Simple

Continuing our series on travel, in this episode (and in the one after), Stephanie and I break down the prepping that has to happen in order to make a trip happen. This is the part that keeps many people from doing more than a weekend away at the in-laws, but it doesn't have to be overwhelming.

We talk about saving money beforehand, scoring the best flights, cutting costs out on the road (it all has to do with when and where), finding the best-for-you housing, and of course, packing light.

We also break down 3 potential options for you to consider, from closest-and-minimal-commitment to dare-to-dream-big.

Notes From This Episode:

• Follow The Simple Show on Instagram
• Stephanie on Instagram
• Tsh on Twitter and Instagram
• Our previous travel-themed Simple Show episodes: 
• Ep. 117: Making the Most of 2 Weeks Off (1/4)
• Ep. 99: Holiday Roadtrips
• Ep. 79: Best Places to Travel
• Ep. 77: Summer Family Roadtrips
• Ep. 75: Travel Food & Flights
• Ep. 66: The Harder Parts of Travel
• Ep. 62: Travel Anxiety, Safety, & Health
• Ep. 58: The World’s Best/Most Cities
• Ep. 54: Trip Planning & Staying Home
• Ep. 47: Packing Light
• My book, At Home in the World
• Airbnb
• HomeAway
• Home Exchange
• Capital One 360 (our online bank)
• Tsh's travel resources
• For any links and codes from our lovely sponsors, head here
• ...And don't forget to get your free Mrs. Meyers from Grove! It's only for a few days.

Imagine if your Bible 101 class was taught by Us Weekly. I know, it sounds bizarre. That’s the newest project from my friends Knox and Jamie from The Popcast, so it kinda makes sense now, right? Each episode of The Bible Binge involves Knox and Jamie taking both the familiar and obscure stories found in scripture, and with equal parts humor and insight, they walk us through the odd circumstances in which these ancient figures find themselves.

Whether these are the stories you learned at VBS or it’s the first you’ve heard of some of these people, The Bible Binge has something for everyone. It's neither evangelical nor anti-Christian; it’s just a recap of an ancient story as if it was an episode of The Bachelor. If you’re saying, “This is the thing that’s been missing in my life and I didn’t even know it,” Knox & Jamie has you covered. 

What you've got here is an excerpt of the episode where they recap the story of Adam and Eve.

Subscribe to The Bible Binge wherever you listen to podcasts, and follow the show on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook at @TheBibleBinge.

I love to travel, and my co-host Stephanie loves to travel. But we get that not everybody works for themselves or has the flexibility to travel long lengths of time. So? For the next month, we're gonna share what we know about extended travel from our family's experiences, and help you make them work for a typical two-week time off work.

Will we challenge you to think outside the box? Sure. Will we guilt you into feeling like you should be someone you're not? No way. In this first episode of our four-part series, Steph and I want to inspire you with what's possible. National parks, book pilgrimages, or a nearby country, oh my!

Notes From This Episode

• Follow The Simple Show on Instagram
• Stephanie on Instagram
• Tsh on Twitter and Instagram
• Our previous travel-themed Simple Show episodes:
• Ep. 99: Holiday Roadtrips
• Ep. 79: Best Places to Travel
• Ep. 77: Summer Family Roadtrips
• Ep. 75: Travel Food & Flights
• Ep. 66: The Harder Parts of Travel
• Ep. 62: Travel Anxiety, Safety, & Health
• Ep. 58: The World's Best/Most Cities
• Ep. 54: Trip Planning & Staying Home
• Ep. 47: Packing Light
• My book, At Home in the World
• WWOOF
• Visiting your sponsored kid with Compassion International
• For any links and codes from our lovely sponsors, head here

We're wrapping up our series on podcasts and playlists with this final episode... In this one, Kendra and I pull back the curtain to explain more of the art and science behind our strategy on creating playlists.

How do we pick who to play when? What mood do we want to strike for which playlist? And then finally: who are some of our favorite artists, albums, and playlists?

(Get ready for the epic-est of show notes!)

