FNC - Long weekend recs!

Emily Writes

24 Apr 2026 — 9 min read

Pipi on her first walk post flood!

Happy Friday Night Chats! I'm so happy you're here. It's been rough this week, but I can already see the sun coming out, and that makes me happy. And it's a long weekend (sort-of I mean some of us have to work Monday but anyway!) Let's chat!

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Hi, Emily here! This is a free Friday Night Chats, a premium newsletter that's normally for paying subscribers only. I'm opening this one up for everyone to read because something really good happened (read on to find out more) and I'd like everyone to be able to see it. Paid subscriptions and donation are my livelihood as well as being what makes this newsletter possible, on top of the activism and advocacy work I do in this community, so please subscribe if you can - Friday Night Chats is just one of the benefits. Thanks so much! Arohanui Emily

I'm finishing this edition of Friday Night chats on a Thursday. The sun is finally here, ready to dry out the flooding. Yay! I even got to take Pipi for a walk. As you can imagine, she's been going buck wild not being walked.

We live in one of the worst suburbs hit by the floods. Well, we are sandwiched between two of them. And I've been so stoked at how the community has come together to support each other. Everyone is looking out for everyone else, helping with the big, big clean-up.

Yesterday, I was finally able to go out and put up posters searching for my cat Bruce. And the lovely folks at CouCou (who also got flooded) gave me a free coffee and a hug when I asked to put the picture up of Bruce. We were all a bit teary.

We are lucky. The only casualty was my car, which was on its last legs anyway and can at least be driven (slowly) to the wreckers. And I'm very hopeful Bruce will be home soon. I'm just really hoping he's hiding out in someone's house.

Check out the videos from the lovely folks at The White Room (next to CouCou). It's really unbelievable to see the flash flood.

If you want to support them, you could buy something from their online store:

BRUCE UPDATE

OH MY GOSH! While I was writing this, I got a message from someone saying they heard meowing and they rescued Bruce from under (or in - I didn't quite understand) a shed! I just picked him up!

This is the happiest news! Well, now I am really, really happy.

He just had two bowls full of wet food! He was starving. I bought him the fancy stuff because I figured he deserved it after his adventure.

Oh my gosh, I'm so happy! I was actually so worried! It's hard keeping positive because you don't want your kids to worry - definitely worth it. Aww yay! OK well that's a wonderful way to start the weekend!

BRUCE UPDATE #2

It's a few hours later now and I've had so many messages from people so happy that Bruce is home. We must have all needed some good news.

Below - I've got heaps of recommendations for the long weekend.

Oh and here is this week's Emily Josh Pod! We hoped you liked last week’s edition. Feel free to give us some stars if you did ❤️

You can find the podcast on Apple Podcasts, RSS.com, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Also Josh and I finally remembered to take a selfie together when we were hanging out last weekend. Look at how bad I am at taking photos! Oh well at least one of us looks good. 🤙

What I'm reading:

I am continuing to read the hugely embarrassing smutty series on Kindle, with a name so embarrassing I can't share it. Well, I can share the name of the third book: Away Games from Maddox Sharks Football series. If you want to read some smutty books this weekend I recommend:

Can't Say Goodbye - Eden Finley (Navy Seals 2 of 'em and a sports agent?)

Time to Shine - Rachel Reid (cute hockey opposites attract)

Got Me Hoping - Casey Cox (A vet? And a guy who makes soap? Too wholesome for me but if you want lots of love with your smut try The Vet Shop Boys series)

Ziggy's Voice - Saxon James (Obsessed with the Wilde's End series. Especially like the idea of a man who doesn't speak).

Nanny for the Neighbours - Lily Gold (Three rich dudes who want to be dads together but also bang you).

I went to the book sale for Palestine and bought so many books - only $2 each! So exciting! I got This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein, Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America by Ijeoma Oluo, She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge, Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture by Virginia Sole-Smith, and Welcoming the Unwelcome: Wholehearted Living in a Brokenhearted World by Pema Chodron! What a haul eh?

