Oh my gosh, I'm watching Nobody Wants This and I'm loving it. 

So good.  I love it.  Put your ice cream down.  Just want to be told what to do.

 Give it up for Adam Brody. He doesn't do it for me. He never did before. I was never an OC gal. I never knew him as Seth. But to see him now, I'm like. None of those little boys ever did it for me. No.   📍 You want like a Viking, though. You do. Yeah. You know my type. Like a Charlie Hunnam oh, my gosh. Yeah. Yes. Huh.  

   📍 Welcome to your weekly breakdown, the silly and occasionally smart podcast. I'm Emily, a tech burnout, mother of two, and I swear too much. I really got to tone it down a notch.

 My name is Caitlin. I'm a comedian and actor. And this morning I did a little  📍 meditation. Sorry, what? I did a little meditation. No, you didn't.  For how long? 10 minutes. Why? To be ready for this.  Every week we get together to chat about cultural conversations and news. We make fun of the latest pop culture dramas, rant about life's minor inconveniences, judge each other's style and life choices,  📍 and maybe we'll even have a guest or two.

This podcast is brought to you by Hard Copy, the free comfort newsletter for cozy weekends. Join the thousands of busy women who already subscribe to enjoy curated recommendations for what to watch, listen to, read, and indulge in.

And to stay in the know on all things culture, work, and women, you can sign up at hardcopy. online.  Need to know more about the meditating. I also need to know why you're in a dress. have makeup on? You're in a dress? I have, I have mascara on. Are you Elon Musk's new robot?  

Do you know who else looks really good though,  

Paul Mescal on 

the cover of GQ this month? I haven't seen it. Gladiator is coming out, a new movie, originally, which made Russell Crowe, did he win an Oscar for that?  It made him a name.   Mezcow, who made his name in Normal People, which was a TV adaptation of Sally Rooney's book. See, it's all Sally Rooney, baby. You know what's funny? I always want to say Sally Rooney Raphael.

Why? Because of Sally Jessie Raphael, but for some reason, Sally Rooney, I want a third name on it. Oh, isn't that funny? Sally Rooney Raphael. Two names is boring. You want one name. Yeah. Beyonce. Rihanna, or three names, Chad Michael Murray. in the upcoming Christmas movie where he's apparently a stripper. 

I love the holidays.   it's called The Merry Gentleman,   he gets festive and frisky in The Merry Gentleman, which centers on an all male holiday themed review in a seasonal small town.

I don't know how a small town is seasonal, that's very Christmassy, right? That's small town. They've got to overcome something,  Chad Michael Murray is boldly going where no actor has gone before except they have, headlining a holiday themed movie about shirtless all male dance.

How is that going somewhere that no one's ever gone before? It's on Netflix, the female lead is Brit Robertson, who starred in the Netflix adaptation of Sophia Amoruso's memoir, Girlboss.  Britt Robertson was phenomenal. Little actress and I'm actually super pumped.

She's gonna be in this. She was also in the longest ride I never saw that was the longest ride. I hope it's a sex movie. It is not it is a cowboy movie Oh, it's a Nicholas Sparks movie  with Scott Eastwood as the male lead Nepo, baby Clint Eastwood. Oh very handsome man, though Yeah, I'd let him.

Oh, yeah. I think if your dad is Clint Eastwood, it's hard to not be an actor. It's hard to not work in this industry. Oh, I'm not mentally prepared to have an argument about Nepo Babies,  doctors kids become doctors, lawyers kids become lawyers. That's what I'm saying.  It's what you're exposed to.

 I think the smartest people were the famous actors whose kids have different last names, Meryl Streep's daughters. meryl Streep's daughters. Gummer is their last name. And it took me 15 years to be like, Oh, that's your kid.

Yeah. And most people probably aren't as hugely nerdy as we are like going down the little internet rabbit holes. I love going down on IMDB page. You do? Yeah. I like seeing, is IMDB a real thing? Yeah. Like it's the website of record. It's legitimate.  I don't know if it's like the website of record, but It is accurate. It's the thing. Yeah. And as an actor, I am to be pro. So then I, when I like enter my credits, it gets checked.

Oh my God. So you have the last of us on yours. I do. But that had to be approved, right? Like you can't just put anything right now. Like LinkedIn. I have people now because I have hard copy on LinkedIn. People will be like, I work at hard copy and I'm like, you don't work at hard copy. You don't work for my business.

And then I have no control. Maybe I do. I haven't figured that out yet. You can put anything on your LinkedIn. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, bitch. You can call yourself anything you want. I call myself a podcast producer. Okay, I like that. But still people use LinkedIn, right?  It's very used. It's just a corporate themed social media though.

You should see the bloviating that happens on there. That's my favorite English word probably right now. Bloviating. Bloviating. Is it tooting your own horn? You got it.

It means talk at length, especially in an inflated or empty way, which would be the, yeah. Blowing hot air. Blowing hot air. Blow hard.  I'm wearing a dress on a Tuesday morning, only for you.  I like a winter dress.  I'm in the mood for a winter dress these days. It's a long sleeve, shapeless smock  but what you didn't mention is that I'm also wearing House shoes.  I brought slippers to the studio. You did. These are called UFOs. O-O-F-O-S. I am addicted to these shoes. Why put them on?  Just try one.  Just try one. Oh, that's walking on a cloud. It feels like walking on the inside of a dildo, like rubbery, smushy. Yeah, with great arch support.  Give it back.  They're great when you walk around and you just feel so good. There's a little bit of a bounce to it.

I'm a firm believer in a house shoe. That's my age. I understand that. Maybe it's because as humans, we don't actually age gradually.

There are two massive points of aging. What? Yeah. A study came out that shows that humans age dramatically at two key points in life, one at the age of 44 and one at the age of 60. They say that there's this molecular level burst that happens in our bodies at 44 and then again at 60.

