Downers

Episode #49 is dedicated to the practice of YOGA and MEDITATION and, possibly, other so-called "Eastern practices." All three of us are dabblers! But we've never talked for a whole hour about it. It's the first in a possibly infinite series we call MIXED BAGS. When something's good... AND bad. We're courageous to even talk about them. Plugs this week: quinoa balls (Jack), the works of Lizst (Hao) (but really he meant Ligeti), and Top Chef (Kate) and Hot Ones @downersradio // downersradio@gmail.com

EPISODE 48 is one day late but that's OK because it's chock full of good content, that most elusive all content. In this special episode Kate reports in from our San Diego West Coast Division. We pick Terrible Thing #11 and it's The Widening Political Divide in America. We talk empathy! We talk Zuckerberg! We talk mass transit! We talk about Chuck Schumer's relationship to his wife vis-a-vis the bike paths on Prospect Park West, a street near Hao.   Plugs this week: waking up to the smell of petrichor (Hao), hot tubs (Jack), BuzzFeeD's "Opportunity Costs" (Kate).   [ @downersradio // downersradio.libsyn.com ]

EPISODE 47 is all about SECESSION, but not before we first APOLOGIZE in a brand new errata segment. We also talk the New York Excelsior team in Overwatch League (Pine; dabbing) and review vegetarian options in New Orleans. This is all in the service of SECESSION -- times in our lives we have taken our marbles and gone home. Hao's voice is extremely phlegmy all episode. Plugs: not being sick after being sick (Hao), vegetable-active breakfast smoothies (Kate), “Here” by Alessia Cara (Jack). [ @downersradio // downersradio@gmail.com ]

EPISODE 46 is the second of our two Bradley episodes and it's a Q&A except it's FLIPPED because the asker becomes the answerer with every other question. We cover athlete's foot and foreign-language education and having a career and which roommates Bradley likes. Some questions turn out juicier than we expected. We play Categories with "Furniture."   Plugs this week: my Craigslist listing for my old monitor that I am selling for $150 (Hao), standing up when the rose-gold Apple Watch tells you to (Kate), Awesome Games Done Quick charity (Bradley), Dave Chappelle's New Years specials on Netflix (Jack), and BradleyDufour.com. Everybody leave two comments on Bradley's blog, OK?   [ @downersradio // downersradio@gmail.com // #settherecordstraight ]

EPISODE 45 // We are joined in the studio this week for the first episode of two with Bradley. You know him from Mailbox Corner and now you know him from this paragraph. Kate has a Follow-Up on resolutions vs. intentions, and we delve into Bradley's love language and whether you can truly love someone who isn't useful to you. Plus... a rousing round of Pie Facts.   Plugs this week: hot water bottles in bed (Kate), co-op game Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime (Bradley), texting on an iPad (Hao), watching Y Tu Mamá También sans parents (Jack).   ~*~ @downersradio ~*~ downersradio@gmail.com ~*~ send us your love language ~*~   correction: boysenberry is a real berry

EPISODE 44 is dedicated to New Years Resolutions, small and large, personal- and podcast-related, anti- and non-anti-. Happy New Years from Downers!   Hao's levels are too loud in the mix, and he apologizes. He should have figured out how to do levels by now but he hasn't. Don't... don't listen with earbuds I guess.   Plugs this week: future content (Hao), going to the Museum of Chinese in America (Kate), and Chinese names for roads (Jack). Also we debut a new segment in lieu of Final Words!   [@downersradio // downersradio@gmail.com // the new segment is decisive at best]

EPISODE 43 tells the rise and downfall of A.V. Club (and its sister website The Dissolve) as shakily narrated by Hao. SOME people are saying that this is Hao's Terrible Things #1 but Hao feels that's too close to our original segment's title.  He got Roger Ebert's death year wrong but mostly everything else is write not wrong. It's a LONGER story than you THINK it WOULD be. We also learn about what jackfruits are.   Plugs this week: Darn Tough wool socks (Kate); not wearing a top hat (Jack) -- what message are you really trying to say?; UCB Hell's Kitchen, a new theater (Hao).   SORRY THIS WAS POSTED LATE   [@downersradio // downersradio@gmail.com // send us your voice memos // #stickyheartidentificationprocess]

EPISODE 42 of Downers is all about winter holiday traditions! What if you picked up a snow globe and you were inside it? When did you figure out Santa Claus was a capitalist myth? How much risk of your house burning down are you willing to accept? What if we just threw a bunch of poems into a trash can? Pull up to the hearth and make a cup of cocoa -- it's podcast time baby.   Plugs this week: inthemoment.io (Kate), Final Fantasy XIV: Dad of Light (Jack), and Food Bank for NYC (Hao).   [@downersradio // downersradio@gmail.com // send us your voice memos]

EPISODE 41 is a real corker and it's about The Sims video game franchise. We promised we would talk about it and now here it is. Expansion packs! Aspirations, needs! Grinding your career for the career object! Hot Date! The Sims 1 vs. The Sims 4! Hao mis-remembering how why Will Wright made The Sims (his house was in a California wildfire and he had to rebuild it -- look it up)! An ad we wrote! Plugs this week: A Choy (Jack), poke bowls (Kate), and MoviePass (Hao). [@downersradio // downersradio.libsyn.com]

EPISODE 40 // We pick a terrible thing and it's cyberterrorism! Kate reveals to listeners her major in college! We do a follow-up on something we said previously! This truly is a mustn't-miss episode.   Plugs this week: "Atlanta" (Jack), the Library of America! (Hao), and Patagonia (Kate).   Reach us through the usual ways I uploaded this very late and now I'm off to bed.

