I Voted

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11/7/14 - We discuss the midterm elections, Taylor Swift and Beyonce, ebola and Jian Ghomeshi, and menstruation superpowers. Plus we answer questions about iPhone snobs and our favorite podcasts. 

Transcript below.

Listen on Apple Podcasts | Stitcher | Overcast | Pocket Casts | Spotify.

CREDITS

Producer: Gina Delvac

Hosts: Aminatou Sow & Ann Friedman

Theme song: Call Your Girlfriend by Robyn

I Just Can’t Wait to Be King

Taylor Swift - Shake it Off

Cut Copy - Hanging on to Every Heartbeat

Phantogram - Black Out Days remix ft Danny Brown and Leo Justi

Hannah Rad edit of Call Your Girlfriend

LINKS

Ugh, the midterm elections

Beyonce rumors

Tay Swizzle will not be bullied.

On douchebags.

“I knew about Jian Ghomeshi”

Menstruating women boxers

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TRANSCRIPT: I VOTED

Aminatou: Hi Ann.

Ann: Hi Amina. Hi everyone. [Laughs] Welcome to Call Your Girlfriend.

Aminatou: A podcast for long-distance besties everywhere. This week on our agenda we'll be talking about the midterm elections, Taylor Swift and Beyonce updates, we'll have a rapid fire where we'll catch up on everything we've missed on the Internet including Ebola and Jian Ghomeshi and everything you need to know about when women boxers menstruate.

Ann: [Laughs] I love it.

[Theme Song]

Ann: I feel like we have to start with the midterms.

Aminatou: Sure, we can start with the midterms. Obviously I just got back from D.C. working on election stuff and election night was very, very depressing but also very predictable.

Ann: The only kind of crimson wave we don't like.

Aminatou: Right? Yeah, Mother Jones had an incredible graphic for this where it's just like this red tidal wave. I was like well done graphics department at Mother Jones. But yeah, it's just like, I don't know, abortion and women lost everywhere so the worst state to live in in the country is probably Tennessee. Yeah. So it's like have fun if you live in Tennessee, you know? But then there's also all this crazy stuff. What's her name? The Iowa woman, Joni Ernst.

Ann: Okay, this is striking really, really close to my heart.

Aminatou: Ann, that's like a woman who thinks you get Ebola from Twitter and she's going to be in Congress now. I want to tear my hair out.

(1:55)

Ann: This is a woman who wants to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency and I don't know, I see women like her and I'm like you don't have ten million kids. How can you be super, super anti-choice? Because obviously you've used contraception at some point in your life otherwise you would be having babies and caring for them all the time, not being a crazy person running for the Senate.

Aminatou: Yeah, no, it's crazy. In North Carolina they also pushed through a million restrictions on abortion access. Scott Walker went crazy and signed all these restrictions also even though he positioned himself as a moderate and he got reelected. Like that's . . .

Ann: Nice try Scott Walker.

Aminatou: Ugh.

Ann: But also actual nice try. The worst.

Aminatou: Yeah, so I mean . . . but also none of it was unexpected so I think that's what tempers how upset I am. But I'm also I just can't handle this every two year cycle of we're ecstatic and then two years later it's like ugh, they're taking away everything.

Ann: Right. But the real talk is women did not vote in as great of numbers as we did two years ago or even four years ago in the midterms. Like that is the sad truth.

Aminatou: Young people didn't vote. You know, I'll always stand up for millennials because they're my people but this was really depressing to see.

Ann: Right.

Aminatou: You know, it was . . . yeah, it was in the teens. It's like come on. Come on. Texas was the most depressing place to see. So women voted against Wendy Davis like 65%. Isn't that crazy? [Sighs]

Ann: I mean I guess it should be crazy but I'm also like Texas is a special, unique place where I don't understand . . . I mean I feel like I understand people who are like Texas people with lots of connections elsewhere. Deep Texas people, sometimes I'm like I don't . . . I don't know you.