 The scientists at Stanford University got together with 108 participants over several years and observed their changes. They realized that Aging does not happen on a gradual, linear way. Every day we don't age a little bit. There's a sudden change.

A molecular burst. Yeah, for example, the ability to metabolize caffeine decreases around the age of 40 and then again at 60. The nerve. I know. And I was shocked when I heard about this because I really did think that we aged gradually.  every day I'm a little bit older, numerically speaking. Yeah. Did it say anywhere in the study, what the, did it call out the indicators? What were the parameters for how they define aging? Oh, good question. Do you know what I mean? What happened at 44 and what happened at 60?

They found that people often got muscle injuries more around 44 They found that their fat accumulation, which I don't like that sentence. More? Yeah. So they got a little bit chubbier and also they lost more muscle mass at 44 That sounds right. Every freaking study I've read barks about How much we should just be lifting weights and keeping our muscle mass high and lifting and lifting and lifting.

So that's, I hear that too. Worth it to keep up bone density, lift heavy weights, you don't have to go for a run,  yeah. Move weight around.  It was very cool just to rethink how we age, that it's not linear,  you can fuck around in your thirties, don't worry about it.

Just kind of get your shit together at 44. . One thing that they noticed, and when you were saying like, how did they measure what were the parameters? They were looking at proteins. in people's bodies. Okay. So proteins that held together tissue, skin, muscle, cardiovascular changes, it was the protein that they were studying.

 So 44 is a key age. What would you recommend? I, we were saying lifting heavyweights. Yeah. You're asking me. I'm not an expert. Yeah. Just an opinionated. What do you think you'll do?

Dr. Peter Atia wrote a book called Outlive  this book really emphasized, the. Longevity. There's no point in living till 100 if you're sick from 65 onward. And everything hurts. Exactly. So they, one of the key things that I took away from that book was lifting weights regularly.

 That just has to be part of it. Yeah.  That's the biggest change I've probably made. Sleep, diet is a big one. Move your body and eat well, it's not rocket surgery. And I think we are fed so much information, especially as women, of how to lose those last five pounds, walk off those 60 pounds.

 We're getting so much more information about perimenopause and the hormonal changes in our bodies. The only thing I'll say about those kinds of books, most of the studies that are done, to provide data to support an argument or hypothesis were done on men.

They weren't studying women. I think that's just a thing to keep in mind. But yeah, lifting weights.  You're not going to bulk up from lifting weights, ladies.

No lift weights. That is what keeps you sane.  The benefits of lifting weights physically and mentally are. Yeah. Just unbelievable. That's what I'm finding with meditating where, this morning I meditated for 10 minutes. Hear me out It was 10 minutes of just taking a breath centering myself and starting my day  Deliberately and then another thing I've been doing is that I will spend five minutes in one yoga pose.

It's child's pose yoga  remember we were talking about the red light masks and the, it, maybe it's not the mask and maybe it's the fact that the people who have fucking 10 minutes to sit there and wear it without being disturbed or doing anything else are just  happier people.

Yeah. Yeah. So you have 10 minutes to  meditate in the morning. You're like, is it meditating or is it that you have 10 minutes? No, because I think 10 minutes is not an impossible thing to steal. And this meditation has long been studied. I'm just giving you the gears. But what it did change was I didn't have coffee right away.

I made myself a tea.  I really regretted that   oh, can I just do a little health update? Are you dying? No. We were talking. I'm not ready. We're not a dramatic podcast. Don't worry. Let's not do that. We were talking about the HPV vaccine. A couple weeks ago, and I don't remember this, but I got the HPV vaccine when I was like in grade eight, apparently.

 My mom texted me.

She said, I'm listening to the podcast, loving it. P. S. You had the HPV vaccine when at school, when you were 12 or 13. Hepatitis.  hepatitis B. We're not going to correct your mom on the, we are going to correct your mom on the podcast. Oh, I said, Oh, okay. Thanks mom.  Okay, so you would have been, yeah, 2006. I was in university. and I remember wanting it and being too old. The limitation at the time, I believe when it first came out, was about 12 years old.

You had to be 12 or under. Yes. Now you can be in your 20s. But at the time we were too fucking old and too slutty. So my mom's a liar

This is the best gift I've been given all day. I cannot wait to text my mom back and go, actually, mom, turns out I probably have HPV now.  How can I find out what vaccines I have? Because clearly my mom and I are not on top of it. Oh, man. Getting into like your medical records and the access that you have and don't have to your medical records.

That's a whole other podcast.  Getting your own medical file is very annoying. I don't know if I'm going to start a Google Drive. Don't give your data to Google, please. 

Stop it.  Speaking of health, I think this is really fascinating. So for the first time ever, this is a groundbreaking lawsuit Oregon's, Multnomah County is suing NW Natural. A gas utility for allegedly misleading the public about methane's environmental danger.

So this marks the first time a gas utility has been sued for climate deception, adding NW Natural to a list of companies like Shell and Exxon, the lawsuit claims that promoting methane gas as safe.

contributed to deadly heat waves, such as the 2021 heat dome that killed 69 people in the county. The case highlights the role of gas companies in climate change. I remember that heat dome. I do too.  More people died in the June 2021 heat wave in Multnomah County than died from heat in the entire state of Oregon in the past 20 years. that's a ballsy thing to do. These companies are so rich. Yep. They're so massive.  Like for a county to  make a claim against them, I think is  very notable.

I'll be very curious to see how it goes. It's crazy because we all know it, but like it feels like there's nothing we can do about it.

It does feel that way. Gas utilities have known for decades that their products fuel the climate crisis, yet they continue to deceptively market methane gas as a climate solution. So they're being sued for the lie, not, yes, they're being sued, not for the substance being. toxic and leading to heat domes and death.

