I'm sharing my current favorite beauty products, apps, books, charities, and experiences of the last few months.

JOIN SECRET STUFF to hear me share a few extra goodies like the current podcasts I'm bingeing, as well as a few not Favorite Things.

What are YOUR favorite things in this season? Winter 2025 has been a doozy, so making a list of the things we love right now can give you such a boost of gratitude. I also really like how these lists mark a moment in time.

FULL SHOW NOTES ARE HERE

MENTIONED in this episode:

Opal phone blocking app

Money Hair Mask: Deep Hydrating and Strengthening Treatment

Travel Hanging Organizer for Makeup & Skincare Products

Travel Organizer for Sunglasses & Jewelry

The Power of Intention by Wayne Dyer

Inner Excellence by Jim Murphy

Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation

Direct Relief

Altadena Girls

Grady Hendrix Author Event

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix

Laura Tremaine's Secret Substack

Substack TUTORIAL

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BOOK: Share Your Stuff. I'll Go First. by Laura Tremaine

BOOK: The Life Council: 10 Friends Every Woman Needs by Laura Tremaine

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Professional photo organizer Casey von Stein (aka Miss Freddy) is BACK and this time she's helping us handle all those old, sentimental photos we all have stuffed in boxes in a closet somewhere.

Miss Freddy is answering my questions on how to make the physical photos into digital files and then how to organize and back them up online so we never have to worry they'll be lost or damaged in the future. She also says something to me about the 30,000 photos I have stored on my phone that might have just changed my life.

Follow Miss Freddy on IG

Learn more about Miss Freddy's BACKUP BOOTCAMP

Listen to past episodes with Miss Freddy:

Ep. 41: 10 Tips to Organize Your Photos with Miss Freddy

Ep. 82: Create a Family Yearbook (10 Tips from Miss Freddy)

MENTIONED in this episode:

Epson FastFoto Scanner

ScanSnap portable scanner

Aura digital photo frame

Miss Freddy’s blog post: How to Convert DVDs to Digital Files

FULL SHOW NOTES HERE

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This month marks 5 years still the Covid-19 pandemic turned our lives upside down.

In this episode, I'm sharing 10 questions that can be used as journal prompts or conversation starters on the anniversary of any big event.

I'm focusing my answers to these prompts on the five-year mark of the pandemic, but each question is crafted to be universal for any big event in your past.

JOIN ME ON SUBSTACK for a JOURNAL PARTY on this topic with the members of Secret Stuff

I'll also be posting all of the prompts on social media and in the show notes

Follow me on IG @laura.tremaine

FULL SHOW NOTES HERE

RELATED EPISODES:

10 Questions for Starting Over

10 Questions To Ask Yourself in the Middle of Anything

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This is a very special episode of Best Books Lately. Special because it's been awhile since we've had one, special because it's with my longtime internet friend and book twin Liz Hein, and special because we're weaving together some of the most important themes of 10 Things To Tell You: sharing your stuff, connection, and, of course, BOOKS.

In this conversation, Liz and I are not only talking about the best books we've read lately (and we've both read some great things!), Liz is also sharing about the life of her father, legendary Chicago photographer Rich Hein, who passed away unexpectedly last month. Liz's book selections are inspired by her dad, and I love that we could honor his memory in this way.

Follow Liz Hein @lizisreading_ on Instagram

Rich Hein's obituary was on the front page of the Chicago Sun-Times

FULL SHOW NOTES HERE

Join the SECRET STUFF BOOK CLUB

Beautyland by Marie Helene Bertino

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix

Cue the Sun! by Emily Nussbaum

Liars by Sarah Manguso

We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer

A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza

Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

There's Always This Year by Hanif Abdurraqib

Bob Dylan Goes Electric by Elijah Wald

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult

The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult

Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

All Fours by Miranda July

Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy

Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy

Ep. 250 Best Books of the Year 2024

Ep. 252 Most Anticipated Books of 2025 with Traci Thomas of The Stacks podcast

Ep. 195 Why do smart people love dumb tv?

Ep 239 Horror for Beginners with Meredith Monday Schwartz

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Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As the headlines get harder, the politics more divisive, and the platforms themselves more corrupt, many of us are rethinking our social media usage in 2025.