Aminatou: You know, well it's my adopted state so clearly I care a lot but also ugh, there's idiots everywhere in Congress.

(4:05)

Ann: I mean . . .

Aminatou: Oh, but the one thing that made me so mad throughout the entire night is how there are all these stories of 100 women in Congress.

Ann: Oh my god.

Aminatou: Like we don't know how to do math. There's 535 legislators, homie. That's still less than 19%.

Ann: Also can I just tell you I'm doing a knuckle-bite right now because basically before this one special election in North Carolina was decided there were 99. It's not like this is some landslide where it's like "Woohoo, we broke 100 with a significant influx of women." This was one additional woman. Like the number overall . . . yeah.

Aminatou: Yeah. Literally I don't know if they're like "You ladies are really into 100 calorie packs of food so you'll care about this."

Ann: [Laughs] For shame.

Aminatou: Or "You don't know how to math." I was so upset at that. Like there are no women in Congress. Don't be fooled.

Ann: And I actually -- I totally took the click bait on that at least three times because I was waiting for someone to explain to me why this matters. I was like maybe I'm missing something for why this 100 number is so awesome and I honestly gave many outlets clicks that they did not deserve.

Aminatou: [Laughs]

Ann: Because I kept trying to figure it out.

Aminatou: That's how they get you, Ann. They're just like big round number. Woman will fall for it. That's exactly what happened.

Ann: I mean how many "You go, girl" shares did they get on Facebook did they get for that non-news? The worst.

Aminatou: I was so infuriated and people I know kept sharing it. I was like are you kidding? Do you know how to math? This is not good.

Ann: I mean yes. And meanwhile it's like okay, well maybe depending on the outcomes of a few races I haven't checked in on this morning there could be as many as 105 women in Congress which is still kind of an uptick but is also not super notable and not that dramatic a change. And you know, also I couldn't find a quote about this but Nancy Pelosi has been saying for a long time we've got more than a hundred women in Congress because she counts non-voting delegates. Good math, Nancy.

(6:12)

Aminatou: Please.

Ann: [Laughs]

Aminatou: You know we love Eleanor Holmes Norton but she has no power.

Ann: I know. I mean she's great. We love her. Also who's the -- is she still around? I'm sorry, I confess to have not kept up with D.C. representation.

Aminatou: Who, Eleanor?

Ann: Eleanor, yeah.

Aminatou: Eleanor around. She around. Remember that time we saw her at the bar and she had that great lipstick and she was chugging many beers?

Ann: She was toasty.

Aminatou: She was very toasty. Total babe.

Ann: And you fangirled and she was awesome.

Aminatou: Oh my god, love you Eleanor.

Ann: It's true. But the thing about the midterms that also bother me is the articles about what the election means for women or what the election means for whatever your particular issue is come out before there's meaningful information about committee assignments or things that will actually affect the issues. And by the time all that stuff happens it's only super nerds who are watching. I feel like there's no solve to that because that's just a problem with the Internet.

Aminatou: I know.

Ann: But I always get very frustrated.

Aminatou: It's the Internet but also people are terrible, like . . . in some countries you get fined for not voting. When I'm king you will have to pay million dollar taxes to not vote. It drives me crazy that people I know don't vote. So all the journalists are like "We don't vote because we're journalists and non-partisan" and I'm like "Everybody knows how you vote by your tweets. I don't give a shit about you."

Ann: Right. Also you work for Internet journalism. No one cares.

(7:52)

Aminatou: And then there's all these people who just have -- you know, I'm like whatever. If you don't have children and you don't need childcare I will let slide all of real America problems.

Ann: Let me tell you what would make me not want to vote.

Aminatou: But if you're a coastal elite and you can't take an hour out of your day to go to some high school gym and vote then seriously die in a fire.

Ann: Right. I found out that if you vote by absentee ballot, which I usually do, you can take your absentee ballot into the polling place and still get the fucking sticker which I have felt alienated from the Gram Your Voting Sticker process for a long time.

