Tiny Victories

This week Laura ropes professional jazz trumpet player Brian Swartz into coming on the show with her and Annabelle. The Tiny Victories theme song creator, Swartz, decided to try this “anchor tongue” technique out…and was blown away by the results. Plus listener Erin has a tiny victory about staying in.

House knows no one who is busier than author, activist, advocate and 2022 Thurber Prize Finalist Annabelle Gurwitch. Listeners of the show have heard Annabelle tell us about frogs she heard at a Belgian farmhouse, the birds flying in the skies of Rome, or stumbling into a workshop she discovered by happenstance by the Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir. This week, Annabelle tells us about how she over-extended herself, and then did something she’d never done before that made her feel recharged.

Do you enjoy neck massages from the person you’re seeing? Annabelle sure does, but she didn’t always know the path that would get her there. And then, voilá, the idea came to her right before her yoga class started.

Plus, Annabelle and Laura praise Lou and their veggie victory.

It’s award season. This is the time of year *Angelenos get inundated with screeners for the buzziest films of the year, and movie studios beg Academy members for their consideration. And this year, the Acadamy is considering nominating a project in which our own Laura House has a part. What part? What film? Take a listen to find out.

New York Times Bestselling author Annabelle Gurwitch was not familiar with New York Times Bestselling author James Clear until recently. TV writer and aspiring author Laura House gets to take credit for telling Annabelle about Clear’s wildly successful book Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones. There’s even a tease on the book’s cover that makes it all the more surprising it escaped Annabelle’s notice: “Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results”.

Annabelle has returned from a trip to Australia and New Zealand, where she traveled on 8 planes in 9 days and met her beau’s family members. To keep her hectic schedule, and her sanity, Annabelle came up with a strategy that involved sheep and singing with the Central Aboriginal Women’s Choir.

This week, House attempts to change Annabelle’s mind about The Metaverse, by bringing it to her. Will Annabelle be able to get over her disdain for virtual reality based on House’s reasons for loving it? Plus, the benefits of embracing the holidays.

You know how some people collect sand or rocks from the places they travel? Annabelle collects sounds. At the beginning of summer, she toured with a band that played a huge music festival in The Netherlands, and one souvenir of that trip was the croaking of Belgian frogs. She’s recently-returned from Rome, Italy, with two new sounds, and her sightseeing highlights.

If you tried sending Annabelle an email this week, you saw her auto-reply message: In Rome until Dec. 2nd. Great for Annabelle, but Laura House still needed to record the show. Thankfully her pal Laurie Kilmartin was not only available, but still riding high off a recent packing victory. The Jackie & Laurie show host fills in for Annabelle, and she and Laura talk air travel and comedy.

This week, Annabelle reveals a new fear: traveling to Florida for a book event, and discovering it’s really an intervention. Plus, Adam calls in with a complex journey involving auto repair and a type of crack.