Amanda’s back with your recommendations for romances psychic pining, plus discussions of making graham crackers, macaroni and cheese and soup. Yes, I will share recipes. Basically we intersperse talking about book recs and talking about food and recipes, with a side trip to psychics having sex.
Then, remember episode 417 from early August with psychic Carol Cotrell? Amanda made an appointment with her and shares what her experience was like. We talk a little bit about death, regrets, and there’s some crying, so grab a tissue. This part starts at about 22:30 in.
Thanks to: Kelsey D, Jourdemayne, Katie and Morgan for the recommendations!
…
Looking. for a new podcast to try?
Check out Not Your Mom’s Romance Book Club! Imagine reading your favorite steamy romance novel… with your mom reading over your shoulder. Ellen and her mom set out to do just that with this book club and they want you to join in. It’s fun, it’s swoony, and it’s awkward.
…
Music: Purple-planet.com
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Here are the books we discuss in this podcast:
So! Many! Links! Get! Ready!
- Episode 417: Exploring Paranormal Worlds with Jacquelyn Benson and Carol Cottrell
- Carol Cottrell’s website
- The Chunky Chef Macaroni and Cheese
- Ottolenghi’s recipe for peas and onions (so yummy)
- Chicken bacon lentil stew – Instant Pot/Pressure Cooker
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Transcript
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[music]
Sarah Wendell: Well, hello there. Thank you for inviting me into your eardrums. I’m Sarah Wendell from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. This is Smart Podcast, Trashy Books, episode number 422, and Amanda is back! She is back with your recommendations for psychic pining, plus we discuss making graham crackers, macaroni and cheese – yes, I will share recipes, because basically we talk about books and then we talk about food and then we talk about books and then we talk about food, and then we take a side trip about psychics having sex. Then, if you remember episode 417 from early August when I interviewed psychic Carol Cottrell, Amanda made an appointment with her, and she shares what her experience was like.
Now, we talk a little bit about death and regrets and there is some crying, so if you’re a sympathy crier like I am, you might want to grab a tissue. That part starts at about twenty-two minutes [22:00] in.
Thank you to Kelsey, Jourdemayne, Katie, and Morgan for your email and for your recommendations. I will have links to all of the books we talk about in the show notes, and I will have recipe links, do not worry, also in the show notes at smartbitchestrashybooks.com/podcast.
Speaking of podcasts, are you looking for a new podcast to listen to? Have you tried Not Your Mom’s Romance Book Club?
Ellen: Hi, my name is Ellen!
Ellen’s Mom: And I’m Ellen’s mom.
Ellen: And together we host Not Your Mom’s Romance Book Club, part of the Frolic Podcast Network. Our podcast is basically like having a book club with your gal pal and her mom who thinks she’s part of the gang and won’t leave you alone!
Ellen’s Mom: Tss! Lame, whatever!
Ellen: Kidding. To a degree. We operate much like your local book club, adding listener insights to the book and reading books almost exclusively voted on by our listeners.
Ellen’s Mom: There is no limit to the books we will read, except for the really spicy ones that Ellen won’t let me read.
Ellen: With reason. We post new episodes every Monday, and you can find us on social media @notyourmomsrom. Find Not Your Mom’s Romance Book Club wherever your favorite podcasts are sold for free, and happy romancing!
Sarah: Of course I will have lots of links to lots of things, including where you can find Not Your Mom’s Romance Book Club podcast.
This episode is brought to you by Ritual, which is a daily multivitamin obsessively researched for women. It is vegan-friendly, sugar-free, non-GMO, gluten-free, and allergen-free. All of the sources for the nine nutrients inside are provided for you to read and research on your own. We deserve to know what we’re putting in our bodies and why, which is why Ritual’s founder is on a mission to reinvent the vitamin industry. They are committed to showing you their nutrients, where they came from, and why they chose them. Ritual is designed to be an easy way to build a daily…ritual! I like that it’s easy, I like that a new bottle shows up on my porch the minute I finish the old one, and I really like the fact that I know what’s in each capsule, and the capsules are transparent, so I can see inside them; it’s very cool. I also like that the source for every piece of the multivitamin is provided in the packaging, and best of all, it never makes me nauseated. Daily changes can lead to big results, so start small today. Ritual is offering you ten percent off your first three months. Try it out, satisfaction guaranteed. Go to ritual.com/SARAH to start your Ritual today. That’s ten percent off during your first three months at ritual.com/SARAH.
