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Hello and welcome to a special Slate podcast with the founding editors of Double X Slate's Longtime Women's Section.

I'm joined today by Emily Bazelon, now a writer for the New York Times Magazine. Welcome, Emily.

Hey, Julia. Thank you.

And Megan O'Rourke, a critic and poet and the author of the recent poetry collection, Sun in Days. Welcome, Megan.

Hello.

And by Hannah Rosen, now one of the hosts of NPR's Invisibilia. Welcome, Hannah. Hi. It's so fun to have you three in a virtual studio together. And of course, our regular listeners know that you guys each pop up extremely regularly or very regularly on various other Slate podcasts, including

Double X, The Political Gab Fest and the audiobook club. But we're here today to talk about

double X. We've gathered for an Irish wake of sorts. We have just announced here at Slate

that we are closing double X. The section,

which began as a Slate blog XX Factor during Hillary Clinton's first campaign for the presidency,

then launched as a standalone site before taking its place on Slate proper, has fostered some of the

best work Slate has ever published, and some of the sharpest voices over the past decade, among them

Amanda Hess, Christina Cotarucci, and Ruth Graham. But at a moment when matters of gender are vital to our coverage

of news, politics, culture, and technology, and when there's a hunger for family and lifestyle

coverage for and by readers of all genders, we've decided to pull up stakes on the idea of an

editorial section that carves out womanhood as a particular focus.

We'll continue to cover matters pertaining to gender in our news section and across the magazine,

and will feature parenting and lifestyle issues in a new section called Human Interest,

intended for readers of any gender.

The Double X podcast, which Hannah still hosts, will continue as an audio outpost of smart and lively

conversation among women that you three helped cultivate nearly a decade ago.

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