Try a New Thing

Ah, 2017. A year that was great for us, personally, but that was a tire fire in most other respects. But! With the year ending, we decided to wrap up Year One™ with a chat about self help as a genre, the books we (didn't) read for December, and our plans for Year Two™.

We wish you all a better 2018!

Talking points include: samesies typography, personal highs of 2017, maybe just publish articles, guys.

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

Whew, it's been a month. But! We've been satisficing as much as we can, we've been gratitude journaling, and we've been doing home repairs, and now we're ready to tell you all about it! Join us for a post-holiday expression of things we love and things we're grateful for.

Talking points include: just listen to Barry's TED talk, mechas are actually good, end-of-year plans.

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

After a too-long break, Cassi and Braeden are back at it again with the new books. Well, just one book: The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz. We dig into the ways in which being middle-class in Late Capitalism can create a tyranny of decisions that weigh heavy on us. Quite literally, this is an episode filled with First World Problems™.

Talking points include: Delilah After Dark, how to pronounce "satisficer", counterfactuals.

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

After two weeks of a complete love-in, how much more do Cassi and Braeden love each other? Or do they hate each other? Or . . . are things basically the same? (What a thrilling possibility.) They talk about their own love languages and how they've tried to engage with each other in those langauges. Spoiler: they share the same basic love language.

Talking points include: go to marriage counseling, Chums™, nighttime snuggling.

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

Snuggle on down next to the fire, cozy up in a blanket with a cup of your favorite relaxing hot beverage, it's time to talk . . . love. Cassi and Braeden break down all the barriers and chat about Gary Chapman's The Five Love Languages. Is this a useful framework? How can couples communicate more effectively? What is love? (Baby, don't hurt me.)

Talking points include: car canoodling, "limerance", just talk to each other, guys.

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

We KonMari'ed our stuff. Joy was sparked. Thanks were given. Class issues were discussed. The ways in which ethical consumption is impossible under capitalism were expounded upon. Cassi has lots of tools. Braeden offered up the pie-in-the-sky solution of anarcho-syndicalism. Basically, this one has it all, people.

Talking points include: can supplies spark joy?, unicorn art, Black Friday shaming as classist nonsense.

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

It's time. It's here. Braeden and Cassi are gonna talk all about the KonMari method, its underlying spirituality, the ways in which minimalism can become a secular religion for its adherents, and why Braeden still thinks the whole thing is middle-class bougie nonsense.

Talking points include: imaginary math, things are things not friends, surreptitious voicemails.

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

So . . . Braeden hasn't finished reading Marie Kondo's book yet. For lots of reasons! But he's working on it. In the meantime and to tide you over between episodes, please enjoy this conversation Cassi had with her mom, aunts, and cousins this summer about hoarding, clutter, minimalism, and what to do with the things you don't want. We promise we'll be back next week with hot minimalism takes.

Talking points include: violin vases and fur coats, trash diving, THE CLOSET™.

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

Thanks to some technical errors with the first recording of the podcast, this one's coming to you new and improved (to use that most contradictory of marketing speak)! We chat about questions we should ask ourselves when we're de-cluttering and ways in which we tried to decrease and avoid clutter in our lives.

Talking points include: camarones a la diablada, fanny packs, non-office space.

Stay tuned after the episode proper for a fun glimpse at part of the fabled lost episode!

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

Piles of stuff everywhere. The smell of decomposing leftovers. A danger to yourself and others. That's probably not you, and it's not us, but it is the case of people with compulsive hoarding issues. But maybe, just maybe, there's a little bit of hoarder hidden inside each of us. That's the premise of this week's book, Dr. Robin Zazio's great read The Hoarder In You. We break down the book and talk all about clutter catastrophes and continua.

Talking points include: what kind of clutter creature are you?, how to help a hoarder, Braeden's problems with minimalism.

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