Aminatou: I know. I don't even want to talk about why you have to vote absentee but I'm happy that you vote.

Ann: I don't have to vote absentee. I just do it so I remember.

Aminatou: It's just -- there's just, yeah, I can't wait to be king. I'm just going to crack down on all of this.

Ann: Wait, are you telling me I am not legit voting if I vote absentee?

Aminatou: No, I'm not telling you that you're not legit voting but I think it's interesting that you don't vote in the state that you live in.

Ann: I do now. I transferred to California.

Aminatou: Oh, you transferred? I'm so happy for you. Mazel tov. Never mind. I walk back past criticisms.

Ann: Although if in any year I was going to hang on to my Iowa voter registration this would've been the year.

Aminatou: Oh, for all of you lazy people who don't know how to keep up with elections I really want to plug Turbo Vote. It's a great little app. It's basically Netflix for voting. There is no reason for you to not be on top of your shit.

Ann: Turbo Vote is what got me to register in California.

Aminatou: That's right. Yeah, and our friend Katie Peters is the founder so you should holler at Turbo Vote. They do everything right.

[Music]

(9:58)

Aminatou: Wait, talk to me. You're telling me about a new Beyonce album? What's going on?

Ann: I don't know. I was hoping that you could clear this up for me because . . .

Aminatou: I don't know, Ann. I've been really hard at work. I don't have time for rumors right now.

Ann: I know. I love that you've been paying attention to the midterm elections and therefore are unable to answer my pressing Beyonce questions. So there was like a leaked piece of paper that was supposedly very official-looking with her company and some other record label logo at the top but it honestly looked like a Xerox from the '90s, like the kind of thing I did worksheets on when I was a kid, with a track listing and lots of investigative reporters looked up the tracks and found that Beyonce had registered them and OMG, there's another album, basically part-two of the self-titled album.

Aminatou: So just in time for Thanksgiving so you can ignore your entire family?

Ann: Beysgiving. Yes.

Aminatou: Beysgiving. Okay.

Ann: But Beyonce truther/super-fan Internet is a place where I tend to only dip a tiny pinkie toe and so I was really -- I confess that I was relying on you to just be like "Obviously there's an album" or "Are you kidding? That looks like a mimeograph that's not real."

Aminatou: You're like "Here's a leaked post-it." [Laughs]

Ann: I mean kind of.

Aminatou: "I saw it on World Star News."

Ann: Vulture looked up the song Donk featuring Nicki Minaj. It seems like Beyonce would want to get on the booty train. It is actually registered.

Aminatou: Oh my god, okay. So keeping fingers and toes crossed for Beysgiving. Also I'll just admit that I've really been into Taylor Swift world right now so I'm not paying attention to . . .

Ann: Okay, well major business news out of Tay Swift world this week as well.

Aminatou: Well yeah, she pulled all her shit from Spotify and also she sold more than a million albums which is more than everybody thought she would do.

Ann: I know this doesn't affect you as a vinyl-only Taylor super-fan.

(12:02)

Aminatou: Well I don't know how to tell you, the vinyl for 1989 doesn't come out until the holidays.

Ann: [Gasps]

Aminatou: Trust me, I called. I was very upset. Half of my vinyl collection is Taylor Swift. [Laughs]

Ann: I have a confession for you right now which is I was at the Nashville airport a month-and-a-half ago and they definitely had for sale a Taylor Swift blanket throw and I said to myself I'll buy that for Amina on the way home and then I almost missed my flight and so I didn't buy it for you and I feel really bad.

Aminatou: I don't know. I'm about to hang up on this podcast and never . . . like okay.

Ann: This is why I'm telling you with other listeners so you can't actually excise me from your life.

Aminatou: I don't think you have ever hurt my feelings more than this very moment.

Ann: You know, or this could be a great wind-up for you and then it'll just arrive on your doorstep and you'll be like who would've thought?

Aminatou: Yeah, no, I love Tay Swizzle. She just announced her tour. I'm deciding what city I want to see her in.

