Radio 831: A Romance Podcast

Wine Face breaks down the ins and outs of wine: how it’s made, why it’s important, what you should drink, and why people often make it so elitist. Wine Face features thoughtful interviews with chefs, winemakers, celebs, and some exciting enthusiasts, as well as entertaining opportunities to help listeners learn a new fact or two for their next trip to the wine shop, or even to help plan their next dinner party.

Helen Johannesen is a partner at Jon & Vinny’s in Los Angeles, and the owner of Helen’s Wines, the gem box retail wine shop in the back of Jon & Vinny's locations. Helen is the Beverage Director for all Jon & Vinny’s associated restaurants. She hosts wine classes, runs a curated wine club, and was named Best New Sommelier by Food & Wine in 2016.

 

Produced by Dear Media

We've got the French-culture report AND a bunch of glorious Thingies from Jamie Beck, whose book An American in Provence: Art, Life and Photography is out tomorrow, just in time for holiday wish-listing. Related: We take a min. to talk about hate-gifting, sparked by some of the requests we've gotten in recent years.

You really have to see Jamie's book An American in Provence to believe it (and to live vicariously through it, obviously).

Jamie's Thingies include Dries Van Noten refillable lipstick in Antwerp Vermeil, good lighting (via a soft ring light, natural sunlight, or a fridge) and a chic phone case, cooking over a fire with an Alice Waters–approved egg spoon, Westman Atelier's Super Loaded Tinted Highlight in Peau de Rosé and Chantecaille's Liquid Lumière, and Savon de Marseille for stain-removal (related: Jenny Walton on IG). For some very French gift-giving, she loves anything from Buly 1803.

For all your gifting quandries, hit us up at at 833-632-5463, [email protected], or @athingortwohq. And try out a Secret Menu membership for more recommendations!

Produced by Dear Media

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Happy Halloween from two people who nailed the theme! Today we're celebrating the joy of dressing up for *any* occasion and sharing some more thoughts on travel when it just feels like everyone is going to the same places.

The inspiration behind our conversation about travel: Rebecca Jenning's article "The Instagram capital of the world is a terrible place to be" for Vox.

If you want some outfit inspo for your next concert, Harry Styles or otherwise, check out this New Yorker Photo Booth feature or Paola Mathe's GRWM.

For more on the impact fandom has on popular culture, check out Everything I Need I Get From You by Kaitlyn Tiffany.

Come at us with your hot takes! Share them with us at 833-632-5463, [email protected], or @athingortwohq. And try out a Secret Menu membership for many more recommendations.

Produced by Dear Media.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're chatting with Recho Omondi, a fashion designer and the host of the incredible podcast The Cutting Room Floor, and you're going to want to hear her Thingies (and everything else she's interested in, honestly). Also: a tattoo that got our wheels turning.

If you're looking for a follow-up to our convo about living with longing, check out this this New Yorker article about choose your own adventure books by Leslie Jamison. See also: Lois Lowry on the 70 Over 70 podcast.

Hit play on Recho's podcast The Cutting Room Floor; do all your chores! A recent cool guest: Mina White. A few dream guests: Mel Ottenberg and Piergiorgio Del Moro.

And if you're YouTube-curious, Colin and Samir is a Recho-recommended channel.

Recho's Thingies include Kinn fine jewelry, Camber hoodies (more ℅ a recent GQ story) Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown (specifically the Massachusetts ep), Parachute linen bedding (our other recs: Linoto, and Merci), and her Jenni Kayne Home bed.

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

Treat your curls to LUS and take 15% off your first purchase of $50 or more with the code ATHINGORTWO.

Get the ecomm support you need with Shopify. Snag a free 14-day trial with our link.

Feel your best in Honeylove and get 20% off with the code ATHINGORTWO.

YAY.

Produced by Dear Media

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Introducing our first rockstar guest, Margo Price! She shares her Thingies and talks about writing her memoir, Maybe We'll Make It, which is a story of perseverance, tell you what.

The fanny-pack discourse: We have an update on the Bandolier, a discussion of pockets ft. Véronique Hyland's book Dress Code, and a pitch for goofier kids' clothes inspired by this crewneck with a built-in fanny pack from All Small Co.

What inspired Margo's Maybe We'll Make It? Patti Smith's incredible Just Kids.

Margo's Thingies include T3 hair dryers and curling irons, Greater Goods CBD/CBN Evening Tincture, Thieves Oil, Acid for the Children by Flea, and two Nashville faves: A Shop of Things and The Continental.

If you're new to Margo's music and want a place to start, hit play on "Pay Gap"...and get ready for a new album in January.

Do you have a dream Thingies guest? Thoughts about fanny packs you need to share? We're ready for them at 833-632-5463, [email protected], or @athingortwohq. And for more recommendations, try out a Secret Menu membership.

Destigmatize hair thinning by sharing your story at shedthesilence.com.

