Don't Think Twice

This month, your faithful freelancers talk falsehoods: Amrita's most egregious white lies; candles that secretly smell like farts; Andrew's explainer on why suburbs are a massive Ponzi scheme; and our conclusion that sex apps are the only truthful way to meet non-liars online.

This month, Amrita and Andrew get back into a freelance work rhythm, avoid ancient knitting curses, get hooked on mnemonics, sweat (only) the small stuff, and take a deep dive on "nostalgia experiences" and their implication on artistic culture. We also research opossums, pull someone's legs out of the trash, and Andrew is initiated into his "daddy" phase by....his CVS clerk?

Having concluded our year of writerly uprootedness, 2022 finds us settling back home in Brooklyn. An exchange about art, taste, and value leads us to a surprising Ruling Principle of Style, and approaching Andrew's first-time drawing class with a beginner's mind leads to a valuable reminder about curbing self-criticism in all our work. In between these revelations, it's: winter survival strategies, live opera during omicron, Jesus's astrology, a spam email treasure, and subway chance encounters.

Recorded on our final day in New Orleans, we opine on crucial topics: garbage strikes, fecal transplants, gimp masks on company calls, Andrew's crooked face, breaking bad habits, why Presidents make terrible dinner guests, our scathing indictments on the state of modern musical theatre, and more. We speculate about our move back to Brooklyn....more on how that turned out, next time.

Taking refuge from Ida's wrath, we talk New Orleans evacuation, gator attacks, the importance of resource-sharing, and how to ask for help getting a manager. We get comfortable having no life plans, decide whether we ought to feel bad for CEOs right now, and ponder death (and Tulsa). 

This is the beach-read of podcast episodes: Andrew nervously dabbles in nude sleeping, we go on a New Orleans ghost tour (and maybe became witches??), Amrita's body is a highly evolved machine for anxiety and digesting spoiled dairy, we take a magical trip to a suburban mall, and we consider the plus sides of discomfort in our re-emerging work life. 

This month, we enter the affordable housing lottery (a program all creatives should know about!); admit our worst job rejections; dispense dubious advice for applying to "day jobs"; and deliver some harsh reviews for 90s sitcom pilots. Oh, and find out Amrita's new favorite thing about white people!

Amrita and Andrew grill each other about the meaning of creativity, work, and artmaking at the brink of the world reopening. How has the pandie changed how our we define fulfillment? What does a return to "normal" entail for freelancers/creatives? How have our relationships changed: to writing, profit, routine, self-promotion...and to each other? We promise to be honest, confessional, and not to spend more than 3 minutes talking about cryptocurrency.

We update you on our forays into self-producing original short films, volunteering at New Orleans vaccination sites, Lent resolutions, principles of dominance and submission, neighborhood hoarders, and bayou tales. Stick with us to the end for evidence of our faux "theatrical" monologues, neither of which can hold a candle to the high-stakes drama of Amrita vs. the dead roach.

Amidst one of NOLA's strangest Carnival seasons, we hit bigtime pandemic fatigue with our writing, and decide to take artistic action! We also recap our Mardi Gras day, make the case for dictionaries, and discuss covid dating, sleep sweat, and Andrew's wish for a prescription-strength lifehack. 

Peripatetic, poetic, and chic, your beloved untethered freelancers have landed in New Orleans for the winter - to script, pitch, and seek adventure. We talk all about our first impressions of NOLA culture; plus: murderous rental cars, roller-skate trends, and how on earth do we approach goalsetting for the strange year we're in, after the strange year we survived?

We wrapped up 2020 living inside a Hallmark Christmas movie, with 2 months of misty ideation in Cape Cod. Don cozy socks and sip bourbon with us as we chew on: our befuddlement with the suburbs, our essential creature comforts for itinerant living, the ebbs and flows of creative work during the pandemic, and the evergreen cultural excellence of The Real World and MTV Spring Break (!). Plus, find out where we're off to write next.

We are officially 2020 pandemic nomads! In this heartfelt, tipsy, political dispatch from Detroit, we dive into rust-belt renewal, being full-time writers, future relationships, sex, the inevitable death of capitalism, and a dash of thicc thigh appreciation. The freelance life has never been freer and weirder. 

We took a midsummer writers retreat to the hills of North Carolina, where we made some big decisions about our writing careers, professional lives, contemplated big life changes, and a decision we never thought possible: taking a break from NYC. (the horror!). We take you through all of this, plus some bizarre odds and ends as we struggle to design a flag for our (hypothetical) vacation home, and let you in on a million dollar mailbox idea.

Our June interview is a must-listen for anyone --especially New Yorkers-- eager for police reform. From a budget standpoint, what does it actually MEAN to #defundthepolice? What are they spending all that money on, anyway? What does pragmatic change look like? Our darling friend and DC budget nerd Janani Ramachandran Yates takes us through her detailed analysis of the NYPD budget and it is FASCINATING, y'all. But first: we talk protests; we consider fleeing New York City (!); plus, all these fireworks inspire Andrew to take us down the country roads of his childhood memory.

Our May 2020 episode comes out in June, because it's quarantine and there are no rules (including calendars)! Things have gotten way awfuller in our city and world since we recorded this...but if you feel you'd like to spend a comforting hour chatting with friends, come sit with us. We grow increasingly intoxicated as we talk about: Amrita's choice to quit her job during a global pandemic, nihilism, foot peels, NPR, and flavored anesthesia. We get it if you're not feeling levity at this moment, though -- do what you need to do bbs; we'll always be here for you later.

In the second half of our April 2020 episode, we continue our conversation with our friend and artistic collaborator Veronica Viper. Our wine-fueled chatter plunges us deep into thought-provoking territories of burlesque, drag, misogyny, queer identity, and making art that speaks to our times. But first, Amrita and Andrew talk nude events, petty workplace politics, and catastrophes in and around your pants.  

We skipped releasing a March episode due to pandemic reasons... so we're bringing you TWO episodes in April. We are so excited to speak with our friend and creative collaborator Veronica Viper. She is a burlesque performer, a producer, a working artist, and an all around stand-up gal. We have a wide-ranging chat, covering art, identity, burlesque (of course!), and how New York just ain't what it used to be. But first, Amrita and Andrew discuss the benefits of tall boys, our apartment woes, and being hoarders...of secrets. Pour up that quarantine wine and settle in with us.

To be honest, sweeties, we bushwhack some thorny issues in our Feb '20 episode. We support and confront each other about seasonal depression, performance anxiety, improvisational skills, how to be present in a pitch meeting, and how to be better creative partners to one other. What are the roles we play -- to ourselves and to others? How can you tell if you've been "productive" when you no longer have a day job? And, what dirt does your Amazon search history reveal? Come hang! 

What don't we cover in our January installment? Eclipses, pyramid schemes, questionable electoral tactics, fro-yo closets, "Real-ID" nightmares, and what to do when people hate you at work. It's all here.