Welcome to Gift Guide Podcast, the Sequel: Presents Requested. (Can you tell we’re a little slap-happy after recording these eps?) If you haven’t tuned in for part one, here’s the deal: We’ve got lots of ideas from small businesses, many owned by women and BIPOC, (and none from Amazon)—and we have thoughts on organizations to donate to in someone’s honor, too. Are you ready for all the thoughts? Great, let’s get into it. Oh, and if you just can’t get enough, our 2019 installments are here and here.

You have gift questions, and we have gift answers! Welcome to part one of our second-annual gift guide, where you’ll find so much cool stuff from small businesses (many run by women and BIPOC!), no Amazon links (but you do you), and thoughts on orgs to donate to, too. Part two is coming next week, and last year’s still-relevant installments are here and here. Now, hope you’re prepared for an outrageously long episode recap...

Here we are, asking the important questions, including “What’s it like to start a record label and run it for 20 years?” and “Who in their right mind decided to eat an artichoke for the first time?” Sam Valenti IV, behind the very compelling Ghostly International, has all the answers to our first query, and we don’t think we’ll ever really get to the heart (heh) of our second.

Is this the beginning of one very strange holiday season to cap off one very strange year? It’s starting to feel like it, and we have some ~initial thoughts~ on how to wrap your head around gifts and a whole bunch o’ thoughts from Vanessa Price—who co-wrote the wonderful book Big Macs and Burgundy—on pairing wine with the things your actually eat, including the last of the leftover Halloween candy and whatever Thanksgiving dinner looks like in 2020.

You can only comfort yourself with so many baked goods, it seems, but we’ve found a workaround: We’re putting them in our ears instead of our mouths. What a joy it was to sit down with Lani Halliday, who is making the best inclusive pastries around and unveiled her first physical outpost of Brutus Bakeshop during the pandemic. Yes: She’s very bold, and we’re very obsessed.

Yeah, so, it’s gonna be a real week, and if you’re interested in escaping the tweets, push alerts, and polling data for a few, we have some celeb gossip, book recs, and sweaters to cozy up to.

We love hot industry intel and gossip! Of all industries, really! And when it comes to the land of hyaluronic acid, celeb makeup lines, and derm backlash, no one gives it better than Jill Dunn and Carlene Higgins of the Breaking Beauty Podcast. But before we go deeeeeep down that rabbithole, we need to answer one pressing question: What looks will Cam be working for fall 2020?!

You know, it feels like we haven’t asked each other “So, how are you doing? Really?” in a bit, and we’re taking this podcast as an opportunity to do that. We get into pandemic socializing, news-consumption, and soup-making. Recommended pairing for this ep: a walk.

Our doctor visits are your doctor visits! Or something! Kidding aside-ish, we figured sharing our recent mammogram and colonoscopy experiences might make them at least a smidge less anxiety-inducing for you, and we’re very here for that. Join us on our healthcare journeys, won’t you?

HEY, we’re back from hiatus! And like everyone else, we’re stressing (spiraling?) about the election constantly. This week, we’re talking to Adair Ford Boroughs about what it’s like to actually be on the ticket—she’s the very impressive and overqualified Democratic candidate running for Congress in South Carolina’s Second District—and our big plans for election day (spoiler: bein’ poll workers).

Two things we love: 1) women’s bodies 2) problem-solving. So imagine our delight when we discovered that MoMA Design Store put together a whole freaking beautiful, educational, and useful pop-up around Design Innovations for Women. In partnership with the MoMA Design Store team, we sat down with Chay Costello and Alex Glazer, the buyers responsible for spearheading this initiative who, yes, also happen to be work wives. We talk menstruation, motherhood, menopause—and you bet your vulvas we asked what it’s like to discuss these topics at the office.

Yes, we like white walls and pale wood, but our eyes need some *excitement* these days, and we have a whole bunch of ways to give ‘em what they require (without going full Gigi Hadid maximalist). Also worth adding to your “Hues You Can Use” moodboard: just about everything in Kacey Musgraves’s merch shop.

When you are expressing gratitude these days, are you appropriately prayer-hand-emoji for video streaming (and, frankly, the streaming wars that are keeping us so deep in good content)? We’re taking this week’s ep as an opportunity to really lay our thanks on thick—for The Fight, I May Destroy You, Shrill, and Love on the Spectrum specifically. Light spoilers in some spots (and possibly too much excitement in others).

Big day, team! We’re catching up with our very favorite photographer, Jamie Beck, who moved to Provence, France, longer ago than we like to acknowledge and who has been creating all kinds of greatness recently—much of which you can even purchase for the first time. Friends, let’s dive in.

What is ambition anyway? And ambition toward what? Join us as we contemplate—and, frankly, give side-eye to—one of the driving forces of our lives.

However many months in, we’ve found our fitnessing-at-home rhythms (which, no, do not involve dance cardio). Also! We’ve landed on a way to keep our very clean hands moisturized: shea butter, specifically the stuff from Eu’Genia Shea, and we clearly needed to talk to the company’s founder Naa-Sakle Akuete for the inside scoop.

As two married gals getting older by the day, this ep feels like a real throwback. We’re talking babysitting and dating—the latter with Lindsey Metselaar, the savvy host of the We Met at Acme podcast who knows much more about the topic than we do at this point. Something we’re obviously NOT talking about: inviting the person you’re dating to the house you’re babysitting at without permission.

Oh, it’s just us, with a little to say about a whole lot of things! There’s some playlisting, some cookbooking, some sunblocking, some angsting—you’ll see when you dive in.

Um, aspirational friendship alert!! We’re bringing you THE Ann Friedman and Aminatou Sow, hosts of the podcast Call Your Girlfriend, brilliant minds behind Shine Theory, and authors of the book Big Friendship that all of your pals are going to be talking about on the group text. They’ve gotten practice writing—and talking—about the hard things in their relationship and working through conflict and, in doing so, are downright inspirational. But what’s new?

Slip on your comfiest shoes (ideally the ones that don’t go outdoors?) and get ready to curl up with a good book—or, rather, our enthusiastic endorsements of 26 novels by Black authors. YA and romance included, duh.