A First Step Toward the Future

Plus: Peace talks need women ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

October 14, 2025

Fair Monduesday, Meteor readers,

It’s going to be a dark week in our nation, and not just because the fall weather is finally settling in. This week, a powerful, malevolent force is convening. We are, of course, referring to the Moms for Liberty Summit in Florida, which kicks off in two days.

In today’s newsletter, we consider what’s missing from peace negotiations (hint: it starts with a W). Plus, two former editors-in-chief take the shame out of being shitcanned.

WHAT'S GOING ON

A first step toward the future: Last week, the world breathed a sigh of relief when Israel and Hamas accepted a ceasefire agreement that would see the release of both Israeli and Palestinian hostages and allow aid to enter Gaza. As expected, Donald Trump took much of the credit for the agreement. But after a weekend of families reuniting with their loved ones, news broke this morning that Israeli soldiers had already shot and killed at least nine Palestinians who were returning to their homes in Khan Younis.

This is, unfortunately, a familiar situation—a ceasefire announcement, a brief moment of joy, a ceasefire violation, and then a renewed cycle of violence. But as more nations publicly demand an end to the genocide, there is a growing hope that this time will be different.

And it must be different. Over the last two years, more than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed (although the UN believes this may be an undercount), and more than half of those killed were women and children. Yet despite the disproportionate impact the conflict has had on women and children, peace negotiations and planning for the future have been led almost entirely by men.

This isn’t exactly a surprise considering the makeup of the governments involved, but it is, as history has shown us, a failing strategy. Earlier this month, the United Nations commemorated the 25th anniversary of Resolution 1325, which urged leaders to “increase the participation of women and incorporate gender perspectives in all United Nations peace and security efforts.”

“Where women lead, peace follows,” Sima Bahous, the executive director of UN Women, said in a speech to the Security Council. (Data backs her up: Peace is 35% more likely to last 15 years or more when women are at the negotiating table.) In this moment, where over 600 million girls are living in zones of conflict worldwide, it seems like the right time to try a different approach.

Click here to learn how you can support aid and rebuilding efforts in Gaza.

AND:

“This is the first time I’ve seen so many pregnant people in [ICE] detention,” an immigration advocate told The Intercept this week. Current ICE guidance dictates that agents should avoid detaining pregnant or postpartum women unless there are “exceptional circumstances” in place. But according to The Intercept’s reporting and lawyers representing detained women, that guidance has been ignored, and ICE is detaining pregnant women at “alarming rates.”
The recent government shutdown has put several programs at risk of running out of money, including WIC (which covers food costs and breastfeeding support for families). Despite no end to the shutdown in sight, the USDA claims that WIC will remain funded at least through the end of October—important news for families who need it.
The Las Vegas Aces solidified their dynasty status on Sunday after clinching their third WNBA Championship trophy. Now it’s back to the negotiating table for next year’s collective bargaining agreement. Don’t play in their faces, Cathy.

ALL THEY DO IS WIN. (VIA GETTY IMAGES)

Marjorie Taylor Greene is calling Republican men “weak” and “afraid of strong Republican women.” You win this round, Marjorie.
Move over tree huggers. Job-hugging is the (depressing) new trend.
To the many assaults on trans people in the US, let’s add this: A fringe organization called Genspect, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated as an anti-LBGTQ hate group, is working to pressure the psychiatric field to label transgender identities as treatable mental illnesses, with Genspect’s founder claiming, “the drive to transition is rooted in unresolved mental disorder.”
Three beloved trailblazers have died within days of each other. Over the weekend, queen of the First Wives Club and trendsetter Diane Keaton passed away at 79. Yesterday, transgender activist and caretaker Miss Major died as a result of complications from a bloodstream infection at 78 (although she believed her birth records were incorrect and she may have been in her 80s). Today, legendary singer and neo-soul pioneer D’Angelo—who wrote vividly and respectfully about Black women—died at 51 after battling pancreatic cancer.

Three Questions About...Getting Fired

No shame in getting shitcanned, say Laura Brown and Kristina O'Neill

BY CINDI LEIVE

TWO COOL FIRED GALS (COURTESY OF GALLERY BOOKS)

Getting unceremoniously sacked has always been an occupational hazard for magazine editors; back in the 1980s, Vogue’s Grace Mirabella reportedly found out she’d been let go when she heard it on the TV show Live at Five. But when it happened to Laura Brown (the former head of InStyle) and Kristina O’Neill (of WSJ Magazine), they eventually realized that, to quote Nora Ephron, everything is copy. These two friends (and, full disclosure, friends of mine) sat down to write a book about the experience: All the Cool Girls Get Fired, in which everyone from Oprah to Carol Burnett tell their own pink-slip stories.

