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SMNTY Classics: A DIY Guide to Martha Stewart · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and what Good Stuff.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: I never told you production of iHeartRadio, and today we
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: are bringing back kind of a dated episode I'll say
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: about Martha Stewart, because you and I had been discussing
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: the legacy the impact of these magazines that were all
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: about like home decor and cooking that were aimed specifically
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: towards women generally, and we do have episode coming out
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: about that soonish. We're at the end of the year,
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: so it's sort of the juggling of the calendar. But
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: I was looking into this and I found this quote
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: from Delish that I wanted to include holiday cooking. No
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: surprise makes us all a bit unhinged. Even though a
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: survey found that eighty seven point eight percent of people
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: in the US plan to make a holiday meal, a
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: whopping seventy percent of the same group said they've lied
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: to someone about enjoying a holiday meal. Two and five
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Americans even say that the holidays negatively impact their mental health,
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: with thirty nine percent saying that holiday meals are often
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: the main source of their stress. Martha Stewart has also
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: thrown in the hat this year, canceling her own Thanksgiving celebration.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's true it did. Like preparation around it,
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: food and all the other stuff too, is very very stressful.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: But I think that it's interesting that Martha Stewart was like,
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: I'm good.
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: You know, I don't know why. I feel like Martha
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: Stewart is a lone wolf in my mind outside of
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: Snoop Dogg, So I don't imagine I don't imagine her
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: having a big gathering, even though I know she can't.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: I don't know why, right, Yeah, yeah, and I do.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: I have spoken to several people I know who ordered
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: food or just cook like simple things like have sort
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: of stepped away from this traditional big thing, and they
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: always seem really happy. They always seem really happy with it.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: So I mean, I think it's worth considering if, like,
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: if it's causing you that much stress.
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: Because we definitely had that conversation about friends give us
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: for us, And there was a point in my social life,
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: I guess where I felt like if I only had
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: one fite, it was very sad. That means I didn't
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: have a lot of group of friends, so like having
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: two or three, Like I was jealous of the people
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: who had two or three of them because they had
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: so many friends. And now I'm like, once stresses me out.
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: I'm like, man, I need to downsath my group because
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: they wanted two friends. Give us.
• 2:59
  Speaker 4: Just kidding.
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: I enjoyed it.
• 3:00
  Speaker 5: It was stressful, right, Actually it was very stressful, but
• 3:04
  Speaker 5: uh like to the point that, like my thoughts about
• 3:07
  Speaker 5: it has changed so drastically about holiday mills and I'm like, oh, mis, fine,
• 3:12
  Speaker 5: it's fine.
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: Just one is good.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I know I've said I've shared the story before,
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: but I started when I was in high school. I
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: asked my mom to teach me how to cook our
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: traditional meal. And because I was like, well I one day.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: At the time, I believed I would have my own
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: family and I need to know how to do all
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: of this. And now we're like a good team and
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: we do it together. But it is funny to me
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: that in high school I was like, you must teach
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: me the ways for my own family.
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: Did not even play in my mind.
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: I was like, yeah, I'll figure this out later.
• 3:49
  Speaker 5: Yep.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: Yes, Well, whatever meals you're cooking or not cooking, whatever
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: you're enjoying, we hope that you're enjoying it, and please
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: enjoy this classic episode.
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: Welcome to stuff Mom never told you. From how Stuff
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: I'm Kristen and I'm Caroline.
• 4:18
  Speaker 6: And first Caroline, let me apologize to you from my
• 4:20
  Speaker 6: slightly sick rasty voice. I don't know it kind of
• 4:23
  Speaker 6: sounds sixy yeah, now that I'm hearing myself, I kind
• 4:27
  Speaker 6: of sound exactly like I always do.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: So maybe throw some convincing coughs in there.
• 4:34
  Speaker 6: Anyway, today we are talking about Martha Stewart, which has
• 4:38
  Speaker 6: absolutely no connection whatsoever to the little cold that I
• 4:42
  Speaker 6: have developed. But I thought I would start things off
• 4:45
  Speaker 6: by sharing what Martha's doing today. You know, on our calendar,
• 4:48
  Speaker 6: Caroline today probably said something along the lines.
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: Of podcasting yeah, or that Martha Stewart podcasting.
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  Speaker 6: Well. I went to Marthastewart dot com to look at
• 4:57
  Speaker 6: her planning calendar that she has, and for today, Martha's
• 5:03
  Speaker 6: to do list is make chicken and vegetable stocks, freeze them,
• 5:08
  Speaker 6: and then tomorrow she's playing to.
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: Pick spinach and lettuce from the greenhouse for salads. That
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: sounds like a good thing.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Do you think that's true? Maybe I'm cynical.
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: I would like for it to be true.
