Bad On Paper

In this episode we are joined by Venita Aspen, an influencer, model, creative, and co-host of the newly launched podcast, Group Chat Realness. Venita tells us about everything from working fashion week to culinary school and her journey to the career she has today — owning her own creative agency, The Aspen Agency. We dive into what keeps her creative and inspired, and how she takes care of herself (mentally, physically, brows & skincare). We learn more about the Aspen Agency, her life as an influencer in the wake of BLM and the changes she has seen since the movement began, and of course… the birth of her podcast! Then, we (of course!) dive into ALL of her favorite Charleston Recs!

Black creators + brands:

• @glamazondiaries
• @prepfordwife
• @shadesofpink
• Partake snack brand
• LaPierre nail polish

Venita's Skincare Routine:

• Neutrogena Hydro Boost
• Clinique Sunscreen
• Cleanser by Jemaine Dermatology
• Glossier Serum

Venita's Brow Routine:

• Benefit Brow in shade 5
• Benefit Brow Pencil
• Set with Anastasia Brow Gel in ebony

Charleston Reccs:

• Hannibal's Kitchen
• Dave's Carry Out
• Park Circle Creamery
• Leon's Oyster Shoppe
• Melfi's
• Felix
• Fast and French

More Venita:

• @venitaaspen on Twitter and Instagram
• @groupchatrealness on instagram
• Group Chat Realness Podcast
• venitaaspen.com

Obsessions:

• Theragun
• Flatiron Pepper Co.

Instagram:

• @ieatlobsterrolls
• @confettitherescuepup
• @nasimpedrad
• @jeanpauldonadini
• @mackinstyle

We're Reading:

• Majesty (American Royals Book 2) by Katharine McGee
• You Had Me at Hola by Alexis Daria
• More than Maybe by Erin Hahn
• Destination Wedding by Diksha Basu

September Book Club:

• Majesty (American Royals Book 2) by Katharine McGee

Sponsor:

• Hello Fresh: Go to hellofresh.com/80BOP and use code 80BOP to get $80 off your first box and free shipping!

Join our FB group for amazing book recs & more!

Like and subscribe to RomComPods. Available wherever you listen to podcasts. Visit Grace's blog, The Stripe. New posts daily!

Follow us on Instagram @badonpaperpodcast. Follow Grace on Instagram @graceatwood and Becca @beccamfreeman.

Joining us today is Stef Feldman, the National Policy Director for Vice President Joe Biden's Presidential Campaign. Stef walks us through her career path from local government in Atlanta to the White House, shedding light on how important it is to work with a political candidate that inspires you and how Joe Biden has inspired and empowered her. She shares her experience working on the campaign, the day-to-day of her job, and then we dive into Biden's policies and perspectives.

We talk about how COVID has impacted the campaign, Biden's policies to contain and recover from the virus and his plans to scale up testing. We talk about healthcare, women's reproductive health, and what is happening with the Affordable Care Act. We also talk about racial inequality in America and what Biden plans to do about it. Lastly, Stef give us tips on how to vote and how to get involved. We all need to make sure we have a voting plan in place!

About Bad on Politics: Bad on Politics is a monthly bonus episode where we invite a guest expert to help us break down a political topic. We get it, politics is confusing and there's a anxiety-inducing amount of news coverage to follow. So, we're here to ask the "dumb" questions so you don't have to. We want to break things down so you can understand what's going on and make an informed opinion.

For more info:

Joebiden.com

Text WOMEN to 30330 to find out how you can get involved

Text VOTE to 30330 for voting information

For our August Book Club we read The Comeback by Ella Berman. The book follows Grace Turner, a young actress who disappeared from Hollywood at the height of her career. During her rise to fame as a teenager, she was sexually and emotionally abused by Abel Yorke, the director who made her famous. After she's invited to present him with a lifetime achievement award she begins to plot her revenge. Even though Grace is a pretty unlikeable character we still loved her story and root for her revenge. This book isn't in either of our normal wheel houses, but we loved the story and hope you loved it too! Let's discuss in the FB group!

Obsessions:

• Shaker and Spoon
• H&M dresses

Instagram:

• @misterzimi
• @bookishandblack

We're Reading:

• Majesty (American Royals Book 2) by Katharine McGee
• The Changeling by Victor LaValle
• You Had Me at Hola by Alexis Daria

September Book Club:

• Majesty (American Royals Book 2) by Katharine McGee

Sponsor:

• Night: Go to discovernight.com and get 20% off with code BOP20 at checkout.
• Bon Viv Spiked Seltzer : Try one and take a photo of your favorite flavor and tag us on instagram!

