What 'Cat Person' Tells Us About Female Pleasure. Plus Which Social Media Platform Is The Most Dangerous?

By Pandora Sykes and Dolly Alderton

The High Low

13/12/17·1h 4m

Pandora's been moving house and Dolly's been hosting Pretendmas (don't ask; she'll tell you all about it anyway) but there are still plenty of water cooler topics to discuss this week.

From some brilliant pieces of journalism (including a heart-breaking piece by Empire Editor Terri White on the vital role a woman's refuge played in both her own childhood and in British society as a whole) to plenty of podcast recommendations from the ultimate podcat, Dolly, this week we discuss 'Cat Person', the New Yorker short story that went viral - and what this piece of fiction tells us about modern relationships; toxic masculinity; bad sex and female pleasure.

We also play you an excerpt of the shocking and riveting speech given by former Facebook VP Chamath Palihapitiya at Stanford University, on how Facebook is ripping society apart. In light of this and plenty of other disclaimers from both former and present tech execs, we discuss the dangers of social media in both a personal and a social context. From the richest (first world FOMO caused by your Instagram feed) to the poorest (Whatsapp hoax that caused violence in a rural Indian village), we are all affected by social media in its myriad forms.

What we are reading, watching and listening to:

A Woman's Refuge Saved My Family, by Terri White for The Pool https://www.the-pool.com/life/life-honestly/2017/49/Terri-White-on-the-funding-crisis-hitting-women-s-refuges

I Made My Shed The Top Rated Restaurant on Trip Advisor, by Oobah Butler for VICE https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/434gqw/i-made-my-shed-the-top-rated-restaurant-on-tripadvisor

The People vs O.J.Simpson: American Crime Story, on Netflix https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/80083977

'Cat Person' - a short story, by Kristen Roupenian for The New Yorker https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/12/11/cat-person

Fallout, by Sadie Jones https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fallout-Sadie-Jones/dp/0701188502

Ladybird directed by Greta Gerwig:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNi_HC839Wo

Cariad Lloyd's Griefcast with Adam Buxton:

https://www.acast.com/griefcast/episode-1---adam-buxton

James Franco on WTF:

http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-870-james-franco