They're being sued because they're lying. I love that phrase that they're being misleading the public about methane's environmental dangers. So of course, as they all do, they issue a denial. So NW Natural denied the county's allegations and insisted that the local government was the one trying to obfuscate.

It's so cute. Erin Brockovich should get on this.  Should we re watch that movie? Yes. Tom Girardi, who was the original lawyer for the real Erin Brockovich was married to Erika Jayne, who's a real housewife of Beverly Hills.  That makes me happy. He's in jail now, by the way. What? Oh yeah, he embezzled millions of dollars tens of millions of dollars from victims of families and victims of airplane crashes. Oh yeah. Rude! Awful. Bad man. Is it true? Or he was found guilty, I should say. He was found guilty.

Oh my god. And she's rolling around as a housewife? No, she divorced him very strategically at a very specific time  she's doing fine. But the question is, did she get her money or did she get the money of victims of airplane crashes. Oh, that's nasty.

Yeah, that's nasty.   Over 10, 000 books were banned across public schools in the U. S. during the 2023 and 2024 school year. Over 10, 000? You got it. There was a recent report that revealed that over 10, 000 books were banned from U. S. public schools during the last academic year, a significant increase from previous years.

The bans target books featuring sexual content, LGBTQ plus themes, and discussions on race.  With states like Florida and Iowa leading the charge, no surprise there. 

In this article, they're called critics, but like normal people are arguing that these bans limit students access to diverse perspectives and stories. New laws in states like Tennessee and Utah may further increase restrictions. 

 The previous year there were about 3000 books that were banned. Newly banned titles include. Black Reconstruction in America between 1860 and 1880 by W. E. B. Dubois, Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie, and Blade Runner.

By Philip K. Dick. Bans have remained in place for books like Alice Walker's The Color Purple  jodie Picoult's 19 Minutes, as well as Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and Beloved. 

In several instances, bans were put in place after some parents pushed for the bans and advocated for their parental rights over the schools. I once read that it's important to read fiction because it teaches you empathy.  Something that happens when you read a novel, when you read a book that is not your experience, it's a practice in empathy, understanding a world, and giving grace.

If we're removing all these books that might be challenging in some ideas and concepts,  I think we're going to become even less empathetic as a people. Yeah, some of them are fiction, some of them are non fiction we're talking about sex ed books.

Yeah. Yeah. As we call it here in Vancouver  body science, we're removing body science books, but some of those books were also like stories. Yes, of course. Yeah.  they're talking about no sex ed in schools, which by the way, we're not free of here in Canada. We have some provincial governments that are trying to control and limit that as well.

 I only found out recently that my ovaries and my uterus are not in the shape That I see them in pictures, this is not what my body looks like. In fact, it's all scrunched up and folded into each other. But on the diagram, it looks like your tubes are floating like two hands.

Outside of a body. But that's not true. Where did you learn this?  truth? Yeah, the truth.  is going to listen to this and go,   imagine that kind of misinformation to go, Oh, if I have a pain somewhere in my body, I should know where that pain is.

What's the movie? No, the show Orange is the New Black trans woman teaching the women. That they have three holes, that the pee does not come out of your vagina, it comes out of your urethra, and had a diagram of three holes.  Many women were just, their mind was blown?

There's probably someone listening to this who's like, oh,  oh. Yeah, there's three. I know. That's how you learn these things about yourself, this is how you advocate for your health, your self, your body autonomy. 

What about Are you there? God, it's me, Margaret. I wonder if that's been banned. . Judy Blume was banned from the beginning  she never let it stop her from writing. It's been 50 years since some of her books were published. But in Florida, her 1975 novel forever, which deals with teen sexuality from middle and high schools was banned.

In 2023,  I think it's fucking wild that we're banning Judy Blume books.  My first thought is  that seems nuts? it's a form of control.

It's some parents going, I don't want that for my kid. And therefore no kid should have it. It should be a law. What a waste of money and time.  

 Years ago, the New York Public Library launched an effort to make some banned books available for everyone for free. So the initiative is called Books for All and allows any reader age 13 and older for access to commonly banned books 

 the Brooklyn Public Library announced something similar as well called Books Unbanned for those aged 13 to 21. So if you do live in a state with book bans, you could look into accessing digital through Unbanned. through public libraries in other states.

Knowledge is power. Ignorance is dangerous. Breeding hate and division.   Stephen King tweeted, he said, Florida has banned 23 of my books.

What the fuck? And in a statement he said, I've said it before and we'll say it again. When books are banned from school libraries, run to your public library or the nearest bookstore and read what it is your elders don't want you to know. Fucking love that. Love that. That's a great quote.

I also have found out that a few things have been banned. What's banned? I went on a fun little wormhole. I was reading this interesting article that was telling me about how Coca Cola had to recall one of its most popular drinks.

What?  Recently? Recently. And it was their Minute Maid Zero Sugar Lemonade. Okay. Oh my god, remember the Minute Maid orange juice we used to make? Oh, and when you wanted it so bad but it was still so frozen and you just hack away with it. Yep. This is the Minute Maid zero sugar lemonade.

Okay. The reason it had to be recalled is that because it turns out it contained full sugar.

   They discovered that the cans labeled as zero sugar were in fact full sugar.  But also what's scary is that if you're watching your sugar intake for medical reasons, it may be dangerous, you think? also, stop drinking Minute Maid. If you have health issues, don't drink Minute Maid. No, we're not going to tell people what sugar to drink.

You cannot drink. I think you should, only because it's not safe. But I do love the irony of  the sugar free lemonade was recalled for its sugar. Coca Cola claims that they did a an involuntary test and found out that it was actually full sugar. Kate, do you know how much product development has to happen before that thing gets to a shelf? I'm not done. The FDA for sure was like, you guys are motherfucking liars. And they were like here, take a whole bunch of money and we'll do the recall ourself. We'll get rid of it. We promise.