Hello! Greetings! You of the Patreon community are absolutely fabulous. If you have supported the show with a monthly pledge of any amount, thank you! You are helping me make sure that every episode is accessible to everyone, and you keep the show going each week. Thank you so much for your support, and if you would like to have a look at our Patreon, it is patreon.com/SmartBitches. Monthly pledges start at one dollar, and every pledge makes a massive, massive difference, so thank you for your consideration, and hello again, Patreon community; you look fabulous today!
Here’s a question: what are you doing in your free time? Are you, perhaps, playing Best Fiends? I am rather hooked on this game, so if you’re anything like me, you will be too – come join me; I’m lonely. Best Fiends gives you a fun way to have socially distant competition with your friends or, you know, random podcasters that you listen to. Best Fiends updates the game monthly with new content and new levels, and it never gets old! They treat the game like a service for their players, and I like that every time I open it there’s something new: there’s a new character; there’s a new piece of story. My favorite initial character in the land of Minutia is Edward, but I also like Kwincy because it starts with a K? They’re seriously cute! There’s always a new monthly themed challenge. It’s fun, it’s easy to try to beat a new level, and even when the cell service is really bad, I don’t need a connection to play. Best Fiends has thousands of levels already, with new levels, events, and characters added every month. It is hours of fun right at your fingertips, and you can play offline. With over a hundred million downloads and tons of five-star reviews, Best Fiends is a must-play. Download Best Fiends free on the Apple App Store or Google Play. That’s Friends without the R: Best Fiends!
Stay tuned after the episode for a really, really bad joke, terrifically bad, sent in by a listener named Jennie, because all of you are fabulous and you send me bad jokes. And if you’d like to send me one, you can send it to [email protected] or [email protected].
But now, let’s start with this podcast: more psychic pining, more food, more psychic pining, and more psychic conversations with me and Amanda.
[music]
Amanda: I was looking on the dock, and it’s like, what the fuck is up with my back?
[Laughter]
Sarah: Yes. I am very displeased to be the age that I am right now, because my cycle is due, and apparently that now includes back pain.
Amanda: Mmm!
Sarah: Upper back pain! And it’s weird; like, I was using the corner of the doorway to try to, like, massage it out, and the minute I started pressing on it I started feeling nauseous, and I was like, this is really just unacceptable wiring; and I can’t, like, call anybody to have this rewired; and I’m very peeved about it.
Amanda: Well, that’s fair.
Sarah: Yeah! Like, this is not cool. And I, and I know I have endometriosis, I suspect it’s related, but it can just fuck right off.
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: Yeah!
So, what are three goods, good things for you today?
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: Starting off positive.
Amanda: I don’t know. [Laughs] I don’t know! I don’t know. I don’t have anything.
Sarah: Ohhh!
Amanda: I mean, nothing’s, like, bad, but, like, nothing has been, like, super positive either?
Sarah: Well, you want to hear what’s rocking my world?
Amanda: Yeah!
Sarah: So we are still in the first week of online schooling, and they have classes Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday’s independent work day, and then Thursday and then Friday. So they have classes, the same classes on Monday and Thursday and the same classes on Tuesday and Friday, so today is technically an A day or whatever; it’s called a block schedule. My kids are super into it, they love it, but their lunch break is like five years long. It is – at school, I think they had thirty minutes for lunch maybe, like when school was in session in the building where all of the –
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: – germs are? I think they had thirty minutes for lunch. Now they have a full hour and a half.
Amanda: Oh wow!
Sarah: Like, all the neighborhood kids go outside, and they’re all like, what do we do with all of this time? So my older son has – with our permission – installed the Dunkin’ Donuts app and is now biking to Dunkin’ Donuts –
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: – with my younger son –
Amanda: Oh!
