Nancy and Sarah discuss political writer Olivia Nuzzi, who became the main character on Twitter this week when an excerpt from her new memoir, published in Vanity Fair, coincided with a bombshell story by ex-fiancee Ryan Lizza. The scandal included cameos by broadcaster Keith Olbermann, politician Mark Sanford, and Livvy, a pop-music persona Nuzzi created at 16.

Nuzzi is a talented journalist who’s appeared on this podcast. Last year, she lost her gig at New York magazine after news hit about an entanglement with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. This sordid new chapter created a feeding frenzy among (many less talented) journalists, but Sarah and Nancy try to push past the schadenfreude to understand how we got here: the little girl drawn to the spotlight, fluent in the double-speak of politicians, and the ambitious young woman who lost both parents by 30.

Also discussed:

* That time Patty Hearst and the SLA hid out in Disneyland

* The magic of the open road

* “I like messy people.”

* A political profile vs. a celebrity profile

* Rule #1: Don’t sleep with your sources.

* Rule #2: Do not look through your significant other’s stuff

* The Keith Olbermann of it all

* Vanity Fair and glamour of the 90s

* Remember that time a governor from New Jersey was caught having sex with a dude, and it became a whole giant scandal? Yeah, us neither

* More Monmouth Musings could use a better name …

* Livvy, the “morally bankrupt” and “undeniably infectious” pop tartlet

* The dirty-girl era of Ke$ha and Lady Gaga

* The exhibitionism of the iPhone

* Sarah will lay her chips on Nuzzi’s future

Plus, Sarah can see alcoholism in people’s eyes, Nancy reconnects with a former flame, a nearly unbelievable story about a 38-year-old unopened letter from Ken Kesey and much more!

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