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Too Hot For Radio: Roxane Gay "Requiem for a Glass Heart"
00:38:37
Jessica Hecht performs Roxane Gay's "Requiem for a Glass Heart," and host Aparna Nancherla talks to Amanda Jones, the author of That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America.
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- [00:00]
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- [00:31]
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- [01:05]
Aparna Nancherla
Hello, this is Too Hot for Radio. I'm Aparna Nancherla and well, well, well, if it isn't my faithful hothead listener. As you know, Too Hot for Radio is a show for people like you who love short stories and don't mind if they're a little bit dirty, profane, or otherwise questionable for a big public radio audience. As for short stories, of course we love them in books, read at events told by random guys holding cord at the bodega chip rack. They're all part of the same ecosystem. The best ones twist and turn and you can't quite tell where it's all going, and the ending surprises and satisfies you at the same time. Some stories, you hear the first line and it telegraphs the catastrophe to follow, and you feel like maybe you've already heard the entire thing. You know, tequila makes me totally horny and deathly ill. But it was Cinco de Mayo, so. And this story, something of a modern fable from Roxane Gay, sets us up to believe we know exactly what's going to happen in the very first line. Gay evokes the cliche into which she'll be leaning, and the word choices throughout reinforce our expectations about what's going to happen. But I think I can say, nope, you don't know where this one is going? Well, okay, you kind of know, but you don't really. Roxane Gay's writing includes the essay collection's Bad Feminist and her recent title, Opinions. This piece, which was part of her short story collection Difficult Women, certainly contains the elements of her writing that strike others as unapologetic sexuality, feminism, and a willingness to point out the casual misogyny ingrained in our culture. The story was performed by Jessica Hecht, an actor just as impressive on stage as she is on screen. She's been on Broadway in shows including the Price and Fiddler on the Roof, and in TV series including Special the Boys and Breaking Bad. Before we begin, let's get you ready for any chills and spills that lie ahead. A woman has an orgasm. Yeah, that's really it. Some other sexual mentions, but that's the one I don't need to tell you lovers of Too Hot. That fear of the female orgasm is a sad, sad throwback 70s terror that we hoped second wave feminism would wash away altogether. But alas, I get it though. It's on the radio. Suddenly a toddler is asking about the clitoris. It's a whole thing, arguably a thing that would be better to talk about sooner rather than later. But I refuse to armchair quarterback your parenting. Speaking of things you can't or won't say, this story was read as part of a live show hosted by the great Judy Blume on the subject of banned books, something she personally knows about. This story hasn't been banned on its own, but many of Roxane Gay's works have, including not that, Dispatches from Rape Culture and A Memoir of My Body. Because these bans are so prevalent and so pernicious, we wanted to talk about that cultural argument too. Surprising to absolutely no one. We at Too Hot are free speech boosters. So after the reading, we're going to talk to Amanda Jones, the author of that the Fight Against Book Banning in America, who is on the front line of this culture war in Louisiana.
- [04:56]
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- [05:27]
1-800-Flowers Representative
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- [05:58]
Aparna Nancherla
And now here's Jessica Hecht.
