Trash Talk: Season 2 Trailer 

Welcome back to Trash Talk for season two, where Erica Breuer and Erin Thomas dive into the cliched advice everyone repeats like gospel (even when it’s garbage). 

Got a cringe-worthy cliche to share? 

Call or text our new Trash Talk hotline at 719-819-2175. 

New episodes of Trash Talk drop Tuesday, September 9th—subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to stay up to date.

This isn’t a goodbye: it’s a see you in September. 

We’re taking a well-earned summer break (because seasonal girlies need rest too), but we’re already cooking up a trashier, spicier, more unhinged Season 2.

In this episode:

• A heartfelt thank you to our listeners (yes, you, with the fire DMs and existential side-eyes)
• Listener highlights, PLUS feedback we’re incorporating into next season
• Why poking at popular ideas isn’t the same as canceling them
• How to send us the clichés you love to hate

Erica and Erin dig into the creative cliché they actually love: “Steal like an artist.” Inspired by Austin Kleon’s book and a long lineage of remix-friendly wisdom, they explore the difference between influence and theft when both humans and AI borrow from what’s come before

If everything’s an echo, what makes something yours?

Resources & Mentions:

Austin Kleon
 → Steal Like an Artist
 → Also by Kleon: Show Your Work, Keep Going
 → Website: austinkleon.com

Julia Cameron
 → The Artist’s Way
 → Known for: Morning Pages, creative recovery tools
→ Website: juliacameronlive.com

If happiness is a choice, let’s talk about who gets to choose it, and who’s just trying to survive a system that tells them it’s their fault they’re miserable.

Erica and Erin are joined by William Davies, political economist, author of The Happiness Industry, and one of the sharpest critics of how governments and corporations turned happiness into a metric, a mandate, and a market. 

Together, they dig into the cultural scaffolding behind our obsession with happiness: where it comes from, who benefits, and what it’s costing us.

Connect with William Davies:

https://williamdavies.blog/

https://bookshop.org/beta-search?keywords=William+Davies

No full episode this week. We’re stepping away from the mic to touch grass, eat carbs, and avoid small talk. Back next week with more delightful dumpster fires.

Erica and Erin trace this phrase from its New Age roots to its Instagram glow-up, digging into how “the universe” became a rebranded higher power for people who’d rather not talk about God. What looks like faith might actually be a filter for avoidance, especially when it’s used to explain away failure or justify a $10K group program that never delivered.

From prosperity gospel to “trust the process” culture, they ask: Is this cliche (belief) helping people heal, or is it a cosmic cop-out?

You know that phrase, “Be your best self”? This episode rips it wide open: from its shiny, self-help packaging to the industrial shame complex underneath.

Erica and Erin are joined by media scholar Laurie Ouellette to break down how makeover reality shows (Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, The Biggest Loser, Wife Swap, etc.) didn’t just make for good TV;  they quietly rewired our ideas about help, worthiness, and personal responsibility. What we mistake for glow-ups, might be about control.

Find out more about Laurie Ouellette…

Buy one of her books: https://bookshop.org/contributors/laurie-ouellette

• Viewers Like You?: How Public TV Failed the People (2002)
• Better Living Through Reality TV: Television and Post-Welfare Citizenship (2008)
• Reality TV: Remaking Television Culture (2009)
• The Media Studies Reader (2012)
• A Companion to Reality Television (2014)
• Keywords for Media Studies (2017)
• Lifestyle TV (2016)

Read her work as Editor-in-Chief of the academic journal "Television and New Media:" https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/journal/television-new-media

Or as a Columnist at Film Quarterly: https://filmquarterly.org/tag/laurie-ouellette/

You know those phrases that sound important but mean absolutely nothing? Yeah, we made a list.

In this rapid-fire episode, Erica and Erin pull back the curtain on some of the most overused (and underwhelming) buzzwords in business, leadership, and personal development, or rather “Business BS,” “Leadership Lies,” and “Personal Development Delusions.”

It’s a roast. It’s a reset. It’s your permission slip to stop pretending these phrases are helpful.

In this episode Trash Talk, Erin and Erica take a step back to reflect on their podcast journey…from their first encounter in a Google Doc to deciding to turn their weekly coffee chats into a podcast, they share the behind-the-scenes story. 

They also dive into the juicy bits of their personal histories, like Erin’s dumpster dive moment that launched her career (literally), and Erica’s museum exhibition background that led her to shaping big ideas for brands.

Tune in for a mix of branding, life lessons, and personal anecdotes, with a sneak peek at what’s to come in Season 2.

Links to passion projects that mentioned in this episode:

www.youtube.com/@MultigenMagic

www.youtube.com/@CalmTitsMedia

You’ve heard the quote. You’ve probably even said it. But what if that ever-popular cliché is doing more harm than good? 

In this episode, Erica and Erin throw “If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room…” under the microscope, and discover a tangled web of assumptions about intelligence, value, status, and the rooms we choose to enter (or flee from).

If this episode gave you a forehead-smack moment, or just made you feel seen, go ahead and rate & review Trash Talk on your favorite podcast app.