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"bio": "Veronica Esposito is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, as well as a freelance journalist covering the arts, lifestyle, and social justice for venues including The Guardian, KQED, World Literature Today, and many others. Her writing has appeared in dozens of venues, and she has published four books. As a therapist, she specializes in supporting and advocating for trans individuals, and more generally helps clients process and overcome traumatic histories, manage life transitions, and tell their own story.",
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"slug": "taylor-swift-fans-election-kamala-harris-trump-swifties",
"title": "What Do Taylor Swift Fans Expect From Her in This Election?",
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"headTitle": "What Do Taylor Swift Fans Expect From Her in This Election? | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of the KQED series \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/fandomvote\">The Fandom Vote\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, exploring the election-year concerns and voting preferences of pop culture fanbases.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the dry heat on a recent Saturday in Sacramento, just half a mile from the state Capitol, a long line of fans waited outside a downtown nightclub to attend a dedicated Taylor Swift party.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of these fans was Rachel Hills, who walked the line at \u003ca href=\"https://www.aceofspadessac.com/\">Ace of Spades\u003c/a> handing black Sharpies to those around her, inviting them to write the name of a man who had wronged them on her long, white ball gown she was wearing – a new Swiftie tradition that references the singer’s 2024 song “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Atdzfj8LcuY\">The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived\u003c/a>.” Hills promised she would burn the dress after the show in a form of cathartic release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the scribbled names of ex-boyfriends and family members, someone had written a familiar name at the bottom of Hills’ dress: “Donald Trump.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963714\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963714\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-2.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-2-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rachel Hills asks a fellow Taylor Swift fan to write on her dress at a Taylor Swift dance party in Sacramento on Aug. 31, 2024. \u003ccite>(Madelaine Church for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Politics is a recurring topic among Taylor Swift’s fanbase, and Swifties – like \u003ca href=\"https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/02/16/1067943/kpop-fans-shaping-elections-worldwide/\">K-Pop stans\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.theringer.com/2016/6/3/16042806/beyonce-beyhive-online-fan-forum-b7c7226ac16d\">the BeyHive\u003c/a> – are known for being diligent organizers. In August, more than 34,000 attendees tuned in to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13963325/swifties-for-kamala-harris-trump-taylor-swift-fans\">“Swifties for Kamala” Zoom call\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hills said that before Biden stepped aside in July, she’d felt anxiety and dread about a possible second Trump presidency. But then, “Kamala came in and I just, all of a sudden, felt a seed of hope,” she told KQED, specifically citing Harris’ stance on reproductive rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='news_11999092']Earlier in her life, Hills “had to \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_reduction\">selectively reduce\u003c/a> because I was pregnant with conjoined twins and a third baby,” she said. “I wouldn’t have been able to make that decision to save my one daughter’s life if that [procedure] hadn’t been in play … It’s so important for people to have that option, and to be able to make those decisions based on what their doctors are helping them with.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her daughter is now 16 – and Hills is thinking about the world that she will grow up in. She wants her teen, like all teens, to “feel the freedom to do what they need to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They are a generation that pull no punches. They are so smart, and they just do things differently,” she said. “I have so much hope for them. But they need a place to start from.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963715\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963715\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-3.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-3-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-3-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-3-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jessica Sanchez (left) and Rachel Hill have been fans of Taylor Swift for 10 years and were eager to attend ‘The Taylor Party: Taylor Night’ at Ace of Spades in Sacramento on Aug. 31, 2024. \u003ccite>(Madelaine Church for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To Hills, it often feels like Swift is “doing things that you would expect the government to do to help,” referencing Swift’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.gofundme.com/f/qyxww9-washington-post-mom\">donations to struggling families\u003c/a> during the pandemic. Swift can even indirectly impel the government to take action, as she did with \u003ca href=\"https://www.forbes.com/sites/virginieberger/2024/06/14/how-taylor-swifts-ticketing-fiasco-fuels-dojs-live-nation-antitrust-lawsuit/\">the Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation-Ticketmaster\u003c/a>. The singer, said Hills, “has so much sway. She does so much good.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But she also acknowledges that wanting famous people to be involved in politics is a “double-edged sword.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/elon-musk\">Elon Musk\u003c/a> right now is just going off the rails, and he has so much money and is influencing things,” she said. “I don’t think because you have endless amounts of money that you should have political sway.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Expectations of ‘Miss Americana’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Concisely explaining the singer’s relationship to her public over the past two decades can be difficult, \u003ca href=\"https://annehelen.substack.com/p/taylor-swift-and-the-good-girl-trap\">even contentious\u003c/a>, especially when it comes to politics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How one views Taylor Swift – the figure, the singer, even the activist – often depends on how attuned they are to the latest news around her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I know that we’ve had the Vienna situation,” said 27-year-old Sacramento resident Alondra Monrroy, who is supporting Kamala Harris. “She’s only one person, but she has a lot of power, so I do hope she’ll speak about [the election]. But at the same time, I understand why she doesn’t.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963716\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963716\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-4.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-4-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-4-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-4-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-4-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Marcos Alvarado (left) and Alondra Monrrov pose for a photograph outside of Ace of Spades in Sacramento before attending ‘The Taylor Party: Taylor Night’ on Aug. 31, 2024. Monrroy donned a ‘Reputation’-inspired look – in part hoping for Swift to soon release her re-recorded version of her sixth studio album. \u003ccite>(Madelaine Church for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Monrroy was referencing an incident in late August, when authorities thwarted an attack \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/taylor-swift-cia-vienna-concerts-foiled-attack-7e454af63efcff2a3ab0a20c718aba8d#\">intended to kill thousands\u003c/a> at Taylor Swift’s concert in Vienna – reminding many of the \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/manchester-ariana-grande-concert-bombing-lawsuit-f2e8298cb045501eff5245392522d29c\">2017 bombing of an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester\u003c/a> that killed 22 people. Swift waited to comment on the incident until the European leg of her tour had concluded, saying that, “The reasons for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Let me be very clear: I am not going to speak about something publicly if I think doing so might provoke those who would want to harm the fans who come to my shows,” her statement read. “In cases like this one, ‘silence’ is actually showing restraint.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13960424'] Swift’s social media has gone dark since.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Most people are mad that she stayed quiet [about the Vienna cancellation],” said 19-year-old Leslie Rewinkle. “I’m not sure if it was just that one concert that was going to have people killed or if it was multiple after that, but I’m glad that she stayed quiet. Solely for the fact of protecting everybody and the vicinity of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ll ask from her just for her to stay true to herself,” she added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963713\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963713\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Swifites sing their hearts out to ‘You Belong With Me’ during ‘The Taylor Party: Taylor Night’ at Ace of Spades in Sacramento on Aug. 31, 2024. \u003ccite>(Madelaine Church for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Over the years, the rollercoaster of her public image hurdles on – even without her saying \u003ca href=\"https://variety.com/2020/music/features/taylor-swift-politics-sundance-documentary-miss-americana-1203471910/\">very much about politics at all\u003c/a>: In 2017, she was praised online by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/taylor-swift-alt-right-icon\">alt-right\u003c/a>, who hailed her as their icon. By the 2020s, conservative outlets and Republicans were decrying her as a \u003ca href=\"https://www.newsweek.com/republican-bizarre-accusation-taylor-swift-witchcraft-1836328\">practitioner of witchcraft\u003c/a> and pledging a “\u003ca href=\"https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/donald-trump-more-popular-taylor-swift-maga-biden-1234956829/\">holy war\u003c/a>” against her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trump’s presidency encouraged many celebrities to speak vocally about politics, with \u003ca href=\"https://www.theverge.com/interface/2020/1/16/21067483/chris-evans-starting-point-vanity-project-captain-america-democracy\">varying degrees of success\u003c/a> or \u003ca href=\"https://www.thecut.com/article/womans-world-review-katy-perry-is-stuck-in-2016.html\">savviness\u003c/a>. But for Swift, she \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/BopoXpYnCes/?hl=en\">made waves\u003c/a> when she made her first endorsement of a candidate – a Democrat – in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13936377\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13936377\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/GettyImages-1474269174-scaled-e1697219621238.jpg\" alt=\"A slender young white woman with long blonde hair throws her arms out to her sides, mid-performance, with a sea of dry ice behind her. She is wearing a one-legged black bodysuit embellished with red snakes and holding a microphone in her right hand.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1471\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/GettyImages-1474269174-scaled-e1697219621238.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/GettyImages-1474269174-scaled-e1697219621238-800x613.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/GettyImages-1474269174-scaled-e1697219621238-1020x781.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/GettyImages-1474269174-scaled-e1697219621238-160x123.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/GettyImages-1474269174-scaled-e1697219621238-768x588.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/GettyImages-1474269174-scaled-e1697219621238-1536x1177.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Taylor Swift performs during ‘The Eras Tour’ on March 17, 2023.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Miss Americana\u003c/em>, a self-made 2020 documentary about Swift, revealed that the singer pushed hard for this endorsement. In one pivotal scene, Swift is surrounded by mostly men – including her father – who are seen vocally dissuading her from endorsing the Democratic Tennessee senatorial candidate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watching the documentary, the legacy of female country band The Chicks clearly loomed large over her management’s heads. The female country band, once beloved, were \u003ca href=\"https://19thnews.org/2023/03/the-chicks-silenced-politics-20-years-influence-country-music/\">viciously ostracized\u003c/a> by the music industry and fans after expressing anger for then-President George W. Bush and the Iraq invasion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Swift cited her strong reaction against Trump – and the Republican senatorial candidate Marsha Blackburn, whom she saw as a threat to \u003ca href=\"https://variety.com/2020/music/features/taylor-swift-politics-sundance-documentary-miss-americana-1203471910/\">feminism and LGBTQ+ rights\u003c/a> – as a need to be “the right side of history.” In fact, the song “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJU-S1t2r1M\">Only the Young\u003c/a>,” released with \u003cem>Miss Americana\u003c/em>, directly references the kind of despair her young fans may be feeling due to the Republican presidency: “It keeps me awake / The look on your face / The moment you heard the news / You’re screaming inside.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/taylorswift13/status/1266392274549776387?lang=en\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13963717\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-05-at-12.07.12-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1114\" height=\"430\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-05-at-12.07.12-PM.png 1114w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-05-at-12.07.12-PM-800x309.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-05-at-12.07.12-PM-1020x394.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-05-at-12.07.12-PM-160x62.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-05-at-12.07.12-PM-768x296.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1114px) 100vw, 1114px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since, Swift has been vocal about women’s rights and supporting Democrats, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/taylor-swift-endorses-joe-biden-president-n1242483\">endorsed Joe Biden in 2020\u003c/a>. In the midst of her wildly popular \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11956083/taylor-swift-levis-stadium-eras-santa-clara-tickets\">Eras world tour\u003c/a>, her critics from the left often say she is not doing enough. Most recently, Swift’s been criticized for not pushing back publicly against Trump for \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/08/30/nx-s1-5087913/donald-trump-artificial-intelligence-memes-deepfakes-taylor-swift\">his use of AI images of her\u003c/a>, fabricating an endorsement for him. (It’s worth noting that the \u003ca href=\"https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/taylor-swift-sue-trump-truth-social-post-ai-rcna167380\">legal recourse\u003c/a> for using AI is generally still pretty fuzzy.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13868272\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13868272\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/10/taylorswift-bboilen02_wide-dbc4e595dab7bf7e15d7a9a788dd5548d61e4861.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"843\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/10/taylorswift-bboilen02_wide-dbc4e595dab7bf7e15d7a9a788dd5548d61e4861.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/10/taylorswift-bboilen02_wide-dbc4e595dab7bf7e15d7a9a788dd5548d61e4861-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/10/taylorswift-bboilen02_wide-dbc4e595dab7bf7e15d7a9a788dd5548d61e4861-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/10/taylorswift-bboilen02_wide-dbc4e595dab7bf7e15d7a9a788dd5548d61e4861-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/10/taylorswift-bboilen02_wide-dbc4e595dab7bf7e15d7a9a788dd5548d61e4861-1020x573.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/10/taylorswift-bboilen02_wide-dbc4e595dab7bf7e15d7a9a788dd5548d61e4861-1200x674.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Taylor Swift performs during a Tiny Desk concert on Oct. 10, 2019. \u003ccite>(Bob Boilen/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These are not people who hate Taylor Swift, necessarily. Some of her harshest critics are her fans. The inherent intimacy of this kind of fandom, combined with the platform for one’s thoughts that social media provides, has for many turned the role of ‘fan’ into a kind of policing force, watching and commenting and posting on a singer’s personal life – mostly \u003ca href=\"https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/why-do-harry-styles-fans-hate-olivia-wilde\">their romantic life\u003c/a>. Swift \u003ca href=\"https://www.glamour.com/story/taylor-swift-really-hates-matty-healy-and-also-maybe-us\">expressed distaste\u003c/a> for this kind of fan behavior in a recent song, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2W173hRfyA\">But Daddy I Love Him\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>19-year-old Tae Siera, who was attending the Sacramento Swift party with Rewinkle, said that fans who are too young to vote – and feel like they cannot make change – try to express their opinions \u003cem>by\u003c/em> putting pressure on celebrities to speak out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s important for celebrities to somewhat say, ‘Here’s where I stand,’” said Siera. But then fans need to “go out there and make change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963718\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963718\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-5.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-5.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-5-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-5-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-5-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-5-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Leslie Rewinkle (left) and Tae Siera show their friendship bracelets while waiting in line to attend ‘The Taylor Party: Taylor Night’ at Ace of Spades in Sacramento on Aug. 31, 2024. \u003ccite>(Madelaine Church for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Write \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11967439/how-can-i-call-my-representative-a-step-by-step-guide-to-the-process\">letters to your local Congress\u003c/a>. You can talk to your parents to see if they’re voting the way that you want to. Try to educate the adults in your life, because a lot of them actually are not as informed as you think they are,” Siera said. “[Swift] can only do so much, and then it’s up to everyone else to really make that change themselves.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What are the issues on top of Swifties’ minds?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While the Swift fans in Sacramento also cited concerns over immigration justice, LGBTQ+ rights and student-loan forgiveness as electoral priorities for November, attendees overwhelmingly said they were worried about attacks on abortion. 20-year-old Karen Solano said she felt fear for how America is “just going back” on reproductive rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel like a lot of people don’t know how devastating it is for women right now,” Solano said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963719\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1390px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963719\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/dipt.tay_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1390\" height=\"667\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/dipt.tay_.jpg 1390w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/dipt.tay_-800x384.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/dipt.tay_-1020x489.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/dipt.tay_-160x77.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/dipt.tay_-768x369.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1390px) 100vw, 1390px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">From left, Karen Solano, Debora Rosales and Selne Rosales stand in line on R Street waiting to attend ‘The Taylor Party: Taylor Night’ at Ace of Spades in Sacramento on Aug. 31, 2024. At right, Solano’s ‘Speak Now’ necklace. \u003ccite>(Madelaine Church for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>26-year-old Debora Rosales, waiting in line alongside Solano, agreed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The rights that women have worked so hard for – just how hard they work to get to where we are – and to have that be so easily taken away from us … It’s just really heartbreaking,” said Rosales. “We just got to keep fighting and got to keep being outspoken about everything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13955679']Like \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11999092/olivia-rodrigo-fans-abortion-kamala-harris-election-2024\">fellow pop star Olivia Rodrigo\u003c/a>, Swift herself has \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/taylorswift13/status/1540382753677627393?lang=en\">commented\u003c/a> on the overturn of Roe vs. Wade: “I’m absolutely terrified that this is where we are — that after so many decades of people fighting for women’s rights to their own bodies, today’s decision has stripped us of that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s the type of statement that Christina Parker, 35, and Courtney Parker, 31, appreciate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She’s very verbal about where she stands, which is pretty incredible, especially coming from a \u003ca href=\"https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country-lists/teardrops-on-her-guitar-taylor-swifts-10-countriest-songs-164352/\">background of country\u003c/a>,” said Christina. It “shouldn’t be a question” if she or anyone has an ectopic pregnancy and may need a procedure to save her life, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963720\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1494px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963720\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/dip2.tay_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1494\" height=\"739\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/dip2.tay_.jpg 1494w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/dip2.tay_-800x396.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/dip2.tay_-1020x505.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/dip2.tay_-160x79.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/dip2.tay_-768x380.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1494px) 100vw, 1494px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">At left, Taylor swift fans Courtney Parker and Christina Parker show their friendship bracelets while waiting in line; at right, Courtney Parker (left) and Christina Parker wait in line on R Street to attend ‘The Taylor Party: Taylor Night’ at Ace of Spades in Sacramento on Aug. 31, 2024. \u003ccite>(Madelaine Church for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The two say they also see themselves in Kamala Harris, the first Black and South Asian woman to hold the Vice Presidential role.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s an emotional time, honestly,” Christina said. “Especially looking how we look and how we present, and having somebody who is running for office that looks and represents us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My hope is that if Kamala wins, Taylor performs at her inauguration,” said Courtney.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963722\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963722\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-1-1.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-1-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-1-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-1-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-1-1-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ashly Smith and Maddy Meckel showcase their friendship bracelets before attending ‘The Taylor Party: Taylor Night’ at Ace of Spades in Sacramento on Aug. 31, 2024. Smith has several tattoos dedicated to Taylor Swift – including one that reminds her of her mother, who passed away when Smith was 19. ‘She always did these dances [to Swift’s songs]. Now I look back and I’m like, ‘Those were the cutest things in the whole world.’’ \u003ccite>(Madelaine Church for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>26-year-olds Ashly Smith and Maddey Meckel said they ultimately hope Swift will eventually publicly endorse Harris – especially because of the galvanizing effect it would have on the youth vote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is the first election I’m going to vote in,” Meckel said, “that I actually feel proud to vote for a candidate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Read more stories of pop-culture fandoms and the election in the KQED series \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/fandomvote\">The Fandom Vote\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of the KQED series \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/fandomvote\">The Fandom Vote\u003c/a>\u003c/em>, exploring the election-year concerns and voting preferences of pop culture fanbases.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the dry heat on a recent Saturday in Sacramento, just half a mile from the state Capitol, a long line of fans waited outside a downtown nightclub to attend a dedicated Taylor Swift party.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of these fans was Rachel Hills, who walked the line at \u003ca href=\"https://www.aceofspadessac.com/\">Ace of Spades\u003c/a> handing black Sharpies to those around her, inviting them to write the name of a man who had wronged them on her long, white ball gown she was wearing – a new Swiftie tradition that references the singer’s 2024 song “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Atdzfj8LcuY\">The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived\u003c/a>.” Hills promised she would burn the dress after the show in a form of cathartic release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among the scribbled names of ex-boyfriends and family members, someone had written a familiar name at the bottom of Hills’ dress: “Donald Trump.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963714\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963714\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-2.