- [06:01]
Jessica Hecht
Requiem for a Glass Heart the stone thrower lives in a glass house with his glass family. He is a flesh and blood man going about the business of living with his glass wife and glass child and their glass furniture and glass lives. The stone thrower, a good yet flawed man given to overindulgence, met his wife on a beach after a lightning storm, on a night when the sky refused to surrender to darkness and yet there were stars up above. He saw the small fissure her body made in the sand first moved closer, moved carefully. Then he saw her, her body bathed in moonlight, her eyes shining brightly. He instantly fell in love because he could not believe what lay before him. Her beauty was so mystifying and entrancing that it pierced through his skin and into his blood and wove itself tightly around his heart. He did not think about what it would mean to love a glass woman. He fell to his knees. He took her hand in his, turned the palm over. He gently placed his lips against the tender spot between her thumb and forefinger. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. He prayed that when he opened his eyes, she would still be there when he did, she was the stone thrower's wife instantly fell in love because the stone thrower was everything she was not. He was the first man who did not see through. He helped her to her feet and then they walked for hours and miles and miles more. He listened and enjoyed her husky voice as she told him all of her hopes, her dreams, her fears. She tried to keep some secrets for herself, but couldn't. His propensity for indulgence was infectious. She laid herself despair and did not think about what it would mean to love a man of flesh. The stone thrower and his wife courted for seven months and married on the seventh day of that seventh month. She wore a silver gown and diamonds in her glass hair. The stone thrower stood next to her in front of his friends, their families. They vowed to love, to honor, to protect, to obey, although he did not know how he would keep his word. When the Stone thrower and his glass wife make love. She is always on the top, her cool glass hands pressed against his cheeks, chest. She lies down on top of him, leg to leg, breast to chest, face to face. He kisses her long slender neck, the hollow spaces above her clavicles. He slides his hands along the length of her glass hair, then holds her face, tracing her lips with his thumbs. The stone thrower's wife warms the to his touch just slightly. And though he can't see it, he can feel her body respond. He enjoys the pressure of her glass thighs trembling against his and the way she breathes into his mouth, shallow and fast. When the stone thrower's wife comes, her body fogs in a random pattern outward from her heart. As she catches her breath, she can often hear her heart threatening to implode with a high pitched lamentation of glass succumbing to pressure. When she's certain her heart won't break, she rolls onto her side and the stone thrower lovingly traces the lines in the condensation he has left behind. Behind. Sometimes, after they make love, the stone thrower will light a candle, sit against the headboard, holding his wife in his arms, her glass spine arched against his thick, matted chest. He'll look down at his seed slowly sliding out of her. He asks her to lay herself back Bayer further, to share secrets he does not yet know. He has become accustomed to seeing too much and now yearns to know too much. She often acquiesces, speaking softly, exposing herself in complicated ways. The stone thrower smiles. His wife does not. Every morning, the stone thrower sits across from his glass wife at their glass table and he watches as orange juice sluices down her glass throat and into her glass stomach. She rarely bothers with clothes. When the drapes are closed, Timmy feels she has nothing to hide. It is a remarkable thing, the stone thrower often thinks, being able to see such intimacies, being able to see the separation of her whole into parts. She'll look at him, then to the distance, her cheeks growing warm while she remembers the night before. As they discuss the coming day, the stone thrower's wife will reach across the table and take his hand in into hers. She'll trace the calluses, the fingers that are bent but not broken. He'll squeeze back gently, careful, ever careful not to break her. After the stone thrower and his glass wife share breakfast, he takes his glass child to school, holding the boy's cool, translucent hand in his. He listens carefully as the boy tells him about his hopes, his dreams, his fears. With every word his son speaks, the stone thrower feels his heart expanding, nearly breaking the cage of bone protecting it. After he kisses the boy on the forehead, sending him on his way, the stone thrower will sometimes stand just outside the child's classroom, peering inside, holding his breath, hoping that the other children will be gentle and kind, however fragile such hope may be. During the day, the stone thrower's glasswife busies herself with the work of living in a glass house. Room by room, she uses soft cloths to wipe clean every surface because her husband cannot help the things he leaves behind. As she wipes away the fingerprints and skin and stray hairs, she smiles to herself and hums the waltz which she and the stone thrower dance to at their wedding. Sometimes her neighbors will stop in front of the glass house and stare as they catch glimpses of her body's glass contours beneath the clothes she wears. More for their benefit than hers, they will whisper to each other and shake their heads. They will condemn that which they cannot understand. What the stone thrower's wife loves most is when she strips out of her clothes and disappears into the world of unseen. It is a sacred time, those hours between when her work is done and when her child and husband return home. She steals these moments for herself because her life is so transparent that she craves having something private, something precious. She crafts from these moments, secrets for herself that she has not shared and will not share with her husband, who sees too much and loves too carefully. Most days, the stone thrower's wife goes to a nearby park with wide open spaces that cannot contain her. She stretches her long limbs and stares into the sky. She marvels at the clear blue