After a nice long stretch of denial, Maya and Rebecca dip our toes back into political waters with Very Special Guests Guy Branum and Grace Freud, who bring queer and trans perspectives to the transphobic messaging the Trump campaign relied on so heavily this past election season. Why was it so effective? How did it connect to anti-immigration mess…

Welp, America has chosen fascism. But the rejection of liberal democracy didn’t start with Donald Trump; it’s been taking shape for decades. Maya and Rebecca sort out how things went so horribly wrong, both this election cycle and over the last 40 years of American politics. Is our political system broken? And what do we do now?…

So we’re all freaking out in this final stretch before Election Day 2024. Rebecca and Maya revisit our episode on the Trump Cult from four years ago, recorded right before Biden’s inauguration, which we then thought—perhaps naively—would be the last one we’d have to do. We listen to it again and ask: why are we still here?— finding answers in Trump…

On the one hand, a demented felon on a cross country tour, swaying and screaming nonsense into the void. But on the other hand–wait, HOW IS THERE ANOTHER HAND? Rebecca and Maya assess Trump’s increasingly fascist language, rapidly deteriorating coherence, and try to wrap our heads around how this can even be close. And the JD Vance Self Owns JUST K…

We all know Trump is a fascist, but lately he and JD Vance have taken it to a whole new level. Maya and Rebecca break down the unvarnished neo-Nazi talking points in their recent rhetoric and ponder the question: Is white nationalism really an effective campaign strategy?Par Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

What did we want to see in last week’s Debate between TFG and VP Harris? Nothing that would make us want to puke. Maya and Rebecca talk about the impossibility of debating Trump, the things Kamala actually made possible, and whether our brains have been too broken by all of this to even see clearly anymore. And the JD Vance self-owns JUST KEEP COMI…

JD Vance and Tim Walz represent a stark contrast in not just donut-ordering skills, but also performances of masculinity. Maya and Rebecca compare the drastically different representations of maleness embodied by each VP candidate, uncovering what their rhetoric and political philosophies reveal about their attitudes toward gender roles, and examin…

As the DOJ indictments on Russian interference in right wing media and politics begin rolling out this week, Maya and Rebecca thought it would be a good time to share this episode about the changing roles Russia has played and continues to fill in the American cultural imagination.Par Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

It doesn’t take a geriatrics expert to see that Donald Trump is deteriorating. Is it just normal aging, or something… else? Maya and Rebecca investigate Trump’s lapses in memory, behavior and language and ask how well they match up with the medically defined symptoms of dementia.Par Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

Couch sex, race baiting, menstrual tracking—MAGA-world is melting down while the Dems are energized and in array. Maya and Rebecca dig into this wild few weeks and ask: why are couch jokes so funny? And why are these people so fucking weird?Par Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

It’s KAMALA FOR PRESIDENT! Maya and Rebecca are wildly gratified to have our favorite political analyst Kaitlin Byrd back on to talk about the handoff from Biden, the instant national sea change it triggered, and our theories on what happened behind the scenes, how Veepstakes will go down, and what Vice President Harris will wear … Continue reading…

Friends, LET’S BE READY. As Kamala Harris accepts the mantle of the Democratic nomination, Maya and Rebecca open up the time capsule and share our Kamala episode from four years ago when Biden first selected her as VP. We’re eerily prescient about the specific ways the left, right, and center would attack Kamala—attacks we’re already … Continue rea…

Happy (Possibly Last) 4th of July! In the wake of the recent horrifying decisions by the Supreme Court on presidential immunity and Chevron deference, Maya and Rebecca thought it was important to repost our episode from 2023 about the Supreme Court, our idealized notions of what it’s supposed to be, it’s real history, and the … Continue reading "Sa…

We followed every moment of Trump’s first criminal trial, and now that the verdict is in, boy is there a lot to talk about. From Trump falling asleep (and farting himself awake), to his defense team’s dumbest moves, to the electoral implications of 34 felony convictions, Maya and Rebecca dive into the all pleasures and … Continue reading "The Trump…

Grunge is dead (again). As Maya grieves the death of iconic producer Steve Albini, she and Rebecca break down whether this Gen-X’s John Lennon moment, if the concept of “selling out” means anything anymore, and why edge lord humor just isn’t the same as it used to be.Par Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

Dune is Rebecca’s favorite novel, but Maya is a pure 100% Dune virgin. We watched Denis Villeneuve’s massively popular adaptation of this legendary, and legendarily unfilmable, sci fi epic to see if we see any of the same things. Does it work as a movie series? As an adaptation? As a meditation on the white … Continue reading "The Dune Movies"…

