The Long and The Short Of It

Episode 109 - Favo(u)rite Things: Quarantine Edition

Transcript:

Pete: Hey, Jen.

Jen: Hello, Peter.

Pete: So, you know every now and then when you receive an email, or text message, or piece of feedback that is so generous that it kind of makes you pause in your tracks, stare out the window, and think, "Those are some nice, generous words."

Jen: I'm pleased to say that I do know that feeling, yes.

Pete: Well, we got one of these emails just this week from one of our listeners by the name of Renee Martin. And contained within this beautiful, generous, wonderful email (thank you, Renee), she had a prompt and a little nudge for us to revisit our favorite things, which I don't think we've done in like, almost over or probably more than a year.

Jen: Yeah, I think you're right. It has been a while. And I think this would be an interesting episode because we could make this really specific. How about favorite things, quarantine edition?

Pete: Deal. Deal, deal, deal. Could it be six months? Has it been six years? No one really knows. This is The Long and The Short Of It.

Jen: Alright. So I guess the first task is to identify the categories that we're going to be sharing favorites in.

Pete: Mm-hmm.

Jen: Should we nominate some categories here?

Pete: Yeah, so I feel like we always start with a favorite book. And I believe we could split that out. Last time, I think we did fiction and nonfiction. So how about favorite book...s?

Jen: Favorite book...s?

Pete: Yeah, because there's a fiction and a nonfiction.

Jen: Okay, special quarantine category...I would like to add favorite binge.

Pete: Okay, yep. Deal, deal deal. And then I think on that, I would like to add favorite documentary. Which is sort of similar to a binge, but it's a once-off.

Jen: Alright. Well, it feels appropriate to do favorite podcast episode, as this is a podcast.

Pete: Absolutely. And favorite question, I think is another one. We could do like favorite question of quarantine, could be interesting.

Jen: Yes. I'm sure a lot of new noodles have come up during this time. Okay, well, I'm putting this one in the mix, because I already know what my answer would be...favorite unnecessary purchase.

Pete: I mean, I've had so many. But, yes. Okay, let's include that. And then if we get time, because I know we have a lot of categories here, I think we've done in the past favorite video, and that always brings a smile to my face.

Jen: Mmm, yeah. There's actually some amazing videos that I've seen during this period. So, let's do that. Okay, so let's start with favorite book...s.

Pete: Favorite books. Okay. Favorite fiction book, for me, is Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens...or Delia Owens, I'm not sure how to pronounce it. I'm sure I'm butchering it. But oh my gosh, this book is good. So good. First time author, it's won all sorts of awards and sold millions and millions of copies. I'm sure many people are familiar with it. It's the kind of book that I like, I was worried when I started reading it because so many people had told me how good it was going to be. And I was like one hundred pages in and I'm like, "I don't know. Everyone says how amazing this is. And I'm just not quite..." And then the last one hundred and fifty-ish pages...oh my god, you just have to read this book. That's all I'm going to say. It is so good.

Jen: Ooh. I will definitely add that to my fiction list. Because wah-wah, I really did not read any fiction in the last seven months with only one exception, which I am happy to share, which is the series that my sister-in-law wrote.

Pete: Oh, nice.

Jen: Yes, her name is Christin Brecher. And she wrote a three-book series called The Nantucket Candlemaker Mysteries. And if you love a murder mystery set on a beautiful New England Island with some very charming characters, I say, "Give them a read." I enjoyed reading them on the beach this summer.

Pete: Count me in. Adding that to the list. Alright. And what about nonfiction? I feel like nonfiction book is so hard. How could you...? How could you possibly...?

Jen: Pete, this is so hard.

Pete: It's not fair.

Jen: It's so many books that I refuse to pick one, so I'm picking two. I'm breaking the rules.

Pete: Okay.

Jen: Okay. One of the books is called Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning by Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger III, and Mark A. McDaniel. And I think the origin story of how I got this book is sort of funny. We were hightailing it out of New York City on March 14th, and down in our laundry room in our building, there's like a "leave a book, take a book" situation. And the washer/dryer in my apartment broke, so I went down to the basement with my daughter to do a last load of laundry. And this book was sitting on the shelf, and she picked it up and was like, "This sounds like something you need to read, Mom." And it turns out, it was. I loved it so much. And I've implemented so many of the ideas in it. It's all about the science of how you, well, make it stick. How do you create stickiness with the things that you're teaching? And then, how do you help people who are on the learning end actually receive the information in a way that they'll remember it? So, that one is so helpful as a teacher. And then the other is called Stay Woke: A People's Guide To Making All Black Lives Matter, by Tehama Lopez Bunyasi and Candis Watts Smith. I had read this book before, but I reread it during quarantine. And it is a must read. It is full of very important and relevant information to this moment, and also incredibly full of history that has been left out of a lot of history books. So, uh, highly, highly recommend.

