Nun Urine and Twitter Drama
Plus papal shenanigans, recent reads, and more.
It’s been busy around these parts (my desk) so I’m coming late to my own party with this one, but I thought I’d do a quick catch-up post on a story I wrote, “In Vitro Veritas,” which appears in the May issue of Vanity Fair, and online here. It’s one of my favorite things I’ve worked on at the magazine, a story about a 1950s project to create a fertility drug that stretches to include such disparate figures as Pope Pius XII, the surgeon who injected him with the cells of fetal animals, Large Adult Nephews (some of the original Nepo Babies!), an alleged mob financier, a Swiss billionaire—not to mention a whole lot of urine collected from postmenopausal nuns.
It’s about money, power, colonialism, reproductive health, bodily autonomy—and if that doesn’t sell you on it, the brilliant VF video team made this preview.
It really takes a village to produce a piece of magazine journalism, from my editor, Claire, and our Editor in Chief, Radhika, to an eagle-eyed fact-checker and copy editor, a legal editor, visuals editor, designer, illustrator, print producers, web producers, video producers, social media editors—anyway, I feel incredibly lucky to work with such an excellent team.
A little tidbit for your further reading pleasure, and one of my personal favorite rabbit holes fallen down in reporting the piece: Il Nipotismo di Roma, or, The History of the Pope’s Nephews, “Written Originally in Italian, in the year 1667. and Englished by W. A.” two years later. It’s where we got the term nepotism and employs the phrases “barbarous greediness” and “Bastardismo.” Highly recommend.
Here’s a choice excerpt from a chapter summary1.
Of the number of Sixtus his Nephews. Of the selling of many Jewels. Of the murmurs of the Romans against this Pope. Of the succession of Innocent the eighth to the Popedome. How he was naturally averse from his kindred. What he did for some of his Nephews. Of the assumption of Alexander the sixth to the Popedome. How he made his Bastards great. Of the crimes committed by him.
Again, you can read the story here.
In two very different interviews, I had the pleasure of speaking with R.O. Kwon about kink and ballet and writing blocks, and with Honor Levy about Norman Mailer and cancel culture and Twitter drama.
As I do every month for my column, Anything Good, I solicited favorite recent reads from my colleagues, and wrote about a few of my own. (One of which is Kristi Noem counterprogramming.)
I’ve been doing some light social media detoxing. (Pro tip to thwart the clicky siren song: ask a friend or spouse to change your passwords, and instruct them to ignore your pleas a la Odysseus to his sailors.) Here’s what I’ve been doing instead of scrolling:
Taking in Sheila Heti’s Alphabetical Diaries (FSG).
Watching A LOT of House and Garden UK and World of Interiors YouTube.
Reading this NYRB piece by Aryeh Neier about defining genocide.
Listening to a thoughtful, beautiful explainer on the Kendrick v. Drake beef.
Gardening with the help of the Wild Seed Project.
Swooning over the cover for the paperback edition of my novel, out next month.
That’s all for now. Thank you, as always, for reading. If you’ve got a recent obsession, do share it in the comments—let me know how else to fill my time!
What are those little chapter summaries called? The closest I’ve found is capitulum, but that seems to typically refer to religious work.
I admit to being influenced by numerous mentions of Hacks, and now I have to watch at least one episode every night before going to bed.
Love that you're into the Wild Seed Project. I follow them on Instagram and daydream about creating the native plant garden of my dreams!
🤌🤌🤌