Emotions, life, relationships + things

25 episodes

Curated by:
User profile picsjreif3


  • 1

    In adulthood, many of us are forced to recalibrate our relationship with joy. As responsibilities multiply exponentially, time grows limited, and challenges mount, it becomes harder to make time for f...Show More

    sjreif3 recommended:

    Happiness is not just a feeling, there are ingredients. Enjoyment (authentic with connection), satisfaction, and purpose (or meaning).

  • 2

    Saoirse Ronan ("Little Women") reads an essay about how a language barrier impacts the relationship between a young woman and an Iraqi doctor. This is an encore presentation.

    sjreif3 recommended:

    As I learned Arabic, I did not have a problem with speaking, but with listening.

  • 3

    Episode 194: A Whole Jar of Pickles

    Just Break Up: Relationship Advice from Your Queer Besties

    1:24:36 | May 30th, 2022

    1 recommendation

    This episode tackles topics like trust, birth control, and boundaries. We just launched some new tiers and rewards on Patreon. Join today and get access to an extra weekly episode, video content, mont...Show More

  • 4

    Online Dating & Interracial Relationships: An Interview with Melissa Lozada-Olivia

    Just Break Up: Relationship Advice from Your Queer Besties

    44:51 | Dec 2nd, 2021

    1 recommendation

    In this week's episode of Head and Heart Work Conversations Sierra talks with Melissa Lozada-Oliva, a Guatelombian (Guatemalan-Colombian) American poet and screenwriter. Read Melissa's new book Dreami...Show More

    sjreif3 recommended:

    Really enjoyed this conversation. I liked her comment that online dating sometimes makes you feel like grubhub just ordering something up and that it just seems very capitalistic. “It’s a lonely fee...Show More

  • 5

    When Ross Showalter turned 18 and began dating hearing men, he found himself communicating with them on their terms: using spoken language. Years of speech lessons and lip-reading practice forced Ross...Show More

  • 6

    Episode 172: Is It Us, or Is It Capitalism?

    Just Break Up: Relationship Advice from Your Queer Besties

    1:21:14 | Dec 20th, 2021

    1 recommendation

    This episode tackles topics like growing together in a system that’s working against us, when our friends date our exes, and when they say they love us only during the breakup.  Join us on Patreon and...Show More

    sjreif3 recommended:

    Capitalism exploits us and then tells us we aren’t working hard enough and we need to try more. It can be very hard to grow in relationships and have time and energy to build relationships when you’re...Show More

  • 7

    Self-Care Laid Bare

    Code Switch

    35:29 | Apr 19th, 2023

    1 recommendation

    "You can't meditate yourself out of a 40-hour work week with no childcare and no paid sick days," says Dr. Pooja Lakshmin. But when you're overworked and overwhelmed, what actually can you do? On this...Show More

    sjreif3 recommended:

    Loved the quote by Audre Lorde: “For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us to temporarily beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about...Show More

  • 8

    Ocean Vuong's new collection, Time Is A Mother, is about his grief after losing family members. Vuong told Morning Edition's Rachel Martin that time is different now that he has lost his mother: "when...Show More

    sjreif3 recommended:

    Death is a mother, that births is into the future.

  • 9

    810: Say It to My Face

    This American Life

    1:03:25 | Sep 17th, 2023

    1 recommendation

    Friends and ex-friends finally talk about the one thing between them they've been avoiding. Prologue: Host Ira Glass tells a story he’s never told anyone before, about something someone said to him....Show More

    sjreif3 recommended:

    Thinking about friendships and the relationships in our lives, how we show up in them, what causes them harm, and how we communicate to one another. One of the best This American Life episodes I’ve ...Show More

  • 10

    When Partnership Is Not the Destination

    How to Build a Happy Life

    32:35 | Jun 13th, 2022

    1 recommendation

    In a society dominated by romantic couples, it can be hard to accept your unpartnered state for what it is. But for the “single at heart,” the desire for partnership is nonexistent—replaced with a sen...Show More

    sjreif3 recommended:

    “Needy marriage”: when people get married they really want each other for everything, and as a result their relationships with others (parents, friends) suffer - tell me about the texture of your em...Show More

  • 11

    Ada Limón is many things: the U.S. Poet Laureate, a recently named MacArthur "Genius," a Latina, a summer person becoming a fall person. But underneath all those outer identities, she's still in searc...Show More

    sjreif3 recommended:

    She had a lot of loss and challenges this year and for the first time she viewed winter and the darkness of this time of year as a healing dark and a chance to reflect, grieve, and cherish — what an i...Show More

  • 12

    Kerry Washington

    What Now? with Trevor Noah

    1:00:19 | Nov 16th, 2023

    1 recommendation

    Trevor is joined by actress/producer/author Kerry Washington. The good friends unpack the end of the Hollywood strikes, the shocking family secret Kerry shares in her newly published memoir, the respo...Show More

    sjreif3 recommended:

    “Blood is thicker than water” phrase originally was covenant blood is thicker than womb water — that is, a promise or relationship (e.g., a blood promise) is stronger than whom you’re born to. We can’...Show More

  • 13

    A New Formula for Happiness

    How to Build a Happy Life

    30:02 | Nov 14th, 2022

    2 recommendations

    We often follow a misguided formula for happiness—pushing us toward material wealth and other worldly successes. But when our expectations set us down the wrong path, it may be time to reorient oursel...Show More

    sjreif3 recommended:

