One night in September 2024, I stayed up way beyond my intended bedtime to finish a novel. I had started it on the plane, on the way home to West Virginia for my high school reunion, and couldn’t put it down. It was Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe.
That novel is now a show on Apple TV starring Elle Fanning, Michelle Pfeiffer, Nicole Kidman, and our friend at Death, Sex & Money, Nick Offerman, who plays Margo’s dad, a former pro wrestler in recovery from opioid addiction. The story follows Margo, a young community college student, who starts a flirtation and then an affair with a professor who ends up getting her pregnant. Margo decides to have the baby, promptly loses her waitressing job, and then joins OnlyFans to make money. Then, like a lot of digital entrepreneurs find, simply hanging a shingle on the internet doesn’t guarantee an audience, even when your internet business includes nakedness. We follow as Margo takes on algorithms and discoverability gaps, and somehow, Rufi’s writing turns a plot about digital strategy into a real page-turner!
This week on the show, I talk with Rufi Thorpe about writing this book while living in a 3-car garage and supervising Zoom school for her young kids, and about how single motherhood and loving people in addiction recovery have both shaped her life.
And the plot details about the mechanics of OnlyFans? For that, Rufi had to become an OnlyFans consumer herself and figure out how to convince some of its high-earning stars to tell her how they did it.
RUFI: What I really wanted was to get an OnlyFans model to read the whole book. And, their idea of how much I should pay them to do that was like $500 a page, you know?
ANNA: Oh, wow.
RUFI: And type it into the chat.
ANNA: Oh, that’s so interesting. You have to do it In my world, on my terms.
RUFI: Which I mean, makes a great deal of sense. But so eventually I found someone who had left publishing to pursue an OnlyFans. So she just understood the situation that I was in better and was willing to read the whole thing. And her commentary was invaluable. And I’m, I’m so glad that she read it. And there were lots of things that occurred to her that just hadn’t occurred to me.
And for Slate Plus listeners, we put out an extra (and useful!) conversation about gym memberships—and the obstacles in your way to stop paying for them when you’re not using them. Slate contributor David Mack shares his reporting on the fitness industry and the Federal Trade Commission’s efforts to make opting out easier. Listen here.
Growing up in a UU church, we had a weekly ritual during Sunday service: inviting members of the congregation to light a candle and share a joy or sorrow.
I’ve been thinking about that this week because I did some serious pinging between the two. It started at the end of last weekend, when we had to say goodbye to one of our family dogs, Lupine. She was just 5 and took a turn quickly after a cancer diagnosis, while I was still very much in denial that she was sick.
When her time came, it was blessedly clear and shockingly swift.
Alongside our sadness, and probably because of it, I had an unusually bright set of extracurricular activities that have left me feeling extra appreciative of friendship and beauty. I got tickets for my husband to finally see Springsteen and the E Street Band live. Their showmanship and clear affection for each other have had me smiling since. (And the bridge of the song “Wrecking Ball” has been a bit of an interior mantra: “Hard times come…hard times go…Hard times come…Hard times go…”)
I also got to see former Poet Laureate Ada Limón talk in San Francisco about her new book, nature, and returning home to California with two supercool gal pals, and on another night, had a casual and fun taco night with another family.
And roses are in bloom in Berkeley! Here’s a picture my 7 year-old snapped of one from our yard.
Speaking of OnlyFans, I learned a lot from this Today Explained episode about the company's origins and its uncertain future after its founder’s death.
John Cameron Mitchell’s run in Oh Mary! Death, Sex & Money producer Andrew Dunn saw it this week and told us in an editorial meeting how special it was. Go if you’re in New York before April 26. (And here’s JCM as a guest host on Death, Sex & Money back in 2019 with cabaret singer Marilyn May.)
“Ecologists who believed cranberry farmland to be ‘ecologically dead’ saw a wetland emerge instead. Within just a year of the restoration work that began in 2010, the sandy soil began to sprout.” A story the Associated Press reported from Massachusetts about wetlands and what can be “restorable” with intentional management.
DTF St. Louis on HBO. What a weird, sweet, disturbing, and original series about male friendship and loneliness. (And it gets extra points for including a few different music and dance numbers!)
“This L.A. mailman retired after 42 years. Hundreds showed up to his farewell party.” A lovely story about relationships formed while chatting along a mail route, from the LATimes (via California Sun)
Until next week,
Anna
This newsletter is free to you, but let me urge you to support the Death, Sex & Money team by becoming a member of Slate Plus. What do you get? Ad-free listening and special member-exclusive podcast drops. Please join us at slate.com/dsmplus or through Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
4/14 Why I Paid OnlyFans Models to Read Margo’s Got Money Troubles
4/14 Slate Plus: Why Canceling a Gym Membership is Its Own Workout
4/7 Doree Shafrir On The Out Of Control IVF Train
4/7 Slate Plus: Why No Two Infertility Stories Are the Same
3/31 A Court Settlement Made Me a Millionaire. I’ve Barely Touched the Money.
3/24 A Career Change? In This Economy?
3/24 Slate Plus: How to Cope When You Lose a Job You Love
3/17 AI Confessions: A Chatbot Ended My Marriage
3/10 AI Confessions: A Chatbot Saved My Life
3/10 Slate Plus: AI Confessions: I Feel Like a Hypocrite, But I Keep Going Back
3/3 After Two Wars and PTSD, He Became an Oyster Farmer. Why is He Running for Senate?
No posts
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.