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Welcome back to the Girl and the Gov® Diaries.
If you’re new here — hi, I’m Sammy – the blonde behind Girl and the Gov®. This little corner of the internet, or arm of GATG rather, is where I share what’s been crossing my desk and my DMs: the internet finds I can’t stop sending to friends, the things I added to cart, the sidequests I found myself on, and convos with people doing genuinely interesting things. I’d hint at what you’ll find when you scroll, but that would ruin the fun ;)
Happy reading and happy to have you here <3
IN THE DMS
Things of amusement I’d send to a friend
Two summertime [or anytime IMO] eats that have gone from my FYP to the GC, include this poolside perfect sandwich featuring peaches, burrata, prosciutto, and arugula, as well as this burrata with lemon and marinated olives plate. Safe to say, those that are lactose intolerant, need not apply [or take a Lactaid].
I’m currently renovating a guest room in my New England HQ, which made finding this painting hack a total W. Now I just need to find one for removing linoleum tile from hardwood floors…
Calling all martini lovers – the perfect drink for a welcome party or a night you just don’t want to drink is… this creator’s concoction, which is soda water, olive brine, wolves, and ice. Simple, easy, and a mocktail that actually isn’t sweet, it’s savory.
For nights when you do want to drink, Ms. Alice on the LES has vibes and Apero Hour until six, while Casa Piada in the West Village is doing $5 spritz’s for happy hour, and a few corners away is Jack and Charlie’s 118, which also has a solid happy hour deal that goes until…drum roll please.. SEVEN O’CLOCK.
We’re within reach of hydrangea szn – in reach, people!! And thisss is the flower arrangement with them center stage that I want all over my casa.
Not to take it to a dark space, but the talk of the town is how addicted men are to gambling, specifically sports betting. It’s scary, a helluva an ick, and a huge reason to not combine finances with a significant other, because JFC this is where all of their money is going…
MUSES
The misc files
THE RETURN OF SMOKING:
ICYMI, The Cut published an article by a writer that tried to connect the dots between making sense of the chaos in which we currently live, a yearning for more youthful, carefree moments, and somehow, smoking a cig. The shitty-at-best larger argument was distilled into this IG carousel post with the line “I mean, why shouldn’t we all smoke cigarettes again?” adhered to it. Surprisingly, or at least to my knowledge, the post wasn’t sponsored by big tobacco.
However, what’s been clear and building ahead of this article is an increase in smoking, with the cancer-causing, smelly as hell habit, wiggling its way back into the sphere of acceptability – it’s even made its way back into song lyrics like in one of Addison Rae’s big hits as a way to “let off some steam.” Regardless of its attempt to be like most things and cycle back around, smoking is one of those things that should stay deeply uncool, and the images of what cigs do to your lungs that were shown to my 5th grade class should carry that through [feel free to Google].
Perhaps what gets my goat the most here, and with this article specifically, is the argument that smoking is a way of building community. And when you scrub the bullshit off that, all it’s really saying is that socializing requires reliance on a crutch, which tbh and IMO, is pretty pathetic. Flipping it back to the IG post of it all for a moment, the recklessness of the way the article is positioned to young, impressionable viewers is both unforgivable and emblematic of the rage bait way of storytelling required today to get any possible argument/information to an audience.
IT’S ALL IN THE CLIPS:
I’ve been saying that the media game is dominated by a war of clips for some time now, and I still stand ten toes down on that notion. In translation, that means whoever can produce and distribute the most clips of their pundits–and consistently over time–controls the conversation, thus often the culture. As a result, a primary source’s original viewership stats and audience matter less than the clips that result or can result from it.
For example, if a media team is considering accepting an invitation for their client to go on a podcast, the question is no longer just “how many downloads do they get on Apple Pods and how many views per episode on YouTube?” The reason being that that number doesn’t fully capture a video opportunity’s full audience reach. As a result, the set of questions to ask are now as follows: How many clips does the show put out per episode and what is the cadence of the clips? Can the show be clip farmed? Does the show itself do clip farming? Where else does the show post the clips, and are they open to collaborating on them? What’s the quality of the clips like? What are the average views for clips from the show? It’s questions galore. But the questions again mirror that the game has changed.
