Smart Podcast, Trashy Books: Best of 2017

NB: This week, we’re taking a look back at some of our favorite and our most popular pieces of writing this year. We’ve got a week of best-of posts to share, with reviews, cover snark, sales, and more. We hope you enjoy this saunter through the archives, and most of all, we wish you and yours a wonderful holiday and a happy new year – with all the very best of reading.

Though we still have two more podcasts left to go in 2017, we also want to revisit the best podcasts we have to offer this year. From authors to dating to all the bitches assembling, these are the top five most listened to Smart Podcast, Trashy Books episodes of the year.

5. 230. Anxiety, Social Media, and Tracking the Things You Love (January 20)

Sarah and Elyse have a long and meandering conversation about social media, anxiety, and tracking the things that you love to do. We talk about reading, knitting, cross stitch, photography, and how we’re feeling while using various forms of social media. We also discuss pets, dog psychics, Instagram accounts we love, organizing digital books to read, and knitting patterns, too.

This episode created a great discussion both in the comments and via email sent directly to me. Being aware of what we do and how it makes us feel has made a difference in our lives this year. Almost a year later, I’m limiting severely how much time I digitally snack by looking endlessly at  Twitter or Facebook, and I’m scheduling time for the things I love to do (plus, as I discussed in the Organization Academy newsletter, I keep a list of what I love when I reach peak decision fatigue).

4. 232. The First Year of The Ripped Bodice – An Interview with Bea and Leah Koch (February 3)

Nearly a year after their grand opening (March 4th!), Sarah catches up with Leah and Bea Koch of The Ripped Bodice bookstore in Culver City, CA. We start with All The Pet Talk, including the story of their most excellent official store dog, Fitzwilliam Waffles. We cover his store responsibilities and key functions in the bookshop workflow, and have a happy conversation about things that make us laugh, including the We Rate Dogs Instagram feed.

They also shared details about books being written in the store, and how authors and readers have embraced The Ripped Bodice as a place to shop, work, and add to their own novels-in-progress. Plus, we get a peek into upcoming events, including a shoppable exhibition, as well as their predictions in romance fiction and their reading wish lists. It’s a big long list of books, so get ready for books, mutual admiration, dog squeeing, and more book talk!

Talking about creating and building a business with many different pieces and emphases is one of my favorite types of podcast conversations. I think that’s partly because individually, even if we aren’t entrepreneurs, as humans we are building and creating parts of our lives all the time, and listening to what others have learned is always edifying for me. I’m glad this episode resonated with you, too!

3. 243. Discovering Romance and Navigating Approval: An Interview with Faith Salie (April 21)

Sarah chats with author, speaker, and television and radio journalist Faith Salie about Authorized, her Audible program on Sex and Romance in which many of our favorite romance authors are featured, and about the CBS Sunday Morning segment in which Sarah appeared. They talk about Faith’s book, Approval Junkie, which is out in paperback this week. There are new words to learn, discussions of measuring your own success, and behind-the-scenes details about the production of television segments. Plus, they have a rather meta conversation about listening and interviewing. (There’s an entire chapter in Faith’s book on interviewing and listening, and it’s incredibly thought provoking and engaging.) There’s also a fair amount of mutual admiration.

Of course, when speaking to a journalist who works with CBS and NPR, Sarah’s cat prints a test page with his butt while the mic is on, so if you had that on the “Weird Crap Sarah’s Pets Do on the Podcast” Bingo card, you win a square.

This is one of my favorite episodes, too. Faith’s book Approval Junkie

has a chapter about interviewing that I’ve read several times as I learn how to listen closely, and ask questions to reveal more. Faith’s series for Authorized Season 2 on Sex & Romance was one of my highlights for the year, too – her interview with Sophie Kinsella was simply terrific.

2. 229. Romance, Dating, and Very Real Expectations: An Interview with Alisha Rai (January 13)

This week, we have a longer-than-usual, in person conversation with author Alisha Rai! Yup, a live recording, and of course we start by talking about my “professionalism” as a podcaster. Over brownies and tea, we discuss sexxytimes romance, her new series with Avon, and how reading and writing romance informs and influences her dating life – because sometimes you meet people who you *know* you’ve read before. She talks about the pressure on women to meet expectations in various stages of life, and the old accusation that women harbor “unrealistic expectations” because of romance. As a bonus, my cat interrupts a discussion of inclusivity, sensitivity readers, and portrayal in literature – you know, a typical podcast.

The Dating Stories from Alisha are so popular, I’m going to make them a regular feature, so long as Alisha and I can find regular times to record. There’s a second interview with Alisha in episode 271, too, which was also a popular one – and includes an adorable good date story!  The way reading romances and learning about emotional and sexual self actualization intersects with dating in the modern age is a topic we won’t tire of exploring.

1. 257. Bitches Assemble: Our Favorite Recommendations and the Expectations of Tentacles (July 28)

Sarah, Elyse, Carrie, and RedHeadedGirl gather to talk about successful recommendations we’ve made to new and curious readers interested in trying romance. From curating a broad selection of books as an introduction to specifically pimping books we know have a multi-level appeal, we talk about our favorite recommendations, books that seem to entice many different readers, and which books we love just for sheer crazy sauce. We also discuss how many readers are introduced to romance by a person who gives them a brown paper bag full of books. “Bag full of books” is among our favorite word combinations.

And because we’re, well, us, we talk about weird sex scenes we’ve read, wonderful and funny sex scenes we’ve loved, managing chronic pain and reading BDSM stories, and interesting female inventors in history. Plus, we discuss at length (heh) the expectations of tentacles, and what new books we’re going to end up recommending frequently.

The Bitches Assemble episodes are always very popular, and this one was a LOT of fun for us, so knowing it make y’all so happy was just lovely.

What do you think of the top five? What episodes were your favorites this year? Let us know what you’d like to see next year!