Downers

#159 – The Downers crew are at it again! This time, they're watching the seminal YouTube video "Pennsylvania man captures all walks of life crossing log bridge" over and over again, giving their commentary. While watching a time lapse of wildlife crossing a log on a river may not seem riveting to you, it's actually Essential Downers Content™ for us. You can watch along with them here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyrbqiCokdw

It's important to engage with independent cinema!

Plugs this week:

• The bee I saw today (Hao)
• Playing games with your friends, especially codenames.plus (Kate)
• Animal Crossing online (Jack)

[email protected] /r/downersradio @downersradio on the twitttttersphere

#158 – In these trying times, we turn to podcasting for audio comfort. For example, what do you do when you are stuck indoors? Well, cut this piece of audio out and stick it in your wallet, because Jack and Kate have some answers for you. Pocket candy to distract children! Cross-stitching! Coin sorting! Pomodoro Technique! All that, and more... on Downers!

Plugs this week:

• Doing a podcast with your friends (Kate)
• A sweatshirt that's really comfy (Jack)

[email protected] • /r/downersradio • @downersradio on the twittersphere

#157 – Jack and Hao walk you, yes that's right you, through a wide variety of personal-finance topics: traditional 401(k)s, Roth 401(k)s, when to start an IRA, tax diversification, index funds with ESG (environmental, social, governance) criteria, and the power of consumer-side actions. Can any consumption be ethical? Can any investment by ethical?! We discuss!

Plugs this week:

• Eggplant (Jack)
• Garth Greenwell's "THE FROG KING" (Hao)

[email protected] /r/dowersradio @downersradio sorry this episode took so long to upload, i had to upgrade my hackintosh, also there's a pandemic happening

#156 – With quarantines going into effect, and panic buying of hand sanitizer and toilet paper, globally, we thought it'd be no better time than now to break our rule on talking about current events to talk about the CORONAVIRUS. Kate's on-the-ground situation in Hong Kong in the past three months portends what might happen in the United States. Jack and Hao relate what's been happening in California and New York.

We also do a brief discussion of adult chores, and how they make you late to work in the morning. (Case in point: writing this paragraph of copy.)

Plugs this week:

• Cord management (Hao)
• Going for a walk, if you can (Jack)
• Enter a work-focused zone when working from home (Kate)

[email protected] /r/downersradio @downersradio

#155 – Kate went on a chartered boat trip, with plenty of swimming and warm water filled with leaf decomposition! Then, we talk about Sarah Miller's essay about dieting and body positivity in the New York Times. As we get older, we enter into a more complicated conversation with our bodies. We attempt to tackle the issue on this week's DOWNERS.

Also, we're not sure why last week's episode didn't show up on iTunes and Spotify. We're going to publish this episode and see what happens. Maybe it will fix everything! UPDATE: It was an XML validation error because I used smart quotes. Great.

Plugs this week:

• N. K. Jemisin's THE FIFTH SEASON, and Netflix's SEX EDUCATION (Kate)
• Hand sanitizer (Jack)
• Making a salad at work (Hao)

#154 – This week, we tackle something we've talked about before, but for an ENTIRE episode. It's this: the inherent tension between (1) being ambitious and (2) not wanting. What does it mean to chart a path through life that is both free from material wants and suffering and simultaneously filled with goals and accomlishments? We. Find. Out. On an episode that was very late to the feed because Yours Truly had what can only be described as A DIFFICULT WEEK.

Plugs this week:

• Netflix's THE WITCHER (Jack)
• Karen's Candles (Kate)
• Being yourself? (Hao)

[email protected] • /r/downersradio • @downersradio

#153 – Asia! It's got so many countries, and, every now and then, Downers will bring you an exciting guest from one of them, and this is one of those times. In this episode, we interview Molly. Here are some facts about Molly and her interesting life: she is living in Phnom Penh, Cambodia for exactly one year, she is studying foreign direct investment, she's also studying legal and social integration of investment projects on top of the first thing she's studying, and she has much to say about the Korean food in Cambodia, some of which is North Korean. So, there are a lot of reasons to listen to episode already, and why don't you hit that big play button already?

Plugs this week:

• Netflix's THE CIRCLE (Kate)
• Not wearing shoes in one's home (Molly)
• Repairing things before they get broken (Jack)
• Thomas Pierce's THE REAL ALAN GASS, Adam Johnson's NIRVANA (Hao)

[email protected] /r/downersradio @downersradio

#152 – Jack and Hao tackle the most pressing issues of the day while Kate is on sick leave: Where, in his Brooklyn apartment, should Hao store the twelve toilet paper rolls? And what would OUR version of Little Italy look like... you know, without all the PROBLEMS the current one has? All this, and more, on Downers!

Plugs this week:

• https://gist.github.com/IanColdwater/88b3341a7c4c0cf71c73ac56f9bd36ec (Hao)
• Don't do anything (Jack)

[email protected] • /r/downersradio • @downersradio

#151 – From a Seattle bathroom, Hao calls in to discuss the sadness of flying in these United States of America. Then, in act two, we role play as two samurais trying to enter a spa. These are TWO, UNIFIED ideas that make up a CONSISTENT episode.

Plugs:

• Ted Chiang's EXHALATION (Hao), a collection of short stories
• Awesome Games Done Quick (Jack)
• Going to a yoga class (Kate)

[email protected] • /r/downersradio • @downersradio

#150 – Kate has a new job! And then we get into the sadness of other people via /r/relationships. What happens when a loving husband brings home a puppy by surprise? We find out! We read! We offer advice! It's VERY podcast. This episode was very late because I upgraded to Catalina at work and it broke Logic.

Plugs:

• Vernon Vinge's A FIRE UPON THE DEEP (Jack)

• 3M Command Hooks (Hao)

• Netflix's THE WITCHER (KATE)

/r/downersradio • @downersradio • [email protected]