It’s about the clips and what the clips can do for you, not just about what an individual show can do for you. In a best of scenario, a team gets their client a great interview on a show that aligns with their target audience, access to high quality clips that they can use in an array of creative ways, and expanded viewership through clips pushed out by a show and their affiliates. That said, with credit to a team’s ability to see opportunity and creative vision in the possible clip farming they could do themselves with an appearance/interview, even a show with a primary audience that’s slightly off-focus could provide ample media moments. Clips are the definition of “it is what you make of it” in media form.
SHOPPING CART
Finds, things I’ve got my eye on, & generally cool sh*t worth a click
These stud vases from Sagra Ceramics are elite, and this olive-hued one is absolutely on my wish list.
I’m not quite sure how it happened, but a few of my friends needed new sneakers, and instead of any of them leaving the Salomon store with a new pair, I did… Anyways, the pair I got are these, which are super lightweight, cushy, and have not left my feet since they were purchased.
Some people live and breathe for the Trader Joe’s canvas tote, which tbh, I’ve never really understood, until I saw that THE Stew Leonards launched their own tote. And as a former child that pranced through Stews as a kid, I’m going to need to find a way to get my hands on one of these for nostalgia sake.
Whatever you do, do not sleep on Talbots. The brand, which btw, was one of my very first words, has and always will be a classic – especially since they actually make most of their clothes out of things like cotton, wool, linen. And yes, I can’t believe that in 2026, using normal real materials for clothing i.e. not some variation of polyester is a flex… but alas. All that to say, a few of my faves from Talbots and their sister brand, Haven Well Within (terrible name, cute stuff), include: this dress which gives Isabel Marant, Chloe, and Missoni had a baby; this black and white cotton v-neck sweater that can go with a black capri or an oversize denim short; this versatile maxi dress that would be stunning with a brown gladiator sandal; and this mother-of-pearl clutch that brings the coastal chic vibes.
The cute top recession is still very much with us, but I did manage to find two cute eyelet tops worth the buy – specifically, this brown one from H&M and this white one from Avec Les Filles.
Wedges are back, which might not surprise anyone that saw the soft launch of the comeback last summer with brands releasing more and more espadrilles. In the hard launch of this season, there are waaaaay more interesting variations on the market, like these, and also, a ton of wedges meets flip flop heel styles. All to say, I’m officially patting myself on the back for thrifting a never worn before pair at Goodwill last winter because I knew at some point they’d have a moment to shine.
In the last issue, I mentioned that I was weighing my options between a Dyson Airwrap and a Shark Airwrap. Fast forward a week or so into vacillating between the two, the Dyson appeared to go up $200 in price for no reason, and so the Shark appeared in my shopping cart. I have to say it has been one of the best purchases I have ever made. However its magic works, it made my hair look so much more professional and polished looking. 10/10 recommend.
QUICK LINKS FROM MY IG STORIES
ICYM-a-link, here they are
The Salty Face self-tanner, which you can get 10% off your order of with the code: GIRLANDTHEGOV10
My recent bridesmaid dress selections have caused a flurry of asks in the DMs, leading to this whole shelf of bridesmaid and wedding guest dress options to shop through.
The Free People corset top featured in this ‘fit, and the Zara corset-esque top featured in this ‘fit.
Following an incessant amount of Klein Blue yapping, the GAP Klein Blue tote.
QUESTS
Side quests, main quests, & generally fun sh*t to check out or do
TBH, I went to Glory Days for an iced coffee-centered sidequest, and instead I left with a smoothie, specifically this one. In review, the smoothie gave Erewhon dupe in the best way, and the iced coffee will just have to be something I have to try another day.
One slow and cloudy Sunday morning, I found myself at Birdee NYC – the bakery, not the similarly named frozen yogurt place – to try their toasted honey cake. Now here’s the thing, honey cake is one of my favorites and I have really high standards for it. And with that, Birdee’s version was good, but not my favorite in the world. What was a big ol’ W however, was their almond cake, which reminded me of a linzer tart but in a cake format.