Ann: Ooh, what's in the running?

Aminatou: So I saw her in Philly last year and it was fantastic. And I just made a weekend out of it. I need to see if she's playing in Miami because I want to have like a Florida situation, so who knows? But I'm definitely going -- I'm going to cry so hard. Last time I went I went with our friend Phoebe and we were definitely the only two women there without children. [Laughter] So it's like me and Phoebe, we're besties, then all these other nine-year-old besties together. Yeah. I learned more about tweens in that five-hour span than anything in my entire life.

Ann: I sort of understood the Taylor Swift appeal to teens. I heard her on NPR last week and I forget who the interviewer was but she was definitely mom vibes, like "I'm with Taylor Swift." [Laughter] And she was saying something like "My 12-year-old daughter, a super fan, wrote this question." And at the end of the interview -- oh, interestingly she asked her this question where she was like "So you're this many albums in. Do you ever think about turning your lens outwards and writing about things other than yourself?" And Taylor was like "What do you mean?"

(14:15)

Aminatou: Yeah, that's the correct answer. What do you mean?

Ann: Exactly. And I was like no one has versed this NPR host on personal as political? Anyway . . .

Aminatou: [Laughs] You know, the thing about going into that show that was so weird is clearly Phoebe and I are like hmm -- you know, we . . . we have enough disposable income that we can go to this teeny bopper concert and have a great weekend in Philly and everything is fine, right? And I look at these families where it's like four kids and three cousins and the mom looks exhausted and the dad is like what the fuck am I doing here?

Ann: And they took out a second mortgage to be there, like the Taylor Swift mortgage.

Aminatou: Right? And then there's . . . and then you have the older high school girls, college girls who are there with their boyfriends and the boyfriend is like ugh, if I suffer through this I'm definitely getting laid when we get home. But the one thing that was really disturbing, it made me feel like such an old person, is I realized I don't have babies and like teens and tweens in my life. It was seeing a ten-year-old with a shirt that's like "We're never, ever getting back together" or "I hate my ex-boyfriend" or whatever. And it was like you don't have these kinds of problems. I barely have Taylor Swift kinds of problems. This is crazy.

Ann: I mean . . .

Aminatou: And I just -- yeah, the whole time I was like I don't know, man, if this was my nine-year-old I don't think you would be here side-boobing singing about your ex-boyfriend.

Ann: Oh my god, totally. You would let your nine-year-old.

Aminatou: Ann, I don't think you know me.

Ann: Strict parents? Really?

Aminatou: I'm going to be the strictest parent. My parents are African. I'm sorry, I can't betray that.

Ann: I mean I know.

(15:55)

Aminatou: You've got to crack down until they're 18 then when you're 18 you can go buckle up.

Ann: Singing along to songs about boyfriends and revealing nine-year-old side boob are not the same thing.

Aminatou: Ann, this is how I know the immigrant experience is foreign to you. [Laughter] Let's keep chugging along here. I've just exposed myself for being a crazy just like very conservative person. It's cool.

Ann: One final note about the appeal of Taylor Swift, so at the end of this NPR interview she's like -- I will say ably shakes off this stupid allegation that she should be writing . . .

Aminatou: Shake it off.

Ann: That's what I'm saying. About world peace or something and not about her boyfriends. And when she says goodbye to the interviewer she's like "Thanks Taylor." She goes "Thanks. Say hey, what's up to your daughter for me," or something like that where I'm just like oh my god, that 12-year-old is like "Taylor Swift says hey, what's up?" and I loved it. And I was like this is why these girls love her.

Aminatou: She's so good. She's so good. I saw somebody ask her for a picture once and she grabbed their phone and took a selfie instead. And I was like this is why you are on top of the world.

Ann: Support.

Aminatou: Yeah, no, that's like the number one item on my bucket list for 2K15 is selfie with Tay Swizzle.

Ann: I love it.