Links From This Episode:

• The Simple Show on Instagram
• Kendra’s blog + podcast, The Lazy Genius Collective
• Kendra on Instagram
• Tsh on Instagram and Twitter
• Spotify—Premium accounts, Family accounts

Kendra's fave artists:

• Andrew Peterson*
• Jill Phillips
• Andy Gullahorn
• Patty Griffin*
• Noah Gunderson
• Penny and Sparrow*
• Josh Garrels
• Sandra McCracken
• Ben Howard
• The Oh Hellos
• Oh Wonder
• Liza Anne

Tsh's fave artists:

• Josh Garrels*
• Andrew Bird*
• The Milk Carton Kids
• All Sons & Daughters
• alt-J
• Beach House
• Lord Huron
• Bifrost Arts
• Ben Harper
• Broken Bells
• Arcade Fire
• Damien Rice
• Mumford & Sons
• José González*
• fun.
• Gregory Alan Isakov
• The Brilliance
• Jenny & Tyler
• Lumineers
• Over the Rhine
• Rend Collective
• Sara Groves
• Christa Wells
• The Shins
• Sigur Ros
• U2

Kendra's fave albums:

• Every Kingdom (Ben Howard) | Apple Music
• Ready This Time (Stacy Lantz)* | Apple Music
• Ellipse (Imogen Heap)* | Apple Music
• Pure Heroine (Lorde) | Apple Music
• Why Should the Fire Die (Nickel Creek)| Apple Music
• Carry the Ghost (Noah Gunderson)| Apple Music
• Living with Ghosts (Patty Griffin)| Apple Music
• The Family Tree (Radical Face)*| Apple Music
• Range of Light (S. Carey) | Apple Music
• Strict Joy (The Swell Season) | Apple Music
• 1989 (Taylor Swift) | Apple Music
• Heartthrob (Tegan and Sara) | Apple Music

Tsh's fave albums:

• Hamilton soundtrack | Apple Music
• Walter Mitty soundtrack | Apple Music
• Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (Lauryn Hill)* | Apple Music
• Armchair Apocrypha (Andrew Bird) | Apple Music
• The Burning Edge of Dawn (Andrew Peterson) | Apple Music
• A Rush of Blood to the Head (Coldplay) | Apple Music
• Some Nights (fun.) | Apple Music
• The Weatherman (Gregory Alan Isakov) | Apple Music
• Love & War & The Sea in Between (Josh Garrels) | Apple Music
• Strange Trails (Lord Huron) | Apple Music
• Living Room Songs (Ólafur Arnalds)* | Apple Music
• The Joshua Tree (U2)* | Apple Music

Kendra's fave playlists:

• Noah Penny Magic,
• Cleaning the Kitchen,
• Instrumental Work

Tsh's fave playlists:

• Deep Work + Beats,
• They Make Me Cry,
• Cleaning + Dancing
• Kendra’s Spotify profile; Tsh’s Spotify profile (click ‘follow’)
• For any links and codes from our lovely sponsors, head here

* Mentioned in this episode

Continuing our deep-dive on earbuds, Kendra and I shift into music with this episode. Both of us get one of the kindest, most surprising comments about what we put out in the world: “I love your Spotify playlists!”

We’re totally floored by this, because we honestly just love making playlists and are happy to share them. And hey, we love that you love them—and to us, this means we must have a thing for music.

So in this episode, we start off with our backgrounds: How did both of us come to love music so much? And then, we get into why we still play music all the time, how we do it affordably, and when we play what.

In the final episode, we’ll share specific artists, as well as the art and science behind how we create the playlists we love. If you can’t tell, we adore this topic!

Links From This Episode:

• The Simple Show on Instagram
• Kendra’s blog + podcast, The Lazy Genius Collective
• Kendra on Instagram
• Tsh on Instagram and Twitter
• Spotify—Premium accounts, Family accounts
• Kendra’s Spotify profile; Tsh’s Spotify profile (click ‘follow’)
• My Sonos speaker system, with add-on speakers
• For any links and codes from our lovely sponsors, head here

Continuing on with our deep-dive on podcasts and playlists, Kendra and I give the run-down on our favorite podcasts! It's SO hard to narrow down the list, but here's where we dive first.

Start with Part 1, if you haven't yet, then move on here. The next two episodes after this will be on playlists: how we enjoy music in our lives, and what's on our short list.

Links From This Episode:

• The Simple Show on Instagram
• Kendra’s blog + podcast, The Lazy Genius Collective
• Kendra on Instagram
• Tsh on Instagram and Twitter
• For any links and codes from our lovely sponsors, head here

Recommended Podcasts:

• News: The Daily, Pantsuit Politics, & Up First

• Fun: The Popcast, The Great Debates, It’s Been a Minute, No Such Thing as a Fish, & Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me

• Self-Care: Fat Mascara, Selfie, & Forever35

• Education/Self-Improvement: Constitutional, Smartest Person in the Room, Sorta Awesome, Ask Science Mike, The Liturgists, Stuff You Should Know, Happier, Note to Self, & Part-Time Genius

• Interview: Off Camera with Sam Jones, What Should I Read Next, Typology, How I Built This, Longform, Sounds Good, Women’s Work