A dessert that tops honey cake for me, is a pistachio baklava – not walnut – pistachio. Alas I found love in a ~hopeful~ place known as Lion’s Milk, which not only makes a great pistachio baklava, but other Turkish baked goods and treats.
You know those places that you walk by all the time, flag in your head to try at some point, and then classically forget to do so five minutes later? That has been me and Nems in Williamsburg – until a weekend ago when I finally gave it a try for brunch. The order to get, IMO: the nice cream green smoothie and the miso butter scrambled eggs.
CHATTER
Convos with friends at the intersection of culture, politics, & everything else
When Emma Silverman pops across my FYP, I just know the crispest, clearest, wonk-less explainer is about to pop off. Seriously, the way she moves through a topic with grace and ease should be studied in communications classes. And it’s with that skill that she’s just launched a podcast called the Anti-Spiral Podcast, which drops an eppy every Sunday. Naturally, in our convo we chatted about the pod, the bots of the inter-webs, wifi, and the difference between the internet now and when we both first started. So, without further ado, meet Emma:
astrological sign:
Virgo
playing on the headphones:
Okay, it’s wild, but Meg Thee Stallion, Miley Cyrus, and Taylor Swift are tied for me. If I had to pick, I think Meg.
the closet essential:
Sweatshirts. I love dressing up on the weekends, and 90% of my shopping hauls are cute and fun outfits, but I couldn’t live without a cozy sweatshirt to crawl into when I’m home.
must-scroll accounts:
I would say TikTok for short-form content here and YouTube for longer form and podcast content here.
WIFI, CONSPIRACIES, AND SAYING ALLEGEDLY:
* us having wifi issues…
SK: “I swear to God there’s no good internet provider. I’ve never had a good Wi-Fi experience in my life. If there’s a conspiracy theory rabbit hole that I should probably go down or also not for my own self-preservation, it’s related to Wi-Fi because I swear it's always an issue.”
Emma Silverman: “It's always an issue, including in my home. I can't. It's hard here because everyone around me is also working from home and it's just awful.”
SK: “It's actually insane. I'm convinced it gets worse for me closer to when the bill is due. If it's due like let's say it's the 15th, the 13th and 14th it always gets worse. My running theory is that let's say there's three levels to the service offering, and you’re on the bottom or middle tier, they make it worse right before to incentivize you to “upgrade.” Allegedly, of course.”
Emma Silverman: “And you know what? That's totally exactly what's probably happening. I'll put that there.”
SK: “The amount of times that I personally have started saying allegedly in things. Wild. Never thought I'd be using that word so often.”
Emma Silverman: “I will re-record Tik Toks if I watch it through and I'm like I don't know about that one. I think that I need to put a different word in there or I need to rephrase that or I need to change it to allegedly as if you know some member of the cabinet is going to see this and sue me for what I said on my TikTok account. But still, I just don't like it. I don't like the idea of it. I'd rather cover my bases.”
THE BOT-IFICATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA:
SK: “1000%. Circling it back to the social core of it all and starting your account, which like we were saying before we even hopped on, it's been a minute. The two of us have been on the internet for a crazy long time.”
Emma Silverman: “So long. You were one of I think the first like political creator mutuals I had–you and Good Trouble, and Victoria Hammet. It's just so crazy.”
SK: “So much has changed since the 2020ish/2019ish era and especially on the internet. I mean that was the era of anonymous accounts and graphics. What shifts have you seen in terms of the internet? TikTok from when we started to now feels so different.”
Emma Silverman: “I think one thing is a noticeable amount of bots. That’s just infuriating. I'm actually doing an episode on it this week because I have to talk about it. Another thing I've noticed is a weird cycle back to how we were under Trump the first time. I started my videos at the very end of his presidency toward when Biden was getting elected. Doomerism was running rampant because of all the court cases he was filing, the wide majority of people online were saying "Oh, this state's going to get, you know, overturned by this court case and everything." So I started debunking everything. That's essentially how I got, you know, the short story of how I got my start online. Then Biden got elected and the shift was so much quieter–much less to debunk.