• 5:20
  Speaker 6: Honestly, it's really overcast today that we're recording and staying
• 5:25
  Speaker 6: at home making chicken and vegetable stocks and freezing them
• 5:28
  Speaker 6: and maybe putting on an afghan afterwards and curling up
• 5:32
  Speaker 6: with some Cama mild tea.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: But I don't think she does that. She's a busy lady.
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: She never said.
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  Speaker 1: The reason that I'm cynical that she's actually making chicken
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: stock today is that she is the head of an empire,
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: a Martha Stewart Empire.
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: She has plenty of people to make chicken stocks.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, she can just call on her chicken stock servant
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: and they can do it.
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: We're not claiming that Martha Stewart has servants disclaim her.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: I'm just saying if I had a lot of money
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  Speaker 1: and I wanted chicken stock all the time.
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: You could probably find someone today could.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Hire someone to make it for me.
• 6:07
  Speaker 6: But speaking of Martha Stewart as a businesswoman, one of
• 6:11
  Speaker 6: the reasons why we wanted to have this podcast today
• 6:13
  Speaker 6: about Martha is because things are not going quite so great.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's one area of her empire that is suffering
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: of late, the Hallmark Channel is preparing to cancel the
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Martha Stewart Show, which will air through the end of
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: the summer summer twenty twelve. Production will cease in April
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: and reruns will air through the end of the summer.
• 6:37
  Speaker 6: And I think the Martha Stewart Show originally started out
• 6:40
  Speaker 6: on NBC and then moved to Hallmark and it's run
• 6:43
  Speaker 6: for a total of seven seasons on both channels, but
• 6:47
  Speaker 6: has recently seen a slide in ratings. And also there
• 6:51
  Speaker 6: have been complaints about production costs, so Martha Stewart Show
• 6:56
  Speaker 6: Bye bye, as well as a home depot pulling it's
• 7:00
  Speaker 6: line of Martha Stewart Living paint.
• 7:02
  Speaker 4: Oh, so it was double whammy news, both reported in
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: the in the New York Post a few days ago.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: Well, good news for Martha fans who like to watch
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: her on TV. She is well not she her her
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: giant empire. Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia is in talks with
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: the network, according to network reps, about potential news show
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: formats and concepts, So it's very possible she might develop
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: something else. And even if she doesn't form another show
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: on the Hallmark channel, she's got plenty else going on.
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: She does omnimedia.
• 7:34
  Speaker 6: I mean, if that doesn't kind of media. Hintet how
• 7:37
  Speaker 6: many balls she's juggling.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, omni like omnivore or omniscient things that are a
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: lot of things.
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: Or omni the former sports facility to Lada, Georgia where.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: I saw Bush in seventh grade. Anyway, Okay, do we
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: want to talk about omnimedia now that we've Yeah, Okay.
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: Just gonna let you drive this car, Okay.
• 8:00
  Speaker 6: Martha Stewart living on the media comprises four main areas publishing, Internet, broadcasting,
• 8:07
  Speaker 6: and merchandising, all of which is cross promoted.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, because you'll notice, I mean, just talking about
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: the merchandising alone if you've ever been. She doesn't have
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: a relationship with Kmart anymore, but I remember buying things
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: of hers at Kmart. Half of the stuff in my
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: apartment right now is Martha Stewart from Macy's. Yeah. She
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: has a lot, a lot of products out there and
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: lines for home depot which Christian just said the paint
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: had been pulled sears Macy's Walmart. She has craft stuff
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: at Michael's.
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: She also has.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: Home cleaning products, pet products so that your pet can
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: be preppy just like Martha.
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: What if they have.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: Little pet button ups? Just like Martha, I bet, and
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: little wigs, Oh my god, I'm a genius. Okay, brands
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: of wine, and a line of fresh and frozen foods.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: And the one that blew my mind was home construction MSLO.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: Martha Stuart Living Omnimedia is involved in home construction. It
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: builds and sells houses modeled after Stuart's homes in New
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: York and Maine.
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: Wow, so you can live in your very own Martha Stewart.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: Eating her food, home, buying her crafts. Wow. Yeah, I bet.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: I wonder if she has frozen chicken stock that you
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: can buy.
• 9:20
  Speaker 6: Probably, but merchandising just one of those four pillars. Publishing
• 9:26
  Speaker 6: really makes up a bulk of MSLO.
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  Speaker 4: She has published so many books.
• 9:31
  Speaker 6: She has magazines such as Martha Stewart Living, Weddings, Everyday, Food,
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  Speaker 6: and Whole Living, as well as special holiday and family
• 9:38
  Speaker 6: themed magazine issues. And I want to say that Martha
• 9:41
  Speaker 6: Stewart Living magazine circulation, which was the first and obviously
• 9:45
  Speaker 6: her cornerstone publication, peaked at two point one million.
