Downers

**IMPORTANT BUSINESS** We now have a VERY active subreddit at /r/downersradio **IMPORTANT BUSINESS CONDUCTED**   EPISODE 109 // In honor of our new subreddit, and the concept of spring, we devote the episode to relationship advice! Specifically, sad and funny relationship questions from the digital frontier we know as /r/relationships. Is it OK to barge into your sister-in-law's bedroom? Is it OK to time-shift your baby's milestones? We. Find. Out.   Plugs this week:   Wildflowers (Jack) Stainless steel dish-drying rack (Hao) Natural deodorant (Kate) downersradio@gmail.com • @downersradio on twitter • /r/downersradio on reddit

EPISODE 108 is here and it's kind of scary, no big deal, wait come back. It's about CHILDHOOD FEARS – the irrational bogeymen that plagued us as wee little ones. The ghosts that hid beneath beds and the darkness at the edges of the room. The way a tree tapped the window as the wind blows. The wet kiss of a banshee on your neck, which at first surprises you but then you like it.   Plugs this week:   The Eastern Parkway renovation (Hao) Say Good Night to Insomnia (Jack) How to Grill Everything (Kate)   downersradio@gmail.com // @downersradio on twitter

EPISODE 107 // We bring Ian back to talk WOODWORKING and to give an update on HAVING SIBLINGS (see our award-winning episode 3). What's happened in the intervening two years?? We find out.   The great expanse of life stretches before us and we must traverse it together.   Plugs this week:   Sustainable clothing (Hao) Rugs (Kate) John Mulaney (Jack) 2017’s doc TOO FUNNY TO FAIL (Ian)   @downersradio // downersradio@gmail.com

EPISODE 106 // How you read as a child can be very different from how you read as an adult. The quality of reading is different – the books you used to like no longer hold their charm, perhaps, or the act of reading like something you have to purposefully carve out time for. We talk about all this, and more! ON DOWNERS   Plugs this week: Documentary Now! (Hao) Sarah J. Maas's A COURT OF THORNS AND ROSES (Kate)   downersradio@gmail.com // @downersradio

EPISODE 105 // Kate's out and Jack's got some thoughts about ANIMAL CONSCIOUSNESS on the old brain. What is consciousness anyway? There's a slight echo for Jack's voice up until minute seven. SKIP PAST IT IF IT BOTHERS YOU. SORRY. Audio engineering is AN ART (?).   Plugs this week: Dolphins are people too (Jack) Putting salt on the sidewalk (Hao)   Our Twitter is @downersradio and hey that happens to be our Gmail too.

EPISODE 104 // Kate went to an onsen in (温泉) in Japan and she's here to talk about some of the SADNESS involved in these Japanese nude spas. We talk about childrearing! We talk about the vote for public advocate in NYC, which happened on Tuesday!   Plugs this week: 0.7mm gel pens (Hao) New York Times mini crosswords (Kate) Ceiling fans (Jack) @downersradio // downersradio@gmail.com

EPISODE 103 has an UNUSUAL structure. First we talk about the rise of binge-watched television, using Michael Schur's recent filmography as an example. THEN we talk about making music with the Teenage Engineering OP-Z workstation. Hao's audio was TOO LOUD this record. SORRY.   Plugs this week: Puddle skipping (Hao) Pineapple eating (Jack) Sims 4 Twitch streams, Dax Shepard's ARMCHAIR EXPERT podcast (Kate)   downersradio@gmail.com // @downersradio

EPISODE 102 is all about MEDITATION and VALENTINE'S DAY. Come with us as we dive into the Insight Timer App, the book THE MIND ILLUMINATED, and the very idea of Valentine's Day. We are observing but not labeling. We are fraught and obligatory and affectionate and ostentatious and knotted. These are the words I jotted down into my notes without any context for this week's episode.   Plugs this week: A warm day in winter (Hao) A nice massage (Kate) Kimchi (Jack)   downersradio@gmail.com // @downersradio

EPISODE 101 // UNRESOLVED MYSTERIES flicker at the edges of our lives. Whether it's UFOs, Bigfoot, or the glitter industry, they're waiting to be resolved and they can't. In this episode we devote the hour to talking about the inherent sadness in real-life stories that never conclude. AND we share some unresolved mysteries from our own lives.   Plugs this week:   Dipping your fingers in moisturizer (Hao) Hong Kong street markets (Kate) Multiplayer Final Fantasy (Jack)   @downersradio // downersradio@gmail.com

00:00 -- brief explanation that this is based on downers episode 99, no more stuff minute 1: debut new downers theme song; 17s long, play it a few times, play it at different speeds minute 3: nonsensical banter; nonsense time; tangents minute 4: rogue car on kate's mic, we'll discuss (nonsense time through minute 6) minute 6: bidding war, people say they have the same number. both have 4. then escalate both to 5, then... to 7. jack is at most a 6. kate bidding war against jack. hao will have a 9. #whatiseachnumber minute 7: what's ups...   minute 16: anti-describe what's about to happen, insinuating everyone is in the know minute 17: quick clip ; retrospective. we play fav 5 seconds from each episode we've done so far 99 episodes * 5 seconds = 495 seconds = 8 and a quarter minutes ; between 1s and 5s. maybe 3s. kate says 3. through minute22. minute 22: korean food segment; jap chae.   minute 26: mailbox segment begins; we didn't get mail from anyone and we're sad. we plea for more mail   minute 28: (we

