Welcome back to The Weekend Press! Today, Joe Nocera speaks to former Nebraska governor Bob Kerrey, who took a meeting with Jeffrey Epstein—and just resigned because of it. We have an exclusive excerpt from Kat Rosenfield’s new novel, set in the darkest woods of Maine. Maya Sulkin speaks to a young mom who went from OnlyFans model to devout Catholicism. And more!
But first: What happens when an entire generation of girls is taught to hate men?
“I dont have parents, i have a mom and dad who don’t love each other, it hurts,” says the text on the screen as a young woman sobs.
This is what Freya India found on TikTok last year, while flicking through the hashtags #divorce and #divorcedparents.
“I was born in 1999. Growing up, I don’t remember many people talking to me about divorce,” she writes in today’s essay. “My parents split when I was 3, but by the time I was old enough to understand what that meant, family breakdown was so common it never felt worth mentioning.”
But now her generation has come of age, and is analyzing their childhood online. “You weren’t crazy,” says one TikTok caption, “you just realized that having divorced parents affected you because now you’re in constant belief that love isn’t real.”
Is it any wonder that Gen Z doesn’t know how to form relationships? “Imagine you are a teenage girl whose father left, and you believe all men are untrustworthy,” writes Freya. Then imagine you’re scrolling through Instagram, and you come across adults who make money by reinforcing that bleak opinion. Because before most Gen-Z girls had been kissed, they’d been bombarded with advice from dating influencers who built their platforms by saying things like: “The intense chemistry you feel with someone you just met is a huge red flag. Most likely, they are similar to an early caregiver that neglected you & your subconscious mind is attracted to them.”
Meanwhile, on the popular podcast Call Her Daddy—which averages around five million weekly listeners—host Alex Cooper reminds girls to never relax into the relationship, not even after marriage. “They still hate you, and they’re still cheating on you, until they prove otherwise.”
Maybe Gen-Z girls were taught to hate men. To understand how this has happened, read Freya’s gripping essay—which is adapted from her forthcoming book, GIRLS®:
Do you want to know what it’s like to be collateral damage in the Jeffrey Epstein scandal? Bob Kerrey, the 82-year-old former Nebraska governor, then senator, resigned from the board of a clean energy company this week because the Epstein files revealed he’d taken a meeting with the pedophile in 2013—as so very many powerful people did. But when Kerrey spoke to Joe Nocera on Thursday, he said a few things that surprised our reporter. “I’m not sitting here saying I’m damaged,” he told Joe. “I wasn’t forced to resign.”
Drinking a plain mug of hot water. Squatting on the sidewalk. Eating a hard-boiled egg—and just a hard-boiled egg—with chopsticks. On TikTok, the latest nonsensical trend among young Americans is “Chinamaxxing”—that is, adopting stereotypically Chinese habits, and saying things like: “You’ve met me at a very Chinese time in my life.” What’s going on? River Page is here to guide you through this strange development—and also has a theory about why “The Traitors” is the best of all the reality television shows.
How do you survive this age of anxiety? Some say: Run. Cut off your family. Protect your peace. Keaton Swett says the opposite: Go home. During the Covid pandemic, he and his wife moved back to the town in New Hampshire where he grew up, and lived alongside his parents, six siblings, a gaggle of nieces and nephews, and a 94-year-old Holocaust-surviving grandmother. On the wall of their new house, they hung a stanza from Sam Walter Foss’s poem “The House by the Side of the Road,” which urges the reader to “be a friend to man.” That’s how you survive.
You might know Kat Rosenfield as our sharp, hilarious Free Press columnist, who spends her days commenting on everything from “Bridgerton” to the case of Daniel Penny—but she has another life: as a writer of thrillers. Her latest, “How to Survive in the Woods” has the Free Press office gripped—so we’re delighted to be sharing an exclusive excerpt with you today. It’s the tale of Emma Sharp, a girlboss raised by a prepper, who starts to think her husband might kill her one day—unless she gets to him first.
You’ll have to wait until publication day, March 10, to read the rest of her novel! That night, Kat will be joining Suzy Weiss live in New York City to launch the book—and you’re invited!
Looking for love? Over at Free Press Cupid, we have a new batch of lonely-hearts ads for you! Click here to meet a 23-year-old Brit who loves to cook and promises he’ll “take you on a culinary tour from the comfort of home”; or to know more about a young Naval officer from Virginia who says: “I like my women like I like my books: smart, elegant, and funny.”
Your soulmate could be just one email away! If you’d like to throw your hat in the ring, write up a paragraph that defines you (and what you’re looking for), and send it over to Cupid@TheFP.com.
We’ve published some pieces this week that you’re going to want to catch up on, including Suzy Weiss’s defense of the very drunk hockey bros of Team USA; Kat Rosenfield’s reflections on the controversial events of last Sunday’s BAFTAs, during which a man with Tourette’s yelled a racial slur, and was pilloried for it; and, first up, a wild story by P.G. Sittenfeld about what it’s like to be the target of an FBI sting:
How should you spend your weekend? We asked our producer Poppy Damon for her recommendations . . .
🎧Listen . . . Sea of Lies is a fantastic CBC podcast series that is filled with strange details. It begins with a body being washed up on a fishing boat, and a trail of deception is uncovered. If you are looking for something to binge—I highly recommend it.
🍎Eat . . . If you’re in Brooklyn anytime soon, go to Mercado Central NYC (252 Third Avenue at Union Street). It is my favorite place to have a glass of wine and authentic tapas. I love to come home with things for the pantry as well. Tinned food is in, and some say it’s the cost-of-living crisis, but I think sardines are genuinely delicious.
📺Watch . . . I am going to be cheeky and throw a couple in here. Both suggestions are highly silly and highly joyful. On the small screen, Small Prophets. Never have I seen a show get such unilateral love across the political aisle. Five stars from The Guardian AND four in The Telegraph. I don’t want to give too much away, but I will say it’s a mystical sitcom featuring homunculi (if you know you know). And on the big screen: Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie. Behold:
That’s all, folks! Have a great weekend.
After skimming today's fare, especially the desire of youth to chinamaxx, I can only say let us hope we never have a real Depression that forged the strength and courage and both the men and women of The Greatest Generation. Forget this Gen X ,Y or Z mumbo jumbo. We're moving simply towards GenD as in DGeneration( misspelling intended).
As the US and Israel attacked Iran this morning and Iran responded with missiles, I hope the FP will be rapidly keeping people up to date on the situation.
It is worth watching Trump's video address (he is due to speak later today) https://x.com/realDonaldTrump/status/2027651077865157033
It is also reading the United Against Nuclear Iran's latest report -- a deep dive into the secretive Byat which is supposed to ensure the survival of the Khamenei regime. It shows exactly how this totalitarian regime operates. https://www.unitedagainstnucleariran.com/press-releases/exposed-khameneis-secretive-power-structure-built-to-ensure-regimes-survival
Anyway I hope and pray that the totalitarian regime of the Islamic Republic is seeing its final days and will be replace by something which serves the Iranian people and works to maintain true peace.
I look forward to the FP's coverage of this war.