A Texas family is suing state officials after their teenage son, Darryl George, was suspended from school for more than two weeks because of his hair, despite the fact that a recently passed law—the CROWN Act—actually protects against racial discrimination based on hairstyles. The school argues that George’s dreadlocks simply violated the dress code because his hair fell below his eyebrows and earlobes—which is rich, considering George’s locks had been put into twists by his mother to comply with school rules.

TELL ME SOMETHIN' GOOD 🎶

• Congratulations to runner Tigst Assefa, who broke the women’s world record after finishing the Berlin marathon in two hours and 11 minutes this weekend. It took me longer than that to write this newsletter!

• Two California teachers are teaming up to center women in high school history classes, and they’re hoping this new method spreads across the country.

• Even better news coming out of the Sunshine State: California just banned book bans. Read freely, my friends! Read like there’s no tomorrow!

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Salve, Meteor readers,

Do you think about the Roman Empire a lot? Turns out lots of men on the internet do, and I too have to admit to frequently pondering the legitimacy of Gaius Octavius’s claim to the throne. But tonight, instead of reading through the Cesarean family tree (again), I’m thinking about The Meteor’s newest podcast In Retrospect, which launched today! Woo!

The Meteor’s own Susie Banikarim (whose Emmy I stare at whenever we chat on Zoom) and New York Times editor Jessica Bennett look at how some of the biggest cultural moments of the ‘80s and ‘90s shaped our understanding of the world. Their first episode? All about how General Hospital’s Luke and Laura became everyone’s favorite soap-opera couple…but actually started off when Luke raped Laura. (There’s a lot to dissect there.)

In today’s newsletter, writer Scarlett Harris talks to author Amanda Montei about her new book Touched Out, Rupert Murdoch's exit has us examining his dystopian legacy, and we share a little something about work.

Retrospectively,

Shannon Melero

WHAT'S GOING ON

Do let the door hit you on the way out: Rupert Murdoch is officially stepping down from his role as dark overlord of Fox Corp. and News Corp. after a nearly 70-year career in the news industry. Although to say he was “in” the industry is a bit of a downplay, considering that this man shaped the conservative and rightwing news landscape as we know it. For longer than I’ve been alive, Rupert Murdoch has been The News.

You might think that as a journalist, I have some respectful words for this magnate who was technically an innovator. But you’d be wrong!

Because Murdoch was so powerful and rich, the outlets he owned will share flowery accounts of his success and influence, painting a picture of a controversial entrepreneur. But the reality is that Murdoch wielded his influence like a machete to wreak international havoc. Remember when Fox News knowingly broadcasted election-related lies and escorted Trump to victory in 2016? Or when Murdoch pretended that the allegations of rampant sexual misconduct at Fox were just “nonsense” cooked up by his lefty enemies? Let’s also remember that Murdoch frothed up enthusiasm for the Iraq War, let Tucker Carlson peddle racist conspiracy theories, and brought us the witches’ coven that is The Fox Blondes. (I would like to apologize to any witches who find that comparison offensive. Please do not hex me.)

Sadly, his exit doesn’t mean that the Murdochs’ grip on American news is loosening. Not only will his son run the show, but 92-year-old Murdoch intends to remain “chairman emeritus” at Fox. It’s giving something familiar…

AND:

• It’s shocking to learn just how far certain medical institutions will go to protect their own—even if they’re predators. First, Serial brought us the story of a nurse stealing fentanyl at Yale Fertility Center, which dismissed countless reports of patients’ pain before finally investigating. Then we read about a Columbia University OB/GYN who assaulted his patients for decades while the administration ignored myriad complaints. And today, ESPN reported a lawsuit brought by Olympic bronze medalist Aja Evans, who complained in 2012 of being sexually assaulted by a team doctor. “At times I spoke up to the coaches and the medical staff, it was really disregarded,” Evans said. Discovering a predator is one thing, but letting that person go unchecked for years? That’s horrific institutional neglect.

• An all-women newsroom has started up in Somalia, “one of the most dangerous places to be a reporter,” per Reuters.

