Lauren Goode: That sounds delightful. I wish I could join. I could be your stranger that you invite in. I was raised Catholic. I’m a bit of a recovering Catholic, you might say, but I have in fact joined Passovers before. Our fellow WIRED one, Adam Rogers, invited me to a Zoom Passover during the pandemic and it was really lovely.
Michael Calore: That’s cool. I have never been.
Lauren Goode: Aarian, I think Mike’s looking for an invite.
Aarian Marshall: Yep. Mike, come on up.
Michael Calore: OK. I’ll bring all my vegan recipes with me.
Lauren Goode: That sounds wonderful, and that’s a good recommendation. Bon Appétit is just, it’s great. I’m doing a little, you know, chef’s kiss. Solid content.
Michael Calore: Yeah. Speaking of solid content, Lauren, what is your recommendation?
Lauren Goode: My recommendation is a documentary. I finally got around to watching The Beauty and the Bloodshed, which is an Oscar-nominated documentary by Laura Pores about Nan Golden, a photographer turned activist, who in recent years has been most well known for her activism that helped take the Sackler name off of many art museums around the world, and really brought attention to what the Sackler family did to perpetuate the opioid crisis. It’s a great documentary. It’s on HBO, and I highly recommend it.
Michael Calore: I think you can rent it elsewhere too, if you don’t have HBO Max.
Lauren Goode: Oh, you can? OK. I didn’t realize that. Yeah. But yeah, as always, I say on this show, if anyone needs an HBO Max login, let me know. I think I might actually be out of logins to handout, but yeah, if you have to get it somewhere else, I recommend renting it.
Michael Calore: I watched this also. And I really loved it because I went into it thinking it was just, you know, the Nan Golden life story, and there is a lot in there about her and about her work, but also just like her community and her family. The stories that come out are just fascinating.
Lauren Goode: It really is.
Michael Calore: And her modern-day activism is really well documented too.
Lauren Goode: Right, the story of her work is really book-ended by her family life. What her upbringing was like, and a very traumatic event that happened in her younger years. And then it really brings it back to that at the end and helps explain her drive in some of her activism.
So it’s an emotional documentary. And then I actually was not super familiar with her photography prior to this, and she’s known for her slideshows, and part of the documentary is told through those slideshows. It’s just really well done. So I recommend that.
Michael Calore: Yeah. I’ve been telling people if you know nothing about Nan Golden or photography or the art world, it’s still fascinating.
