Radio 831: A Romance Podcast

Giddyup! This week we're talking about an essential Thingie, being forthcoming with one's universe, the squashissance, cowboy love stories (real and fictional), and, as usual, a whole lot more.

Big Thingie Energy: a good vet, specifically cat 'n bunny caretakers at Catnip & Carrots.

Having a moment? Squash. Some recipes we love include Aacorn Squash with Coconut Custard from Kristen Kish for Food & Wine, Soy Glazed Kabocha Squash with Japanese Sesame Seasoning from Season with Spice, Delicata Squash Agrodolce from Athena Calderone for PureWow, and Roasted Honey Nut Squash and Chickpeas With Hot Honey from Melissa Clark for NYT.

GRWM audiobooks we're into include Tom Lake by Ann Patchett and You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith (her poem "Good Bones" and/or her essay "My Marriage Was Never the Same After That.").

We love cowboy love! Get into Lyla Sage's Rebel Blue Ranch series, starting with Done and Dusted and the upcoming Swift and Saddled. Related: the rodeo, Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, and Bella Hadid's cowboyfriend.

We love easy crafts! Including decorating these 99¢ frames, rolling beeswax candles, doing fruit and veggie prints (maybe at RecCreate Collective in BK?), and collage journaling like Martina Calvi. Also, we endorse Target's Spritz line of party decorations (balloon arch + gold fringe, hello).

We are deep in the Grossy Universe. Do you want any context on the people in our 'verse? Ask away at 833-632-5463, [email protected], @athingortwohq, or even our Geneva.

Do your nails so well you impress yourself with Olive & June—20% off your first Mani System when you use our link.

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Di-hards, Clairericas, ATOTs, Thingles, actual listener name TBA: It's time to dive even deeper into Rivians lore, share the case for sleeping in socks, and add a new one for hand warmers. Also, it's feeling like the tong discussion on this podcast is just beginning…

Listen to the How I Built This ep with the founder of Rivian; read the WSJ story "'If You Sleep in Socks You're a Psychopath.' Health Tip Kicks Up Controversy."

Ocoopa hand-warmers—have we tried? Or Zippo's?

What should we call ATOT fans? Now's your chance to let us know at 833-632-5463, [email protected], or @athingortwohq—and bring the debate to our Geneva (either the app or the browser version!).

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May we ask a question? Are you a Framebridge groupie yet? We're partnering with the fantastic company on this glorious ep—and an event at their Park Slope store from 11 a.m to 1 p.m. on Saturday, February 3, with 15% off! Which is all to say: If you're not already hooked, you're about to be. Behold, CEO Susan Tynan's Thingies, your family-photo anxieties, and how what we're hanging on our walls offers a lens into ~the culture~.

Susan's Thingies include egg rolls in a bowl, Athletic Brewing Run Wild IPA, Pomela Casa mugs, the Marrakesh frame from Framebridge, Caroline's Cakes 7-Layer Cakes, and the Spoonful of Comfort Thinking of You Package.

The Framebridge gallery wall sets = a stroke of genius.

If you're commissioning illustrations for future framing, we love the work of Julie Houts and Olivia de Recat.

What are your framing conundrums? How have you taken ownership over your own bday happiness? Share with us at 833-632-5463, [email protected], or @athingortwohq—and chat it up about anything at all in our Geneva!

Come join us for the easiest, most stylish framing at Framebridge Park Slope this Sat., 2/3, from 11 a.m to 1 p.m. and get 15% off (a very rare discount!).

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We've got some hot topics like celebrity activism and when to share pregnancy news—and even hotter topics like verbal leashes, sleeping with socks on, and weird terminology for just wearing your damn clothes.

New nym alert!!! Good Inside by Becky Kennedy brings us MGI: most generous interpretation.

Claire's IG exchange with Nancy Meyers in this Instagram post confirms that there are, in fact, Vicente Foods bags in The Holiday (and that N.M. is the greatest).

The thing having a moment this week: Rivians and their mascot, Gary the Gear Guard.

Two things we're happy about being "in" in 2024 include outfit-repeating and going to the movies. Shoutout to this @flwrchldtweets tweet and Dwight Garner's Grub Street Diet.

Dog people: Is a verbal leash (not the yet-to-be-written spinoff to Best in Show) a thing? Please let us know at 833-632-5463, [email protected], or @athingortwohq—and chat it up about anything at all in our Geneva!

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Let's talk Thingies with Samhita Mukhopadhyay, a writer and editor who covers feminism, politics, culture, fashion, racial justice, and existential dating dilemmas—in short, so much we want to read. She's the editorial director of The Meteor, the co-editor of the best-selling anthology Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance and Revolution in Trump's America, and the author of Outdated: Why Dating is Ruining Your Love Life and (forthcoming!!) The Myth of Making It: A Workplace Reckoning. Yes, consider this the you-hear-it-here-first pre-order nudge.

Samhita's Thingies include Ranavat hair oil, wearing her partner's class ring, Care Touch lens wipes, Jolly Rancher Chews, a poem by Hala Alyan, and Megan Thee Stallion's bodyodyody.

The phrase "Oh, I'm JV" is brought to us by Sara Petersen's Substack In Pursuit of Clean Countertops, and we have a bonus Thingie: the memoir installments of Kim France's Substack!

What areas are you happily JV in? Share with us at 833-632-5463, [email protected], or @athingortwohq—and chat it up about anything at all in our Geneva!

