We have an amazing Guest Thingies episode today with Jessi Hempel, prolific tech writer and host of the podcast Hello Monday whose new memoir The Family Outing you have to check out. Also: details about our blossoming relationship with TikTok. 

 

A TikTok follow for your pop-culture PR needs: @mollybmcpherson. 

 

The Family Outing! A memoir! If this description doesn’t suck you in: “By the time Jessi reached adulthood, everyone in her family had come out: Jessi as gay, her sister as bisexual, her father as gay, her brother as transgender, and her mother as a survivor of a traumatic experience with an alleged serial killer.”

 

A book that gets at the challenges of memory: David Carr’s The Night of the Gun.

 

An A Thing or Two rec that Jessi cosigns: this inflatable travel pillow for flying with a kid…but probably for lots of other purposes, too. 

 

Jessi’s Thingies: Potette (as she’s on a potty-training journey that rivals Claire’s), Cliq portable camping chairs for sitting…everywhere, Anne Helen Peterson’s Culture Study newsletter, and adding your pronouns to your email signature. 

 

Our conversation about returning to the office—RTO, y’all!—made us think of Delia Cai’s great piece in Vanity Fair.

 

Share your dream Thingies guests with us at 833-632-5463, [email protected], or @athingortwohq. And for more recommendations, try out a Secret Menu membership.

 

Get your curly hair looking its best with LUS and take 15% off your first purchase of $50 or more with the code ATHINGORTWO.

Look into Allstate Identity Protection (your employer may offer it, even). Use our link for a 30-day free trial.

YAY.

 

Produced by Dear Media