Aminatou: It's going to happen. Okay, now you know too much about my Taylor situation.

Ann: My Taylor situation. [Laughs]

Aminatou: My Taylor situation. I mean it's borderline obsessive. Yeah, I'm like very unreasonable about it and I unfollowed two people on Twitter for making fun of her last week so there you go.

Ann: I mean . . .

[Music and Ads]

(19:22)

Ann: Okay, should we do a rapid-fire round?

Aminatou: Yeah, rapid-fire round. So since we haven't really talked in a couple of weeks I guess we've missed a lot of stuff on the Internet. [Laughs]

Ann: Internet news.

Aminatou: I know, and people keep emailing us and tweeting us about it. We're sorry. We've been busy with life but maybe we have opinions about some of these things.

Ann: Okay, so we're going to do a rapid-fire round and we each get what, one sentence?

Aminatou: Sure.

Ann: Okay, Gone Girl.

Aminatou: Not enough Affleck peen.

Ann: [Laughs] Probably not misogynist.

Aminatou: Whoa, deep. Basic bitches.

Ann: Bored, next.

Aminatou: Oh my god, I'm so bored. Next, next. Douchebag as a racial slur. Whoa, that's deep.

Ann: Correct.

Aminatou: Ebola.

Ann: Not my problem. Not your problem.

Aminatou: Yeah, not my problem. Good luck America. [Laughter]

Ann: This is really just the douchebag rapid fire round, like we are . . .

Aminatou: I know. What else did we miss? Oh, Jian Ghomeshi.

Ann: Leather wrist cuffs, should've known?

Aminatou: [Laughs] I don't know. I don't care about Canadian problems. We have our own problems.

Ann: I don't know. I feel we're a little flip about both Ebola and the scandal of violence against women.

Aminatou: Fine. We can break down Ebola for two seconds. I cannot be flip about Ebola because Ebola ground zero, a.k.a. Guinea, is my home country. Every time I see -- there's always a picture of the hospital I was born in and they're like "Here's where all the Ebola people are dying right now." So obviously I feel it on a deep level. I don't understand American hysteria about Ebola. I think that it is crazy and really condescending honestly and that nurse in Maine is my fucking hero. I want to send her a gift basket because she does not give a shit.

Ann: Can we talk about is she angling for a reality show? I was kind of like maybe she's . . .

Aminatou: I don't know, but I hope they give it to her. She is so real. She went on a bicycle ride and she's like "Don't quarantine me, bro." I'm like ugh, I hope she sues everybody. She's the best.

Ann: But you know, maybe this is just the super-chill Californian in me but I'm like it doesn't seem like that big of a deal to stay home and watch Netflix for a week.

(21:52)

Aminatou: Ann, it absolutely does. First of all, no, I think that is really flip.

Ann: I mean I get it on principle. I get her principles. I understand. But part of . . .

Aminatou: I don't know. I think it's more than the principle. I think that whole decision was made with very little truth to science and also, I don't know, maybe it's because I'm a person of color but quarantine is a scary thing.

Ann: Oh, I know.

Aminatou: It's like, you know, they do that then you have camps where they stick you in. It's not cool. Also fuck Chris Christie so there's that.

Ann: That is something everybody can agree on.

Aminatou: Yes, and then Jian Ghomeshi, clearly a very serious problem. The culture of silence around him, actually that was really shocking to me. Every day all these people are like "Oh, we knew. We knew. We knew." And it's like well that's crazy how everybody knew yet nobody said anything. Very uncomfortable truth.

Ann: Did you read the Slate article that Carl Wilson wrote about knowing about Jian Ghomeshi as a man in the Canadian media scene?

Aminatou: Literally Slate is the last thing I read every day so probably not.

Ann: I read it because somebody posted it somewhere, but anyway you don't really need the blow-by-blow of the article so much as to say it really did strike me as something I wouldn't have clear advice on. So he was like "Okay, well women I know and respect in media were like he's a real creep but no one who was close to me had ever made an allegation about violence or abuse. I hadn't heard about that directly. Just kind of this ongoing thing about him being not a good guy. And I still continue to go on his show and still continue to play nice with him and I feel kind of bad about that but I don't know if I'd do it any differently." 