brightness above. She closes her eyes and says a small prayer. Then she runs. She runs because she is intoxicated by the sensation of wind against her bare glass skin. She enjoys the abandon of pushing her glass body and testing its limits and feeling the rough pavement and the cold, slick grass beneath her glass bare feet. Her husband loves her, but he worries. He wearies. He thinks her delicate. He fears that the slightest thing will splinter her on her return to the grains of sand from which she rose. The stone thrower prefers to keep his wife trapped in the safety of their glass house, where the dangers are not seen but known. She knows that the glass walls of their home cannot protect her. She runs after her. Afternoons in the park, the stone thrower's wife finds herself sweaty and pleasantly sore. She walks home slowly, breathing deeply. She revels. Then she takes A cold shower emerges, wraps herself in a soft cotton robe. When her son comes home, she will pull him into her arms and listen. When he tells her about his hopes, his dreams, his fears, he chatters away, and she traces the child's diaphanous features with her glass fingertips. The contact between their glass bodies produces a melodious keening that makes the boy's smile wider. The stone thrower's wife falls even more in love with her child each day. Though it pains her, she accepts that the boy's life is both a blessing and a curse. When her heart has had its fill of these precious moments, when she can literally feel the glass veins binding her heart pulsing and threatening to shatter, she sends her child out to play with his friends until dinner. She needs him to be part of the world, to encounter that which is seen but not known. The stone thrower's son knows that he is a curiosity, but he does not yet know why. In school, he sits at his desk, his glass frame shrouded by his school uniform. He is quiet but studious. He is kind but strong like his mother. He is tough and stubborn like his father, though some of his classmates tease him. He makes faces, and they make faces at each other while looking through him. The stone thrower's son has several friends who no longer concern themselves with that which makes them different, that which they cannot understand. To them, he is a boy who makes them laugh and chases them on the playground and who makes beautiful castles out of sand. The stone thrower works hard and play, plays hard and provides well for his glass family. For eight hours a day, he works in a quarry, bare chested and sweaty, throwing all manner of stone from the depths of the quarry to waiting trucks above. He is so good at his job that he often attracts an audience. Onlookers hover nearby, admiring the elaborate web of muscles enfolding his upper body. And the way he makes his labor seem seems so effortless he does not mind the onlookers. He has, of course, become accustomed to living in a glass home. When he finally gets home, the stone thrower sits at the kitchen table with his glass wife and their glass child. The family eats a dinner that has been lovingly prepared, and the stone thrower tries not to look away from the intimate moments of his wife and son that he cannot share. He helps the boy with his homework, then together, husband and wife put the child to bed. Some nights they hire a babysitter, leave a careful set of instructions for the care and feeding of a glass child, and then they go out for a drink at a nearby cocktail lounge. His wife dresses in her favorite little black dress, relaxes against her husband's strong frame, enjoys the pressure of his hand in the small of her back as he steers her to a table where they can see without being seen, hear without being heard. Unvery special occasions. They will don their finery and attend the opera. They'll sit in a private box above the orchestra, admire the ornate ceilings, the rich texture of the seats upon which they sit. The stone thrower's wife will lose herself in the music, glass tears cresting her eyelids as she is transported to magical places. The stone thrower will try to enjoy himself, but with every note in every aria, his entire body will tense. He worries that it is a matter of time before a diva with perfect pitch and iron lungs will fill the opera house with a note so flawless that it matches the natural frequency of his wife's body. He worries that in that moment of resonance, she will start to vibrate, then quake, and then her glass body will fracture. He will be left kneeling above the shards of glass, holding his wife's pulsing glass heart in his calloused hands. This stone thrower is always quiet when he and his wife leave the opera. Humbled by the tenuous nature of a glass wife, she'll ask him what's wrong? And he'll look at her tenderly and he'll lie. He'll say, everything is fine. The stone thrower is a A good yet flawed man given to overindulgence. He has a mistress he visits several times a week. She is a woman who is not made of glass. She is all flesh and bone, with a generous, meaty body like his. She is a different kind of mystery. What the stone thrower's wife hates most is when she strips out of her clothes and slips into the world unseen. She knows about the mistress. She watches her husband and the other woman sometimes sneaking into the mistress's apartment, padding softly across the thick carpet of the living room. She'll stand in the doorway and watch as her husband holds the other woman in his large, calloused hands. And how he will be reckless and rough. Then she will walk home, leaving a trail of glass tears for the stone thrower to follow. The stone thrower doesn't love his mistress, but he needs the moments they share. Those moments when he does not have to see too much or love too carefully.
- [24:13]
Aparna Nancherla
Hi, Amanda. Well, thank you so much for taking.
- [24:16]
Amanda Jones
The time to chat with me today. I thought we could start. Start by talking about actual books and some Good things about books. And I wanted to just start by asking you, what is a book that really spoke to you as a kid and why?
- [24:31]
Unnamed Librarian
That's a hard question for me because I do love to read so much. There are so many books that I think shaped who I am as a person. One of them probably would be Iggy's House by Judy Blume. And I just remember as a young girl in a town that was mostly white, we're not a diverse community.