Yeah, sure, we've all said this before in the past. So we take breaks, or delete the apps off our phones, but we always come crawling back. Social media is just an ingrained part of our lives now. It's where we get our news, it's how we connect with others, it's a source of entertainment and expression.

And yet...there is something different about this moment in internet history. People really are fed up, but it also seems impossible to quit cold turkey. There has to be a middle ground between spending large chunks of our day scrolling and walking away from social media completely. In this episode I'm walking through my own personal process of changing my relationship with my phone.

FULL SHOW NOTES HERE

MENTIONED in this episode:

Opal app

RELATED episodes:

Ep 253: Regrets and Reflections After 15 Years of Working on the Internet

Ep 246: A Funeral for Twitter

Ep 211: The Cell Phone Contract (A conversation with my kids)

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Sometimes you read a friend's book and you're jealous they wrote something this good. This is how I felt when I read writer and podcast Melanie Shankle's latest Here Be Dragons: Treading the Deep Waters of Motherhood, Mean Girls, and Generational Trauma.

This book is about Melanie's very complicated relationship with her mom, woven together with her own Big Feelings about the mean girls that took over her daughter's high school experience. As someone who regularly preaches that all of us should be sharing our stuff, my jaw dropped at some of the stories that Melanie is able to share so well.

In this conversation, Melanie and I talk about all of those things. It's a tender topic, but Melanie is, as always, full of humor and wisdom in the face of it all.

Follow Melanie Shankle on IG

Buy Here Be Dragons: Treading the Deep Waters of Motherhood, Mean Girls, and Generational Trauma

Listen to The Big Boo Cast

FULL SHOW NOTES ARE HERE

MENTIONED in this episode:

The Life Council: 10 Friends Every Woman Needs

Ep 243: Best Books Lately with Sophie Hudson

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Now THIS is truly a conversation you won't hear anywhere else. My friend, television show runner Stacy Rukeyser, joins me to talk about making R-rated art when you're a mom.

Stacy has written on some really great shows over the years, but she was tasked with creating Netflix's first foray into erotica with her show Sex/Life back in 2021 and it brought up some questions about making this type of creative content when you're a mom. Stacy rightly points out that men likely wouldn't be asked (or be asking) the same type of questions, but it was a fascinating conversation to explore.

Stacy shares her fascinating Hollywood career trajectory, the column that broke open a One Tree Hill scandal, and the differences working in female-led writer's rooms.

This episode is a bit of a curve ball, but I think you'll be riveted.

Follow Stacy Rukeyser on IG

FULL SHOW NOTES HERE

MENTIONED in this episode:

Stacy's great grandfather Hall Caine

The Manx Man

Dinner for Vampires by Bethany Joy Lenz

Un-real on Netflix

44 Chapters About 4 Men by BB Easton

Hollywood Reporter article about the One Tree Hill writer's room

RELATED Episodes:

Ep 189: About the Hollywood Strikes (And how it affects you)

Ep 195: Why do smart people watch dumb tv?

Ep 216: Stop Deferring Your Life (A ONE THING conversation with Amy B. Harris)

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Continuing my look back on 15 years of working on the internet (and the last decade as working as a podcaster), I'm addressing a question that I've gotten fairly often recently: Any advice on starting a podcast?

Based on my own mistakes working on three different shows, and observations about the podcast listening community and industry, in this episode I'm sharing what I would do if I started a new podcast today. While I speaking pretty specifically about podcasting in this episode, I also think that a lot of what I talk about applies to most creative endeavors on the internet in 2025.

I'm talking about creativity, marketing, mindset, equipment, and more. And at the end I give a little pep talk that maybe we all need.

FULL SHOW NOTES HERE

MENTIONED in this episode:

Audacity recording/editing software

Riverside.fm software for remote recording

Single microphone I used for years recording in person

Current microphone I use

RELATED episodes:

Ep 124: Behind the Scenes of Podcasting

Ep 205: 10 Things All Podcast Fans Should Know

Ep 253: Regrets and Reflections After 15 Years of Working On the Internet

SUBSCRIBE to 10 Things To Tell You so you never miss an episode!

