Personal essays, satire, and fiction where humor and the literary collide. Authored by Jenny Hatchadorian, with occasional guest essayists.

The podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, Amazon Music/Audible, Google Podcasts, and Spotify, with preview episodes on SoundCloud.

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01 Crowded Suite

There were four of us in my hotel room on my wedding night.

02 Miss Maple Leaf

A study of choral recitals from lead to show tunes leper.

Episodes

  • Episode 1: Crowded Suite

    There were four of us in my hotel room on my wedding night.

  • Episode 2: Miss Maple Leaf

    A study of choral recitals from lead to show tunes leper.

    This essay was read at Tuesday Funk in Chicago and at The Rialto in Bozeman, Montana.

  • Episode 3: Born-Again Patriot

    I claimed Canada in the Bush years, so it was easy to immerse myself in Euro trash.

  • Episode 4: Questions From Men

    One-night stands… from a woman’s perspective.

  • Episode 5: New Family

    After the wedding, after the honeymoon, what do you get? A new family.

    This essay won the Audience Award at Story Club Cleveland and it was published by Story Club Magazine.

  • Episode 6: Gifts From My Father

    As a child, my father gave me men’s clothing for birthdays and Christmases. Then, the unthinkable happened.

  • Episode 7: Turf Wars

    Who owns up to what in the spaces we occupy?

  • Episode 8: On the Back of a Postcard

    In the single most romantic gesture of my life, I flew to China for a guy.

  • Episode 9: After School Special

    A bad boy and a good boy meet at the public pool.

  • Episode 10: Sex Ed

    A most Midwestern sexual education.

  • Episode 11: Becoming Mrs. Dorchynsky

    My college boyfriend’s mother gave me a glimpse into who I might become.

  • Episode 12: My Older, Younger Sister

    Once a late bloomer, always a late bloomer.

  • Episode 13: Spanish Lessons by Trish DiFranco

    This story is about puppy love and the pile of poo you find when you try to chase it.

  • Episode 14: Re: Cloud Engineer by Lynn Maleh

    In our troubled times, a hopeful, young woman applies for a job as a cloud engineer.

  • Episode 15: Family Planning

    What to do when Dad comes to town?

  • Episode 16: A La Fin du Monde, with Cows

    I’d rather be alone with the cows at the end of the world.

  • Episode 17: The Tooth and Nail of Dreams

    What happens when your childhood dream grows up?

    This essay was read at The Line Break Series in Queens.

  • Episode 18: The Girl in the Yellow Dress By the Fireplace

    A young woman is so removed from society that she becomes haunted by her past.

  • Episode 19: Midwestern Witch

    My greatest childhood fear followed me into adulthood.

    This essay won the Audience Award at Story Club Chicago North Side.

  • Episode 20: My Father The Teenager

    I’d heard of old people becoming babies but not of them becoming teenagers en route.

  • Episode 21: The Naked Truth by Johanna Gohmann

    Some thoughts on nudes, and not having any.

    Originally published by Romper

  • Episode 22: The Pearls by Will Heinrich

    The book follows Henry Corn, a soda jerk and occasional pickpocket in 1920s New York City, as he bounces between two love interests: Dot Cohen, a no-nonsense Coney Island barmaid, and Marion Hammer, the daughter of fabulously wealthy banker Felix Hammer.

    In this chapter ("The Color of the Sky"), which takes place shortly after an extreme night out, Felix invites Henry to the Hammer Building for the first time.

    Available from Elective Affinity

  • Episode 23: Inhabited

    I was invaded from within.

  • Episode 24: The Feral Instincts of Motherhood

    What happens when two friends are different types of mothers?

    This essay was originally published by Mutha - an alternative parenting magazine started by Michelle Tea.

  • Episode 25: Baby Jesus

    How do men change when they become fathers?

    Baby Jesus was originally published by Full Grown People.

  • Episode 26: Clowns In Her Corner

    Motherhood made me champion ladies getting theirs, with clowns if necessary.

  • Episode 27: Dear Gen XXX

    Dear Gen XXX includes selections from her sex and relationship column that she wrote for the AARP's The Arrow aimed at Gen X men (YES REALLY) and her responses are pure gems.

    This essay was originally published by The Arrow.

    Photo by Mindy Tucker

  • Episode 28: This Was Not The Plan

    This Was Not the Plan is an essay about birth and grief in the early pandemic.

    This essay was originally published by Mutha.

    Photo by Sophie Mathewson

Guest Essayists

  • Trish DiFranco

    Episode 13: Spanish Lessons

    Trish is a writer and marketer in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Read more of her work at Trish.substack.com

    Spanish Lessons is a story about puppy love and the pile of poo you find when you try to chase it.

    “My teenage life was a Dunkin Donuts parking lot next to her all-night discotheque where ladies drink free.“

  • Lynn Maleh

    Episode 14: Re: Cloud Engineer

    Called "up-and-coming" by the LA Times, Lynn Maleh is a Syrian-American writer and standup comedian whose last name means salty, which she is. She's written for Act Your Age on Bounce TV, The Onion, Reductress, and McSweeney’s and has performed on Hot Tub with Kurt and Kristen, Don't Tell Comedy, The Second City Diversity Festival, The Westside Comedy Festival, and a few times in Brad Pitt’s old backyard. She co-created and co-produces Hilarious Habibis, the first ever Middle Eastern-only standup showcase at The Hollywood Improv.

