Help Wanted

Pet adoption counselor and owner of creatively named pets, Ariel Greenspoon talks about fur balls, hair balls, dog balls and everything in between: guinea pigs vs. rabbits, fox attacks, gypsies, spaying and neutering, and what to expect when you adopt a pet. Valerie and Regina recount their journey to Waffle House, hair in food and nonworking jukeboxes.

A bunch of us have the feeling we're not qualified to be doing what we do. If you're a perfectionist, have a hard time asking for help, attribute your successes solely to luck, and can't take a compliment, you might suffer from imposter syndrome. Lots of people have this insecurity, including famous accomplishers Michelle Pfeiffer, Emma Watson, Kate Winslet, and Cheryl Sandberg. Some causes for feeling like a fraud include feeling pressure to achieve and being a minority member of a group. Solutions include: validating yourself by making a list of your assets and accomplishments, surrounding yourself with supporters, and realizing even Emma Watson and Michelle Pfeiffer feels this way. Regina sometimes feels like listening to Metallica, and she's no longer apologizing for it. Valerie worries she should have gotten stitches when she cut herself while slicing avocados, and she really hopes she never receives one of those suction basketball hoops with the spongy nerf balls.

How do you find a life coach? Why would you hire a life coach? What does a life coach do? Valerie and Regina get the skinny on coaching from Vasavi Kumar, a business coach, who among other accomplishments, has appeared on Basketball Wives to help with anger management. Vasavi talks about the word "coaching," a bit about how she works with clients, and her own mentors. Tony Robbins is mentioned a lot.

Birthdays are weird. Or, they can be. Usually because people either have crazy expectations for what their celebration should look like or for where they think they should be in life. Valerie and Regina discuss what makes a birthday "good" or "bad," the pressure of wishing someone a happy birthday on Facebook, celebrating birth "months" or "weeks," surprise parties, and those flowers from the 80s that were sent to people in long boxes. Plus, Demolition Man, damn good ice cream, and Valerie uses feminism to justify a confrontation with line cutters in an organic grocery store.

Author and journalist Wendy Paris talks about good divorce and her book "Splitopia: Dispatches from Today's Good Divorce and How to Part Well." Paris, who has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, and New York Observer talks about her own experience with divorce, why endings aren't failures, how to be your highest self in the midst of a painful divorce by following her 7 principles of parting. She also touches on the topic of dealing with friends (divvying up?) post-divorce, throwing divorce parties, counseling and prenups, and the consciously uncoupled: Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin and other celebrities whose divorces were not the worst things ever, like Jennifer Gardner.

Comedian Wyatt Tall joins Reg and Val to chat about the New York Times best seller The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo, an expert folder and possible sociopath. Wyatt shares his experience following the KonMari Method and explains how the process of minimizing his belongings and keeping only items that bring him joy has led him to make positive change in his life. Also, personifying and showing gratitude for your possessions; how to pronounce feng shui, theater, and umbrella; the rhythm method; excessive blenders; spotting Kurt Russell at SXSW; and tips for DIY aromatherapy.

Valerie and Reggie answer listener questions about Tinder and the online dating rat race: managing expectations when someone isn't into you, attracting people with snappy openers, and parting ways without being a ghosting asshole. If you're feeling bummed about dating, do things that make you feel good: hang out at your independent book seller, buy lipstick, or books about lipstick, go to Six Flags, and get back in the game. If you want to introduce yourself with a match, never ask how they're doing. We have evolved past cordial nonversation and need to be more attention getting. Tired of a person you've been seeing? STOP GHOSTING. Be an adult about it and send them a simple text saying you're no longer interested. This is a civilized society, people! Tantric sex is strictly for rich, white people.

James C. Leary, best known for playing Clem on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, talks about his career path from performing improv at Texas A&M and learning from Charna Halpern and Del Close in Chicago to moving to Hollywood to write features and act in shows like: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the telenovela Los Beltran, The Comeback, and a lot of commercials. We talk about the struggles of wanting validation from complete strangers and having an unquenchable thirst to perform. He gives advice for breaking into the industry and shares his experience leaving LA to focus on getting sober and to cultivate a creative life outside of Hollywood: representing his Buffy character at conventions, writing about becoming a G-List Celebrity for GeekNation, and performing in Austin, Texas. We also hear his Cockney accent.

Regina talks about codependency, the "disease of the lost self," and recovery from it, based on her own experiences and the resources she's found helpful such as Melody Beattie's book Codependency No More. What does codependent behavior look like? Valerie uses this opportunity to figure out whether or not she is codependent. Regina thinks Brangelina are a little unhealthy and Valerie, wary of the altruistic, dares to ask the question on on all our minds...Mother Teresa: nice gal or codependent? Plus, Ash Wednesday, "kind of" Catholicism, Uruguayan massage therapists named Jorge, and panties vs. undies vs. knickers.

Scott Adair, a financial advisor associate, gives us the skinny on what we should all be doing to prepare for retirement. He tells us the difference between a stock and a bond and why investing in gold is probably not smart, talks about index funds, gives us strategies to get over fear of saving money and educate ourselves about investing with sites like investopedia. He also talks about socially responsible investing (SRI, investing strategies that consider both financial return and social good (e.g., green companies, companies that pay equally). We also talk about Wall Street, Gordan Gecko, and The Wolf of Wall Street, and learn why hiding money in your mattress isn't a good a investment strategy but could be a good idea if you're mattress needs extra support.