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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff mom never told you?

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Speaker 1: From how stup works dot com. Hello, and welcome to

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Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Kristen and I'm Caroline. And first, Caroline,

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Speaker 1: let me apologize to you from my slightly sick, raspy voice.

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Speaker 1: I don't know it kind of sound sixty yeah, And

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Speaker 1: now that I'm hearing myself, I kind of sound exactly

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Speaker 1: like I always do. So maybe throw some convincing coughs

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Speaker 1: in there. Anyway, today we're talking about Martha Stewart, which

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Speaker 1: has absolutely no connection whatsoever to the little cold that

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Speaker 1: I have developed. But I thought I would start things

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Speaker 1: off by sharing what Martha's doing today. You know, on

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Speaker 1: our calendar, Caroline today probably said something along the lines

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Speaker 1: of podcasts or that Martha Stewart podcasting. Well, I went

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Speaker 1: to Martha Stewart dot com uh to look at her

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Speaker 1: planning calendar that she has, and for today, Martha's to

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Speaker 1: do list is make chicken and vegetable stocks, freeze them,

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Speaker 1: and then tomorrow she's playing to pick spinach and let

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Speaker 1: us from the greenhouse for salads. That sounds like a

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Speaker 1: good thing. Do you think that's true. Maybe I'm cynical.

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Speaker 1: I would like for it to be true. Honestly, it's

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Speaker 1: it's really overcast today that we're recording and staying at

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Speaker 1: home making chicken and vegetable stocks and freezing them and

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Speaker 1: maybe putting on an afghan afterwards and curling up with

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Speaker 1: some Cama Mile tea. But I don't think she does that.

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Speaker 1: She's a busy lady. She never said. The reason that

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Speaker 1: I'm cyncle that she's actually making chicken stock today is

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Speaker 1: that she is the head of an empire, Martha Stewart Empire.

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Speaker 1: She has plenty of people to make chicken stocks for Yeah,

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Speaker 1: she can just call on her chicken stock servant and

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Speaker 1: they can do it. We're not claiming that Martha Stewart

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Speaker 1: has servants. Disclaimer. I'm just saying if I had a

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Speaker 1: lot of money and I wanted chicken stock all the time,

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Speaker 1: you could find probably find someone that I could hire

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Speaker 1: someone to make it for me. But speaking of Martha

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Speaker 1: Stewart as a businesswoman, one of the reasons why we

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Speaker 1: wanted to have this podcast today about Martha is because

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Speaker 1: things are not going quite so great. Yeah, there's one

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Speaker 1: area of her empire that is suffering of late, the

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Speaker 1: Hallmark Channel is preparing to cancel The Martha Stewart Show,

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Speaker 1: which will air through the end of the summer summer.

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Speaker 1: Production will seas in April and reruns will air through

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Speaker 1: the end of the summer. And I think the Martha

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Speaker 1: Stewart Show originally started out on NBC and then moved

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Speaker 1: to Hallmark and it's run for a total of seven

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Speaker 1: seasons on both channels, but has recently seen a slide

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Speaker 1: in ratings and also there have been complaints about production costs,

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Speaker 1: so Martha Stewart Show Bye bye, as well as Home

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Speaker 1: Depot pulling its line of Martha Stewart Living Paint. It

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Speaker 1: was double whammy news, both reported in the in The

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Speaker 1: New York Post a few days ago. Well, good news

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Speaker 1: for for Martha fans who like to watch her on

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Speaker 1: TV um she is well not she her her giant empire.

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Speaker 1: Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia is in talks with the network,

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Speaker 1: according to network reps, about potential news show formats and concepts,

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Speaker 1: so it's very possible she might develop something else. And

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Speaker 1: even if she doesn't form another show on the Hallmark Channel,

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Speaker 1: she's got plenty else going on. She does omnimedia. Mean

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Speaker 1: if hintch at how many balls she's juggling. Yeah, omni

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Speaker 1: like omnivore or omniscient, things that are a lot of

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Speaker 1: things or omni the former sports facility to Later Georgia

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Speaker 1: where I saw Bush in seventh grade. Anyway, Okay, do

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Speaker 1: we want to talk about omnimedia now that we've yeah, okay,

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Speaker 1: you drive this car, okay. Martha Stewart living om The

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Speaker 1: media comprises four main areas publishing, Internet, broadcasting, and merchandizing,

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Speaker 1: all of which is cross promoted. Right, Yeah, because you'll notice,

