This is the waves. This is the waves. This is the waves. This is the waves. This is the waves.

Hello and welcome to the waves. Slates podcast about gender, feminism, and catching up with old

friends after two years that felt more like 10. I'm Christina Kateruchi, a senior writer at Slate,

and I've got to say it, it must be the season of giving because the powers that be here at Slate,

or maybe maybe a little help from Santa, have given me the thing that was at the very top of my

wish list this year. A reunion episode with two of my very favorite thinkers and podcasters.

So this week I'm joined by Nicole Perkins and Marsha Chatlin. We haven't actually recorded

together since April 2020 and I know a lot of new listeners have come into the fold since then.

So why don't you two reintroduce yourselves? Hi, I'm Nicole Perkins, a writer and podcaster,

and I have missed the waves so, so, so very much. I'm Marsha Chatlin, a professor of history at

Georgetown University and a constant source of hot takes based in Washington, DC. Both of you

had big years in 2020 and 2021 in spite of the global tumult. Give us the rundown. What have you

been up to? Well, I will start in this order. I got a master class subscription and I started

making a bunch of recipes from Thomas Keller. I bought a house during the pandemic. I won the

poll surprise in history. It sounds really weird to say it. But that was an incredible moment.

And I adopted a baby boy. My son Michael came to us on April 1st of 2021 and he kind of erased

the pure garbage year of 2020 with his giant cheeks. Nicole, tell us about your year, years.

I started a new podcast called This Is Good For You. And that's where I talk to people about

the things that they do for pleasure, just for themselves. Then I went to Dublin, Ireland

as a special treat to myself because I had published a book in 2021 in August. It's a memoir

called Sometimes I Trip on How Happy We Could Be. Those are the pretty big things that happened.

I mean, your book also received a lot of props from very well-known people. You were part of

...