Word-Salad Chefs and Technofascists
  November 2, 2026 Beloved Meteor readers, We’re coming to you with a special Monday newsletter this week, since The Meteor is closed tomorrow for Election Day. (If your employer doesn’t offer time off to vote, show them this!) In today’s issue, a quick romp through midterm news, from high hopes in Minnesota to questionable charges in California. (Side question: How is it possible that word-salad chef and new MAGA fan Haley Stevens has been elected to U.S. Congress four times??) After that, we’ve got a palate cleanser for you, if you like cleansing your palate with pathological lies and well-whipped eggs. Yes, it’s a “You Can See Everything” special issue! My colleagues Nona Willis Aronowitz and Rebecca Carroll are weighing in on the film that’s become the latest pop-culture obsession and Halloween costume. There are spoilers aplenty, so please log off before that section if you haven’t yet Seen Everything.  For my own part, I have seen the movie—through a very particular and, for me, cringe-inducing lens. Back in 2015, as editor of Glamour, I visited pre-scandal Elizabeth Holmes at the Theranos headquarters in Palo Alto, where she walked me through the lab, offered me a free finger-prick, and spun her now-famous tale of a healthcare revolution. (The resulting interview is mortifyingly titled “Career Advice from Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes,” and now carries a hefty editor’s note.) Six months later we made her a Glamour Woman of the Year, and I remember how Holmes’ entire frame shook as she took my hands at the Rainbow Room to thank me—which later made sense, once I understood the gravity of the fraud she was perpetrating. Over the years since that fraud was revealed, I have felt alternately outraged (at her lies), chagrined (at the girlboss goggles that prompted me to fall for them), but most of all unsettled, because Holmes was a con artist who didn’t always seem like one. Against that backdrop, “You Can See Everything”—which embraces that unsettled confusion—was supremely satisfying. Speaking of corruption and con artists, tomorrow is another chance to send them packing. LFV. Cindi Leive  WHAT'S GOING ON
 HALEY, YA OK? (VIA GETTY IMAGES)
 WE FINALLY SAW THE MOVIETwo takes on the other stars of "You Can See Everything"BY NONA WILLIS ARONOWITZ AND REBECCA CARROLL 🚨Warning: Spoilers abound! Do not proceed if you haven’t seen this movie!!🚨 One of the biggest (and most maddening) takeaways from “You Can See Everything”—Lance Oppenheim and Nathan Fielder’s new documentary about Elizabeth Holmes—is that their subject ends up as inscrutable as she started. Here, two takes on the other stars of the film, who fittingly end up going toe-to-toe: Billy Evans and Amanda Seyfried. “You Can See Everything” is a cautionary tale about dating tech brosI admit I was slow to see Billy Evans, Elizabeth Holmes’ romantic partner, as a threatening force in “You Can See Everything.” Maybe it’s because the film seemed to be saying he was kinda hot; the filmmakers lingered on shots of his body at the gym and, yes, the shower. When Nathan Fielder intimated that Holmes may have pursued Evans because of his family’s money, I began to pity him. Even after his infantilizing move in the infamous egg-beating scene (and Holmes’ suspiciously unfazed response), my first thought was that perhaps Holmes had chosen a mostly benign moron eight years her junior so she could escape from the scrutiny, get a little dickmatized, and cosplay domestic bliss with a himbo who worshipped her before going to prison. Honestly, it sounded like a restful way to spend a couple of sleep-deprived, postpartum years.  YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING EXCEPT WHY ANYONE WOULD BE ATTRACTED TO THIS MAN. (VIA GETTY IMAGES) As the movie went on, though, it became clear that though Evans may indeed be a moron, he is not a benign moron. The second half of the movie, among other things, is a cautionary tale about dating a tech bro in the last decade. Evans uncannily embodies Silicon Valley’s evolution from vaguely liberal to straight-up fascist. After the two-year jump in the narrative, I immediately clocked his sniffly nose and the new, bigger chip on his shoulder. My hackles go up and up as we learn that he’s taken over Holmes’ Twitter account, admires Charlie Kirk, and belligerently interrupts Amanda Seyfried, who is the closest thing to an audience surrogate in this film. Back in the car after their uncomfortable first meeting, Seyfried says it best: “That guy is batshit crazy.” It’s not as if I feel sorry for Holmes—batshit crazy deserves batshit crazy—but it is a bit disquieting that a master manipulator like Holmes seems to give the men in her life such profound control of her fate. (Of course, it’s always possible Holmes is intentionally scapegoating an unappealing man to take the focus off her own misdeeds.) Either way, can we all agree that Evans needs to be banished to Ken's Mojo Dojo Casa House? —Nona Willis Aronowitz Amanda Seyfried is the saving grace of “You Can See Everything”By the time Amanda Seyfried shows up in this documentary, the film has reached its apex of Wes Anderson-level quirk—a fantasy world in which clarity and delusion engage in a disordered dance. Close-ups on Elizabeth Holmes’ bright blue (yet somehow dead) eyes, tousled blonde hair, and alabaster white skin have run their course. Nathan Fielder’s awkward, schleppy demeanor in contrast to the hyper-pomposity of Holmes’ partner, Billy Evans, has become repetitive. I found myself thinking, She’s definitely lying, but who cares? And this Billy guy is insufferable. Also, get a backbone, Fielder. (And unlike Nona, as soon as Evans used the term “radical transparency” at the beginning of the film, I knew he was trash.) Enter Seyfried, the actor who portrayed Holmes in the Hulu series “The Dropout,” and who makes the confusion a lot more fun.  