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Speaker 1: I mean just talking about the merchandizing alone if you've

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Speaker 1: ever been. She doesn't have a relationship with Kymart anymore,

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Speaker 1: but I remember buying things of hers at Kmart. Half

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Speaker 1: of the stuff in my apartment right now is Martha

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Speaker 1: Stewart from Macy's. Um. Yeah. She has a lot, a

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Speaker 1: lot of products out there and lines for home depot

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Speaker 1: which Christian just said the paint had been pulled sears

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Speaker 1: Macy's Walmart. She has craft stuff at Michael's. She also

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Speaker 1: has home cleaning products, pet products so that your pet

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Speaker 1: can be preppy. You just like Martha. I wonder if

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Speaker 1: they have little pet button ups just like Martha and

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Speaker 1: little wigs. Oh my god, I'm a genius. Okay, brands

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Speaker 1: of wine and a line of fresh and frozen foods.

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Speaker 1: And the one that who my mind was home construction.

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Speaker 1: Ms l OH. Martha Stuart Living Omnimedia is involved in

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Speaker 1: home construction. It builds and sells houses modeled after Stuart's

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Speaker 1: homes in New York and Maine. Wow, so you can

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Speaker 1: live in your very own Martha Stewart, eating her food, home,

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Speaker 1: buying her crafts. Yeah, can I bet? I wonder if

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Speaker 1: she has frozen chicken stock you can buy. Probably, But

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Speaker 1: merchandizing just one of those four pillars. Publishing really makes

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Speaker 1: up a bulk of ms l OH. She has published

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Speaker 1: so many books. She has magazines such as Martha Stewart Living, Weddings,

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Speaker 1: Everyday Food, and Whole Living, as well as special holiday

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Speaker 1: and family themed magazine issues. And I want to say

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Speaker 1: that Martha Stewart Living magazine circulation, which was the first

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Speaker 1: and obviously her cornerstone publication, peaked at two point one million.

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Speaker 1: Not that at all. I don't know. Martha Stuart Living

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Speaker 1: kind of intimidates me. Because I feel like I look

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Speaker 1: at it and it just looks at me back. It goes,

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Speaker 1: You're not serious enough, you don't you don't really want this,

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Speaker 1: You're not a crafter. Now, just imagine you're staring down

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Speaker 1: Martha Steeo Living the grocy Stureill I do. I stand

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Speaker 1: there in line at at Publix or wherever and just

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Speaker 1: stare at the magazine and I'm like, I'm not I know,

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Speaker 1: I'm not worthy. I'll just pick up I'll just pick

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Speaker 1: up another one magically just slides behind Yeah, one of

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Speaker 1: the tabloid magazines, the slides in front of it. Uh.

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Speaker 1: In addition to print publishing, of course, she has her

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Speaker 1: Internet properties such as Martha Stewart dot Com, as well

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Speaker 1: as a radio, TV and other kinds of broadcast properties.

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Speaker 1: There's Everyday Food on PBS, and she has the Martha

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Speaker 1: Stewart Living Radio program. Apparently she has a pretty serious

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Speaker 1: presence on on Serious Satellite radio, and according to her

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Speaker 1: page on on Serious Radio's website, Martha Stewart Living Radio

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Speaker 1: with the nation's first twenty four hour, seven day a

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Speaker 1: week radio service dedicated to creative living. And one thing

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Speaker 1: I didn't realize was that Martha Stewart basically bought the

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Speaker 1: rights to chef Emrol Lagassi and all of his properties

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Speaker 1: as well expanding the brand. You got to look forward,

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Speaker 1: you can't look back basically by just buy personalities, which

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Speaker 1: is kind of fascinating when you think about it. So

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Speaker 1: that is Martha Stewart the business. And I'm sorry to

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Speaker 1: keep being the deb downer of this episode, but in

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Speaker 1: June two thousand eleven, they reported that the company had

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Speaker 1: sold almost forty three million dollars worth of products, but

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Speaker 1: at the end of the year was ten million dollars

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Speaker 1: in the red. And in fact, it's lost money seven

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Speaker 1: out of the last eight years. I wonder if that's

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Speaker 1: why she's looking to expand the brand, because you know,

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Speaker 1: she brought her daughter Alexis on board, and Alexis had

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Speaker 1: uh the Whatever Martha Show, and she had a show

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Speaker 1: on Serious Radio also with with her co host Jennifer

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Speaker 1: um And. And Martha did say in interviews with New

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Speaker 1: York Magazine that um she was quite aware that maybe