And it made me think of this -- a woman I know who's a journalist. I read a book of hers in which she mentioned a harassment incident by another male journalist and that male journalist is one of the people who blurbed her book so obviously he read it about himself and she never called him out in it. I don't know, I was just kind of struck by the notion of well what do you do differently if you're not a person with the power or evidence to make a direct allegation? You know, it takes a lot of . . . it takes a whole lot of faith and essentially rumor, even if you have heard it from several women you know, to take a professional risk and cut that person out of your life directly. It was yet another confirmation of why these things just go on forever and ever and stay secret.

(24:40)

Aminatou: Well I guess in this case there was that, right? And I agree that on an intrapersonal level that's crazy. But I had read that . . . I forget what university it was in Canada that restricted their students from going on his internship.

Ann: Yes.

Aminatou: Like I'm sorry, they should've said something to the CBC or I hope they said something to the CBC. I don't know if the CBC didn't act on it. Then that's crazy.

Ann: Right, right.

Aminatou: Or the multiple interns or at least one intern who was like "I talked to a manager here and he said this isn't going to change. How do we accommodate you?"

Ann: Right, be malleable. That's the current . . .

Aminatou: I don't think that it's as simple as saying it's like an intrapersonal situation is what happened here. I think a lot of times -- and it almost always happens this way, right? It's like yes, you hear all of these rumors but they at least impact one person in the workplace and I think that if you work there or if you have somebody who's in professional contact with them you kind of have a duty, you know, to say something. Obviously this is really simple since I'm removed from it but I think that that's nuts, you know? Saying oh, maybe let's not place our interns there or there was this other thing about how at NYU they asked them to switch dorms or whatever because since his college days he was problematic. I was like this is kind of . . . it's like years and years and years of preying on young women.

(26:04)

Ann: Right, but it's also interesting. So to put it in what is a very real-life dilemma for me, so I don't personally know any people in my professional circle who to my knowledge have been like outright abusive to women or committing the kinds of assault that he's accused of committing. But I do know a lot of creeps who I've written about sort of in passing or describing certain attributes but not naming names . . . so by that token do I have an obligation to name every harasser that I know in media?

Aminatou: I mean probably but also you're kind of on your own there right? [Laughs]

Ann: No, I'm actually curious about . . .

Aminatou: No, I mean I think -- listen, I think obviously this is . . . like I'm sorry that I was kind of flip about it but I think about this a lot too and obviously we don't have a good answer for this. It's my biggest frustration with sexual harassment, you know? Because it's so within the frame of you work somewhere but we have no other framework for just giving somebody a yellow card for your behavior is problematic.

Ann: Right. [Laughs] Well because it only works if there's a group of people. I mean it's one thing for me to name and shame someone but that doesn't really have any consequence unless people as an industry rally around and are like "Oh, I've heard what Ann's heard and I'm going to support what she said because I've heard the same thing." And, you know, that's exactly the kind of thing that gets labeled an unfounded witch hunt.

(27:45)

Aminatou: No, totally, and it is really problematic that a lot of it is just . . . you know, it's like we're dealing in a ton of rumors and innuendo and it's really unfortunate because even in the early news cycle everybody was like "Why aren't these women speaking up? Why aren't they speaking up?" And it's like well, if you're a woman you have very good reasons not to speak up about the kind of abuse you receive but it's really disheartening to hear how people automatically don't want to believe you if you're a woman.

Ann: Right.

Aminatou: If you don't go to the police, like say to the police to talk about these issues.

Ann: Right. And I think one thing that gave people a lot of cover in this case, particularly people who were not on the receiving end of his violence or abuse or harassment, I'm talking about people who heard second-hand stories about it, is them saying "Well I don't have anything I can take to police. I can't be the one to go to the police."