 Imagine you're a person who's watching your sugar content, a diabetic, for instance. , this is the beginning of the wormhole that I went down.

No, this is just the beginning. This is just the beginning, yeah. in September, Coca Cola voluntarily recalled, voluntarily, yeah. Bullshit. Bullshit. Minute Maid lemonade. Okay. Then I go, what's this little thing? I click on another link that's connected to it. Coca Cola they had to recall Powerade this spring because of the potential presence of a foreign metal object. What? Yeah. Specifically a stainless steel ring. Oh, like someone lost their ring on the product line? And so somewhere, Powerade had a ring. Yeah. And then I went, Oh, that's insane. I'm switching to Pepsi.

Friends, Pepsi's doing it too. Oh my God. Then I go, Okay what's going on with Pepsi? What's Pepsi doing? Pepsi had to recall its zero sugar drink because it contained You heard it. Full sugar! Schweppes zero sugar ginger ale. Oh, do you mean  Schweppes zero sugar ginger ale.

Caffeine free. Had to be recalled because it in fact contained full sugar.

Oh my god. We're just so trusting. I know. . And then there was another one. There's more. There's more. And then Pepsi had another recall because of its soda labeled mug root beer with full sugar were labeled as mug zero sugar root beer.

It was, we all just threw up our hands at that moment, right? And also, look out for a ring inside your Powerade. Oh my God. I couldn't believe this. When I first heard the first thing about them recalling the Minute Maid lemonade, I thought, okay, that's one problem. It's, it happens, right? And then you see it's for the root beer, it's for ginger ale, it's for Powerade.

It's not just Coca Cola, it's Pepsi, it's everywhere. We're all gonna die.  I know you're talking about pop soda, but yes, pop and soda as it is not great, but does it?

This is what I wonder. Better than a cold diet,  especially from a can. I don't want it from a bottle. I don't want it from a bottle. It has to be a can. It's too syrupy from the bottle. We love it. But does it even matter then to drink the zero sugar stuff?  think any health book, if you are trying to be health conscious, then ingesting processed food or drink of any kind is probably not great.

Also what stood out to me was how many versions of these drinks are being put out there to make them okay for people with health issues.  Because we're lazy. We don't want to change our habits and routines, but we do want to change books. We want to ban thousands and thousands of books.

Yeah. Oh, Jesus Christ. Yeah. We put our energy towards that, but then I know it's broken. I don't know how to fix it. So read the book and drink the full sugar pop. 

Yeah. I, there isn't much more than I love, than a book and a drink. Oh, speaking of, I did bring a book today. Ooh. People enjoyed us arguing about. Sally Rooney's Intermezzo. I brought my next book, which was first published in 1962. It's called Cassandra at the Wedding. It's a novella, it's in three sections, three littles, three minis.

. There's three monologues. First, Cassandra, then her two Identical twin sister, Judith, and then Cassandra again. And Cassandra's like , the unhinged one in the duo. Okay. And her sister's getting married and Cassandra is hellbent on ruining the wedding.

And this is like pretty avant garde for being written in the 60s.  Cassandra is a graduate student at Berkeley. Gay, brilliant, nerve wracked, miserable. So the fact that we have a novel with a gay protagonist in 1962, it's common now, but at the time, for sure banned.

Don't be gay.  So at the beginning of the novel, she drives back to her family ranch in the foothills of the Sierras to attend the wedding of her identical twin, Judith to some nice perfect doctor from Connecticut. Cassandra is hell bent on sabotaging the wedding, so chaos ensues.

 She has to deal with the feelings that she has for her sister. It's just a deal with her drunk of a retired professor dad and the ghost of her dead mother. It's so Oh, wow. Highly enjoyable. If you have not enjoyed Dorothy Baker's Cassandra at the Wedding. It's your time.

How would you feel if I promoted a magazine? Great. Okay, great. Is it good? Yeah. Right now, Vancouver Magazine and Western Living are giving away free subscriptions.  I  think it for advertising, I give away free subscriptions to my business.

Yes. But they're giving away magazines like like the hard copy. I'm trying to find a way to not just say your business.  Vancouver magazine and Western living are the same. separate magazines, but same house. And they're giving away a free subscriptions. to remind people that it's fun to read a magazine.

I love reading magazines. Yeah. And these are huge magazines. They're mostly good content. Yep. Yeah. And Western Living's great. You can look at beautiful architecture and home design. They're looking to create content so they can sell ad space. Yes. And the more subscribers they have, the better.

 So their digital space, they would sell  to a certain group of advertisers. And then their hard magazine, hard copy magazine, they would have different advertisers.

I assume an aging demographic  of readers. Yep. But you got to do what you got to do.  Then they can say to advertisers, we have X amount of subscribers.

This is how many households you'll reach. That's good to know because now I'll go get a free subscription. And it comes to your house, which is always nice to get a magazine at your house.  

When I became a new mom, I did not have the attention span for a book,  nor was there a 10 minute span of time that someone didn't need me, on occasion still.  Magazines, I'd always loved magazines growing up, I loved reading them.

But when I was a new mom, I, all I had time for was an article. Yeah. And I don't want to be on my phone all the time. There is a lovely ritual to be had in having your phone in another room, having your hot coffee, tea, cold coffee, whatever, your drink of choice, a fucking glass of wine if it's whatever time of day.