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Speaker 1: her traditional shows did not appeal. The crafting and the

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Speaker 1: cooking and all that handmade in the chicken stock maybe

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Speaker 1: didn't appeal to people of our generation. So much that

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Speaker 1: she's bringing on her daughter to kind of spice things up. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but before we talk about the future of m Selo,

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Speaker 1: perhaps we should revisit the past and find out and

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Speaker 1: find out how Martha Stewart got her start, because even

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Speaker 1: as a child, she was quite the talented girl she was,

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Speaker 1: and she had help from everyone around her who infested

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Speaker 1: on helping her. At the age of three, her dad,

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Speaker 1: who was a pharmaceuticals salesman, UM, taught her to garden.

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Speaker 1: He was an avid gardener himself, and so at the

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Speaker 1: age of three. I don't know what I was doing

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Speaker 1: at the age of three, but I'm pretty sure it

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Speaker 1: was involving bar Be's not gardening. Um. She also learned

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Speaker 1: cooking and sewing from her mother, and her grandparents taught

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Speaker 1: her to make preserves. Again, I my childhood apparently pales

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Speaker 1: in comparison. Well, not to mention all of that, some

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Speaker 1: retired bakers who lived next door to her taught her

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Speaker 1: to make pies and cakes. Sounds like the most idyllic

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Speaker 1: country childhood, but in fact, she grew up in New Jersey. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: she can says that she came from a modest home

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Speaker 1: in New Jersey and that her brothers would hunt and

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Speaker 1: fish and kind of described it as sort of a

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Speaker 1: hard scrabble upbringing. But I don't know, it's still little

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Speaker 1: house in Jersey. Yes, she was a straight A student

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Speaker 1: and want a scholarship to Barnard where she studied art,

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Speaker 1: European history and architectural history. And not only that, the

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Speaker 1: fair Maiden also modeled to cover expenses, and she continued

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Speaker 1: a successful modeling career, appearing in print and TV ads

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Speaker 1: for Breck clar All Life, Booie Soap, and Carrington Cigarettes. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: she was all over the place. The Stewart who knew

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Speaker 1: And in nineteen sixty one she got married to law

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Speaker 1: student Andrew Stewart, and she actually followed in the footsteps

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Speaker 1: of his father and in nineteen sixty seven became a stockbroker,

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Speaker 1: which I mean this, lady, I mean, I've never heard

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Speaker 1: of anyone. I've never heard of this before. This is

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Speaker 1: pretty impressive, Martha. To to have this this background in

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Speaker 1: in modeling and and yet art and architecture, and then

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Speaker 1: to go and become a stockbroker. That just doesn't seem

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Speaker 1: like the traditional path. So that's pretty impressive. Um. She

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Speaker 1: left in nineteen seventy three when over recession hit Wall Street,

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Speaker 1: and then she and her husband moved up to Connecticut

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Speaker 1: and fixed up an old farmhouse. And while living at

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Speaker 1: the old farmhouse, it seems like Martha tapped back into

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Speaker 1: those early kind of homemaking skills that she learned as

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Speaker 1: a child. In nineteen seventy six, she starts a catering

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Speaker 1: business out of her basement while managing a gourmet food

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Speaker 1: store in town. And by building connections through this catering

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Speaker 1: business and really setting up a high price clientele, and

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Speaker 1: by networking through this catering business, Martha Stewart really makes

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Speaker 1: a name for herself and that's what propels her to

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Speaker 1: publish her first book, Martha Stewart's Entertaining in nineteen two. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: the best selling This is also blowing me away, the

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Speaker 1: best selling cook cookbooks since Julia Child's Mastering the Art

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Speaker 1: of French Cooking. And I think it's really interesting that

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Speaker 1: that's the one it beat, because that is how she

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Speaker 1: taught herself gourmet cooking, was using Julia Child's cookbook. And

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Speaker 1: then within ten years of starting her own catering business

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Speaker 1: in the basement of an old farmhouse, she grows it

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Speaker 1: into a million dollar business. Yeah. Well, yeah, of course,

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Speaker 1: of course she did, because she's Martha, because she's Martha. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And then in nine she divorces Andrew Stewart, and the

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Speaker 1: year later she starts around magazine Martha Stewart Living, which

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Speaker 1: really propels her more public persona. Yeah, she started appearing

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Speaker 1: on talk shows, and she got her own thirty minutes show,

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Speaker 1: which then because of its popularity, expanded to an hour

