In The Jar

This week we survived the stupidest moments of our lives and lived to laugh about them. First we get sentimental on running Chicago Marathon as we hear an emotional goodbye until a woman projectile vomits right next to you. A caller tells us about the time they escape an almost arrest as a child, which leads us diving into our own arrest stories. We tell our heroic stories of being interrogated for hours, being booked and spending a night in jail. Also a story that involves police, a park, and being forced to come out to your mom and her boyfriend. Three stories about getting feelings, getting interrogated, and getting away with it. We survived. Here we are.

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This week we're talking potlucks and regional food because Michael's going to a soup potluck and decided to bring chili instead. So we figure out: what do you actually bring to a potluck? Pizza? Buffalo chicken dip? Homemade hummus? Then we discover the official state dish registry (yes, it's a dot org, yes, it's very real) and rank our home states like we're judging a beauty pageant. North Dakota's got hot dish and lefse, Pennsylvania's flexing Philly cheesesteak and shoofly pie, Iowa's serving taco pizza and Scotcheroos, and Illinois is out here pretending deep dish is a thing (it's not, it's a tourist trap). The real hero: tavern style pizza with Italian beef sandwiches (at the correct wetness level). We also get weirdly passionate about Casey's gas station breakfast pizza, Hy-Vee pizza, and the eternal debate of ketchup on Chicago hot dogs.

Want to be part of the conversation? Answer our questions at inthejarpod.com/questions — record your voice, share your thoughts, and you might be featured on a future episode.

Soft launches, validation culture, and why we post our relationships online. A listener writes in and asks if soft launching is a thing in the LGBTQ community, which spirals into how social media made us need external validation to feel like our relationships are real. We break down the difference between soft launches and soft openings, dive into Facebook relationship statuses and AIM cryptic messages, and debate whether posting about your partner means you're seeking validation or just sharing your life. Then we go on a chaotic tangent about TCBY, forever yogurt, maraschino cherries, and why oranges are cumbersome. We also talk about parasocial relationships, why some people overshare their relationships online, and the difference between being invested in someone's journey versus obsessing over a celebrity.

Want to be part of the conversation? Answer our questions at inthejarpod.com/questions — record your voice, share your thoughts, and you might be featured on a future episode.

This week we're talking about how movies literally programmed us. A caller brings up She's All That, which gave them a complex that they weren't good enough and men were out to deceive them. That spirals into how the LGBTQ community are portrayed in media — Will and Grace, Brokeback Mountain, Rent. So basically: you're hot and you die easy. That's the narrative we grew up with. We talk Disney princesses, why every city looks the same now (capitalism, babes), Star Trek's hopeful future versus Star Wars' hellscape. The point: we deserve better stories. We deserve to celebrate people doing cool shit because of the joy of what they love.

Want to be part of the conversation? Answer our questions at inthejarpod.com/questions — record your voice, share your thoughts, and you might be featured on a future episode.

Three martini lunches used to be a thing. A tiny thing, like 2-3 ounces of vodka, barely a buzz. Now they're 6-8 ounces and you're basically mainlining alcohol. We do the math, roast lazy CEOs, and hear a story about one of the hosts taking ten shots of tequila for $100. Then we spiral into why Gen Z won't party like we did, could it be because one phone video can ruin your entire life. We're literally the last generation that could get wasted without becoming a Minecraft character on someone's TikTok. Also: how to wrangle drunk bosses at a bar, the peer surveillance state, and whether sobriety is trendy or just self-preservation.

Want to be part of the conversation? Answer our questions at inthejar.com/questions — record your voice, share your thoughts, and you might be featured on a future episode.

This week we're exploring what your plants actually wish you knew, thanks to a question from @UncommonPlantGuy.

We start by admitting we all don't have a green thumb (Lego plants don't count). Then we dive into the fact that plants have five senses. They can hear vibrations, taste chemicals in water through fungal networks, feel through their vines, and see in UV and infrared light. Sunflowers literally follow the sun across the sky. One of us saw Reiki performed on a dying plant and it came back to life. We spiral into horror movies about murderous vines that choke people at night, reference every famous plant in pop culture (Audrey Two, the Whomping Willow, Grandmother Willow), and somehow end up debating whether plants judge you for having sex in front of them.

Want to be part of the conversation? Answer our questions at inthejar.com/questions — record your voice, share your thoughts, and you might be featured on a future episode.

This week we're exploring what's in a name, and honestly, everything spirals from there.

We start with Uranus (yes, we say it that way the whole time). Why is the planet named that? Where did it come from? We also discover there's a star called Anus Minoris and one literally called Buttocks of Cassiopeia, which nobody knew existed. Then we go on a tangent about ancient temples, cosmic alignments, and whether the ancients were way smarter than we give them credit for. We debate how we learned the planets (Sailor Moon references), then spiral into drunk food memories (hot dogs, donuts, Taco Bell), bars with innuendo names (The Cock in NYC, Great Head Salon in Chicago), and somehow end up talking about why we need to bring back Ed Hardy shirts in an unironic way. Also there are gas station wolf shirts involved.

It's chaotic, it's funny, it goes nowhere and everywhere at once, and totally In the Jar. New episodes every Thursday.

Want to be part of the conversation? Answer our questions at inthejar.com/questions — record your voice, share your thoughts, and you might be featured on a future episode.

This week we're exploring what you actually say during sex, what you order at your favorite coffee shop, and why some men on dating apps are just trained dogs with three scripted messages.

We start with guest Brandon's question: what are your three phrases that you would say if you had a drawstring? We talk about David's iced cortado order, why we don't send food back even when it's wrong, and the stranger who showed up at Vaughn's apartment (Haitian vodou it’s a whole thing).

Want to be part of the conversation? Answer our questions at inthejar.com/questions — record your voice, share your thoughts, and you might be featured on a future episode.

We start with tiny hands then dive into Twelfth Night, Mid Summer Nights Dream, and Toxic by Britney Spears. We talk about how watching Shakespeare is easier to digest than reading it, and how you can cast an all-male production and call it "authentic."

We brought in our guest Matt to talk about why Shakespeare and his plays are inherently queer. Matt is starting a theater company called Brave New World Theater Company focused on performing Shakespeare through a queer lens, and this conversation sparked from that.

Want to be part of the conversation? Answer our questions at inthejar.com/questions — record your voice, share your thoughts, and you might be featured on a future episode.

Pull up an inflatable chair this week we're diving into the most beautiful decade of them all: the 90s.

We start chaotic then pivot hard into why the 90s were actually so great. We talk about television being perfect, Nickelodeon game shows, carpet commercials with frog mascots, and the distinct regionalism that doesn't exist anymore. We get into the economics of the 90s, the freedom of not having cell phones, going to a friends without telling anyone where you were. And we wrap up with some really good observations about being the generation that saw the world before constant surveillance.

Want to be part of the conversation? Answer our questions at inthejar.com/questions — record your voice, share your thoughts, and you might be featured on a future episode.