In this week’s episode, we discuss “The Age of Instagram Face”, an article published last year in The New Yorker by Jia Tolentino (in our linktree!), that explores the monolithic beauty standards that pervade both social media culture and our lives away from the screen. Tune in to hear our thoughts on influencers, plastic surgery, feminism and more!

We also wanted to thank everyone for all of the love and support we’ve gotten for this project so far! Our fall semester is now in full swing, so it may be difficult for us to post consistently. But we’ll try our best (buds) to post as much as possible, and hope you stick around for the ride.

As always, be sure to check out our instagram (@pod.bestbuds) and stay tuned for Episode 13 dropping next week!

Since we've been in quarantine, we've been spending even more time than usual trying to entertain ourselves with various forms of media. In this episode of Best Buds, we talk about some of our favorite books, movies, and TV shows. If you've been looking to fight your own quarantine boredom, listen to hear our recommendations for some new things to read and watch! As always, feel free to send us any of your thoughts and be sure to follow our instagram @pod.bestbuds for updates. 

We decided to take a little break as Isha travels to the great Mountains of Smoky, so we split this episode into two parts. In this segment, we talk about cultivating our relationships with others and ourselves as we transitioned into college, covering topics like living with a roommate, (the party scene), and chicken tendies in the dining halls! 

We've talked about transitioning into college before, but this time we wanted to give more practical advice on different parts of college life (but with COVID changing how campus is going to look, is this advice even applicable anymore?? It's here anyway!) In this episode, we cover dorms, academics, and extracurriculars- stay tuned to hear more next week! 

In this episode, we discuss what prestige culture is, how it has shaped us, and how we’re resolving these toxic mindsets in hopes of growing into better people. Be sure to give us some love on our instagram (@pod.bestbuds) and share you’re experiences and encounters with prestige culture—we’d love to hear what you think!

This episode, we answer a selection of questions from the 36 Questions That Lead to Love, published in the New York Times. These questions are said to deepen emotional intimacy, so we wanted to try them out with each other, along with our special guest, Jakobi Deslouches! Listen to this episode to learn about our hopes, dreams, and Callie's love for chopping lettuce. Be sure to follow our instagram @pod.bestbuds for updates :) 

In honor of our two-part freshman year recap, we asked our friends (both at UMD and schools across the country) to send us memories of their freshman year of college! The product: a wonderful and heartwarming collection of moments that made our friends' freshman experiences memorable. Hope you enjoy this bonus episode--we certainly enjoyed editing it! And, of course, stay tuned for Episode 7 dropping next week. 

Special thanks to everyone who took the time to share their stories! 

Welcome back! This week, we talk about our freshman spring semester-- definitely a lot busier as we got more integrated into campus life, but thankfully a LOT less angsty as we started figuring things out. This episode was quite bittersweet to record, reminiscing on the good times and reflecting on how much we had grown since the fall, but also wondering what memories we could have made in the latter half of the semester. Regardless, we were all thriving and blossoming in spring semester like the little plant buds we are :)  

We dig deep and conduct a post-mortem on our freshman year (cut painfully short) in this two-part series! This week we revisit our fall semesters and discuss everything from adjusting to college, making friends, and finding our place on campus. Freshman fall was painful, naive, and a bit angsty, but in the end things turned out pretty okay. Thanks for tuning in!

This is the second episode in our two part series on COVID-19 and how it relates to us. While the last episode focused on the effects of coronavirus on a societal level, in this episode, we explore how the virus has impacted our personal lives. We discuss our academics, hobbies, friendships, and maybe even spill the tea on some romance ;). As always, feel free to reach out with any thoughts and make sure to follow our instagram @pod.bestbuds to stay updated!