Two-Person Book Club

Season finale! Amanda B. (@AmandaJBermudez) and Rony J. (@ronyphat) try and distract you from the fact that this is only the fourth female-written book they've done out of 12, with a book by TWO ladies: FUCKED: BEING SEXUALLY EXPLORATIVE AND SELF-CONFIDENT IN A WORLD THAT'S SCREWED by Corinne Fisher and Krystyna Hutchinson. It's like-- feminism, but make it fashun. Along that runway, discover... Alt clit-lit is a thing, right? Heartworm pills and peanut buttle. At-home workouts. BYO Blanket fort - Diagram here. I hope Amanda's 6th grade yearbook doesn't have a faculty section, or someone's iiiiiiin trouble. Who's on your Mount Rushmore of fictional U.S. Presidents? Where ChatRoulette at? Dicks! YIKES! (No but fr the #dickdigression in this episode is lengthy.) La. CROY. NOT a discussion. BREAKING: Rony is not Drake. Help us get to a million downloads! I mean, as if we're not there already, pshhh. There's nothing out of the ordinary surrounding this episode that was recorded in March 2020! Nothing at all, just a totally normal day on planet Earth doing evergreen content 😁 RURTHER FEEDING: Do you know how hard it is to find a useful link to a book that's not the Amazon page? Jeff is making enough $ from quarantine season, he don't need our help 🙃 Guys We Fucked: The Anti Slut-Shaming Podcast TPBC Episode 7 - The Psychopath Test TPBC Episode 10 - Kristy's Mystery Admirer "Are Women More Emotional than Men?" Social Psychology and Human Nature, Comprehensive Edition, By Roy F. Baumeister, Brad J. Bushman, p. 185 (Google it, inserting the link murdered our character count.) It WAS The Atlantic: "The Confidence Gap" by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman, May 2014. D2B, by Problem (feat. Bad Lucc and The Homegirl) Listen. It's hard to list anything when you're put on the spot. If he'd been asked about female-fronted emo and hardcore bands at a casual Sunday Tea, Rony would've rattled off The Pretty Reckless, In This Moment, Halestorm, Evanescence, friggin Babymetal, Nightwish, Lacuna Coil, Flyleaf, Veruca Salt, Sleigh Bells, Paramore, and Hey Violet, knowingly leaving out straight-up punk and alt bands like Hole, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Wolf Alice, The Distillers, Gossip, Against Me!, and Bikini Kill. But you know, nerves. Follow us! - Tw & IG: @2personbookclub Amanada - Tw: @AmandaJBermudez // IG: @a.j.bermudez Rony - Tw: @idontreadthis // IG: @ronyphat

(#prisonbreakforcover) While Amanda B. is off re-hiding the Holy Grail because we've proven we can't have nice things, Rony J. (@ronyphat) and producer Josh N. (@theincomparablejosh) reveal the greatest unknown revolution in (Latin, but also normal) American history with WAR AGAINST ALL PUERTO RICANS. What's in the secret warehouse behind the barbershop toilet? Well, guns, obviously. And... OMG THE PIPES. THE BUTTERY, BUTTERY PIPES. It's like an audio version of a dish by... some chef who's well known for using lots a butter, idk if there's ever been one. Communism? GET THEM. Aloha, ohana! Sorry for the reminder. Josh uses the world "excelsior" 100% seriously. Men don't cry, they shed tears. A little something for the #2A crowd! Wait for the brownsploitation version of this book. Puerto Ricans in 1955 = millennials? J. Edgar Hoover = got his own movie, played by DiCaprio; Albizu Campos = ??? And one tiny insignificant question. We're not players. We just engage in close readings of crackling text a lot. MISS US? RUTHER FEEDING: waragainstallpuertoricans.com because of course there's a website. Riots vs. Civil Unrest vs. Insurrection - JORDAN HARBINGER SHOW #314, 64:35 "The Curious Constitution of Puerto Rico", by Nelson A. Denis, HARVARD POLITICAL REVIEW, Winter 1977, p. 21-24 Josh: Tw - @saintgenesius // IG: @theincomparablejosh Rony: Tw - @idontreadthis // IG: @ronyphat