• On Wednesday, actress Angelica Ross shared that American Horror Story co-star Emma Roberts had knowingly misgendered Ross while on set. In a video posted to TikTok, Ross explained that she felt she could not address Roberts’ remark because of the power imbalance between her and Roberts. But then, a shocking twist: Shortly after the video was posted, Roberts called Ross to apologize! Like, on the phone! An actual apology! Not a Notes App half-pology written by a publicity intern. Shoutout to Angelica Ross for helping her co-star—and everyone else—learn a lesson in respect.

• It’s still Hispanic and Latine Heritage Month, so check out this new study from Pew about how U.S. Latines really feel about speaking or not speaking Spanish. Of those surveyed, 54% say they were shamed by other Latine people because they don’t speak Spanish. Wild considering Spanish is the forced language of our colonizers! Technically I’d be speaking Taíno were it not for Spain.

BOOK TALK

Where Rape Culture Meets Motherhood

Amanda Montei on being "touched out"

BY SCARLETT HARRIS

IMAGE COURTESY OF BEACON PRESS

“Parenting in America feels so nonconsensual.”

That’s the thesis of Amanda Montei’s new book, Touched Out: Motherhood, Misogyny, Consent and Control, which charts how rape culture—the idea that young women’s bodies are not our own—prepares us for the expectation that we should ignore pain and discomfort in motherhood. Montei offers all-too-relatable visuals of how this manifested with her own children, who were climbing all over her like a jungle gym. That scenario, along with breastfeeding and obligatory sex, has “mothers hiding in bathrooms, pressing hands out around them to create imaginary barriers between body and world... husbands and children.” As a mother, Montei got the feeling that her “body was a play thing”—the same message she’d gotten as a girl.

We spoke to her about what it means to be “touched out,” how #MeToo forced her to confront past trauma, and what it feels like to raise kids during such a fraught time in American history.

For those who may not know already, what does “touched out” mean?

“Touched out” is this term that has become popularized over the last decade or so online, mostly with millennial, cis, hetero, married women [and especially mothers]. Usually when we see descriptions of this phenomenon it’s “skin crawling”: that desire to jump out of one’s skin and a longing for personal space. It became a metaphor for the way a lot of us feel living in systems of power that’s like, I need a break from all these expectations and scripts and hands. A lot of the early writing around this feeling was that it’s normal and natural but it will pass. That didn’t sit well with me.

Is that what led you to [connect] your experience with being touched out as a mother with the #MeToo movement and your own experiences with sexual assault and harassment?

That’s how I experienced #MeToo: I was a new mother. I had been pushed out of my academic career in many respects. I was working at a daycare, taking care of a young kid while pregnant again, and I was parenting mostly alone. I was kind of watching all of this unfold and processing all this new language and the invitation to let go of the other kind of shame that comes with blaming oneself for being violated. That was a lot to respond to while having a small child, so I wanted to take the reader through that feeling because I think it’s a common experience, from speaking with other mothers.

With that in mind, do you think pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting can be traumatizing?

Birth can be and is traumatizing for plenty of people, not to mention pregnancy, especially now in this post-Roe era. In an American context, the terms of trauma and triggering get a really bad rap in the sense that “everything’s trauma,” but I think that’s unfortunate because we are still very much living in a time when women’s trauma and violation aren’t taken seriously.

[And with] parenthood, there’s aspects that can be traumatizing. Being with children all the time…forces us to face a lot of our unresolved issues, not just about our bodies but about everything [such as breastfeeding, care work, and consent]. The stuff that we buried through addiction and other coping mechanisms. We don’t talk about that in postpartum care at all.

You write about the dichotomy between the medicalization of pregnancy and childbirth in America versus “natural childbirth,” which, removed from their political ideologies, contribute to…pregnant and postpartum bodies being objectified. Can you tell me a little more about that?

Childbirth especially is this ideological battlefield: It’s either this medical institution built on distrust of pregnant voices, particularly when it comes to race and the disbelief of Black women’s pain, or it’s this proving ground: In certain “natural childbirth” mentalities, we go through pain and suffering in order to prepare us to be parents, which is problematic because there are plenty of non-gestational parents who don’t go through childbirth.

There’s that Nike campaign, which has this line that mothers are the toughest athletes and only the strongest survive. And that sounds empowering, but it comes from a long line of thinking that [normalizes] suffering and pushing through pain.

