#219 – This week, we talk about Matt Novak's seminal article "Politician's Zoom Background Can't Hide Fact That He's Actually Driving." What would you do if you had to videoconference while driving? We find out by consulting our expensive, and extremely accurate, reality simulator. Also: MAIL CORNER! TENTS!

Plugs this week:

• Nurses (Hao)
• Therm-a-rest camp gear (Jack)
• Printfresh pajamas (Kate)

[email protected] • /r/downersradio • @downersradio on instagram and twitter • https://hrf.org

#218 – Lots of Mail this week, in Mail Corner! We answer a question about sexual/lucid dreams, and we talk to a foreign correspondent from around the world! Then, we round the end of the show with two harrowing tales of taking AP tests with medical maladies. Look, not every episode is going to have a cohesive theme.

Plugs this week:

• 430 (Hao)
• Uno, one of Michelle's favorite games (Jack)
• Toast (Kate)

[email protected] • /r/downersradio • @downersradio on instagram and twitter • https://hrf.org

#217 – Have you gone off the grid? Let us know on our social media accounts! Because this week's episode is all about how to go off the grid, and why you might want to, and why you might want to return. It's hard to live off the grid, but it might not be impossible. We learn that two of our three hosts have shot a gun. Also, we should be recusing ourselves more often; mangroves; spaceships' cockpits; people who immediately register as being well-adjusted.

Plugs this week:

• Uyghur Human Rights Project (Hao)
• Netflix's very own THE INLANDER (Jack)
• Tony's Chocolonely (Kate)

[email protected] • /r/downersradio • @downersradio on instagram and twitter • https://hrf.org

#216 – Special guest host Ian, formerly contentman, joins Kate and Hao this week to talk about a topic we brought up on a previous episode and completely forgot: separating the art from the artist. As new allegations emerge for artists in almost every type of media, we often have to find a way to recontextualize our fandom in light of awful behavior. Sometimes it's a visceral disgust that just can't be overcome, and other times it's weirder because you've been hearing stories about that person since 2013, when you were doing improv comedy until 2 AM on a weeknight. Also: What's it like in Scandinavia? And: Ian's disastrous movie night.

Plugs this week:

• Raffi Khatchadourian's "Surviving the Crackdown in Xinjiang" (Hao)
• Diplomático (Ian)
• Weird old mole (Kate)

[email protected] • /r/downersradio • @downersradio on instagram and twitter • https://hrf.org

#215 – This week's main segment comes from Contentman Ian, who asks: Who are your dream guests? And what would it be like if they came onto the show? We go around the horn and come up with our dream guests, both inspirational and not; finally, in the third act of the show, we interview one of them: The Wind Itself.

Plugs this week:

• Sandwiches (Hao)
• Masanobu Fukoka's THE ONE-STRAW REVOLUTION (Jack)
• Lingonberry jam (Kate)

[email protected] • /r/downersradio • @downersradio on the twittersphere • https://hrf.org

#214 – Sometimes Downers is one big main entrée, and sometimes it's not. And when it's not, it's a veritable buffet of snacks, which is this week's episode. In this installment: What Things are Two Things, Kate's Hot Steaks Took You, Forays into Social Media: Instagram Edition, and Downers Coins a New Phrase ("Faux Arguing"). Also, a missile comes toward Jack's face.

Plugs this week:

• Armrests (Hao)
• Valheim, for Ian (Jack)
• Five Guys (Kate)

[email protected] • /r/downersradio • @downersradio on the twittersphere • https://hrf.org

#213 – It's easy to arrive at something, and it's much harder to leave. This hour, we present a guide to leaving: how to leave a room at a party, how to leave a relationship, how to leave the world behind in the aftermath of a nuclear bombing, and how to leave this sentence. Cut out this audio and place it into your wallet; you never know when you'll need it. Also, the Qingming Festival and sunscreen!

Plugs this week:

• The HEAVING BOSOMS podcast (Kate)
• Turkeys (Hao)
• EPIC GARDENING's YouTube channel (Jack)

[email protected] • /r/downersradio • @downersradio on the twittersphere • https://hrf.org

#212 – Well, Kate's out this week, and that means Jack and Hao revert to their base instincts: insidery programming jokes, abstract roleplay, and a willingness to talk about the controversial hot topics of the day. In this edition of YOU MOLD IT, YOU SOLD IT, we investigate Mario Cuomo's long career as a New York politician and how his decisions continue to reverberate today. All that, plus nothing else, on Downers!

Plugs this week:

• Caves (Hao)
• Bill Wurtz's I'M A PRINCESS (Jack)

[email protected] • /r/downersradio • @downersradio on the twittersphere • https://hrf.org

#211 – Some things are actually two things, and this episode's main segment is actually two main segment. FIRST we talk about how a popular, young, teenage, blonde motorcyclist on social media turned out to be an older man using a face-swapping photo app. THEN we talk about Ann Pratchett's essay in the New Yorker, HOW TO PRACTICE, which talks about giving away your possessions so that your loved ones don't have to sift through the belongings after you pass away. It's a classic action-packed Downers episode!

Plugs this week:

• 100 GECKS (Jack)
• Pickling (Hao)
• Grilled flatbread (Kate)

[email protected] • /r/downersradio • @downersradio on the twittersphere • https://hrf.org

#210 – This week we cover Jan Kabátek and David C. Ribar's study "TEENAGE DAUGHTERS AS A CAUSE OF DIVORCE," in which they showed that daughters ages 13-18 are associated with a higher risk of divorce in 1995-2015 Dutch marriage registry data. We get some of the details wrong, but that's because we were going off a four-paragraph Economist article. The Economist can be very terse (boring) when it wants to be (all the time). Plus: grandma wigs, shampoo as body wash.

Plugs this week:

• Digital frames (Kate)
• Love as a commodity (Kate)
• Irish Spring soap, in bar form (Hao)
• Waiting for seedlings to sprout (Jack)

[email protected] • /r/downersradio • @downersradio on the twittersphere • https://hrf.org