Whine & Wine

In this month's episode, we talk about bullying and, while doing so, we mention suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling, please reach out to a friend, family member, or dial/text 988 for help. You are not alone and I mean that. This is something that I have struggled with in the past. Feel free to reach out. - Jyl

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This month, Kathy and Jyl discuss bullying as we unravel our truth. Our truth? Our truth is that today's bullying is not the same that we grew up with. Today, it is much more cutting and dangerous.

Bullying is defined as seeking to hurt, intimidate, or coerce and there are far too many avenues for bullying to live on in 2024.

Types of bullying are physical, verbal, relational, and cyberbullying. While physical bullying is the easiest to spot, the others are often much more harmful. Bullying is typically repeated over and over as many feel unsure of how to stop it.

We encourage you to be part of the change. You can make a difference. You can be a part of the solution. You can help change the narrative. Some numbers:

How you can help:

What if you're the bully?

Nonsor: ⁠Kind Lips⁠

Joshua Neumann first dreamed up Kind Lips lip balm but found his mother was not quite as enthusiastic about entering the lip balm business. Days after first suggesting developing his own lip balm, his mother had a dream in which the words "The Law of Kindness Is On My Lips" came to her. Check out the ⁠Kind Lips⁠ website for the rest of the story and, while you're there, add a whole lot of Kind Lips to your cart.

Kind Lips donates 20% of every product purchased to anti-bullying organizations devoted to promoting kindness and creating a world without bullying.

There is power in our words and Kind Lips is on a mission to remind us of that.

Other Episode Mentions:

⁠Very Well Family⁠

⁠Stop Bullying⁠

⁠Mrs. Frazzled⁠

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Can’t get enough of us? Well, you’re one of very few.

Get to know us! 

Wine & Whine is part of Bearlow Productions and is created Jyl Barlow and Kathy Crowley. 

Wrapping up someone’s life is one of the strangest things we’ve ever done and no one made it more strange than the cable company.

This shouldn’t have been a surprise. 

This month, we dive into the process of wrapping up someone’s life after they have moved onto their next playing field. This isn’t about funerals or last wishes – this is about removing someone’s footprint from the planet.

We also talk about ways we can aid those who will be tasked with wrapping up our lives.

This is not something any of us want to think about, but it turns out we are not jinxing ourselves by staying silent about our inevitable demise.

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Nonsor:

⁠I’m Dead, Now What ⁠Use this book's comprehensive pre-printed prompts to record the information on your dependents, beneficiaries, pets, insurance, active accounts and memberships, passwords, location of documents, and other more.

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Mentions:

⁠Wrapping Up Someone’s Life⁠ Jyl’s blog on the same topic.

⁠Smoke Gets In Your Eyes⁠ by Caitlin Doughty. 

⁠The Order of the Good Death⁠ Caitlin Doughty’s podcast.

⁠Keepsake Ornaments⁠ These are the ones Jyl used for those who wanted a portion of ashes.

⁠Nordpass⁠ Keep all your passwords in one digital place. Kathy does…her login is…

⁠EbidLocal⁠ An estate sale option that doesn’t involve watching people rifle through your loved one’s home.

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Can’t get enough of us? Well, you’re one of very few.

Get to know us! 

Wine & Whine is part of Bearlow Productions and is created Jyl Barlow and Kathy Crowley. 

Listen along as Jyl and Kathy visit the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Well, not visit so much as recap. As total sports nerds, there was no way to avoid talking about the best games ever. Yes, we know…you were expecting something else this month. We'll do that next month instead.

Things we loved about the Olympics?

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Can’t get enough of us? Well, you’re one of very few.

Get to know us! 

Wine & Whine is part of Bearlow Productions and is created Jyl Barlow and Kathy Crowley. 

This month on Whine & Wine, we had the pleasure of interviewing Ashley Maria and Lea-Ann Berst. This dynamic, daughter-mother duo is behind the short film, Super Human Anxiety, which will premiere on July 28, 2024, at LA Shorts, the longest-running film festival in Los Angeles. LA Shorts is a qualifying event for the Academy Awards, BAFTA, the Canadian Screen Awards, and the Goya Awards. 

In other words…LA Shorts is kind of a big deal.