Pete: I love it. So I'm cheating a tiny bit, because I actually read this just before quarantine started. However, I've mentioned, I think, already in so many episodes before that my favorite book of 2020 was Stillness Is the Key by Ryan Holiday. It is a book that looks at historical figures, leaders, thinkers (people like Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, and Tich Nhat Hanh and a bunch of others), and looks for the themes in how they show up. And the theme that it focuses on, this book in particular, is around stillness. Is around being able to make decisions when the world around you is a little chaotic, and do so in a manner that is considerate, and calm, and mindful. And it took on more meaning because about three weeks after I read this book, we were all thrown into quarantine, you know, back in March. And then, the pandemic...we all know what happened from there, from March onwards. And so, it was almost like, "Oh, Pete, you read that book? You liked it? Okay, now put it into practice for six months." So that, yeah, that's been a bit of a journey. So I can't go past that. But there's just, to your point, there's so many books we could recommend. But I'm going to stick with that one.

Jen: I like it. Okay. Favorite binge.

Pete: I mean, I cannot possibly go past The Last Dance documentary series, which is all about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in the 80's and 90's. Oh my goodness, I feel like pretty much every human on the planet who has Netflix has probably seen this. So it might not be like, "Oh, I'll go check that out." It is so fascinating. So interesting. The footage is incredible. And the interviews, and the art of the story arc...like it's just so, so, so, so good. I don't watch that much TV (as you know, and I think the listeners know), and I watched The Last Dance documentary series...I think there were eight or ten episodes. I watched them in less than a week, which is...that's a big deal.

Jen: Mmm. Yeah, definitely is a big deal for you.

Pete: What about you?

Jen: Okay, Mine is...I only binge watch things with my daughter. And then occasionally, my husband and I will binge watch something. So Kate and I binge watched a show called Encore on Disney Plus, which is the most charming concept. They take people who did high school musicals together, and then they remount the show with the same cast many years later. In some cases forty years later, I think that was the longest, the longest time that had gone by. And first of all, there is something so magical about...having been a high school theater person, there's something very magical about those relationships. But then to watch these people come back together after all these years...they don't know much about each other's lives, at that point. They don't know what they've been through, and to see them immediately reconnect at this deeply human level with each other using the show, you know, whatever happens with the musical that they mount, it's like that's just the vessel that helps these souls connect. And it is absolutely beautiful. We loved it. But you need to be a subscriber of Disney Plus in order to watch it.

Pete: Yeah, I mean, it feels like a very Jen-friendly documentary series, that one, or series.

Jen: Alright. So, next up would be favorite podcast episode. Which...I'm happy to go first on this one this. I loved this episode of Michelle Obama's podcast. It is episode eight, where Michelle Obama is having a conversation with her mentees about mentorship.

Pete: Yes.

Jen: It is so rich. It is so full of truth-telling. I mean, these women lay it all on the table about their imposter syndrome, their fear of people's opinions, this idea that they weren't good enough, fear of failing, like they basically lay out the whole fear menu and talk about what it was like to be working in such a high-pressure environment with such important people, and feeling all those things at the same time. It's really brilliant.

Pete: Mmm. Yeah. Truly every...I feel like every episode of that podcast (which, the whole thing came out within quarantine) is so rich, but yeah. And the one before that was also a favorite of mine. I think it was a two-part series, the mentee/mentor one had a talk about mentorship from a mentee's perspective. I found that interesting.

Jen: Mm-hmm.

Pete: Okay, favorite podcast episode is almost as hard as favorite book. So, I'm just putting that out there. And so, I'm going with most memorable because, again, it's a slight cheat because it was, I think, three days before we officially went into lockdown in Melbourne, lockdown 1.0 back in March. I was driving to a camp site to go camping with a couple of friends for the weekend. And it was a little bit like, "Should you be going to camping? Should you not be going camping?" And then actually, the information I got from a doctor friend of mine was like, "Actually, camping is a pretty safe place to be, out in the wilderness, with just you. You know, you and a couple of friends, if you've all got your own tent, blah, blah, blah." Anyway. So as I was driving, I was having this moment of like, "This feels like it could be the last significant trip that I take for a while." I just, based on everything that was happening. And I was like, "Oh, what should I listen to to mark this moment?" And I was like, "Oh yeah, Brenee Brown's podcast came out this week." It started, like this was the first ever episode. And it was called FFT, Fucking First Time. (I think that's what it stands for. Or First Fucking Time, maybe? Anyway, there's a swear word in there.) And she talks so openly and so honestly, from her, I think her cupboard in her house, because she's like now going into lockdown. About, "This is the first time I've done an episode, and let's talk about first times and the whole thing." And so, it's just such a fascinating moment in time in my memory, because I remember what I was doing, I remember what she was talking about. And then I drove home after that weekend, and I was like, "Well, I feel like that might do me for the next six months." And as it turned out, I was right.