    Lynn wrote a satirical letter about a hopeful, young woman who applies for a job as a cloud engineer in our troubled times.

    “As for the third cloud, it would be a bunny because sometimes you have to give the people what they want.”

  • Johanna Gohmann

    Episode 21: The Naked Truth

    Johanna Gohmann is a humor writer, essayist, and children’s book author. She has written for numerous outlets, including The New Yorker, McSweeneys, The Cut, Jezebel, and Bust. Her essays appear in several anthologies, most notably A Moveable Feast - Life-Changing Food Adventures Around the World, Every Father's Daughter – 24 Women Writers Remember Their Fathers, and The Best Women’s Travel Writing. She is also the author of 28 middle grade and Young Adult books for ABDO Publishing, including a series about a tween girl who finds a portal into another dimension after eating a rotten hot dog. She makes her home in Brooklyn with her husband and son.

    The Naked Truth includes some thoughts on nudes, and not having any.

    “And then inspiration struck… I dumped all of the photos into a garbage bag, and proceeded to empty an entire container of honey over them.”

  • Will Heinrich

    Episode 22: The Pearls

    Will Heinrich was born in New York and spent his early childhood in Japan. His novel The King's Evil, published by Scribner in 2003, won a PEN/Robert Bingham Fellowship in 2004; his most recent novel, The Pearls, was published by Elective Affinity in 2019. He has been an art critic for the New Yorker, the New York Observer, Hyperallergic, Art in America and, since 2017, the New York Times.

    The Pearls follows Henry Corn, a soda jerk and occasional pickpocket in 1920s New York City, as he bounces between two love interests: Dot Cohen, a no-nonsense Coney Island barmaid, and Marion Hammer, the daughter of fabulously wealthy banker Felix Hammer.

    “I picture an echoing, double-high basement full of men at pedal-operated lathes squeezing the juice out of human hearts.”

  • Emily Flake

    Episode 27: Dear Gen XXX

    A regular contributor to The New Yorker, Emily Flake is the author of several books, including Mama Tried, a book of essays and cartoons about parenting, and the newly published creativity deck Joke in a Box.

    She does a weird hybrid of standup and cartoons on stages throughout New York City and beyond. She is the owner and operator of St. Nell’s Humor Writing Residency for Ladies, “a space for womxn practitioners of the humor arts to wrestle their projects into submission.”

    Dear Gen XXX includes selections from her sex and relationship column that she wrote for the AARP's The Arrow aimed at Gen X men (YES REALLY) and her responses are pure gems.

    Photo by Mindy Tucker

  • Molly O'Laughlin Kemper

    Episode 28: This Was Not the Plan

    Molly O'Laughlin Kemper is a writer, translator, editor, and reader based in New York City. A 2022 resident of St. Nell's Humor Writing Residency for Ladies, she is also a co-host of The Dead Ladies Show NYC, which celebrates ladies who were in some way fabulous during their lifetimes.

    This Was Not the Plan is an essay about birth and grief in the early pandemic.

    "It’s disheartening to hear someone sigh so morosely every time she looks up your vagina."

    Photo by Sophie Mathewson

People

  • Jenny Hatchadorian - writer, reader, sound editor

    Jenny Hatchadorian has been published by Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Weekly Humorist, Mutha, Full Grown People, Little Old Lady, Role Reboot, and Story Club Magazine. She is an awardee of St. Nell’s humor writing residency. Her manuscript of comedic essays was a semi-finalist for OSU The Journal’s 2022 Nonfiction Prize. She has an MFA from California Institute of the Arts, and she is a member of the faculty at Borough of Manhattan Community College. Follow her on Instagram @hatchadorianhere or Twitter @jhatchadorian

  • Aaron Murtagh - logo design, merch design, story notes

    Aaron Murtagh is a filmmaker and visual artist. He studied photography at Syracuse University and film directing at CalArts. He lives and works in Brooklyn and Montana.

  • Sara Mannheimer - story notes

    Sara Mannheimer studied Literature with a concentration in Written Arts at Bard College. She went on to earn a Masters and PhD in Library & Information Science, and she is now a data librarian at Montana State University. Her forthcoming book, Scaling Up: How Data Curation Can Help Address Key Issues in Qualitative Data Reuse and Big Social Research, will be published by Springer Nature in 2024. She is an avid reader of literary and genre fiction. She is also a dancer and choreographer with Local Earth Collective, and she co-writes and performs pop music with her band, Trust Sara.

  • Rosamund Lannin - story notes

    Rosamund Lannin reads and writes in Chicago, where she's pleasantly surprised to have lived for over 20 years. During that time, she has published short stories and personal essays in Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, Tor.com, and Vice. She's currently working on a YA novel about live action roleplaying and the nature of fantasy.

  • Sarah Maigin Smith - story notes

    Sarah is a filmmaker, writer, math educator and a member of the Indigenous Peoples of Montana.