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: Sheld not that at all.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: I don't know. Martha Stuart Living kind of intimidates me
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  Speaker 1: because I feel like I look at it and it
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: just looks at me back and it goes, You're not
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: serious enough, you don't really want this, You're not a
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: crafter now.
• 10:04
  Speaker 6: Just imagining you staring down Martha stewartt Living the grocery
• 10:08
  Speaker 6: store aisle.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I do I stand there in line at publics
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: or wherever and just stare at the magazine and I'm like,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: I'm not I know, I'm not worthy. I'll just pick
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: up I'll just pick up another.
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: Imaginally just slides behind.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, one of the tabloid magazines, just slides in front
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: of it.
• 10:25
  Speaker 6: And in addition to print publishing, of course, she has
• 10:29
  Speaker 6: her Internet properties such as Martha Stewart dot Com, as
• 10:32
  Speaker 6: well as radio, TV and other kinds of broadcast properties.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: There's Everyday Food on PBS, and she has the Martha
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: Stewart Living Radio program. Apparently she has a pretty serious
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: presence on Serious Satellite radio, and according to her page
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: on Serious Radio's website, Martha Stewart Living Radio with the
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: nation's first twenty four hour, seven day a week radio
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: service dedicated to created living.
• 11:01
  Speaker 6: And one thing I didn't realize was that Martha Stewart
• 11:04
  Speaker 6: basically bought the rights to.
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: Chef Emerald Lagassi and all of his properties.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: As well expanding the brand. You gotta look forward, yeah,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: can't look back.
• 11:14
  Speaker 6: Basically buy just by personalities, which is kind of fascinating
• 11:18
  Speaker 6: when you think about it. So that is Martha Stewart
• 11:21
  Speaker 6: the business.
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: And I'm sorry to keep being the deb downer of.
• 11:25
  Speaker 6: This episode, but in June twenty eleven, they reported that
• 11:29
  Speaker 6: the company had sold almost forty three million dollars worth
• 11:32
  Speaker 6: of products, but at the end of the year was
• 11:36
  Speaker 6: ten million dollars in the red.
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: And in fact, it's lost money seven out of the
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: last eight years.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: I wonder if that's why she's looking to expand the brand,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: because you know, she brought her daughter Alexis on board,
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: and Alexis had the Whatever Martha Show, and she had
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: a show on Serious Radio also with Jeff her co host, Jennifer.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: And Martha did say in interviews with New York Magazine
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: that she was quite aware that maybe her traditional shows
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: did not appeal the crafting and the cooking and all
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: that's handmade in the chicken stock maybe didn't appeal to
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: people of our generation so much that she's bringing on
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: her daughter to kind of spice things up.
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah, but before we.
• 12:23
  Speaker 6: Talk about the future of MSLO, perhaps we should revisit
• 12:26
  Speaker 6: the past and find out, yes, and find out how
• 12:31
  Speaker 6: Martha Stewart got her start, because even as a child,
• 12:35
  Speaker 6: she was quite the talented gal she.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: Was, and she had help from everyone around her who
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: infisted on helping her. At the age of three, her dad,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: who was a pharmaceuticals salesman, taught her to garden. He
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: was an avid gardener himself, and so at the age
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: of three. I don't know what I was doing at
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: the age of three, but I'm pretty sure it was
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: involving barbies, not gardening. She also learned cooking and sewing
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: from her mother, and her grandparents taught her to make preserves. Again,
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: my childhood apparently pales in comparison.
• 13:10
  Speaker 6: Well, not to mention all of that, some retired bakers
• 13:12
  Speaker 6: who lived next door to her taught.
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: Her to make pies and cakes.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: Sounds like the most idyllic country childhood, but in fact,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: she grew up in New Jersey.
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: M hmm. Yeah.
• 13:22
  Speaker 6: She says that she came from a modest home in
• 13:24
  Speaker 6: New Jersey and that her brothers would hunt and fish,
• 13:28
  Speaker 6: and kind of describes it as sort of a hard
• 13:30
  Speaker 6: scrabble upbringing, but I don't know, it's still little.
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: House in Jersey.
• 13:36
  Speaker 6: Yes, she was a straight A student and won a
• 13:39
  Speaker 6: scholarship to Barnard where she studied art, European history, and
• 13:42
  Speaker 6: architectural history. And not only that, The Fair Maiden also
• 13:47
  Speaker 6: modeled to cover expenses, and she continued a successful modeling career,
• 13:52
  Speaker 6: appearing in print and TV ads for Breck Claarl Life,
• 13:56
  Speaker 6: Booy Soap, and Taryton Cigarettes.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, she was all over the place, the Stuart who knew.
