This week, we want to know: What does it ACTUALLY feel like to be pregnant? We asked women to tell us what they didn't expect when they were expecting... and we heard about everything from extra nipples to extreme horniness to the benefits of being a pregnant war correspondent. With Rukmini Callimachi, Angela Garbes, and many more.

Rebecca Traister checks her phone first thing in the morning: It's always full of bad news, but that bad news is her job, and she wants to know what she's getting into right away. On today's episode, Traister — the politics writer for New York Magazine and the Cut — tells us how she gets it all done, from profiling presidential candidates to constantly reminding her four-year-old to "PEE AND BRUSH!" Also included: The secret to running. (It's walking.)

An episode all about anxiety—from panicky thought-spirals to private self-soothing techniques. Featuring Aparna Nancherla, Jenny Odell, Sarah Wilson, our extremely anxious colleague Ruth Spencer, and many more.

Eve L. Ewing has spent years living in Chicago, working in Chicago, and thinking about Chicago — she knows the place. Then she found an 800-page document that changed the way she saw her hometown. On this week's show, Eve tells us the story of what happened in Chicago in the summer of 1919. Eve's book, 1919, is out now.

By the time Toni Morrison died last week, a whole generation of readers had come of age in a world where she was already a legend. So, on this week’s show, we’re talking to women about growing up with Morrison’s books—how they first discovered her work, and what it’s meant to them over the years. Featuring: Brittany Luse, Zoe Haylock, Aminatou Sow, Glory Edim, Kaitlyn Greenidge, Angela Flournoy, and Ashley C. Ford.

Elizabeth Warren has spent most of her career as a teacher. Before she faced off with a stage full of opponents for the Democratic nomination, she was facing off with a roomful of rowdy 5th graders intent on cutting each other's hair. So what would it mean to have a teacher-in-chief? On this week's episode, Rebecca Traister pays Warren a visit to talk about her life in the classroom (and drink tea on her sun porch)—and we call Warren’s students to see what they have to say.

How can you fight back against online abuse? Writers Clementine Ford and Ijeoma Oluo tell us about a few go-to tools, like screenshots, mass-blocking, and the mute button. But what if you don't live your life online — and you’re dealing with a troll who seems to know everything about you? That's what happened to Francesca.

Tiffany Cabán’s outsider campaign for Queens district attorney could come down to just 16 votes. But Rebecca Traister says this race was thrilling long before it came down to an election night dead heat. On this week’s show, she talks to Tiffany, and tells us what’s made her candidacy so exciting—and why it matters way beyond Queens.

Brittany Packnett is an activist who rose to prominence after she became a leader of the protests in Ferguson back in 2014. Since then, she’s worked with leaders on the federal and state level on ending police brutality, and was appointed to President Obama’s task force on 21st century policing. Brittany talks with Stella Bugbee about how she gets it all done, including how she decompresses from dealing with heaviness of her work, travel hacks for the frequent flyer, and her philosophy of activism.

Alison Roman is a cookbook author, New York Times and Bon Appetit columnist, and the brain behind The Cookies and The Stew, those chocolate chip cookies and chickpea stew that you’ve likely seen in your Instagram feed. This week, Alison sat down with Stella Bugbee to talk about how she gets it all done, including how she develops her recipes, deals with online critics, and embraces her inability to chill.

When Hannah was a kid, everyone knew she was dying. All over town, donation cans showed a picture of her: a sweet little girl with cancer who needed help. But it turned out that Hannah's story wasn't so simple—in fact, she still doesn't understand everything that happened to her as a kid, and all the lies she was told. In this episode, Hannah gets a chance to talk to someone who can help her figure out the strange story of her childhood.

Taffy Brodesser-Akner is perhaps best known for her profiles of celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow, Tonya Harding, and Jonathan Franzen — turning her subjects into characters through the irresistible drama of being famous. Now, she's turned to fiction, and has just published her first novel, Fleishman Is In Trouble, about the painful dissolution of a marriage. Taffy talks about her long-standing fascination with divorce, intensified a she's watched her peers go through the process in the age of dating apps, and shares an excerpt of her novel.

What is life really like inside an immigrant detention facility? In this episode, we talk to Karla, who came from Honduras to the United States as part of the much-discussed migrant caravan. When she walked over the US border six months ago, she thought she’d be reunited with her kids in South Carolina. Instead, she spent months in a terrible limbo. And when Karla's family is finally reunited, she discovers exactly how much has changed while she’s been gone.

Filmmaker Sandi Tan told the Cut that her next project would be an adaptation of Elif Batuman's novel The Idiot — it's a book about a hapless college freshman. So we brought Elif and Sandi into the studio to talk. Sandi pumped Elif for autobiographical details, Elif told us her big revelation of 2018, and they agreed that people who lose touch with their past selves — however idiotic — are the worst.

Cynthia Nixon joins us this week as we consider the past and future of abortion. What does it look like to end a pregnancy when the law stands in your way? Wendy Zukerman from Science Vs tells us about a group of women in the 60s who developed their own safe abortion kit. And we hear from a Dutch doctor who’s made it her mission to distribute abortion pills in countries without access... which has meant taking to the seas, and taking on the US government.

The spring thaw is here... or is it? The Cut staff tries to figure out what it means to be horny in 2019. (The answer involves asking Adam Driver to run you over with a bus.)

This week, we listen in on a conversation between Dr. Alexandra Sacks, host of the new podcast Motherhood Sessions, and Anne, who never wanted to be a mom.

How activists Topeka Sam and Holly Harris get it done.

Nicole Cliffe and Daniel Mallory Ortberg tell us about everything that's happened since they first bonded over Rebecca, answering questions like: How does a friendship change when one of you transitions? What about when one of you finds God? And who the fuck is Loretta?