There is too damn much to talk about so we try to talk about it ALL! In this episode, Beyonce Goes Country, Tradwifes Go Viral, OJ Simpson Goes Dead, and Rebecca and Maya just try to keep up. We break down Cowboy Carter, the weird fantasy of white housewife cosplay, and the legacy of a … Continue reading "Grab Bag! Beyonce, Tradwives, OJ Simpson"…

After taking a much-needed break from TFG, Maya and Rebecca catch up on Trump’s troubles: legal, financial, political, and psychophysical. How fucked is he? How worried should we be? What’s the most productive way to direct our anxiety between now and November?Par Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

Depending on whom you ask, Academy award winner Poor Things is either a feminist masterpiece about an empowered woman, or a male fantasy about a baby-minded fuck toy. Maya and Rebecca attempt to bridge the gap, asking the really important questions: Why is Yorgos Lanthimos so obsessed with old-timey whorehouses? Is this quirky visual style … Contin…

College presidents forced to resign. Faculties gutted. Anti-DEI legislations cropping up nationwide. There’s no doubt about it–Right Wing activists are attacking Higher Ed, trying to “capture, restructure, and reform” centers of learning. Georgetown political scientist and Women’s Studies professor Nadia E. Brown joins us to help us understand this…

Intellectual expansion! Youthful passion! Exploited innocence! Genius writer, musician, and professional flame-throwing shit-starter Meredith Yayanos, comes on to talk about their problematic fave: Liberal Arts Education. What does college MEAN in the social imaginary? What did it mean to us? Cronyism, elitism, pranks, nubility, narcissistic facult…

Were we wrong about Taylor Swift? Actual, real live Swiftie Jenna Parrot responds to Maya and Rebecca’s takes about her favorite pop megastar. Can she help us understand Swift’s musical appeal, not to mention her cultural and political impact?Par Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

We can’t start the new year without talking about THE biggest pop culture story of 2023: Beyonce and Taylor Swift dominating American music, culture and even economics with their wildly popular, wildly extravagant Renaissance and Eras tours. Maya and Rebecca break down the star power, the spectacle and the songwriting, asking what makes these two ……

Apparently there are some people we didn’t alienate with our last Israel episode? Well, if at first you don’t succeed… Maya and Rebecca dive back into Israel/Palestine and try, try again to understand why this topic is so hard to have conversations about.Par Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

Two drunk Jewesses (one with an Israeli passport) dive into the Hamas attack on Israel and the current catastrophe in Gaza, taking apart three major talking points that have been floating around and explaining why they’re all wrong.Par Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

Organized labor is so hot right now. With the UAW and SAG on strike – and more industries getting ready to join – Maya and Rebecca welcome multi-talented writer/producer/director Miles Kahn to go inside the recent Hollywood writer’s strike, analyze pop culture depictions of strikes, and uncover why unions having such a moment.…

Wow, we did Nazi that coming! (Yes we did.) As Elon Musk beefs with the Anti Defamation League, Rebecca and Maya follow up on how he’s ruining Twitter and track how anti-Semitism on Twitter looks different in 2023 than it did in 2016.Par Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

As Trump’s legal issues mount, we revisit Part 2 of Maya and Rebecca’s discussion about Trump and mafia narratives, examining how the character types of the “fixer” and the shady business mogul shed light on the public’s perceptions of Michael Cohen and Donald Trump — as well as their apparent perceptions of themselves. This week … Continue reading…

Friends, if you’re looking for new and profound insights into the birth of the Atomic Age, you ain’t gonna find them in the turgid recent hit Oppenheimer. Rebecca and Maya welcome Very Special Guest, legendary artist Ellen Sebastian Chang, to drop personal and political context that exposes the limits of filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s historical, ci…

In Part 2, Rebecca and Maya dive deeper into what our corrupt and conservative Supreme Court actually looks like RIGHT NOW: poorly reasoned decisions! Inconsistent application of precedent for theocratic right-wing ends! Fancy RVs from billionaires! How do we not lose our minds? (Drinking recommended).…

Isn’t the Supreme Court supposed to protect our rights – not take them away? Maya and Rebecca examine how our idealized notions about SCOTUS don’t match current reality, and how that didn’t happen by accident. They dig into Supreme Court history and uncover the far right’s decades-long project to capture the court and subvert democracy.…

Rebecca and Maya break down the summer’s hottest corporate feminist blockbuster, asking all the REALLY IMPORTANT questions: How is Barbie like Schindler’s List? Is the movie really as man-hating as the right-wing pundits are promising us, or will we be disappointed? Can a 2-hour toy commercial even BE feminist? And why aren’t the Barbies humping?…