Super Human Anxiety’s focus is on Whitney–a teenager navigating strong emotions and how a teacher is able to teach Whitney how to redirect those strong emotions into superpowers. Anxiety is rising among teens and this impact film will serve as a much-needed tool for those affected, whether personally or as someone who simply wants to help. 

Super Human Anxiety comes on the heels of their insightful documentary Pioneers in Skirts which dives into the roadblocks many girls and women encounter when chasing their aspirations. Pioneers in Skirts⁠ is another very personal story for Ashley, giving an insider's view of the challenges faced by females in the film industry.  

To reach as many people as possible, Super Human Anxiety will be offered at no cost to those who work closely with teens navigating mental health challenges.

This episode was so interesting to record (so much so that my note-taking was weak). The bonus? We’ll have a continuation of our conversation in our next episode when we do a deep dive into Pioneers in Skirts.

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Interested in following Ashley Maria and Lea-Ann Berst's work? Good, you should be. To do so, head here:

Ashley Maria Productions

Facebook: facebook.com/ashleymariaproductions

Instagram: instagram.com/ashleymariaproductions

YouTube: youtube.com/@ashleymakesmovies

IMDb: imdb.com/name/nm3594673/

Recent Accolades:

2023 SXSW Edu Featured Filmmaker

2023 Emmy Nominated Producers

2022 Black Magic Collective Directing Fellow

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Additional mentions in this episode:

Give an Hour

Norman Lear

Penn Holderness

Raleigh Little Theatre

Screen Actors Guild

Sharon Lawrence

Writers Guild of America

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Can’t get enough of us? Well, you’re one of very few.

Get to know us! 

Wine & Whine is part of Bearlow Productions and is created Jyl Barlow and Kathy Crowley. 

If you follow the show (and you should), you may remember our holiday gift to you: Ask a Gen Z, an episode on which Kathy and I grilled our friend, Sydney, on all things that don't translate from generation to generation. It was so enlightening that we invited that Gen Z pal back to turn the tables on us.

We absolutely should have expected Sydney to show ready to...well, okay, not really ready...but to show ready to wing it. Very on-brand for Gen Z. It was another great episode in which we proved how important it is for women to keep those cross-generational lines of communication open.

Listen along as we discuss:

Our Nonsor this month is also a sneak peek to next month's episode in which we will chat with the producer/directors of the film Pioneers in Skirts. This is a must-see feature film that showcases how women and girls identify and address the obstacles their

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Can’t get enough of us? Well, you’re one of very few.

Get to know us! 

Wine & Whine is part of Bearlow Productions and is created Jyl Barlow and Kathy Crowley. 

Wow. That's (almost) all I can say.

In this final episode of our current stepmom series, it's a threesome!

A three-way.

Wait, what now?

It's Kathy, Jyl, AND Rich as Kathy wraps up her fabulous round of interviews regarding Jyl's book, What to Expect When You Weren't Expecting.

This was another amazing block of time well spent as we talked together about:

This was the first time Rich & Kathy met in person and the first time he experienced the Kathy & Jyl show live. Deer in headlights? Table for one.

This episode's nonsor is the Angus Barn. The Angus Barn tells the story of Jyl & Rich's relationship and is where What to Expect When You Weren't Expecting was born. If you're heading to the Raleigh area, do not miss a stop at the globally known, family-owned restaurant. Make your reservation early as seats are hard to come by! And make sure you tell Van, Jim, Henk, and Kevin that we said hello!

Can’t get enough of us? Well, you’re one of very few.

Get to know us! 

Wine & Whine is part of Bearlow Productions and is created Jyl Barlow and Kathy Crowley. 

This month's episode of Whine & Wine has a pretty major plot twist as your host, Jyl, is nowhere to be found. Well, we knew where she was.

As a follow-up to S2Ep4, The Most Unqualified Interview, on which Kathy put Jyl on the interview hot seat, this month it was Rich's turn.

For those not familiar, Rich is the luckiest man in the world, Jyl's husband, and also the topic of many stories in Jyl's best-selling memoir "What to Expect When You Weren't Expecting (Parenting Tales from the Most Unqualified (Step)Mom Ever".