Amanda B. and Rony J. do the serious-book-club equivalent of hitting on a girl that's obviously...uh... not interested in you, by seeking to break down Babysitter's Club book #38, KRISTY'S MYSTERY ADMIRER. Y.A.? YNOT! Ok so here's why not: 1.) Pretty dresses; 2.) fellatio; 3.) ???? Treatise on being "interesting looking". Woman as object --> woman as subject. (Kristy's going to Smith, not Wellesley.) Babysitting over 18 = whoring minus the sex. The do's and don'ts of writing secret, anonymous notes to someone you don't know insisting that you essentially want to possess them. The do's and don'ts of sending body parts to crushes. Simmering class warfare in Stoneybrook, y'all. HEAVY frock talk. GET 'EM NANNIE. OK so obviously we're doing the quiz. Guess who we got! (Hand to God, there were drums.) Everyone's a little gay. But no seriously, Kristy's gay. And that's fine! Not even fine. It's distant. RURTHER FEEDING: BSC slash fiction? YES ("Changing Lanes", by user EmilyJade91, fanfiction dot net, last update Apr. 7, 2012) MUH (Curated fan list, by user Lioness Black, fanfiction dot net, Sept. 26, 2005) FUGGIN ("Fan Fiction Friday: 7 Baby-Sitters Club Femslash Fics to Take You Way Back", by Heather Hogan, autostraddle dot com, Jan. 23, 2015) YES****. ("Mary Anne Takes Charge", by user mayhap, Archive of Our Own, Dec. 18, 2014) "But Sophie, you're totally my type! Type 1 diabetes!" "Scott, I'M more than just my diabetes!" "Well I'm not. I'm Scott Malkinson." --clip from South Park, S23 Ep. 09, "Basic Cable" Putas Libertarias vs. Babysitter's Club-- same same but diff Cootie-Catcher! There's a mobile version of friggin MASH. Like notes that Amanda got stax of from all the lil' boys whenever she changed schools. Wells for Boys, again Which BSC'er are you? Quiz (one of them, anyway) from Buzzfeed TPBC Episode 9 - 8 Ball Chicks, by Gini Sikes Follow us on social media! @2personbookclub on Twitter and Insta

Are mice nocturnal? Where's dad? No dad? Tiny reindeer? Fur is murder! Smoking??? INDOORS! Santa's an elf? Explains the chimneys. YOU'RE a jerk. Happy Christmas! G'night.

Amanda B. (@amandajbermudez) sits down with 8 BALL CHICKS author Gini Sikes (@8ballchicks) to discuss Gini getting in, her subjects getting out, and women getting on equal footing in America. Along the way, the Midwesterners cover... Lucille Ball goes to the ghetto! MTV, PBS, at the SAME DAMN TIME "Where are you guys gonna go now?" "Nowhere." The girls are always worried about you. *gasp* And ShyGirl????? "Have you heard what's going on with The ERA?" (Say it out loud, don't be shy.) Story is everything. Gini is Team... Sheik ("SHEEK")! More costume changes than Madonna. 🎵...but the suits are gray...🎵 How a rogue Smithsonian Alice Paul inspired EQUAL MEANS EQUAL. Detachment while reporting. Processing through comedy. And guys... LAUGH. P.S. - "JINN-ey". P.P.S. - Rony sends his luv (aw.) RURTHER FEEDING: Listen to TPBC Episode 9 - 8 BALL CHICKS, by Gini Sikes How we react when male nudity happens for once Go see Gini live! I'm sure it's coming, put a Google alert on her name or something equalmeansequal.org. Stay on it, cleared hot. Stream it on Amazon Prime Video (and also watch Fleabag because it's one of those ones, you know) Get the book!

