Try a New Thing

It's been a long week at Chez Ensayez une Novelle Chose, so we kick back with a snack and chat about all sorts of strange things we've tried in the last few days. Is this a good episode at all? I suppose only time will tell.

Talking points include: banana segmentation, overpriced emergency vets, do all german beers taste alike, grapefruit spoons are a useful tool.

[email protected]. YALL-TRY-NEW (925-587-9639). Available at a green grocer near you.

CW: food sounds, descriptions of bodily excretions

Beloved, we've had a wild experience this week. We played Her Story, which is a game that . . . needs to be seen to be believed. For the first half, we explain the setup and give general impressions of the game. Then, for the back half, we dive straight into spoilercasting, and tell you exactly what we think happened in this sordid tale of murder, betrayal, and . . . all the other stuff we don't want to spoil in the writeup.

Talking points include: Coralville has terrible water, sometimes Obama acolytes run for office and we meet them, video games!, why is it so hard to find an uncorrupted version of abandonware from Cassi's childhood?!?

[email protected]. YALL-TRY-NEW (925-587-9639). Coming to a theater near you.

Braeden grew up listening to Rush. Yeah, I know, it's cliché for a nerdy white boy to be into progressive rock, but hey - it's what he grew up listening to. So this week, he got to subject Cassi to it - specifically, the two songs in the Cygnus X-1 duology. Does Cassi get super into prog? Can she even understand the words Geddy is singing?

Talking points include: Zentipede, moringa, give me a wrench in every videogame, also biotics.

[email protected]. YALL-TRY-NEW (925-587-9639). Under "taint" in the phonebook (it was a misspelling).

Your mom's favorite podcast is back, breaking down one of Cassi's favorite audio books from her youth. Braeden remains unconvinced because of its lack of terror. Both are back on their bullshit in the best ways possible.

Talking points include: micheladas, NIMH, harpsichords, sad indie music that gets you right in the feels.

[email protected]. YALL-TRY-NEW (925-587-9639). Your favorite fortune teller. The back of the milk carton.

Braeden got his time last week. This week, it's Cassi's youth that we're excavating, as we deep dive into the Sword in the Stone, that 1963 "classic" that I bet you don't really remember all that much about. At least Cassi stayed awake through this one . . . ?

Talking points include: Black tea in the evening, Cassi doesn't like pho, wizard battles, you're gonna die from measles.

[email protected]. YALL-TRY-NEW (925-587-9638).

Me? I'm here for the games.

For you, we'll do anything. Including watching a movie from Braeden's youth. That he remembers fondly. That he hasn't seen in two decades. That he got a bootleg copy that's a VHS rip from his cousin Jenny years and years ago. But guess what? Cassi fell asleep. Like three times. But! This movie has just enough weird stuff going on in it that you should deffo give it a listen and maybe a watch?

Talking points include: blood drawing, Megan Gustafson, diamonds in the gullet, a catchy theme song.

[email protected]. YALL-TRY-NEW (925-587-9638).

Whew, friends, it's been a while. This pale blue dot has gone around the sun nearly one entire rotation since we've recorded an episode of this, the world's greatest podcast. And yet - and yet - we return, unencumbered by having to read an entire book just to chat with each other, reinvigorated by fantastic experiences and ready to try something new.

Talking points include: kefir, galactic aqua, Gamera, brooms.

This month, we're talking about Margot Mifflin's art-and-history book Bodies of Subversion: A Secret History of Women and Tattoo, which we both found fascinating. We talk all about the history of women's tattoo in the modern Western world, and the ways in which it has been marginalized and mainstreamed in different manners throughout this history. We discuss different stories about tattoo as subjugation, tattoo as emancipation, bodies as subjects versus bodies as objects, and lots of other stuff.

Talking points include: The Vulpes Galactic Technocracy, jaguar knights, the weenis, Janis Joplin.

Comments? Questions? Contact us at [email protected] or call YALL-TRY-NEW (925-587-9638).

Relish caused our two cohosts to think a lot about food. And we mean, a lot. Hear as we remember some of the most strange, wonderful, and outstanding stories about our own experiences with cooking, eating, and the memories tied to them.

Who knows? Maybe you'll hear about a dish you want to try - or something that makes you never want to eat again...

Talking points include: dry Jell-O salad, milk butter sauce, what's the best paella?

Comments? Questions? Contact us at [email protected] or call YALL-TRY-NEW (925-587-9638).

We're finishing up January with a bang while talking about Lucy Knisley's comic memoir Relish: My Life in the Kitchen, a book that left us both reflecting on our memories of food and family growing up. Marvel as Braeden gets all up-ons about the term "graphic novel"! Celebrate how Cassi came to love asparagus! And ponder how food can be therapeutic!

Talking points include: Punpun is better than Maus, buttery milk juice, Mexican porn mags and awkward pad purchases.

Comments? Questions? Contact us at [email protected] or call YALL-TRY-NEW (925-587-9638).