Welcome to Spreadlandia, where two veteran editors read it ALL to winnow out only the best: juicy yarns, big ideas, deeply personal essays, and hot goss—aka, the full Spread. Plus: original interviews, podcasts, and more. Come hungry!
Resplendent Spreadsters,
“There’s probably no surer way of destroying your marriage than writing a paean to it,” wrote Curtis Sittenfeld in an op-ed published in the New York Times in 2015, on the joyous occasion of the Supreme Court vote to legalize same-sex marriage. In it, Sittenfeld—whose best-selling novels are almost all to some degree about holy matrimony—celebrated both the institution of marriage and her own personal union. This weekend, she returned to annotate that essay now that she’s divorced. About that opening line, she writes: “It turns out that invoking a jinx doesn’t prevent a jinx?”
It’s that time again! A fresh spate of #divorcestories has arrived to muddy a divorce algorithm that is “oozing with positivity” these days, as Melinda Wenner Moyer puts it in the Cut. “The Strong, Empowered, Secretly Broke Divorcée” is a must-read for anyone even vaguely fantasizing about a breakup, with a comprehensive look at how divorce has become increasingly financially punishing for women—specifically those in the upper-middle-class (and higher) tax brackets, who go into their breakups with “no idea they would lose so much money.” Turns out the “divorce is great” liberation POV may have helped egg on quiet shifts in marital law that put women—who still tend to earn less than their partners, even before they take the childcare hit on their careers and pay the “motherhood tax” their income may never rebound from1—at a further disadvantage. Before you whip out the world’s tiniest violin and start talkin’ Belle Burden, consider that while the women Moyer is writing about may be the fortunate few, they are not just, like, losing the Aspen house. They’re moving to different states, taking lower-paid jobs, cutting out all nonessential purchases. Moyer reveals late in the article that she, too, is recently separated; to make ends meet, she’s Airbnbing her house and staying with friends on the weekends her kids are with her ex.
What Moyer’s story lacks in delight, Jennifer Wilson makes up for in the New Yorker, revealing her secret identity as a football superfan in a book report on a new biography that “tells the story of Touchdown Tom’s life through the prism of his divorce.” Yes, it is somewhat ridiculous to view the winningest man in American football through the lens of his most colossal fumble—but then, who in their right mind lets go of Gisele Bündchen? The woman is not just a supermodel, Wilson points out, but an über-model, one whose teeth, according to the book, “glistened with the flawless geometry of freshly fallen snow” on their first date. The divorce conceit is, let’s face it, the only reason your Spreaditors would ever spend a Friday night reading a story about Tom Brady. Sure, we know that the most interesting thing about this man is his former marriage, but we’re surprised Brady: An American Story and the Price of Greatness author Lars Anderson—a male sportswriter—sees it, too. Could you make the case that the position is even… feminist? Score!
Should you run into Brady on the sidelines of life, take this note from Sittenfeld: “I now know that when people tell you they’re getting divorced, you don’t say, ‘I’m so sorry!’ or ‘Oh no!’ But it’s OK, and maybe recommended, to say, ‘I’m sorry and congratulations.’
Let’s stay together,
Rachel & Maggie
The Terrifying World of College Girls
It’s been a week of questioning what you thought you knew about how human beings work—one that hit home in a particular way if you’re a parent of young boys. What happens in the brains of a group of young men when they’re gathered in one small bedroom and presented with the possibility of an inebriated woman? At what point does the woman go from being a fellow human being—a classmate, a friend, somebody’s sister/girlfriend/daughter—to being “free pussy” that you advertise to your fellow frat bros on Snapchat? (Are these otherwise decent young men who make terrible choices because of groupthink and, in particular, fraternity culture? Or sexist jerks who go through life penis-first?) Kate Mann happens to have a front-row seat to the exploding story of the Cornell Seven, as a professor of philosophy at the university, and she’s never one to mince words, even when talking about her own employer. Yesterday she weighed in on “What It Feels Like at Cornell Right Now.” Read it here.
A Tale of Two Penélopes
Sounds like the kind of rabbit hole your Spreaditors would find ourselves down after a couple of Negronis (Maggie) and tequila gimlets (Rachel), or—who are we kidding—after our afternoon ounces of H₂O: In the latest installment of her Just Like Us monthly Substack column on celebrity and online culture for the Point, age-gap enthusiast Grazie Sophia Christie ties together the common threads in Olivia Wilde’s The Invite and Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona—a) Penélope, b) nonmonogamy—to talk about shifting morality around sex and why we do the dirty in the first place. Whatever happened to passionate, disastrous love triangles? When did everything have to get so “healthy” and “responsible,” ugh? Christie favors VCB’s “sexy cavemen” and “hot blood” over Wilde’s Esther Perel-choreographed version (news to us: Perel was Wilde’s actual therapist when the director was in her twenties?) and gets into Wilde’s tabloid pile-on and how the internet judged her. But the question of whether it’s awkward to champion a Woody Allen movie as the sexier worldview? Never comes up!