Jen: That's so funny. I listened to that episode, I think, the second day we were out of the city.

Pete: Yeah.

Jen: We were probably listening at about the same time, Pete.

Pete: Probably, no doubt. No doubt, no doubt. Okay. Did we skip over, or are we covering off favorite documentary?

Jen: Oh, let's do it.

Pete: Let's do it. What was your favorite documentary?

Jen: My Octopus Teacher.

Pete: Of course.

Jen: Which I watched with my husband and my daughter. And we were gobsmacked by it. It is such a beautiful film. It's so gorgeously shot.

Pete: Yeah, it is.

Jen: And the narrative is so compelling, and the character of the octopus...I was devastated by this film. And you better believe I won't be eating octopus again after this. It's such an exquisite representation of becoming so in-tune with what is going on around you, down to the most minute details. And really finding yourself in a world that feels mysterious, and allowing that mystery to sort of like lead you back to the heart of yourself. It's so beautiful.

Pete: Yeah, I mean, as someone who tries to swim in the ocean every day, I absolutely loved even just the first little ten minutes or so of that, where he talks about the healing powers of swimming in the cold ocean. I was like "Yes, yes, yes, yes." So I could, I could plus one that documentary. My favorite...it feels hard to call this a favorite because it's, it's like, it's quite confronting. It's quite recent. And it's by David Attenborough. It's called A Life On Our Planet. And it is David Attenborough's witness statement on the changing nature of our climate over the last...he's 93, I think. 92 or 93. And he's worked in, you know, the wilderness nature kind of space for, documentary space, for sixty-odd, seventy-odd years. And so, yeah, this documentary is like, "Here is my witness statement." And it's so confronting, so shocking, so heartbreaking. I was crying on the couch, watching this thing.

Jen: Oof.

Pete: Yeah. And then the last twenty minutes leaves you with a little bit of hope, because he's sort of like, "And here's how we can, you know, not save the planet. Here's how we can save ourselves. Because the planet will continue to exist, but it's the humans that might not." That's kind of the the premise. Yeah, it was slightly terrifying, but so important. I think everyone needs to watch it.

Jen: Well, would that be appropriate for my almost eleven-year-old?

Pete: Yeah. Yeah.

Jen: Awesome. Okay, maybe we'll watch that this weekend. Thanks for the recommendation.

Pete: That's okay. Okay, what was next? Favorite...?

Jen: Unnecessary purchase?

Pete: [laughter] Ah, yes. Well, well, well, well, let me just like pull out all my receipts. I have so many.

Jen: I know. It's, it's shocking.

Pete: It truly is.

Jen: It is shocking. I have one...actually, I'm going to answer this twice. Because I have one that is like, I don't even remember buying it. When I got back to the city and opened my cabinet, I was so dumbfounded by what I saw. Which was, I apparently bought twelve cartons of chicken stock, and another twelve cartons of almond milk. Like, I don't even remember buying that. But apparently I was in some sort of panic that we were going to like, I guess have to drink all of our nutrition? I don't know. So, that was shocking. But the favorite unnecessary purchase that has turned out to be a delight (I was telling you about this earlier), we bought an electric scooter so that we could get around New York City without having to go on public transportation. And I rode it today through Central Park with all the changing autumn leaves, and it felt so liberating. And I think it was probably our best purchase of quarantine.

Pete: I like it. Yeah, I feel like mine is unnecessary, but I'm sticking by it. It was a very...very much something that I'm now using every day. But I get that it's totally unnecessary. It's called a Japanese pouring kettle. And...

Jen: Okay.

Pete: And it's very much like a regular kettle, only it's got this beautiful spout that is intended to enable precise pouring, which is particularly useful when you're making pour-over coffee. So, it's like a specialist coffee brewing kettle. That was, I mean, incredibly unnecessary. I had a perfectly well-functioning kettle, as it were. But I found myself inspired to buy a Japanese pouring kettle, and I do not regret it for a second. I use it every single day.