Sarah: – to procure their lunch. They have voluntarily left the house; they are biking; it is like ninety degrees with humidity; they’re like, we don’t care: there’s doughnuts at the end of this story. They are so excited, and, like, my neighbor was like, who are those – are those, are those your children leaving? But where, where are they – what, what was that? And I’m like, yeah, I don’t know. They just –
Amanda: They’re on a quest for doughnuts!
Sarah: Yeah, and my husband’s bike hasn’t been ridden since, you know, March, so he’s like, I’ll just ride Dad’s bike, and Adam’s like, my bike! He took my bike!
[Laughter]
Sarah: But he’s bringing me back a doughnut, so life is gooood!
Amanda: I’ve, like, I was looking at doughnuts yesterday. [Laughs] I was like, God, I could go for a doughnut right now.
Sarah: It’s pumpkin doughnut season! They brought them out! I’m a big fan!
Amanda: What are those orange-red squares on your door?
Sarah: The orange and red squares on my door, one says, Do Not Disturb; Go Find Mom, and one says, Do Not Disturb; Go Find Dad. So I put them on the door right above the doorknob if one of us is in here and we’re doing something that cannot be interrupted through pain of death. Like, if Adam has, like, a webinar that he’s running, you know, and, like, you know, the federal government is, is doing a webinar and he’s on it, you know? Like, do not disturb Dad. And that’s when you have the cat underneath the door – ‘cause you know, obviously he and the dog do not read – that’s when you have the cat under the door squeezing his little paws under the crack and plaintively wailing, please let me in!
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: And also, the other thing that’s good here is that the jasmine is blooming, and it smells really good outside. Humid, but good.
Amanda: Yeah, I don’t think – I mean, I’m looking forward to my camping trip, mainly –
Sarah: Yes!
Amanda: – mainly because s’mores will be involved.
Sarah: I mean – ooh! I saw a s’mores recipe involving graham crackers, hot marshmallow, and a Reese’s peanut butter cup instead of the chocolate –
Amanda: Ooh!
Sarah: – and I was like, ah, oh! Oh, yeah, mm-hmm?
Amanda: This, this place is fancy, because in the, the s’mores kit, they make sure to point out that the graham cracker is homemade –
Sarah: Oh!
Amanda: – and I’m like, how do you make a homemade graham cracker? Like, I’ve eaten, was like the Honey Maid boxes of graham cracker –
Sarah: Right!
Amanda: – but it’s never occurred to me that, like, they just don’t appear fully formed. Like, how – [laughs] – how does one make a graham cracker? So –
Sarah: Well, first google of the episode! I am now looking up graham cracker recipes, because now –
Amanda: Yeah!
Sarah: – I want to eat one! Let’s see: totally worth the effort! I never trust a food blogger who says something is totally worth the effort –
Amanda: No.
Sarah: – and it’s like, here are all the specialized tools you need for this recipe? That’s a hard no. Whole wheat flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, butter, light brown sugar, milk –
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: – honey, and vanilla extract. I have all those things! Hmmm!
Amanda: Okay!
Sarah: Maybe I shall do this! That sounds really good!
Amanda: And I did make some bomb-ass mac and cheese yesterday.
Sarah: I want to hear about the mac and cheese! I am making macaroni and cheese in the Instant Pot tonight.
Amanda: So I – I’ll send you the link to the recipe, but –
Sarah: Can you hear the helicopter?
[Helicopter noise]
Amanda: Yes.
Sarah: Now if, just in case it’s Marine One, I’m giving a very appropriate salute. Okay, moving on. [Laughs]
Amanda: But it was not bad in terms of, like, labor-intensiveness.
Sarah: Mm-hmm? Which recipe did you use?
Amanda: So I found this one. So no offense to Sarah; she did link me some good recipes.
Sarah: Oh, no harm, no foul!
Amanda: But I am very opinionated on mac and cheese recipes, and I –
Sarah: How do you not go with a recipe from a site called –
Together: – The Chunky Chef!
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: Oh, game on!
Amanda: So it’s like, if I’m going to make mac and cheese –
Sarah: Yeah!
Amanda: – which is, like, a huge, like, comfort meal –
Sarah: Oh, it comes with expectations.