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Speaker 1: with thirty minute episodes on the weekend. So she's really

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Speaker 1: kind of a busy lady from the get go. And

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Speaker 1: then by she starts up that relationship with Kmart that

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Speaker 1: you mentioned earlier Caroline for reported five million dollars over

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Speaker 1: ten years. And then by she's purchased all the publishing, broadcasting, merchandizing,

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Speaker 1: and licensing ventures that bear her name and consolidated all

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Speaker 1: of them into m s l O, that omni media corporation. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: smart move, and in the company goes public and the

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Speaker 1: share price more than doubles the first day of trading,

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Speaker 1: and like a smartie, she retained most of the most

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Speaker 1: of the shares and served as chairman, president, and CEO.

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Speaker 1: So things are going really well for Martha and early

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Speaker 1: two thousand's. Yeah, two thousand one, ladies home journal names

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Speaker 1: are the third most powerful woman in America, which isn't

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Speaker 1: too shabby. Yeah, and then, uh, a great honor is

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Speaker 1: bestowed upon her when she's invited to join the New

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Speaker 1: York Stock Exchange Board of Directors in June two two.

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Speaker 1: But then, but then a dark chapter arrives. She resigns

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Speaker 1: four months later when the Securities and Exchange Commission accuses

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Speaker 1: Martha Stewart of violating inside trader rules, leading MSLOS share

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Speaker 1: prices to plummet, and the TV show gets the ax. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I'm sure most of you remember, or I don't know,

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Speaker 1: maybe you don't, but she was under investigation for selling

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Speaker 1: hundreds of shares of m Clone just before the fd

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Speaker 1: n f d A announced it was not approving the

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Speaker 1: company's new cancer drug. So once that announcement came out,

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Speaker 1: the value of the stock plummeted. And it just so

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Speaker 1: happened that Martha Stewart, who was sitting on the Stock

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Speaker 1: Exchange Board of Directors obviously, you know, uh, just kind

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Speaker 1: of got rid of those years just in the nick

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Speaker 1: of time. We don't know what happened, Nope, we don't.

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Speaker 1: We don't claim to know what happened. Um, But in

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Speaker 1: June two thousand three, an indictment charged her with securities fraud,

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Speaker 1: obstruction of justice, conspiracy, and making false statements to prosecutors

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Speaker 1: and the FBI. And while she pleaded innocent to all charges,

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Speaker 1: and a judge eventually dismissed the securities fraud charge, a

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Speaker 1: jerry found her guilty of the rest and she was

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Speaker 1: sentenced to five months in prison and finds and I

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Speaker 1: remember just how the media was fascinated by this Martha

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Speaker 1: starting because it's in such stark contrast to this perfect

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Speaker 1: kind of homemaking. You know, let's uh make her own

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Speaker 1: station and little stamps and send letters to friends. And

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Speaker 1: now she's sitting in the courtroom right with Alexis, her

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Speaker 1: daughter stone faced in the front row. Yeah. Well, I

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Speaker 1: think it just it showed that there was a lot

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Speaker 1: more to Martha Stort than maybe we all assumed. She

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Speaker 1: really is a tough, hard nosed businesswoman and who just

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Speaker 1: so happens to have shows and radio programs and magazines

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Speaker 1: about like traditionally feminine soft pursuits like crafting. Yeah, which

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Speaker 1: is interesting because you know, this whole time she uh

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Speaker 1: she's single, it's not like she's actually homemaking in that

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Speaker 1: kind of traditional sense of the word. But more there

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Speaker 1: was an argument that it's the kind of homemaking skills

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Speaker 1: that Martha Stewart practices are okay in terms of gender

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Speaker 1: politics because she's doing it for herself, right, Because it's

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Speaker 1: not as if she's Her shows and magazines are about

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Speaker 1: making dinner every single night and doing the laundry and everything.

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Speaker 1: It's it's more of a creative homemaking stuff to satisfy yourself.

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Speaker 1: But after Martha Stewart serves her five months in jail,

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Speaker 1: she immediately sets out rebuilding her brand and getting herself

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Speaker 1: back out into the public eye and connecting with her fans.