• Boss Lady: The Next Right Thing, Online Marketing Made Easy, Elise Gets Crafty, Marie Forleo, Lead to Win, StoryBrand

• Story: The Nod, Criminal, Reply All, Harry Potter and the Sacred Text, Homecoming, Uncivil

• Travel: Amateur Traveler, World Nomads

In our new deep-dive series, Kendra and are talking about how to use your earbuds—and no, we don’t mean how to coil them up so they don’t end up a chaotic tangle in your bag (we still don’t know how to do that). ...This series is all about podcasts and playlists. We’re both big fans of listening to both, but we also only have 24 hours a day. This means we can’t listen to everything we’d like, but we do manage to sneak in a good amount of both good music and fantastic podcasts. In Part 1, we go in to the how of podcasts. I mean, yeah, we’re only talking podcasts, not curing cancer, but it’s still a good idea to go in with a game plan, lest you waste all kinds of time. Because if you haven’t noticed, there are tons of podcasts out there, with new ones launching daily.

Links:

• The Simple Show on Instagram
• Kendra’s blog + podcast, The Lazy Genius Collective
• Kendra on Instagram
• Tsh on Instagram and Twitter
• the Overcast app
• The Simple Show on Spotify
• For any links and codes from our lovely sponsors, head here

Wrapping up our deep-dive on staying informed without losing your mind… In part 3, Erin and I talk about the how. How do we keep up with things in a healthy, sanity-saving way?

Part 1 covered the What of news, part 2 covered the Why—the good reasons to keep up with it, and this final part gives you some practical how-tos. I hope you enjoy this new format as much as we do!

Links From This Episode:

• First in this series: Ep. 110—the what of Knowing the News
• Second in this series: Ep. 111—the why of Knowing the News
• The Simple Show on Instagram
• Erin’s blog, Design for Mankind
• Erin on Instagram and Twitter
• Tsh (me) on Instagram and Twitter
• Erin's post, How to Stay Informed (Without Getting Overwhelmed)—this served as a catalyst for this whole series
• For any links and codes from our lovely sponsors, head here

Our recommended resources to stay sanely informed:

• Politifact (though it's not always perfect, as this points out)
• Here's Erin's husband's history book—though we recommend any recent, well-researched history textbook
• Good Newspaper!
• AllSides
• Pantsuit Politics, Tsh's recommended political podcast (check out co-host Sarah on episode 1 of Women's Work, Tsh's other podcast!)
• NPR Politics podcast
• Good people to follow on Twitter: Dara Mathis, David French, Clint Smith, Richard Painter, Luvvie, Michael Wear, Deray, Elizabeth Bruenig, Jason Kander, Yashar Ali, David Fahrenthold, Tim Miller
• Find almost any newspaper in the world
• And find your local newspaper so you can subscribe!

Next week, we start a new series, this time with co-host Kendra. Get ready!

Keeping on from the last episode, Erin and I continue our chat on staying informed without losing our minds. Why is it a good thing to keep up with the news?

It's a noble assumption that keeping up with the news makes us better people... but when is it harmful to us? We talk about the wrong sorts of whys for staying informed—and the healthier, better, more sustainable-in-the-long-term reasons for knowing what's going on.

• First in this series: Ep. 110—the what of Knowing the News
• Follow The Simple Show on Instagram
• Follow Women's Work on Instagram! (starts January 25—this Tuesday!)
• Erin’s blog, Design for Mankind
• Erin on Instagram and Twitter
• Tsh (me) on Instagram and Twitter
• Women’s Work, Tsh’s new podcast!
• Information is Food, Erin's TED talk rec
• Amusing Ourselves to Death
• When Helping Hurts
• Jeremy Courtney of Preemptive Love
• For any links and codes from our lovely sponsors, head here

We’re kicking off our new format with a deep-dive on a topic that affects most of us: How do we stay informed on what’s going on in the world without losing our minds or souls? No matter where we land on issues, this is a universal struggle because we all live in the modern world, and because we’re all humans.

How do we strike that balance between knowing what’s going on, and keeping up without falling into despondency? Or compassion fatigue? Or anger? Or aloofness because it’s all just. too. much?

We’re breaking up this one long conversation into three parts: What, Why, and How. In this episode: what. What is the news, really? What does it mean to “stay informed”?

Links From This Episode:

• Follow The Simple Show on Instagram
• Erin's blog, Design for Mankind
• Erin on Instagram and Twitter
• Tsh (me) on Instagram and Twitter
• Women’s Work, Tsh's new podcast!
• An interesting (old) essay on whether the news makes us dumb
• NPR
• Journalism ethics and standards on Wikipedia
• For any links and codes from our lovely sponsors, head here