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Good morning,
Have you ever tried to get into a book club and failed? For years, while I moved around the country, that was me. I wanted in badly. I wrote one of my earliest pieces for PROVOKED about book club gatekeeping. Yes, it's a thing.
When I finally settled in New York, I did what any woman with strong opinions does. I got a few friends together and started one. Besides the sometimes unhinged conversations, book club forces me to read books I might never have picked—or finished—on my own. From The Bee Sting to The Wager—we’ve covered some ground. Not all of it worth the time (Bee Sting, I’m talking to you). It’s the WTF conversations that keep me coming back.
Somewhere in the middle of all this, I sat down with Emmy Award-winning writer Judy Rothman Rofé and we started batting around ideas for a humor column. What came out of it is Book Club Drama—a fictional series. It unfolds in six episodes, dropping monthly—like a TV season. Judy has developed female characters with the kind of detail that makes you think she’s been reading your group chat.
She hasn’t. Probably.
Episode 1 is live today. I hope you enjoy it as much as we’ve enjoyed building it.
One more thing: For those of you ready for more reading—or looking for a new kind of community—we’re launching a PROVOKED book club in the next couple of months, exclusively for PROVOKEDplus members.
And if you have a suggestion for our very first book pick, I’m all ears.
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HUMOR | Series Launch: Book Club Drama
Book Club Drama: Season 1, Episode 1
BY JUDY ROTHMAN ROFÉ
Where fiction meets friction: Emmy Award-winning writer Judy Rothman Rofé makes her PROVOKED debut—and she brought the whole book club with her. A book. Eight women. One group chat that escalates faster than you'd think possible. A selection that not everyone finished, opinions that nobody kept to themselves, and a meeting that prompted an apology to the neighbors. New episodes drop monthly, six in all. This is what happens when women who have things to say get together over a book—and salmon.
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BY GIANNELLA M. GARRETT
Thirty years ago, it was a backwater nobody could find on a map. Today it's a global destination, and most visitors still miss the whole point of it. What happens when you return to a place that formed you, alone, with nothing to prove and nowhere to be? The answer involves a 3,000-year-old cave, a punishing mountain, and the kind of clarity that only comes from going back. READ MORE
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PROVOKED stays free. Always. If you believe in what we’re building and want to go a little deeper, PROVOKEDplus gives you the Sunday edition, book club, live gatherings, and a closer seat to what’s next.
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RELATIONSHIPS
BY MARIAH DOUGLAS
Culture insists everyone else is having wild, satisfying sex. The data tells a very different story. So why are so many women measuring themselves against a standard nobody's actually meeting while their true desires go unanswered? A look at who's setting the bar, and why the only person qualified to reset it is you. READ MORE
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TAKE NOTE
Timely and worth your attention.
🍎 Apple turns 50 this week: founded on April Fools' Day, 1976, by two guys in a garage. Wozniak had already offered his design to HP. They passed. Five times. The third founder supposedly sold his 10 percent stake early for $2,300, convinced it was too risky to see through. That stake would be worth $370 billion today. Risk looks very different depending on who can afford to take it.
🔬 Scientists just mapped the full nerve network of female pleasure anatomy for the first time in medical history. The male equivalent was completed in 1998. Nearly 30 years later. Our lady parts didn't even make it into standard anatomy textbooks until the 20th century—introduced, when they finally arrived, as "a small version of" the male counterpart. Do the math and then decide whether that gap was really about science.
📺 Netflix just launched Age of Attraction, a dating show where contestants hide their ages until they've already fallen for someone. Sounds almost progressive: love first, numbers later. Looking closer, every woman is described by her energy, her vitality, her ability to keep up. The oldest woman is 54. The oldest man is 60. And he's paired with a 27-year-old, because of course he is. Is this cringy or are we here for it?
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LIFE
What If 'Til Death Do Us Part' Is Just Codependency With Better Branding?
BY CHRISTINA METCALF
The anniversary cards. The applause for endurance. Nobody asks what's actually holding it together. Is it obligation, optics, or something that stopped resembling love a long time ago? An honest piece about what keeps some marriages intact, and why celebrating years together isn't the same as celebrating what those years can cost. READ MORE
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READER SPOTLIGHT
“Great article. I had a great career and am really proud of that. Now, leave me alone! Stop waiting. Stop pushing. And I’m talking to MYSELF when I say this too. It has been hard to unwind! To enjoy just shopping for nothing, binge TV, stare at the lake, paint by number, play games on my phone, play cards … my sanity is my purpose.” — Cindy on Hold the Next Act—I’m Taking an Intermission Want to be featured next? Comment on your favorite piece—we read them all.
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🛍️ Some links in this newsletter are affiliate or sponsored links. If you buy something we recommend, we may earn a small commission—at no extra cost to you. Every product is independently selected and obsessed over by our team.
✍️ Are you a writer? Got an unapologetic POV? We’re looking for freelancers with a distinct voice. Pitch Us, We're Ready!
📝 Missed a Thursday drop? All of our past newsletters are waiting for you right here.
⌨️ Our newsletter and articles are written by Susan and the talented writers of PROVOKED. Get to know the women behind them here.
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