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Speaker 1: And it's kind of incredible to see how she almost immediately, um,

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Speaker 1: I guess, refurbishes her reputation. Yeah, she gets a weekly

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Speaker 1: calling show on serious satellite radio. She puts out new books,

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Speaker 1: The Martha Rules, the Martha Stewart Baking Handbook, and the

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Speaker 1: Homekeeping Handbook. And I'm just wondering, was she just really busy,

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Speaker 1: I guess during her incarceration, just like I'll just write

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Speaker 1: all this stuff while I'm well, I'm in the clink. Well,

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Speaker 1: it provided. As Alexis Stewart tells New York Magazine. At

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Speaker 1: one point she said, the five months were actually great

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Speaker 1: because it was the most free time. It was enforced rest, right,

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Speaker 1: So it's actually not that surprising that she comes out

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Speaker 1: with all of these books right after. Look what she

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Speaker 1: can do when she can take some time off create

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Speaker 1: all this stuff. Yeah, but within a year of her release,

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Speaker 1: ms l O returned to profitability, So that's that's a

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Speaker 1: huge turnaround. And then in September of two thousand eleven,

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Speaker 1: she returned to the board of ms l O, which

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Speaker 1: was the marking the end of a five year band

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Speaker 1: that she had from serving on any kind of board

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Speaker 1: or exact or as executive of a public company as

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Speaker 1: part of her settlement with the SEC over her insider

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Speaker 1: trading charges. So obviously, on paper, Martha Stewart is an

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Speaker 1: incredibly savvy businesswoman who started out with a catering business

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Speaker 1: in her basement, and you know it is now the

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Speaker 1: head of this multimillion dollar corporation, and she somehow recovered

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Speaker 1: from going to jail over insider trading charges. But the

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Speaker 1: real question on my mind, and probably on the listeners

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Speaker 1: minds too, is what does Martha Stewart really mean maybe

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Speaker 1: for women in general, Like that whole question of whether

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Speaker 1: or not all of these all that good housekeeping that

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Speaker 1: she espouses, if it's worth our time, the kind of

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Speaker 1: time that you obviously have to dedicate on a Tuesday

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Speaker 1: to making chicken stock to freeze things like that. I mean,

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Speaker 1: it's like, is it realistic? That's kind of Martha Stewart fantasy, right,

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Speaker 1: and New York The New York Times magazine did ask

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Speaker 1: her that, I mean, is it the best use of

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Speaker 1: modern women's time to make pillows out of their husband's

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Speaker 1: old shirts? And she she kind of got a little

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Speaker 1: a little defensive. She was icy with that question. I mean, yeah,

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Speaker 1: you could you could feel the frost on that piece

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Speaker 1: of paper while it was on my computer, but you

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Speaker 1: get the idea. Um, But yeah, she was basically arguing

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Speaker 1: that that's not really the issue. It's if people enjoy

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Speaker 1: it and want to be creative. It's better to make

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Speaker 1: a pillow out of a shirt than having it end

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Speaker 1: up on the trash heap, right, or going and buying

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Speaker 1: a pillow. The whole kind of d I y uh

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Speaker 1: type of thing that she you could say, she's partially

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Speaker 1: responsible for kicking off. But but don't call her a feminist. No, No,

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Speaker 1: she had an interesting thing to say about, uh, feminism

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Speaker 1: and male ambition and female pursuits. She said, quote, I

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Speaker 1: don't think in a male or female way. I don't

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Speaker 1: differentiate between male and female and or have I'm not

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Speaker 1: considered a feminist. Do we really need to waste time

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Speaker 1: saying I'm a feminist. I never thought about glass dealings.

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Speaker 1: I never thought about glass floors me neither. That sounds dangerous.

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Speaker 1: I was thinking about how many pies I can come

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Speaker 1: up with for my Pies and Tarts book. Those are

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Speaker 1: all original ideas. So here she's saying, why bother talking

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Speaker 1: about whether I'm a feminist or whether you're a feminist

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Speaker 1: or feminism in general. Just do what you're doing. And

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Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie. I mean, I thought it was

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Speaker 1: an interesting point. I thought it was kind of refreshing

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Speaker 1: in a way. I think she's doing incredible things for

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Speaker 1: a woman, you know, running this company. She has her

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Speaker 1: hand in just everything. It's it's I think it's really impressive. Um,

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Speaker 1: it's just kind of like, oh, wow, you're you're pretty.

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Speaker 1: I don't know, does it seem like she's against feminism,

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Speaker 1: or she just doesn't even want to bother with it.

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Speaker 1: I think I can. I think it's an issue of

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Speaker 1: not wanting to bother with it, because it's it's the

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Speaker 1: whole argument of is this so impressive that I've done this?

