Catherine Baab-Muguira

In honor of the launch of Catherine Baab-Muguira’s new book, Poe for Your Problems, we are re-releasing F***ing Shakespeare’s interview with her that we did back in 2019—where we talked about this book in its wee-baby stages. And now, here it is, all grown up like the big beautiful babe it is!

Get ready for some perfect hot takes. Kate, Jess, Phuc, and Cat look behind the curtain at the self-appointed guardians of world culture. Cat celebrates indulging a rabbit hole of eccentric ideas as a freelancer and we all have a laugh about how her outstanding personal essay on how her highlights helped propel her career.* Plus, we endlessly appreciate Cat for being real with us about writing, success, and mental illness as she crowns Poe, word for word, “the most likely self-help guru in history.”

Check out more of Cat’s work on her website, her Contently page, and her Twitter.

Cat’s essays that we discussed in the podcast:

• “Edgar Allan Poe Was a Broke-Ass Freelancer” in The Millions

• “Buy All Your Furniture at Target, For Tomorrow We Die” in The Billfold

• “I Spent $11,537 Becoming a Blonde” in The Cut

• “The Seductive Scamming of Theranos’s Elizabeth Holmes” in shondaland

Suggested Reads & Honorable Mentions

• Tigers are Better-Looking by Jean Rhys

• “Like This or Die” by Christian Lorentzen in Harper’s Magazine (we discuss this article at 10:55)

• “The Literati of New York City” by Edgar Allan Poe

• “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe

• J.W. Ostrom’s works on Edgar Allan Poe’s letters

• Elizabeth Holmes’s net worth according to Forbes

*Please note, we went out of our way not to say “highlight of her career.” You’re welcome for the lack of bad puns.