Read it here.
Where’s Beck At?
Just as we were all watching Tom Cruise spend his Digger press offensive doing everything possible to avoid speaking about Scientology—hey, look over here: I’m I’m dancing with Jennifer Hudson, I’m shooting the breeze with GQ—Vulture busted out a doozy of a book excerpt that certainly made David Miscavige break out in hives. (We hope that’s all it made him do!) Pulled from a forthcoming biography of Beck from journalist Josephine Riesman, the piece is a heartbreaking account of the musician’s evasion of his family of origin’s religion and subsequent descent into the cult through the lens of his relationship with longtime girlfriend Leigh Limon. A stylist, Limon lived with and worked for the “pop messiah” until she returned one day to their shared home—guess what: only his name was on the deed—to find their living room filled with strangers wearing suits and Scientology uniforms. The story is haunting, and—though we suspect Limon spoke to Riesman on background for the book—it’s also a hell of a write-around, especially given its relationship to a legitimately terrifying cult that is famous for disappearing people who rub them the wrong way.
Read “Losing Beck” here.
ABORTION! ABORTION! ABORTION!
We’d like to thank Guardian opinion columnist Moira Donegan for writing down something that we feel in our gut every day and say aloud at least once a week: WHY THE HELL IS NO ONE AROUND HERE TALKING ABOUT ABORTION ANYMORE? Four years after Dobbs, you can’t legally get an abortion in more than a quarter of US states, which makes it terrifying to just be pregnant in this country. Not only have women lost their autonomy and their dignity, they are dying because of this. In the first two years after the Texas abortion ban, 120 pregnant or postpartum women died, according to a ProPublica study. Not only that: The rate of sepsis among women in that state who had a miscarriage shot up more than 50 percent due to doctors delaying medically necessary abortion care. Death from ectopic pregnancies? That number is way up, too. And yet we’re all generally just…going with it? As Donegan explains, this is all by Republican design. “Feminism has gone dramatically out of style,” she writes. Twenty-eight days after the death of Gloria Steinem and 34 days until the midterms: How many of us are getting out the vote like our lives—especially our red-state sisters’—depend on it?
Read “Why has abortion faded from America’s national conversation?” here.
The 100 Spreadiest TV Series of the 21st Century
Last week, we received a text: “Will the Spread respond?” And we knew, immediately, what the friend who’d sent it was referring to: The New York Times had published its “100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century,” making it clear that the paper of record considered us total sheep: Lumping both limited series and multi-season series into the same list? As another friend put it in another text message, “it ain’t right.” Frankly that was just one of the many offenses squeezed into their 100-title ranking, including blanking the entire oeuvre of Ms. Elizabeth Meriwether, who may be the Spreadiest creator of television alive. Now, we know that September has been an unusually list-heavy month in Spreadlandia, but as your humble servants we naturally canceled all of our plans and began scratching out two more lists—one for each small-screen art form—of our own. (Note: We included anthology series in the limited-series bucket, evaluating each season as a standalone work.) Within our corrective, you’ll notice a few signature Spread themes, including women having nervous breakdowns and women on the verge of having nervous breakdowns, plus at least four Duplass-brother performances. Also: No fewer than four Liz Meriwether projects.
Herewith, the Spreadiest series—both limited and regular-degular—of this century… so far.
The 75 Spreadiest TV Shows of the 21st Century!
Friday Night Lights, 2006-2011 (#14 on the Times list)
Better Things, 2016-2022 (#82 on the Times list)
Enlightened, 2011-2013 (#33 on the Times list)
Girls, 2012-2017 (#13 on the Times list)
30 Rock, 2006-2013 (#8 on the Times list)
Catastrophe, 2015-2019 (#91 on the Times list)
Six Feet Under, 2001-2005 (#15 on the Times list)
Fleabag, 2016-2019 (#5 on the Times list)
Transparent, 2014-2019 (not on the Times list)
Halt and Catch Fire, 2014-2017 (#96 on the Times list)
Veep, 2012-2019 (#7 on the Times list)
Younger, 2015-2021 (not on the Times list)
Broad City, 2014-2019 (#46 on the Times list)
Togetherness, 2015-2016 (not on the Times list)
The Leftovers, 2014-2017 (#25 on the Times list)
Weeds, 2005-2012 (not on the Times list)
Mad Men, 2007-2015 (#3 on the Times list)
The Mindy Project, 2012-2017 (not on the Times list)
Succession, 2018-2023 (#4 on the Times list)
Happy Endings, 2011-2013 (not on the Times list)
Hacks, 2021-2026 (#42 on the Times list)