I think we've just shifted right back to debunking, you know, explaining the mechanisms in place–how the things he's [Trump] trying aren't going to work. I think it's just come a full circle. Of course, I think that's a pattern with this administration. Ever since this administration began, the news headlines have felt like a bad car crash that you can't look away from. It's awful and I think that it's shifted back into that doomerism mindset. I’m trying to give people hope again, but it makes it so hard because TikTok is now so different from when we started. AI is now running rampant and there's bots everywhere. They're [bots] harder to spot than ever because they have profile pictures and bios and rarely ever post anything, which you know, your average normal friend in daily life hasn't posted something on their TikTok either.”
SK: “The bot situation is so out of hand because, and I think the anonymous culture on TikTok has bled into all the other platforms, right? To your point, most people we know aren't just posting TikToks. I think the stat last time I checked was only 12% of people on the platform are posting. It's so normal to be not posting formally but saying something in the comments that gets 100,000 likes. And I think the comment section is more powerful than people's videos.”
Emma Silverman: “People always look to the comments. They look to the comments to form an opinion, and that's where you find the bots. And it's infuriating to see, you know, the return of people being swayed by this. It happened in 2016. It happened in 2020. And it's worse now than it has ever been.”
SK: “I'm curious what your perspective is on this. When people follow me on Tik Tok, I just don't even bother honestly checking the profiles out. I really don't. But on IG, when people follow and it looks like a bot, I just block. I think I would quite frankly have a way bigger following technically if I just let all the bots follow me.”
Emma Silverman: “I’m the same way on Instagram, especially since I just started the account for my podcast. So, it's been way easier to just kind of go through, but on TikTok at this point, I think it's too late. When I see a comment from someone, especially when it's one of the generic Republican comments like when I was posting about Epstein, and things saying like, "Oh, but Biden had the files for four years and didn't do anything,” that comment over and over again. I was like block because even if you are a real person trying to say that, I don't like misinformation on my page.”
THE ANTI-SPIRAL PODCAST:
SK: “The Anti-spiral podcast. Tell me more. Obviously we went through talking about you know sort of the doomerism and trying to counter it. How does this factor in?”
Emma Silverman: “The premise of all of my content really is hope. On TikTok, the one restriction that you face is that it's made for short form content. You go on it to watch videos when you're feeling like you have a shorter attention span or when you feel like you just want to watch shorter content. So, I thought if I really wanted to dive into these topics that I enjoy talking about in more depth, I would need a longer format for that. I also love to talk.
As cliche as it sounds, the only thing in the way of me starting that podcast was me because I wasn't buying the camera and I wasn't buying the microphone and I wasn't trying to set it up or actively moving towards it. Then finally I just bought both of those things, started planning out an episode, recorded it, and it did well. I realized that I liked doing it too, which was another great discovery because I was worried I would put all this effort into it, talk about it, promote it, and then end up thinking, "Oh, I don't want to do this anymore. Like, this isn't fun." It's been great and very nice to have a longer format where I can really dive into things and try to hope-monger people.”
SK: “Love it so much. For anyone that is tuning into an episode, what can they expect? What does that run of show look like?”
Emma Silverman: “They can expect one ‘headache of the week,’ someone who has bothered us all. Two, an ‘underdog of the week.’ This one can be either end of the spectrum–someone on the left who won an election they didn't expect to, for example, or someone on the right who did something good that we didn't expect them to. Then the main segment is the breakdown and that's where I dive into a specific topic. Maybe it was a news headline of the past week or you know, like the one about bots. It's going to be breaking all of that down, all the reports and analysis that have been released. Then I end it with upcoming primaries that are within the next two weeks, talking about voting deadlines, absentee ballot requesting deadlines. I close out the podcast with a hot take that’s unrelated to politics so that they can leave the space better than they found it because I think that's much needed during this time.”
SK: “That’s such a great formula–giving a little bit of hope, giving also critical information, because my God people do not pay enough attention to primaries. Speaking of primaries, the California governor's race we have to talk about for five seconds. What are your thoughts?”
Emma Silverman: “I think that Gavin Newsom, if you're watching, Gavin Newsom, if you're listening, please endorse somebody. There are a lot of people who will want his endorsement in order to kind of guide their way and I understand that you know when you're not super tuned in and you do like how it's currently being run you are going to look to him for that.”
Le fin.
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