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-2-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rachel Hills asks a fellow Taylor Swift fan to write on her dress at a Taylor Swift dance party in Sacramento on Aug. 31, 2024. \u003ccite>(Madelaine Church for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Politics is a recurring topic among Taylor Swift’s fanbase, and Swifties – like \u003ca href=\"https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/02/16/1067943/kpop-fans-shaping-elections-worldwide/\">K-Pop stans\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.theringer.com/2016/6/3/16042806/beyonce-beyhive-online-fan-forum-b7c7226ac16d\">the BeyHive\u003c/a> – are known for being diligent organizers. In August, more than 34,000 attendees tuned in to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13963325/swifties-for-kamala-harris-trump-taylor-swift-fans\">“Swifties for Kamala” Zoom call\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hills said that before Biden stepped aside in July, she’d felt anxiety and dread about a possible second Trump presidency. But then, “Kamala came in and I just, all of a sudden, felt a seed of hope,” she told KQED, specifically citing Harris’ stance on reproductive rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Earlier in her life, Hills “had to \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_reduction\">selectively reduce\u003c/a> because I was pregnant with conjoined twins and a third baby,” she said. “I wouldn’t have been able to make that decision to save my one daughter’s life if that [procedure] hadn’t been in play … It’s so important for people to have that option, and to be able to make those decisions based on what their doctors are helping them with.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her daughter is now 16 – and Hills is thinking about the world that she will grow up in. She wants her teen, like all teens, to “feel the freedom to do what they need to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They are a generation that pull no punches. They are so smart, and they just do things differently,” she said. “I have so much hope for them. But they need a place to start from.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963715\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963715\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-3.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-3-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-3-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-3-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jessica Sanchez (left) and Rachel Hill have been fans of Taylor Swift for 10 years and were eager to attend ‘The Taylor Party: Taylor Night’ at Ace of Spades in Sacramento on Aug. 31, 2024. \u003ccite>(Madelaine Church for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To Hills, it often feels like Swift is “doing things that you would expect the government to do to help,” referencing Swift’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.gofundme.com/f/qyxww9-washington-post-mom\">donations to struggling families\u003c/a> during the pandemic. Swift can even indirectly impel the government to take action, as she did with \u003ca href=\"https://www.forbes.com/sites/virginieberger/2024/06/14/how-taylor-swifts-ticketing-fiasco-fuels-dojs-live-nation-antitrust-lawsuit/\">the Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation-Ticketmaster\u003c/a>. The singer, said Hills, “has so much sway. She does so much good.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But she also acknowledges that wanting famous people to be involved in politics is a “double-edged sword.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/elon-musk\">Elon Musk\u003c/a> right now is just going off the rails, and he has so much money and is influencing things,” she said. “I don’t think because you have endless amounts of money that you should have political sway.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Expectations of ‘Miss Americana’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Concisely explaining the singer’s relationship to her public over the past two decades can be difficult, \u003ca href=\"https://annehelen.substack.com/p/taylor-swift-and-the-good-girl-trap\">even contentious\u003c/a>, especially when it comes to politics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How one views Taylor Swift – the figure, the singer, even the activist – often depends on how attuned they are to the latest news around her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I know that we’ve had the Vienna situation,” said 27-year-old Sacramento resident Alondra Monrroy, who is supporting Kamala Harris. “She’s only one person, but she has a lot of power, so I do hope she’ll speak about [the election]. But at the same time, I understand why she doesn’t.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963716\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963716\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-4.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-4-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-4-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-4-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-4-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Marcos Alvarado (left) and Alondra Monrrov pose for a photograph outside of Ace of Spades in Sacramento before attending ‘The Taylor Party: Taylor Night’ on Aug. 31, 2024. Monrroy donned a ‘Reputation’-inspired look – in part hoping for Swift to soon release her re-recorded version of her sixth studio album. \u003ccite>(Madelaine Church for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Monrroy was referencing an incident in late August, when authorities thwarted an attack \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/taylor-swift-cia-vienna-concerts-foiled-attack-7e454af63efcff2a3ab0a20c718aba8d#\">intended to kill thousands\u003c/a> at Taylor Swift’s concert in Vienna – reminding many of the \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/manchester-ariana-grande-concert-bombing-lawsuit-f2e8298cb045501eff5245392522d29c\">2017 bombing of an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester\u003c/a> that killed 22 people. Swift waited to comment on the incident until the European leg of her tour had concluded, saying that, “The reasons for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Let me be very clear: I am not going to speak about something publicly if I think doing so might provoke those who would want to harm the fans who come to my shows,” her statement read. “In cases like this one, ‘silence’ is actually showing restraint.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> Swift’s social media has gone dark since.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Most people are mad that she stayed quiet [about the Vienna cancellation],” said 19-year-old Leslie Rewinkle. “I’m not sure if it was just that one concert that was going to have people killed or if it was multiple after that, but I’m glad that she stayed quiet. Solely for the fact of protecting everybody and the vicinity of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ll ask from her just for her to stay true to herself,” she added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963713\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963713\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Swifites sing their hearts out to ‘You Belong With Me’ during ‘The Taylor Party: Taylor Night’ at Ace of Spades in Sacramento on Aug. 31, 2024. \u003ccite>(Madelaine Church for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Over the years, the rollercoaster of her public image hurdles on – even without her saying \u003ca href=\"https://variety.com/2020/music/features/taylor-swift-politics-sundance-documentary-miss-americana-1203471910/\">very much about politics at all\u003c/a>: In 2017, she was praised online by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/taylor-swift-alt-right-icon\">alt-right\u003c/a>, who hailed her as their icon. By the 2020s, conservative outlets and Republicans were decrying her as a \u003ca href=\"https://www.newsweek.com/republican-bizarre-accusation-taylor-swift-witchcraft-1836328\">practitioner of witchcraft\u003c/a> and pledging a “\u003ca href=\"https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/donald-trump-more-popular-taylor-swift-maga-biden-1234956829/\">holy war\u003c/a>” against her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trump’s presidency encouraged many celebrities to speak vocally about politics, with \u003ca href=\"https://www.theverge.com/interface/2020/1/16/21067483/chris-evans-starting-point-vanity-project-captain-america-democracy\">varying degrees of success\u003c/a> or \u003ca href=\"https://www.thecut.com/article/womans-world-review-katy-perry-is-stuck-in-2016.html\">savviness\u003c/a>. But for Swift, she \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/p/BopoXpYnCes/?hl=en\">made waves\u003c/a> when she made her first endorsement of a candidate – a Democrat – in 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13936377\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13936377\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/GettyImages-1474269174-scaled-e1697219621238.jpg\" alt=\"A slender young white woman with long blonde hair throws her arms out to her sides, mid-performance, with a sea of dry ice behind her. She is wearing a one-legged black bodysuit embellished with red snakes and holding a microphone in her right hand.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1471\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/GettyImages-1474269174-scaled-e1697219621238.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/GettyImages-1474269174-scaled-e1697219621238-800x613.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/GettyImages-1474269174-scaled-e1697219621238-1020x781.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/GettyImages-1474269174-scaled-e1697219621238-160x123.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/GettyImages-1474269174-scaled-e1697219621238-768x588.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/10/GettyImages-1474269174-scaled-e1697219621238-1536x1177.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Taylor Swift performs during ‘The Eras Tour’ on March 17, 2023.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Miss Americana\u003c/em>, a self-made 2020 documentary about Swift, revealed that the singer pushed hard for this endorsement. In one pivotal scene, Swift is surrounded by mostly men – including her father – who are seen vocally dissuading her from endorsing the Democratic Tennessee senatorial candidate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watching the documentary, the legacy of female country band The Chicks clearly loomed large over her management’s heads. The female country band, once beloved, were \u003ca href=\"https://19thnews.org/2023/03/the-chicks-silenced-politics-20-years-influence-country-music/\">viciously ostracized\u003c/a> by the music industry and fans after expressing anger for then-President George W. Bush and the Iraq invasion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Swift cited her strong reaction against Trump – and the Republican senatorial candidate Marsha Blackburn, whom she saw as a threat to \u003ca href=\"https://variety.com/2020/music/features/taylor-swift-politics-sundance-documentary-miss-americana-1203471910/\">feminism and LGBTQ+ rights\u003c/a> – as a need to be “the right side of history.” In fact, the song “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJU-S1t2r1M\">Only the Young\u003c/a>,” released with \u003cem>Miss Americana\u003c/em>, directly references the kind of despair her young fans may be feeling due to the Republican presidency: “It keeps me awake / The look on your face / The moment you heard the news / You’re screaming inside.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/taylorswift13/status/1266392274549776387?lang=en\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13963717\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-05-at-12.07.12-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1114\" height=\"430\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-05-at-12.07.12-PM.png 1114w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-05-at-12.07.12-PM-800x309.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-05-at-12.07.12-PM-1020x394.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-05-at-12.07.12-PM-160x62.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-05-at-12.07.12-PM-768x296.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1114px) 100vw, 1114px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since, Swift has been vocal about women’s rights and supporting Democrats, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/taylor-swift-endorses-joe-biden-president-n1242483\">endorsed Joe Biden in 2020\u003c/a>. In the midst of her wildly popular \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11956083/taylor-swift-levis-stadium-eras-santa-clara-tickets\">Eras world tour\u003c/a>, her critics from the left often say she is not doing enough. Most recently, Swift’s been criticized for not pushing back publicly against Trump for \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/08/30/nx-s1-5087913/donald-trump-artificial-intelligence-memes-deepfakes-taylor-swift\">his use of AI images of her\u003c/a>, fabricating an endorsement for him. (It’s worth noting that the \u003ca href=\"https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/taylor-swift-sue-trump-truth-social-post-ai-rcna167380\">legal recourse\u003c/a> for using AI is generally still pretty fuzzy.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13868272\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13868272\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/10/taylorswift-bboilen02_wide-dbc4e595dab7bf7e15d7a9a788dd5548d61e4861.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1500\" height=\"843\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/10/taylorswift-bboilen02_wide-dbc4e595dab7bf7e15d7a9a788dd5548d61e4861.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/10/taylorswift-bboilen02_wide-dbc4e595dab7bf7e15d7a9a788dd5548d61e4861-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/10/taylorswift-bboilen02_wide-dbc4e595dab7bf7e15d7a9a788dd5548d61e4861-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/10/taylorswift-bboilen02_wide-dbc4e595dab7bf7e15d7a9a788dd5548d61e4861-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/10/taylorswift-bboilen02_wide-dbc4e595dab7bf7e15d7a9a788dd5548d61e4861-1020x573.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/10/taylorswift-bboilen02_wide-dbc4e595dab7bf7e15d7a9a788dd5548d61e4861-1200x674.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Taylor Swift performs during a Tiny Desk concert on Oct. 10, 2019. \u003ccite>(Bob Boilen/NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These are not people who hate Taylor Swift, necessarily. Some of her harshest critics are her fans. The inherent intimacy of this kind of fandom, combined with the platform for one’s thoughts that social media provides, has for many turned the role of ‘fan’ into a kind of policing force, watching and commenting and posting on a singer’s personal life – mostly \u003ca href=\"https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/why-do-harry-styles-fans-hate-olivia-wilde\">their romantic life\u003c/a>. Swift \u003ca href=\"https://www.glamour.com/story/taylor-swift-really-hates-matty-healy-and-also-maybe-us\">expressed distaste\u003c/a> for this kind of fan behavior in a recent song, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2W173hRfyA\">But Daddy I Love Him\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>19-year-old Tae Siera, who was attending the Sacramento Swift party with Rewinkle, said that fans who are too young to vote – and feel like they cannot make change – try to express their opinions \u003cem>by\u003c/em> putting pressure on celebrities to speak out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s important for celebrities to somewhat say, ‘Here’s where I stand,’” said Siera. But then fans need to “go out there and make change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963718\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963718\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-5.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-5.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-5-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-5-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-5-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-5-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Leslie Rewinkle (left) and Tae Siera show their friendship bracelets while waiting in line to attend ‘The Taylor Party: Taylor Night’ at Ace of Spades in Sacramento on Aug. 31, 2024. \u003ccite>(Madelaine Church for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Write \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11967439/how-can-i-call-my-representative-a-step-by-step-guide-to-the-process\">letters to your local Congress\u003c/a>. You can talk to your parents to see if they’re voting the way that you want to. Try to educate the adults in your life, because a lot of them actually are not as informed as you think they are,” Siera said. “[Swift] can only do so much, and then it’s up to everyone else to really make that change themselves.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What are the issues on top of Swifties’ minds?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>While the Swift fans in Sacramento also cited concerns over immigration justice, LGBTQ+ rights and student-loan forgiveness as electoral priorities for November, attendees overwhelmingly said they were worried about attacks on abortion. 20-year-old Karen Solano said she felt fear for how America is “just going back” on reproductive rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel like a lot of people don’t know how devastating it is for women right now,” Solano said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963719\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1390px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963719\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/dipt.tay_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1390\" height=\"667\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/dipt.tay_.jpg 1390w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/dipt.tay_-800x384.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/dipt.tay_-1020x489.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/dipt.tay_-160x77.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/dipt.tay_-768x369.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1390px) 100vw, 1390px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">From left, Karen Solano, Debora Rosales and Selne Rosales stand in line on R Street waiting to attend ‘The Taylor Party: Taylor Night’ at Ace of Spades in Sacramento on Aug. 31, 2024. At right, Solano’s ‘Speak Now’ necklace. \u003ccite>(Madelaine Church for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>26-year-old Debora Rosales, waiting in line alongside Solano, agreed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The rights that women have worked so hard for – just how hard they work to get to where we are – and to have that be so easily taken away from us … It’s just really heartbreaking,” said Rosales. “We just got to keep fighting and got to keep being outspoken about everything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Like \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11999092/olivia-rodrigo-fans-abortion-kamala-harris-election-2024\">fellow pop star Olivia Rodrigo\u003c/a>, Swift herself has \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/taylorswift13/status/1540382753677627393?lang=en\">commented\u003c/a> on the overturn of Roe vs. Wade: “I’m absolutely terrified that this is where we are — that after so many decades of people fighting for women’s rights to their own bodies, today’s decision has stripped us of that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s the type of statement that Christina Parker, 35, and Courtney Parker, 31, appreciate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She’s very verbal about where she stands, which is pretty incredible, especially coming from a \u003ca href=\"https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country-lists/teardrops-on-her-guitar-taylor-swifts-10-countriest-songs-164352/\">background of country\u003c/a>,” said Christina. It “shouldn’t be a question” if she or anyone has an ectopic pregnancy and may need a procedure to save her life, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963720\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1494px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963720\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/dip2.tay_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1494\" height=\"739\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/dip2.tay_.jpg 1494w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/dip2.tay_-800x396.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/dip2.tay_-1020x505.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/dip2.tay_-160x79.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/dip2.tay_-768x380.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1494px) 100vw, 1494px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">At left, Taylor swift fans Courtney Parker and Christina Parker show their friendship bracelets while waiting in line; at right, Courtney Parker (left) and Christina Parker wait in line on R Street to attend ‘The Taylor Party: Taylor Night’ at Ace of Spades in Sacramento on Aug. 31, 2024. \u003ccite>(Madelaine Church for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The two say they also see themselves in Kamala Harris, the first Black and South Asian woman to hold the Vice Presidential role.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s an emotional time, honestly,” Christina said. “Especially looking how we look and how we present, and having somebody who is running for office that looks and represents us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My hope is that if Kamala wins, Taylor performs at her inauguration,” said Courtney.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963722\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963722\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-1-1.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-1-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-1-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-1-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/download-1-1-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ashly Smith and Maddy Meckel showcase their friendship bracelets before attending ‘The Taylor Party: Taylor Night’ at Ace of Spades in Sacramento on Aug. 31, 2024. Smith has several tattoos dedicated to Taylor Swift – including one that reminds her of her mother, who passed away when Smith was 19. ‘She always did these dances [to Swift’s songs]. Now I look back and I’m like, ‘Those were the cutest things in the whole world.’’ \u003ccite>(Madelaine Church for KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>26-year-olds Ashly Smith and Maddey Meckel said they ultimately hope Swift will eventually publicly endorse Harris – especially because of the galvanizing effect it would have on the youth vote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is the first election I’m going to vote in,” Meckel said, “that I actually feel proud to vote for a candidate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Read more stories of pop-culture fandoms and the election in the KQED series \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/fandomvote\">The Fandom Vote\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "best-new-books-fall-2024-npr-critics",
"title": "16 New Books NPR Critics Are Looking Forward to This Fall",
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"headTitle": "16 New Books NPR Critics Are Looking Forward to This Fall | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>The fall to-do list is long: There are apples to be picked, Oktoberfest beers to sip, elections to vote in, and of course — so many new books to read! We sorted through the current and upcoming releases to find 16 titles you should watch out for this fall. Dive in!\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Fiction\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963661\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963661\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/fiction.png\" alt=\"Eight book covers laid out in two rows of four.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1217\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/fiction.png 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/fiction-800x487.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/fiction-1020x621.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/fiction-160x97.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/fiction-768x467.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/fiction-1536x935.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/fiction-1920x1168.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fiction recommendations from NPR. \u003ccite>(NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Creation Lake’ by Rachel Kushner (Sept. 3)\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Kushner’s new novel is about a spy named Sadie Smith (great spy name), infiltrating an eco-extremist group in southern France. The book’s already being met with great reviews, including a spot on the longlist for the Booker Prize, the UK’s fanciest literary award.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Guide Me Home’ by Attica Locke (Sept. 3) \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Darren Matthews is a detective pulled out of retirement for \u003cem>one last case\u003c/em>. This time it’s the case of a Black college student missing from an all white sorority. Locke is a longtime hand at writing crime novels, and this is the conclusion of her Highway 59 trilogy.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘A Sunny Place for Shady People’ by Mariana Enriquez, translated by Megan McDowell (Sept. 17) \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Enriquez has made a name for herself blending supernatural horrors (ghosts, haunted houses, witches, that sort of thing) with the concrete horrors of everyday life in Argentina. Her last novel was a nearly 600-page tome, but this newest one is a collection of shorts — like a pillowcase full of trick-or-treat candies.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘The Mighty Red’ by Louise Erdrich (Oct. 1) \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The newest Erdrich release (which is always a big deal in the literary world) will take place during the economic crisis of 2008. There’s something of a love triangle in this book, with a woman named Kismet at the center. But Kismet’s mother has reason to worry about Kismet’s future.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘The Great When’\u003c/strong> \u003cstrong>by Alan Moore (Oct. 1) \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The legendary comic book writer returns with his first novel since \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2016/09/18/494287211/in-jerusalem-nothing-youve-ever-lost-is-truly-gone\">\u003cu>2016’s \u003c/u>\u003cem>\u003cu>Jerusalem.\u003c/u>\u003c/em>\u003c/a> This new one takes place in postwar London, following a young bookshop employee named Dennis who find a copy of a book from a \u003cem>different\u003c/em>, more fantastical London.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Bull Moon Rising’ by Ruby Dixon (Oct. 15) \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Dixon is the author behind the \u003cem>Ice Planet Barbarians\u003c/em> series, a world of romance/erotica books with a fairly outlandish premise (Women land on a planet of sexy aliens. They do stuff together). Her new book is the start of a whole new world where our hero Aspeth Honori marries a minotaur.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Absolution’ by Jeff VanderMeer (Oct. 22) \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The popular Southern Reach trilogy becomes a quadrilogy nearly 10 years after the original series was released. This newest book is a prequel, exploring the origins of the mysterious Area X.