Downers

#169 – Quarantine houses! We've all seen the memes, now we get to hear the episode. First, we take a quarantine house quiz. Then we make our own! Yes, that's right, the content practically generates itself.   Plugs this week: Samosas from Nuts.com (Jack) Baking banana bread (Kate) The episode number; nice (Hao)   https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co

#168 – Part of working with other humans is conflict. It's natural! How do YOU deal with conflict? In this episode, Jack and Hao take a quiz that Kate had to take at work. We find out how often, and to what degree, we use aggression, avoidance, and compromise to resolve conflicts at work.   Also, Mike Posner walked across America! Jack might walk across America, too?   Plugs this week: Dual-ended Tombow calligraphy pen (Kate) Walking (Jack) Blisters (Hao)

#167 – WHAT IF YOU HAD TWO BODIES INSTEAD OF ONE   Plugs this week: Air purifier (Kate) The new Pringles man (Jack) Sombra, the Overwatch character (Hao)   downersradio@gmail.com /r/downersradio @downersradio

#166 – This is sort of a grab bag episode. First, we take a trip through the notes Kate took in her production notebook! Second, we do a Liquids Draft: Which liquids would you have on YOUR team? #LiquidsDraft Third, a coronavirus update. #StaringIntoTheVoid #LifeIsOffTheRails   Plugs this week: Aloe for burns on your décolletage (Kate) Overwatch League (Jack) Squat jumps (Hao)   Downers Makes Your Thighs Feel Alive™   downersradio@gmail.com /r/downersradio @downersradio

#165 – Hao read Sharon Lerner's fantastic 2019 expose about the plastic industry's national push to make single-use plastic readily available to consumers, through municipal legislation and false-flag recycling PSAs, and he decided to himself: This would make a fantastic Downers episode. This hour, we talk about ways we think about plastic and they reconcile with the reality. From the commercial viability of recycling to the little number that gets stamped on the bottom of bottles, very little about plastic is what it seems on the surface. Let's. Fix. Plastic. By reducing on dependency on it, or by making content about it!!   Plugs this week: South Korea's TV drama ITAEWON CLASS (Jack) Brian Michael Firkus' drag personal TRIXIE MATTEL (Kate) Music (Hao)   downersradio@gmail.com – /r/downersradio – @downersradio

#164 – The pandemic is on our minds again, as I'm sure it's on you. We wanted to devote the hour this week to talking about fun ways the pandemic might end. Meteor strike? A custom-made astronaut suit for everybody? Plus: the death of content! What are we going to do without television and movies? Is this the rise of Twitch??   Plugs this week: The Expanse (Jack) Banana bread (Kate) Getting older (Hao)   downersradio@gmail.com – /r/downersradio – @downersradio   p.s. there's a high-frequency buzz on kate's audio track this week. we apologize!

#163 – This week, we read and react to Jeff Foster's poem "THE LIE OF HAPPINESS," which encourages us to engage in the full range of emotions that life has to offer, maybe. Plus: Jack's on a new microphone, and he's doing a lot of hand gestures. We also play a new game: Which emotion would you let take the wheel, at different parts of your life?   Plugs this week: Two perfect donuts (Kate) Jack's actual "What's Up" (Hao) Jack's actual "What's Up" (Jack)   downersradio@gmail.com – /r/downersradio – @downersradio

#162 – Some people are just plain happier, on a day to day basis. What's that all about? How can we quantify happiness? Is the pursuit of happiness futile? Only a special after-dark episode of Downers can answer, or guess at, these questions.   Plugs this week: This episode (Hao) Talking to your friends (Kate) Looking at the moon (Jack)   downersradio@gmail.com • /r/downersradio • @downersradio on twitter   (p.s. jack's audio is bad in this episode and the previous episode because we need to replace a hard-to-find component)

#161 – Two episodes ago we watched a video of a real animal crossing, and now it's time to talk about Nintendo's Animal Crossing (New Horizons). Yes, this family-friendly Japanese-made video game is is out, and Jack and Kate have been playing it, while Hao has been watching speedruns of it on YouTube. While relaxing, the game appears to have an interesting ideological philosophy about consumerism and capitalism underpinning it. Or maybe we're just insane???   Plugs this week: Doing laundry (Jack) Clean sheets tonight (Kate) Raisins (Jack)   downersradio@gmail.com • /r/downersradio • @downersradio on twitter   (p.s. jack's audio is messed up this episode and the next episode because we need to replace a hard-to-find component)

#160 – Neighbors! We all have them, and now they matter more than ever. In this hour, we talk about the neighbors we have had and the neighbors we have currently. We rank our neighbors on a scale from one to five. The numbers may astound you! That's just the kind of content we have on Downers: astounding content.   Plugs this week: Bouncing light to your face with a white sheet of paper on your desk (Hao) Computer keyboards (Kate)     downersradio@gmail.com • /r/downersradio • @downersradio on twitter

#159 – The Downers crew are at it again! This time, they're watching the seminal YouTube video "Pennsylvania man captures all walks of life crossing log bridge" over and over again, giving their commentary. While watching a time lapse of wildlife crossing a log on a river may not seem riveting to you, it's actually Essential Downers Content™ for us. You can watch along with them here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyrbqiCokdw It's important to engage with independent cinema!   Plugs this week: The bee I saw today (Hao) Playing games with your friends, especially codenames.plus (Kate) Animal Crossing online (Jack)   downersradio@gmail.com /r/downersradio @downersradio on the twitttttersphere