YAY.

Produced by Dear Media

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're coming to you fresh from our high-school reunions, and there are lots of reflections ahead. On old friendships, yes…and also on dips, chips, and the controversial baby carrot.

Some condiments we're excited about include Cabi sweet yuzu vinegar, umami dashi soy sauce, and zesty sansho peppercorn miso. We're also loving Chicas tortilla chips, Burlap & Barrel black lime and Reem's spice blends, Gjusta Goods marinated olive oil and herbed salt, Ella's Flats, Zingerman's pimento cheese, Gotham Greens pesto, McClure's little pickles, and Breadblok almond thins. For more tremendous munching, head to Portugalia Marketplace in Fall River, Massachusetts (or, you know, online).

An iconic book of our teen years: Swell: A Girl's Guide to the Good Life by Ilene Rosenzweig and Cynthia Rowley.

Do you have thoughts on reunions (or hot snack tips)? Let us know at 833-632-5463, [email protected], or @athingortwohq. And for more recommendations, try out a Secret Menu membership.

Give professional counseling a chance with BetterHelp and take 10% off your first month with our link.

Help your hair with Nutrafol. Take $15 off your first month's subscription with the code ATHINGORTWO.

Book that doctor's appointment—today! Download the free Zocdoc app.

YAY.

Produced by Dear Media

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Updates AND new topics? Wow, this episode really has it all. We issue a correction about Jibbitz, share some third-birthday gift recommendations, and present some alts for words like "affordable" and "expensive," which are loaded (

PSAs! Secret Menu subscribers now have access to searchable archives: You can now dig into the back issues of our Monday newsletter and each 'n every installment of What Are the Cute. Also, we received so many amazing responses to our second-kid conversation that we saved a bunch to an Instagram highlight.

Our sources re: the backstory of Jibbitz: NBC News, Business News Daily, and The Times.

Molly Young's article "The Cookie Jar Grows Up" in The New York Times that's about so much more than a locked box for your phone. Also, we still think about Shonda Rimes's Year of Yes…and have starting thinking more about Brandy & Whitney's Cinderella.

Our recs for a gift for a three year old include a Yoto Player, a karaoke mic, a Loog guitar or this Kid's Concept one, a DJ Mixer, Magnatiles, a custom coloring poster with the kid's name, costumes like this firefighter one or a customized superhero cape, If there's room and it's in the budget: Haus. And something we should all know: USPS now makes Buzz Lightyear stamps.

If you have recommendations for kid-friendly space movies—beyond Muppets from Space— or substitutes for "affordable," "expensive," and the like, let us know at 833-632-5463, [email protected], or @athingortwohq. And for more recommendations, try out a Secret Menu membership.

Get your ecomm business going with Shopify. Try a free 14-day trial with our link.

YAY.

Produced by Dear Media

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're so excited about this week's Guest Thingies with Ellen Van Dusen of Dusen Dusen—great recommendations await! 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.

Give professional counseling a shot with BetterHelp and take 10% off your first month with our link.

Help your curly hair look its best with LUS and get 15% off your first purchase of $50 or more with the code ATHINGORTWO.

YAY.

Produced by Dear Media

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Let's go in-depth on romance novels! But first, we're chatting with Madeline Nusser from Allstate Identity Protection, which oh-so-graciously sponsored this episode, to dig into something equally sexy: doing what you can to thwart identity theft.

Go to AIP.com/AThingOrTwo today to see if Allstate Identity Protection is available through your employer. If not sign up there to get a 30-day free trial..

Check out The Washington Post article on the rise of romance in the U.S. and this Twitter thread from Helen Rosner on the weirdness of publishing categories.

Some books that are not romance novels but kind of are:

Normal People by Sally Rooney

Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon (but her book Instructions for Dancing counts!)

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Books we endorse for romance newbs:

The Idea of You by Robinne Lee

The Roommate by Rosie Danan

How to Fake It in Hollywood by Ava Wilder

Something Wilder by Christina Lauren

Seven Days in June by Tia Williams

Book Lovers by Emily Henry

The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang

Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert (see also: our podcast ep with Tallia)

Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes

Honey and Spice by Bolu Babalola (who's a great Twitter follow)

Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

Every Summer After by Carley Fortune

More romance authors with many books to dive into:

Jasmine Guillory

Abby Jimenez

Tessa Bailey

Have a romance novel you want, neeeeeed to recommend? Let us know at 833-632-5463, [email protected], or @athingortwohq. And for more recommendations, try out a Secret Menu membership.

Support your hair with Nutrafol. Take $15 off your first month's subscription with the code ATHINGORTWO.

Look into Allstate Identity Protection (and see if your employer offers it, too). Use our link for a 30-day free trial.

Try Bombas and take 20% off your first purchase when you use our link.

Book that doctor's appointment: Download the free Zocdoc app.

YAY.

Produced by Dear Media

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.