Aminatou: No, totally. You know the other thing too is man, journalism is full of creeps. It's like when I think about the top ten creeps I know they're all writers somehow.

Ann: I mean egos. Egos. Creeps with egos.

Aminatou: Totally. It's like yeah, it's a lot of things. But the thing is too I think about a lot of the creeps when I was like a baby 23-year-old, like new on the work scene, and how some of those creeps are kind of reformed now.

Ann: Oh, interesting.

Aminatou: Either married -- you know my long-standing theory on the civilizing love of a woman. [Laughter] But it's this thing that's really interesting, right? Like I was in D.C. last week and one dude that was definitely one of my most problematic borderline harassers, I don't know what his deal is now, but it was really interesting to watch him in a professional context now and be like oh, you were really immature and you're a little more mature now. But also who knows? Maybe he's a closet murderer. I have no clue.

Ann: Oh, don't say that.

Aminatou: I don't know, Ann. Men are ridiculous human beings.

(29:52)

Ann: This is what we get for trying to deal with a complex and troubling issue in a rapid-fire.

Aminatou: I know. We're not allowed to talk about this.

Ann: We're not.

Aminatou: I mean one thing that really struck me about a lot of the women in this story, at least the journalists, is just how insidious and just what a predator he was, you know? Because everybody comes in from this place of admiration and just, you know, like it's good to have somebody that you think is important pay attention to you. And I realize that for me that's such a wall that I've always had because I don't trust people that I think have good professional esteem which is just -- it also comes with its own sets of problems. It's just ugh, they just ruin it for everyone. It really sucks.

Ann: I also feel like this -- and this is going to be a weird kind of circuitous argument in a way but I also think it's kind of an endorsement of Shine Theory. Like this notion of oh, I'm with someone who being next to them is really great because I'm not so great, it's not on co-equal footing. I mean it's weird, I don't want to say don't have any heroes because obviously we all admire people.

Aminatou: Yeah, but build your own power.

Ann: Right, exactly. And clearly, you know, he was right that he was more powerful than a lot of the women who eventually came forward for sure. But part of how men like that use their power is I think you're right, they're like I'm a big fucking deal.

Aminatou: Yeah, no. Fuck that guy.

Ann: Okay.

Aminatou: Just the worst. Okay, that was really heavy. Lesson learned, don't . . . we can't be flip about things.

[Music]

Aminatou: Just for that I'm going to reward us with some listener questions. [Laughs]

Ann: Great.

Aminatou: Then maybe that'll take the edge off.

Ann: Great, hit us. Pick a light one.

(31:55)

Aminatou: Who knows? Okay. "Thanks for putting on such a great show. I have a question for you. In terms of dating I want to make clear to men that I'm only interested in dating them if they have an iPhone. However I don't want people to think I'm shallow. What do you think is the best way to handle this?"

Ann: Don't be shallow.

Aminatou: Don't be shallow. I don't think I've ever noticed what somebody's phone was. Okay, sorry . . .

Ann: Also for real in my Android days you threatened to de-friend me.

Aminatou: Is she trolling us? I think -- oh yeah, it's true. I also remember when you went through a phase of "I'm getting an Android" and I laughed so hard.

Ann: Wow, so this is a real pot/kettle situation here isn't it?

Aminatou: I mean it's true. I was like yo, you can't work an iPhone. Android's going to be interesting.

Ann: Wait, sorry, you think this person is trolling us?

Aminatou: I think this person is trolling us. I just -- I'm convinced this is somebody we know who's trolling us. That's ridiculous.

Ann: [Laughs]

Aminatou: Sorry, if you're not trolling us I'm sorry. Get over your phone thing. Okay. Another short one, "I was wondering if you could run through some of your favorite podcasts in a future episode. Alternatively if you'd like to publish 20 times more podcasts this would also help." Man, getting called out. 
Preferably something less obvious than This American Life." Man, so I obviously love This American Life, no shade. But other podcasts I'm really into? In this family we love The Read. The Read is good. I really like 99% Invisible for design. I'm obsessed with Serial right now. Completely -- like my entire life is consumed. If I could take a leave of absence from work so I could keep being a detective that's where all my energy is going.