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Speaker 1: Because I've done this as a woman. If I were

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Speaker 1: a man running this same company, wouldn't be so blown away. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you wouldn't be asking me these same questions. UM. So,

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Speaker 1: it's it seems like it may be ticked off a

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Speaker 1: thing in her brain and pies and tarts. I'm just

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Speaker 1: I am a mogul who makes pie. Just leave me alone.

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Speaker 1: And you know, glass floors, stay off them. Um And

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Speaker 1: and Mason and Marion Myers and two thousand six conducted

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Speaker 1: in depth interviews with tin Martha Stewart fans to kind

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Speaker 1: of see if they could get into the why of

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Speaker 1: her appeal, especially because there is that whole fantasy aspect

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Speaker 1: of it. I mean, how many parodies have we seen

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Speaker 1: of of Martha Stewart and her incredibly lofty crafting projects.

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Speaker 1: I wouldn't I wouldn't pursue them, like I said, I mean,

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Speaker 1: the magazine intimidates me just looking at the cover right,

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Speaker 1: because it is a lot to live up to. But apparently,

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Speaker 1: according to these in depth interviews, that is part of

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Speaker 1: the appeal. Yeah. Um. Much of what they say is

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Speaker 1: that much of what Stuart presents in her media has

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Speaker 1: traditionally been considered quote unquote women's work. But she's she's

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Speaker 1: presenting it in a different way. And we kind of

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Speaker 1: touched on this earlier. It's it's giving women, as they say,

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Speaker 1: Mason and Myers say, it's giving women the permission to

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Speaker 1: be interested in the domestic arena because she's not doing

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Speaker 1: like like we said earlier, it's not like her show

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Speaker 1: is about doing the laundry and separating the whites in

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Speaker 1: the darks. It's it's something that maybe women can be like,

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Speaker 1: Oh well, I do like crafts, I do like baking.

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Speaker 1: Why should I feel like I'm not being a feminist

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Speaker 1: or not being powerful or not making myself happy? You know,

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Speaker 1: I just want to make pies? Okay, Yeah, exactly. I

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Speaker 1: mean there there's a definite value to that, and that

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Speaker 1: it's not like you have in order to accept feminist

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Speaker 1: ideology you have to reject x activities, right, just traditional

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Speaker 1: traditional women's roles. You can be a feminist baker. Um

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Speaker 1: uh yeah, and the Myers and Mason concluded that Stewart

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Speaker 1: plays three main roles in the lives of the super fans.

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Speaker 1: It encourages the fantasy of an upper class lifestyle of

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Speaker 1: elegance and luxury, obviously because you know that's really the

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Speaker 1: only way you would have time to uh do all

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Speaker 1: the things on her to do list. Provides an escape

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Speaker 1: from the daily lives, validating the women's interests in domesticity.

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Speaker 1: And it also fosters creativity and feelings of accomplishment and

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Speaker 1: pride among those who complete projects and recipes. And I

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Speaker 1: have endless admiration for friends of mine, um who are

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Speaker 1: crafty and handy, because I am not. I draw anything. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I enjoy cooking, But when it comes to crafting, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I can't cut a straight line. I blame that though

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Speaker 1: on me being left handed with scissors. I blame it

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Speaker 1: on I crab, have nothing to blame it on. Just

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Speaker 1: try you use a steak knife instead of stabbed the

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Speaker 1: paper tear with my teeth. Um. But these two writers

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Speaker 1: point out that, um, not only is Martha Stewart providing

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Speaker 1: all of these outlets for your creativity and your and

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Speaker 1: your baking tendencies, but um, she's giving you a lot

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Speaker 1: of ways to do it. Because of her radio shows

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Speaker 1: and her books, and her magazines and her TV shows

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Speaker 1: and now her daughter's show and and all this stuff.

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Speaker 1: You have the ability to watch or listen or read

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Speaker 1: whenever you want kind of and and make it fit

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Speaker 1: your lifestyle. And she has such a big emphasis on

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Speaker 1: organization and planning and scheduling. I'm sure those are a

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Speaker 1: number of lessons that I could probably learn from Martha Stewart. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And Joan Holloway and Rachel Moseley right about Martha Stewart

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Speaker 1: as well, and feminism and popular culture, and uh, they

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Speaker 1: claim that she is a housewife who is not a housewife,

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Speaker 1: because I think is an interesting point, um. And also

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Speaker 1: that her world is a sublime reversal of the feminist

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Speaker 1: domestic labor debate in the nineties seventies. I'm assuming by

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Speaker 1: opening up that door to allow like saying it's okay

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Speaker 1: to appreciate certain aspects of domesticity while still being an independent,

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Speaker 1: multi millionaire woman running her own empire. And I would

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Speaker 1: argue that in the real world, as opposed to the

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Speaker 1: Martha world, perhaps and crafters and other people out there listening.