- [24:52]
Aparna Nancherla
Yes.
- [24:54]
Unnamed Librarian
Reading about racism at such an early age. When I read Iggy's House, it was the first time I realized that not every family was like mine or had the same experiences. And I learned that at such a young age from reading Iggy's House.
- [25:08]
Amanda Jones
Yeah, I mean, I think that is one of the beautiful things about books. They're kind of windows into worlds that you might not otherwise experience. How did you then later decide to become a librarian?
- [25:21]
Unnamed Librarian
I've always knew that I wanted to be. Have a job that involved literature or books in some way. And so I started out in college as an elementary educator. That was my. My major. But while I was in college, the. The Harry Potter books, the first three books were written, and I had kind of gotten out of reading because I was so focused on college and jobs and, you know, you just get caught up in life. I read the first three, and it reignited that passion that I had for reading again. And I just knew, like, I just knew. I don't know how to explain it. I just knew I wanted to be a school librarian. So right after reading those books, I went to the dean and I actually got permission to take the graduate level courses as an undergrad so that I could graduate with my library certification.
- [26:09]
Amanda Jones
And so you've been a middle school librarian in the town where you currently live and where you grew up for your entire career. How has that been? I know it's. You know, Livingston Parish might not be familiar to all our listeners, so if you could give us a little flavor of what it's like.
- [26:23]
Unnamed Librarian
I think I have the best job in the world. I live in a very small town. We have two official red lights. We're actually not even a town. Yeah, we're not even in town, really. When I went to school here, we only. We had the elementary, the middle school, and the high school. And now we have three elementaries, but they all still funnel through the same middle school that I attended, that I now work at. So as the only middle school librarian in my community, in my school district, I have the unique Opportunity to have. Every single child in our community will have me as their school librarian at some point. Going up to the school system, it's a mixed bag. I just finished my 24th year there at that school, and I work with several people that I taught that now work with me. And then I also have a lot of grand students, which are the kids of kids that I taught that are now grown.
- [27:16]
Amanda Jones
I never heard that term, but it's so perfect.
- [27:19]
Unnamed Librarian
Yeah, I had over 50 grand students this past year.
- [27:22]
Amanda Jones
So I always worshiped my school and, you know, local library. And so I don't disagree with you. So you made a speech at your local public library board meeting in 2022.
- [27:34]
Aparna Nancherla
Kind of standing up to censorship, and.
- [27:37]
Amanda Jones
You suddenly became the face of child corruption to, you know, far right activists. And how does it feel kind of looking back on that moment and that speech now?
- [27:48]
Unnamed Librarian
It's really wild. That one speech can change the whole trajectory of your life. Like I said, I've lived in my town, which is not really a town, my entire life. Our public library has grown by leaps and bounds, and we're very proud of it. So when I saw people starting to attack our public library system, I knew I had to go speak. And I went and spoke, and I was one of maybe 30 other people who. Who also spoke for the library. I wouldn't say I said anything amazing or outrageous or it was just a speech about how we already had policies in place at our library. We didn't need to. We need to be careful about not censoring books. We have challenge policies. Everything's great. We trust the process, Trust your librarians. And I didn't talk about any particular books. I just gave a blanket speech. But four days after I gave the speech, I woke up to an onslaught of just harassment by people who are from the far right. They were saying things that, like, I was teaching children how to perform sex acts and. Yeah, and then I give pornography and erotica to children, which is not true. All for giving just a blanket speech about censorship at the public library. The two men that started this campaign against me, I had never. I mean, I didn't know them. I've never spoken. I still haven't ever spoken to them. I've never spoken to them online or in person. They don't know me, but they used me to target the library.
- [29:10]
Amanda Jones
Wow, that is so. I can't imagine how destabilizing that felt before any of this happened, like, and obviously shifted kind of the whole trajectory of your life. What would you say? How did you kind of conceive of your job as a librarian before any of this happened. Like, what was your focus? What was kind of what brought you joy?