Join our FB group for amazing book recs & more!

Like and subscribe to RomComPods. Available wherever you listen to podcasts. Visit Grace's blog, The Stripe. New posts daily!

Follow us on Instagram @badonpaperpodcast. Follow Grace on Instagram @graceatwood and Becca @beccamfreeman.

We decided to do a lighter episode this week. On instagram we asked you to propose some fun 'would you rather' scenarios and boy, did you deliver! Some are crazy (but for better or worse we still made our choice!), some are silly, and we definitely didn't agree on everything. Which one of us would give up booze? Which one would give up travel? Who would rather have a lobster claw for an arm than a floor length white beard? What could make us give up books? What about quarantining forever? You can learn a lot about a person in a good game of WYR. We hope this episode makes you laugh!

Obsessions:

• Bug Bite Thing: Bugbitething.com
• D.S. & Derga Candle - Holy Ficus
• Our Place Pan

Instagram:

• @cocktails4breakfast
• @yourbestfriendjoey

We're Reading:

• American Royals 2: Majesty by Katharine McGee
• How to be an Anti Racist (Audiobook) Ibram X. Kendi
• Rodham: A Novel by Curtis Sittenfeld
• Deadly Little Scandals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
• Party of Two by Jasmine Guillory
• The Changeling by Victor LaValle

August Book Club:

• The Comeback by Ella Berman

Sponsor:

• Bon & Viv Spiked Seltzer

Join our FB group for amazing book recs & more!

Like and subscribe to RomComPods. Available wherever you listen to podcasts. Visit Grace's blog, The Stripe. New posts daily!

Follow us on Instagram @badonpaperpodcast. Follow Grace on Instagram @graceatwood and Becca @beccamfreeman.

She's baaaack! Our most popular guest Carly Heitlinger (of the lifestyle blog Carly the Prepster!) joins us this week to catch up on how she is feeling at this point in the pandemic and what she has been doing to cope with anxiety and inability to really plan anything. Anything… but her upcoming wedding, that is! She gives us the scoop on her super-surprise proposal and tells us more about her fiance Mike (and his family). We also talk a little bit about politics and Carly's decision to endorse Joe Biden. Lastly, we chat about blogging during a pandemic - it's definitely been interesting? We wind down the episode talking about favorite snacks (hard agree on one choice, hard disagree on another) and how she manages to only follow 50 people on Instagram!

More Carly:

• carlytheprepster.com
• @carly on instagram
• @carlysbookclub on instagram
• @carlysstitchclub on instagram

Obsessions:

• Family Gold by Local Eclectic
• Tanya Taylor Summer Pajamas and Robe
• Numberzilla

Instagram:

• @grossypelosi
• @gemmacorrell
• @greceghanem

We're Reading:

• Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall
• They Wish They Were Us by Jessica Goodman
• Monday's Not Coming by Tiffany Jackson

August Book Club:

• The Comeback by Ella Berman

Sponsor:

• Prose: Go to prose.com/BOP for your free in-depth hair quiz and 15% off your order.

Join our FB group for amazing book recs & more!

Like and subscribe to RomComPods. Available wherever you listen to podcasts. Visit Grace's blog, The Stripe. New posts daily!

Follow us on Instagram @badonpaperpodcast. Follow Grace on Instagram @graceatwood and Becca @beccamfreeman.

This week we are joined by Traci Thomas! Traci is the host of The Stacks Podcast, a mom to twin girls, and an avid non-fiction reader. We get a behind the scenes look at how she chooses books for the pod, her favorite books of 2020 (and all time), and talk about the book she wishes would be written. We loved getting her perspective as she's such a big non-fiction reader and both filled up our Bookshop.org carts with her recs while recording this episode. We talk about BLM, Black authors, and how to really do anti-racism work. We also chat about what happened with Book of the Month and how she is feeling about that.

More Traci:

• The Stacks Patreon
• @thestackspod on Instagram
• @thestackspod_ on Twitter
• thestackspodcast.com

Book Subscriptions:

• Check out Traci's Post

Episodes to listen to in the Stacks:

• Beloved with DeMaris B. Hill
• Kiese Layman Interview
• Red at The Bone with Jason Reynolds
• Homefire With Tawny Newsome
• Ibram X Kendi Interview

Top 3 books 2020:

• Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir by Natasha Trethewey
• Sula by Toni Morrison
• Breathe: A Letter to My Sons by Imani Perry

Top 3 books Ever:

• Charlotte's Web by E.B. White and Garth Williams
• The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
• The Reckonings by Lacy M. Johnson

Memoirs:

