In this episode, Neil, Niki, and Natalia discuss recent developments in the politics of sex and marriage.
Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show:
- Republicans have both been sounding alarms about pedophilia and attempting to relax age-of-consent laws. Natalia referred to historian Clayton Howard’s book, The Closet and the Cul-de-Sac: The Politics of Sexual Privacy in Northern California and Niki referenced Andrew Sullivan’s 1995 book, Virtually Normal: An Argument About Homosexuality. Neil and Natalia drew on Frank Bruni’s New York Times opinion piece.
In our regular closing feature, What’s Making History:
- Natalia recommended Anne-Helen Petersen’s Bustle article, “Britney Falls in Love.”
- Neil discussed Rebecca Mead’s New Yorker article, “Could Leopards Be Paid for Their Spots.”
- Niki shared Taylor Lorenz’ Washington Post article, “Internet ‘algospeak’ is changing our language in real time, ‘nip nops’ to ‘le dollar bean’.”







![A lantern slideshows four overlapping illustrations of the Earth depicting its tilt at different time periods in the past, present and future. Dates represented are 13000 BC, 5544 BC, 1921 AD, 2296AD. Handwritten in blue ink at bottom left corner of plate is the text 'G53 CLW [illegible] Aug '22'.](https://i0.wp.com/publicseminar.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Wragge_Earth.jpg?fit=768%2C749&ssl=1)