Amanda: – I’m going, like, all out for my mac and cheese.
Sarah: So you’re going full on.
Amanda: Yeah! So instead of, like, you know, Sarah sent me, it was like a three-ingredient mac and cheese, and I’m like, no! I was like, I need multiple cheeses.
Sarah: Oh, for sure.
Amanda: Yeah! And so I used that recipe, and it does require making a roux, which always makes me nervous, ‘cause I feel like I fuck it up every time. But it came out fine! And it was delicious, and I have a whole pan of it that I’m going to eat some for lunch after this.
Sarah: Ohhh yeah. Tonight we’re having salmon and this recipe for peas, green peas that was in The Guardian from, I think it was Yotam Ottolenghi, whose recipes can be really, really fussy and finicky, like –
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: – please harvest this mushroom from the northwest side of this mountain at this time –
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: – and this recipe’s actually really simple? You brown onions in some olive oil. Then you take half of the onions out, and then you add the frozen peas and a little bit of water, and the caramelization from the onion starts to flavor the peas, and they cook down in the water – and we use frozen peas, so it’s, like, dead easy – and then you put the onions, half of the onions that you took out, you put that back on top with a little bit more olive oil, and they are so good I could eat the whole pan? So I’m going to have macaroni and cheese and peas, and I feel like that balances out. Like, healthy –
Amanda: I –
Sarah: – and unhealthy.
Amanda: [Laughs] There’s this restaurant in Brookline called The Publick House, and they are known for their mac and cheese, and you can add –
Sarah: You’ve mentioned them before!
Amanda: Yes! You can add a bunch of stuff in it, and I usually – peas, you can add peas –
Sarah: Obviously.
Amanda: – and they also have, like, pearl, pearl hot dogs that you can put in there?
Sarah: Oooh!
Amanda: I love hot dogs in mac and cheese. Actually, I think I have hot dogs! I could put hot dogs in my mac and cheese!
Sarah: [Gasps, then chants to Batman action music] Dinner, dinner, dinner, dinner, dinner, dinner, dinner, dinner, Batman!
Amanda: [Laughs] So that’s probably what I’ll do.
Sarah: I love how we just skipped right to food. So you do have good things! You have a big-ass pan of macaroni and cheese –
Amanda: Mac and cheese!
Sarah: – and you have hot dogs, and you’re going glamping with homemade mac and cheese, or homemade graham crackers.
Amanda: S’more, graham crackers. So –
Sarah: This sounds very posh.
Amanda: And I also, like, I like long car rides? I’m one of those people who, like, I love looking out a window –
Sarah: Mm-hmm?
Amanda: – and just, like, seeing places that I’ve never really been to before.
Sarah: Oh yeah.
Amanda: So, like, I can read in a car – like, I don’t get motion sickness – but I’m, like, too absorbed by, like, looking at what’s going on. And I think this is like a three-hour car ride to Maine.
Sarah: That’s not too bad!
Amanda: Yeah!
Sarah: I usually cross-stitch in the car if Adam’s driving, and I find it very relaxing.
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: I particularly love when there’s a car ride and we take Adam’s car, because he has the heated and the cooled seats –
Amanda: Ooh!
Sarah: – and there are some times when the heated seat is my favorite thing in the whole world.
Amanda: I do like a heated seat.
Sarah: It’s so good. So, so good.
All right, so we have feedback and recommendations for books with psychic pining, and then we can talk about actual psychics.
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: Sound good?
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: All right. So do you want to take the first email from a listener?
Amanda: Yes! So we got an email from Kelsey D., and they say:
“I want to say I finished the Sookie Stackhouse books. I really enjoyed them, but was upset with the last. Amanda should read 4 since it’s all about Eric. I was team Eric Northman all the way and upset she ended up with Sam. I feel her disappointment. But book four, Dead to the World, is my favorite book of the series.”
Sarah: Did you read Dead to the World?
Amanda: Yes. And I think after that – ‘cause I had just, I just knew she wasn’t going to end up with Eric Northman. And for –
Sarah: It’s so frustrating when you can see how it’s going, right?