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Speaker 1: I'm very curious to get your in your feedback on this.

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Speaker 1: But I would argue that in the real world, perhaps

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Speaker 1: the the echo of of Martha Stewart is the whole

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Speaker 1: rebirth of crafting and d I Y and etc. And

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Speaker 1: huge projects like that that seems to have, um, I

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Speaker 1: don't know, benefited a lot of women's lives and and

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Speaker 1: then who are they're crafty men? Yeah? Yeah, I mean

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Speaker 1: if she, if she inspires anyone to follow their inter us,

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Speaker 1: that's great. I happen to have a couple of friends

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Speaker 1: who make really neat things on Etsy. I can't do it,

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Speaker 1: but I admire them for doing it. So I think

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Speaker 1: all in all, we can say that Martha Stewart's a

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Speaker 1: pretty polarizing figure. She sort of reminds me of Oprah

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Speaker 1: in in some ways how some people love her and

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Speaker 1: some people just can't stand her. And you know, she

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Speaker 1: shapes maybe what people are are interested in by what

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Speaker 1: she presents in her in her media. So yeah, I

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Speaker 1: mean it's kind of this thing of is is she

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Speaker 1: the uh champion of crafting in a rebirth and appreciation

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Speaker 1: of d I Y and domesticity or is she as

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Speaker 1: She's been called an uber wasp in chief, executive housewife,

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00:25:42,320 --> 00:25:48,240
Speaker 1: archetype of white femininity, an immigrant dream nice quote. So

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00:25:48,280 --> 00:25:50,119
Speaker 1: what do you think? Do you like? Do you like Martha?

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00:25:50,200 --> 00:25:52,359
Speaker 1: Do you do you follow her shows? Do you do

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00:25:52,480 --> 00:25:56,760
Speaker 1: her crafts, baker pies and tarts? Or are you like weird?

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00:25:57,280 --> 00:26:00,000
Speaker 1: Did she creep you out? I don't know any anything

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00:26:00,200 --> 00:26:02,400
Speaker 1: at all, anywhere in between. You can send them our way.

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00:26:02,440 --> 00:26:05,159
Speaker 1: It's mom stuff at how stuff works dot com, or

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00:26:05,200 --> 00:26:07,880
Speaker 1: if you would like to send us a handcrafted letter

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00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:13,280
Speaker 1: on on balston Wood stationary. We have a snail mail

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00:26:13,320 --> 00:26:15,359
Speaker 1: address to that you can find at how stuff works

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00:26:15,920 --> 00:26:18,520
Speaker 1: dot com. And in the meantime, we got a couple

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00:26:18,520 --> 00:26:25,880
Speaker 1: of letters here printed out on copy paper white. I've

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00:26:25,880 --> 00:26:28,400
Speaker 1: got one here from Sarah and this was in response

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00:26:28,440 --> 00:26:32,720
Speaker 1: to our man flu episode in which we mentioned something

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00:26:32,760 --> 00:26:36,080
Speaker 1: called pido megalovirus, and she writes it was treated with

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00:26:36,119 --> 00:26:38,280
Speaker 1: some disdain in your man flu episode. And this was

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00:26:39,080 --> 00:26:42,040
Speaker 1: disappointing because according to the March of Dimes, it is

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00:26:42,040 --> 00:26:45,320
Speaker 1: the most common congenital infection in the United States, as

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00:26:45,359 --> 00:26:49,520
Speaker 1: forty babies are born with CMB. This will cause mental

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00:26:49,560 --> 00:26:52,760
Speaker 1: retardation and a whole host of disabling conditions in four

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00:26:52,840 --> 00:26:56,520
Speaker 1: thousand of them. On a personal note, from age thirteen

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00:26:56,560 --> 00:26:59,080
Speaker 1: to sixteen, I lived with a stepbrother who was one

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00:26:59,119 --> 00:27:01,480
Speaker 1: of those four thousand. He's two years older than me

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00:27:01,560 --> 00:27:05,560
Speaker 1: and suffered moderate mental retardation as well as hearing loss

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00:27:05,560 --> 00:27:08,119
Speaker 1: and mild foot and leg deformities. Throughout the time he

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00:27:08,160 --> 00:27:11,000
Speaker 1: lived with us, he watched both myself and his biological