• 14:03
  Speaker 6: Yeah, And in nineteen sixty one she got married to
• 14:08
  Speaker 6: law student Andrew Stuart.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: Right, and she actually followed in the footsteps of his
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: father and in nineteen sixty seven became a stockbroker, which
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: I mean this, lady, I mean, I've never heard of anyone.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: I've never heard of this before. This is pretty impressive, Martha.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: To have this background in modeling and yet art and architecture,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: and then to go and become a stockbroker. That just
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: doesn't seem like the traditional path, So that's pretty impressive.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: She left in nineteen seventy three when a recession hit
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: Wall Street, and then she and her husband moved up
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: to Connecticut and fixed up an old farmhouse.
• 14:54
  Speaker 6: And while living at the old farmhouse, it seems like
• 14:57
  Speaker 6: Martha tapped back into those early kind of homemaking skills
• 15:01
  Speaker 6: that she.
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: Learned as a child.
• 15:03
  Speaker 6: In nineteen seventy six, she starts a catering business out
• 15:06
  Speaker 6: of her basement while managing a gourmet food store in town.
• 15:10
  Speaker 6: And by building connections through this catering business and really
• 15:15
  Speaker 6: setting up a high priced clientele and by networking through
• 15:20
  Speaker 6: this catering business, Martha Stewart really makes a name for herself.
• 15:25
  Speaker 6: And that's what propels her to publish her first book,
• 15:28
  Speaker 6: Martha Stewart's Entertaining in nineteen eighty two.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the best selling This is also blowing me away,
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: the best selling cookbook since Julia Child's Mastering the Art
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: of French Cooking. And I think it's really interesting that
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: that's the one it beat, because that is how she
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: taught herself gourmet cooking. Yeah, was using Julia Child's cookbook.
• 15:49
  Speaker 6: And then within ten years of starting her own catering
• 15:51
  Speaker 6: business in the basement of an old farmhouse, she grows
• 15:56
  Speaker 6: it into a million dollar business.
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Why, Yeah, of course of course she did.
• 16:00
  Speaker 6: Because she's Martha, Because she's Martha, and then in nineteen
• 16:05
  Speaker 6: eighty nine she divorces Andrew Stewart, and the year later
• 16:09
  Speaker 6: she starts her own magazine, Martha Stewart Living, which.
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: Really propels her more public persona.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, she started appearing on talk shows, and she got
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: her own thirty minute show, which then because of its popularity,
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: expanded to an hour with thirty minute episodes on the weekend.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: So she's really kind of a busy lady from the
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: get go mm h.
• 16:28
  Speaker 6: And then by nineteen ninety three, she starts up that
• 16:30
  Speaker 6: relationship with Kmart that you mentioned earlier Caroline for a
• 16:34
  Speaker 6: reported five million dollars over ten years. And then by
• 16:38
  Speaker 6: nineteen ninety seven, she's purchased all the publishing, broadcasting, merchandising,
• 16:42
  Speaker 6: and licensing ventures that bear her name and consolidated all
• 16:46
  Speaker 6: of them into MSLO, that Omnimedia corporation.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, smart move, And in nineteen ninety nine the company
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: goes public and the share price more than doubles the
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: first day of trading, and like a Smarty, she retains
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: the most of the shares and served as chairman, president,
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: and CEO.
• 17:05
  Speaker 6: So things are going really well for Martha in the
• 17:07
  Speaker 6: early two thousands.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, two thousand and one, Ladies home Journal names are
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: the third most powerful woman in America, which isn't too shabby.
• 17:14
  Speaker 6: Yeah, and then a great honor is bestowed upon her
• 17:17
  Speaker 6: when she is invited to join the New York Stock
• 17:19
  Speaker 6: Exchange Board of Directors in June.
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: Two thousand and two. But then, but then a doc
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: chapter arrives.
• 17:28
  Speaker 6: She resigns four months later when the Securities and Exchange
• 17:32
  Speaker 6: Commission accuses Martha Stewart of violating inside trader rules, leading
• 17:38
  Speaker 6: MSLOS share prices to plummet, and the TV show gets
• 17:42
  Speaker 6: the acts.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sure most of you remember, or I don't know,
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: maybe you don't, but she was under investigation for selling
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: hundreds of shares of m Clone just before the FDA
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: announced it was not approving the company's new cancer drug.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: So once that announcement came out, the value of the
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: stock plummeted.
