An announcement: Call Your Girlfriend is ending. My podcast collaborators—my cohost Aminatou Sow and our executive producer Gina Delvac—and I will publish the last episodes in early 2022. The archive will remain live. And this is not a divorce: The three of us are still very much friends. But after seven years, for different individual reasons, we've all outgrown our collaboration. We've decided it's time to wind it down.

 

I'll soon be done with CYG, but I'm not done with audio. I’m still sorting out my feelings (and ideas!) about this professional shift. So instead of emotional clarity or a detailed description of what comes next, I offer you a metaphor for my experience in podcasting: the plot of Virginia Lee Burton's 1943 children's book The Little House.

 

Once upon a time there was a little house, on a little hill, built in the middle of nowhere. It was a little rickety, perhaps, but extra homey and friendly because of its lack of professionalism. The builders of the little house decreed that it "may never be sold for gold or silver." Years passed, and a big gleaming city grew up all around the little house. Many of the shiny buildings had celebrity residents and huge budgets. The little house preferred her original architecture. She had a few offers of gold and silver, but the builders' prophecy came true: The house was never sold. At some point, the air among the skyscrapers began to feel stale and stifled. So the little house decided she would move out to the country. Maybe the city will catch up again. Maybe not. At least she can be herself out here. 

 

I'm excited to return to the podcast hinterlands. Last year, a few of you followed my brief audio experiments, and I'll be reviving that feed as I figure out what I want to do next. (What do you think I should do with my microphone?? Hit reply and tell me your thoughts.) It might be a weekly show that feels editorially connected to this newsletter. It might be something weirder, more sporadic. In any case, please subscribe: Apple, Spotify, Google, all the rest.

And thanks to each and every one of you who visited the little house that was CYG. Your presence made it a home.

The loss of the right to legal abortion—like the loss of voting rights and labor rights and climate protections—reflects years of inattention from "the people nearest to the top of our power structures, people who advertise themselves as invested in the rights and protections of people closer to the bottom, yet who have repeatedly failed to prioritize those people’s dignity and well-being."

"I remember the moment I learned of the pregnancy so clearly—as if it has always been happening and will continue to be happening until the end of my life, as if it rang a heavy bell and the deafening note reverberates still."

"I remember an adoptee talking to me about something she learned about her birth mother--she found that adoption was so traumatic that she aborted all of her future pregnancies. Abortion was the more bearable option after placing a child for adoption."

Justice Brett Kavanaugh "fatuously suggested, several times, that if only there were some way to balance a woman’s rights and interests against that of a fetus. The problem with Kavanaugh’s rhetorical question is that there is: It’s called Roe v. Wade." 

"Her rights were all the alienable kind, it turned out."

A visit to a prison where women are jailed for abortion and miscarriage. The terrible toll of tar sands mining on Canada’s Native people. On cop shows, Latasha Harlins, and white subterfuge. The radical world of Chicago’s Black comic artists. The role women play in California’s far-right radical politics. An interview with the researcher who discovered the omicron variant. Why is America so hostile to single people? The loneliness and rage of a Twitch millionaire. The influencers who stole Christmas. Is popularity or obscurity the mark of great art? The case for reading the news backwards. The tears of joy emoji is here to stay.

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It's that time of year when many of your annual memberships renew. I have never appreciated your dollars more, as this newsletter provides my only guaranteed income as I head into next year. Thanks for giving me the freedom to try new things creatively and professionally. 

If you're not already, you can become a paying member for just $15/year.

Why am I feeling so affected by this silly gif by Wei Ger? Am I a little pig about to have my straw house blown down? Am I filling a shopping cart anyway? Am I throwing a party to celebrate—is that what the balloons are about? Stay tuned.

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Learning about abortion pills: where to find them, how to use them safely and effectively, and how to spread the word about them.

Donating to the National Network of Abortion Funds. If you want your cash to go directly to an area of the country where bans are already in effect, click here. If you're interested in training the next generation of reproductive justice activists, funnel some dollars to SisterSong.

Reading You're the Only One I've Told, Dr. Meena Shah's myth-busting (and shame-busting) book about abortion.

Joining We Testify, a community of people who have had abortions. Whether you feel stifled and unable to share your experience, or whether it seems like you've been screaming into the void, consider sharing your story with them. 

Following Renee Bracey Sherman and Regina Mahone, and pre-ordering Countering Abortionsplaining, their resource for people of color navigating abortion stigma.

Downloading Euki, a private, secure, and inclusive app to learn about and track your sexual and reproductive health. It contains information on health, STIs, contraception, and, yes, abortion.