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘The City and its Uncertain Walls’\u003c/strong> \u003cstrong>by Haruki Murakami, translated by Philip Gabriel (Nov. 19) \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The latest novel from Japanese writer Haruki Murakami comes out in English this fall. It’s his first in six years, taking place in a fantastical realm where people read dreams and shadows can become untethered from their source. In classic Murakami fashion, the book touches on themes of loss, loneliness, and isolation.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Nonfiction\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963662\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963662\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/nonfiction.png\" alt=\"Eight book covers laid out in two rows of four.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1218\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/nonfiction.png 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/nonfiction-800x487.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/nonfiction-1020x621.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/nonfiction-160x97.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/nonfiction-768x468.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/nonfiction-1536x935.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/nonfiction-1920x1169.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nonfiction recommendations from NPR. \u003ccite>(NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>‘Lovely One: A Memoir’ \u003c/em>by Ketanji Brown Jackson (Sept. 3) \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>America’s first Black female Supreme Court justice writes a memoir detailing her early childhood, and the hurdles she faced coming up in the legal world.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘We’re Alone: Essays’ by Edwidge Danticat (Sept. 3) \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This essay collection finds Danticat looking back at her native country of Haiti. Not with the naive rose-colored glasses of nostalgia, but with full awareness of the complicated nature of “resilience” and the mixed feelings anyone has about where they came from.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Reagan: His Life and Legend’ by Max Boot (Sept. 10) \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For the person in your life obsessed with presidential biographies, Boot’s newest book is a deeply reported look into the life of Ronald Reagan. Covering his childhood, his Hollywood years and, of course, his presidency, Boot portrays a man that is somehow both more\u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/08/27/reagan-ideologue-pragmatist-boot/\">\u003cu> ideological and more pragmatic than\u003c/u>\u003c/a> we might think.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Connie: A Memoir’ by Connie Chung (Sept. 17) \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Connie Chung is a broadcast legend. As the first woman to co-anchor the \u003cem>CBS Evening News\u003c/em> as well as the first Asian to anchor a national news broadcast in the U.S., Chung has got loads of stories to share about breaking into the industry and dealing with rivals and the other men in her way.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘The Message’ by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Oct. 1) \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Coates’ 2015 book \u003cem>Between the World and Me\u003c/em> made a huge splash, winning awards and audiences as it addressed race in America. Since then, Coates has written comics, a novel, and did some reporting. And this new book is the result of that reporting, documenting his travels everywhere from the West Bank to Columbia, South Carolina, in order to come to terms with the myths we tell ourselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Sonny Boy: A Memoir’\u003c/strong> \u003cstrong>by Al Pacino (Oct. 15) \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It was Pacino’s mom that first used the nickname Sonny Boy. It comes from an Al Jolson song she used to sing to him. The book digs deep into old memories like this one, detailing his childhood in the South Bronx and how he fell in love with the craft of filmmaking.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘War’ by Bob Woodward (Oct. 15) \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist continues his run of deeply reported portrayals of what’s going on in the upper echelons of American government. This new book examines President Biden’s handling of the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and how former president Trump has been spending his time in the run-up to this November’s election.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘High and Rising: A Book About De La Soul’ by Marcus J. Moore\u003c/strong> \u003cstrong>(Nov. 19) \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It’s been a little over a year now since the influential hip hop group De La Soul made its way onto streaming platforms. Which means we’re overdue for a big book about them. Music writer Marcus J. Moore tells the story of what made this band work, re-contextualizing them for old heads and introducing them to new listeners alike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The fall to-do list is long: There are apples to be picked, Oktoberfest beers to sip, elections to vote in, and of course — so many new books to read! We sorted through the current and upcoming releases to find 16 titles you should watch out for this fall. Dive in!\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Fiction\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963661\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963661\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/fiction.png\" alt=\"Eight book covers laid out in two rows of four.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1217\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/fiction.png 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/fiction-800x487.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/fiction-1020x621.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/fiction-160x97.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/fiction-768x467.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/fiction-1536x935.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/fiction-1920x1168.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fiction recommendations from NPR. \u003ccite>(NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Creation Lake’ by Rachel Kushner (Sept. 3)\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Kushner’s new novel is about a spy named Sadie Smith (great spy name), infiltrating an eco-extremist group in southern France. The book’s already being met with great reviews, including a spot on the longlist for the Booker Prize, the UK’s fanciest literary award.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Guide Me Home’ by Attica Locke (Sept. 3) \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Darren Matthews is a detective pulled out of retirement for \u003cem>one last case\u003c/em>. This time it’s the case of a Black college student missing from an all white sorority. Locke is a longtime hand at writing crime novels, and this is the conclusion of her Highway 59 trilogy.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘A Sunny Place for Shady People’ by Mariana Enriquez, translated by Megan McDowell (Sept. 17) \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Enriquez has made a name for herself blending supernatural horrors (ghosts, haunted houses, witches, that sort of thing) with the concrete horrors of everyday life in Argentina. Her last novel was a nearly 600-page tome, but this newest one is a collection of shorts — like a pillowcase full of trick-or-treat candies.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘The Mighty Red’ by Louise Erdrich (Oct. 1) \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The newest Erdrich release (which is always a big deal in the literary world) will take place during the economic crisis of 2008. There’s something of a love triangle in this book, with a woman named Kismet at the center. But Kismet’s mother has reason to worry about Kismet’s future.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘The Great When’\u003c/strong> \u003cstrong>by Alan Moore (Oct. 1) \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The legendary comic book writer returns with his first novel since \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2016/09/18/494287211/in-jerusalem-nothing-youve-ever-lost-is-truly-gone\">\u003cu>2016’s \u003c/u>\u003cem>\u003cu>Jerusalem.\u003c/u>\u003c/em>\u003c/a> This new one takes place in postwar London, following a young bookshop employee named Dennis who find a copy of a book from a \u003cem>different\u003c/em>, more fantastical London.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Bull Moon Rising’ by Ruby Dixon (Oct. 15) \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Dixon is the author behind the \u003cem>Ice Planet Barbarians\u003c/em> series, a world of romance/erotica books with a fairly outlandish premise (Women land on a planet of sexy aliens. They do stuff together). Her new book is the start of a whole new world where our hero Aspeth Honori marries a minotaur.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Absolution’ by Jeff VanderMeer (Oct. 22) \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The popular Southern Reach trilogy becomes a quadrilogy nearly 10 years after the original series was released. This newest book is a prequel, exploring the origins of the mysterious Area X.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘The City and its Uncertain Walls’\u003c/strong> \u003cstrong>by Haruki Murakami, translated by Philip Gabriel (Nov. 19) \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The latest novel from Japanese writer Haruki Murakami comes out in English this fall. It’s his first in six years, taking place in a fantastical realm where people read dreams and shadows can become untethered from their source. In classic Murakami fashion, the book touches on themes of loss, loneliness, and isolation.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Nonfiction\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963662\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963662\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/nonfiction.png\" alt=\"Eight book covers laid out in two rows of four.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1218\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/nonfiction.png 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/nonfiction-800x487.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/nonfiction-1020x621.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/nonfiction-160x97.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/nonfiction-768x468.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/nonfiction-1536x935.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/nonfiction-1920x1169.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nonfiction recommendations from NPR. \u003ccite>(NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>‘Lovely One: A Memoir’ \u003c/em>by Ketanji Brown Jackson (Sept. 3) \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>America’s first Black female Supreme Court justice writes a memoir detailing her early childhood, and the hurdles she faced coming up in the legal world.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘We’re Alone: Essays’ by Edwidge Danticat (Sept. 3) \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This essay collection finds Danticat looking back at her native country of Haiti. Not with the naive rose-colored glasses of nostalgia, but with full awareness of the complicated nature of “resilience” and the mixed feelings anyone has about where they came from.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Reagan: His Life and Legend’ by Max Boot (Sept. 10) \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For the person in your life obsessed with presidential biographies, Boot’s newest book is a deeply reported look into the life of Ronald Reagan. Covering his childhood, his Hollywood years and, of course, his presidency, Boot portrays a man that is somehow both more\u003ca href=\"https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/08/27/reagan-ideologue-pragmatist-boot/\">\u003cu> ideological and more pragmatic than\u003c/u>\u003c/a> we might think.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Connie: A Memoir’ by Connie Chung (Sept. 17) \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Connie Chung is a broadcast legend. As the first woman to co-anchor the \u003cem>CBS Evening News\u003c/em> as well as the first Asian to anchor a national news broadcast in the U.S., Chung has got loads of stories to share about breaking into the industry and dealing with rivals and the other men in her way.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘The Message’ by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Oct. 1) \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Coates’ 2015 book \u003cem>Between the World and Me\u003c/em> made a huge splash, winning awards and audiences as it addressed race in America. Since then, Coates has written comics, a novel, and did some reporting. And this new book is the result of that reporting, documenting his travels everywhere from the West Bank to Columbia, South Carolina, in order to come to terms with the myths we tell ourselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Sonny Boy: A Memoir’\u003c/strong> \u003cstrong>by Al Pacino (Oct. 15) \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It was Pacino’s mom that first used the nickname Sonny Boy. It comes from an Al Jolson song she used to sing to him. The book digs deep into old memories like this one, detailing his childhood in the South Bronx and how he fell in love with the craft of filmmaking.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘War’ by Bob Woodward (Oct. 15) \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist continues his run of deeply reported portrayals of what’s going on in the upper echelons of American government. This new book examines President Biden’s handling of the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and how former president Trump has been spending his time in the run-up to this November’s election.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘High and Rising: A Book About De La Soul’ by Marcus J. Moore\u003c/strong> \u003cstrong>(Nov. 19) \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>It’s been a little over a year now since the influential hip hop group De La Soul made its way onto streaming platforms. Which means we’re overdue for a big book about them. Music writer Marcus J. Moore tells the story of what made this band work, re-contextualizing them for old heads and introducing them to new listeners alike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>In 1964, after \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13953248/topless-at-the-condor-movie-review-carol-doda-documentary-north-beach-history\">Carol Doda danced topless at The Condor\u003c/a> for the first time, nightclubs across San Francisco’s North Beach erupted into a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13958719/who-was-yvonne-dangers-1960s-topless-north-beach-star-deportation\">topless frenzy\u003c/a>. Topless bands, topless clothing stores and even a topless shoe shine all opened in quick succession. But one of the most sensational acts of the time came courtesy of Vicki “Starr” Fernandez, a beautiful transgender woman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13959375']Born in Puerto Rico in 1932, Fernandez ran away to America aged just 14, so that she might live a freer, more authentic life. “As a child,” she told the Bakersfield Californian in 1968, “I was more feminine and pretty than the girls in our school … When I was a teenager, my looks and behavior became an embarrassment to my family. The other kids started making really vicious remarks to me … [In] the States, at least I can dress and act as I please without hurting myself or my family.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fernandez danced all over North Beach at clubs including Finnochio’s, El Cid, Pierre’s, Mr. D’s and Coke’s. At the Follies Burlesque, Fernandez participated in the “Battle of the Sexes” — a dance-off in which cis women went head-to-head with trans women and drag queens. (The point was that the audience could rarely tell who was who.) Fernandez was frequently billed as “Mister” (or “Mr.”) Vicki Starr, sensationalizing her trans-ness as a way to maximize audience numbers. This kind of publicity undoubtedly carried major risks for her personal safety and legal standing. Still, she boldly and diligently carried on performing, never shying away from talking about her gender identity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13959772\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13959772\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20240606_134527-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A nightclub poster featuring two women, one glamorously made-up, the other standing topless, her back turned to the camera.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1984\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20240606_134527-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20240606_134527-800x620.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20240606_134527-1020x790.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20240606_134527-160x124.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20240606_134527-768x595.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20240606_134527-1536x1190.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20240606_134527-2048x1587.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20240606_134527-1920x1488.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A poster from Coke’s advertising performances by Vicki Starr and Roxanne Alegria with the declaration that: ‘Boys will be girls.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the GLBT Historical Society)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 1967, Fernandez told \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em> columnist Merla Zellerbach that she was “working for one reason — to earn money to pay for the conversion operation. As soon as it’s finished, my fiancé and I will get married, possibly adopt children and settle down quietly.” What Fernandez craved, she told the reporter, was “a normal life as a woman.” She was entirely unwilling to give up on that dream, no matter the hurdles in her path. Though Fernandez enjoyed the limelight and relished every opportunity to be her most glamorous self, the nightclubs that made her famous were in many ways merely a means of survival.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Standing up for herself\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Fernandez spent much of her life kicking against social and institutional prejudice. From the time she arrived in San Francisco, Fernandez unabashedly lived every moment as the woman that she was. She was a fashionista, always clad in the most elegant styles of the day. She attracted a large, loving and very diverse friend group. She was politically active, keeping files of political pamphlets at home from the likes of George Moscone and Willie Brown, and voting for Harvey Milk when he was a candidate for the Board of Supervisors. Throughout her life, she stood up for and fiercely defended her rights as a woman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the biggest battles of Fernandez’s life started in 1971, when Fernandez’s longterm partner Richard Smith was convicted of homicide and incarcerated. It was far from the domestic bliss she had once envisioned for herself and, making matters worse, she soon found herself restricted from visiting Smith because of her gender identity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One correspondence from the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo reflects the hostile policies of the era:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Ms. Fernandez remains biologically a male. Accordingly, until such time as a sex change operation is completed, and other approval to visit has been granted, Ms. Fernandez would be expected to enter the institution in male attire and utilize the male rest room.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>To Fernandez, these parameters were unacceptable. She quickly sought out the assistance of the San Francisco Neighborhood Legal Assistance Foundation (SFNLAF), and together they went about becoming a thorn in the side of the California Department of Corrections. They started with letters to the California State Prison Solano, in which Smith was originally held, then moved on to the prison in San Luis Obispo, where he was moved in 1974. That year, one letter to its director Raymond Procunier stated:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Ms. Fernandez was allowed to visit [Smith] for a period of 9 months without any questions raised. She made no attempt to hide her identity in this time. It was evidently only after Ms. Fernandez was discovered to be a trans-sexual that her visiting privilege was suddenly denied.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>For years, Fernandez and the SFNLAF badgered the Department of Corrections to change their stance on Fernandez’s clothing restrictions. And for years, the Department of Corrections tried to brush them off. Fernandez refused to back down. She began actively studying and campaigning for prison reform. She sought advice from the Prisoner’s Union, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Prison Law Collective. She contacted \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11985739/san-franciscans-honor-glide-church-founder-rev-cecil-williams-at-memorial-ceremony\">Rev. Cecil Williams\u003c/a> of Glide Memorial, knowing he was outspoken on the topic of prison reform. She befriended Daniel Castro, the senior consultant for the select committee on corrections. She became a relentless force — and eventually, her work paid off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1975, the San Luis Obispo Men’s Colony finally relented and permitted Fernandez to visit Smith in the clothing of her choosing. Access alone was not enough to silence her. When transphobic treatment reared its head in the visitors’ room, Fernandez made sure to document her displeasure in written complaints. One letter from the SFNLAF to H.L. Shaw, then the outside lieutenant of the San Luis Obispo prison, stated:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Ms. Fernandez has been subjected to further abuse which is uncalled for. Her attempts to hold hands and affectionately touch Mr. Smith in the way common between husband and wife has been precluded. Various sergeants under you have offended Ms. Fernandez by carefully policing her hand holding activities.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>It never mattered who she was up against, Fernandez was always ready to fight for equal treatment, no matter the venue.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A loving legacy\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Though Fernandez’s life was not the easiest, she refused to live meekly or under anyone’s thumb. Proud of her identity, she fought tooth and nail for every scrap of progress she ever made and every shred of happiness she ever found. She was indefatigable when it came to living out loud, no matter who was judging her. But behind closed doors, she was a sensitive and sentimental soul. In the end, it was those traits that formed the foundation of Fernandez’s lasting cultural legacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13870056']During an era when many of her contemporaries were trying their best to live under the radar and out of sight, Fernandez proudly documented her community in as many ways as she could. In her death, Fernandez left behind a comprehensive goldmine of photographs, flyers and other ephemera that continues to stand as a reflection of the LGBTQ community from the 1950s through the 1980s. These files reflect a joyful and loving community full of beautiful souls who refused to be relegated to the shadows. Now in the care of San Francisco’s GLBT Historical Society, they offer important insight into a woefully under-documented period of time for LGBTQ people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1967, bemoaning the many hardships she faced, Fernandez told the \u003cem>Chronicle\u003c/em>: “If I’d been born all girl, none of this would have happened.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While her life would have undoubtedly been less challenging if that was the case, it was Fernandez’s trans-ness that ultimately made her so special — in her nightclub performances, in her legal battles, and in the keepsakes she ultimately left behind. “You have a very peaceful effect on people,” a friend named Susan wrote to Fernandez in the 1970s. “A harmony that lifts them and can heal them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The personal documents Fernandez left behind will continue to do so long into the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>To learn about other Rebel Girls from Bay Area History, visit the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/rebelgirls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rebel Girls homepage\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A book celebrating women from the Rebel Girls series, \u003ca href=\"https://citylights.com/politics-current-events-history/unsung-heroines35-women-who-changed/\">‘Unsung Heroines: 35 Women Who Changed the Bay Area,’\u003c/a> is available now from City Lights.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Born in Puerto Rico in 1932, Fernandez ran away to America aged just 14, so that she might live a freer, more authentic life. “As a child,” she told the Bakersfield Californian in 1968, “I was more feminine and pretty than the girls in our school … When I was a teenager, my looks and behavior became an embarrassment to my family. The other kids started making really vicious remarks to me … [In] the States, at least I can dress and act as I please without hurting myself or my family.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fernandez danced all over North Beach at clubs including Finnochio’s, El Cid, Pierre’s, Mr. D’s and Coke’s. At the Follies Burlesque, Fernandez participated in the “Battle of the Sexes” — a dance-off in which cis women went head-to-head with trans women and drag queens. (The point was that the audience could rarely tell who was who.) Fernandez was frequently billed as “Mister” (or “Mr.”) Vicki Starr, sensationalizing her trans-ness as a way to maximize audience numbers. This kind of publicity undoubtedly carried major risks for her personal safety and legal standing. Still, she boldly and diligently carried on performing, never shying away from talking about her gender identity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13959772\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13959772\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20240606_134527-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A nightclub poster featuring two women, one glamorously made-up, the other standing topless, her back turned to the camera.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1984\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20240606_134527-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20240606_134527-800x620.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20240606_134527-1020x790.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20240606_134527-160x124.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20240606_134527-768x595.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20240606_134527-1536x1190.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20240606_134527-2048x1587.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/20240606_134527-1920x1488.