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00:27:11,080 --> 00:27:14,520
Speaker 1: sister go through all the typical teenage milestones, knowing that

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00:27:14,560 --> 00:27:17,879
Speaker 1: he would never experience them for himself. He was just

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00:27:18,040 --> 00:27:20,920
Speaker 1: intelligent enough to know the problems and that he would

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00:27:20,960 --> 00:27:24,280
Speaker 1: never be able to live a normal life. At one point,

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00:27:24,320 --> 00:27:25,920
Speaker 1: he asked why he had to be born with all

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00:27:25,960 --> 00:27:27,560
Speaker 1: of this and how his life was going to be,

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00:27:27,640 --> 00:27:29,440
Speaker 1: and he was very bitter most of the time. That's

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00:27:29,440 --> 00:27:31,800
Speaker 1: had a huge impact on my views on abortion and

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00:27:31,920 --> 00:27:35,160
Speaker 1: was my first step towards feminism. So thanks for pointing

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00:27:35,200 --> 00:27:38,280
Speaker 1: that out about sido megalovirus CMV, and you can find

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00:27:38,320 --> 00:27:42,000
Speaker 1: out more information about it at March of Dimes dot com.

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00:27:42,040 --> 00:27:45,280
Speaker 1: This is for Morgen. This is about our Imaginary Friend podcast.

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00:27:45,840 --> 00:27:49,000
Speaker 1: She said, I'm a girl's second child and I had

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00:27:49,040 --> 00:27:52,600
Speaker 1: about twenty different imaginary friends. It could have been because

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00:27:52,600 --> 00:27:55,800
Speaker 1: I'm homeschooled and was lonely. I don't know, because my

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00:27:55,840 --> 00:27:58,639
Speaker 1: older brother had one as well. The one I remember

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00:27:58,680 --> 00:28:01,119
Speaker 1: most was a monster from the book There's a Nightmare

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00:28:01,119 --> 00:28:03,960
Speaker 1: in My Closet. I was very scared of it as

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00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:06,000
Speaker 1: a kid, but for some reason, I watched the movie

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00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:08,400
Speaker 1: and read the book thirty times a day. And how

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00:28:08,440 --> 00:28:10,560
Speaker 1: I got my imaginary friend was that I was in

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00:28:10,600 --> 00:28:13,199
Speaker 1: a car and it was very dark, and the monster

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00:28:13,280 --> 00:28:15,439
Speaker 1: smashed against the window and followed me home, and I

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00:28:15,480 --> 00:28:17,480
Speaker 1: was very scared, but he wouldn't leave me alone, so

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00:28:17,600 --> 00:28:20,680
Speaker 1: we became friends. Kind of strange, I guess, because he

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00:28:20,720 --> 00:28:24,359
Speaker 1: always protected me after we were friends. Thanks Morgen like

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00:28:24,480 --> 00:28:27,440
Speaker 1: that story so again, if you have any thoughts to

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00:28:27,440 --> 00:28:30,200
Speaker 1: send our way about Martha Stewart, Is she a good thing?

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00:28:30,480 --> 00:28:34,680
Speaker 1: I forgot to drop her key CATCHPHRASEA yeah, Is Martha

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00:28:34,680 --> 00:28:38,360
Speaker 1: Stewart a good thing? Let us know Mom Stuff at

483
00:28:38,360 --> 00:28:40,959
Speaker 1: how Stuffworks dot com or you can leave a comment

484
00:28:41,040 --> 00:28:44,800
Speaker 1: up on our Facebook page or shout out on Twitter

485
00:28:44,920 --> 00:28:48,040
Speaker 1: at moms Stuff podcast, and you can also check out

486
00:28:48,080 --> 00:28:50,880
Speaker 1: the blog during the week. It's stuff Mom Never told

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00:28:50,920 --> 00:28:57,160
Speaker 1: You at how Stuff Works dot com. Be sure to

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00:28:57,240 --> 00:29:00,000
Speaker 1: check out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future.

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00:29:00,360 --> 00:29:03,160
Speaker 1: Join hou Stepwork staff as we explore the most promising

490
00:29:03,240 --> 00:29:07,560
Speaker 1: and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. The hou Stepwork's iPhone app

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00:29:07,600 --> 00:29:15,520
Speaker 1: has arrived. Download it today on iTunes. Brought to you

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00:29:15,560 --> 00:29:18,920
Speaker 1: by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are

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Speaker 1: you