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Welcome to the Double X Gab Fest for Thursday, June 12th, the fully responsive edition.

I'm June Thomas, editor of Outwood, Slate's LGBTQ section.

And since Hannah is out, we are once again all packed into the Slate New York

studio. I'm here with Slate's senior editor Jessica Winter. Hello Jessica. Hey here too. And Noreen

of New York Magazine. Hey Noreen. Before we get started, I just want to remind listeners about our

email address where you can send comments, questions and expressions of appreciation and outrage.

That address is double X gabfest at slate.com.

After our last show, we got a bunch of emails taking us to task about our patronizing take

on hashtag activism or as one smart letter writer put it, hashtag condescending, hashtag

missed the point.

Are we too used to the slate counterintuitive mindset

that we miss the essential goodness in earnest expressions of frustration and anger? Perhaps.

So, thanks for pointing that out. Rebecca Heller said we should invite people who actually

understand science onto the show when we discuss science-related topics, which also may be a good

suggestion.

Which science-related topic?

Monstration.

Oh, scientific.

But generally I do concede my own complete and total ignorance of science, so I'm a little...

I feel like it's a stretch to categorize menstruation as a science.

I mean, we certainly have screwed up science topics before, probably, but I feel confident

...