Let’s talk about something pleasant. Emily and Amelia discuss the books, videos and what have you that are making them happy this year. It’s time to get ventral.

Links:

Libby app (borrow library books and audiobooks)

Brandon Sanderson

THE STORMLIGHT ARCHIVE

Thursday Murder Club series

Alexis Hall

10 Things That Never Happened

Boyfriend Material

Paris Daillencourt Is About To Crumble

The Affair of the Mysterious Letter

Nicholas Boulton (the world's best audiobook narrator)

Come As You Are: Revised and Updated (audiobook)

This is the one Nicholas Boulton is in

Laura Kinsale

Flowers from the Storm

Audiobook narrated by Nicholas Boulton

Alexis Hall

A Lady for a Duke

KJ Charles

Will Darling Adventures

The Charm of Magpies series

Great audiobook narrators:

Steven Crossley

Julia Whelan (also an author!)

Mary Jane Wells

Abby Jiminez

Yours Truly

Kimberly Lemming

That Time I Got Drunk and Yeeted a Love Potion at a Werewolf

Misha Popp

Pies Before Guys Mystery Series

Helena Greer

Seasons of Love

Alyssa Cole

Reluctant Royals series

Courtney Milan

The Turner Series

The Duke Who Didn’t

The Devil Comes Courting

Cat Sebastian

Non-romance books:

Maggie O’Farrell

I Am, I Am, I Am

Rebecca Hardiman

Good Eggs

Emily St. James

Woodworking

Sarah Rees Brennan

Long Live Evil

Ali Wong

Dear Girls

Yahtzee Croshaw

Things That Aren’t Books

DrGluon (Youtube)

Jessica Kellgren-Fozard

The Dogs Were Good (Again) Podcast

Dropout

Game Changer

Dimension 20 (A Starstruck Odyssey)

Critical Role

Campaign IV

Dropout

Dimension 20 (Escape From the Bloodkeep)

Britbox

Sister Boniface Mysteries

And back to books for a moment:

Alexis Hall

Glitterland

John Scalzi

Ben Aaronovitch

Rivers of London

The holidays are coming. What do you do if you have family whose politics you abhor? Turns out it depends. Stick around to the end for Amelia’s highly specific take on The Grinch.

Links:

Knitting Cult Lady:

Youtube

Instagram

Uncultured (book)

The Culting of America (pre-order!)

Thought-terminating cliché

Green Dot program bystander interventions:

• Direct

• Delegate

• Distract

Lindsay Ellis: The Unforgivable Sin of Ms Rachel (Youtube)

Kaelynn Partlow (Youtube)

FSP S01 E08: The Monitor

Podcast

Youtube

Charlemagne (Holy Roman Emperor)

Turns out Emily actually does have a Shadow. And she’s a half-orc wizard.

Links:

The Science of Saving Your Sex Life

To Maximize Your Potential, Maximize Pleasure

Sign up for Emily’s mailing list

How AIDS Remained an Unspoken—But Deadly—Epidemic for Years

Brennan Lee Mulligan

Aabria Iyengar

Emily & Amelia Nagoski, Burnout - XOXO Festival (2019)

Vivian Gussin Paley

This American Life - Dolls

Do you have a bubble of love? Do you know how to build one? Emily and Amelia discuss how they managed to do it, and how Frozen is more than just a kiddie movie.

Links:

Burnout

FSP 2020 episode 11: The Bubble of Love

The Burnout Workbook, by Amelia

Do You Want to Build a Snowman? (Youtube)

FSP 2020 S2 E27: Diving into the Shadow: An Introduction

The days are getting shorter. It’s going to be colder soon. It’s time to get cozy. It’s time to get… hygge. Candles and pumpkins and cheese, oh my!

Links:

Books by Tricia Hersey:

Rest Is Resistance

We Will Rest!

Nothing Much Happens podcast

Neuroma

Vermont Creamery Cremont

Tasting History on real eggnog (Youtube)

Amelia had a painfully costly month. Emily bought Crocs that look like Big Bird’s feet. But in the end, they find the true meaning of No Buy / Low Buy.

Links:

Danger zone (food safety)

Innocence (Opera composed by Kaija Saariaho)

Dyslexie Font

The Big Short (film)

For every personality trait, there is a shadow. Emily and Amelia discuss Shadow Work and do just a touch of dream analysis.

Links:

Carl Jung

Jungian archetypes

Mapping Your Emotional Floor Plan:

A comic by Erika Moen based on Come Together

Jaak Panksepp 7 Primary Process Emotions⁠ (interview)

Monica's Secret Closet | Friends

FSP Season 2, Episode 22: The Magic Trick of Transcendence

Locus of control

Stepmomming Made Easy (preorder)

No Bad Parts by Richard Schwartz

WeRateDogs

Rebecca Dupas - HOW TO SLAY A DRAGON (youtube)

(this is the poem at the end of the episode.)

Emily confesses to a migraine induced mullet. Amelia discusses Hidradenitis Suppurativa and effective strategies for going to a medical provider with a hypothesis and being taken seriously.

(Much like the dizziness episode, we’d love to hear from you if learning about HS helps you understand something that is affecting you)

Links:

Hidradenitis suppurativa

Mast cell activation syndrome

Bringing HS (Hidradenitis Suppurativa) Out Of The Dark | Jackson Gillies | TEDxSantaBarbara

FSP Season 2, Episode 14: Introduction to Food and Body Awareness

FSP Season 2, Episode 18: Introduction to Food (and Body Acceptance)

Season 2, Episode 20: Food Again. This Time, It’s Personal?

Hidradenitis SuppuraDIVAS - Podcast (Apple Podcasts)

FSP Season 1, Episode 18: The New Hotness

Twins (1988 film)

FSP Season 2, Episode 4: Polyvagal 101

Piloerection

Emily’s been confronting just how dizzy she is all the time. Emily and Amelia discuss brain stems, car accidents, and disability. If you experience some of the same issues as Emily, please drop us a line at [email protected]

Links:

Dizziness Handicap Inventory (PDF)

Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS)

FSP 2025: The Car Accident Experience

Intermittent claudication

Lindy Hop

Vestibular Migraine

Orthostatic intolerance

Minnie Van

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle

FSP 2025 contact form

Amelia has thoughts about the costs (and benefits) masking, as well as being a vestigial toe.

Links:

Unmasking for Life by Devon Price (Recommended)

Interoception

Alexithymia

The Autistic Burnout Workbook by Megan Anna Neff (Recommended)

Extraordinary Attorney Woo

Jaak Panksepp 7 Primary Process Emotions (interview)

A rad comic about emotional floor plans by Erika Moen

(Based on Emily's book, Come Together.)

A Black Lady Sketch Show: No Makeup (Youtube)

Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle (By Emily and Vestigial Toe)

FSP Episode 34: The Madwoman