We'll tell you what evidence the FBI's raid at Mar-a-Lago found and what could come next.
Also, what a new report says about last-minute decisions when the U.S. pulled out of Afghanistan.
Plus, why monkeypox could be getting a new name, which is the first state to offer all kids free meals in schools, and signs of 'Seinfeld' on the golf course? We'll explain.
It is not terribly controversial to say that castration fear is one of the key conceptual engines driving the psychoanalytic project overall. Whether one thinks of it manifesting as a looming, retributive threat for incestuous longings or as a struggle to face one’s shortcomings, contending with what we are at risk of losing or what has already gone missing animates both the field and the consulting room. Imagine the profession if it didn’t contend with this subject: without castration we would have neither Oedipal conflict nor a theory of repression. As such, it is noteworthy to consider the paucity of writing about circumcision in psychoanalysis, especially when you remember that circumcision and castration both involve cutting male genitalia. And before you protest that a penis is not a testicle, it should not come as a surprise that in the unconscious the bits and bobs of male genitalia might not be represented as separately as they are in medical discourse—in the unconscious sometimes a penis is a scrotal sac and sometimes the balls include the dick.
Jordan Osserman’s Circumcision on the Couch: The Cultural, Psychological, and Gendered Dimensions of the World's Oldest Surgery (Bloomsbury, 2022), approaches the subject of penile cutting née circumcision from myriad angles. It represents the pining of contemporary “intactivists” in search of lost foreskins and lost chances as both poignant if not also politically pregnant with neoliberal meaning. It fleshes out the pondering of St. Paul (of “love thy neighbor as thyself’ fame) on the importance of the unimportance of circumcision. It illuminates the ways in which what appears to be a fear of childhood sexuality run amok also belies a prurient interest in it. The discussion of 19th century American medicine’s invention of reflex theory, which employed circumcision to cure boys’ perceived ailments, investigates a mode of thinking that will be familiar to readers of feminist medical history of the same period. The removal of the foreskin and the removal of the uterus share a close, perhaps twinned, relationship.
Osserman has written a book that invites the reader to see circumcision as a rite, experience, discourse and practice that offers itself up to unabashedly efflorescent and ambivalent readings. Is a penis without a foreskin more masculine because it lacks a flowery covering— think of tulip petals or better yet pansies strewn on the roadside? Or is a penis without a foreskin a tad castrated, having been bloodied, (and a tad envious—sorry Alice Cooper but not only women bleed) and so ultimately feminized? We are encouraged to wonder what might keep this practice—the world’s oldest surgery—in seemingly perpetual, if at times contested, circulation? What are the unconscious roots of the wish to cut penises anyway?
I found myself a little surprised at how little I or others I know have given thought to the beautifully irrational reasons that underlie a surgical practice (performed the world over and without any singular religious allegiance as it ends up) laden with meaning and yet not medically necessary. What has given it such staying power? What unconscious conflicts might circumcision sate, if not actually resolve? In trying to answer these questions, I find myself asking if there is any relationship between circumcision and Freud’s idea that the repudiation of femininity functions as a kind of bedrock? What is bedrock is challenging to crack open (intellectually, philosophically) precisely because it is foundational. It is the ground upon which we stand. We fear fucking with it.
More than 5,000 children were torn from their parents at the Mexican border during Donald Trump’s presidency, and more than 150 children have yet to be reunited. Atlantic writer Caitlin Dickerson spent 18 months investigating how Trump’s zero tolerance approach became a reality, despite scores of top government officials who felt it was inhumane and logistically fraught. She speaks with Andy about how Congress’ failure to make substantial changes to immigration policy drove this to happen, and could allow it to happen again.
Find vaccines, masks, testing, treatments, and other resources in your community: https://www.covid.gov/
Order Andy’s book, “Preventable: The Inside Story of How Leadership Failures, Politics, and Selfishness Doomed the U.S. Coronavirus Response”: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250770165
Stay up to date with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at @LemonadaMedia.
The Justice Department is investigating former President Donald Trump for potentially violating three federal laws related to handling government documents, including the Espionage Act. That's according to the unsealed search warrant executed at his Mar-a-Lago residence last week. Leah Litman, co-host of Crooked’s Strict Scrutiny, joins us to discuss Trump's mounting legal problems.
Meanwhile, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security issued a joint bulletin warning of an uptick in violent threats against federal law enforcement since the search at Mar-a-Lago.
And in headlines: author Salman Rushdie is recovering after he was stabbed on-stage at an event in New York state, a UCLA study warns that California is due for a "megaflood," and New York City health officials are sounding the alarm over polio.
Crooked Coffee is officially here. Our first blend, What A Morning, is available in medium and dark roasts. Wake up with your own bag at crooked.com/coffee
Just when it seemed that confidence in America's news media couldn't get any worse, last month Gallup reported new record lows.
"Just 16% of U.S. adults now say they have 'a great deal' or 'quite a lot' of confidence in newspapers and 11% in television news," Gallup's Megan Brenan wrote. "Both readings are down five percentage points since last year."
Those numbers are startling—and perhaps well deserved given the current state of our corrupt corporate media. But they're also troubling for America.
Batya Ungar-Sargon, deputy opinion editor at Newsweek, is the author of "Bad News: How Woke Media Is Undermining Democracy." She spoke to The Daily Signal about the media and her diagnosis of what's wrong.
During his presidency, Donald Trump demonstrated the power that social media can have in politics. Now, influencers are taking money to spread messages from across the spectrum. Unlike political ads in older media, though, influencers don’t have to disclose who is paying them—or even that they’re being paid at all.
Guest: Ben Wofford, writer based at Stanford Law School, contributor to Wired.
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work.
Even though it's summer, there's a lot to catch up on in the legal world! Leah and Melissa talk with Grace Panetta, who co-wrote a piece for Business Insider on the GOP's plans for state constitutional conventions. And then they turn toward Kansas, where voters dramatically turned out to declare that reproductive freedom is an essential part of the state constitution. They're joined by several of the activists behind the victory.
Get tickets for STRICT SCRUTINY LIVE – The Bad Decisions Tour 2025!
Guest co-host Josie Duffy Rice joins Jon, Jon, Tommy, and Dan live in Atlanta! New details about the Mar-A-Lago raid send Republicans scrambling to defend Trump while he’s under investigation, Stacey Abrams joins for a virtual interview, and Georgia Secretary of State Bee Nguyen joins to talk about protecting voting rights in the state. Plus, Lovett quizzes Jon, Tommy, Dan, and Josie on just how horrible Brian Kemp and Herschel Walker are in a game called Bless His Heart.
For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.
In 1967 Jocelyn Bell Burnell made a discovery that revolutionized the field of astronomy. She detected the radio signals emitted by certain dying stars called pulsars. Today, Jocelyn's story. Scientist in Residence Regina G. Barber talks to Jocelyn about her winding career, her discovery and how pulsars are pushing forward the field of astronomy today.
Have cosmic queries and unearthly musings? Contact us at shortwave@npr.org. We might open an intergalactic case file and reveal our findings in a future episode.
In an interview with the author of Solitary, the issue of criminal justice reform is central. Alfred Woodfox, who served 43 years in prison – most in solitary confinement, for a crime he says he didn't commit – died in August. He told NPR's Scott Simon that after his release, he struggled with claustrophobia because of the decades he spent in prison. This is an encore episode from February 2022.
