1- TWO podcasts to check out:
No Stupid Questions with Freakonomics host Steven Dubener + Grit author and psychologist Angela Duckworth. Love their discussions which often center around the intersection of economics and psychology.
Routine & Things with Ashley Brown. Short + sweet and dedicated to helping women in particular develop and refine routines that work for them. Love the concept!
2- Cleaning out your podcast queue:
I don’t mean moving subscriptions, but does anyone else all the sudden realize their phone has about 38728 episodes taking up both data and mental space in their podcast app? I do, but I think I will add “delete podcasts I’m not gonna realistically get to from app” to my Friday email cleansing rituals. Maybe it will even get an official Weekly Review spot!
3- Hey look, POTUS is on Instagram!!
I never followed a certain other someone on twitter (well, in part because I don’t use twitter ever!) but I happily added President Biden to my following list. I don’t necessarily need Insta to be where I get my news, but what has been posted so far has been so . . . reasonable and positive. So incredibly refreshing.
4- Next novel alert:
I have only heard good things about this one, so I’m excited to start.
5- WHAT A WEEK.
I didn’t even plan yesterday. (Though the idea of being ‘too busy to plan’ is usually very very wrong and counterproductive). I’ve been getting over G’s cold (yes, after COVID) and needing more sleep. Today was the first day in a while I have felt pretty normal and happy to go through my usual morning routine!
(Which is currently: Read a chapter of Becoming, 10 minute Headspace, plan out day in planner, write post, then work out — which I am about to head out to do, if anyone is curious.)
This is another Josh-call weekend (two in a row to make up for our COVID fiasco when he had to get coverage) and then I am on call from next Tuesday until the following Monday. I feel like 2021 is getting into high gear already but also feeling . . . some hope and optimism. A little bit, anyway. HAPPY FRIDAY.
15 Comments
I absolutely loved Transcendent Kingdom. Enjoy!!
Same–I found it really absorbing.
It is fantastic! I recommend Homegoing (her first novel) as well if you haven’t read it, although they’re somewhat different.
To solve the long podcast queue issue, I only subscribe to those I am always listening to all episodes (BoBw or Best Laid Plans – just as an example! ;-)). I have some others in my “library” (is it how it is called in the iPhone app? Sorry my settings are in French!) that I check when they release a new ep and I download it if interested (so it goes in the queue).
But the queue remains long these days! That’s the only thing making me miss my commute in this remote work time… I do try to pair my coffee breaks with podcast listening during the day (15’ in the morning and 15’ in the afternoon) to add to my 20-30’ during breakfast time.
Same on the podcast queue! I recently had to offload a bunch of stuff from my phone to clear space as well and was shocked by the massive amount of space being used up by podcast episodes. I’m also now trying to pay attention and delete unlistened/uninterested ones frequently. Now if only I can religiously delete photo duplicates or ones I don’t need to keep….
I started offloading some podcast series last year, usually ones that come out in a season that all go together (like a audio doc). These I tend to save for long drives (like MI to PA, about 10 hours), so it’s nice to be out of my daily playlist. I might have to make a “Podcasts to Listen to” list in my planner like a TBR though to remember to retrieve them. And your item 1 didn’t help 😉
Transcendent Kingdom is incredible. Completely different from Homegoing, and I think it’s really rare to see an author with such a range like that. I hope you enjoy it too! I did a big podcast cull as well, I find the constant chatter a bit more stressful than I used to and I don’t have the commute to listen. I’ve been listening to more audiobooks which I find more absorbing when my head is a bit scattered. I’ve been listening to a series of short stories (Love in Colour) and it’s perfect for a quick walk at lunchtime.
Ooh I need to go follow Joe! This week has been a breath of fresh air. And I have been loving the Bernie memes! He was never my guy but boy is he memeable! The Jewish ones are especially good!
I enjoyed Trancendant Kingdom but not as much as Homegoing. Homegoing was so amazing though so very tough to follow up! But I will read anything by her. And transcendent Kingdom was great – don’t want to make it sound like it wasn’t.
I use Castbox for podcasts and have it set to keep only the most recent 3 episodes.
I’m afraid to do that b/c sometimes a topic WILL jump out at me and I’ll want to save it! (Not all that often though!)
I also use Castbox and I go in and download the next 3 I want to listen to. I don’t have anything autodownload. If I’m not planning on listening to a particular episode, I just mark it as played.
Biden’s dogs have an Instagram account also that I’ve been following for a few weeks. It’s really fun. Check out ChampandMajorBidenofficial.
Yesterday was the first day since the pandemic started that I haven’t felt compelled to check the news 3000 times a day. The adults are finally in charge and I can relax a little bit. What a relief.
Transcendent Kingdom is amazing and as a scientist the work is well described. I really loved it! It was my first Christmas holiday read.
As with many things, I clear out my podcasts when it gets too messy and annoying! I listen to podcasts on my watch when I run via spotify but via Castbox in the car (guess I should fix that). So I often have episodes on my phone that I’ve already listened to on a run. So I have to go through periodically and clean out those. I also clear out long ones and episodes I know I won’t get to. For example, sometimes I enjoy the Tim Ferriss podcast (I know, I know) but only with certain guests. So I delete 75% of those. I guess I should streamline this process. Adding it to the Friday cleansing routine is a great idea!
I clean out any podcast episodes I didn’t get to during the week on Sundays… with some exceptions. having a clean start and a routine to clean them out really helps me narrow down how I want to spend my available listening time.