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A poster from Coke’s advertising performances by Vicki Starr and Roxanne Alegria with the declaration that: ‘Boys will be girls.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the GLBT Historical Society)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 1967, Fernandez told \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em> columnist Merla Zellerbach that she was “working for one reason — to earn money to pay for the conversion operation. As soon as it’s finished, my fiancé and I will get married, possibly adopt children and settle down quietly.” What Fernandez craved, she told the reporter, was “a normal life as a woman.” She was entirely unwilling to give up on that dream, no matter the hurdles in her path. Though Fernandez enjoyed the limelight and relished every opportunity to be her most glamorous self, the nightclubs that made her famous were in many ways merely a means of survival.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Standing up for herself\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Fernandez spent much of her life kicking against social and institutional prejudice. From the time she arrived in San Francisco, Fernandez unabashedly lived every moment as the woman that she was. She was a fashionista, always clad in the most elegant styles of the day. She attracted a large, loving and very diverse friend group. She was politically active, keeping files of political pamphlets at home from the likes of George Moscone and Willie Brown, and voting for Harvey Milk when he was a candidate for the Board of Supervisors. Throughout her life, she stood up for and fiercely defended her rights as a woman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the biggest battles of Fernandez’s life started in 1971, when Fernandez’s longterm partner Richard Smith was convicted of homicide and incarcerated. It was far from the domestic bliss she had once envisioned for herself and, making matters worse, she soon found herself restricted from visiting Smith because of her gender identity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One correspondence from the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo reflects the hostile policies of the era:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Ms. Fernandez remains biologically a male. Accordingly, until such time as a sex change operation is completed, and other approval to visit has been granted, Ms. Fernandez would be expected to enter the institution in male attire and utilize the male rest room.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>To Fernandez, these parameters were unacceptable. She quickly sought out the assistance of the San Francisco Neighborhood Legal Assistance Foundation (SFNLAF), and together they went about becoming a thorn in the side of the California Department of Corrections. They started with letters to the California State Prison Solano, in which Smith was originally held, then moved on to the prison in San Luis Obispo, where he was moved in 1974. That year, one letter to its director Raymond Procunier stated:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Ms. Fernandez was allowed to visit [Smith] for a period of 9 months without any questions raised. She made no attempt to hide her identity in this time. It was evidently only after Ms. Fernandez was discovered to be a trans-sexual that her visiting privilege was suddenly denied.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>For years, Fernandez and the SFNLAF badgered the Department of Corrections to change their stance on Fernandez’s clothing restrictions. And for years, the Department of Corrections tried to brush them off. Fernandez refused to back down. She began actively studying and campaigning for prison reform. She sought advice from the Prisoner’s Union, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Prison Law Collective. She contacted \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11985739/san-franciscans-honor-glide-church-founder-rev-cecil-williams-at-memorial-ceremony\">Rev. Cecil Williams\u003c/a> of Glide Memorial, knowing he was outspoken on the topic of prison reform. She befriended Daniel Castro, the senior consultant for the select committee on corrections. She became a relentless force — and eventually, her work paid off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1975, the San Luis Obispo Men’s Colony finally relented and permitted Fernandez to visit Smith in the clothing of her choosing. Access alone was not enough to silence her. When transphobic treatment reared its head in the visitors’ room, Fernandez made sure to document her displeasure in written complaints. One letter from the SFNLAF to H.L. Shaw, then the outside lieutenant of the San Luis Obispo prison, stated:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Ms. Fernandez has been subjected to further abuse which is uncalled for. Her attempts to hold hands and affectionately touch Mr. Smith in the way common between husband and wife has been precluded. Various sergeants under you have offended Ms. Fernandez by carefully policing her hand holding activities.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>It never mattered who she was up against, Fernandez was always ready to fight for equal treatment, no matter the venue.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A loving legacy\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Though Fernandez’s life was not the easiest, she refused to live meekly or under anyone’s thumb. Proud of her identity, she fought tooth and nail for every scrap of progress she ever made and every shred of happiness she ever found. She was indefatigable when it came to living out loud, no matter who was judging her. But behind closed doors, she was a sensitive and sentimental soul. In the end, it was those traits that formed the foundation of Fernandez’s lasting cultural legacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>During an era when many of her contemporaries were trying their best to live under the radar and out of sight, Fernandez proudly documented her community in as many ways as she could. In her death, Fernandez left behind a comprehensive goldmine of photographs, flyers and other ephemera that continues to stand as a reflection of the LGBTQ community from the 1950s through the 1980s. These files reflect a joyful and loving community full of beautiful souls who refused to be relegated to the shadows. Now in the care of San Francisco’s GLBT Historical Society, they offer important insight into a woefully under-documented period of time for LGBTQ people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1967, bemoaning the many hardships she faced, Fernandez told the \u003cem>Chronicle\u003c/em>: “If I’d been born all girl, none of this would have happened.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While her life would have undoubtedly been less challenging if that was the case, it was Fernandez’s trans-ness that ultimately made her so special — in her nightclub performances, in her legal battles, and in the keepsakes she ultimately left behind. “You have a very peaceful effect on people,” a friend named Susan wrote to Fernandez in the 1970s. “A harmony that lifts them and can heal them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The personal documents Fernandez left behind will continue to do so long into the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>To learn about other Rebel Girls from Bay Area History, visit the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/rebelgirls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rebel Girls homepage\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Rebel Ridge\u003c/em> opens with a shot of a lanky, muscular stranger riding into a small, corrupt Southern town — a scene we’ve all seen plenty of times. Except this stranger isn’t in a truck or on a horse. He’s on a bicycle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s one of many ways that writer-director Jeremy Saulnier both honors and has fun with movie conventions on his way to making clearly one of the best things on Netflix.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13963389']The tight, taut and tension-filled \u003cem>Rebel Ridge\u003c/em> is the story of a former Marine who arrives in Shelby Springs, Louisiana, to post his cousin’s bond and gets sucked into taking on its shady law enforcement department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The last time a relative came to help his cousin from the clutches of less-than-ideal small town Southern legal system it was a comedy with Joe Pesci and a hero named Vinny. If you ever needed a hint that this isn’t that movie, the opening sequence is scored to Iron Maiden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The movie stars Aaron Pierre as our former Marine, Terry Richmond, a man with mad martial arts and survival skills (he catches fish with his bare hands), and, on the opposite side, Don Johnson as the courtly but deadly chief of police, as venal as Richmond is noble. Both seem absolutely to adore their gun-slinging, testosterone-filled roles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Saulnier — who dealt with frontier justice and lawlessness in his previous \u003cem>Blue Ruin\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Green Room\u003c/em> — has given this action-thriller loads of social context: racism, opioid addiction, the cash bail system, small-town funding and militarized cops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like its leading man, \u003cem>Rebel Ridge\u003c/em> is a lean, muscular movie with few over-the-top special effects, save for Pierre’s spectacular eyes. It’s a triumph of small-budget, naturalistic filmmaking, where cars on a gravel road kick up choking clouds of dust and arm bones crack when pressure is applied.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF3gZicntIw\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The script is spare — allowing for some homespun poetry like “You know the thing about a pissing contest? Everybody gets piss on their boots” — and without an ounce of fat. So if a bottle of coconut water is brought up in one scene, it’s going be used in another. There are interesting camera angles, like the backseat of a speeding car or a tense cell phone call inside an old-fashioned phone booth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s also great use of dramatic underscoring by Brooke and Will Blair, who build discordant waves that grow slack, only to reappear like a shark. The score — including “Wayfaring Stranger” by Neko Case or “Right Brigade” by Bad Brains — are heard only on car radios or headphones or playing in restaurants. Distant thunder sounds often.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13963339']Our ex-Marine — described by one officer as “unarmed but considered dangerous” — forges an unlikely ally in a court clerk, played winningly by AnnaSophia Robb, and there’s a plumb role for James Cromwell, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Rebel Ridge\u003c/em> has whiffs of all kinds of other movies, from \u003cem>First Blood\u003c/em> to spaghetti Westerns, while the script even humanizes the bad guys — “Just because you was right doesn’t make us wrong,” the chief says to our hero.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a conspiracy at the heart of the town and you likely won’t be able to turn off the movie before finding out if one well-trained stranger can save the day, as things gloriously escalate. “It’s gotten out of hand. Real soup sandwich,” says our hero. That’s not what ended up on your TV screen, though — it’s the very opposite of a mess.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Rebel Ridge’ begins streaming on Netflix on Sept. 6, 2024.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Saulnier — who dealt with frontier justice and lawlessness in his previous \u003cem>Blue Ruin\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Green Room\u003c/em> — has given this action-thriller loads of social context: racism, opioid addiction, the cash bail system, small-town funding and militarized cops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like its leading man, \u003cem>Rebel Ridge\u003c/em> is a lean, muscular movie with few over-the-top special effects, save for Pierre’s spectacular eyes. It’s a triumph of small-budget, naturalistic filmmaking, where cars on a gravel road kick up choking clouds of dust and arm bones crack when pressure is applied.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/gF3gZicntIw'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/gF3gZicntIw'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>The script is spare — allowing for some homespun poetry like “You know the thing about a pissing contest? Everybody gets piss on their boots” — and without an ounce of fat. So if a bottle of coconut water is brought up in one scene, it’s going be used in another. There are interesting camera angles, like the backseat of a speeding car or a tense cell phone call inside an old-fashioned phone booth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s also great use of dramatic underscoring by Brooke and Will Blair, who build discordant waves that grow slack, only to reappear like a shark. The score — including “Wayfaring Stranger” by Neko Case or “Right Brigade” by Bad Brains — are heard only on car radios or headphones or playing in restaurants. Distant thunder sounds often.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Our ex-Marine — described by one officer as “unarmed but considered dangerous” — forges an unlikely ally in a court clerk, played winningly by AnnaSophia Robb, and there’s a plumb role for James Cromwell, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Rebel Ridge\u003c/em> has whiffs of all kinds of other movies, from \u003cem>First Blood\u003c/em> to spaghetti Westerns, while the script even humanizes the bad guys — “Just because you was right doesn’t make us wrong,” the chief says to our hero.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a conspiracy at the heart of the town and you likely won’t be able to turn off the movie before finding out if one well-trained stranger can save the day, as things gloriously escalate. “It’s gotten out of hand. Real soup sandwich,” says our hero. That’s not what ended up on your TV screen, though — it’s the very opposite of a mess.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Rebel Ridge’ begins streaming on Netflix on Sept. 6, 2024.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "‘Baby Reindeer’ Actress Nava Mau Found Herself in Oakland",
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"content": "\u003cp>Before Nava Mau found breakout success as Teri, a transgender therapist, in the hit Netflix series \u003cem>Baby Reindeer\u003c/em>, she was close to giving up on acting. But she credits her four years in the Bay Area as a transformative period in her life that gave her the confidence to make it in a notoriously difficult industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Born in Mexico City and raised in San Antonio, Mau attempted to make it as an actress in Los Angeles after college. But she struggled with feelings of failure and depression, and eventually moved back to her Texas hometown. That was when she got the idea to come to the Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A good friend told me, ‘I think you’d really like it in Oakland,’” Mau recalls, “and she lent me $2,000.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In February 2015, Mau drove to Oakland and started an entirely new chapter. In her four years there, she would undertake her gender transition, discover one of her callings as an LGBTQ+ peer counselor and find a community that transformed her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was lucky to be embraced by a community of Black and brown queer and trans people,” she says. “I was shown what it can be like when other people uplift each other. My whole life became about being a part of this community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After rediscovering herself in Oakland, Mau gave herself five years to make it in Hollywood. She found it quite difficult to break into the scene, particularly as a brown trans woman, but eventually made peace with the uncontrollable nature of the Hollywood beast. Then \u003cem>Baby Reindeer\u003c/em> came into her life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963551\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963551\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Baby_Reindeer_n_S1_E2_00_20_42_07-e1725389863640.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Left to right) Richard Gadd as Donny, Nava Mau as Teri in ‘Baby Reindeer.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Netflix)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The show debuted in April of this year, just two months before Mau’s five years were set to expire, and became an incredible surprise success. According to \u003ca href=\"https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/netflix-top-10-streaming-ratings-3-1236041392/\">\u003cem>Variety\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, it is the 10th most popular English-language Netflix series ever. \u003cem>Baby Reindeer\u003c/em> received 11 Emmy nominations, and Mau is up for Best Supporting Actress at the upcoming Emmy Awards on Sept. 15. (That makes her the first transgender person to be nominated for a limited series acting Emmy.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Baby Reindeer\u003c/em> tells the story of Donny Dunn (played by series creator Richard Gadd), a struggling Scottish comedian with an obsessive stalker, Martha (Jessica Gunning). Mau’s character, Teri, is Donny’s main love interest, and she gets dragged into a strange and dangerous love triangle. By demanding that Donny show her the respect she deserves, and deal with his unfinished business, Teri becomes the moral center of the show, offering a vision of a healed and resilient individual. [aside postid='arts_13962898']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Baby Reindeer\u003c/em> is refreshing because it doesn’t fixate on Teri’s struggles as a trans woman, nor does it condescendingly use her journey to teach Donny life lessons. Rather, she comes across as a fully formed woman whose life meaningfully intersects with Donny’s. Where her trans history is relevant, the script treats it in ways that are subtle, complex and authentic. The show is sensitive to the fact that Teri carries scars from being a trans woman in this world, and lets them slip delicately into the plot as would the details of any complex individual’s life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In many shows, trans people’s function is almost to be the safer trauma and the subject of pity,” Mau says. “It really felt like [Gadd] wanted to honor Teri’s power and all the ways that she pierces through Donny’s hiding. As a writer, Richard imbued a lot of gratitude for her. I needed to bring that into my performance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963553\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1706px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963553\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/GettyImages-2155921180-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Nava Mau glammed up at an award show. \" width=\"1706\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/GettyImages-2155921180-scaled.jpg 1706w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/GettyImages-2155921180-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/GettyImages-2155921180-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/GettyImages-2155921180-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/GettyImages-2155921180-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/GettyImages-2155921180-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/GettyImages-2155921180-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/GettyImages-2155921180-1920x2880.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1706px) 100vw, 1706px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nava Mau at The Critics Choice Association’s Inaugural Celebration of LGBTQ+ Cinema & Television held at the Fairmont Century Plaza on June 7, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. \u003ccite>(Tommaso Boddi/Variety via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In my view, Teri’s placement in a supporting role — instead of a lead — helps liberate her from many clichés of trans representation. By not having to carry the entire plot, she can be more herself, an independent person rather than a subject of scrutiny.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mau shared her thoughts on that idea. “Teri being a supporting character allows for Donny and the audience to see the best in her,” she tells me. “She can see right through all the walls that Donny has built around himself. The only way the story can present that is by having Teri be this third person in the plot.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I always say Teri is on her own show, Teri is having a different narrative,” Mau adds. “That dynamic created a lot of intrigue for this character. It’s a gift that a trans woman got to be put into that kind of position. It’s a first.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following the smash success of \u003cem>Baby Reindeer\u003c/em>, Mau has had a great summer. In addition to the Emmy nomination, she also announced her new role on the fifth season of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/you-season-5-renewal-final-season\">popular Netflix thriller \u003cem>You\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, as a character named Detective Marquez. Beyond that, her lips are sealed. “I’m pretty sure I would be hunted down if I say anything about it,” she laughed, “but I am very excited about it. I can’t wait to see it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963555\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963555\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/GettyImages-2151430566-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1891\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/GettyImages-2151430566-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/GettyImages-2151430566-800x591.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/GettyImages-2151430566-1020x753.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/GettyImages-2151430566-160x118.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/GettyImages-2151430566-768x567.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/GettyImages-2151430566-1536x1135.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/GettyImages-2151430566-2048x1513.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/GettyImages-2151430566-1920x1418.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nava Mau at the photo call for ‘Baby Reindeer’ held at the DGA Theater Complex on May 7, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. \u003ccite>(Gregg DeGuire/Variety via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Looking back, Mau now sees her four years in the Bay Area as her coming of age, and her work as a peer counselor set the stage for her Hollywood success. In empathizing with clients and providing a space for exploration, she learned a lot about her own development as a person and built confidence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To me, peer counseling always felt so generative, it was the most fulfilling work I’ve ever done,” she reflects. “And it was so integral to my transition — I literally started the job as a counselor the month I started my medical transition.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mau also credits peer counseling with helping her gain a nuanced understanding of how race, gender, class and ability play into various situations and relationships — essential knowledge for the roles she plays. “The model of peer counseling has informed the dynamics of power I think about when acting.” [aside postid='arts_13939974']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When inhabiting the role of Teri, Mau sometimes found it challenging to get out of her own personal experience, and had to work to build out a backstory for her character. “I came up in community and community-oriented work, and Teri came up in the clubs,” she said. “I had to really imagine that the Bay was not part of Teri’s story.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But she also sees parallels between her time as a peer counselor and how Teri relates to Donny. “I really understood what it is to create safety for another person, and then encourage someone to open up and reflect, which we see Teri do multiple times,” she says. “Asking the right questions and creating the space — isn’t that the counseling superpower?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mau hopes to really change the ways lives are told on screen — not just for trans people but also for Black and brown individuals. Whether or not she wins the Emmy, she wants to use her notoriety to keep telling stories that really matter to people in her community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Being nominated by fellow actors means the world to me, and it also means that I’m going to keep doing the work that really means something, to continue on to the next chapter of telling stories that come from the heart and have some kind of cultural meaning,” she says. “I can’t wait to see what comes next.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Before Nava Mau found breakout success as Teri, a transgender therapist, in the hit Netflix series \u003cem>Baby Reindeer\u003c/em>, she was close to giving up on acting. But she credits her four years in the Bay Area as a transformative period in her life that gave her the confidence to make it in a notoriously difficult industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Born in Mexico City and raised in San Antonio, Mau attempted to make it as an actress in Los Angeles after college. But she struggled with feelings of failure and depression, and eventually moved back to her Texas hometown. That was when she got the idea to come to the Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A good friend told me, ‘I think you’d really like it in Oakland,’” Mau recalls, “and she lent me $2,000.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In February 2015, Mau drove to Oakland and started an entirely new chapter. In her four years there, she would undertake her gender transition, discover one of her callings as an LGBTQ+ peer counselor and find a community that transformed her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was lucky to be embraced by a community of Black and brown queer and trans people,” she says. “I was shown what it can be like when other people uplift each other. My whole life became about being a part of this community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After rediscovering herself in Oakland, Mau gave herself five years to make it in Hollywood. She found it quite difficult to break into the scene, particularly as a brown trans woman, but eventually made peace with the uncontrollable nature of the Hollywood beast. Then \u003cem>Baby Reindeer\u003c/em> came into her life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963551\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963551\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Baby_Reindeer_n_S1_E2_00_20_42_07-e1725389863640.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Left to right) Richard Gadd as Donny, Nava Mau as Teri in ‘Baby Reindeer.’ \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Netflix)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The show debuted in April of this year, just two months before Mau’s five years were set to expire, and became an incredible surprise success. According to \u003ca href=\"https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/netflix-top-10-streaming-ratings-3-1236041392/\">\u003cem>Variety\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, it is the 10th most popular English-language Netflix series ever. \u003cem>Baby Reindeer\u003c/em> received 11 Emmy nominations, and Mau is up for Best Supporting Actress at the upcoming Emmy Awards on Sept. 15. (That makes her the first transgender person to be nominated for a limited series acting Emmy.