Hello and welcome to episode one of Hysteria a new podcast from Crooked Media. I'm your

host Aaron Ryan. As you listen you might listen you might notice that I'm a woman you might

further notice that none of the voices you hear on this podcast belong to

men that is on purpose podcasting seems a little dude heavy and while I love

dudes as much as the next person, hysteria is designed to be a space where

women and anybody who doesn't identify as a man talk to each other.

Second, this episode of Hysteria is going to be a little different from a typical episode.

I'm joined by all six of my co-hosts, both from the East and West Coast,

so you can get to know all of them.

In the future, you'll typically hear from two or three of them at once.

There was also some breaking news on Wednesday that came after we'd already recorded most of the show,

but because we're devoted to giving you the best

goddamn podcast we possibly can we called the gang back together to weigh in on the

huge announcement that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy is retiring

effectively throwing the future of

reproductive rights in this country into question. After we tackle that you'll

hear a deep dive into use of the C word from the Los Angeles crew as well as

a weekend sorry from New York ending on a

high note with cultural recommendations from LA in a segment called I'll have

what she's having. There's a lot to talk about. But first, the good news.

My name is Blair Amani. I'm an author and activist, and the hill that I will die on is that the first season of Pokemon is based entirely on psychological theory.

More tweets on that later, but it's true.

...