#158 – In these trying times, we turn to podcasting for audio comfort. For example, what do you do when you are stuck indoors? Well, cut this piece of audio out and stick it in your wallet, because Jack and Kate have some answers for you. Pocket candy to distract children! Cross-stitching! Coin sorting! Pomodoro Technique! All that, and more... on Downers!   Plugs this week: Doing a podcast with your friends (Kate) A sweatshirt that's really comfy (Jack)   downersradio@gmail.com • /r/downersradio • @downersradio on the twittersphere

#157 – Jack and Hao walk you, yes that's right you, through a wide variety of personal-finance topics: traditional 401(k)s, Roth 401(k)s, when to start an IRA, tax diversification, index funds with ESG (environmental, social, governance) criteria, and the power of consumer-side actions. Can any consumption be ethical? Can any investment by ethical?! We discuss!   Plugs this week: Eggplant (Jack) Garth Greenwell's "THE FROG KING" (Hao)   downersradio@gmail.com /r/dowersradio @downersradio sorry this episode took so long to upload, i had to upgrade my hackintosh, also there's a pandemic happening

#156 – With quarantines going into effect, and panic buying of hand sanitizer and toilet paper, globally, we thought it'd be no better time than now to break our rule on talking about current events to talk about the CORONAVIRUS. Kate's on-the-ground situation in Hong Kong in the past three months portends what might happen in the United States. Jack and Hao relate what's been happening in California and New York. We also do a brief discussion of adult chores, and how they make you late to work in the morning. (Case in point: writing this paragraph of copy.) Plugs this week: Cord management (Hao) Going for a walk, if you can (Jack) Enter a work-focused zone when working from home (Kate) downersradio@gmail.com /r/downersradio @downersradio

#155 – Kate went on a chartered boat trip, with plenty of swimming and warm water filled with leaf decomposition! Then, we talk about Sarah Miller's essay about dieting and body positivity in the New York Times. As we get older, we enter into a more complicated conversation with our bodies. We attempt to tackle the issue on this week's DOWNERS. Also, we're not sure why last week's episode didn't show up on iTunes and Spotify. We're going to publish this episode and see what happens. Maybe it will fix everything! UPDATE: It was an XML validation error because I used smart quotes. Great.   Plugs this week:   N. K. Jemisin's THE FIFTH SEASON, and Netflix's SEX EDUCATION (Kate) Hand sanitizer (Jack) Making a salad at work (Hao)

#154 – This week, we tackle something we've talked about before, but for an ENTIRE episode. It's this: the inherent tension between (1) being ambitious and (2) not wanting. What does it mean to chart a path through life that is both free from material wants and suffering and simultaneously filled with goals and accomlishments? We. Find. Out. On an episode that was very late to the feed because Yours Truly had what can only be described as A DIFFICULT WEEK.   Plugs this week: Netflix's THE WITCHER (Jack) Karen's Candles (Kate) Being yourself? (Hao)   downersradio@gmail.com • /r/downersradio • @downersradio

#153 – Asia! It's got so many countries, and, every now and then, Downers will bring you an exciting guest from one of them, and this is one of those times. In this episode, we interview Molly. Here are some facts about Molly and her interesting life: she is living in Phnom Penh, Cambodia for exactly one year, she is studying foreign direct investment, she's also studying legal and social integration of investment projects on top of the first thing she's studying, and she has much to say about the Korean food in Cambodia, some of which is North Korean. So, there are a lot of reasons to listen to episode already, and why don't you hit that big play button already?   Plugs this week: Netflix's THE CIRCLE (Kate) Not wearing shoes in one's home (Molly) Repairing things before they get broken (Jack) Thomas Pierce's THE REAL ALAN GASS, Adam Johnson's NIRVANA (Hao)   downersradio@gmail.com /r/downersradio @downersradio

#152 – Jack and Hao tackle the most pressing issues of the day while Kate is on sick leave: Where, in his Brooklyn apartment, should Hao store the twelve toilet paper rolls? And what would OUR version of Little Italy look like... you know, without all the PROBLEMS the current one has? All this, and more, on Downers!   Plugs this week: https://gist.github.com/IanColdwater/88b3341a7c4c0cf71c73ac56f9bd36ec (Hao) Don't do anything (Jack)   downersradio@gmail.com • /r/downersradio • @downersradio

#151 – From a Seattle bathroom, Hao calls in to discuss the sadness of flying in these United States of America. Then, in act two, we role play as two samurais trying to enter a spa. These are TWO, UNIFIED ideas that make up a CONSISTENT episode.   Plugs: Ted Chiang's EXHALATION (Hao), a collection of short stories Awesome Games Done Quick (Jack) Going to a yoga class (Kate)   downersradio@gmail.com • /r/downersradio • @downersradio

#150 – Kate has a new job! And then we get into the sadness of other people via /r/relationships. What happens when a loving husband brings home a puppy by surprise? We find out! We read! We offer advice! It's VERY podcast. This episode was very late because I upgraded to Catalina at work and it broke Logic.   Plugs: Vernon Vinge's A FIRE UPON THE DEEP (Jack) 3M Command Hooks (Hao) Netflix's THE WITCHER (KATE)   /r/downersradio • @downersradio • downersradio@gmail.com