EPISODE 39 is a doozy and it's here and it's also an episode. In this episode we invent a new segment, Top of the Morning to You, which is suspiciously similar to our previous segment, What's Up. Then we travel to the distant future to revisit our friends Oxy and Gilgamesh in our ongoing tabletop RPG game. We meet Joey Thunder the City Gardener and Sharing Marbles, mysterious ex-wife of Phantom King. Oh and the Phantom King is there too!!   [@downersradio on Twitter // downersradio@gmail.com // send us your pictures of robot oil containers #oilvagina]

EPISODE 38 is a weird one and it's about the theory of post-scarcity economy, when most goods can be produced so efficiently that most goods are cheap and freely available. It's not today but it might be tomorrow! This is "a future potential terrible maybe great thing," and that's straight from the horse's mouth... if Jack were a horse! Happy Thanksgiving!!   Plugs this week: sleeping on a foam mattress (Hao), buying winter clothing from labor-friendly companies like Everlane (Kate, even though she hasn't received her order yet), being a mom and working out with mom fitness videos on YouTube (Jack).   [ @downersradio // downersradio@gmail.com // #kateshands ]

EPISODE 37 // The Downers gang is back and they've got things to say and the things they say are going into your ears. This episode: Follow-Ups ("What Happens If China Makes First Contact?"), Korean Corner (How to Make Bibimbap), and The Sadness of Antibacterial Soap. It's a grab bag of an episode and it was definitely uploaded at the correct time. Plugs this week: municipal elections (Hao), Cook Serve Delicious 2 (Kate), DJ Qbert (Jack).   [@downersradio on Twitter // downersradio@gmail.com if you have a bibimbap recipe you like]

EPISODE 36 // A lot to cover this episode, which was recorded at night. We have a special never-before-done Follow-Ups: Updates Corner where we check in with Hao's two cubic feet of soil AND a Mailbox Corner from our friend Bradley. Then we plunge into the sadness of breakfasts.  Plugs this week: meeting a witch (Jack), the 2017 movie THE SQUARE (Hao), and Deb Perelman's Smitten Kitchen Every Day (Kate).   [ @downersradio // downersradio@gmail.com if you have your own breakfast sadness // downersradio.libsyn.com ]

EPISODE 35 // Bing bang boom. Bing bong bung. We discuss mental health off of the List of Terrible Things. Kate recounts her trip to Hong Kong: food, mass transit, mistranslations, and more. Plugs this week: Jeff Speck's Walkable City (Hao), Disney Tsum Tsum plushies (Kate), and coffee (Jack). [[ @downersradio // downersradio@gmail.com ]]

Episode 34 // Back, by popular demand (we assume), it's TEENAGE WRITINGS II. We have a romantic poem from Jack, a modern take on a fairy tale by Kate, and some weird violent nonsense by Hao. This episode got put up very late because I was trying to replace the power supply unit on my computer at 1 AM and I didn't finish until 4 AM. The audio should at the very least sound less compressed than usual.   Plugs this week! Ann Hui's 2017 "Our Time Will Come" (Hao), maybe you know if you're in California don't set off fireworks (Jack), the Ask Polly advice column on THE CUT (Kate).   [send your embarrassing teenage writing to downersradio@gmail.com // @downersradio // cluffffffx]

EPISODE 33 // We present and discuss a short mixtape of three songs we like: "Ebb and Flow" by Larry and His Flask, "Do You Realize" by The Flaming Lips, and "Pure Imagination" by Maroon 5. It's another one of our music episodes! Pull up a beanbag and let's spaaaaace oooooout god I gotta stop writing these episode descriptions at midnight. Plugs this week! The classic video game Tetris Attack (Jack), 2017's new movie "The Florida Project" (Kate), Robert Caro's "The Power Broker" (Hao, again??). [@downersradio on Twitter // downersradio.libsyn.com // downersradio@gmail.com // rate us on itunes why not whaddya got to lose]

EPISODE 32 // This week we tackle the list of unsolved problems in philosophy on Wikipedia by hazarding solutions and answers. The tangle of ethics, epistemology, logic, and language are unraveled by this meaty episode. There's an intricate veto system to speed things along. Also in Mail Corner we read Bradley's addendum to our STARK TREK (spelled the way it should be) episode THE INNER LIGHT.   Plugs this week: Nathan Fielder's TV show "Nathan for You" (Hao), 80s music like Tears for Fears or Erasure (Jack), and the board game Secret Hitler (Kate).   [@downersradio on Twitter // downersradio@gmail.com // cluffx]

EPISODE 31 // This week we talk about backup plans. We have covered similar ground previously when we talked about apocalypses (twice) but this time we tackle something more realistic: What if you woke up one day and couldn't be who you currently are any more? This premise was very unclear and we didn't do a great job getting on the same page and now you have to listen to the end result. You gotta keep making content!!!   Plugs this week: Night in the Woods (Jack), Tooth and Nail (Hao), and Overwatch (Kate).   [downersradio@gmail.com // @downersradio // cluffx]

EPISODE 30 // In this episode we convene another Book Club! This week: Kate presents Shel Silverstein's THE MISSING PIECE (1976), a children's picture book. Just how do we translate a picture book to the podcast medium? You will have to listen to find out. We then listen to Johnny Cash's "A Boy Named Sue" (1969), which was written by Shel Silverstein, in a special Songs of Sadness Corner.   Plugs this week: the new Citi Bike stations in Prospect Heights (Hao), Sideway Stories from Wayside High (Louis Sachar, 1978), a new "Ka Boom Boom" catchphrase (Jack), Gardening at the Dragon's Gate (Wendy Johnson, 2008), Night in the Woods (Kate).   [downersradio@gmail.com // @downersradio // email us if a short story about the D.C. bike-share bike that ended up in Montreal // bye now // don't be a stranger]