What 'Cat Person' Tells Us About Female Pleasure. Plus Which Social Media Platform Is The Most Dangerous?
The High Low
The High Low
4.8 • 9.6K Ratings
🗓️ 13 December 2017
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Pandora's been moving house and Dolly's been hosting Pretendmas (don't ask; she'll tell you all about it anyway) but there are still plenty of water cooler topics to discuss this week.
From some brilliant pieces of journalism (including a heart-breaking piece by Empire Editor Terri White on the vital role a woman's refuge played in both her own childhood and in British society as a whole) to plenty of podcast recommendations from the ultimate podcat, Dolly, this week we discuss 'Cat Person', the New Yorker short story that went viral - and what this piece of fiction tells us about modern relationships; toxic masculinity; bad sex and female pleasure.
We also play you an excerpt of the shocking and riveting speech given by former Facebook VP Chamath Palihapitiya at Stanford University, on how Facebook is ripping society apart. In light of this and plenty of other disclaimers from both former and present tech execs, we discuss the dangers of social media in both a personal and a social context. From the richest (first world FOMO caused by your Instagram feed) to the poorest (Whatsapp hoax that caused violence in a rural Indian village), we are all affected by social media in its myriad forms.
What we are reading, watching and listening to:
A Woman's Refuge Saved My Family, by Terri White for The Pool https://www.the-pool.com/life/life-honestly/2017/49/Terri-White-on-the-funding-crisis-hitting-women-s-refuges
I Made My Shed The Top Rated Restaurant on Trip Advisor, by Oobah Butler for VICE https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/434gqw/i-made-my-shed-the-top-rated-restaurant-on-tripadvisor
The People vs O.J.Simpson: American Crime Story, on Netflix https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/80083977
'Cat Person' - a short story, by Kristen Roupenian for The New Yorker https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/12/11/cat-person
Fallout, by Sadie Jones https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fallout-Sadie-Jones/dp/0701188502
Ladybird directed by Greta Gerwig:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNi_HC839Wo
Cariad Lloyd's Griefcast with Adam Buxton:
https://www.acast.com/griefcast/episode-1---adam-buxton
James Franco on WTF:
http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-870-james-franco
Cariad Lloyd's Made of Human with Jo Brand:
http://mohpod.libsyn.com/31-jo-brand-i-was-surprised-the-heroin-addict-was-unfaithful
Felicity Morse on Cat Person for The Debrief:
https://thedebrief.co.uk/news/real-life/cat-person-short-story-new-yorker-consent/
Amy Jones on Cat Person for The...
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to episode 38 of the Highland, the pop culture and current affairs podcast brought to you by journalist Pandora Sykes and Dolly Alderton. |
| 0:24.0 | So Dolly what's been going on with you this week? First of all I'd like to issue an apology. I waxed lyrical about the Marvellous Miss Macyl saying it's a myth you've got your cat forms mixed up and I'm very embarrassed to say it's an Amazon Prime show. |
| 0:40.0 | And that is embarrassing actually because they are very different. They've gone into liquidation now since you've got it. |
| 0:48.0 | So sorry it's my cross to carry now for life. So anyway you should watch that program and it's on Amazon Prime. |
| 0:54.0 | I have been pretty busy prepping and recovering from pretend-mas. I genuinely think that was probably on the same scale of stress as me moving house. |
| 1:02.0 | Oh my god. Because I know how seriously you take. I saw the Instagram stories. |
| 1:07.0 | 2am making that food than I before. Then up with the lock. Getting an all prepped. |
| 1:13.0 | It was the best day of my life though. It was so good. It was so good. So yeah no it was really really fun. |
| 1:19.0 | But I definitely eat out pretend was too long. We were kind of drinking and eating all day and then I went out dancing and drank tequila with sort of a massive roast in a sloshing round in it. |
| 1:29.0 | The new thing tequila. It is isn't it? |
| 1:32.0 | The one stinks of it. Oh yes you said you went to a party recently and everyone just- |
| 1:36.0 | It was a British fashion awards. Yes everyone on my table was drinking tequila and you really noticed that it's like paint stripper. |
| 1:42.0 | How's this happening? On the bread. It's like how Apple spreads became a thing. |
| 1:47.0 | I think well with tequila I think it started in New York because my friends in New York started drinking about 18 months ago. |
| 1:52.0 | They believe all that bullshit about agave having healing properties. |
| 1:56.0 | Right. And also tequila soda is low calorie. I see. |
| 2:00.0 | Oh tequila soda that must be horrible. I think it probably is. But then I think vodka soda is disgusting too. |
| 2:06.0 | I don't sip it tequila. I just knock it back in like a student club night way. |
| 2:10.0 | I see you have shots of tequila. That's what I was doing on Saturday. |
| 2:13.0 | Oh yeah no you're not new star. Which I thought you'll agree with. It's very Christmassy of me. |
| 2:16.0 | You are old star. So yes that was Saturday. But I have been watching and listening to some great stuff. |
| 2:22.0 | I went and saw a screening of Lady Bird which is Greta Goweg's directorial debut which you are just going to adore. |
... |
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