Amanda: Yeah, you’re like, fuck this. I’m out. I’m out! [Laughs]
Sarah: Turning down my gain because my fan is running and I don’t want it to get picked up on the microphone. I always feel so bad because I like doing calls with you with Skype because then we can see each other, and, you know, we can have a conversation?
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: But then my computer’s like, oh my God, this is too much! There’s a camera and a recording and ahhh! I must run the fan! And then I hear this shhhh in the background, and then I feel like a bad podcaster.
Amanda: [Laughs] Speaking of food, by the way –
Sarah: Yeess?
Amanda: – Emma texted me, and she’s like, your book has arrived, and I haven’t ordered any books, so I didn’t know what she’s talking about, and she sent me a photo of this new cookbook called Soupology: The Art of Soup from Six Simple Broths?
Sarah: Ohhh?
Amanda: And I love soup, and I’m just waiting for soup season – [laughs] – and it’s like, it’s like, Emma, you know I’m a soup slut! And she’s like, yes, I know this.
Sarah: [Gasps] I, that is so funny? I am also the, not only the soup slut, but also the Crockpot, Instant Pot, stew and soup mastermind from –
Amanda: Yes.
Sarah: – you know, the minute it gets cool until it’s time to start grilling again. So we are almost into my season of cooking, and I have a –
Amanda: Soup season!
Sarah: [Sings] Yeess! And I have a recipe for a mushroom and farro stew –
Amanda: Gross.
Sarah: – that looks amazing, and –
Amanda: I don’t like mushroom.
Sarah: I know you don’t like mushrooms – and I was looking at my recipes, and I was like, oh! Beef barley soup! I haven’t made that in a really long time! Oh, and this other one! And I have two packages of dried tortellini that Freebird didn’t like, ‘cause they were really, really salty, but I was thinking putting them in tortellini soup would be –
Amanda: Yes.
Sarah: – a really good idea, so I’m going to try the tortellini soup recipe.
Amanda: I’m – back to food, of course – I am a sucker for, like, I’m not a big fan of, like, broths? I’m a, like, stick-to-your-ribs, cream-based soup –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Amanda: – or, like, a stew or, like, one of my favorite, like, family recipes we have is for Hungarian goulash, because I’m Hungarian? And it’s just, like, so filling.
Sarah: Oh, it’ll keep you going for like a year and a half.
Amanda: Oh my gosh, it’s so good. Yeah, I’m a, like, stick-to-your-ribs, and Eric has never heard of that phrase, and I had to explain it to him. I was like, stick-to-your-ribs sort of thick soup.
Sarah: Yeah! So, next email. We’re just going to do psychic pining, food, psychic pining, food, books, food –
Amanda: Yeah!
Sarah: – food, psychic pining, food, right? Okay –
Amanda: Mm-hmm!
Sarah: – that’s the plan. So the next email is from Jourdemayne – I hope I said that right, Jourdemayne – and they write:
“Thanks for your site and the podcasts. They have both helped me a lot during the quarantimes.”
You are very welcome, and it makes me so happy to see people using the word quarantimes, I can’t even tell you.
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: “On the subject of psychic pining, Fiddler’s Rose by P.D. Haynie has lovers who talk to each other in dreams.”
[Gasps] I love that!
“Also in the Bishop series by Kay Hooper practically everybody has a psychic ability.”
Well, that’s handy.
“Thanks again for doing what you do,”
I love the idea of talking in your dreams. Like, that, that is good. That is all good.
All right. We have another email from Katie. You want to take that one?
Amanda: Yes. Sure!
Sarah: And don’t worry; we’ll link to all of these books in the show notes.
Amanda: Yes.
Sarah: So you can buy them for yourself.
Amanda: So this one’s from Katie:
“I thought of some books while listening to the podcast episode. You mentioned the Jayne Castle books already, but she actually has two psychic/space series under that name. One of them is three books named after flowers (Amaryllis, Zinnia and Orchid), and the psychic powers are slightly different from her other series: people with psychic talent can’t use it effectively unless they focus it through a psychic ‘prism’ constructed by another person.”
[Laughs]
“This necessitates a psychic link between characters. I’m sure you see where that’s going. I like –“
[Laughter]
Sarah: Yes, I do see where that is going.