• 17:59
  Speaker 6: And it just so happened that Martha Stewart, who was
• 18:02
  Speaker 6: sitting on the Stock Exchange Board of Directors, obviously, you know,
• 18:07
  Speaker 6: just kind of got rid of those cheers just to
• 18:10
  Speaker 6: the nick of time.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: We don't know what happened, Nope, we don't. We don't
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: claim to know what happened. But in June two thousand
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: and three, an indictment charged her with securities fraud, obstruction
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: of justice, conspiracy, and making false statements to prosecutors and
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: the FBI. And while she pleaded innocent to all charges
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: and a judge eventually dismissed the securities fraud charge, a
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: jury found her guilty of the rest and she was
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: sentenced to five months in prison and fined thirty thousand dollars.
• 18:36
  Speaker 6: And I remember just how the media was fascinated by
• 18:41
  Speaker 6: this Martha stear thing because it's in such stark contrast
• 18:43
  Speaker 6: to this perfect kind of homemaking.
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: You know, let's make our own stationary and make a
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: little little little stamps and send letters to friends.
• 18:54
  Speaker 6: And now she's sitting in the courtroom with Alexis, her daughter,
• 19:00
  Speaker 6: faced in the front row.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, I think it just it showed that there
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: was a lot more to Martha Stuart than maybe we
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: all assumed. She really is a tough, hard nosed business
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: woman and who just so happens to have shows and
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: radio programs and magazines about like traditionally feminine soft pursuits
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: like crafting.
• 19:20
  Speaker 6: Yeah, which is interesting because you know, this whole time
• 19:23
  Speaker 6: she's single, it's not like she's actually homemaking in that
• 19:29
  Speaker 6: kind of traditional sense of the word.
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: But more there was an argument.
• 19:33
  Speaker 6: That it's the kind of homemaking skills that Martha Stewart
• 19:36
  Speaker 6: practices are okay in terms of gender politics because she's
• 19:40
  Speaker 6: doing it for herself.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: Right, Because it's not as if she's Her shows and
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: magazines are about making dinner every single night and doing
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: the laundry and everything. It's more of a creative homemaking
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: stuff to satisfy yourself. Right.
• 19:54
  Speaker 6: But after Martha Stewart serves her five months in jail,
• 19:58
  Speaker 6: she immediately sets out rebuilding her brand and getting herself
• 20:03
  Speaker 6: back out into the public eye and connecting with her fans.
• 20:07
  Speaker 6: And it's kind of incredible to see how she almost immediately,
• 20:13
  Speaker 6: I guess, refurbishes her reputation.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, she gets a weekly call in show on serious
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: satellite radio. She puts out new books, The Martha Rules,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: the Martha Stewart Baking Handbook, and the Homekeeping Handbook. And
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: I'm just wondering, was she just really busy, I guess
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: during her incarceration, just like I'll just write all this
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: stuff while I'm well, I'm in the clink.
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: Well it provided.
• 20:35
  Speaker 6: As Alexis Stewart tells New York Magazine, at one point
• 20:38
  Speaker 6: she said, the five months were actually great.
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: Because it was the most free time.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: It was enforced rest, right, So it's.
• 20:45
  Speaker 6: Actually not that surprising that she comes out with all
• 20:48
  Speaker 6: of these books right after it.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: Look what she can do when she can take some
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: time off, Yeah, create all this stuff.
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: But within a year of her release, MSLO returned to profitability,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: So that's a huge turnaround.
• 21:12
  Speaker 6: And then in September of twenty eleven, she returned to
• 21:16
  Speaker 6: the board of MSLO, which was the marking the end
• 21:20
  Speaker 6: of a five year band that she had from serving
• 21:22
  Speaker 6: on any kind of board or as executive of a
• 21:25
  Speaker 6: public company as part of her settlement with the SEC
• 21:29
  Speaker 6: over her insider trading charges. So obviously, on paper, Martha
• 21:33
  Speaker 6: Stewart is an incredibly savvy businesswoman who started out with
• 21:38
  Speaker 6: a catering business in her basement, and you know, is
• 21:41
  Speaker 6: now the head of this multimillion dollar corporation, and she
• 21:45
  Speaker 6: somehow recovered from going to jail over insider trading charges.
• 21:49
  Speaker 4: But the real question on my mind, and probably on listeners' minds.
• 21:53
  Speaker 6: Too, is what does Martha Stewart really mean maybe for
• 21:58
  Speaker 6: women in general, like that whole question of whether or
• 22:00
  Speaker 6: not all of these.
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: All that good housekeeping that she.
• 22:04
  Speaker 6: Espouses, if it's worth our time, the kind of time
• 22:09
  Speaker 6: that you obviously have to dedicate on a Tuesday to
• 22:12
  Speaker 6: making chicken stock, to freeze.
• 22:14
  Speaker 4: Things like that.