EPISODE 99 is all about EPISODE 100, which comes out next week! This week we give you an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at how an episode comes together as we generate a minute-by-minute schedule for episode 100. This episode is a MUST LISTEN if you want to understand EPISODE ONE HUNDRED.   Plugs this week: SHERLOCK HOLMES: CONSULTING DETECTIVE (Jack, who is so tired he doesn't even know) Oat milk flat whites (Kate) The theory of differential forms (Hao) LACTAID™ milk (Jack)   downersradio@gmail.com // @downersradio // please rate us on itunes

EPISODE 98 is structured around a thesis: Everybody likes blogging, but Jack has problems with it. What kinds of problems? You'll Have to Tune In to Find Out.   We talk about RSS readers and the act of reading a blog, the reason some websites that might be blogs just don't feel like blogs, and the blogs we recommend to people. We talk about the act of blogging, which is more often than not writing for an unknown, silent, possibly zero audience.   Plugs this week: Ramen (Hao) TIDYING UP WITH MARIE KONDO (Kate) Awesome Games Done Quick (Jack)   @downersradio // please DO at us // downersradio@gmail.com

EPISODE 97 is here and it's about RESOLUTIONS. We go over the resolutions we made on last year's podcast and, hey you know what?, we make some more. We talk meditation and dot journaling; we talk media consoles. We do a weird quick dive into Elizabeth Anderson's 1999 paper "What is the Point of Equality?"   Plugs this week: Jeremy Graves and Matthew Immergut's THE MIND ILLUMINATED (Jack) Rachel Wilkerson Miller's DOT JOURNALING (Jack) https://falseknees.com (Hao)   downersradio@gmail.com // @downersradio

EPISODE 96 // If you live in a country and you listen to Downers, you’re probably wondering… why haven’t the hosts ever said hi to me??? We rectify that mistake in this episode! We have a list of 16 countries that listen to Downers and we’re going to say a special message to each one. Also we discuss changing the motto of the podcast so that Kate can get a job.   ~plugs: Barry Jenkin’s IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK (2018) Michelle Obama’s new memoir BECOMING   downersradio@gmail.com // @downersradio on the twittersphere

EPISODE 95 // Enough about Christmas, Enough about Hanukkah, I Want to Know More about BOXING DAY. What is Boxing Day? And what might an unboxing day look like? We find out on this episode! In addition we talk about the nature of servitude (and blogging); in addition addition, some special carolers drop by during the act break.   Plugs this week: Bathubs (Jack) Vince Guaraldi's A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS ALBUM // Christmas Party with Eddie G. (Kate) New York's very own Hong Kong Supermarket (Hao)   downersradio@gmail.com // tell us what your presents were, don't be shy // @downersradio

EPISODE 94 ("I think that's dystopia, a little") // We devote this episode to a popular mantra – I have enough, I do enough, I am enough. First taught to Kate and Hao in a yoga class, we now dissect this sentence together. We talk nihilism vs. pseudonihlism; we explore the process of breaking hard news to close friends via not one but TWO role plays; we talk sports medicine in Act I for some reason.   Plugs this week: Little Bao, a restaurant in Hong Kong (Kate) Kate's many quilts (Hao) Cash (Jack)   downersradio@libsyn.com // @downersradio

EPISODE 93 ("HE MADE IT SQUARE") // A lot of updates in Update Corner, and then we round out the 45 minutes with a discussion of learning and false learning. Specifically, Duolingo and how feeling like you're acquiring a language is so far from actual fluency; specifically also, how much we miss learning as an adult. Also, we learn the average color of the universe!   Plugs: A fancy balloon maker (Kate) Being true to yourself (Hao) "Homeless in San Diego: Real People, Real Stories," a podcast (Jack)   @downersradio // downersradio@gmail.com

EPISODE 92 // We have a special DECEMBER HOLIDAYS episode. Christmas and Hanukkah are on the docket. We talk Christmas traditions, how to deal with the crass commercialism of the winter holidays, and whether or not we are as a society shoehorning Hanukkah into a box it doesn’t really fit. All that… and a surprise!   Plugs this week:   New recording setup (Kate) MITSKI (Hao) Tripod lamps (Jack)   @downersradio // downersradio@gmail.com

EPISODE 91 // Should Kate have a child just so the child can hold our Hong Kong studio equipment at mouth level? This and other questions this week in a SPECIAL construction NOISE episode. But our main topic is BOXES WE LIVE IN: boxes we put ourselves into by accident or on purpose, and the sadness therein. The word “therein” can end any sentence you cannot think of an ending for therein.   Plugs this week:   EDUCATED: A MEMOIR by Tara Westover (Kate) FINAL FANTASY 14 SHADOWBRINGERS (Jack) The Brooklyn Bridge (Hao)   downersradio@gmail.com // @downersradio

EPISODE 90 // Well the holidays are upon us and it’s time once again for an UPSIDE DOWNERS. This week we go around and list things we are thankful for. This may SEEM like a thin concept for an episode but in FACT it’s a loose sequel to our early episode where we listed ONE HUNDRED HAPPY THINGS. Also we check in with Kate’s ongoing project where she slowly converts her nice apartment into a full sound studio.   Plugs this week:   Pokémon VAMANOS (Kate) Not going on Reddit (Jack) Optometry (Hao)   downersradio@gmail.com // @downersradio