- [29:30]
Unnamed Librarian
The kids have always been my focus. You know, the kids and our faculty and staff and helping them, you know, in any way they can to help meet the standards that they're teaching and the students and reading Joy. Just making sure that our school library was the heart of the school and that the kids felt safe and that they had access to great works of literature. That was my focus. And, I mean, it's still my focus. But before all of this, I had. In 2020, I had. I received the award for being the Louisiana School Librarian of the year. And in 2021, I had received what's kind of known as the National School Librarian of the Year Award. I was named the school library journal 2021 school librarian of the year. So between those two awards and earning tens of thousands in grants for my students to have books and MakerSpace and STEM and all of these clubs that I was running, like, I poured my heart and soul into my job. My whole life was devoted to my job. And all of a sudden, my reputation came into question. People are believing these two. These things that these random men who don't know me were saying, and people fell for it, hook, line, and sinker. And it's been three years, and some people still believe these things these men have said about me. And they're still saying it.
- [30:48]
Jessica Hecht
Yeah.
- [30:48]
Amanda Jones
Oh, I'm so sorry. I can't imagine what that feels like. And, you know, looking at it from a bird's eye view, there were 4,240 titles challenged in 2024. And it just feels like librarians have their hands full, like, facing all of these book bans. How much solidarity do you feel in the librarian community? And, like, how do you guys kind of conceive of making action plans together?
- [31:18]
Unnamed Librarian
If you look at the number of challenges or the titles and who's behind the challenges, 72% come from political groups. So these are not most of the challenges that are being done. And most of the people that are, you know, badmouthing or trying to destroy libraries or saying these awful things about libraries. Most are not actual parents that have legitimate concerns. Some are, but it's being fueled by politicians and what I call dark money. Non profits, which are. Are groups that don't have to disclose their donors, and they're actual groups that. That's Their whole function is to cause chaos. And I'm talking about groups like Moms for Liberty or, you know, in my case, in Louisiana, it's Citizens for a New Louisiana. These are not necessarily groups that are led by parents in those communities. They lead the charge against our library in my community, and they don't have any. They're not the parents. They don't live or work here, so.
- [32:16]
Amanda Jones
Right, right. They're kind of planting seeds, but they're. Yeah, they're not.
- [32:20]
Unnamed Librarian
Yes, that's the function. That's their function is to sow seeds of doubt and chaos and. And it works. And it's. It's very sad because they're attacking schools and libraries, which, you know, I don't know how many people. Everybody, I assume, has know someone that's a teacher or a librarian. We're not horrible people.
- [32:40]
Amanda Jones
No, I know. And I also really feel like you guys have, you know, such vital roles in the community and also, like, challenges you have to face. So it's like, you don't need more. More on top of that.
- [32:53]
Unnamed Librarian
But the. The truth is that this is. What's happened to me is happening to librarians all across the country. And so we are sticking together, though. The librarians are sticking together. We're very loyal to each other, and we have a pretty large network. And so when something. When there's an attack on one of us, we feel like it's an attack on all of us. So we kind of get on our network and reach out to each other on how to help each other navigate these. This difficult time.
- [33:18]
Amanda Jones
Do you feel like, you know, I know you're saying sort of this campaign that was launched against you just because you gave this speech happened, and you're still feeling the effects of it. Has any of the nature of it changed over the years, like, from when you first gave that speech to now?
- [33:37]
Unnamed Librarian
Some things have changed because, like I said, my. What's happened to me is happened to so many librarians across the country, and it's very hateful. Is the vitriolic. Like, there's just such hate. And I will say that for me personally, it has changed a little bit in my community, you know, so I wrote a book, and I've been very outspoken. I've been fortunate enough to be interviewed by journalists. I've been on podcasts, and I've been able to spread the word about my own situation, so that has helped me. But so many librarians aren't afforded the platform that I've been given. And so they are still going through it. I mean, and I'm still going through it, but at least I can talk about it publicly, where not everybody is able to.
- [34:22]
Amanda Jones
I know you wrote a book, so obviously you're like, I'm not going to back down from this. This is something I care about, and no one's going to kind of bully me out of feeling differently. But have. Did you ever have a thought of, like, maybe I should leave? Maybe I should move somewhere else?
- [34:37]
Unnamed Librarian
Not once. And it goes back to, I was born here, I was raised here. I've worked here. The school that I work at, I've been at that school more than half my life, if you can count the days of when I was a student, plus the years I've worked there. And these men that I do not know that started this with me are not going to run me away from my life, you know, but it's been difficult, and there were times that I wanted to shut down completely, but I never, like, actually entertained. Like, oh, no, I'm gonna go work somewhere else or I'm gonna leave.