• 22:15
  Speaker 6: I mean, it's like, is it realistic? That's kind of
• 22:17
  Speaker 6: Martha Stewart fantasy.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: Right, and New York The New York Times magazine did
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: ask her that, I mean, is it the best use
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: of modern women's time to make pillows out of their
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: husband's old shirts? And she she kind of got a
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: little a little defensive.
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: Yeah, she was icy with that question.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, you could you could feel the frost
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: on that piece of paper while it was on my computer,
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: but you get the idea. But yeah, she was basically
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: arguing that that's not really the issue. It's if people
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: enjoy it and want to be creative. It's better to
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: make a pillow out of a shirt than having it
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: end up on the trash heap.
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: Right, or going and buying a pillow. The whole kind
• 22:54
  Speaker 4: of diy type.
• 22:56
  Speaker 6: Of thing that she you could say, she's partially responsible
• 22:59
  Speaker 6: for kicking off.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: But don't call her a feminist.
• 23:03
  Speaker 6: No, No, she had an interesting thing to say about
• 23:07
  Speaker 6: feminism and male ambition and female pursuits. She said, quote,
• 23:12
  Speaker 6: I don't think in a male or female way. I
• 23:15
  Speaker 6: don't differentiate between male and female.
• 23:17
  Speaker 4: I never have.
• 23:18
  Speaker 6: I'm not considered a feminist. Do we really need to
• 23:21
  Speaker 6: waste time saying I'm a feminist. I never thought about
• 23:23
  Speaker 6: glass dealings. I never thought about glass floors me neither.
• 23:27
  Speaker 6: That sounds dangerous.
• 23:29
  Speaker 4: I was thinking about how.
• 23:30
  Speaker 6: Many pies I can come up with for my Pies
• 23:32
  Speaker 6: and Tarts book. Those are all original ideas.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: So here she's saying, why bother talking about whether I'm
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: a feminist or whether you're a feminist or feminism in general.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: Just do what you're doing, and I'm not gonna lie.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: I mean, I thought it was an interesting point. I
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: thought it was kind of refreshing in a way. I
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: think she's doing incredible things for a woman, you know,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: running this company. She had her hand in just everything.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: It's it's I think it's really impressive. It's just kind
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: of like, oh, wow, you're you're pretty. I don't know,
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: does it seems like she's against feminism or she just
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: doesn't even want to bother with it.
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: I think I can.
• 24:13
  Speaker 6: I think it's an issue of not wanting to bother
• 24:16
  Speaker 6: with it, because it's it's the whole argument of is
• 24:20
  Speaker 6: this so impressive.
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: That I've done this? Because I've done this as a woman.
• 24:23
  Speaker 6: If I were a man running the same company, you
• 24:25
  Speaker 6: wouldn't be so blown away.
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you wouldn't be asking me these same questions.
• 24:31
  Speaker 6: So it's it seems like it may be ticked off
• 24:34
  Speaker 6: a thing in her brain, and she's like me.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: Pies and tart. I'm just I am a mogul who
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: makes pie. Just leave me alone. And you know, glass floors,
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: stay off them.
• 24:46
  Speaker 6: And Anne Mason and Marian Myers and two thousand and
• 24:49
  Speaker 6: six conducted in depth interviews with ten Martha Stewart fans
• 24:54
  Speaker 6: to kind of.
• 24:54
  Speaker 4: See if they could get into.
• 24:57
  Speaker 6: The why of her appeal, especially because there is that
• 25:01
  Speaker 6: whole fantasy aspect of it. I mean, how many parodies
• 25:05
  Speaker 6: have we seen of Martha Stewart and her incredibly lofty
• 25:10
  Speaker 6: crafting projects.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I wouldn't. I wouldn't pursue them, like I said,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: I mean, the magazine intimidates me.
• 25:15
  Speaker 6: Just looking at the cover, right, because it is a
• 25:18
  Speaker 6: lot to live up to, but apparently, according to these
• 25:21
  Speaker 6: in depth interviews, that is part of the appeal.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Much of what they say is that much of
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: what Stuart presents in her media has traditionally been considered
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: quote unquote women's work. But she's she's presenting it in
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: a different way. And we kind of touched on this earlier.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: It's it's giving women, as they say Mason and Meyer say,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: it's giving women the permission to be interested in the
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: domestic arena because she's not doing like like we said earlier,
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: it's not like her show is about doing the laundry
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: and separating the whites and the darks. It's it's something
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: that maybe women can be like, Oh well I do
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: like crafts, Yeah, I do like baking. Why should I
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: feel like I'm not being a feminist or not being
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: powerful or not making myself happy? You know, I just
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: want to make pies?
• 26:05
  Speaker 4: Okay, Yeah, exactly.
• 26:06
  Speaker 6: I mean there's a definite value to that, and that
• 26:09
  Speaker 6: it's not like you have to in order to accept
• 26:12
  Speaker 6: feminist ideology, you have to reject X activities.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: Right, just like traditional traditional women's.