• The Other Side by Lacy M Johnson
• Heavy by Kiese Laymon
• Men we Reaped by Jesmyn Ward
• Jesus Land by Julia Sheeres

Audiobooks:

• Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
• Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed
• The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish
• Inside Out by Demi Moore
• Open Book by Jessica Simpson

Other books mentioned:

• Fight of the Century: Writers Reflect on 100 Years of Landmark ACLU Cases
• The Dead are Arising: The Life of Malcom X by Les Payne
• The Butterfly Effect: How Kendrick Lamar Ignited the Soul of Black America by Marcus J Moore
• Columbine by Dave Cullen
• A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Jonestown by Julia Sheeres

Obsessions:

• Group Chat Realness Podcast
• Taylor Swift's New Album: Folklore

Instagram:

• @wantshowasyoung
• @holycitychic

We're Reading:

• The Wife Stalker by Liv Constantine
• Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall
• Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson
• Miracle's Boys by Jacqueline Woodson

August Book Club:

• The Comeback by Ella Berman

Sponsor:

• Night: Go to discovernight.com and get 20% off with code BOP20 at checkout.

Join our FB group for amazing book recs & more!

Like and subscribe to RomComPods. Available wherever you listen to podcasts. Visit Grace's blog, The Stripe. New posts daily!

Follow us on Instagram @badonpaperpodcast. Follow Grace on Instagram @graceatwood and Becca @beccamfreeman.

This month, we read The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett. This the story of identical twin sisters (and their daughters) spanning the fifties through the nineties. Desiree and Stella are inseparable growing up in the fictional light-skinned Black town of Mallard, Louisiana during the fifties in the Jim Crow-era south. When they are 16, they run away together to New Orleans. From there, their lives take completely different turns. Desiree marries a dark-skinned man and returns home to raise her daughter in Mallard, while Stella goes on to pass for white - hiding her identity and past from her new family. The book follows the girls' stories and their daughters, who eventually end up meeting via a chance encounter. We discuss colorism, the theme of running away throughout the book, our interpretations of the title, and our mixed reviews on the ending. Although this book has been in the works for 4 years, its release couldn't be more timely, as the story has such pointed views about race and privilege. We can't wait to hear what you think of the book! Join in the discussion on the Facebook Group.

Interviews with Brit Bennett:

• CBS This Morning podcast
• The B&N podcast

Obsessions:

• Beyond Yoga Bike Shorts
• Olaplex No. 0
• Megababe Le Tush Butt Mask
• Brinker and Eliza Jewelry

Instagram:

• @zoeydeutch
• @glenpowell
• @womanshopsworld

Books:

• Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
• The Boys' Club by Erica Katz (out Aug 4)
• When They Call You a Terrorist by Patrice Cullors
• The Wife Stalker by Liv Constantine
• Self Care by Leigh Stein

August Book Club:

• The Comeback by Ella Berman

Podcast:

• Everything is Fine: a podcast for women about life over 40. Hosted by former Lucky magazine founding editor Kim France and documentary filmmaker Tally Abecassis.

Join our FB group for amazing book recs & more!

Like and subscribe to RomComPods. Available wherever you listen to podcasts. Visit Grace's blog, The Stripe. New posts daily!

Follow us on Instagram @badonpaperpodcast. Follow Grace on Instagram @graceatwood and Becca @beccamfreeman.

In this week's episode, we chat with Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman, the co-hosts of Call Your Girlfriend, about their new book, Big Friendship. The book provides an intimate peek inside their own decade-long friendship and also contains conversations with experts on the topic of friendship and it's importance to our lives. We discussed their writing process, their thoughts on blending work and friendship, and their evolving thoughts on interracial friendships. We also dive into one of our most requested advice topics: how to make new friends as an adult (it's so hard!).

More Aminatou + Ann:

• bigfriendship.com
• callyourgirlfriend.com
• annfriedman.com sign up for her newsletter!
• Support independent bookstores and the library in your area

Obsessions:

• Tanya Taylor Summer Collection
• Brightland Vinegars
• Eat Pray Britney Podcast
• Masterclass

Instagram:

• @kararbrown
• @thetinytassel

Books:

• Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
• Older by Pamela Redmond (out in sept)
• Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
• Head Over Heels by Hannah Orenstein
• Big Friendship by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman
• The Boys' Club by Erica Katz (out Aug 4)
• The Comeback by Ella Berman (out Aug 4)
• Like Brothers by Mark and Jay Duplass

July Book Club:

• The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

Sponsor:

• Night: Go to discovernight.com and get 20% off with code BOP20 at checkout.
• Care/of: Get 50% your first order at takecareof.com/bop50 with offer code BOP50 at checkout.

