Exclusive! On the Mic with E. Jean Carroll
The Norman Mailer and Terry Southern of newsletters gets the scoop on Hugh Hefner, Roger Ailes, and Hunter S. Thompson—and much, much more—from an American legend.
We’re here to reclaim the “women’s magazine.” Every week, two veteran editors read it ALL to bring you everything we believe women’s media should be: juicy yarns, big ideas, deeply personal essays, and hot goss—aka, the full Spread. Plus: original interviews, podcasts, and more. Come hungry!
Sisters Spread,
Everybody knows that in May 2023, a jury found Donald Trump liable for defaming and abusing E. Jean Carroll, and awarded her $5 million. And everybody also knows that in January 2024, another jury found Trump liable for defamation against her to the tune of $83.3 million. With interest, his payout will now total over $100 million.
But not everybody remembers—because we are guppies, and because, ahem, Print is Dead—that E. Jean1 is a goddamn swashbucking magazine-world legend: a writer of such style, wit, and sheer ballsy joie de vivre that she carved out a name for herself in the boys club of New Journalism, writing juicy and iconic stories in the ’70s and ’80s for Outside, Esquire, Playboy, and more—and then finally leapt over to women’s magazines, where she held down the role of advice columnist at Elle for—wait for it—27 years. Elle is where we intersected with E. Jean and first saw up close her boundless enthusiasm and generosity for womankind.
We’ll never forget sitting at one of the magazine’s annual fancy pants dinners honoring Women in Hollywood circa 2010—these were real star-studded affairs, folks—when Jennifer Aniston stood up to receive her award and started her speech with a shoutout to her beloved Auntie Eeeee, whose advice she and millions of other American women had devoured, and lived by, for decades. (It tracks: So that’s how Jen survived Brad Pitt’s “missing chip.”)
Here’s the truth: The woman that most of the world came to know through the most harrowing circumstances imaginable really is and has always been that fearless, that unsinkable. It’s not a persona—it’s the genuine article. And when you hear her stories about how hard she slogged away for decades to finally get her big break in publishing, listeners, you will have a whole new respect for her.
Though our wide-ranging conversation was, in E. Jean parlance, a gas, there were also moments of gut-punch poignance. When we asked her about her well-reviewed courtroom fashion, for instance, she put it this way: “When a woman walks into the court, what is she judged on? How she looks. And what she has on. Particularly in a sexual assault case—what she has on, what she looks like. It was essential. The body is always the center of a rape case.”
As E. Jean, 81, tells us herself in this interview—part of our partnership with the Print Is Dead: Long Live Print! podcast—she does very, very little press. So we couldn’t be more honored that our friend and idol and the Spread’s most enthusiastic hype woman sat down after hours with us. We just hope we did her justice. (To be crystal clear, if you’re coming for journalistic rigor, look elsewhere. This is the equivalent of two Swifties scoring a sit down with Tay herself.)
Listen here, here, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Ravishing regards,
Rachel & Maggie
Want the full Spread, with all the fixins, every week? Become a paid subscriber here.
In addition to holding Donald Trump accountable in court—NBD—these past few years E. Jean Carroll has also built a thriving community on Substack, where she doles out her signature advice and jumpstarts rip-roaring conversation among her legions of readers. We suggest you join in by signing up here.
Yeow!!!!! Were you taping???!!!!!!
This is the BEST. xo