Yeah. And flipping through a glossy magazine. I. I love that it takes the urgency away. Everything online is do you see this article? You must read it now.  I constantly have a stack magazines and I subscribe and pay for subscriptions  to hard copy magazines I subscribe to Vogue, Vanity Fair. The Economist, Architectural Digest, Elle Magazine. Love Elle. And you could convince me to subscribe to  Cosmo. I don't right now, but some of their pieces, they have this one writer who attracts me to them.  Fortessa Latifi.  She's the one who did all the great reporting on the children of influencers. And she's been publishing those through Cosmopolitan. Teen Vogue, you know, a few years ago came back  Elaine Welteroth was the editor in chief at Teen Vogue and really brought, they were doing some of the best political reporting out there. That's so cool. Sometimes I'll pick up an extra time magazine, Wired.

Chatelaine does really well. And they, have done some amazing investigative reporting. And they have great recipes. 

 Oh, give me a Bon Appetit magazine. You know what I mean? I used a Bon Appetit recipe for stuffing this weekend. I love Bon Appetit.  I won't say her name because she'll be mortified, but she is a huge foodie. She probably doesn't listen to this.

 I was asking about a stuffing recipe because of course we just said Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada and I was telling her my recipe and she said, If you're not stuffing the bird, do this instead. And she sent me this Bon Appetit recipe.

And the trick was that there was some sausage in it. Oh, that fat. Oh, my God. It was. I could have just eaten that.  You have to subscribe for their recipe.

So you got to pay for that shit. But you can always watch their test kitchen videos on YouTube, which are really nice and very soothing. Oh, I could see that being. Excellent, soothing, like a great coping mechanism. Oh yeah. There was one video it was making like beans, just how to make a good bean.

Turns out for good beans you need fat, salt, and time.  TikTok time. I do love the herb time as well. I do too. So good. Anyways, I made beans the other night. Delicious. Just beans? It was like beans and then I made, I had a little sourdough toast and there was kale in there.  that sounds so good.

Yeah, I might go get some sourdough after this. That's such a girl dinner thing. Yes,  and it was a brothy bean.  This is more like a white bean in like a broth with a fat cap on top.

Oh, you are down to business. Yeah, speaking of cooking, Mark Bittman  he wrote an article, and it was talking about why don't we talk about the food of the candidates and their favorite foods and what they eat and what they like.

And I thought that was a great idea. Kamala,  What do you like to eat?  We gotta get Kamala on Hot Ones. Oh, abso Could you imagine how good she'd be? I think she wouldn't fuckin sweat at all. I don't think she'd flinch.  That'd be so good. Oh, no. I also, I do want to see Trump on Hot Ones.

 I do, too. Oh, I think he'd shit his pants.  Instantly. Into his diaper. So this is an article in the New York Times, it turns out Mark Bittman is a very, political chef.

The article was an opinion article on the New York Times. And It was talking about how food is the thing we have in common. So why don't we hear more about it from the candidates? And then you can also talk about it in a political way of how do we keep food healthy? How do we make sure that, like you were saying in Multnomah County that the, they sued the Northwest gas company.

Right. So it's like right now Trump is talking about making America healthy again. And the idea of getting out toxic chemicals from the environment, we're going to get them out of the food supply.  He wants the chemicals out of your bodies. What he said. 

 It makes me think of Amelia who does Chicken Shop Date. It makes me think of Sean Evans who does Hot Ones. Yes.  It's not the kind of food I imagine Mark Bittman is talking about, but it's great food content and makes the interaction and interview, pardon the pun, more palatable.

 That's very good. Thank you. Yeah.  They are talking about food in a very political way right now, right? Kamala Harris is talking about the price of groceries a lot and inflation that way. You're like, correct.

Trump's talking about getting chemicals out of your body. Sure. I want to know about the things that we have in common more. 

It's one of the reasons that people love Tim Walz is because he was the one, Who started the lunch programs.

I don't understand the people who don't want to help. Yes. Oh, you're gonna raise my taxes so that kids can eat lunch at fucking school? Great. Sounds good. Yeah. Who's gonna pay for it? Me. Sign me up. Happily. Let's talk about universal free and healthy school meal programs.

Tell me where to sign. And that made him more endearing. Because he gives a shit about humans. There should not be hungry kids in our nations. They're also not going to learn school is a safe place. We saw that during the COVID pandemic. School is no longer a safe place in America, but.

I guess it's safe in the sense that it can be an escape from maybe a toxic house. Yeah. I don't know. It's a whole other debate. Now there's clear and absent. Oh yeah. We talked about that.  Do you have to love your job? Because we're certainly told we do. do what you love and you'll never work a day in your lifE.  that's tough  I don't have a regular job and you don't either.

We work for ourselves.  So I'm trying to think of the times that I've had a quote unquote regular job in which I received a T for what have you. I liked it fine.  I liked the jobs I've had. No, I never loved it, but I went into them going, I'm going to love this job. This job is going to be awesome.

And then. It loses its shine. I can say from my own experience that there's absolutely a benefit to having a psychological distance from my work. it was my entire identity  it's one of the first questions we ask each other.

So what do you do? maybe the idea that we should be passionate about our jobs is actually not great.

That it's okay to treat work as work. And you should go in, you should work, and then you should go do other things. Otherwise, maybe we're going to be disappointed forever. Or to what, like how many times have we heard stories anecdotally or personally where you hear someone retiring and then that year they pass away or, shortly after they have a massive heart attack and die and you think, oh, they worked their ass off until 65 or 70 for this golden retirement they were promised.

 That's not the way it's gonna work for our generation and certainly not the one after us. No,  if you want to buffer yourself from  Stress, burnout, anxiety, which is a lot of the time caused by work, like having some distance is maybe healthy.

Yeah. I don't know how to create that distance. I I remember asking people on the internets and saying like, how do you separate your identity from your work? And I remember the most popular response was get a hobby. And as a mother to two, I was like, that's funny. But it was the way I was raised.

 It is what I,  was taught to value.  Who are you is what you do.  What happens when you are that and you're not successful? Or you get injured, or you have burnout or, or, or.