It couldn’t be better timed. Earlier this fall I ran into an acquaintance on the subway and was telling her about the book. We noticed a woman next to us leaning close. “I”m sorry,” she said, “would you mind saying the name of that book again? I need it.”

In case you do too, here are three questions for the authors.

My first question is, the book is All the Cool Girls—not all the cool boys—Get Fired. So I'm curious—how is the experience of getting fired for women different than it is for men? Obviously it happens to them too.

Kristina O’Neill: We noticed that there was a universality around the shame and the embarrassment and the disappointment that women respond to this sort of life event with. We noticed that a lot of men, if it has happened to them, it almost becomes part of their armor and part of their narrative—I mean, Steve Jobs, Mike Bloomberg, they made getting fired part of their entire work journey. Whereas when we sat down to write this book, we couldn't easily identify women who, after having been fired, owned it. It does seem like women have a harder time just saying what happened to them and moving on psychologically.

Laura Brown: I asked [human resources pro] Bucky Keady: Why does it hit so much harder [for women]? And in one second she said, “Because it took so much longer to get there. It took us so much longer to get into that room.” So many of us feel shame and wallow. But it’s futile. And you have a community, but you're not going to find the community unless you put your hand up: Actually, me too. That happened to me as well. And then, God, that's a help. That's such a relief. But you have to speak up.

Whose story of being fired surprised you, or made you see their career differently?

KO: We were really struck by how many women hadn't talked about it before. Katie Couric, for example, kept saying, Well, they didn't renew my contract, and it was almost like a revelation in the conversation when I think it sort of dawned on her, like, Yeah, I guess I was getting fired! We [also] talked to a sports agent, Lindsay Colas, who’s brilliant and who literally got Brittney Griner out of prison in Russia, and another client called her after she got Brittney out of jail and said [something to the effect of], “You haven't been paying enough attention to us, we're going to go with a different agency!”

So fired looks different for everybody: the language around it, the experience, the aftermath. But the universal thing is you feel like shit.

LB: One of my favorite stories was from Tarana Burke; she was running an organization in Philly and she was comfortable there. Then she got fired. And in all this time, me too was sort of lying dormant in her head. So when she was fired, she was then allowed to open her mind to proceed with that. She said, I kept thinking, You've been carrying other people's visions to fruition for too long. And she was able to carry her own.

How much did you know about Oprah’s firing [from her job as co-anchor of the Baltimore evening news] before interviewing her?

LB: We knew the story a little, but again—it wasn’t the [big narrative] about her. She should be on the fired Mt. Rushmore with Steve Jobs and Mike Bloomberg and everyone else! When we talked to her, her memory of the firing was like muscle memory. It was so visceral. [“I really have never talked about it,” says Oprah in the book.] She remembered what the managing director of the TV network was drinking. She remembered it was April Fools’ day, and she thought it was an April Fools’ joke. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, she remembered all these things because sadly—it's almost like with Instagram comments when you remember the negative one and you forget all the nice ones. And Oprah got upset about it anew, but she was us. She was ashamed to tell her dad, she was ashamed she lost her job. But her story reminds you that [getting fired] fires up your dreams too.

KO: If it hadn't happened to her, she would've never been in the prime position to be put up for that talk show.

LB: Oprah told us, The setback is a setup. It's so tidy, but it's absolutely true: That thing that knocks you down can spring you back.

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by The Meteor

Too Many Warnings Were Ignored

July 31, 2025

Hi, sweet Meteor readers,

You may recall our pregnancy-themed newsletter last week, which came about because I, your humble editor Nona Willis Aronowitz, am one million months pregnant with my second kid. (As someone who completely avoided summer the first time around, I can tell you that gestating in a heatwave is a whole nother level.) Anyway, today’s my last day at The Meteor ‘til December! Kindly send me some magical baby dust that blesses me with a chill newborn.

Next week, you’ll be in the safe hands of author and former culture director at Glamour Mattie Kahn. Please welcome her with all the enthusiasm I currently have for watermelon ice pops.

Today, we assess the myriad warnings–all in plain sight–that got us to this horrific place in Gaza. Plus, some evil trickery in Texas, and your weekend reading.