HOLMESOLOGIST AMANDA SEYFRIED (VIA GETTY IMAGES) Fielder enlists her as a co-sleuth, but also to reenact conversations he’s had with Holmes that were not caught on film. Seyfried, a different but aesthetically adjacent version of Holmes, is uncanny at switching back and forth between her own real-life emotional intelligence and her vacant rendition of Holmes. She also brings feminist solidarity. “Of course I want them to break up,” Seyfried says to Fielder after meeting Evans for the first time. No woman, she tells Fielder, wants to see another woman suffer under the control of a freakishly narcissistic bro-guy. Now we’re talking, I thought. Read him for filth, Amanda! Here and elsewhere, Seyfried brings a vibrant sense of curiosity and a fierce female vigor the movie sorely needs. Even as Seyfried and Fielder go back and forth about Holmes’ dishonesty, intentions, choice in men, and mental health, Seyfried does so while also reminding Fielder and the audience that whatever her crimes, Holmes is still a woman living in a patriarchal world. Remember the pivotal scene where Seyfried implores Evans to reconsider posting on Twitter as Holmes? “That’s not her,” she says, as if trying to explain the logic to a five-year-old. “That’s you.” None of this made me believe Holmes any more or less. Still, I appreciate Seyfried for kicking in the door and waving the .44 with her white feminist self. —Rebecca Carroll Dying to share your two cents about “You Can See Everything”? This Monday, November 9, at 1 PM ET, The Meteor Book (and Sometimes Movie) Club is getting together virtually to dissect every last twist and turn. (There will be spoilers, obviously.) If you’d like to join your favorite Meteor pals, sign up here. See you down the rabbit hole!   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Midterms or mad-terms?
  October 20, 2026 Greetings, Meteor readers, I realize there is a very important midterm election going on, along with a lot of very harrowing and urgent news across the globe, but all I can think of is how to get out of doing kid bedtime so I can sneak off to the Nathan Fielder-Elizabeth Holmes ballet aka “You Can See Everything.” (But can I see everything? This thing is three hours long and I’m tired.)  Jkjk, we are very much locked in and paying attention to November 3rd. Today, we check in with three women working on elections about what they’re witnessing up close. Plus, updates on France and Puerto Rico. NEED TO SEE EVERYTHING, Nona Willis Aronowitz  WHAT'S GOING ONOn the road again: That crispness we all feel in the air signals two things: One, it's time to rewatch "Gilmore Girls" and recall just how shit of a person Rory was, and two, midterms are right around the corner. While there are guides galore on what to expect for the big day, we decided to hit up three of our friends to ask what they’ve seen firsthand and what, if anything, we can do to conjure all the luck we need to survive this election cycle. Shockingly, no one suggested a road trip to Stars Hollow. But these answers are good too! What's the most surprising thing you've seen on the trail? “How far down the ballot people’s enthusiasm goes. In Atlanta, I talked to voters who knew exactly who Rohit Malhorta was, a candidate for Fulton County Commission, before I said more than his name…Voters understand the line from the Republicans on their ballot to what they're dealing with every day from the Trump administration.” —Shaniqua McClendon, vice president of politics, Crooked Media “I’ve seen some incredibly powerful, articulate college student organizers on the trail recently, just absolutely crushing their organizing work.” —Lauren Groh-Wargo, CEO, Fair Fight and Fair Fight Action “Donald Trump having to stump in red states (lol).” —Sarah Sophie Flicker, cofounder, Joy to the Polls What’s most on the minds of the women you’re meeting? “Dobbs is still right there…[Women in] Texas and Georgia have lived through some of the most tragic consequences of that decision, and the women I've met have not forgotten the women who have died or nearly died attempting to get reproductive health care.” —Shaniqua McClendon “Rage, fury—across parties!” —Sarah Sophie Flicker  JOY TO THE POLLS BRINGS JUST THAT. (SCREENSHOT VIA INSTAGRAM) What do you want Meteor readers to know about this Election Day, as opposed to ones in the past? “This Election Day is not the finish line…Even if Democrats win both chambers of Congress, we are up against a motivated, funded, deeply organized autocratic and white supremacist movement…that we will be fighting against for the rest of our lives.” —Lauren Groh-Wargo “Early voting is a very good way to ensure that your vote is counted.” [Editors’ note: But if you didn’t vote early…vote on Election Day!] —Sarah Sophie Flicker What's your Election Day superstition or ritual? “Harassing everyone I know to make sure they voted.” —Shaniqua McClendon “I have a mini-dress from the ‘70s that is handmade from red, white, and blue ‘vote’ fabric. I wear it every election!” —Sarah Sophie Flicker AND:
 THE NEWLY UNVEILED STREET SIGN. (IMAGE COURTESY OF CINDI LEIVE)
 ONE MORE THING: JOIN US IN NYC ON OCTOBER 27! Furious? Same. Bring your righteous rage—at the world and the people who claim to run it—to Joe’s Pub in New York City on October 27 at 9:30 PM for SAY THE WORD! We’ve got an all-star lineup of fantastically furious artists and visionaries—like actor Ashley Judd, poet Patricia Smith, writer Bess Kalb, scholar Dr. Brittney Cooper, comedian Phoebe Robinson, performer Peppermint, singer Lea Delaria and many more—for a night of music, monologues, and action to make our world better. Proceeds will benefit Survivor Justice Network, a coalition of organizations centering survivor voices and building survivor power (hell yes to that). Get tickets here.  FOLLOW THE METEOR     Thank you for reading The Meteor! Got this from a friend? |