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Baby Reindeer\u003c/em> tells the story of Donny Dunn (played by series creator Richard Gadd), a struggling Scottish comedian with an obsessive stalker, Martha (Jessica Gunning). Mau’s character, Teri, is Donny’s main love interest, and she gets dragged into a strange and dangerous love triangle. By demanding that Donny show her the respect she deserves, and deal with his unfinished business, Teri becomes the moral center of the show, offering a vision of a healed and resilient individual. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Baby Reindeer\u003c/em> is refreshing because it doesn’t fixate on Teri’s struggles as a trans woman, nor does it condescendingly use her journey to teach Donny life lessons. Rather, she comes across as a fully formed woman whose life meaningfully intersects with Donny’s. Where her trans history is relevant, the script treats it in ways that are subtle, complex and authentic. The show is sensitive to the fact that Teri carries scars from being a trans woman in this world, and lets them slip delicately into the plot as would the details of any complex individual’s life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In many shows, trans people’s function is almost to be the safer trauma and the subject of pity,” Mau says. “It really felt like [Gadd] wanted to honor Teri’s power and all the ways that she pierces through Donny’s hiding. As a writer, Richard imbued a lot of gratitude for her. I needed to bring that into my performance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963553\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1706px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963553\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/GettyImages-2155921180-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Nava Mau glammed up at an award show. \" width=\"1706\" height=\"2560\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/GettyImages-2155921180-scaled.jpg 1706w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/GettyImages-2155921180-800x1200.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/GettyImages-2155921180-1020x1530.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/GettyImages-2155921180-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/GettyImages-2155921180-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/GettyImages-2155921180-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/GettyImages-2155921180-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/GettyImages-2155921180-1920x2880.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1706px) 100vw, 1706px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nava Mau at The Critics Choice Association’s Inaugural Celebration of LGBTQ+ Cinema & Television held at the Fairmont Century Plaza on June 7, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. \u003ccite>(Tommaso Boddi/Variety via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In my view, Teri’s placement in a supporting role — instead of a lead — helps liberate her from many clichés of trans representation. By not having to carry the entire plot, she can be more herself, an independent person rather than a subject of scrutiny.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mau shared her thoughts on that idea. “Teri being a supporting character allows for Donny and the audience to see the best in her,” she tells me. “She can see right through all the walls that Donny has built around himself. The only way the story can present that is by having Teri be this third person in the plot.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I always say Teri is on her own show, Teri is having a different narrative,” Mau adds. “That dynamic created a lot of intrigue for this character. It’s a gift that a trans woman got to be put into that kind of position. It’s a first.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following the smash success of \u003cem>Baby Reindeer\u003c/em>, Mau has had a great summer. In addition to the Emmy nomination, she also announced her new role on the fifth season of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/you-season-5-renewal-final-season\">popular Netflix thriller \u003cem>You\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, as a character named Detective Marquez. Beyond that, her lips are sealed. “I’m pretty sure I would be hunted down if I say anything about it,” she laughed, “but I am very excited about it. I can’t wait to see it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963555\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963555\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/GettyImages-2151430566-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1891\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/GettyImages-2151430566-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/GettyImages-2151430566-800x591.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/GettyImages-2151430566-1020x753.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/GettyImages-2151430566-160x118.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/GettyImages-2151430566-768x567.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/GettyImages-2151430566-1536x1135.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/GettyImages-2151430566-2048x1513.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/GettyImages-2151430566-1920x1418.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nava Mau at the photo call for ‘Baby Reindeer’ held at the DGA Theater Complex on May 7, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. \u003ccite>(Gregg DeGuire/Variety via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Looking back, Mau now sees her four years in the Bay Area as her coming of age, and her work as a peer counselor set the stage for her Hollywood success. In empathizing with clients and providing a space for exploration, she learned a lot about her own development as a person and built confidence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To me, peer counseling always felt so generative, it was the most fulfilling work I’ve ever done,” she reflects. “And it was so integral to my transition — I literally started the job as a counselor the month I started my medical transition.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mau also credits peer counseling with helping her gain a nuanced understanding of how race, gender, class and ability play into various situations and relationships — essential knowledge for the roles she plays. “The model of peer counseling has informed the dynamics of power I think about when acting.” \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When inhabiting the role of Teri, Mau sometimes found it challenging to get out of her own personal experience, and had to work to build out a backstory for her character. “I came up in community and community-oriented work, and Teri came up in the clubs,” she said. “I had to really imagine that the Bay was not part of Teri’s story.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But she also sees parallels between her time as a peer counselor and how Teri relates to Donny. “I really understood what it is to create safety for another person, and then encourage someone to open up and reflect, which we see Teri do multiple times,” she says. “Asking the right questions and creating the space — isn’t that the counseling superpower?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mau hopes to really change the ways lives are told on screen — not just for trans people but also for Black and brown individuals. Whether or not she wins the Emmy, she wants to use her notoriety to keep telling stories that really matter to people in her community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Being nominated by fellow actors means the world to me, and it also means that I’m going to keep doing the work that really means something, to continue on to the next chapter of telling stories that come from the heart and have some kind of cultural meaning,” she says. “I can’t wait to see what comes next.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "In ‘Miss Merkel,’ Germany’s Former Chancellor Is a Crime-Solving Amateur Detective",
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"content": "\u003cp>Little is known about how Germany’s former Chancellor Angela Merkel is spending her retirement, and that seems to be the way she likes it. Thanks to a German crime fiction series adapted for television and now proving a hit in Italy, she is back in the headlines — this time as a fictional small-town amateur sleuth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the title suggests, \u003cem>Miss Merkel \u003c/em>is a whodunnit that imagines the former chancellor as an Agatha Christie-style detective who starts solving crimes out of sheer boredom. For want of a G7 or European Union summit, Merkel is desperate to put down the garden shears and get back to solving something, anything! This time, it’s a village murder. Move over, Miss Marple!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13962860']The TV adaptation stars German theater doyenne Katharina Thalbach as Merkel. Like Merkel, Thalbach is 70 and from former East Germany. She says it wasn’t too hard to prepare for the role.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You could always see the burden of power in Merkel’s shoulders, how it weighed on her,” Thalbach tells NPR. “So, I focused on my shoulders, put on a wig and one of her signature colorful boxy blazers and I had the feeling I \u003cem>was \u003c/em>her. That I \u003cem>am \u003c/em>Angela Merkel!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963552\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1292px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963552\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-03-at-12.02.05%E2%80%AFPM.png\" alt=\"An elderly woman talks to a woman outside. She is wearing a purple pantsuit.\" width=\"1292\" height=\"856\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-03-at-12.02.05 PM.png 1292w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-03-at-12.02.05 PM-800x530.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-03-at-12.02.05 PM-1020x676.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-03-at-12.02.05 PM-160x106.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-03-at-12.02.05 PM-768x509.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1292px) 100vw, 1292px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In a scene from the TV series, ‘Miss Merkel,’ played by Katharina Thalbach, solves a murder case while her guests listen attentively. \u003ccite>(RTL/Maor Waisburd)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Thalbach has met Merkel a number of times but is not sure whether the ex-chancellor is a fan of \u003cem>Miss Merkel\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The last time I saw Angela, I tried to find out whether she’s read the books or seen the series,” Thalbach recalls. “But she deftly dodged the question, saying instead that her office staff are big fans.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The books’ author, David Safier, known previously for his fictional accounts of the Holocaust and his work as a scriptwriter\u003cem>,\u003c/em> says he’s also none the wiser as to what Merkel thinks of his alternative retirement plan for her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963554\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1296px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963554\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-03-at-12.04.10%E2%80%AFPM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1296\" height=\"866\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-03-at-12.04.10 PM.png 1296w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-03-at-12.04.10 PM-800x535.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-03-at-12.04.10 PM-1020x682.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-03-at-12.04.10 PM-160x107.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-03-at-12.04.10 PM-768x513.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1296px) 100vw, 1296px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives for an onstage conversation in Berlin in 2022, the year after she retired from politics. \u003ccite>(Sean Gallup/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Probably she has read the novels,” Safier speculates. “To be honest, if there would be a crime novel where you are the hero, wouldn’t you at least read the first 10 pages?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the books are a commercial success, the small-screen adaptation by RTL — which will be \u003ca href=\"https://deadline.com/2024/07/angela-merkel-detective-series-mhz-choice-fremantle-1236025405/\">available to stream later this year in the U.S.\u003c/a> — has received lukewarm reviews in Germany. The broadsheet \u003ca href=\"https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/medien/miss-merkel-krimi-mit-katharina-thalbach-bei-rtl-19595059.html\">\u003cem>\u003cu>Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung \u003c/u>\u003c/em>\u003c/a>acknowledged the star power that Thalbach’s performance brings to the production, but lamented the show’s “corny jokes.” German magazine \u003ca href=\"https://www.focus.de/kultur/kino_tv/miss-merkel-im-uckermark-krimi-schraeger-wird-es-2023-im-tv-nicht-mehr_id_188954431.html\">\u003cem>\u003cu>Fokus\u003c/u>\u003c/em>\u003c/a> suggested the production company engage Safier as the scriptwriter, seeing as he won an Emmy for a German sitcom \u003cem>Berlin, Berlin. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13963389']Safier came up with the idea for \u003cem>Miss Merkel\u003c/em> in 2019, on the day Merkel announced she wouldn’t be running for a fifth term. He says he sat down to watch an old rerun of \u003cem>Columbo \u003c/em>that same evening and the idea for his top-10 \u003cem>Spiegel\u003c/em> bestseller\u003ca href=\"https://bestsellerbucher.de/\">\u003cu> \u003c/u>\u003c/a>was born.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Safier says Angela Merkel makes for a consummate detective.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Merkel is highly intelligent, much more intelligent than other politicians,” he says. “She is strongheaded. And, after 30 years in politics, she’s used to dealing with sociopaths and psychopaths.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like Miss Marple, Merkel is often underestimated — something the former chancellor used to her advantage throughout her political career. Thalbach says this particularly baffled alpha-male politicians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963556\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1292px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963556\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-03-at-12.05.33%E2%80%AFPM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1292\" height=\"862\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-03-at-12.05.33 PM.png 1292w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-03-at-12.05.33 PM-800x534.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-03-at-12.05.33 PM-1020x681.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-03-at-12.05.33 PM-160x107.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-03-at-12.05.33 PM-768x512.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1292px) 100vw, 1292px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In a scene from the TV series ‘Miss Merkel,’ played by Katharina Thalbach, and her husband played by Joachim Sauer, sit in the audience watching a play. \u003ccite>(RTL/Maor Waisburd)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The real Merkel was brilliant at finding skeletons in the closets of her political rivals,” Thalbach asserts. “But she had none of her own: the perfect trait for an ace detective!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Safier says it’s the references to Merkel’s former life as chancellor that tickle his readers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the first book, Miss Merkel attends a community theater production and remarks that “compared to six hours of Beijing Opera with Xi Jinping, everything else is a piece of cake.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13963140']“Her experience helps her to solve crime mysteries. When she’s questioning a suspect, she knows that she has to wear him down,” Safier says of his main character. “Merkel knows what it’s like to probe and ask questions over and over again. She did it until the early hours at countless EU summits.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike Miss Marple, Merkel is actually a Mrs. — a Frau Dr., that is, with a Ph.D. in quantum chemistry. In the TV series, Merkel’s husband asks why she’s still wearing her trademark pantsuits in retirement. Her answer could be considered classic Merkel logic: “I’ve still got 50 of them in my wardrobe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Angie nostalgia aside, Safier says that in his next book, Miss Merkel is seeing a therapist after realizing, while writing her memoirs, that she neglected to solve a number of issues during her time in office — be it Germany’s ailing railway system or relations with Russia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Merkel was something of an enigma in office. Now, in retirement, the fictional version of her is an open book. The real version is set to be revealed in November. That’s when Safier’s next installment comes out — and when the real Merkel publishes her \u003ca href=\"https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/angela-merkel/freedom/9781035020751\">\u003cu>autobiography\u003c/u>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Little is known about how Germany’s former Chancellor Angela Merkel is spending her retirement, and that seems to be the way she likes it. Thanks to a German crime fiction series adapted for television and now proving a hit in Italy, she is back in the headlines — this time as a fictional small-town amateur sleuth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the title suggests, \u003cem>Miss Merkel \u003c/em>is a whodunnit that imagines the former chancellor as an Agatha Christie-style detective who starts solving crimes out of sheer boredom. For want of a G7 or European Union summit, Merkel is desperate to put down the garden shears and get back to solving something, anything! This time, it’s a village murder. Move over, Miss Marple!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The TV adaptation stars German theater doyenne Katharina Thalbach as Merkel. Like Merkel, Thalbach is 70 and from former East Germany. She says it wasn’t too hard to prepare for the role.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You could always see the burden of power in Merkel’s shoulders, how it weighed on her,” Thalbach tells NPR. “So, I focused on my shoulders, put on a wig and one of her signature colorful boxy blazers and I had the feeling I \u003cem>was \u003c/em>her. That I \u003cem>am \u003c/em>Angela Merkel!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963552\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1292px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963552\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-03-at-12.02.05%E2%80%AFPM.png\" alt=\"An elderly woman talks to a woman outside. She is wearing a purple pantsuit.\" width=\"1292\" height=\"856\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-03-at-12.02.05 PM.png 1292w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-03-at-12.02.05 PM-800x530.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-03-at-12.02.05 PM-1020x676.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-03-at-12.02.05 PM-160x106.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-03-at-12.02.05 PM-768x509.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1292px) 100vw, 1292px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In a scene from the TV series, ‘Miss Merkel,’ played by Katharina Thalbach, solves a murder case while her guests listen attentively. \u003ccite>(RTL/Maor Waisburd)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Thalbach has met Merkel a number of times but is not sure whether the ex-chancellor is a fan of \u003cem>Miss Merkel\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The last time I saw Angela, I tried to find out whether she’s read the books or seen the series,” Thalbach recalls. “But she deftly dodged the question, saying instead that her office staff are big fans.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The books’ author, David Safier, known previously for his fictional accounts of the Holocaust and his work as a scriptwriter\u003cem>,\u003c/em> says he’s also none the wiser as to what Merkel thinks of his alternative retirement plan for her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963554\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1296px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963554\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-03-at-12.04.10%E2%80%AFPM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1296\" height=\"866\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-03-at-12.04.10 PM.png 1296w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-03-at-12.04.10 PM-800x535.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-03-at-12.04.10 PM-1020x682.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-03-at-12.04.10 PM-160x107.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-03-at-12.04.10 PM-768x513.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1296px) 100vw, 1296px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives for an onstage conversation in Berlin in 2022, the year after she retired from politics. \u003ccite>(Sean Gallup/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Probably she has read the novels,” Safier speculates. “To be honest, if there would be a crime novel where you are the hero, wouldn’t you at least read the first 10 pages?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the books are a commercial success, the small-screen adaptation by RTL — which will be \u003ca href=\"https://deadline.com/2024/07/angela-merkel-detective-series-mhz-choice-fremantle-1236025405/\">available to stream later this year in the U.S.\u003c/a> — has received lukewarm reviews in Germany. The broadsheet \u003ca href=\"https://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/medien/miss-merkel-krimi-mit-katharina-thalbach-bei-rtl-19595059.html\">\u003cem>\u003cu>Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung \u003c/u>\u003c/em>\u003c/a>acknowledged the star power that Thalbach’s performance brings to the production, but lamented the show’s “corny jokes.” German magazine \u003ca href=\"https://www.focus.de/kultur/kino_tv/miss-merkel-im-uckermark-krimi-schraeger-wird-es-2023-im-tv-nicht-mehr_id_188954431.html\">\u003cem>\u003cu>Fokus\u003c/u>\u003c/em>\u003c/a> suggested the production company engage Safier as the scriptwriter, seeing as he won an Emmy for a German sitcom \u003cem>Berlin, Berlin. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Safier came up with the idea for \u003cem>Miss Merkel\u003c/em> in 2019, on the day Merkel announced she wouldn’t be running for a fifth term. He says he sat down to watch an old rerun of \u003cem>Columbo \u003c/em>that same evening and the idea for his top-10 \u003cem>Spiegel\u003c/em> bestseller\u003ca href=\"https://bestsellerbucher.de/\">\u003cu> \u003c/u>\u003c/a>was born.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Safier says Angela Merkel makes for a consummate detective.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Merkel is highly intelligent, much more intelligent than other politicians,” he says. “She is strongheaded. And, after 30 years in politics, she’s used to dealing with sociopaths and psychopaths.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like Miss Marple, Merkel is often underestimated — something the former chancellor used to her advantage throughout her political career. Thalbach says this particularly baffled alpha-male politicians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963556\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1292px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963556\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-03-at-12.05.33%E2%80%AFPM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1292\" height=\"862\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-03-at-12.05.33 PM.png 1292w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-03-at-12.05.33 PM-800x534.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-03-at-12.05.33 PM-1020x681.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-03-at-12.05.33 PM-160x107.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-03-at-12.05.33 PM-768x512.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1292px) 100vw, 1292px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In a scene from the TV series ‘Miss Merkel,’ played by Katharina Thalbach, and her husband played by Joachim Sauer, sit in the audience watching a play. \u003ccite>(RTL/Maor Waisburd)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The real Merkel was brilliant at finding skeletons in the closets of her political rivals,” Thalbach asserts. “But she had none of her own: the perfect trait for an ace detective!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Safier says it’s the references to Merkel’s former life as chancellor that tickle his readers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the first book, Miss Merkel attends a community theater production and remarks that “compared to six hours of Beijing Opera with Xi Jinping, everything else is a piece of cake.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Her experience helps her to solve crime mysteries. When she’s questioning a suspect, she knows that she has to wear him down,” Safier says of his main character. “Merkel knows what it’s like to probe and ask questions over and over again. She did it until the early hours at countless EU summits.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike Miss Marple, Merkel is actually a Mrs. — a Frau Dr., that is, with a Ph.D. in quantum chemistry. In the TV series, Merkel’s husband asks why she’s still wearing her trademark pantsuits in retirement. Her answer could be considered classic Merkel logic: “I’ve still got 50 of them in my wardrobe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Angie nostalgia aside, Safier says that in his next book, Miss Merkel is seeing a therapist after realizing, while writing her memoirs, that she neglected to solve a number of issues during her time in office — be it Germany’s ailing railway system or relations with Russia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Merkel was something of an enigma in office. Now, in retirement, the fictional version of her is an open book. The real version is set to be revealed in November. That’s when Safier’s next installment comes out — and when the real Merkel publishes her \u003ca href=\"https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/angela-merkel/freedom/9781035020751\">\u003cu>autobiography\u003c/u>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "This is Genius: A New Graphic Novel Imagines Conversations Between Einstein and Kafka",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963408\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1558px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963408\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/kafkaland-cover.png\" alt=\"A book cover featuring an illustration of a man with wild hair, smoking a pipe and tumbling backwards.\" width=\"1558\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/kafkaland-cover.png 1558w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/kafkaland-cover-800x1027.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/kafkaland-cover-1020x1309.