 How do you create the psychological separation between work and the rest of your life? When you said get a hobby, that's funny, because now you're a mom, I think the same thing could be applied where people will be defined by their role as a mom or a dad. Yeah. I have to do some work on it, but I don't want to just be defined as a mom.

No. And I love the people that, that's satisfying and fulfilling. I'm envious of that. I, it is not a hundred percent fulfilling for me. I need other shit. And it's also a, it's a generalization of saying like, you're a mom. Being a mom is not one thing. 

My friends who are parents are all different.  Very different styles of parenting, different techniques, different approaches. it is the thing that I think of them, where I'm like, Oh my, my friends, they're parents. Oh, they also do this. I think it's an easy way, too, to categorize someone.

We're humans. We like to do that. Yeah. To go, okay, this is what your job is. I figured you out a little bit. I enjoy trying very hard when I'm meeting someone new to not ask them what they do. It is so challenging. Or where are you from? That's one that I always go, so where are you from?

You do? Yeah. That's a weird question to ask. But I love telling people where I'm from because,  it's pretty special to say you're from PEI.  When you're meeting someone you go, so where, are you born and raised here?

I like that question maybe a bit more. What's another question you could ask that would be a better than what do you do? What do you do for fun? But then someone might go fun. Yeah. But that's okay. If they want to ask it that way. Yeah. I was like, what do you do for fun? Have you read any good books lately? Actually someone asked me that the other day and I was like, Oh, great question. Yes. Yeah. Thanks. Yeah, asking an open ended question, so something that doesn't have a yes or no answer, is always a great way to start a conversation. Women, I will ask about their clothes, their nails, their hair, like the physical,  maybe you're not supposed to, but I do want to know where that watch is from.

I I do want to know where you got that sweater. I do want to know where you buy your clothes. Yeah, so maybe it's the genuine question and not just the content of the question, right? It's the idea of being like what are you genuinely interested in this person? So spot on.  Are you actually interested in knowing anything about this person?

Yeah. And if you're not, go get another cheese and cracker. And stand in silence for 15 seconds. Oh. It's so awkward, but it's better than faking it. I love doing that because most people will start talking. And I'm the talker. I will fill the silence. So it's something I'm actually working on. That's why we have a podcast. 

I went over to my friend's house for dinner last night. had the moment that I love the most at dinner parties, which is when everyone's having little conversations and I just look around and I went, Oh,  that is my favorite. I love bringing people together, but I don't like being the center of attention.

Fuck you to everyone who's listening to this and is yeah, she does. No, I don't know. It makes me so uncomfortable. If you don't believe me, go look up the definition of an Aquarius.  You're doing it as a, as an act of kindness for others. You're getting the ball rolling. I'll, yeah. I'll help. And I wanna know everything about everybody's quandaries all the time.

Yeah. But I don't wanna be on the stage in the spotlight. I like to make sure, like the theater's running well,  I like that. Oh, you know what a fun question could be for icebreakers  calling it an icebreaker is your first mistake. You know what's good for bonding, human bonding Sounds like a workshop at work.

Corporate workshop you could always ask people. Do you consider yourself a lucky person? That's a yes, no question because I also don't want to be asked. What's your sign? Do people ask you that? Yes. Who? nobody has ever asked me.

I'll tell you. don't have to ask me. it's like vegans. You don't have to ask a vegan. If they're vegan, they'll tell you.=  that's a common thing is what do you do? Where are you from? What's your sign? People do not ask what your sign is. I've been asked.

Watch. Now that I've planted this seed, you're gonna, you're gonna have a response that's Oh, someone asked me that question.  I don't talk to people. That's why I have an online business. I talk to people on the internet. If you're listening to this podcast, start asking Emily what her sign is.

Speaking of, People kept asking questions after I said, do you want to ask more questions? Oh, yeah. Yeah, they did. Do you want to know what they want to ask you? Yeah. Kaitlyn. Kate. Hey. KittyKat.  Hey guys.  What advice would you give to young folks in The creative field, I would say careful because your hobby is going to become your career.  Be very careful because the thing you love, you're just going to start doing it.

And then all of a sudden you're going to be like, this is the thing I have to make money in, which is a weird thing. Because often when you get into the arts, into performing, it's because you love it. It's because you found a safe place in it because it excites you. It's an undeniable truth about who you are.

Then all of a sudden you have to make a career out of it. So it's very strange. So get used to that. I would say. Get training, take a class, make sure it's what you really want to do, try different things.  it's weird cause it's a new terrain now. It is new. And I think that's what they're implying how do you navigate it now?

When, the Hollywood reporters new a list is all internet personalities, not one of whom has taken an acting class.  How might you change the approach that you took? I think it's make your own thing.  If you want to talk money, sell a script collaborate with someone.

Collaboration seems like a thing. It just seems like no one out there is doing it solo. No, cause no one wants just one solo opinion. You want some range. Except for those that are banning books. I think about my friends who started off as writers in writer's rooms who are also great actors.

So they just got a gig in a writer's room and then they were able to understand how the script was written, how beats are made, how a season has its arc. And then from there they've made their own TV shows. I have friends who are on a TV show now and still pitching to networks every chance they can get.

 And there are people out there who want your content. They want your script. They want your ideas. You just have to find that person. So take meetings, like you said on LinkedIn, call yourself the CEO of a production company. Don't fucking do that. Don't do that. Start your own production call it whatever you want and then start taking meetings.

Go to film festivals and say that you're an actor. The unions have great resources too. Join panels. find people who want to make things. Find someone who has a camera, find someone who has the want to edit or to write. Yeah. 'cause Issa Rae, am I thinking of the right person? Like she made a fucking YouTube series. Yeah. That was her start. Yeah.  That's really cool. But I do feel like that's what you have to do now.  And I don't think it should just be on Instagram or TikTok. I don't think that has longevity.