How does it feel to have this book coming out now during such a fraught time, with the fall of Roe and the childcare crisis, amongst other things?

I began working on it before COVID, but I was really working on it during the pandemic and it felt urgent because suddenly people were having these conversations that previously were radical, like giving parents money for the work they do inside the home. This is a sad and horrible time in the sense that we have this aggressive rollback of rights, but it’s also a time when more and more people want to have these conversations about caregiving, how capitalism is set up, the exploitation of women’s work in the home and how that is a major source of male power.

Writing and parenting are interrelated in the sense that we want to be honest about what’s hard but we also want to create some imagined other future. That’s the creative, intellectual work of parenting. Motherhood is this unfinished territory, so I hope with this book we can see how…motherhood and family as an institution are related to these other issues around autonomy and consent and sexuality. They’re not this niche, unserious thing.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.

LET'S GET TOGETHER!

Planning to be in New York on October 12? Crazy, so are we! We’ll be at Neueue House hosting Work Shift, a half-day summit exploring the ways work is changing for women and nonbinary people—and how to navigate those shifts. You can reserve your seat by clicking on the image below. Hope to see you there!

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Fair Monduesday*, Meteor readers,

Well, it’s that time of year. Students and teachers have returned to school—or, in some parts of the country, they haven’t. I find this new school year particularly tense: My oldest niece Ezra is starting her senior year of high school 😭 and with the fall of affirmative action, she and her peers will have to decide whether it will help or harm them to mention race in their college application essays. I don’t envy the young.

In today’s newsletter we’re pointing and laughing at Ken Paxton, learning our soccer history, and spreading a little good news.

Staring at Ezra’s baby photos,

Shannon Melero

*For those of you who are new here, a Monduesday is any Tuesday after a three-day weekend that is behaving as a Monday. Patent pending.

WHAT'S GOING ON

Impeachy keen: Today was the first day of Texas attorney general Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial. Why I’m gleefully watching the livestream: Paxton is a hard-core Trump ally, vocally anti-choice, anti-LGBTQ+, and last year supported a “Women’s Bill of Rights” meant to delegitimize trans women. (We wrote all about it here.)

Not that these offenses have anything to do with Paxton’s trial. Paxton was suspended from his position in May after the 16 articles of impeachment brought against him by the Texas House accused him of “bribery, disregarding his official duty, making false statements, and abusing the public trust.” Astonishingly, this impeachment trial (the first Texas has had in almost 50 years) was brought against him by his fellow Republicans. Never did I think I’d live to see the day the GOP held one of their own accountable.

Also making this trial soap-opera-adjacent is the fact that Paxton’s wife, Angela, is a state senator and must be present for the proceedings but cannot vote on the outcome. That little factoid is key because back in May, Angela said she would not recuse herself and was going to carry out her duties through the end of the trial. But her peers barred her from voting or participating in deliberations. Which is good news for Paxton, considering that a chunk of the evidence against him revolves around an extramarital affair. It’s like we’re living in a House of Cards episode.

AND:​​​​​​​

• The internet was alight with, as the young people call it, JOMO (joy of missing out) after an onslaught of rain and mud spoiled Burning Man this weekend. The gathering has been inundated by tech bros and other interlopers for years now, but as artist and longtime attendee Favianna Rodriguez reminds us, Burning Man has a history of being a “culture changer”—which means it must do some reimagining in the face of the climate crisis and extreme weather.

• So remember when we were all celebrating Nebraska breaking a world record for women’s sports attendance with its crowd of 92,003 at a volleyball tournament last week? Turns out, we were kinda wrong. A fascinating historical deep dive from journalist Lindsey Gibbs finds that an “unsanctioned” Women’s World Cup final in Mexico City in 1971 holds the world record for attendance—with more than 110,000 people. Why has this been left out of the record book for so many years? The tournament wasn’t sponsored by FIFA, so they “actively suppress and do not recognize” that it took place.