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: It’s like mixing crystals, psychics – this is going to be somebody’s catnip like whoa!
Amanda: “I like those books, and they don’t get mentioned as often as the Arcane and Harmony/Ghost Hunter books.”
Sarah: Ohhh!
Amanda: “It’s been years since I read it (like high school, so more than 10 years, proceed with some caution), but Mary Stewart wrote a book called Touch Not the Cat where the protagonist has had a telepathic connection with someone she assumes is a distant cousin since childhood. I can’t remember exactly, but I think the mind reading thing may sort of run in the family? Not sure about that. Anyway, that’s her love interest, and they speak to each other that way throughout the book if I remember correctly, but she doesn’t know exactly who he is until the end. There’s also a suspense plot, because it’s a Stewart. I don’t remember anything about what that was, except that there is an evil cousin. Or possibly more than one evil cousin.”
Sarah: Always good. Got to have some evil cousins.
Amanda: “Thanks so much for the podcast, and it always makes me happy to see an episode with Amanda.”
Thanks, Katie!
Sarah: Yaaay! Arm-flailing happiness.
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: All right, so I always forget and then remember Touch Not the Cat by Mary Stewart. I think, if I’m not, if I’m not mistaken, Mary Stewart may have written a couple of psychics. Like, there’s more than one psychic in the Stewart backlist. But the problem with Touch Not the Cat is that there is also a book called Touch Not the Cat by Tracy Fobes, and I am going to send you a link to the cover in the chat, because it is among the most ridiculous DeSalvo covers.
Amanda: Oh boy.
Sarah: And I will link to it in the, in the show notes so you can see this majesty. It’s like, it’s like – [laughs] – it’s like John DeSalvo is taking a time out from running a nature show –
[Laughter]
Sarah: – wearing a kilt and is showing you the cat –
Amanda: Oh my God!
Sarah: – and, and he’s just smiling at you like, hey!
Amanda: Check out this cat!
Sarah: See my pussy?
Amanda: I’m touching it!
Sarah: [Laughs] Touch not the cat like I do, and he’s got his hands on the cat!
Amanda: It’s like when you tell a kid, like, don’t touch that, and so they try to get as close to the thing as possible –
Sarah: Touching!
Amanda: – without touching it?
Sarah: Almost touching.
Amanda: I’m going to touch it! I’m going to touch it!
Sarah: Yeah. It is among my favorite DeSalvo covers, not the least of which because it’s just, there’s a lot of knees?
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: There’s a great deal of knees going on?
Amanda: There’s a lot of knees!
Sarah: [Laughs] It’s just a lot of knees! And it’s, and of course his shirt is open and tucked in to his kilt, because he can’t button, none of these people can button their shirts! Nobody buttons their shirts on the cover of a romance; it’s true!
Amanda: Do buttons even exist?
Sarah: Do buttons even exist? I couldn’t tell you.
All rights, so our next email is from Morgan. So in case you thought, I need more psychic pining, we have more psychic pining. Morgan writes:
“I just finished listening to your episode on telepathy romances! It reminded me of the Nora Roberts trilogy, the Sign of Seven. In that, the three groups of heroes/heroines have similar psychic powers (the guys are all childhood friends but the women are from out of town). The book 1 couple can see visions of the past, the book 2 couple are telepathic (so ‘the present’), and the book 3 couple can see the future. It was really interesting seeing how different people dealt with the same powers. There’s a lot more going on (some ancient demon curse to destroy the world or something) –“
There’s always an ancient demon curse to destroy the world. Like, it’s just, that’s just how it is.
“– and it’s been a long time since I read it, but I remember it fondly. Memorably –“
Oh, hello! Amanda –
“Memorably, the telepathic couple at one point in their book decides to turn the telepathy ‘on’ during sex one time & they blow each other’s minds –“
Amanda: Literally!
Sarah: “– (and both agree to maybe save that for special occasions).”
[Laughs]
Sarah: “Just wanted to mention this series in case you revisit this!”
Okay, (a) we’re revisiting it, and (b) that’s amazing!
Amanda: See I, like, I couldn’t do that if I was actually –
Sarah: What?