Join our FB group for amazing book recs & more!

Like and subscribe to RomComPods. Available wherever you listen to podcasts. Visit Grace's blog, The Stripe. New posts daily!

Follow us on Instagram @badonpaperpodcast. Follow Grace on Instagram @graceatwood and Becca @beccamfreeman.

It's been a little while since we have talked about quarantine life, so we thought it was time to circle back and share what we have been doing to stay safe, sane, and entertained this summer. We share what our experience in NYC has been like - our expectations of quarantine and the reality. We also talk about the hobbies we have picked up, the activities we have fallen in love with, the books to read and what to watch.

Join us in the facebook group and let us know what you are doing in quarantine to stay busy this summer!

Activities:

• Knitting: We Are Knitters kits
• Gardening
• New York Times Crossword
• Puzzles
• Purging and organizing
• Try Needlepoint
• Learn about Orange wine
• Learn Something New with Materclass or an online course
• Learn a Language with Duolingo
• Project Cooking

Book Series Recs:

• Sarah J. Maas (A Court of Thorns and Roses; Throne of Glass)
• The Selection
• The Royal We and The Heir Affair
• The Thousandth Floor series
• Jasmine Guillory's books, 5 of them

TV Recs:

• The West Wing
• Homeland
• Scandal
• Schitts Creek
• White Collar
• Younger
• Gossip Girl
• The Politician
• Hollywood
• Never have I ever

Obsessions:

• OXO Meat Thermometer
• https://foxfodderfarm.com/
• Betsy Enzensberger Art

Instagram:

• @tanika_nyclifestlye
• @chadtucket
• @kinggutterbaby

Books:

• Party of Two by Jasmine Guillory
• Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
• Older by Pamela Redmond (out in sept)
• Lakewood by Megan Giddings
• The Heir Affair by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan
• Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
• Sex and Vanity by Kevin Kwan
• How to be an Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi

July Book Club:

• The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

Sponsor:

• Hello Fresh: Go to hellofresh.com/80BOP and use code 80BOP to get $80 off your first box and free shipping!

Join our FB group for amazing book recs & more!

Like and subscribe to RomComPods. Available wherever you listen to podcasts. Visit Grace's blog, The Stripe. New posts daily!

Follow us on Instagram @badonpaperpodcast. Follow Grace on Instagram @graceatwood and Becca @beccamfreeman.

In this episode, our long-time friend Nicolette Mason joins us! Nicolette is a fellow blogger who is also a writer, strategist, body positivity content creator, and co-founder of Premme (RIP!), which was a plus size fashion brand. She shares her firsthand experiences protesting to support #BlackLivesMatter and Black trans lives and gives tips to first-time protestors. She also has recommendations for educating yourself and how to diversify the content you ingest on a daily basis. She also shares her career path, the inside scoop on her fashion line, and her favorite beauty products!

More Nicolette:

• @nicolettemason on Instagram
• @nicolettemason on Twitter

Nicolette's Recs:

Instagram:

• @ihartericka
• @blairimani
• @danielleprescod
• @chrissyford
• @nikkiogun
• @iamjarijones
• @janetmock

Authors and Figures to Research:

• Audre Lorde
• James Baldwin
• Angela Davis
• Ava DuVernay 13th Documentary (Netflix)
• Laverne Cox's Documentary Disclosure (Netflix)
• Malcolm X
• Eldrige Cleaver

Skin + Beauty:

• Lord Jones CBD Face Oil
• Biossance Lactic Acid Resurfacing Night Cream
• Ilia mascara
• Saie Beauty mascara
• Glossier Lash Slick

Hair:

• Pantene sulfate free rosewater nutrient blends shampoo conditioner and hair mask
• Crown Affair oil
• Briogeo rose oil

Obsessions:

• Picture this app
• Loft dresses
• Veet Hair Removal Gel
• Tracie Hervy Pottery
• Harlem Candle company
• Shani Darden Retinol

Instagram:

• @celiabdesigner

Books:

• Real Men Knit by Kwana Jackson
• One to Watch by Kate Stayman London
• Party of Two by Jasmine Guillory
• So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
• Wow No Thank You by Samantha Irby
• Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
• Older by Pamela Redmond (out in sept)

July Book Club:

• The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

Sponsor:

• Night: Go to discovernight.com and get 20% off with code BOP20 at checkout.

Join our FB group for amazing book recs & more!

Like and subscribe to RomComPods. Available wherever you listen to podcasts. Visit Grace's blog, The Stripe. New posts daily!

Follow us on Instagram @badonpaperpodcast. Follow Grace on Instagram @graceatwood and Becca @beccamfreeman.