    Some people need to grow into a certain person before they meet their partner and will work well together Others work with their partner to grow and become the person they want It’s not necessary a ...Show More

  • 14

    How to Waste Time

    How to Build a Happy Life

    34:36 | Dec 4th, 2023

    2 recommendations

    Co-hosts Becca Rashid and Ian Bogost explore our relationship with time and how to reclaim it. Why is it so important to be productive? Why can it feel like there’s never enough time in a day? Why are...Show More

    sjreif3 recommended:

    When we claim we’re getting more on top of things and organized and productive, we’re actually making an attempt to feeling unlimited with respect to time, goals, and ambitions. It’s a way to not feel...Show More

  • 15

    How to Look Busy

    How to Build a Happy Life

    37:52 | Dec 11th, 2023

    3 recommendations

    Many of us complain about being too busy—and about not having enough time to do the things we really want to do. But has busyness become an excuse for our inability to focus on what matters?  Accordin...Show More

    sjreif3 recommended:

    -Urge to signal to each other that we are busy -Anytjme we start a new activity—any activity—there’s a little dopamine released -Time is scarce - Scarce goods are attractive, when people make themselv...Show More

  • 16

    The chef Samin Nosrat lives by the idea that food is love. Her Netflix series, “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat,” and the James Beard Award-winning cookbook that inspired it, were about using food to build comm...Show More

    sjreif3 recommended:

    Absolutely beautiful story that grounded me in what and who I value and love

  • 17

    In this episode we are joined by clinical psychologist and author of 'The Defining Decade' to talk about all the frustrations, stressors, misconceptions and hard moments of our 20s and why it's only g...Show More

    sjreif3 recommended:

    Why are your 20s challenging: Wide open period of uncertainty. There’s more to worry about than to hold onto. The brain doesn’t like that

  • 18

    838: Letters! Actual Letters!

    This American Life

    58:43 | Aug 18th, 2024

    1 recommendation

    When the best—and perhaps only—way to say something is to write it down. Prologue: Ira goes out with a letter carrier, ‘Grace,’ as she delivers mail on her route. He learns about the people who brin...Show More

    sjreif3 recommended:

    Ready to start writing letters very regularly

  • 19

    Subtraction as a Solution

    How to Build a Happy Life

    26:13 | Oct 31st, 2022

    1 recommendation

    From how we build our cities to how we shop, it can seem as though our natural human tendency is to add. But a culture of accumulation may be exactly what holds us back from the simple solution in fro...Show More

    sjreif3 recommended:

    Oxygenate the schedule but lessen it: instead of spending an hour for lunch with your child spend two hours

  • 20

    Gender Reveal host and producer Tuck Woodstock joins us for an epic love story from another time .... the early aughts.  Follow Tuck on Twitter @tuckwoodstock. Get your tickets to our live show ...Show More

    sjreif3 recommended:

    Okay I actually did enjoy this episode and it was such a human story! Obsessed with the women who fall in love via the pocket watch aim chat room + that there’s a whole pocket watch community. Tuck Wo...Show More

  • 21

    You Are Worthy of Sleep

    Social Distance

    30:30 | Apr 30th, 2020

    6 recommendations

    Katherine is worried Jim is endangering himself and needs to sleep more, so she’s holding an intervention. Tricia Hersey of the Nap Ministry joins to talk about the importance of sleep and how, especi...Show More

    sjreif3 recommended:

    With a speaker from the Nap Ministry, a great discussion on the importance of sleep and rest. Both of these concepts are supported when they’re tied with capitalism (ex. A spa day) but criticized when...Show More

  • 22

    779: Ends of the Earth

    This American Life

    1:06:25 | Sep 18th, 2022

    3 recommendations

    An exploration of the very upper limits of what you do for someone you love.

    sjreif3 recommended:

    - Someone you love slowly drifts off into space - Patient wants to pursue PAD upon having Alzheimer’s diagnosis, his wife looks for a program in Switzerland - You have to be a resident of the state to...Show More

  • 23

    Saying sorry can be really difficult sometimes – it requires a certain amount of accountability, reflection and empathy. But that's precisely why it can go so far in a familial, romantic or profession...Show More

    sjreif3 recommended:

    1. Say that you’re sorry 2. Be specific about why you’re apologizing 3. Show you understand why it’s bad: take ownership 4. Don’t make excuses (e.g., I was having a really bad day) 5. Say why it won...Show More

  • 24

    Monica Lewinsky

    Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky

    1:14:36 | Feb 18th

    1 recommendation

    In the powerful premiere of Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky, Monica reflects on how she found the strength to take back her story after the scandal that turned her life upside down and . With raw hone...Show More

    sjreif3 recommended:

    I appreciated her honesty with the aftermath of 1998 and regrounding us in the compassion of what each person experiences. She talked a lot about her healing process and rollercoaster of becoming a pu...Show More

  • 25

    The sisters are thrilled to welcome Dean Spade to the show! He has been working to build queer and trans liberation based in racial and economic justice for the past two decades. He is a professor at ...Show More

    sjreif3 recommended:

    - Anxiety is one of the time traveling emotions because when you’re in it you don’t think it’ll ever end - 44:00-50 Finding what you’re looking for in friendships -55 when your friend is in a difficu...Show More

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