Just so damn hot,

Nona Willis Aronowitz

WHAT'S GOING ON

The long, visible road to starvation: Over the past two weeks, the headlines have been full of the devastating news about starvation in Gaza, with experts warning that famine is reaching “a tipping point,” and photos and stories documenting the severity of malnutrition in children. As a result, lawmakers and everyday people who hadn’t said much about Israel’s forced starvation of Gazans are now speaking up on their social media feeds and public platforms, with officials finally voting to stop weapons sales to Israel.

And yet, we have all known what’s coming for more than a year. The writing was on the wall almost immediately: In April 2024, six months after Israel's defense minister ordered a “complete siege” of Gaza, a director at Human Rights Watch and multiple doctors on the ground warned that children in Gaza were dying from forced starvation. Three months after that, the International Criminal Court charged Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant with, among other things, the “starvation of civilians as a method of warfare.” (To be abundantly clear, this is a war crime.) Around the same time, images of starving children started going viral. Three months after that, aid groups told NPR reporters that Israel was starving people in North Gaza, and this past November, the United Nations-affiliated Famine Review Committee warned that famine was imminent in the region.

And yet only now has it become more acceptable for people to say the thing that folks have been saying for hundreds of days.

It’s because we’ve reached the point of no return. It’s no longer the “safe” option to say nothing or to defend the actions of a government when starvation has reached the point that the damage cannot be wholly reversed. It’s finally clear through news coverage, through videos on the ground, through the work of activists, that we’re living in the endgame of an entire population. It is undeniable, it is unconscionable, and when even the most contrarian person on the internet agrees that infants should not be starving to death, fewer and fewer people want to be the one still saying, But are they really starving? (To be clear: There are still some people saying just that.)

The cases of starvation in Gaza are so severe that some people have lost the ability to swallow. “Eventually, you can just get sick enough that the parts of your brain that stimulate you to eat stop working,” one expert explained to NPR. Imagine being so deprived of food for so long that your body does not even have the mechanical ability to try eating.

That means that even if all the aid trucks were allowed in tomorrow, Gazans would require immense medical intervention to recover, because of refeeding syndrome. Two directors for the Global Food and Water Security Program wrote last month, “Malnutrition during periods of particular developmental vulnerability, like gestation or early life, can also manifest in permanent biological changes that are encoded at a genetic level.” They go on to confirm that “irreparable and generational harm has already occurred in Gaza.”

Generational. Harm. Children who will not be born for another 20 or 30 years will still be contending with the physical and psychological impacts of this massacre in some way. All we can do now is act en masse to fight for a world that listens the first time.

If you want to make that change now, you can. Small amounts of aid are entering Gaza, making the difference between survival and certain death. To donate to organizations that have had some success in distributing aid to Palestinians on the ground, please click here.

AND:

Speaking of aid: Chris Smalls, a union leader and American activist who was aboard the Handala, an aid ship attempting to reach the coast of Gaza as part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, was apprehended by the Israeli Defense Force on Saturday in international waters. According to the Coalition’s statement, Smalls, the only Black person onboard, was choked and beaten while in Israeli custody, with a level of force that was not used against the other detained activists. Smalls was finally released this afternoon.
“Gerrymandering” may be a word that puts people to sleep, but the current plan to redraw district lines in Texas should have all of us awake and at attention. TL;DR: If Republicans are allowed to change the district lines, they’ll secure five more safe red House seats in 2026. The GOP isn’t even trying to pretend otherwise; the Texas GOP has openly admitted that this redistricting would be “an essential step to preserving GOP control in Congress.” Start calling.
Former vice president Kamala Harris announced yesterday that she will not be running for governor of California, saying in part, “For now, my leadership—and public service—will not be in elected office.” We know she’s got a book coming out, but what else you working on, friend? 👀
The Lord has heard the cries of her people, and finally, the savior cometh: Director Gurinder Chadha is working on a sequel to the greatest sports film ever made, Bend It Like Beckham. The original, released in 2003, was a huge boon to women’s soccer, which at the time was on a slow rise in the U.S. in the wake of the 1999 World Cup. Now, two decades later, everyone is watching women’s sports, and Chadha’s beloved characters Jess and Jules can take a little bit of the credit.

Did you know it's possible to have your uterus literally turned inside out? The Meteor’s Angie Jaime does. She writes in Vogue about her harrowing experience in the time after her baby was born, and contemplates whether California's profound progress in lowering maternal mortality rates ultimately saved her life.
On Tuesday night, a game between the Golden State Valkyries and the Atlanta Dream had to be put on pause because someone threw a lime-green dildo onto the court. You can’t even get bottled water into most arenas, and someone smuggled in a dildo? Security!?
Today is National Mutt Day and while that doesn’t really mean anything, we jumped on the excuse to share this picture of our dogs.