- [35:15]
Amanda Jones
No, I'm glad. I'm very glad. We're. We're all the better for it. You know, obviously, librarians are kind of the heroes on the front lines in this fight. Do you feel like there's anything, you know, average citizens like myself and our listeners can do right now to kind of support, help with this ongoing onslaught against access to reading and, like, what you said, like, windows into experiences that everyone should have?
- [35:43]
Unnamed Librarian
Yes, there is so much everyone can do right now. Summer reading programs are picking up for public libraries. The most important thing that people can do is go and renew their library cards, check out books, actually use the library. I know here because the saga didn't stop after the one meeting here in my town. It's still going on. And they like to say, no one's using the library, but we can show these statistics. Our circulation has, like, increased since all of this, you know, so the best thing people can do is use their public libraries, check out books, ebooks, because the next thing they're going to go after is ebooks and audiobooks. So download those apps, download the ebooks and the audiobooks. Something else you can do. Attend those meetings. And I don't mean necessarily physically all libraries or almost all libraries, whether it's a school library or a public library, you know, we're governed by boards of control or school boards. Stay aware of those meetings and those agendas and watch the meetings live. Anytime you see that there's going to be cuts or librarians reputation is coming under question, email the people in charge that you fully support. The librarians that, that really makes a difference. We are constantly running campaigns here where our residents of our community can email our council that is in charge of the public library and say, no, we are not going to stand for censorship. We're not going to stand for slashing the budget. And that makes a difference. And anybody can do that in their own community.
- [37:16]
Jessica Hecht
Yeah.
- [37:16]
Amanda Jones
And that also feels useful because of what you're saying about a lot of these groups starting these campaigns not being at all rooted in the community.
- [37:28]
Unnamed Librarian
Anytime we do campaigns here because I'm the, I started a public library alliance here in my community. And so anytime we speak, we always say we're residents. We are residents.
- [37:39]
Aparna Nancherla
Yes.
- [37:39]
Unnamed Librarian
And it matters to us. And when we sign, when we email the council, we will put, you know, 45 year resident or 23 year resident, or to say that we live here and we work here and, and our library matters and our, you know, I think that people in charge of our system should give more credits to the people who live there, live here than outside interfering sources.
- [38:02]
Amanda Jones
Well, this has been such a pleasure and thank you for taking the time to talk to me. If there's anything you'd like to add, I'm, you know, our listeners would be thrilled to hear it. But yeah, we were, we were just so excited to get to talk to.
- [38:15]
Unnamed Librarian
You and thank you for having me. And I, you know, I'm trying and so many librarians were so tired. You know, we're so tired and we've been fighting this for several years and I think we're gonna have a few more years left of this. But I, I just, I, I hang on the words of Stacey Abrams, who I heard speak a few months ago, and she said we must advocate with empathy. And so I will always advocate with empathy and try not to be hateful like they are to me. But also we have to measure our success and progress and not victory. So we're going to have some small losses here and there. But every time we go and speak for libraries and every time we renew our library cards and we download, that's progress. And so we have to measure success and progress, not victories. And I think overall it'll be a few years, but hopefully there are enough people that have, that are speaking out for libraries that they will not be destroyed. And in a few years we'll go back to hopefully not having any more issues in the library.
- [39:15]
Amanda Jones
Yes, I think we all hope that. And I love that idea of advocating with empathy because I always, as a kid, you know, and even now associate the library is just like a place everyone is welcome. And it, you know, there's not a lot of spaces like that in the community where you can just go exist, you know, for free.
- [39:34]
Aparna Nancherla
Yeah.
- [39:34]
Amanda Jones
For free. Yeah. It's incredible. Libraries are so important and yeah, your work is so important. So thank you.
- [39:42]
Unnamed Librarian
Thank you for having me today.
- [39:48]
Aparna Nancherla
And with that, hotheads, we call it a day. A lot of censorship and heartbreak in this episode, I'll give you that. But I hope you were able to see the bright sides in there too. True. Free speech advocates working hard for the rest of us and our kids. And not for nothing, an image of a glass woman having an orgasm. Our show is produced by Jennifer Brennan and Mary Shimpkin. Our podcast producer and editor is Kim Colleen Pelissier. This episode was recorded at Symphony Space in New York City by Miles B. Smith. Matthew Love is our consulting producer. Our theme song is by Poddington Bear. I'm Aparna Ncarla. Thanks for joining us for selected shorts, Too Hot for Radio.