The White Lotus, 2021-present (#21 on the Times list—about as close to alignment as we’ll get)
Homeland, 2011-2020 (#38 on the Times list)
The Diplomat, 2023-present (#94 on the Times list)
The Pitt, 2025-present (#36 on the Times list)
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, 2015-2019 (not on the Times list)
Masters of Sex, 2013-2016 (not on the Times list)
Gilmore Girls, 2000-2007 (#99 on the Times list)
Big Little Lies, 2017-2026 (not on the Times list)
Tell Me You Love Me, 2007 (not on the Times list)
New Girl, 2011-2018 (not on the Times list)
The Good Wife, 2009-2016 (#79 on the Times list)
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, 2006-2007 (not on the Times list)
PEN15, 2019-2021 (#59 on the Times list)
Orange Is the New Black, 2013-2019 (not on the Times list)
Furious, 2026-present (not on the Times list)
The Crown, 2016-2023 (#20 on the Times list)
Grey’s Anatomy, 2005-present (not on the Times list)
The Americans, 2013-2018 (#17 on the Times list)
Motherland, 2016-2022 (not on the Times list)
The Handmaid’s Tale, 2017-2025 (#67 on the Times list)
The Wire, 2002-2008 (#2 on the Times list)
Gossip Girl, 2007-2012 (not on the Times list)
Big Love, 2006-2011 (not on the Times list)
Nurse Jackie, 2009-2015 (not on the Times list)
The Big C, 2010-2013 (not on the Times list)
The Bachelor, 2002-present (not on the Times list)
The L Word, 2004-2009 (not on the Times list)
The Simple Life, 2003-2007 (not on the Times list)
Somebody Somewhere, 2022-2024 (#76 on the Times list)
Schitt’s Creek, 2015-2020 (#34 on the Times list)
Abbott Elementary, 2021-present (not on the Times list)
UnREAL, 2015-2018 (not on the Times list)
The Comeback, 2005-2026 (#23 on the Times list)
One Mississippi, 2015-2017 (not on the Times list)
Killing Eve, 2018-2022 (not on the Times list)
The Affair, 2014-2019 (not on the Times list)
Orphan Black, 2013-2017 (not on the Times list)
Insecure, 2016-2021 (#55 on the Times list)
The Gilded Age, 2022-present (not on the Times list)
Downton Abbey, 2010-2015 (#52 on the Times list)
The Other Two, 2019-2023 (not on the Times list)
Skins (UK), 2007-2013 (not on the Times list)
Parks and Recreation, 2009-2015 (#50 on the Times list)
Arrested Development, 2003-2019 (#12 on the Times list)
Pluribus, 2025-present (not on the Times list)
Couples Therapy, 2019-present (not on the Times list)
SMILF, 2017-2019 (not on the Times list)
The Studio, 2025-present (not on the Times list)
Loot, 2022-present (not on the Times list)
Summer Heights High, 2007 (not on the Times list)
Shameless, 2011-2021 (not on the Times list)
Party Down, 2009-2023 (not on the Times list)
Call the Midwife, 2012-present (not on the Times list)
Sally4Ever, 2018 (not on the Times list)
The 25 Spreadiest Limited Series of the 21st Century!
Dying for Sex, 2025 (not on the Times list)
Angels in America, 2003 (not on the Times list)
The Dropout, 2022 (not on the Times list)
Mrs. America, 2020 (not on the Times list)
This Is Going to Hurt, 2022 (not on the Times list)
Howards End, 2017-2018 (not on the Times list)
Normal People, 2020 (#49 on the Times list)
I May Destroy You, 2020 (#18 on the Times list)
Top of the Lake, 2013-2013 (not on the Times list)
Fleishman Is in Trouble, 2022-2023 (not on the Times list)
The Night Of, 2016 (#92 on the Times list)
A Very English Scandal, 2018 (not on the Times list)
Say Nothing, 2024 (not on the Times list)
Fosse/Verdon, 2019 (not on the Times list)
Unbelievable, 2019 (not on the Times list)
Adolescence, 2025 (#40 on the Times list)
Dead Ringers, 2023 (not on the Times list)
Station Eleven, 2021-2022 (#93 on the Times list)
Mildred Pierce, 2011 (not on the Times list)
Wild Wild Country, 2018 (not on the Times list)
True Detective: Night Country, 2024 (the complete anthology series is #35 on the Times list)
Maid, 2021 (not on the Times list)
Bad Vegan, 2022 (not on the Times list)
Love Story, 2026 (not on the Times list)
Beef, Season 2, 2026 (the complete anthology series is #35 on the Times list)
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In its 2026 “True Cost of Living Measure” report, the New York City Mayor’s Office estimates that a one-parent, one-child family needs $8,127 per month to cover basic living expenses and be “economically secure” enough to plan for the future. Suffice to say this is not what women are getting in their custody agreements.
Love to see Crazy Ex-Girlfriend on the list!! It doesn't get nearly the attention it deserves, and is brilliant. We're lucky to be alive at the same time as Rachel Bloom!
I just feel that the Spread editors, with whom I enjoy a very healthy para-social relationship, would appreciate that I, the ex-wife of a showrunner, ranked his shows (and only his shows), on Bluesky, and I believe that the NYT should have reached out to every showrunner spouse/partner, current or ex, and solicited our lists.