What I'm watching:

I started Margo's Got Money Troubles on Apple+ and it's so good! It's so fun! And the cast is incredible! Elle Fanning is amazing but it also has Michelle Pfeiffer!! And I was so excited by that then out comes Nick Offerman as an ex-wrestler!! And if that wasn't great enough - Nicole Kidman! AS A WRESTLER CALLED LACE (her tag-team partner was called Leather how good?!!) So so great. Obsessed. Love it.

I've been catching up on Shrinking too. And Jason Segel singing the Twilight song?!? God, I love him so much. He also covers Nightswimming.

I've been watching this Youtube series by a botanist who hates everything, and I love it. It's weirdly so relaxing to hear someone just talk about how crap everything is. I am so into it. I don't know what that says about me. And I don't care to find out! Ignorance is bliss baby!

I started watching The Miniature Wife on TVNZ. I think Matthew Macfadyen is just so good in Succession that I can't watch him in anything else? I just hate him (his character) so I can't think of him as anything but a person I hate?

I watched the finale of The Pitt and it was very, very, very good.

Also the Practical Magic 2 trailer is out!

As someone who is just truly obsessed with Nicole Kidman, I will be watching this.

Here's the Off Campus trailer which won't be as good as Heated Rivalry because it's not gay.

And The Vampire Lestat trailer which looks very gay (yay!)

When you live by a stream and there’s a flood!

What I'm listening to:

Well, the first half of the week, we were listening to sleep stories very, very loudly to drown out the sound of the rain.

I've also been listening to ICYMI the Slate podcast about internet culture. I enjoyed the episode about how much Katy Perry sucks.

I've also been listening to Maintenance Phase's episodes on Russell Brand. I'm only halfway through part one but OH EM GEE they're so depressing truly. That guy is repugnant re-pug-nant!

I also started listening to The Gatekeepers via BBC Radio. It's fascinating. Here's the Synopsis:

For years something strange has been happening online, but most of us have no idea what’s really going on.

Ethnic conflict in Myanmar. A chemistry professor is killed in Ethiopia. A teenager dies in her bedroom in London. A mob storms the Capitol in Washington DC.

And that’s the moment that catches Jamie Bartlett’s eye. A few days after the riot, on January 9th 2021, the outgoing leader of the United States is suspended on social media. First Twitter, (renamed X), and then Facebook. A President silenced. It’s a glimpse behind the curtain. For the first time millions of us can see the power of technology companies.

They can delete you. They can amplify you. They can change your life. Social media has conquered the world.

Jamie Bartlett follows the roots of this story back to San Francisco : the home of Big Tech, where he meets one of the early pioneers of social media who tells him about a strange hand bound book, passed around hippy communes in the summer of love, and how it turned the world upside down.

He also has a new series called Everything is Fake. I'm looking forward to episode two - "Jamie ventures into the strange world of 1980s WWF wrestling - where performers and fans share an unspoken agreement to treat the whole spectacle as real. A shared illusion where everyone knows it's fake, but plays along because it feels true. It sounds like harmless fun. And for a while, it was. But Jamie soon wonders: what happens when an idea like that escapes the ring and changes the world?".

I've been listening to a lot of Noah Kahan. I have a real soft-spot for indie folk guitarists but I have avoided him for a while because he looks like one of my friend's ex-husbands that I loathe. I watched the doco about him on Netflix and alas I like him.

He's actually coming to Tāmaki Makaurau, but the tickets are SO EXPENSIVE. Like $170 for the cheapest tickets. For someone who only just released their second album! And is playing two shows at Vector! It's actually so annoying. I feel like our kids are not going to be a generation that gets to see big live acts anymore due to the price. It sucks so much.

So I guess this is the closest I'll get:

What are you watching? Reading? Listening to?

I hope you have a wonderful long weekend! Thank you for all of the love and support you gave me about Bruce and my car. You're the very best and I'm endlessly grateful for you. Arohanui Emily.

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