• 26:20
  Speaker 4: Roles, you can be a feminist baker.
• 26:24
  Speaker 6: Yeah, And the Myers and Mason concluded that Stuart plays
• 26:29
  Speaker 6: three main roles in the lives of the super fans.
• 26:33
  Speaker 6: It encourages the fantasy of an upper class lifestyle of
• 26:35
  Speaker 6: elegance and luxury, obviously because you know that's really the
• 26:39
  Speaker 6: only way you would have time to do all the
• 26:42
  Speaker 6: things on her to do list. It provides an escape
• 26:44
  Speaker 6: from the daily lives, validating the women's interests in domesticity.
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: And it also fosters.
• 26:49
  Speaker 6: Creativity and feelings of accomplishment and pride among those who
• 26:52
  Speaker 6: complete projects and recipes. And I have endless admiration for
• 26:57
  Speaker 6: friends of mine who are crafty and handy.
• 27:00
  Speaker 4: Yeah, because I am not.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: I can't draw anything.
• 27:03
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I enjoy cooking, But when it comes to crafting.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah no, I can't cut a straight line.
• 27:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah. I blame that though on me being left handed
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: with scissors.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: I blame it on I have nothing to blame it on.
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: I just try you use a steak knife instead of scissors.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: Construction, stab the paper, tear with my teeth. But these
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: two writers point out that not only is Martha Start
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: providing all of these outlets for your creativity and your
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: and your baking tendencies, but she's giving you a lot
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: of ways to do it. Yeah. Because of her radio
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: shows and her books, and her magazines, and her TV
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: shows and now her daughter's show and and all this stuff,
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: you have the ability to watch or listen or read
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: whenever you want kind of and and make it fit
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: your lifestyle.
• 27:56
  Speaker 6: And she has such a big emphasis on organization and
• 27:59
  Speaker 6: play and scheduling.
• 28:01
  Speaker 4: I'm sure those are a number of lessons that I
• 28:03
  Speaker 4: could probably learn from Martha Stewart.
• 28:06
  Speaker 6: And Joan Holloway and Rachel Moseley write about Martha Stewart
• 28:10
  Speaker 6: as well and feminism and popular culture, and they claim
• 28:14
  Speaker 6: that she is a housewife who is not a housewife,
• 28:17
  Speaker 6: which I think is an interesting point, and also that
• 28:20
  Speaker 6: her world is a sublime reversal of the feminist domestic
• 28:23
  Speaker 6: labor debate in the nineteen seventies.
• 28:25
  Speaker 4: I'm assuming by opening up.
• 28:27
  Speaker 6: That door to allow saying it's okay to appreciate certain
• 28:31
  Speaker 6: aspects of domesticity while still being an independent, multi millionaire
• 28:35
  Speaker 6: woman running her own empire.
• 28:37
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and I would.
• 28:38
  Speaker 6: Argue that in the real world, as opposed to the
• 28:42
  Speaker 6: Martha world perhaps, and Crafters and other people out.
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: There listening, I'm very curious to get your in your
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: feedback on this.
• 28:52
  Speaker 6: But I would argue that in the real world, perhaps
• 28:54
  Speaker 6: the echo of Martha Stewart is the whole rebirth of
• 29:00
  Speaker 6: and DIY and Etsy and huge projects like that.
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: It seems to have, I don't know, benefited a lot
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: of women's lives. Yeah, and men sure are they're crafty men. Yeah, yeah,
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: I mean if she, if she inspires anyone to follow
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: their interests, that's great. I happen to have a couple
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: of friends who make really neat things on Etsy. I
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: can't do it, but I admire them for doing it.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: M hm. So I think all in all, we can
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: say that Martha Stewart's a pretty polarizing figure. She sort
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: of reminds me of Oprah in in some ways. How
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: some people love her and some people just can't stand her.
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: And you know, she shapes maybe what people are are
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: interested in by what she presents her in her media.
• 29:45
  Speaker 4: So yeah, I mean it's kind of this thing of
• 29:47
  Speaker 4: is she.
• 29:48
  Speaker 7: The champion of crafting in a rebirth and appreciation of
• 29:53
  Speaker 7: DIY and domesticity, or is she, as she's been called,
• 29:57
  Speaker 7: an uber wasp and chief executive housewife archetype of white
• 30:00
  Speaker 7: femininity and immigrant.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: Dream A nice quote. Yeah, So what do you think?
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: Do you like do you like Martha? Do you do
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: you follow her shows? Do you do her crafts, baker
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: pies and tarts? Or are you like weird? Does she
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: creep you out? I don't know any any thoughts at all,
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: anywhere in between.