Rony J. (@idontreadthis // @ronyphat) and Amanda B. (@amandajbermudez // @a.j.bermudez) do '90s nostalgia all wrong by focusing on the women-on-society's-fringes part of the decade with Gini Sikes's portrait of girls in urban gangs, 8-BALL CHICKS. What does this view of the years-we-all-love-to-forget-the-bad-parts-of have to show us? "I'll be there for you" has a few socio-economic asterisks! Girls (literal girls, lol) in gangs have the advantage over boys in gangs cause the cops overlook them! Girls (LITERAL girls, lol) in gangs give all that advantage back and then some by suffering comical levels of physical and sexual abuse. Rony calls out the antelope community. #lawofthesavannah H&M Gang Gang! Crip = BLUE; Blood = RED. Got it? Jesus is a white woman. #feminism Amanda likes locuses! NOT LOCUSTS, LOCUSES. Rony will man-splain the female psyche to everyone, don't take it personally. Trust SOME bitches, at least. Who cares who's smoking crack in the bathroom? Focus up and keep writing! Rony does funny voices to keep from swearing and flipping tables. '90s fashion = gun placement options! Team Sheik ("SHEEK") or Team Sheik ("SHAKE")? Rony ❤ Sad Eyes 😘 Take cholo back! The worst thing Twitter's ever done. All Amanda has in this world are her ovaries and her word. And she don't break 'em for nobody... that isn't offering books, cake, or a nice small batch whiskey. (Turns out marital rape was outlawed in Texas in 1994, not 1991. All of my exes die in Texas!) RURTHER FEEDING: Lunchtime Leniency: Judges' Rulings Are Harsher When They Are Hungrier, by Kurt Kleiner, Scientific American, Sept. 1, 2011 (Study by Shai Danzinger et al.) Serial Podcast, Season 3, Episode 2 - "You've Got Some Gauls" Sept. 20, 2018. TPBC, Season 1, Epsode 8 - "100 Amazing Facts About the Negro, by Henry Louis Gates, Jr." Dangerous Minds Girbauds! TPBC Season 1, Episode 7 - "The Psychopath Test, by Jon Ronson" m.A.A.d city, by Kendrick Lamar. It's the L.A. section of this book in 6 minutes. Follow us on (gasp) social media! @2personbookclub on Twitter and Insta! Amanda B.: @amandajbermudez on Twitter; @a.j.bermudez on Insta. Rony J.: @idontreadthis on Twitter; @theheartisaronyhunter on IG. tpbcpodcast@gmail.com twopersonbookclub.com **If you or anyone you know is or has been a victim of sexual abuse, there's help out there for YOU. Call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800.656.4673 (HOPE) or visit RAINN.org.**

Amanda B. interviews Keren Taylor (@kerentaylor), Executive Director of the young women's creative writing and mentoring organization WriteGirl (writegirl.org) and publisher of their multiple-dozen-award-winning anthologies. They discuss... The collective's new book, This Moment: Bold Voices from WriteGirl. Self-expression as an unshakable anchor for young women in a world that imposes upon them. The role of non-competition in fostering strength. Being in it for the long haul. Receiving an award from part-human, part-deity Michelle Obama. (Do "volition" and "volunteer" share a root word? Meet me below for the answer.) The change in communication styles of girls over the past 19 years. The scratch of a pen vs. the clack of a keyboard. The unique badassness of good journal design. The prospective worth of the first WriteGirl anthology. Likely a billion Euro. When you should underestimate the power of a girl and her pen (SA: never). The female-led revolution is imminent, sure, but is it a good idea to give girls cannons? What? ONE "n"? That's not a word. Nice try. You inspired, or scared? Be honest ;) Volunteer --> volontaire (Fr) --> volo (Lat) Volition --> volotio (Fr./Lat) --> volo (Lat) RURTHER FEEDING: Follow Keren on Twitter!: @kerentaylor Buy the new anthology This Moment: Bold Voices from WriteGirl WriteGirl website and Twitter (@WriteGirlLA) Skylight Books, Los Angeles The Huntington Library and Gardens, Pasadena, CA