(33:55)

Ann: I mean before we recorded we turned on the microphones to record this. Amina confessed she was subpoenaing court orders and calling about cell towers.

Aminatou: It makes me regret not going to law school, but shout out to all my lawyer friends that have been very understanding in this hard period of my life.

Ann: Oh my god, I have . . . I mean obviously I listen to many of those podcasts but I also want to put in a plug for Down for Whatever which is a podcast by our friend Myisha Battle who is like a sexademic and talks to various people and types of sex workers and experts about their sex lives and very sexy topics and she is great.

Aminatou: Oh, and also a plug for The Broad Experience, this great, great British podcast about being a boss lady. It's great.

Ann: Yeah, I love it. And of course our bros at the Longform podcast. Always.

Aminatou: Yeah, Longform. Death, Sex and Money, you know? Yeah. I feel like I listen to a lot of podcasts. Unbeing, Splendid Table, Hardcore History.

Ann: Splendid Table? For real?

Aminatou: I listen to Splendid Table. You can't make fun of me for that. Please.

Ann: [Laughs] I'm not. I'm not. I mean I'm not.

Aminatou: I need you to listen to one episode of Hardcore History though. Hardcore History is my favorite thing in the entire world.

Ann: I tried to listen to Genghis Khan and I didn't make it very far.

Aminatou: I mean 1) you were probably not stoned enough and 2) you've got to clear out like four hours of your day for that stuff. [Laughs]

Ann: All right, what do you do while listening to the Hardcore History of Genghis Khan? What is the appropriate activity while listening?

Aminatou: You could deep-clean your entire house, like my house is spotless. Yeah, but I also listen to a ton of management podcasts so the Harvard Business Review Idea-cast, like secret favorites.

Ann: Wow.

[Music]

(36:06)

Ann: All right, what else we got? What else is on our list? I have a This Week in Menstruation.

Aminatou: Tell me your insane menstruation news today.

Ann: Well I did a quick Google search in the news section for menstruation which I enjoy doing from time-to-time and it turns out the World Boxing Council, which is a thing, has decided to limit the length of women's bouts in part due to the fact that women have periods.

Aminatou: [Laughs] 

Ann: But here's the thing, you think it's going to be like oh, the poor women will not be able to handle this pummeling. And here's the quote, it says "Menstrual cycle has tremendous impact on the body of a woman including 12 hormones which act in the body system creating radical changes in several areas" which to me sounds like you have superhuman strength and cannot be trusted not to pummel your opponent.

Aminatou: Yeah, you're basically like hulking out and punching . . . it's like you punch the shit out of someone then you just period everywhere on the carpet and you're like "Next bout."

Ann: Rage-induced advantage.

Aminatou: [Laughs] Shout-out to lady boxers. If we know any women who are boxers please get at me. I have many things I want to understand.

Ann: Right. Also can you confirm the hormone surge as an advantage when boxing?

Aminatou: I feel like hormone surge is an advantage for everything except for probably snacking.

Ann: Ooh, interesting question. Definitely it's got to be a sex asset. It's got to be like a competitive edge.

Aminatou: I mean basically you just destroy people. I guess this brings us to the end huh?

Ann: This is the end. All right. You can find us on the Internet at callyourgirlfriend.com. Send us an email if you have questions or suggestions of stuff for us to talk about, callyrgf@gmail.com, or tweet at us at @callyrgf.

Aminatou: Yep, I'll talk to you very soon.

Ann: All right, see you on the Internet.

Aminatou: See you on the Internet.

[Music]
2014, pop culture, politics, best ofCall Your Girlfriendmidterm elections, Taylor Swift, Beyonce, ebola, Jian Ghomeshi, menstruation, periods, iPhone, podcasts