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“Chelsea is projecting out her cold psychotic nature and I hope she never has children.” “I'm very concerned about this person's upbringing. I really hope she doesn't have children.” “Must have been abandoned at birth” “she has two children. Poor things” “some mothers eat their own young. chelsea conaboy seems like one of those mothers.” I was dragged on Twitter, again. Nearly a year ago, I wrote an op-ed for The New York Times, adapted from my book, arguing that maternal instinct is a myth.

“I’m not dead.” That’s the answer I’d hoped to hear — and did — from Trevor Hughes when he picked up the phone around midday Monday. Hughes is a senior national correspondent for USA Today based out of Denver. We hadn’t meaningfully spoken or interacted in years, but I rang him up, hoping he’d answer. When he did, his deadpan tone made it clear he’d been expecting my call. But why would I think Trevor Hughes was dead?

A note to Fight Freaks Unite readers: I created Fight Freaks Unite in January 2021 and eight months later it also became available for paid subscriptions for additional content — and as a way to help keep this newsletter going and for readers to support independent journalism. If you haven’t upgraded to a paid subscription please consider it. If you have already, I truly appreciate it! Also, consider a gift subscription for the Fight Freak in your life.

Not Fade Away, a 2012 film directed by David Chase, takes place almost entirely in the suburbs of New Jersey but begins half a world away. Its opening moments depict a fateful 1961 train ride shared by two young Londoners — one a student at Sidcup Art College, the other on his way to London School of Economics — during which they discuss their mutual love of American blues and R&B.

If you live in Chicago—in Chicago proper, not the greater Chicagoland area—the suburbs can seem like a foreign country. That’s especially true of the towns and villages that make up North Shore, which look like a high-end catalog version of an American suburb. If you take Clark Street north past Howard you’ll hit Evanston, a city that has its own downtown and, of course, a Big Ten college, but which feels a bit like an extension built onto Chicago to deal with overflow, a kind of SRO section for the north side.

Hey movie lovers! As always, you can find a podcast version of this newsletter on Apple or Spotify. Thank you so much for listening and spreading the word! This week: A surprisingly good streaming comedy gives me hope for the genre that’s been dead for years. Also, did you know Adam Sandler has a new Netflix movie out? Probably not. I’ll explain why before diving into my streaming recommendations for the week. In this week’s “Trailer Watch,” let’s talk about what sells a horror movie.

1× 0:00 -25:33 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade.If you’re new here, this is The Barrens, a Stephen King book club. If you’d like to join in, just read this intro here. We’ll talk books, what we liked, what we didn’t, what surprised us. This is meant to be a conversation, so please, join in! Write your own response reviews if you have a Substack. Reply to other people’s comments.

Welcome back! We’re here with another Sunday issue of the Animation Obsessive newsletter — we hope you’ll enjoy it. Here’s our slate today: If you’re just finding us — it’s free to sign up for the newsletter. You’ll get our Sunday issues right in your inbox, weekly: Sign Up With that, we’re off! California is the seat of American animation — and its industry is in turmoil. Priorities have changed in Hollywood.

Welcome to Gibson Johns’ pop culture newsletter — subscribe to get recommendations of what to watch, read and listen to in your inbox every week!After Christine Quinn’s exit at the end of season 5, it was unclear what “Selling Sunset” was going to look like moving forward. Netflix had renewed the docu-soap for a sixth and seventh season, but its first five seasons relied so heavily on the Christine-as-villain and Christine vs.