Jen: Hey, you've gotten very good at making your pour-over. Okay, so, favorite new quarantine question. Do you have a favorite question that maybe you wouldn't have been able to even land on as a question, without the quarantine?

Pete: I don't know if this is new, but the context of it was so important. This question...which is actually a question someone asked me. So when we first went into lockdown quarantine around the globe, and we started to realize the severity of this global pandemic, I, you know, did a bunch of things. I'd like volunteer to be in these weekly crisis calls. I organized catch-ups with a bunch of my friends on Zoom. I like reached out to all the coaches that I have in my network and I'm like, "Let's all hang out." And so like, I did so...I just, I overstretched. And in one of these calls, I was actually sharing, like, "I don't feel like I'm doing enough. I don't feel like I'm being enough. I don't feel like I'm helping in any way." And I think that friend of mine could see that I was basically like on edge, a little bit on edge and I was driving myself crazy. And he asked me a really simple question, which is, "What if showing up is enough?"

Jen: Ooh. Woah.

Pete: And he went on to say, you know, "I see you, here, showing up for us. I see you showing up for your friends. I see you showing up in that crisis call. So like, what if that is enough?" And I feel like that's a question you might be able to land on outside of quarantine. But in that moment, it was exactly what I needed to hear, and has made me think in all sorts of different ways about: what does it mean to show up?

Jen: Mmm.

Pete: What about you?

Jen: I think it's really...I'm trying to phrase it as an affirmative question. But the the way it's coming up in my head is: what won't you miss? Or, what are you willfully leaving behind?

Pete: Mmm. Yeah.

Jen: You know, there are so many hardships that have come out of this time, of course. And also, so many opportunities to chart a new course forward. So, there are plenty of things I'm ready to leave behind. And just being able to ask that question of myself, and of others, and to recognize, like, there is a lot of weight and baggage that you have the chance right now to say, "That does not need to come forward with me into the future."

Pete: Mmm. Yes, yes, yes. Alright. Our final category, which always brings me so much joy...favorite video?

Jen: Okay, I love this video. It's sort of gone viral recently, so it's possible that people have already seen it. It's called The Keep Going On Song. And it is this beautiful, live performance from this couple, Abigail and Shaun Bengson. And they're creating the music, and...oh gosh, I don't know what the machine is called, where you record the music, and then you're able to play back immediately and sing along to yourself. So they are recording the song live, and then she is freestyling the lyric, and her husband is playing the guitar. And she is singing about what it's like to exist right now, in total ad-lib, free-form improv, but to the music. And it is so beautiful, and vulnerable, and honest. And I found myself walking down the street to go pick up my daughter from school and crying while I was listening to it, because it was so honest. What about you, Pete? What's your favorite quarantine video?

Pete: I mean, if you had asked me this question twenty-four hours ago, I probably would have said one of those beautiful videos that were coming out of Italy back in April, where they were in a really serious lockdown. And there was people singing out the window, and making harmonies, and I was like, "Ah." And then in the last twenty-four hours, a video resurfaced actually on your Facebook wall. Of you...

Jen: I know where this is going.

Pete: Yeah. Of you going to sit in a chair, and the chair just collapsing. And you falling everywhere, and arms and limbs flailing everywhere. And everyone's like, "Oh my god, are you okay?" And you're on the ground laughing. And I watched that in the last twenty-four hours, and I was crying. I was like, "This the best."

Jen: Oh my gosh, yes. Because I reshare it every year, on the anniversary. It pops up in my memories, and I reshare it because it brings people so much joy. And I will include it, actually with all of these resources in the Box O' Goodies, so everyone can witness the great chair fall. It is magical. And if you need a good laugh, oh, it'll give it to you every time.

Pete: Every single time. I've seen it before, and it still didn't fail but to make me laugh. So yes, I think you're right, let's include all of these resources, all of these links to the Box O' Goodies. It's going to be a giant Box.

Jen: The longest Box ever.

Pete: It's a very big Box. And so, if you don't get the Box O' Goodies, you can head over to our website, thelongandtheshortpodcast.com, and either subscribe or view the archive there. We're going to have all of this information up there. Otherwise, Jen, I've quite enjoyed doing this favorite things again.

Jen: Oh my gosh, me too. So thank you so much, Renee, for suggesting this. It's actually been a pretty wonderful trip down memory lane of the last seven months. Turns out, despite all of the horror of this era, there's also been a lot of opportunity to grow, and learn, and take in some really good content.

Pete: Mmm. And that is The Long and The Short Of It.