Today I'm going to call Margaret Atwood the legendary extraordinary Margaret Atwood,

author of so many novels and books of poetry and children's books.

I was still in my teens when the Handmaid's tale came out and I read it and was

astonished by it and I've loved her ever since. She's written so powerfully about people in incredibly difficult circumstances,

people who can't even use their own names, right?

People whose movement is constricted and whose thought is

constructed and I think that there's something in essence the way she

writes about how we persist in the face of extreme difficulty that I felt like she

might be the person to talk to at this very moment when so many of us are wondering,

well, how do we live this new way and what is the way forward?

Margaret Atwood has written about that in so many ways in so many forms for decades now.

I'm going to give her a call. the You're not going to be. You're not. Hi Cheryl.

Hi, Hi, Margaret.

I'm so glad to talk to you.

Lovely to talk to you. So where are you, Margaret? What, and who are you with? I'm right in my study. My

sister is here. She has brought her sewing machine. I've dredged out my ancient sewing machine and

we're going to make face masks. Oh that's so wonderful. And we're going to go get some blue shop towels because apparently they make good linings.

Really? Yeah. Now is this sewing machine? Tell me like is this something you've had for a long time and how did you learn to

sell? I've had it for a long time. I sold all my clothes in high school as people who were that

way inclined did.

And I also sewed clothes for my baby sister who was here with me right now.

She's 12 years younger.

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