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This month marks FIFTEEN years that I have been pursuing a career primarily by sharing myself on the internet. Starting with the Hollywood Housewife blog in January 2010, then building a social media presence, then becoming a podcaster and an author, and I have so many stories and thoughts to share about the last decade and a half.

On this episode, I'm talking about the things I did right, the things I definitely got wrong, and how I've evolved right along with the World Wide Web.

Join SECRET STUFF to hear even MORE behind-the-scenes stories.

FULL SHOW NOTES HERE

MORE episodes on this topic:

Ep. 73: I Wrote a Book!

Ep. 63: Working From Home

Ep. 111: Behind The Scenes of Publishing, Marketing, and Launching a Book (with Kelly Gordon)

Ep. 166: How To Write a Book (in 10 Steps)

Ep. 174: 3 Things I've Learned While Working With a Business Coach (A Conversation with Retha Nichole)

MENTIONED in this episode:

Ep. 251: 10 Things I Learned in 2024

Sorta Awesome podcast

Smartest Person in the Room podcast

Racial Bias series on SPITR

Share Yo​​ur Stuff. I’ll Go First. by Laura Tremaine

The Life Council by Laura Tremaine

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No matter the question, reading is the answer. And in a year starting off like 2025 is, we certainly need a lot of answers to life's questions.

I am thrilled to welcome fellow Angeleno bookworm Traci Thomas (host of The Stacks podcast) to talk about the most anticipated new book releases of 2025. We talk about novels and nonfiction by debut and beloved authors publishing this year and sorry not sorry about this conversation that will send your book budget soaring. There are so many good books to look forward to in the next six months.

Also in this episode, Traci really gives me a lot to think about in terms of how we talk about books and why it's okay to be publicly critical of books that don't work for us. As an author who is jumpy about that concept, Traci really shifted my perspective on this.

You can listen to Traci on The Stacks podcast

You can follow Traci on IG

You can read Traci on her substack Unstacked

You can join Traci's Patreon

FULL SHOW NOTES HERE

JOIN THE SECRET STUFF BOOK CLUB

MOST ANTICIPATED 2025 BOOKS:

January Books:

• Black in Blues: How a Color Tells the Story of My People by Imani Perry
• Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix

February Books:

• Pure Innocent Fun: Essays by Ira Madison III
• Show Don’t Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld
• Death Takes Me by Cristina Rivera Garza
• One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad

March Books:

• Hot Air by Marcy Dermansky
• I'll Love You Forever: Notes from a K-Pop Fan by Giaae Kwon
• There is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America by Brian Goldstone

April Books:

• Dear Writer: Pep Talks & Practical Advice for the Creative Life by Maggie Smith
• The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life by Suleika Jaouad
• Authority: Essays by Andrea Long Chu

May Books:

• Love and Exile by Shon Faye
• The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex, and Controversy in the 1980s by Paul Elie

June Books:

• Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
• Weepers by Peter Mendelsun

ALSO MENTIONED in this episode:

• Sara Hildreth of Fiction Matters
• Episode 122 of The Stacks Podcast with Kiese Laymon, Breathe by Imani Perry Book Club
• Episode 222: Stephen King Starter Kit Part II
• The Keep It Podcast
• Read Traci's Most Anticipated List of 2025 with a different set of books than she talks about here
• Suleika Jaouad’s Substack, The Isolation Journals

MORE BOOKS mentioned in this episode:

• Blood in the Water by Heather Ann Thompson 
• South to America by Imani Perry
• Vexy Thing: On Gender and Liberation by Imani Perry
• May We Forever Stand: A History of the Black National Anthem by Imani Perry
• Breathe: A Letter to My Sons by Imani Perry
• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Looking for Lorraine by Imani Perry
• The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
• How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
• Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
• American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
• You Like It Darker by Stephen King
• Liliana’s Invincible Summer by Cristina Rivera Garza
• American War by Omar El Akkad
• Evicted by Matthew Desmond
• Reagan: His Life and Legend by Max Boot
• You Can Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith
•  Between Two Kingdoms by Suleika Jaouad
• The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life by Suleika Jaouad
• Beloved by Toni Morrison
• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

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