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Let's dive into some Hellmann's drama, TSwift x Wordsworth, and lots more re: the secret life of girls (thank you to Wired for the Notes App *respect*!!!).

To know Prof. Stephanie Burt is to love Prof. Stephanie Burt—this NYT interview about her Harvard Taylor Swift class will get you there. A fave on the syllabus: Grace and the Fever by Zan Romanoff.

It's pintxo season (we say!). Woldy Kusina shows us how it's done, and Despaña is a great ingredient source. (Also: RIP the Prune Chicago Matchbox Bloody Mary.)

Indoor/Outdoor Boyfriends brought to you buy Ella Risbridger's You Get In Love And Then newsletter. (Have you read her book Midnight Chicken?)

Did you know Hellmann's mayonnaise is known as something else entirely in parts of the West? Share your thoughts on this revelation at 833-632-5463, [email protected], or @athingortwohq, and chat it up about anything at all in our Geneva!

Get your nails in good shape with Olive & June—20% off your first Mani System with our link.

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We're wise enough to know it's about time to revisit this wisdom episode from the vault. We share our feelings about feeling our age and some excellent advice we caught about living with a little longing—and we very much would like to hear if this one hits differently the second time around.

Some readings that impacted how we've been navigating aging include Being Mortal by Atul Gawande, Casey Johnston's Swole Woman program, Cheryl Wischover's "What Changed When I Started Lifting Weights" in the Gloria newsletter, and Kayleen Schaefer's "How 50 Pushups A Day Helped Me Cope In An Uncertain World" for Elle.

If you have thoughts on longing or musings about aging share them with us at 833-632-5463, [email protected], or @athingortwohq. And try out a Secret Menu membership for more recommendations.

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Today we present a very *us* episode from the archives: What does "After Dark" mean to you? How does one explain what consulting is? Are you signed up for Dua Lipa's newsletter? What does it mean to actually *build* a bear? All this and more in your ears now!

For some discomfitting Build-a-Bear products for adults, enter The Bear Cave. For other "but what does it MEAN?" After Dark content, check out National Parks After Dark and this edition of Emily Henry's Book Lovers.

Check out this YouTube video from Charlie Berens for on ope usage and Midwest vs. Everybody's great ope merch. Also: on the rise of the Midwestern vibe.

Takeaways re: "A 'Landmark' as Women Will Coach Against Each Other in Men's Soccer," which also made us think about this episode of Throwing Fits.

Join us in subscribing to Dua Lipa's newsletter Service95 and listening to her podcast At Your Service.

Share your thoughts on all of this at 833-632-5463, [email protected], or @athingortwohq—or join our Geneva! And try out a Secret Menu membership for a whole lot more recommendations.

Turn to Shopify for all your ecomm needs and get a free 14-day trial with our link.

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We're so excited about this Guest Thingies ep with Ellen Van Dusen of Dusen Dusen—a greatest hit if there ever was one! But first, some nuggets of wisdom from famously creative famous dudes.

We're definitely taking inspiration from Rod Stewart's model railway side project and Tom Hanks's advice to Austin Butler.

Ellen's Thingies include being comfortable inside and outside the home (please see: her delightful robes…and brand-new slippers!!), @Favetiktoks420 on Instagram, and cool silverware (especially David Tisdale's Picnic Flatware, which makes us think of Ahimsa dinnerware for kids). She also loves tile right now—see: Heath Ceramics, her collab with Concrete Collaborative, Fireclay, and Oasis—and you have to, have to check out her backyard mosaic. Last but not least: Her love of bird-watching has us asking when she's going to start selling the birdhouse she designed for Brooklyn Botanic Garden (in the meantime, the MoMA one we're all into). Ooh, and as we told Ellen, Where'd You Go, Bernadette is a great book and a much better movie than it gets credit for being.

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.

Treat your hair to Nutrafol. Take $10 off your first month's subscription with the code ATHINGORTWO.

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This week, we're talkin' Thingies with Alison Roman, the woman behind a SLEW of recipes we cook all the dang time. We know you know her, but JIC, she's the author of NYT bestselling—and gifty!—cookbooks Sweet Enough, Nothing Fancy, and Dining In, she doles out the most delightful kitchen content in A Newsletter and on her Home Movies YouTube channel, and she delivers guidance of all kinds on her Solicited Advice podcast. In essence: She's full of thoughts, and we want them all.

First things first, what we would bring to a pilot kid-gift swap (thx, Leslie!): Spirograph, Yellow Owl Workshop DIY Pin & Flair Kit, Bastien Contraire Stencil Kit, Majo Ideas Art Pack, and Pop Tubes.

Alison's tabletop Thingies include beeswax candles (try Greentree Home Candle—maybe in the sangria color?!), candle holders *in general* (e.g., this Sophie Lou Jacobson one), and interesting serving platters including Bordallo Pinheiro's. For the bod, she loves using Laneige's lip mask as lip balm, and Davines's Vegetarian Miracle Mask for her hair. On the food front, how about chopped fermented chilies—use them to make her Brothy Chickpeas with Calabrian Chili (and/or these chickpeas)—and, for dessert, Kolsvart gummies.

Share your Thingies with us at 833-632-5463, [email protected], and @athingortwohq, or drop them in our Geneva!

Give yourself the gift of professional counseling with BetterHelp and take 10% off your first month with our link.

Trust us: It's all about Nutrafol. Take $10 off your first month's subscription with the code ATHINGORTWO.

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