Hey everyone, it's Mary. Today's show is all about the writer's guild strike out in Hollywood,

which seems to be resolving. A quick heads up though, that the writer's guild also negotiates

Slate's contract with its writers and podcast hosts, people like me. But that is a totally

separate negotiation. Then this one. Alright, on with the show.

When I got the New Yorker's Michael Shulman on the line, I had one big question for him.

I wanted him to tell me how big of a deal it is that Hollywood writers seem to have

eaked out a new contract with their studio bosses, potentially putting an end to one of the longest

strikes in writer's guild history. Michael, he put it like this. They have gotten much of what

they wanted and it was a really long, hard, taxing, emotional fight.

All summer long, Michael has been calculating the cost of that taxing, emotional fight.

I mean, I was in Los Angeles a week or two ago, right after Labor Day, and I could sense this feeling

of like total exhaustion. You know, I'm friends with TV writers who just felt like, okay,

we've been striking all summer. And now Labor Day has come and gone. The summer's over.

This really needs to end. There's a pain point. Yeah. And so when they all got back in the room

and the CEOs of the companies were showing up, finally, like, you know, Bob Iger, Ted Serandos

from Netflix, you know, it seemed like it was really for real. It turns out those Hollywood bosses

were feeling the pain too, staring down as much as $1.6 billion of lost revenue at the box office.

Early on, they talked a big game, calling the guild's demands unrealistic. One exec told a reporter,

they were prepared to let striking workers bleed out, lose their homes and apartments,

before sitting down and coming to an agreement. In the end, that nearly had to happen.

In the last few weeks, strike funds were reportedly overwhelmed with requests.

Being a TV writer or screenwriter in Hollywood doesn't mean you have endless money,

...