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/kafkaland-cover-160x205.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/kafkaland-cover-768x986.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/kafkaland-cover-1197x1536.png 1197w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1558px) 100vw, 1558px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘How Albert Fell Down the Rabbit Hole and Came Up With the Universe,’ by Ken Krimstein. \u003ccite>(Bloomsbury Publishing)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It’s April 1, 1911, and 32-year-old Albert Einstein — former bureaucrat at the Swiss Patent Office, with a half-decade old doctorate in physics from the University of Zurich — sits in a train car with his two sons and his wife, fellow physicist and mathematician Mileva Marić. They are traveling from Zurich to Prague, where Einstein has landed a job as a full professor in theoretical physics, teaching in the German section of what is now Charles University. He has a few things on his mind, including money troubles, but most critical is his unfinished theory of relativity. When they leave the city 15 months later, Einstein will have cracked the code.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What happens over the course of this long, mysterious year in Prague is the question driving Ken Krimstein’s new graphic novel \u003cem>Einstein in Kafkaland\u003c/em>. Part biography, part historical fiction, Krimstein playfully explores the possibilities, building, with footnotes, on a thorough archive of letters, diaries, and other research. The result, a thought-provoking work made up of comics suffused in a gentle mix of aquamarine watercolors, is equal parts joyful and ruminative. (Think: \u003cem>Alice in Wonderland \u003c/em>meets \u003cem>The Lives of the Poets \u003c/em>meets \u003cem>Krazy Kat.\u003c/em>) The full subtitle to the book — \u003cem>How Albert Fell Down the Rabbit Hole and Came Up with the Universe\u003c/em> — signals the lavish whimsy that goes a long way towards making this such a delightful, inspiring read.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963410\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1482px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963410\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/ein-2.png\" alt=\"An illustration of a small figure standing at a huge window frame where there is the enormous bearded face of a man talking.\" width=\"1482\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/ein-2.png 1482w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/ein-2-800x1080.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/ein-2-1020x1377.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/ein-2-160x216.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/ein-2-768x1036.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/ein-2-1138x1536.png 1138w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1482px) 100vw, 1482px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Turns out that Albert Einstein and Franz Kafka lived in Prague at the same time and had the same circle of friends. \u003ccite>(Ken Krimstein/Bloomsbury Publishing)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Throughout, cartoon-Einstein sports his characteristic pipe alongside a signature frizzy head of hair. But it’s his obsessive ruminations that perhaps most effectively signal what has become Einstein-the-character, a culmination of all the gossip, public appearances, private words, and first-hand accounts of one of the best-known scientists to have ever lived.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13963016']Krimstein pairs Einstein’s story with that of Franz Kafka, who was 28, virtually unpublished, and living with his parents in a house in Prague when Einstein arrived for his short but impactful stay. What binds the two together, in addition to an alleged one-time meeting at a weekly salon, is a complementary preoccupation with getting at the truth — “the true truth” — against all odds, and against many other people’s better judgements. For both, a journey to find this truth, whether in science or literature, is one that will sometimes alienate as painfully as it may ultimately bind them to others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During Einstein’s time in Prague, a time in which he works out his theory of relativity, Kafka will have his own breakthrough. In one long feverish night he will pen the short story, most often known in English as “The Judgment,” which will launch an unparalleled writing career forever transforming art and literature. Like Einstein’s completed theory of relativity, Kafka, too, will offer the world a new way of thinking. It’s a way of thinking that, our narrator assures us, “we’re all still struggling to catch up to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963409\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1441px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963409\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/ein.png\" alt=\"A page of watercolored panels depicting Albert Einstein gazing pensively out of a window.\" width=\"1441\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/ein.png 1441w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/ein-800x1110.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/ein-1020x1416.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/ein-160x222.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/ein-768x1066.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/ein-1107x1536.png 1107w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1441px) 100vw, 1441px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A moment from ‘Einstein in Kafkaland.’ \u003ccite>(Ken Krimstein/Bloomsbury Publishing)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Despite his title, Krimstein centers his book unevenly, focusing mainly on Einstein, and taking us step by step through the meditations that lead to his discovery. Nonetheless, along the way he also provides readers with glimpses into the life of the perpetually melancholic insomniac insurance clerk, Kafka. We witness, for example, an early morning swimming routine with his best bud — and future literary executor — Max Brod. But what Kafka’s presence in the narrative most crucially enables are imagined conversations between him and Einstein. In these, the two puzzle, and sometimes commiserate, over what it means to see the world differently from everyone else. What happens when you believe so confidently in your own hard-won perceptions that you risk killing the heroes that brought you there?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Krimstein, a well-published cartoonist whose previous work includes another delightful graphic biography, \u003cem>The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt\u003c/em>, luxuriates in intellectual history shoulder to shoulder with juicy biographical details. He depicts Einstein debating with his foe, Max Abraham; taking fantastical trips into a four-dimensional world with Euclid; and walking and talking with Austrian physicist, and dear friend, Paul Ehrenfest. And he exposes, too, scenes of the future Nobel Prize winner in the bath, trying to kill off bedbugs; or engaging with his young children, and wife, in Gedankenexperiments (thought experiments), to help him think through the problems that continually occupy him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13962965']At its heart, \u003cem>Einstein in Kafkaland \u003c/em>is the story of ordinary genius. It unwraps the ways in which genius so often arises out of ordinary circumstances. Perhaps even more compellingly, the book tracks how unimaginable discoveries develop following exchanges with others — friends and family, colleagues and nemeses, neighbors and role models. Aberrations aside, works of genius most wholly emerge in dialogue.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Einstein in Kafkaland: How Albert Fell Down the Rabbit Hole and Came Up With the Universe’ by Ken Krimstein is out now, via Bloomsbury Publishing.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Tahneer Oksman is a writer, teacher, and scholar specializing in memoir as well as graphic novels and comics. She lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963408\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1558px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963408\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/kafkaland-cover.png\" alt=\"A book cover featuring an illustration of a man with wild hair, smoking a pipe and tumbling backwards.\" width=\"1558\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/kafkaland-cover.png 1558w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/kafkaland-cover-800x1027.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/kafkaland-cover-1020x1309.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/kafkaland-cover-160x205.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/kafkaland-cover-768x986.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/kafkaland-cover-1197x1536.png 1197w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1558px) 100vw, 1558px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘How Albert Fell Down the Rabbit Hole and Came Up With the Universe,’ by Ken Krimstein. \u003ccite>(Bloomsbury Publishing)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It’s April 1, 1911, and 32-year-old Albert Einstein — former bureaucrat at the Swiss Patent Office, with a half-decade old doctorate in physics from the University of Zurich — sits in a train car with his two sons and his wife, fellow physicist and mathematician Mileva Marić. They are traveling from Zurich to Prague, where Einstein has landed a job as a full professor in theoretical physics, teaching in the German section of what is now Charles University. He has a few things on his mind, including money troubles, but most critical is his unfinished theory of relativity. When they leave the city 15 months later, Einstein will have cracked the code.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What happens over the course of this long, mysterious year in Prague is the question driving Ken Krimstein’s new graphic novel \u003cem>Einstein in Kafkaland\u003c/em>. Part biography, part historical fiction, Krimstein playfully explores the possibilities, building, with footnotes, on a thorough archive of letters, diaries, and other research. The result, a thought-provoking work made up of comics suffused in a gentle mix of aquamarine watercolors, is equal parts joyful and ruminative. (Think: \u003cem>Alice in Wonderland \u003c/em>meets \u003cem>The Lives of the Poets \u003c/em>meets \u003cem>Krazy Kat.\u003c/em>) The full subtitle to the book — \u003cem>How Albert Fell Down the Rabbit Hole and Came Up with the Universe\u003c/em> — signals the lavish whimsy that goes a long way towards making this such a delightful, inspiring read.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963410\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1482px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963410\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/ein-2.png\" alt=\"An illustration of a small figure standing at a huge window frame where there is the enormous bearded face of a man talking.\" width=\"1482\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/ein-2.png 1482w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/ein-2-800x1080.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/ein-2-1020x1377.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/ein-2-160x216.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/ein-2-768x1036.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/ein-2-1138x1536.png 1138w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1482px) 100vw, 1482px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Turns out that Albert Einstein and Franz Kafka lived in Prague at the same time and had the same circle of friends. \u003ccite>(Ken Krimstein/Bloomsbury Publishing)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Throughout, cartoon-Einstein sports his characteristic pipe alongside a signature frizzy head of hair. But it’s his obsessive ruminations that perhaps most effectively signal what has become Einstein-the-character, a culmination of all the gossip, public appearances, private words, and first-hand accounts of one of the best-known scientists to have ever lived.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Krimstein pairs Einstein’s story with that of Franz Kafka, who was 28, virtually unpublished, and living with his parents in a house in Prague when Einstein arrived for his short but impactful stay. What binds the two together, in addition to an alleged one-time meeting at a weekly salon, is a complementary preoccupation with getting at the truth — “the true truth” — against all odds, and against many other people’s better judgements. For both, a journey to find this truth, whether in science or literature, is one that will sometimes alienate as painfully as it may ultimately bind them to others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During Einstein’s time in Prague, a time in which he works out his theory of relativity, Kafka will have his own breakthrough. In one long feverish night he will pen the short story, most often known in English as “The Judgment,” which will launch an unparalleled writing career forever transforming art and literature. Like Einstein’s completed theory of relativity, Kafka, too, will offer the world a new way of thinking. It’s a way of thinking that, our narrator assures us, “we’re all still struggling to catch up to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963409\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1441px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963409\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/ein.png\" alt=\"A page of watercolored panels depicting Albert Einstein gazing pensively out of a window.\" width=\"1441\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/ein.png 1441w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/ein-800x1110.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/ein-1020x1416.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/ein-160x222.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/ein-768x1066.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/ein-1107x1536.png 1107w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1441px) 100vw, 1441px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A moment from ‘Einstein in Kafkaland.’ \u003ccite>(Ken Krimstein/Bloomsbury Publishing)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Despite his title, Krimstein centers his book unevenly, focusing mainly on Einstein, and taking us step by step through the meditations that lead to his discovery. Nonetheless, along the way he also provides readers with glimpses into the life of the perpetually melancholic insomniac insurance clerk, Kafka. We witness, for example, an early morning swimming routine with his best bud — and future literary executor — Max Brod. But what Kafka’s presence in the narrative most crucially enables are imagined conversations between him and Einstein. In these, the two puzzle, and sometimes commiserate, over what it means to see the world differently from everyone else. What happens when you believe so confidently in your own hard-won perceptions that you risk killing the heroes that brought you there?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Krimstein, a well-published cartoonist whose previous work includes another delightful graphic biography, \u003cem>The Three Escapes of Hannah Arendt\u003c/em>, luxuriates in intellectual history shoulder to shoulder with juicy biographical details. He depicts Einstein debating with his foe, Max Abraham; taking fantastical trips into a four-dimensional world with Euclid; and walking and talking with Austrian physicist, and dear friend, Paul Ehrenfest. And he exposes, too, scenes of the future Nobel Prize winner in the bath, trying to kill off bedbugs; or engaging with his young children, and wife, in Gedankenexperiments (thought experiments), to help him think through the problems that continually occupy him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>At its heart, \u003cem>Einstein in Kafkaland \u003c/em>is the story of ordinary genius. It unwraps the ways in which genius so often arises out of ordinary circumstances. Perhaps even more compellingly, the book tracks how unimaginable discoveries develop following exchanges with others — friends and family, colleagues and nemeses, neighbors and role models. Aberrations aside, works of genius most wholly emerge in dialogue.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Einstein in Kafkaland: How Albert Fell Down the Rabbit Hole and Came Up With the Universe’ by Ken Krimstein is out now, via Bloomsbury Publishing.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Tahneer Oksman is a writer, teacher, and scholar specializing in memoir as well as graphic novels and comics. She lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>“Is there anything worse than an actor with a cause?” asks an annoyed Jane Wyman, Ronald Reagan’s first wife, early in \u003cem>Reagan\u003c/em>, the new biopic starring Dennis Quaid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well, after watching two more hours of this story, an adoring look back at the man who served two terms as our 40th president, we can report that there is definitely one thing worse: An actor without a movie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13962898']Let’s not blame the star, though. Quaid, who has played more than one president, has certainly got the charismatic grin, the pomaded hair and especially that distinctive, folksy voice down — close your eyes, and it sounds VERY familiar. If he were to appear on \u003cem>Saturday Night Live\u003c/em> in the role, it would feel like a casting coup akin to Larry David as Bernie Sanders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this is not an \u003cem>SNL\u003c/em> skit, despite the fact that Jon Voight appears throughout with a heavy Russian accent as a KGB spy, but we’ll get to that. This is a 135-minute film that demands a lot more depth. And, so, to co-opt a political phrase from Bill Clinton, whom Quaid also has played: It’s the script, stupid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_vdTwQP1a8\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lovingly directed by Sean McNamara with a screenplay by Howard Klausner, \u003cem>Reagan\u003c/em> begins with a chilling event (and a parallel to a recent one): the assassination attempt on Reagan in Washington in March 1981, only two months after he became president.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are those who say Reagan cemented his relationship with the public by surviving that attempt; he famously told wife Nancy from his bed: “Honey, I forgot to duck.” In any case, the filmmakers use the event to set up their story, and will return to it later on, chronologically.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But their early point is that Reagan came away from the scare with a divine plan. “My mother used to say that everything in life happens for a reason, even the most disheartening setbacks,” he says. And as he will tell Tip O’Neill, the House speaker, everything from then on will be part of that divine plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13963339']The yet broader point here is that Reagan, according to this film, was basically solely responsible for the eventual downfall of the Soviet Union, because he showed the people of the world what freedom meant. “I knew that he was the one,” says Viktor Petrovich, the retired spy played by Voight as a narrator figure throughout — meaning the one who would bring it all down. The script is based on Paul Kengor’s \u003cem>The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism\u003c/em>, and Kengor has said Viktor is based on a number of KGB agents and analysts who tracked Reagan for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That point is made early and often. The rest is a history reel, with lots of glorious, loving lighting around our star. We go back to his younger years, learning about his mother and what she taught him about faith, and then his Hollywood years as an actor, Screen Actors Guild president (and a Democrat) before fully committing to politics, and the GOP.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We also see a newly divorced Reagan meet a winsome Nancy Davis, who will become his second wife, loving partner and constant companion. Like Quaid, Penelope Ann Miller is a perfectly fine actor who has little nuance to work with here. Together, they embark on the path to political stardom, starting with the California governorship. When they arrive at a neighbor’s home to campaign, the housewife at the door hears Reagan’s “RR” initials and thinks he’s Roy Rogers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a decade and change later, Reagan is sworn in as president, beginning his eight years in office. “It became my obsession to understand what was beneath the facade,” says Voight’s Petrovich, explaining why Reagan was so consequential.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maybe, then, he could let us know?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because when this movie ends, with the president’s death in 2004 a decade after announcing he had Alzheimer’s disease, we don’t know a lot more than when we began about a figure so influential in American politics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sure, we get all the great hits. ”Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” we see him say in 1987 in Berlin, a scene with much buildup.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13962724']And it’s fun to see the famous debate lines, like “There you go again,” to Jimmy Carter in 1980, and of course his famously deft deflection of the age issue in 1984, with Walter Mondale. “I will not make age an issue of this campaign,” the 73-year-old president told his questioner. “I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent’s youth and inexperience.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The line, which made Mondale himself laugh, got Reagan back on track in the race. The movie, not so much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“History is never about when, why, how — it always comes down to ‘who,’” says Voight’s Petrovich. However historians feel about that, we would have gladly taken a more incisive look at when, why, how or anything else that would give us real insight, instead of an extended and glowing commercial, into who this man really was.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Reagan’ is released nationwide on Aug. 30, 2024.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lovingly directed by Sean McNamara with a screenplay by Howard Klausner, \u003cem>Reagan\u003c/em> begins with a chilling event (and a parallel to a recent one): the assassination attempt on Reagan in Washington in March 1981, only two months after he became president.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are those who say Reagan cemented his relationship with the public by surviving that attempt; he famously told wife Nancy from his bed: “Honey, I forgot to duck.” In any case, the filmmakers use the event to set up their story, and will return to it later on, chronologically.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But their early point is that Reagan came away from the scare with a divine plan. “My mother used to say that everything in life happens for a reason, even the most disheartening setbacks,” he says. And as he will tell Tip O’Neill, the House speaker, everything from then on will be part of that divine plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The yet broader point here is that Reagan, according to this film, was basically solely responsible for the eventual downfall of the Soviet Union, because he showed the people of the world what freedom meant. “I knew that he was the one,” says Viktor Petrovich, the retired spy played by Voight as a narrator figure throughout — meaning the one who would bring it all down. The script is based on Paul Kengor’s \u003cem>The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism\u003c/em>, and Kengor has said Viktor is based on a number of KGB agents and analysts who tracked Reagan for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That point is made early and often. The rest is a history reel, with lots of glorious, loving lighting around our star. We go back to his younger years, learning about his mother and what she taught him about faith, and then his Hollywood years as an actor, Screen Actors Guild president (and a Democrat) before fully committing to politics, and the GOP.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We also see a newly divorced Reagan meet a winsome Nancy Davis, who will become his second wife, loving partner and constant companion. Like Quaid, Penelope Ann Miller is a perfectly fine actor who has little nuance to work with here. Together, they embark on the path to political stardom, starting with the California governorship. When they arrive at a neighbor’s home to campaign, the housewife at the door hears Reagan’s “RR” initials and thinks he’s Roy Rogers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a decade and change later, Reagan is sworn in as president, beginning his eight years in office. “It became my obsession to understand what was beneath the facade,” says Voight’s Petrovich, explaining why Reagan was so consequential.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maybe, then, he could let us know?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because when this movie ends, with the president’s death in 2004 a decade after announcing he had Alzheimer’s disease, we don’t know a lot more than when we began about a figure so influential in American politics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sure, we get all the great hits. ”Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” we see him say in 1987 in Berlin, a scene with much buildup.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>And it’s fun to see the famous debate lines, like “There you go again,” to Jimmy Carter in 1980, and of course his famously deft deflection of the age issue in 1984, with Walter Mondale. “I will not make age an issue of this campaign,” the 73-year-old president told his questioner. “I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent’s youth and inexperience.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The line, which made Mondale himself laugh, got Reagan back on track in the race. The movie, not so much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“History is never about when, why, how — it always comes down to ‘who,’” says Voight’s Petrovich. However historians feel about that, we would have gladly taken a more incisive look at when, why, how or anything else that would give us real insight, instead of an extended and glowing commercial, into who this man really was.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Reagan’ is released nationwide on Aug. 30, 2024.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Decked out in their friendship bracelets and ready with a long list of song-related puns, Taylor Swift fans came together Tuesday night. But they weren’t there for a concert. They were there to organize.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Welcome to the Swifties for Kamala kickoff call. It’s been waiting for you,” Irene Kim, the executive director and co-founder of the group, said with a smile.