It is fairly common within the step-circuit to hear from the stepparents...but how often do we hear from the biological parent? Rich's advice is top-notch and a MUST LISTEN for the bio-half of all blended families.

If we could sum up that advice in a few words? Well, Rich found the perfect way with this Pulp Fiction quote:

Pride fucks with you. Fuck Pride. Pride only hurts, it never helps.

Listen along as Rich opens up about the things he might have done differently including:

* Having real conversations about expectations whether related to marriage, raising kids, or what each partner brings from their pasts.

* When to stand down and let life play out versus times when it is truly necessary to step in.

* Setting aside that pesky pride.

* Putting marriage first. Yes, that's right--marriage first, not the children.

This interview is packed!! You'll even get to hear about the first time Rich heard Jyl play a butthole symphony (such a treat).

Thank you to Monster Juice for serving as this episode's Nonsor. Find Rich's preferred flavor at your favorite caffeine dealer.

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Get to know us! 

Wine & Whine is part of Bearlow Productions and is created Jyl Barlow and Kathy Crowley. 

Has it really only been a year since Jyl's best-selling memoir, What to Expect When You Weren't Expecting, hit bookshelves around the world? Kind of.

This book about the challenges of building a blended family has been scooped up by (step)moms worldwide as they've discovered that they are not alone. Jyl has appeared on podcasts in several countries, chatted with a few radio hosts, and even put on her lip gloss for a live television interview.

None of that was as terrifying as this month's episode of Whine & Wine in which Kathy takes the lead like a baby Barbara Walters.

To celebrate the release of What to Expect When You Weren't Expecting's audiobook (read by Jyl and her husband, Rich), Kathy finally got the interview she'd been begging for and she arrived with pages of notes.

Listen along in the first of a three-episode series as the Whine & Wine team dives into the world of blended families.

Want to check out the book first? Choose your media!

Buy What to Expect When You Weren't Expecting (Parenting Tales of the Most Unqualified (Step)Mom Ever) here.

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Sneak Peek from the book? Sure:

The truth is, nobody dreams of marrying a man with an ex-wife and pre-made kids. The reality is, it happens anyway.

What to Expect When You Weren’t Expecting is a memoir chronicling Jyl Barlow’s bumpy road to success as a (step)mother. Shared are the struggles of being inserted into an existing family that has yet to fully emerge from the emotional woodchipper of divorce. Jyl shares real-world lessons, not the mumbo-jumbo one can receive for the low price of a co-pay. If you are a (step)mom, if you are on the path to becoming a (step)mom, or if you know a (step)mom, this book will serve as a sanity saver, offering endless reassurance in knowing that you are not alone in your struggle to find stability. 

This memoir is for the whole family, meant to be shared among husbands and mothers-in-law and (step)children and ex-wives. What to Expect When You Weren’t Expecting offers readers a greater understanding of just how difficult it is for (step)mothers to dive headfirst into a role in which they are typically not welcome.

Can’t get enough of us? Well, you’re one of very few.

Get to know us! 

Wine & Whine is part of Bearlow Productions and is created Jyl Barlow and Kathy Crowley. 

This month, your friends at Whine & Wine dive into the Zombie Closet. Added bonus? Yes, please! The master of preparation himself (and husband to your host), Rich Barlow joins the podcast.

How'd it go? Let's just say that before we were finished, Rich was ready to dig into the very back of our own Zombie Closet for that hidden box of wine.

Do you know the difference between Bugging In or Bugging Out? Kathy and Rich explain it all, shopping lists included.

Things we chatted about that can be added to your life with the click of a button:

The Complete Worst-Case Scenario Handbook by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht

BaoFeng Handheld Radio

Amateur Radio License (need to use your BaoFeng)

One Second After by William Forstchen

One Year After by William Forstchen

And, of course, the most glorious Bug Out bag in the world, presented to us by our Nonsor, Stealth Angel Survival. Check out this page to find your new favorite bag.

This episode was not sponsored by Stealth Angel Survival, but I bet they wish they had!

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Can’t get enough of us? Well, you’re one of very few.

Get to know us! 

Whine & Wine is part of Bearlow Productions and is created Jyl Barlow and Kathy Crowley.