• 30:19
  Speaker 4: You can send them our way. It's mom stuff at
• 30:21
  Speaker 4: HowStuffWorks dot com, or if you would like to send
• 30:23
  Speaker 4: us a hen crafted letter on on balsam wood stationery,
• 30:29
  Speaker 4: we have an.
• 30:30
  Speaker 6: Snale mail address too that you can find at HowStuffWorks
• 30:33
  Speaker 6: dot com.
• 30:34
  Speaker 4: And in the meantime, we got a couple of letters
• 30:36
  Speaker 4: here printed out on copy paper white.
• 30:43
  Speaker 6: I've got one here from Sarah and this was in
• 30:45
  Speaker 6: response to our man flu episode in which we mentioned
• 30:50
  Speaker 6: something called cytomegalovirus and she writes it was treated with
• 30:53
  Speaker 6: some disdain in your man flu episode. And this was
• 30:56
  Speaker 6: disappointing because according to the March of Dimes, it is
• 30:59
  Speaker 6: the most most common congenital infection in the United States,
• 31:02
  Speaker 6: as forty thousand.
• 31:03
  Speaker 4: Babies are born with CMB.
• 31:06
  Speaker 6: This will cause mental retardation in a whole host of
• 31:08
  Speaker 6: disabling conditions. In four thousand of them. On a personal note,
• 31:13
  Speaker 6: from age thirteen to sixteen, I lived with a stepbrother
• 31:16
  Speaker 6: who was one of those four thousand. He's few years
• 31:18
  Speaker 6: older than me and suffered moderate mental retardation as well
• 31:22
  Speaker 6: as hearing loss and mildfoot and like deformities. Throughout the
• 31:25
  Speaker 6: time he lived with us, he watched both myself and
• 31:27
  Speaker 6: his biological sister go through all the typical.
• 31:30
  Speaker 4: Teenage milestones, knowing that he would never experience them for himself.
• 31:35
  Speaker 6: He was just intelligent enough to know that he had
• 31:37
  Speaker 6: problems and that he would never be able to live
• 31:40
  Speaker 6: a normal life. At one point, he asked why he
• 31:42
  Speaker 6: had to be born with all of this and how
• 31:44
  Speaker 6: his life was.
• 31:44
  Speaker 4: Going to be, and he was very bitter most of
• 31:46
  Speaker 4: the time.
• 31:46
  Speaker 6: This had a huge impact on my views on abortion
• 31:49
  Speaker 6: and was my first step towards feminism.
• 31:52
  Speaker 4: So thanks for pointing that out.
• 31:53
  Speaker 6: About cytomegalovirus CMB and you can find out more information
• 31:56
  Speaker 6: about it at Marchofdimes dot com.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: From Morgan This is about our Imaginary Friend podcast, she said,
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: I'm a girl, second child, and I had about twenty
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: different imaginary friends. It could have been because I'm homeschooled
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: and was lonely. I don't know, because my older brother
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: had one as well. The one I remember most was
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: a monster from the book There's a Nightmare in My Closet.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: I was very scared of it as a kid, but
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: for some reason, I watched the movie and read the
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: book thirty times a day. And how I got my
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: imaginary friend was that I was in a car and
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: it was very dark, and the monster smashed against the
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: window and followed me home, and I was very scared,
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: but he wouldn't leave me alone, so we became friends.
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: Kind of strange, I guess, because he always protected me
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: after we were friends. Thanks Morgan, I like that story
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: so again.
• 32:43
  Speaker 4: If you have any thoughts to send our away about
• 32:45
  Speaker 4: Martha Stewart? Is she a good thing? Forgot to drop
• 32:48
  Speaker 4: her key catchphrase this entire podcast? Yeah, is Martha Stewart
• 32:53
  Speaker 4: a good thing?
• 32:54
  Speaker 6: Let us know mom Stuff at housetuffworks dot com, or
• 32:57
  Speaker 6: you can leave a comment up on our Facebook page
• 33:00
  Speaker 6: or shout out on Twitter at moms Stuff Podcast, and
• 33:04
  Speaker 6: you can also check out the blog during the week
• 33:07
  Speaker 6: It's stuff Mom Never Told You at HowStuffWorks dot com.
• 33:14
  Speaker 4: Be sure to check out our new video podcast Stuff
• 33:17
  Speaker 4: from the future. Join how Stuff Work staff as we
• 33:19
  Speaker 4: explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. The
• 33:24
  Speaker 4: House Stuffworks iPhone app has a rived.
• 33:26
  Speaker 7: Download it today on iTunes, brought.
• 33:33
  Speaker 4: To you by the reinvented twenty twelve camera. It's ready,
• 33:36
  Speaker 4: are you