No. You should own your platform. Yeah. And if you are looking to do this as a career, then. take it as seriously as you want it. Make a short. Are you giving me advice right now? Yeah. I like the idea of just making something.

Start your own. Make shit. How do you think artificial intelligence is going to impact making something. I think it'll have a divide of what is clearly AI and then what is clearly human made. But how will we tell the difference?

Right now you can still tell the difference, but it's getting tricky. And people are fucking stupid. There is like a dog, there's a Belgian Malinois holding a child in this post hurricane propaganda and it like has fingers and people think it's real. People think there's a dog holding a baby with fingers in there.

Yeah. On Facebook. Yeah. I think the world is a big place. There's a lot going on. You never know what's happening. I think it's been inspiring, meeting you through Brianna and when we have our, Annual or semi annual get togethers. I feel like I'm eavesdropping on this conversation of actors and writers because it's a whole group of people that I've never met or hung out with before.

Oh yeah, I could see that.  I'd add to your advice of Weasel your way into these groups, not in a creepy way, but hang out with like minded people who are trying to solve some of the same stuff as you. It doesn't always have to be a mentor or someone who's been in the industry two decades longer than you.

Some of the greatest ideas are from people who are trying to navigate it the same way as you. My friend Genevieve is an incredible actor who also loves Yeah, I love her. She's so good. She loves ASMR.

 So she made her own ASMR channel on YouTube. has nothing to do with her acting career. It's just her doing ASMR because she loves it. She's good Still over 2, 000 subscribers because she loves it Oh my God, I'm obsessed. That's so fun.

I do think the multidisciplinary  piece is important. I'm seeing that now. Like we have this podcast. I'm like, okay, so I've got to go do this other podcast  I've got to do my newsletter and I've got to have this blog.

I'm also so overwhelmed and behind and I'm like getting all these notifications. I'm like, you're whatever is past due.  And these parents are like,  is your kid coming to this birthday party? Ah,  there's also too much on the go. Too much. Oh So I think there is something to be said for simplification and getting really good at one thing.

And what do you love to do? And then doing that? I love comedy. I love comedy. I love napping. Yeah.  So maybe you, maybe the next thing that you do is an event, a pillow that stays cool. Oh, I am sweaty. I had a shower last night and I was getting dressed this morning and I was like  overnight.

Yeah. Who knew? And you're like, what was I up to in my sleep that I was working up that kind of sweat? It was strange.  I really want to see a movie. What movie? I really want to see the Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield movie.

Yeah. Is it because you want to cry yourself? I just think they would be such a,  them together. I think it's going to be incredible. Oh, I think it's gonna be great. At the premiere they were giving out tissues. Really? Yeah. It's a beautiful, it's a love story, right?

But it's a love story told in a non chronological order. I can't. She's gonna die. I'm not gonna be able to do it. I assume she does. It's funny you say that  there's a Bustle article interviewing Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield for their new movie, We Live in Time.  They were talking about the urgency.

 And Florence Pugh talks about her character who initially does not want to have children in the film. So this is not a spoiler alert. This is just a fact about the plot. Her character initially is adamant. She doesn't want children and she struggles with balancing career and commitment to family.

 That's what I find interesting. She says in the article, all of the women we talk about it constantly. It being motherhood.  It's a conversation that all women have. What are they doing? How are they doing it? How are you going to get there? If you're driven and you want to own the world that you're working in, and you want to feel like you've made it and you're successful, the conversation of kids and when you're going to do it, and if you want it, it's always in the back of your mind.

And I thought that's so true. it would be so great if you just knew one way or another, perfect, I know I do, or I know I don't.  But wouldn't that  suck the fizz out of life? Yeah. And I thought, I was so comforted to hear that she is also having these conversations. And she's having this conversation, on an article with Bustle.

 I do love the next generation of women, artists and creators and actors or notable personalities talking about it. Charlie XCX on her most recent album on the brat album, there's a song called, I think about it all the time.

And that's The gist of it. Really let me read you some of the lyrics  I think about it all the time that I might run out of time, but I finally met my baby. And a baby might be mine. 'cause maybe one day I might, if I don't run out of time, would it give my life a new purpose?

I was walking around in Stockholm, seriously thinking about my future for the first time. It was ice cold playing demos on my iPhone. I went to my friend's place and I met their baby for the first time house Sublime. What a joy, oh my. Standing there, same old clothes she wore before, holding her child.

She's a radiant mother and he's a beautiful father. And now they both know these things that I don't. I think about it and it goes on like that, and it's her whole song is about her career. Should I stop my birth control? Because my career feels so small in the existential scheme of it all.

30 something very famous musician with a fucking massive album. Who's singing a song about it. I'm sure there are a million other songs about it in a much more poetic way, but you don't have to read through the lines here. No she's saying exactly how so many people feel. Yeah it's the idea of going, okay, so here's my life.

What do I like? What don't I like? And if I don't like things, how do I change them? Okay, a couple things there. Definitely yellow energy. You only live once. Are you living your life? Yeah. Are you living it? And I think I did not feel that way until I was put in a box and couldn't make my own decisions anymore.

Or didn't feel like I had as much control. Yeah. I'll just say I feel like I talk about my head injury all the time, so I'm like quite self conscious about bringing it up again on the podcast.  But it is a big thing in my life.

Just like my kids are a big thing, it's unfortunately a big thing in my life. I literally could not work. I cannot work the same way I used to, so it forced me to, recognize how precious health is, how important it is, and very YOLO energy. You want to go do the thing? Figure out how to go do the thing.