Amanda B. and Rony J. face a choice between a.) silently choking down their guilt at not knowing or b.) reveling in the glory of learning the rich history in 100 AMAZING FACTS ABOUT THE NEGRO, by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. In this, the Mansa Musa of podcast episodes, our heroes spend a couple-odd hours (MORE than enough time to cover 800 years, tbh) rooting through the ignor-gotten history of y'know, a fifth of the inhabitants of this planet. Along the way... Take a peek into the Platform 9 and 3/4 of internal black politics! Explore lacrosse! #fairandbalanced Discover that black people did stuff outside of the American slave story! Severed heads, so sexaaayyyyyy Slavery (wait for it) is bad. Slave rebellions, though, are awesome! The little-told story of Lt. Jack Robinson! Seven-eighths ain't enough! The Black press! Well shoot, what did they use, white ink? Amanda coins the phrase "knowledge is power!" Sorry, knowledge :( General Sherman = OG #ally Lincoln... come on, Lincoln. You'll NEVER guess what Florida is good at! Rony betrays the Kurds. Black women are taking over the planet while no one's looking. #frocktalk Animorphs digression! Why can't I appropriate country music? Amanda defends the honor of all Jamaica! Rony has a vampiric need for the blood of misremembering people's names. Apologies to Newberry Medal-winning Ms. KATHERINE Applegate (not Karen), and Ellen G. White, founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It must be the start of Daylight Saving Time, 'cause we're getting woke WAY too late. #shouldbeamovie #blackwatch2020 P.S. YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID, ARGENTINA. RURTHER FEEDING: 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro (articles), by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.; TheRoot.com, October 15, 2012 Letter from Africa: How not to mangle African sports stars' names by Ade Daramy, BBC News Vicente Guerrero pic. What up, girl. The Myth of Whiteness in Classical Sculpture by Margaret Talbot, NEW YORKER Magazine, October 29, 2018 Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror, Equal Justice Initiative. eji.org Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman, by Michele Wallace Queen and Slim (trailer, opens 11/27/19) Suge, music video by Dababy Bonus - Watch anything Simone Biles has ever done. twopersonbookclub.com Email us! tpbcpodcast@gmail.com

Amanda B. and Rony J. take on (and spend way too long taking) THE PSYCHOPATH TEST by Jon Ronson. Lean back, pop a (Pro)Zac, and descend into hell with us. Spoiler alert! We're boring and will likely not murder you. Of course, that's exactly what we'd WANT you to think... Rony goes back to misremembering people's names! Amanda shares her disappointment at not having become your divine ruler by age 25! What makes a conning linguist? What would YOU do with a white baby? Hot boots are for everyone! Who knows their reality TV? These two! Like a mobster knows the trash business. What's your favorite perversion of the name "Elizabeth"? And many, many, many, MANY digressions they'll probably regret. Too much demon voice. Sorry. FRAPH = Front pour l'Avancement et le Progrès Haitien. They killed innocent people. A lot of them. On purpose. What are those things way down there? Are those rails? Must be, 'cause we WAY OFF 'EM. P.S. They let Tony the (allegedly) Sane Man out, by the way. Sleep tight! RURTHER FEEDING: The Butterfly Effect/The Last Days of August podcast, by Jon Ronson Hey Man! by Nelly Furtado (Rony's MOST favorite Nelly Furtado song) Hello from the Magic Tavern (stay for the child death?) The Shayler affair Email us! tpbcpodcast@gmail.com twopersonbookclub.com **For a thin book, THE PSYCHOPATH TEST can be pretty heavy. If you need help, tell someone and open up to it.

Agent Amanda B. and Rony "Double-O" J. (aka Mr. License-to-Find-the-Real-Killer) jump the shark in rocket-powered skis by doing fiction-- specifically, the novel that introduced 007 to the world, CASINO ROYALE, by Ian Fleming. Did Sir Ian debut with the cool gadgets, exotic locales, and clever women that we expect nowadays from James Bond? Dr. HELL No. Get the living daylights knocked out of you when: Rony wonders why they keep referring to M as "he"! You experience the sexiness of scrambled eggs for dinner! There's a weird digression into the nature of evil for some reason! Amanda flashes her golden eye for drink science! Also: aaaaaaaahhh, my thunderballs! "Do you really expect me to judge a book published in 1953 by 2019 moral standards?" No, Mr. Listener. I expect you to die. (#notgreatforwomen) RURTHER FEEDING (AND VIEWING): "The Tipping Point: When Do Female Leaders Become the Norm?" by Susanna Schrobsdorff, TIME Magazine, October 12, 2017 (Good news! It's at THIRTY percent penetration where a non-conforming group ceases to be otherized as a solid mass, not 40%!) All 24 (as of Aug 2019, but I think the playlist's keeper will keep it updated!) Bond themes. YOU'RE WELCOME. EMAIL US! tpbcpodcast@gmail.com twopersonbookclub.com