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The grassroots organization, which is affiliated neither with Swift nor the Harris campaign – launched hours after President Biden ended his presidential bid and Vice President Harris took over the ticket, is focused on mobilizing Swift fans to get out the vote for Democrats this fall. It’s the latest in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2024-07-30/2024-election-white-dudes-black-women-identity-groups-harris\">\u003cu>growing list of coalitions\u003c/u>\u003c/a> taking \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/08/08/g-s1-15974/tim-walz-kamala-harris-men-for-harris-dudes-for-harris\">\u003cu>action for Harris\u003c/u>\u003c/a>, including ‘White Dudes for Harris,’ which reported having nearly 200,000 attendees and raising more than $4 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='news_11999092']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Swifties for Harris held its first organizing call on Zoom Tuesday night and featured appearances from a handful of progressive political leaders – including Massachusetts Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren, along with an appearance from musician and long-time Swift friend Carole King.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the call ended, the group reported raising more than $122,000 for Harris’ campaign, growing to nearly $150,000 by Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp><a href=\"https://twitter.com/Swifties4Kamala/status/1828607576382296208\"\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-28-at-10.55.19-AM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1172\" height=\"502\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13963329\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-28-at-10.55.19-AM.png 1172w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-28-at-10.55.19-AM-800x343.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-28-at-10.55.19-AM-1020x437.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-28-at-10.55.19-AM-160x69.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-28-at-10.55.19-AM-768x329.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1172px) 100vw, 1172px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The gathering of more than 34,000 was another glimpse into the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/08/26/nx-s1-5080604/democrats-young-voters\">\u003cu>organic enthusiasm\u003c/u>\u003c/a> that Harris has benefited from in the past month since announcing, and while the Swift fan base spans generations, it’s another potentially promising sign for her standing with the youth vote – a critical voting bloc for Democrats this fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Swift backed Biden four years ago, she has yet to publicly endorse in the presidential race. Still, her ability to rally her fans to political causes is unquestioned: In 2018, when she endorsed two Democratic congressional candidates in her home state of Tennessee, the voter group Vote.org reported \u003ca href=\"https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/taylor-swift-bump-midterm-elections-analysis-8484000/\">\u003cu>65,000 new voter registrations\u003c/u>\u003c/a> in 24 hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13955679']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among voters under 30 – who played a critical role in Biden’s win four years ago, Swift is a powerful symbol. She’s massively celebrated among many of this target generation, who have known the country-turned-pop star for most of their lives. Swift’s debut album – which was released in the fall of 2006 – is nearly the same age as an 18-year-old eligible voter today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group’s co-founders, Kim, 29, and Emerald Medrano, 22, addressed the thousands of attendees while sporting the number 47 written on their hands – a nod to Harris and Swift, who does the same with her lucky number 13.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was my wish that me and this beautiful movement could help Kamala [Harris] win this election and become our first woman president and the 47th President of the United States,” said Medrano.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Because things will change, and we have the power to do it through the way we bead our friendship bracelets red, white and blue and decorate our debate parties as if they were album [release] parties,” he added. “The way we show others how voting should be celebrated and not tolerated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each speaker shared a collective pitch: attendees need to turn their love story for Swift into momentum for Harris and Democrats down the ballot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>King, who has long supported Democratic candidates, shared her personal experience canvassing for candidates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Don’t be afraid because there is nothing to lose and everything to gain … The key is listening,” she said. “Don’t be afraid. There is too much at stake.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many politicians on the call took their Swift-related mentions seriously.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='arts_13960424']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his speech, Markey delivered more of a call to action and took jabs at former President and Republican nominee Donald Trump – someone Swift has criticized in \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/taylorswift13/status/1294685437362155522\">\u003cu>the past\u003c/u>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are just five fortnights until Election Day, but we are not out of the woods yet,” he said, “We have our work ahead of us to make sure we defeat this antihero wannabe, or as I like to call him, ‘Mr. Casually Cruel, Mr. Everything Revolves Around You.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the words of Taylor Swift, ‘I never trust a narcissist,’” Markey added. “And this narcissist in chief clearly doesn’t know enough about karma or what I like to call the infinite organizing power of the Swifties on this Zoom call.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The senior Senator from Massachusetts is no stranger to Swift-lyric-easter eggs. After he staved off a primary challenge from former Massachusetts Rep. Joe Kennedy III, supporters of the senator repeatedly referenced the Swift song, “the last great american dynasty,” poking fun at Kennedy, the grandson of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/Students4Markey/status/1286706208003555329\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-28-at-10.55.32-AM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1180\" height=\"902\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13963328\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-28-at-10.55.32-AM.png 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-28-at-10.55.32-AM-800x612.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-28-at-10.55.32-AM-1020x780.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-28-at-10.55.32-AM-160x122.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-28-at-10.55.32-AM-768x587.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1180px) 100vw, 1180px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though the speakers on the call tried to weave light-hearted pop culture references into their remarks, the group’s organizers made a point to stress the legitimacy and seriousness of their work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think one thing that maybe the media doesn’t always get right is that Swifties are just about making little posts and little bracelets. And we do do those things for sure, but I think you can see with the intentionality of this call that we really have had a lot of thought in making sure everyone is included,” said Annie Wu, the group’s political director. “We are providing opportunities, and we are really giving the resources for people to be involved and civically engage this cycle. ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The call also had an immediate ask of its participants: Register to vote. By the end of the call, 14,000 reported registering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group also put out an ask with a \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/Swifties4Kamala/status/1828614864513966201\">\u003cu>coveted reward\u003c/u>\u003c/a>: Attendees who get people in their community to check their voter registration get entered into a contest to win tickets to a Swift concert.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Entries increase in value if the person they reach is a low-frequency voter, unregistered or lives in a swing state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group plans to have additional organizing events as the election continues since there are indeed only five fortnights left.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Decked out in their friendship bracelets and ready with a long list of song-related puns, Taylor Swift fans came together Tuesday night. But they weren’t there for a concert. They were there to organize.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Welcome to the Swifties for Kamala kickoff call. It’s been waiting for you,” Irene Kim, the executive director and co-founder of the group, said with a smile.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The grassroots organization, which is affiliated neither with Swift nor the Harris campaign – launched hours after President Biden ended his presidential bid and Vice President Harris took over the ticket, is focused on mobilizing Swift fans to get out the vote for Democrats this fall. It’s the latest in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2024-07-30/2024-election-white-dudes-black-women-identity-groups-harris\">\u003cu>growing list of coalitions\u003c/u>\u003c/a> taking \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/08/08/g-s1-15974/tim-walz-kamala-harris-men-for-harris-dudes-for-harris\">\u003cu>action for Harris\u003c/u>\u003c/a>, including ‘White Dudes for Harris,’ which reported having nearly 200,000 attendees and raising more than $4 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Swifties for Harris held its first organizing call on Zoom Tuesday night and featured appearances from a handful of progressive political leaders – including Massachusetts Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren, along with an appearance from musician and long-time Swift friend Carole King.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the call ended, the group reported raising more than $122,000 for Harris’ campaign, growing to nearly $150,000 by Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp><a href=\"https://twitter.com/Swifties4Kamala/status/1828607576382296208\"\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-28-at-10.55.19-AM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1172\" height=\"502\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13963329\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-28-at-10.55.19-AM.png 1172w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-28-at-10.55.19-AM-800x343.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-28-at-10.55.19-AM-1020x437.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-28-at-10.55.19-AM-160x69.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-28-at-10.55.19-AM-768x329.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1172px) 100vw, 1172px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The gathering of more than 34,000 was another glimpse into the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/08/26/nx-s1-5080604/democrats-young-voters\">\u003cu>organic enthusiasm\u003c/u>\u003c/a> that Harris has benefited from in the past month since announcing, and while the Swift fan base spans generations, it’s another potentially promising sign for her standing with the youth vote – a critical voting bloc for Democrats this fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Swift backed Biden four years ago, she has yet to publicly endorse in the presidential race. Still, her ability to rally her fans to political causes is unquestioned: In 2018, when she endorsed two Democratic congressional candidates in her home state of Tennessee, the voter group Vote.org reported \u003ca href=\"https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/taylor-swift-bump-midterm-elections-analysis-8484000/\">\u003cu>65,000 new voter registrations\u003c/u>\u003c/a> in 24 hours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Among voters under 30 – who played a critical role in Biden’s win four years ago, Swift is a powerful symbol. She’s massively celebrated among many of this target generation, who have known the country-turned-pop star for most of their lives. Swift’s debut album – which was released in the fall of 2006 – is nearly the same age as an 18-year-old eligible voter today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group’s co-founders, Kim, 29, and Emerald Medrano, 22, addressed the thousands of attendees while sporting the number 47 written on their hands – a nod to Harris and Swift, who does the same with her lucky number 13.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was my wish that me and this beautiful movement could help Kamala [Harris] win this election and become our first woman president and the 47th President of the United States,” said Medrano.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Because things will change, and we have the power to do it through the way we bead our friendship bracelets red, white and blue and decorate our debate parties as if they were album [release] parties,” he added. “The way we show others how voting should be celebrated and not tolerated.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each speaker shared a collective pitch: attendees need to turn their love story for Swift into momentum for Harris and Democrats down the ballot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>King, who has long supported Democratic candidates, shared her personal experience canvassing for candidates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Don’t be afraid because there is nothing to lose and everything to gain … The key is listening,” she said. “Don’t be afraid. There is too much at stake.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many politicians on the call took their Swift-related mentions seriously.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his speech, Markey delivered more of a call to action and took jabs at former President and Republican nominee Donald Trump – someone Swift has criticized in \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/taylorswift13/status/1294685437362155522\">\u003cu>the past\u003c/u>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are just five fortnights until Election Day, but we are not out of the woods yet,” he said, “We have our work ahead of us to make sure we defeat this antihero wannabe, or as I like to call him, ‘Mr. Casually Cruel, Mr. Everything Revolves Around You.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the words of Taylor Swift, ‘I never trust a narcissist,’” Markey added. “And this narcissist in chief clearly doesn’t know enough about karma or what I like to call the infinite organizing power of the Swifties on this Zoom call.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The senior Senator from Massachusetts is no stranger to Swift-lyric-easter eggs. After he staved off a primary challenge from former Massachusetts Rep. Joe Kennedy III, supporters of the senator repeatedly referenced the Swift song, “the last great american dynasty,” poking fun at Kennedy, the grandson of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://x.com/Students4Markey/status/1286706208003555329\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-28-at-10.55.32-AM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1180\" height=\"902\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13963328\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-28-at-10.55.32-AM.png 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-28-at-10.55.32-AM-800x612.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-28-at-10.55.32-AM-1020x780.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-28-at-10.55.32-AM-160x122.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-28-at-10.55.32-AM-768x587.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1180px) 100vw, 1180px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though the speakers on the call tried to weave light-hearted pop culture references into their remarks, the group’s organizers made a point to stress the legitimacy and seriousness of their work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think one thing that maybe the media doesn’t always get right is that Swifties are just about making little posts and little bracelets. And we do do those things for sure, but I think you can see with the intentionality of this call that we really have had a lot of thought in making sure everyone is included,” said Annie Wu, the group’s political director. “We are providing opportunities, and we are really giving the resources for people to be involved and civically engage this cycle. ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The call also had an immediate ask of its participants: Register to vote. By the end of the call, 14,000 reported registering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group also put out an ask with a \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/Swifties4Kamala/status/1828614864513966201\">\u003cu>coveted reward\u003c/u>\u003c/a>: Attendees who get people in their community to check their voter registration get entered into a contest to win tickets to a Swift concert.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Entries increase in value if the person they reach is a low-frequency voter, unregistered or lives in a swing state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group plans to have additional organizing events as the election continues since there are indeed only five fortnights left.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Dungeons & Dragons\u003c/em> turns 50 this year. The tabletop role playing game (TTRPG) has gone through a slew of revised editions, expansions and hack ‘n’ slay imitators, weathered a Satanic panic or two, seen itself replaced in the hearts and minds of the nation’s nerds by games like \u003cem>Magic: The Gathering\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Pokemon\u003c/em>, only to experience a bold popular resurgence in recent years, thanks in no small part to so-called Actual Play TTRPG podcasts and web series like \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/c/criticalrole\">\u003cem>\u003cu>Critical Role\u003c/u>\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/dimension20show\">\u003cem>\u003cu>Dimension 20\u003c/u>\u003c/em>\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://maximumfun.org/podcasts/adventure-zone/\">\u003cem>\u003cu>The Adventure Zone\u003c/u>\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13960471']In other words: As a pop culture phenomenon, it’s been hacked, but it still slays.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I played my first game of D&D in 1978, just four years after its launch. I was 10 years old; it was summer. My friend down the street invited me over to his house, which usually meant forcing me to play catch with him in his backyard (read: He’d whip a baseball at my face, I’d flinch and let it bounce off me, I’d pick it up and toss it back so it landed in the grass 3 feet in front of him with a woeful thud; repeat until dinner time). On this occasion, to my surprise and delight, we sat on his screened-in porch as he took out what I have since learned was the box of rulebooks and polyhedral dice known as the \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons_Basic_Set\">\u003cem>\u003cu>Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set\u003c/u>\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963312\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963312\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/old-game.png\" alt=\"A grainy photo of a miniature figures and two books with covers featuring demonic looking figures. \" width=\"2000\" height=\"1529\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/old-game.png 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/old-game-800x612.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/old-game-1020x780.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/old-game-160x122.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/old-game-768x587.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/old-game-1536x1174.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/old-game-1920x1468.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dungeons and Dragons game pieces, photographed in 1986. \u003ccite>(Joel Congdon/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>I loved it from the jump, largely because everything about the game was so deeply indebted to my beloved Tolkien (Wizards! Halflings! Orcs! That titular dragon on the box cover, atop its pile of gold!). But it didn’t last; my neighbor started at a new school in the fall, and we lost touch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='pop_10178']I didn’t start playing my first real, sustained D&D campaign until three years later. My friend David wanted to try his hand at being a dungeon master and invited me and three other kids I didn’t know to form an adventuring party. When I arrived at that very first session in David’s bedroom, they’d already created their characters — a fighter, a thief and a ranger. They urged me to play as a cleric, who could hang back and heal them whenever they got beaten up. I liked the idea of staying out of the heat of battle and just being the guy who patched my friends up, earning their deep and abiding gratitude. Feeling needed, appreciated. It was tempting, I admit. But then destiny, in the form of my nascent queerness, intervened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>David invited me to look through a thin paperback D&D supplemental rulebook called \u003cem>The Rogues Gallery\u003c/em> — page after page of ready-made characters I could choose from. I flipped through the clerics, but nothing grabbed me. But then, on page 12, just above the chart of a class of characters called Illusionists, I saw it. Him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963310\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1298px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963310\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-27-at-10.56.52%E2%80%AFPM.png\" alt=\"A line drawing of a flamboyant and slender man appearing from mist surrounded by mythical creatures.\" width=\"1298\" height=\"976\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-27-at-10.56.52 PM.png 1298w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-27-at-10.56.52 PM-800x602.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-27-at-10.56.52 PM-1020x767.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-27-at-10.56.52 PM-160x120.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-27-at-10.56.52 PM-768x577.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1298px) 100vw, 1298px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Illusionist in question from ‘Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: The Rogues Gallery,’ by Brian Blume with Dave Cook and Jean Wells. \u003ccite>(1980, TSR Games.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It was a pencil sketch by illustrator Jeff Dee. A tall, thin male figure stands facing the viewer. In his right hand he holds a staff, while his left is open, palm up. He holds his arms slightly away from his body, and sets his shoulders at a rakish tilt — the resulting stance is somewhere between that of an insouciant shrug and a hearty “ta-DAHHH!” He is surrounded by a thick fog — the spell he is presumably casting — out of which leer several monstrous faces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I liked that. But what I \u003cem>loved\u003c/em>, what moved me, what sealed the deal for my young, closeted, queer self, was his outfit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thigh boots, for one thing. I mean, what was I, made of \u003cem>stone\u003c/em>?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plus, scandalously tight pants set off by a belt and dagger. And clinging to every ridge of his slim, muscular torso, a sleeveless tunic — a tank-top, basically — that still somehow managed to boast kicky shoulder pads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13960838']This is the important bit, the part you must understand: I’m not just talking thin, epaulet-like shoulder bumps. No, these were dramatic, flared, Ming the Merciless meets Julia Sugarbaker \u003cem>shoulder pads\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other stuff — the parted-down-the-middle blowout, the cheekbones, the diadem, the big chunky necklace? Icing on the cake. Superfluous. I’m self-aware enough to know that it was that tank top with shoulder pads that did it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I want to be an Illusionist,” I said, firmly, which caused my fellow players to roll their eyes and mutter the first of what would turn out to be a sustained pattern of homophobic slurs in my general direction. I didn’t, and still don’t, care. I was fierce, and I was \u003cem>fabulous\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I fell hard for the game, then. I subscribed to \u003cem>Dragon \u003c/em>magazine, and regularly pestered my mom to schlep me to \u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Dragon%27s+lair%22+%22independence+mall%22&rlz=1C1GCEJ_enUS1083US1083&oq=%22Dragon%27s+lair%22+%22independence+mall%22&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigATIHCAQQIRigATIHCAUQIRigATIHCAYQIRirAtIBCTEyOTI5ajBqNKgCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:7e8f5c94,vid:KnSlDFn3Zxg,st:0\">\u003cu>Dragon’s Lair, in a sad strip mall just north of Wilmington, Del.\u003c/u>\u003c/a>, where I dutifully bought more rulebooks, more dice, more dungeon modules and a steady stream of lead miniatures that I painted very, very, \u003cem>very \u003c/em>badly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It wasn’t easy. Just as I was entering my heedless, full-bore devotion to the game, the Philly paper ran an article in its Sunday magazine which cited “experts” about the game’s purported Satanic roots. An article that, the following Sunday, caused the sweet, kindly pastor at our sleepy suburban Grove United Methodist Church to launch into what was (for him, anyway) a fire-and-brimstone sermon decrying the game. About the same time, novelist Rona Jaffe published \u003cem>Mazes & Monsters\u003c/em>, an extended bout of literary hand-wringing over the game’s supposed deleterious effect on the youth of America, which was promptly made into a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX5ClJ1Y1ik\">\u003cu>profoundly cheesy, absolute hoot-and-a-half of a TV movie\u003c/u>\u003c/a> starring a young Tom Hanks as a dude who suffers a psychotic break attributed to the game.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963311\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963311\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/dandd.png\" alt=\"A newspaper cover featuring a fire-breathing dragon with wings.\" width=\"1600\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/dandd.png 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/dandd-800x1000.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/dandd-1020x1275.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/dandd-160x200.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/dandd-768x960.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/dandd-1229x1536.png 1229w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This ‘Philadelphia Inquirer’ article from July 1981 included psychologists fretting that players used it to escape reality, and religious figures who warned that the game was a work of Satan. \u003ccite>(Today, the Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine/ via Newspapers.com)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Over the handful of years I played D&D in earnest, back then, I had to talk my parents off the ledge every time some new magazine article or \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yShqF1YSfDs\">\u003cem>\u003cu>60 Minutes\u003c/u>\u003c/em>\u003cu> segment\u003c/u>\u003c/a> came out spotlighting the entirely manufactured “controversy” around the game. It was exhausting. But I kept at it; I had to. I \u003cem>needed \u003c/em>to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13962783']Because there was this one time? When my friends and I were being rushed by a phalanx of orcs, and I cast an illusion of a deep pit on the ground in front of us, filled with bubbling acid and metal spikes, and the orcs failed their saving throws and believed they fell into said illusory pit, and impaled themselves on the illusory spikes, and dissolved in the illusory acid and thus died actual deaths?