But I also do recall how consumed I was from pretty early, like 23, 24. Of must crush career ASAP so that I can have kids like there was the financial reality of having children that I think just like I was flummoxed about like, how do you incorporate a child into a big bustling career? How do you incorporate another person with a big job into that? And yeah, it's, it was consuming talked about all the time when People started to ask me for career advice. That was the question the women asked.

How? How? How do I do this? When's the right time? They're fucking smart. They don't need to understand how to do X, Y, Z in their job. They got it. They want to know how to incorporate all these things they want to do into a very full life. Yeah. And they look at you and they go, you did it.

How'd you do it? Which is wild because I don't feel like congrats to the women who are out there giving advice about it. But I really hesitate because I think it's different for everybody. I think you're doing a great job. That's because you have to say that. Nope. Because you have to see me again next Tuesday.

 for those of you who are like, okay, you say YOLO, you only live once, but how do you really do it? How do you remind yourself to stay present? I'd like to tell you about an app. You're gonna fucking recommend technology? It's called WeCroak. Okay, that's fair. 

Fine fine. It is an app that reminds you five times a day that you're gonna die.

  I don't really use many apps, but I think I would love that one. If I just, everyone's all got a ding that just said, you're gonna die, and I went, oh yeah, that's straight.  Yep, that's right, I am.

Okay, in that case, sit up straight. But that's why I feel like, my boob just hit the microphone, they're so big. That's the only good thing about gaining weight, I'm in my very thick era, and they're great. Oh yeah, why do you think I'm wearing no pants? 

I'm wearing enormous pants. Yeah, I love it  there are no rules, do whatever you want.

Just pay rent. I think that's the other thing is it's so economically challenging to do that. Obviously when I say YOLO, of course I want to go on a permanent vacation. That would be great. Yeah. Everyone's in fucking Greece. I've never been. It feels like everyone's in Greece. I did. I did get to go to Greece.

You did go to Greece.  There were people who, post university went and did their year long YOLO trip. Guess who didn't even go, I didn't even go to my convocation because I went to work. Right away. Right away. Fun. No. I'm kidding. I love work.

It's been a very complicated relationship with work because I love it and I want to do it all the time and now I can't  I have to, think about that differently.   It was my birthday a few weeks ago, and I remember thinking, what do I want for my birthday? And what I wanted was a day that made me happy.

And so I thought to myself, if I had the perfect day, if I could do anything, what would I do? Oh, what would it be? So I wanted to be in nature.  I wanted to put my feet, I wanted to be near water. That was a big thing. I wanted to have a pasta extravaganza, which basically just means eating everything.

As much pasta as I want noodles. Yep. I wanted to take myself out for an hour of just reading with a gin martini. And there were some of the things I wanted. I was like, Oh, it'd be great to get a massage. It would be awesome to get a manicure. Oh, I'd love to like be on the couch and watch a show and be cozy.

and then I realized I had this list of things I wanted to do. And I said what's realistic? So I went for a hike. I brought my book to a bar and had a gin martini and then I went and had a pasta extravaganza. Lovely. And it was great. On that day, I was like, that wasn't so hard.

I could do this more often. No, didn't. Getting out of a routine is very hard. Yeah, but it was okay to do it for that one day because it felt like a special day. But in reality, I can go back to that list any time and go You can go for a walk and look at the leaves. Yes. 

For free. 

It's, we talked a little bit about the dopamine menu a couple episodes ago.

Yeah. When Brianna was on. And I think that's a really important thing to get you out of a funk too. Yeah. And don't have it on your phone. Maybe you can just have a list on your fridge of your dopamine menu.  When in doubt, just go to that list and go, you know what? I can do that right now.

When in doubt, if you're spiraling, put your phone down. Oh yeah. That's, I think, a great first step. I have a question. I would love to not have my phone in my room when I sleep. Yeah. But I want an alarm clock. Get an alarm clock. But I don't want an alarm clock that's, because I feel alarm clocks have terrible noises now.

What noise would you like? I would like it to be something calming to wake up. I remember being a teenager and I was waking up to like mix 96, today's best music. Yes, that's what I used to wake up to. Yeah, you would wake up to the radio and sometimes it was a really good song and you'd be like, oh yeah, today's gonna rock.

So I am a no device in the bedroom person except for vibrator, battery operated. I got the Philips wake up light. So it's a colored sunrise simulation. I'll link to it in the show notes.  A huge fan.

Really? Yes. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And it has a few different noises. to wake you up and minor birds. I like birds. That's what it sounds like. was host sitting for these people, God, 20 years ago.

And I remember they had this alarm clock that was, Actually, a wooden box with chimes on it, like actual, it wasn't the sound of chimes, it was actual vibrations and chimes and I thought,  this is perfect, but I've never seen it since. I like it because  I have very sensitive ears and so abrupt alarms just send me, I don't need a big cortisol spike And the birds, I'm a little bit aware anyway because the light has slowly waken me up.

Yeah. I could have no sound and the light would wake me up. Really? Yeah. But sometimes I do wear this eye mask. So I always have the birds on this one. Yeah,

I

think I would like that.

There you go. I just sent you the link and I'll link to it in the show notes. Highly recommend 10. There's a bunch of different ones. I have the Phillips one. I purchased it. Oh, it's so funny. You last purchased 24th, 2018. Hey, you're right. Six years ago. Do you know why? That was just over a month after my brain injury.

And I was so sensitive still, and I still am, to the alarm sounds. I couldn't listen to it. That's why I purchased it. I get that.   📍 If you're looking for a softer part of your life. Yes, please. Hot tip. Phillips. Smart sleep.   📍   All right, friends. We are done.

 That's it. That's all. We are done here. Please click subscribe or follow or whatever the little button says so that you don't miss the weekly episode. We'd love it if you'd rate and review the podcast so that other people like you can find the  📍 podcast more easily. Better yet, if you know another busy woman, send this to her. 

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