Gas station impresario Amanda B. and Walking Zipper-Face Emoji Rony J. dive into the "work"-for-money system and how and why it's driving us mad via BULLSHIT JOBS, by David Graeber. They had so much fun, the unspoken Western economic contract demands that they not be paid at all! NONE CAN ESCAPE THE BLOOD SACRIFICE, ALL MUST SUFFERRRRRRRRR *cue "Raining Blood" by Slayer* Marvel at how giving a homeless person $10 is a waste while giving a consulting firm $1,000,000 is an efficient use of capital! Uncover the secret financial jiu-jitsu of the Mexican military! Despair at... just about everything! Leave the hairdressers alone! And (are you sitting down?) women do a lot! This was supposed to be a light, breezy book. My B! RURTHER FEEDING (AND LISTENING): "On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs: A Work Rant" by David Graeber; STRIKE! magazine, August 2013 "A Good Walk Spoiled" by Malcolm Gladwell; REVISIONIST HISTORY podcast, Season 2, Episode 1, 2016 PRINCIPLES by Ray Dalio. Rony bought this 500-page book for like 30 dollars, only to discover that it's now an app, and free. Hooray! "Dread in My Heart" by Mother Mother; it's a vibe tho. Email us! tpbcpodcast@gmail.com. And we totally have social media, it's just... resting its eyes.

Inspired by THE MANSION OF HAPPINESS, Amanda B. and Rony J. put on their tri-corns and dive head-first into a jug full. Ask not what your podcast can do for you, but how much shrimp you can throw on the barbie! I'm sorry. (Intro by David E. Lessard II)

Amanda B. and Rony J. follow Harvard professor and professional NEW YORKER-er Jill Lepore through birth, adolescence, work, and death, via a Puritan board game called THE MANSION OF HAPPINESS. Amanda antagonizes a (maybe) dead man, while Rony comes face to face with a giant conundrum. "Impure thought!" the child ejaculated. "Go back three spaces!" We joke because otherwise we'd remember that women didn't get the vote until 1920. Who has the movie rights to the Anne Carroll Moore vs. Katharine White story? -- RURTHER FEEDING: "Are Robots Competing for your Job?" by Lepore, Jill. Email us! tpbcpodcast@gmail.com

Amanda B. and Rony J. pick through a tender family drama in the looming shadow of the hallmark horror of the 20th century. Come for the cute animal allegory, stay for the holy-crap-they-force-marched-these-people-miles-in-the-woods-at-night-and-left-them-packed-like-sardines-standing-up-in-train-cars-only-opening-the-doors-to-collect-the-dead-and-that's-AFTER-the-war-was-basically-over. Remember-- these are people, that did this to other human beings. That being said, OMG those antlers. Email us! tpbcpodcast@gmail.com

Amanda and Rony dive into Walker Percy's super-casual hybrid parody-self-help-theoretical-space-narrative centering on a dense mid-century theory of language and the self. What they find there is unspeakable! Pro-tip: don't look at the sun. Also, Charles Bronson, not Richard. He knows. **This book, and this episode, makes short mention of suicide. If you're having any suicidal ideation (visualizing, contemplating methods) or planning, take heart-- you're showing clear SYMPTOMS of a TREATABLE disease. Tell someone you trust, and get help. 1-800-273-8255, or text TALK to 741741.**

Amanda and Rony vet the philosopher's ideas on what makes a story a story. Can one still Oedipus Rex in a Black Mirror world?