As we continue to reel from last week’s Supreme Court decisions, we return to this VERY SPECIAL EPISODE with Julia Sweeney as she ruins the Catholic Church for Maya and Rebecca! The legendary comedian, writer and longtime Sauce patron talks inside baseball about Pope Francis, Opus Dei, the Knights of Malta, why there are so many damn … Continue rea…

Sometimes it’s good to leak government secrets, sometimes it’s not? Maya and Rebecca ask how we’re supposed to know the difference, when we’re not the ones keeping the secrets. Then we talk orcas, Titanic tourism, and why the ocean seems to have something against rich people.Par Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

Drag bans! Trans panic! Won’t somebody think of the children’s normative gender socialization? Maya & Rebecca take a look at the massive wave of anti-LGBTQ legislation sweeping across the United States. Why is this happening? What does it reveal about the right wing mindset? Have 15 seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race taught us nothing? And … Continue re…

With E. Jean Carroll standing up to Trump and Tucker Carlson getting fired, are we finally (FINALLY) reaching a point of accountability? Or at least, liability?Par Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

Maya finally watched The Avengers for the first time, and she has some OPINIONS. We dig into the repeating formulas of superhero stories, why Maya doesn’t want to watch any more of them, and what the MCU is doing to all of our brains as movie-watchers.Par Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

We think maybe Showtime went to all the trouble of producing the hit series Yellowjackets just so Rebecca and Maya could break it down with Very Special Guest Rebecca Wright. 90s culture and music! Teen girl trauma! Middle-aged reckoning! Survival BY ANY MEANS! Pull up a drink and some steak tartare and LET’S DO THIS.…

The legendary Guy Branum DEMANDED that Rebecca and Maya watch The Fabelmans, Steven Spielberg’s autobiographical bildungsroman, and he joins us to break down the Jewishness, the queerness, and the goddamn Spielberginess of it all.Par Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

The Sauce has the best listeners in all of Podcastdom, and this week, they HAVE SOME SALTY OPINIONS about our episodes on Copaganda, White Lotus, and Hallmark Movies. Are we done? Oh, WE’RE NOT DONE.Par Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

As we grieve Tyre Nichols’ death at the hands of the Memphis PD, Rebecca and Maya finally dive into a long-time-coming topic: Copaganda, meaning pop culture media starring THE POLICE. We reach back to its radio roots, historical collaborations with law enforcement, track decades of the genre’s greatest popularity–and most troublingly, dive into why…

After a historically long (and nearly violent!) Speaker of the House election, Maya and Rebecca are joined by one of our favorite guests, political maven Kaitlin Byrd, to break down the circus that is Republican dysfunction, examine how we got here, and predict what it might mean for the country going forward.…

The New Year is here! But before we let the last one go, Maya and Rebecca have to get to the bottom of some of the biggest stories we just didn’t get to during 2022.Par Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

The Hallmark Channel Xmas Romance Season has branched out (heh heh) into Hanukkah, and Maya and Rebecca watched Hanukkah on Rye SO YOU WOULDN’T HAVE TO. As newbies to the genre, we ask–what the hell is going on here? And what happens when Jews get integrated into these narratives?Par Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

So many of you asked us to watch the wildly celebrated HBO show, The White Lotus. So God help us (and all of you), we did. What does writer/director Mike White think he’s doing? What is he actually doing? Maya and Rebecca bring insights into heterosexual marriage, luxury vacations, and being white girls who read … Continue reading "The White Lotus"…

Can Maya & Rebecca ruin the World Cup? They already did! We revisit that conversation with NY Times journalist Ken Bensinger, author of “Red Card,” which details the investigation into soccer’s massive international scandals. Four years later, with all the corruption and human rights violations in Qatar, the topic remains, ahem, relevant.…

The “Red Wave” hit a Blue Wall and Elon Musk is managing to destroy Twitter in under two weeks. Fasten your seatbelts and pour yourself a drink because boy oh boy IS THIS A BUMPY RIDE.Par Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

Anti-Semitism is back! And you better believe Rebecca and Maya have things to say about that. We break down Kanye’s public meltdown, Trump’s threats, conspiracy theories, American Jewish white privilege, and what we really worry about when we worry about this.Par Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen

The queen is dead, long live America’s bizarre fascination with British royalty. Didn’t we fight a war about, dunno, throwing off the shackles of monarchy? Rebecca and Maya break down princess fantasies, pageantry, and the particularly American way we fictionalize and normalize nostalgic ideas of inherited power.…

We knew it was only a matter of time before Lauren Boebert came for us! Lesbian dance theory experts Maya and Rebecca do a grand jete right into the right wing temper tantrum over Biden’s student loan forgiveness.Par Maya Gurantz & Rebecca Cohen