FROM L-R: CHICO MELERO-URENA, CASEY SKYWALKER, SASHA MELERO-URENA, AND HANK LEIVE-BERNSTEIN.

WEEKEND READING 📚

On lifelong courage: Meet the 36 Mayan women, some now in their eighties, bringing their attackers to justice in Guatemala. (New York Times Magazine)

On riding in cars with girls: Jesse Lacy tells a queer coming-of-age story through a series of vehicular vignettes. (Audacity)

On a national treasure: Caitlin Gibson writes a rare profile of Ms. Rachel, who’s been increasingly focused on lifting up the traumatized children of Gaza. (Washington Post)

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by The Meteor

An escalating humanitarian crisis

October 17, 2023

Beloved Meteor readers,

It’s been hard to breathe these last few days. Like many of us, I’m struggling to carry on a normal day knowing there are people digging children out of rubble or wondering if their relatives taken hostage are alive.

Over the weekend, I went into the woods in search of mental and literal silence, only to return to the news that a six-year-old boy in Chicago had been killed in his home in what investigators are calling an anti-Palestinian, Islamophobic attack. And I wept, not only for him and his mother but for the countless children who will inherit this world of violence.

In today’s newsletter, we try to answer a question many have had over the last few days: How can we help? (It’s not simple.) And we bring you updates from the rest of the world.

Clinging to hope,

Shannon Melero

WHAT'S GOING ON

Unable to cross: The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is getting worse. As a result of Israel cutting off all utilities in the Gaza Strip in the wake of Hamas’s deadly attacks 10 days ago, the region is running out of clean water, food is scarce, and hospitals are overflowing. (Not to mention the 50,000 women who are pregnant in Gaza right now.) Today the UN issued a statement pleading for “safe passage for desperately needed humanitarian supplies to Gaza.”

So where is the aid? There are more than 100 trucks sitting at the border between Gaza and Egypt carrying medical supplies, food, and other vital needs for people just a few yards away. But because the Israeli government has barred any aid from entering Gaza, those trucks cannot move. Were the Egyptian government to allow the trucks passage, the move would be received by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu as a move against his government. It would also open the door for Palestinian refugees, which Egypt has said it will not accept.

But the Israeli and Egyptian governments are up against the will of the people. Calls for humanitarian aid have transcended religious and ethnic lines, with Jewish groups demanding action with the same fervor as their Muslim counterparts. As Michelle Goldberg wrote in the New York Times, Jews throughout the diaspora are feeling a “moment of great fear and vulnerability…. Nevertheless, as atrocities are piled on atrocities, I hope Jews will attend to what is being threatened in our name. And all Americans should pay attention, given how much our country underwrites Israel’s military.”

What can you do? There are two paths forward. The first is, if you’re able to, continue donating to groups such as Doctors Without Borders, the UNCERF, Anera, Islamic Relief, or the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. Money for these groups helps ensure that Gazans will get medicine, shelter, and food once safe passage is available.

Which brings us to the second thing you can do. Call your representatives, call their assistants—scream it in the streets if you have to—and demand that they pressure President Biden into living up to his word to pressure Israel to open the borders to humanitarian aid. The United States owes it to Palestinians to change course now rather than continue to aid our “ally” in carrying out a genocide.

AND:

India’s highest court chose not to legalize same-sex marriage and instead sent the decision back to the Indian parliament, which will vote on the matter.
The Committee to Protect Journalists has confirmed the deaths of “at least” 11 journalists who were on the frontlines covering Hamas and Israel.
A powerhouse and hero for young women athletes, Margot Polivy, died earlier this month. Polivy was a physical education teacher-turned-lawyer who took on the NCAA in the 1970s and “profoundly” changed the lives of high school and college women athletes.
Afghanistan was hit by a fourth 6.3 magnitude earthquake on Sunday. More than 90% of the people killed last week were women and children, according to UN officials. You can help here.
Palestinian activist and writer Jenan Matari spoke on the outsized role of the media in allowing propaganda to shape the narrative of Palestine’s occupation. And she didn't hold back.
In an excerpt from her memoir, Britney Spears reveals that she had an abortion while dating Justin Timberlake, writing that she still doesn’t know if it was the right decision.