• Elon Musk is threatening to sue the Anti-Defamation League for what he alleges was an attempt to kill the website formerly known as Twitter. According to Musk, ADL did this by pointing out the vast amount of anti-Semitic hate speech on the platform and making that information readily available to advertisers, who are pulling out of X (Twitter). Musk has responded by liking Xweets calling for a ban on the ADL, while the organization says it’s “unsurprised yet undeterred that antisemites, white supremacists, conspiracy theorists, and other trolls have launched a coordinated attack.”

• You might have ordered your first pumpkin spice latte already, but that doesn’t mean fall weather is on the horizon. Most of the U.S. is about to experience a record-breaking September heatwave.

• Despite the promise of a fafillion-dollar contract from Royal Spanish Football Federation president Luis Rubiales, Jorge Vilda has been fired from his position as head coach of Spain’s World Cup-winning national team. Players had accused Vilda of creating a hostile work environment and perpetuating the rampant sexist culture common in the league. He is being replaced by Montse Tomé, the first woman to coach the Spanish team in its history.

• Also paying attention to the goings-on in Spain is Woody Allen, who characterized the now-infamous kiss that Rubiales planted on Jenni Hermoso as “just a kiss…[w]hat's wrong with that?” Allen also claimed to support the #MeToo movement but says he doesn’t understand cancel culture. “I don’t know what it means to be canceled,” he said. And how could he know, since it hasn’t yet happened to him?

• I’m not going to spoil anything, but please read this wild story that opens with, “There’s a strange saga unfolding in Texas.” I promise that you absolutely cannot guess what it’s about. Here’s a hint:

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• Thanks to heavy crowdfunding in Florida, an abortion clinic in Orlando will be able to pay nearly $200,000 in fines and remain open.

• For the first time in 15 years, two Black American men will compete against each other at the U.S. Open.

• This is the key we’re singing “Happy Birthday” in from now on. Everyone please start practicing. I do not want to hear any of you sounding flat if Diana Ross is around.

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Buenas noches, lectores del Meteor,

Tomorrow marks the beginning of Hispanic/Latine Heritage Month, which also marks the month the gente explain that just because many of us fall under this invented ethnic category doesn’t mean we are of the same culture. (But we do all love platanos and that is what binds us. Don’t @ me.)

In today’s newsletter we identify the scabs of the writer’s strike, put the “win” back in Wisconsin, and give you some good weekend reads.

Using my ancestral name this month,

Shannon Lebron Valles Melero-Ureña

FREE FUTURE

Today, The Meteor was at the Ford Foundation for the inaugural Free Future summit, focusing on the global rise of gender-based violence (GBV). There was a stellar line-up of speakers on everything from the importance of how we talk about sexual assault to the rise of deadly laws in Uganda. Here are some powerful moments from the summit:

“As a culture, we breed predation.”
– Charles Blow, on how masculinity encourages violence

“The problem in this country is that we do not see sexual violence as a social justice issue…and it is. Anything that happens every 68 seconds is a public health crisis!”
—Tarana Burke on why GBV is simply ignored in the U.S.

“Even me speaking on a stage like this is illegal.”
—Kesha Nabagesera, explaining the implications of the new anti-LGBTQ+ laws in Uganda, which essentially criminalize gay existence

“[The] Supreme Court [is] shifting away from a rights-protection mode to a rights-denial mode. And having done that, what is happening throughout the country are policies that are doing existential harm.”
—Anita Hill, on the profound shifts at SCOTUS

You can watch the entire day of programming here.

QUE 'TA PASANDO

Don’t be a scab: The Writers Guild of America (WGA) has been on strike for more than 100 days. In July, they were joined by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). As in any labor strike, both groups agreed to withhold their most precious asset: their work. Actors are also not promoting any of their projects in compliance with strike rules.

But on Sunday, SAG member Drew Barrymore announced that her talk show was returning, and all hell broke loose. Is this a strike violation? Is she a scab? Should writers try to get on her show? What does this say about Drew’s values? Let’s break all that down.

Full disclosure: I’m a card-carrying WGA member, so if it seems like I’m angry about all this, it’s because I am.

After initially supporting the strike—even refusing to host an MTV awards show in solidarity—Drew shared that her talk show will resume production because they are “in compliance” with the strike. That term, though, is misleading, especially for viewers who aren’t familiar with how the SAG and WGA function. As a SAG member, Drew herself is in fact compliant with the strike because her show is produced under what’s called the “Network Television Code,” because this specific agreement is not what SAG or the WGA are striking over.

