We lost Dolly Parton this week, and then Tim Curry followed right behind her. It’s the kind of loss that makes you feel the eclipse energy in your bones — a little bit 2016, a little bit too much all at once. This episode starts there: the grief, the parasocial ache of losing someone you never met but somehow knew, and a genuine send-off for the woman who refused to stay in her lane.
Then, because sad doesn’t cancel out good things happening, a couple of glimmers: a wonderfully un-heckled night watching Chelsea Peretti work out new material at Solaris Hall, and a surprise new favorite album from an artist recommendation that actually stuck.
And because sometimes the best way through sad is mad, the episode closes on a rant. Cory Doctorow’s new book has confirmed every suspicion about the tech and finance sectors being built on inflated valuations and borrowed credibility, and there’s a real conversation here about pedestals, participation, and what happens when we stop supplying both.
In honor of Dolly: be kind, wear what you want, and think for yourself.