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That? That was cool. And, for just those few fleeting seconds, down there in the deepest, most tortured throes of my closeted, excruciatingly awkward puberty, so was I.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ta-dah.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This piece also appeared in NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour newsletter. \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/newsletter/pop-culture\">\u003cem>Sign up for the newsletter\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, plus get weekly recommendations about what’s making us happy.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Listen to Pop Culture Happy Hour on \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"http://n.pr/3xNgYt9\">\u003cem>Apple Podcasts\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"http://n.pr/3ELR3n6\">\u003cem>Spotify\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Dungeons & Dragons\u003c/em> turns 50 this year. The tabletop role playing game (TTRPG) has gone through a slew of revised editions, expansions and hack ‘n’ slay imitators, weathered a Satanic panic or two, seen itself replaced in the hearts and minds of the nation’s nerds by games like \u003cem>Magic: The Gathering\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Pokemon\u003c/em>, only to experience a bold popular resurgence in recent years, thanks in no small part to so-called Actual Play TTRPG podcasts and web series like \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/c/criticalrole\">\u003cem>\u003cu>Critical Role\u003c/u>\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/dimension20show\">\u003cem>\u003cu>Dimension 20\u003c/u>\u003c/em>\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://maximumfun.org/podcasts/adventure-zone/\">\u003cem>\u003cu>The Adventure Zone\u003c/u>\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In other words: As a pop culture phenomenon, it’s been hacked, but it still slays.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I played my first game of D&D in 1978, just four years after its launch. I was 10 years old; it was summer. My friend down the street invited me over to his house, which usually meant forcing me to play catch with him in his backyard (read: He’d whip a baseball at my face, I’d flinch and let it bounce off me, I’d pick it up and toss it back so it landed in the grass 3 feet in front of him with a woeful thud; repeat until dinner time). On this occasion, to my surprise and delight, we sat on his screened-in porch as he took out what I have since learned was the box of rulebooks and polyhedral dice known as the \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons_Basic_Set\">\u003cem>\u003cu>Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set\u003c/u>\u003c/em>\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963312\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963312\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/old-game.png\" alt=\"A grainy photo of a miniature figures and two books with covers featuring demonic looking figures. \" width=\"2000\" height=\"1529\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/old-game.png 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/old-game-800x612.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/old-game-1020x780.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/old-game-160x122.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/old-game-768x587.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/old-game-1536x1174.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/old-game-1920x1468.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dungeons and Dragons game pieces, photographed in 1986. \u003ccite>(Joel Congdon/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>I loved it from the jump, largely because everything about the game was so deeply indebted to my beloved Tolkien (Wizards! Halflings! Orcs! That titular dragon on the box cover, atop its pile of gold!). But it didn’t last; my neighbor started at a new school in the fall, and we lost touch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>I didn’t start playing my first real, sustained D&D campaign until three years later. My friend David wanted to try his hand at being a dungeon master and invited me and three other kids I didn’t know to form an adventuring party. When I arrived at that very first session in David’s bedroom, they’d already created their characters — a fighter, a thief and a ranger. They urged me to play as a cleric, who could hang back and heal them whenever they got beaten up. I liked the idea of staying out of the heat of battle and just being the guy who patched my friends up, earning their deep and abiding gratitude. Feeling needed, appreciated. It was tempting, I admit. But then destiny, in the form of my nascent queerness, intervened.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>David invited me to look through a thin paperback D&D supplemental rulebook called \u003cem>The Rogues Gallery\u003c/em> — page after page of ready-made characters I could choose from. I flipped through the clerics, but nothing grabbed me. But then, on page 12, just above the chart of a class of characters called Illusionists, I saw it. Him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963310\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1298px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963310\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-27-at-10.56.52%E2%80%AFPM.png\" alt=\"A line drawing of a flamboyant and slender man appearing from mist surrounded by mythical creatures.\" width=\"1298\" height=\"976\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-27-at-10.56.52 PM.png 1298w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-27-at-10.56.52 PM-800x602.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-27-at-10.56.52 PM-1020x767.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-27-at-10.56.52 PM-160x120.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-27-at-10.56.52 PM-768x577.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1298px) 100vw, 1298px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Illusionist in question from ‘Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: The Rogues Gallery,’ by Brian Blume with Dave Cook and Jean Wells. \u003ccite>(1980, TSR Games.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It was a pencil sketch by illustrator Jeff Dee. A tall, thin male figure stands facing the viewer. In his right hand he holds a staff, while his left is open, palm up. He holds his arms slightly away from his body, and sets his shoulders at a rakish tilt — the resulting stance is somewhere between that of an insouciant shrug and a hearty “ta-DAHHH!” He is surrounded by a thick fog — the spell he is presumably casting — out of which leer several monstrous faces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I liked that. But what I \u003cem>loved\u003c/em>, what moved me, what sealed the deal for my young, closeted, queer self, was his outfit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thigh boots, for one thing. I mean, what was I, made of \u003cem>stone\u003c/em>?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plus, scandalously tight pants set off by a belt and dagger. And clinging to every ridge of his slim, muscular torso, a sleeveless tunic — a tank-top, basically — that still somehow managed to boast kicky shoulder pads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>This is the important bit, the part you must understand: I’m not just talking thin, epaulet-like shoulder bumps. No, these were dramatic, flared, Ming the Merciless meets Julia Sugarbaker \u003cem>shoulder pads\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other stuff — the parted-down-the-middle blowout, the cheekbones, the diadem, the big chunky necklace? Icing on the cake. Superfluous. I’m self-aware enough to know that it was that tank top with shoulder pads that did it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I want to be an Illusionist,” I said, firmly, which caused my fellow players to roll their eyes and mutter the first of what would turn out to be a sustained pattern of homophobic slurs in my general direction. I didn’t, and still don’t, care. I was fierce, and I was \u003cem>fabulous\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I fell hard for the game, then. I subscribed to \u003cem>Dragon \u003c/em>magazine, and regularly pestered my mom to schlep me to \u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Dragon%27s+lair%22+%22independence+mall%22&rlz=1C1GCEJ_enUS1083US1083&oq=%22Dragon%27s+lair%22+%22independence+mall%22&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigATIHCAQQIRigATIHCAUQIRigATIHCAYQIRirAtIBCTEyOTI5ajBqNKgCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:7e8f5c94,vid:KnSlDFn3Zxg,st:0\">\u003cu>Dragon’s Lair, in a sad strip mall just north of Wilmington, Del.\u003c/u>\u003c/a>, where I dutifully bought more rulebooks, more dice, more dungeon modules and a steady stream of lead miniatures that I painted very, very, \u003cem>very \u003c/em>badly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It wasn’t easy. Just as I was entering my heedless, full-bore devotion to the game, the Philly paper ran an article in its Sunday magazine which cited “experts” about the game’s purported Satanic roots. An article that, the following Sunday, caused the sweet, kindly pastor at our sleepy suburban Grove United Methodist Church to launch into what was (for him, anyway) a fire-and-brimstone sermon decrying the game. About the same time, novelist Rona Jaffe published \u003cem>Mazes & Monsters\u003c/em>, an extended bout of literary hand-wringing over the game’s supposed deleterious effect on the youth of America, which was promptly made into a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX5ClJ1Y1ik\">\u003cu>profoundly cheesy, absolute hoot-and-a-half of a TV movie\u003c/u>\u003c/a> starring a young Tom Hanks as a dude who suffers a psychotic break attributed to the game.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963311\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963311\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/dandd.png\" alt=\"A newspaper cover featuring a fire-breathing dragon with wings.\" width=\"1600\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/dandd.png 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/dandd-800x1000.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/dandd-1020x1275.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/dandd-160x200.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/dandd-768x960.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/dandd-1229x1536.png 1229w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This ‘Philadelphia Inquirer’ article from July 1981 included psychologists fretting that players used it to escape reality, and religious figures who warned that the game was a work of Satan. \u003ccite>(Today, the Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine/ via Newspapers.com)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Over the handful of years I played D&D in earnest, back then, I had to talk my parents off the ledge every time some new magazine article or \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yShqF1YSfDs\">\u003cem>\u003cu>60 Minutes\u003c/u>\u003c/em>\u003cu> segment\u003c/u>\u003c/a> came out spotlighting the entirely manufactured “controversy” around the game. It was exhausting. But I kept at it; I had to. I \u003cem>needed \u003c/em>to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Because there was this one time? When my friends and I were being rushed by a phalanx of orcs, and I cast an illusion of a deep pit on the ground in front of us, filled with bubbling acid and metal spikes, and the orcs failed their saving throws and believed they fell into said illusory pit, and impaled themselves on the illusory spikes, and dissolved in the illusory acid and thus died actual deaths?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That? That was cool. And, for just those few fleeting seconds, down there in the deepest, most tortured throes of my closeted, excruciatingly awkward puberty, so was I.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ta-dah.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This piece also appeared in NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour newsletter. \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/newsletter/pop-culture\">\u003cem>Sign up for the newsletter\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, plus get weekly recommendations about what’s making us happy.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Listen to Pop Culture Happy Hour on \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"http://n.pr/3xNgYt9\">\u003cem>Apple Podcasts\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> and \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"http://n.pr/3ELR3n6\">\u003cem>Spotify\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_13963259\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1338px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13963259\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-27-at-12.12.06%E2%80%AFPM.png\" alt=\"A book cover featuring a photograph of a woman's face that looks shattered like glass.\" width=\"1338\" height=\"2000\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-27-at-12.12.06 PM.png 1338w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-27-at-12.12.06 PM-800x1196.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-27-at-12.12.06 PM-1020x1525.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-27-at-12.12.06 PM-160x239.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-27-at-12.12.06 PM-768x1148.png 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Screenshot-2024-08-27-at-12.12.06 PM-1028x1536.png 1028w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1338px) 100vw, 1338px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Swallow the Ghost’ by Eugenie Montague. \u003ccite>(Mulholland Books)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In many ways, Eugenie Montague’s \u003cem>Swallow the Ghost\u003c/em> feels like three separate novels. That’s what makes her debut novel so imaginative — and also so frustrating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The story’s center is Jane Murphy, who works at a New York social media startup on an internet novel that’s become a viral hit through social media posts where elaborate backstories about its characters are formed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13962885']But Murphy’s story and a tragic event are told through three interlocking sections. The first focuses on Jane. The second focuses on Jesse, a former journalist working as an investigator for a law firm. The third focuses on Jeremy, the pretentious, Kafka-quoting novelist and sometimes boyfriend of Jane’s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The writing style and genre shifts with each section, but Montague’s novel at its heart explores memory in the digital era. It’s a promising concept but feels uneven.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Montague’s novel is filled with beautiful prose that’s hard to forget, and poses intriguing questions about how someone is remembered. The interactions between Jesse and his mother, who he cares for and who has dementia, are some of the most simply heartbreaking moments in the novel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there are other portions of the novel that meander, especially the final section of the book that is framed as a transcript of a conversation with Jeremy at a bookstore event. The conversation reveals more about Jane and also about the questions the novel poses, but it also slows down the momentum of the prior section focused on Jesse and the mystery he was investigating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though the approach falls short at times, it’s an ambitious one that leaves readers much to think about and introduces Montague as an inventive new voice.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Swallow the Ghost’ by Eugenie Montague is out now, via Mulholland Books.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cp>The Spanish director Víctor Erice is one of our most revered, yet least prolific, European filmmakers. Over the past 50 years or so, he’s directed just four features, starting with his masterful debut, \u003cem>The Spirit of the Beehive\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That movie was a haunting family drama set in 1940, during the early days of the Franco dictatorship. It was also a passionate ode to cinema from a filmmaker who’s always loved the movies, even when the movies haven’t loved him back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13962666']Erice had a rough time with his 1983 film \u003cem>El Sur\u003c/em>, a beautiful yet truncated work that was released in its unfinished form. In the years since, Erice has directed a number of projects, including the 1992 documentary \u003cem>The Quince Tree Sun\u003c/em> and several shorts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he has struggled to get another fiction feature off the ground — until now. The arrival of Erice’s new movie, \u003cem>Close Your Eyes\u003c/em>, would be welcome news even if it weren’t one of the best things I’ve seen this year. Manolo Solo plays a long-retired director named Miguel, who quit the biz in 1990, after one of his films shut down production. The circumstances were mysterious: His star, a handsome actor named Julio Arenas, vanished without explanation and was presumed dead. Now, it’s 2012, and a Madrid-based TV journalist is investigating Julio’s disappearance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After he’s interviewed, Miguel stays in Madrid and makes inquiries of his own. While \u003cem>Close Your Eyes \u003c/em>unfolds at a leisurely pace over nearly three hours, it has the pull of a well-crafted detective story. Miguel reaches out to old friends and colleagues, like his longtime editor, Max, a hardcore cinephile who still has the never-screened footage from that halted production.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miguel also gets back in touch with Julio’s daughter, who knew little about her father even before he went missing. She’s played, exquisitely, by Ana Torrent, who was just a young girl when she starred in \u003cem>The Spirit of the Beehive\u003c/em> decades ago. It’s a glorious full-circle moment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRsn2-bNiGQ\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miguel’s investigation doesn’t yield any immediate answers, and he returns, wistfully, to his home on the Spanish coast. It’s here that the action briefly pauses and settles into a simply magical interlude. One night, while hanging out under the stars, Miguel picks up a guitar and performs a duet with his friend Toni. You’ll recognize the song if you’ve seen Howard Hawks’ 1959 western, \u003cem>Rio Bravo\u003c/em>, which is one of my own favorite movies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maybe it’s one of Erice’s, too. Like \u003cem>Rio Bravo\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Close Your Eyes\u003c/em> turns out to be a story about community, about friendships forged under unlikely circumstances. Miguel’s mission to solve the mystery of Julio’s disappearance becomes a group effort, as old and new friends come together to help him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postid='arts_13962724']You don’t have to know Erice’s work to get swept up in \u003cem>Close Your Eyes\u003c/em>. But those who \u003cem>do\u003c/em> know his work will find the new film an almost unbearably moving experience. Erice is, in many ways, telling his own story: Miguel could be his stand-in, just as Miguel’s unfinished film feels like a meta-commentary on some of Erice’s own abandoned projects. Miguel and his old editor, Max, reminisce about earlier, better times for the film industry and grouse about the changes wrought by digital technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But despite his characters’ pessimism, Erice continues to show a hard-won faith in the movies. He knows that they can move us in ways that no other art form can. At one point, Erice ushers all his characters into a dilapidated old movie theatre, which is where \u003cem>Close Your Eyes\u003c/em> becomes not just an engaging film, but a quietly transcendent one. I don’t want to say too much about what happens, but it’s worth discovering for yourself, in a movie theatre of your own.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Close Your Eyes’ is released nationwide on Aug. 23, 2024.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The Spanish director Víctor Erice is one of our most revered, yet least prolific, European filmmakers. Over the past 50 years or so, he’s directed just four features, starting with his masterful debut, \u003cem>The Spirit of the Beehive\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That movie was a haunting family drama set in 1940, during the early days of the Franco dictatorship. It was also a passionate ode to cinema from a filmmaker who’s always loved the movies, even when the movies haven’t loved him back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Erice had a rough time with his 1983 film \u003cem>El Sur\u003c/em>, a beautiful yet truncated work that was released in its unfinished form. In the years since, Erice has directed a number of projects, including the 1992 documentary \u003cem>The Quince Tree Sun\u003c/em> and several shorts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he has struggled to get another fiction feature off the ground — until now. The arrival of Erice’s new movie, \u003cem>Close Your Eyes\u003c/em>, would be welcome news even if it weren’t one of the best things I’ve seen this year. Manolo Solo plays a long-retired director named Miguel, who quit the biz in 1990, after one of his films shut down production. The circumstances were mysterious: His star, a handsome actor named Julio Arenas, vanished without explanation and was presumed dead. Now, it’s 2012, and a Madrid-based TV journalist is investigating Julio’s disappearance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After he’s interviewed, Miguel stays in Madrid and makes inquiries of his own. While \u003cem>Close Your Eyes \u003c/em>unfolds at a leisurely pace over nearly three hours, it has the pull of a well-crafted detective story. Miguel reaches out to old friends and colleagues, like his longtime editor, Max, a hardcore cinephile who still has the never-screened footage from that halted production.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miguel also gets back in touch with Julio’s daughter, who knew little about her father even before he went missing. She’s played, exquisitely, by Ana Torrent, who was just a young girl when she starred in \u003cem>The Spirit of the Beehive\u003c/em> decades ago. It’s a glorious full-circle moment.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/HRsn2-bNiGQ'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/HRsn2-bNiGQ'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Miguel’s investigation doesn’t yield any immediate answers, and he returns, wistfully, to his home on the Spanish coast. It’s here that the action briefly pauses and settles into a simply magical interlude. One night, while hanging out under the stars, Miguel picks up a guitar and performs a duet with his friend Toni. You’ll recognize the song if you’ve seen Howard Hawks’ 1959 western, \u003cem>Rio Bravo\u003c/em>, which is one of my own favorite movies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maybe it’s one of Erice’s, too. Like \u003cem>Rio Bravo\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Close Your Eyes\u003c/em> turns out to be a story about community, about friendships forged under unlikely circumstances. Miguel’s mission to solve the mystery of Julio’s disappearance becomes a group effort, as old and new friends come together to help him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>You don’t have to know Erice’s work to get swept up in \u003cem>Close Your Eyes\u003c/em>. But those who \u003cem>do\u003c/em> know his work will find the new film an almost unbearably moving experience. Erice is, in many ways, telling his own story: Miguel could be his stand-in, just as Miguel’s unfinished film feels like a meta-commentary on some of Erice’s own abandoned projects. Miguel and his old editor, Max, reminisce about earlier, better times for the film industry and grouse about the changes wrought by digital technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But despite his characters’ pessimism, Erice continues to show a hard-won faith in the movies. He knows that they can move us in ways that no other art form can. At one point, Erice ushers all his characters into a dilapidated old movie theatre, which is where \u003cem>Close Your Eyes\u003c/em> becomes not just an engaging film, but a quietly transcendent one. I don’t want to say too much about what happens, but it’s worth discovering for yourself, in a movie theatre of your own.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>‘Close Your Eyes’ is released nationwide on Aug. 23, 2024.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"marketplace": {
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
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"politicalbreakdown": {
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"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
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"possible": {
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"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"pri-the-world": {
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"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
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"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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"reveal": {
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"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
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},
"rightnowish": {
"id": "rightnowish",
"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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},
"science-friday": {
"id": "science-friday",
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"info": "Science Friday is a weekly science talk show, broadcast live over public radio stations nationwide. Each week, the show focuses on science topics that are in the news and tries to bring an educated, balanced discussion to bear on the scientific issues at hand. Panels of expert guests join host Ira Flatow, a veteran science journalist, to discuss science and to take questions from listeners during the call-in portion of the program.",
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"snap-judgment": {
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"title": "Snap Judgment",
"tagline": "Real stories with killer beats",
"info": "The Snap Judgment radio show and podcast mixes real stories with killer beats to produce cinematic, dramatic radio. Snap's musical brand of storytelling dares listeners to see the world through the eyes of another. This is storytelling... with a BEAT!! Snap first aired on public radio stations nationwide in July 2010. Today, Snap Judgment airs on over 450 public radio stations and is brought to the airwaves by KQED & PRX.",
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