In the world of the WGA, different kinds of writers are covered under different collective bargaining agreements. For example, as a digital media writer, I operate under “workplace-specific agreements,” which means my circumstances change based on where I work. But film and television writers work under the Minimum Basic Agreement regardless of what show they’re on. Right now, the strike is concerned with that MBA.

The WGA also distinguishes between film/TV writers and broadcast news writers, even though they both work for television shows. This means the writers of Succession work under the Minimum Basic Agreement, but the writers of Good Morning America work under workplace-specific agreements. GMA is a news broadcast, which requires a different skill set than writing ten episodes of prestige television. Which group can’t work right now? The latter—which includes the three television writers Drew employs.

Drew isn’t the only one making a return; other talk shows like Real Time with Bill Maher and The View will be going forward without any writers at all. Make no mistake: This is still scab behavior, but distinct from Drew’s strategy. A spokesperson for CBS Media Ventures claimed that the show would return but “will not be performing any writing work covered by the WGA strike,” which leaves the door open for hiring non-striking WGA writers and pretends that’s the same thing as compliance. If you’re finding writers to replace the ones on strike, you’re absolutely crossing the picket line—full stop.

Look, I get it: At this point in the strike, writers desperately need work and it’s hard to get mad at someone doing what they must to pay rent. Still, as Drew’s co-head writer Christina Konan put it in the L.A. Times: “If you feel like you’re sacrificing three writers for a crew of hundreds, I see that perspective. But then if you zoom out a little bit more, you’ll see that it isn’t about those three writers. It’s about an entire union of 11,000-plus writers.”

TAMBIÉN:

• Nothing says Happy Hispanic/Latine Heritage Month like a judge declaring that DACA is unlawful. (Let me remind you that a majority of Dreamers are women from Mexico, El Salvador, and Guatemala.)

• The Child Care Stabilization Act was introduced in Congress yesterday. If it passes, it would provide $16 billion in emergency funding for the thousands of childcare facilities that are on the brink of closing. You can support the bill here.

• Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who bravely testified against the nomination of Justice Brett Kavanaugh and was subsequently rewarded with death threats, has written a memoir that’s set to be released in March.

• Planned Parenthood has been legally cleared to continue offering abortions in the state of Wisconsin. Blessed be the fruit.

• Apparently USA Today is looking to hire a Taylor Swift reporter and all I have to say about that is: It’s me, hi, I’m the reporter, it’s me.

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 📚POR FIN DE SEMANA

On government: What’s the latest threat to American national security? Congressional leaders developing dementia. (The Intercept)

On Betty: Moira Donegan revisits the legacy and the likability of Betty Friedan. (The New Yorker)

On besties with babies: Ever wonder why friendships get more complicated after someone has a kid? Us, too. (The Cut)

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Hey, Meteor readers,

Okay, let’s get the big news out of the way: Josh and Jackie from Love is Blind have broken up, and I am thanking all the deities that our girl Jackie is away from that man-child.

In today’s newsletter, Nona Willis Aronowitz, guest editor for The Meteor, explains the fraught history behind the Rolling Stone controversy; Drew Barrymore has a change of heart; and a Michigan school board kills creativity.

Love has 20/20 vision,

Shannon Melero

WHAT'S GOING ON

Like my mama said: On Friday, the New York Times ran a truly wild interview with Rolling Stone co-founder Jann Wenner that boiled blood across the internet and beyond. Asked why his new book “The Masters” only profiles white guys with guitars, Wenner explained that neither women nor Black musicians met his criteria of being “articulate enough on this intellectual level.” (Whatever that means.) Joni Mitchell? “Not a philosopher of rock ‘n’ roll.” Marvin Gaye? Curtis Mayfield? “They just didn’t articulate at that level.” Never mind that Black artists literally invented rock ‘n roll. Not the “masters” in Wenner’s book.

The reaction was swift: The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which Wenner co-founded, removed him from the board. Rolling Stone—which has been run by Wenner’s son, Gus, since 2019—officially denounced his comments.

