My Mother’s Career at “Playboy,” and the Politics of N.F.L. Protest

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

Politics, Arts, News, Wnyc, Books, David, Storytelling, Society & Culture, Yorker, New, Remnick

4.2 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 17 October 2017

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The death last month of Hugh Hefner reopened a conversation about the “Playboy” founder and the world he created. Hefner said that his magazine’s pictures of naked or near-naked women were an empowering blow against puritanism; his critics argued that they normalized the degradation of women. Janice Moses was just nineteen and in desperate need of a job when she started in the magazine’s photo department, eventually rising to become a photo editor. Empowered as a professional woman, she became increasingly uncomfortable with the content, especially as “Playboy” began competing with more explicit rivals such as “Hustler.” After Hefner died, Janice’s daughter, Michele Moses—a member of the The New Yorker’s editorial staff—had a few questions about her mother’s years making centerfolds. Also: The New Yorker staff writer Jelani Cobb talks with Bill Rhoden, a writer-at-large for ESPN’s “Undefeated,” about the fifty-year history of black athletes embracing politics on the field. Is it time, they ask, to retire “The Star-Spangled Banner” from football?

Transcript

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0:00.0	These are just anecdotes, but it's building up into something more coherent.
0:09.8	I think it'd be interesting to really try to unravel what his ties.
0:13.7	There's this sort of country city divide for their own convenient, and it's not clear where it goes next.
0:19.8	From One World Trade Center in Manhattan, this is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC
0:25.6	Studios and The New Yorker.
0:29.8	Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.
0:32.8	Today we'll hear a heart-to-heart talk, mother-to-daughter, about working for Playboy magazine, all back in its heyday under the late Hugh Hefner.
0:41.6	You know, and Heff had his finger on the pulse. The world was ready for a change. Otherwise, it wouldn't have followed him off a cliff. Right?
0:50.8	That's all coming up later. But we begin the hour with football, and this season, the player on everybody's mind hasn't set foot on the field even once.
1:00.1	Colin Kaepernick, formerly of the 49ers, is an unsigned free agent. But the silent protest against police brutality that he began last year, taking a knee during the national anthem, now has a life
1:12.1	of its own. We can thank the president of the United States, of course, for reigniting a protest
1:16.8	that was not very popular in the first place, and had kind of lost its momentum after Kaepernick left
1:22.1	the 49ers. Wouldn't you love to see one of these NFL owners when somebody disrespects our flag to say,
1:29.6	get that son of a bitch off the field right now out?
1:33.2	He's fired.
1:35.1	He's fired!
1:37.4	The New Yorker's Jolani Cobb recently sat down with Bill Roden, late of the New York Times,
1:42.3	now a contributor to ESPN's website, The Undefeated.
1:45.9	Rodin is also the author of the book $40 million slaves about black athletes in professional
1:51.4	sports.
1:53.1	The first time we met was at a restaurant in Harlem, and you had a group of people there, Roman Oban from the Giants was there.
2:05.2	Yeah, right.
	...

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