Heat Wave of Activity

Summer of podcasts, milestones, and sparks of happiness

Susan in Summer

Before we begin I have the best reminder–my podcast Choice Words has re-launched for Season Two!!! Get it wherever you listen to podcasts! 

And this is new: if you love visuals, and you want to see what precisely one wall of my apartment looks like–consider watching me interview people on YouTube! 

We are going to be dropping episodes across multiple platforms for season 2 and I think that is fun, even though it requires me to “brush my hair” and sport a selection of “Nancy Reagan style blouses” as I like to do. Look, I love a collared top, don’t judge me.

Ready to record.

Episode 2 drops today featuring TAYLOR TOMLINSON, FEMALE HUMAN LATE NIGHT SHOW HOST!!!!!!! One at a time, ladies. We can only have one host on tv at a time, nobody get your panties in a twist.

Look, Taylor is an incredible comic, a fantastic person, and a great guest. I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation, and I am genuinely in her corner at all times. My family is very jealous of me, because they have watched and adored her specials, but I did not allow them to shadow our interview because I am a cruel taskmaster who likes to keep things on a schedule.

Mommy has a schedule.

Last week’s guest was the hilarious Nick Kroll, whom I originally met years and years ago at an audition for a now defunct brand of soda. This soda was almost certainly created in the kind of science lab where they conjure many cruel jokes for us to ingest. I thought it was called “Gushers,” (gross) but in fact it was, as we discovered, Sierra Mist–such a wonderfully vague name for a drink flavored mainly by PFAS and a hint o’ lime.

IN ADDITION to all of these wonders, may I direct your attention to the inaugural podcast of your friend and mine, Miss Allana Harkin–who I am SURE you watched and loved ten thousand times on Full Frontal. Her podcast is called “How Dare You” and I am pleased to tell you that I am her first guest! Allana and I were comedy babies together, honing our craft on the vomit soaked comedy stages of late 90’s Toronto, and putting together the building blocks of a career one brick at a time. I recall laughing non-stop as we recorded, so please give a listen and a follow! Warning: this podcast episode was made with LOVE.

This week is quite something. Two grads, two proms, a heatwave with no air conditioning, a sixteenth birthday party, a large scale sleepover, and a sick spouse? Oops we are also hosting a grad pool party. Is this one of those last pushes that’s supposed to make you think “WOW I’m glad that’s over” instead of just “look how old I am getting, everyone is growing up”? Both things are true, all of it is both true and not true, because I LOVE watching my children grow up into wonderful people, and I also want them to be babies, and for our problems to be simple, and for us to all stay young forever.

In any case, it’s all happening, and though I am nailing none of it; I’m doing medium well overall. My biggest triumph is that I am making the chocolate cake from The Bear for the birthday boy, because we watched and adored that show, and it feels special. It feels special because it is taking me three days to make. I can’t really cook in this hot ass kitchen, so I am doing it in mini stages at 5 o’clock in the morning, because luckily, I am a morning person and an absolute maniac. 

In fact, in every other way, I have simply stopped cooking. It happens every June. I am tired of everything I make, and I am hot, and I am out of ideas. No one receives nutrients this week, unless 30 second quesadillas contain nutrients which, I don’t really think so.

I will post a photo when my cake is done. I expect it to be ugly, and large, unlike on the show. I had to clear out a full shelf in my fridge to prepare, and I have already eaten a large scoop of the chocolate mousse filling sshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh….

Without air conditioning, the chocolate just melts itself,

Here are the things that are otherwise keeping me spiritually afloat this week:

1. I am rewatching Six Feet Under and have re-fallen in love with the character of Ruth Fisher, the family matriarch. WOW, this show not only holds up, but hits completely differently, 20 years after its original airing. I’m actually slowing down the rewatch because I seem to recall sobbing uncontrollably for a couple of days after the last episode and I’m nervous about it. Ten stars. You owe it to yourself.

2. ANIMAL, a new podcast series by the New York Times. Hoo boy. I am really only consuming things that make me misty, I guess. SIERRA misty? No.

3. Has anyone else seen a Tesla Cybertruck in the wild? My daughter and I were driving the other day and all of a sudden one rounded the corner in the opposite lane and we both spontaneously burst into laughter. It looks like Wonder Woman’s robot dog come to life! It’s absurdity brings me instant joy.

Stay cool my friends!

Xoxo,

Sam