It might be tempting to file away this dust-up as yet another white male Boomer saying the quiet part out loud. But it’s hard to overstate how much Rolling Stone in its heyday set the tone for pop culture and determined which artists mattered—and which artists didn’t. Practically since its founding in 1967, critics have pointed out how hostile the magazine can be toward women and people of color—including my own mother, rock critic and feminist essayist Ellen Willis.

In 1970, my mom wrote a letter to Rolling Stone co-founder Ralph Gleason declining his invitation to write for him. Though she believed RS was “the best rock magazine going,” she found it to be “viciously anti-woman…RS habitually refers to women as chicks and treats us as chicks, i.e. interchangeable cute fucking machines.” She didn’t want to be a “token woman writer for a magazine that doesn’t print women in general.” She also criticized RS’s lazy tendency to dismiss politics as having nothing to do with the “cultural revolution” of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll:

IMAGE COURTESY OF NONA WILLIS ARONOWITZ

In the days since Wenner biographer Joe Hagan posted excerpts from this letter on X, several news outlets have reported that my mother refused to write for Rolling Stone. But that’s not the full story. In fact, she did end up publishing several pieces in the magazine, including 1975’s “The Trial of Arline Hunt,” a prescient account of a woman who was blamed for her own rape. My mother died in 2006, but if she were still here, she’d make a point to mention Marianne Partridge, the editor who assigned that piece and was one of several women who pushed back against the magazine’s male-centric culture in the ‘70s.

Still, these women’s efforts only went so far; in the last few days, more recent stories of racism and sexism at Rolling Stone have trickled in. One former female editor who worked there about a decade ago alleged on her private Instagram account (which she allowed The Meteor to quote) that she was “treated like trash on eight levels for getting pregnant.” The problem wasn’t with the staff so much as “the policies that were either in place or made up as they went along to avoid poking the bear that was Jann”—policies, she later elaborated to The Meteor, like zero maternity leave and a strict no-work-from-home rule. Cultural critic Nelson George commented that Wenner’s remarks “reflect the continuum of thought that defined [Rolling Stone’s] coverage and why they never really caught up to rap.” Several people pointed out that magazines like VIBE and The Source were founded precisely because RS ignored hip-hop.

Rolling Stone has a far more diverse (though still pretty white) masthead today. As the Wenner controversy simmers down, let’s remember that it’s often the workers who end up reshaping institutions, despite their founders’ retrograde views.

—Nona Willis Aronowitz

AND:​​​​​​​

• A tragic killing in June is getting a second look, thanks to some intrepid independent reporting. After a Seattle police vehicle struck and killed 26-year-old Jaahnavi Kandula, the driver, who was en route to respond to a 911 call, claimed he was going at about 50 mph and hit Kandula as she was walking outside of the crosswalk. But thanks to Erica C. Barnett’s reporting, we now know that the officer was lying about those things to avoid liability. Even more egregious was the response of Officer Dave Auderer, who was sent to assess the situation. He referred to Kandula as a “limited value” person. “Yeah, just write a check,” he said. “Yeah, $11,000.” The Seattle Police Officer’s Guild defended his actions, saying, “There is much more detail and nuance that has not been made public yet.” The nuance here seems to be getting caught versus not getting caught.

• It seems that Drew Barrymore has listened to the feedback and decided not to continue filming her show while the WGA strike continues. Bill Maher and the hosts of The Talk have also decided to hit pause on their returns. This is the power of a unified strike!

• A Michigan school board is ordering that a high school student’s mural be removed because it “promoted LGBTQ imagery and witchcraft.” The imagery? Characters wearing shirts with the trans, bisexual, and rainbow flag colors. The “witchcraft”? A small drawing of the Hamsa, a cultural and religious symbol that wards off the evil eye that a million Instagirlies have tattooed on their bodies. Scandalous! The mural also showcases diverse depictions of students like a hijabi superhero and other well-drawn POC. Tell me you only like cis white kids without telling me you only like cis white kids.

• Over the summer, a private equity firm purchased publishing house Simon & Schuster —usually a death knell in any creative space. But now KKR, the firm behind the purchase, is offering employees an ownership stake in the company. On the heels of one of the worst summers for labor, what does that kind of approach mean? It’s not exactly a win for workers.

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