Tiny Victories

For week two of #MaxFunDrive, we’re joined by Morgan and Matt Walsh. They regale us with tales of fixing the dishwasher, bathroom plumbing and the multiple attempts to build a chicken coop in the backyard. Plus you’ll learn who might be responsible for the sourdough craze that swept LA’s comedy community by storm.

It’s week one of MaxFunDrive! To honor this auspicious occasion, Laura and Annabelle decided to bring a guest on the show to share their victory in real time! And this being MFD 2021, the guest needed to be someone special, and she is! It turns out that Julia’s tiny victory isn’t something she did, but rather, something she didn’t do.

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Remember back in the before times when you’d have friends over for coffee or dinner, and it was no big deal? Jump forward to today when about a quarter of all Americans are fully vaccinated and almost half have received one dose, and you can witness folks taking baby steps toward a post-lockdown life. This week’s show was inspired by a call from Sanora, who caught up with a friend of hers, indoors, and without a mask! Plus, Laura recounts dancing for five minutes with a pal on a city sidewalk, and Annabelle is rediscovering the joy of talking to complete strangers.

Seemingly every newscast these days features cell phone video of one horrible incident after another. It got Annabelle thinking, “What would I do if I were in the shoes of one of these bystanders? Anything?” This week, Laura and Annabelle report back after attending bystander intervention training. It turns out, there are lots of ways to intervene and help victims of harassment that don’t involve martial arts or weapons training. In fact, there are TINY methods you can take to deescalate dangerous situations. Plus, we’ll hear from Cindy who found a victory in, of all places, a laundromat.

This week, we get a call from Los Angeles writer Cari-Lynn, whose tiny victory inspired today’s episode. Annabelle and Laura explore the world of ambient sounds, and Annabelle explains the science behind noise and productivity.

Sure, on the surface becoming a homeowner is a major victory. And it is, sort of. The IDEA of becoming a homeowner can be daunting. But as Laura Homeowner, née House, explains, it’s really a collection of tiny victories that, combined, add up to a major one. Things like learning real estate jargon, installing appliances, or even just taking that initial leap of deciding to invest in a home.

Plus, we’ll hear from Leah in Portland, whose student loan-related victory has inspired Annabelle to take on Big Health Insurance.

Spring brings big holidays in many traditions--Ramadan, Easter, Passover--which brings up a dilemma: What’s a NONE (a nonreligious person) to do if they want to take part in the ritual of a holy holiday...minus the holy part? Annabelle has found a way, and she WILL have the brisket at her Passover Seder. House, raised Christian, has decided that she will start celebrating Brunchover. And we’ll hear from Rabbi Lisa Goldstein, who reads a poem by Adrienne Rich, and our first couch-beating victory from Cathy.

We pack a lot into this tiny episode. Annabelle and Laura talk disenfranchised grief this week, inspired by an article journalist Tara Parker-Pope wrote in the New York Times. The term “disenfranchised grief” refers to grief that isn’t usually acknowledged, which can be anything from not being able to attend a graduation ceremony, to having to skip an annual trip.

In addition, we’ll hear from a new listener who owes her victory to hearing our episode on the color yellow.

This week’s episode was inspired by Katie Heaney’s article in The Cut about Shakira’s newfound love of skateboarding in her forties. The Colombian singer & songwriter has stunned fans with how quickly she mastered the sport, as evidenced in the music video for Girl Like Me.

Laura and Annabelle celebrate Shakira’s latest hobby, but wonder if the world would be a better place if the media called attention to more mundane activities, such as, “Shakira Ate a Carb”. And Annabelle reveals the second act she envisioned for herself that didn’t happen. Well, it happened for House, just not Annabelle.

This week we hear victories about friendship and community from callers Sarah and Wendy. In our first call, Sarah tells us about how worried she was to move to the town of Idyllwild, CA in the during a pandemic. She reached out to her new community on Facebook, and found the resources she needed to fulfill a lifelong dream.