Amanda: – having sex with someone, ‘cause, like –
Sarah: What, save it for special occasions, or turn on the telepathy?
Amanda: Turn on telepathy, ‘cause, like, you, we’ve all been there where we’re having sex and just, like, a weird stray thought just, like, zooms past our brain for just like a hot second.
Sarah: [Laughs]
Amanda: Can you imagine, like –
Sarah: Why are you thinking about miniature hot dogs?
Amanda: [Laughs] It’s like – long story: something happened earlier today. Okay, keep doing what you’re doing; forget about the hot dogs.
[Laughter]
Sarah: I mean –
Amanda: Just, like –
Sarah: – brains are weird in a, in a standard, in a standard moment. Brains are, I mean, my brain’s very weird at more intensive moments, whether I’m really focused on something or I’m – yeah, uh-uh. I don’t know if I could do that.
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: Turn on the telepathy while you’re banging. But then that makes me wonder –
Amanda: Does he really need to keep his socks on for this? It’s fine; socks are fine.
Sarah: [Laughs] You’ve got to turn your socks on.
Amanda: Are we using the good towel for the sex towel this time? God, I wish he had grabbed the other one. Like, that –
Sarah: It’s really hard to turn off your housekeeping brain, right?
Amanda: Yes!
Person in background: Yeah!
Amanda: You’re like, oh God, I should have dusted before he came over, or, like – [laughs]
Sarah: Like, oh, I missed a sock; it’s hanging over there. Oops.
Amanda: Yep, yep.
[Background conversation]
Sarah: The children, by the way, have returned safely, are sweaty –
Amanda: Oh, I think I can hear –
Sarah: – and have doughnuts. You can hear them, yeah. That’s fine. I told them, I told them, if I’m recording a podcast with Amanda, it’s fine if there’s background noise –
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: – ‘cause we’re already just going to be very silly and talking about food, and there’s doughnuts involved!
Amanda: Yeah!
Sarah: And, you know, they, they went outside voluntarily and biked probably about a mile and a half! Up and down some hills!
Amanda: Oh! Hills are the worst!
Sarah: Oh yeah, super hilly.
Amanda: Yeah, I don’t do hills? Eric and I – so Eric is a runner. I am not!
[Laughter]
Amanda: And there was one time where he was like, let’s just go for, like, a, a walk, and this was at my old apartment, and there’s this huge-ass fucking hill –
Sarah: Ugh!
Amanda: – and the minute I saw him start going up that hill?
Sarah: You can come in! If you’re bringing me doughnuts!
Amanda: Bring doughnuts! But the, the minute I saw Eric turn and, like, we’re starting to go up that hill, I’m like, no! No, thank you! I’m going to go back home.
[Laughter]
Sarah: You just turned around and bailed?
Amanda: I got so mad. I was like, we’re not fucking doing this.
Sarah: Okay, that’s funny. I am texting my thanks to my son for my doughnut, which I’m actually saving for our stream tonight, you know.
Amanda: Aw!
Sarah: Yeah.
Amanda: Instead of cook-, instead of Oreos, going to be a doughnut.
Sarah: I can have both, but probably –
Amanda: Or both, sorry! I didn’t mean to pigeonhole you into one –
Sarah: No, I, I have many, I have many carbohydrate options. Yesterday was, I want salt, sweet, no, salt, no, sweet, no, no, salt, so I had, like, one hand in a bag of cheese doodles and one hand in a bag of those little cookies that have the, they’re circles, like tubes with the chocolate filling?
Amanda: Pirouettes?
Sarah: Yes, thank you! Pirouettes. So I had one Pirouette and one cheese doodle, and I was just –
Amanda: Double-fisting.
Sarah: – just going back and forth! [Laughs]
All right, so tell me: since we’re talking about psychic pining and I love this so much, I had psychic Carol Cottrell on the podcast, and you booked a reading!
Amanda: I did, I did. I may start crying during this recollection. So yesterday – so we’re recording on a Thursday, I had my reading on a Wednesday morning, and for those of you who do not know, my father passed away at the end of July. So it’s been weird. I am the one handling everything, because I’m his only child and pretty much his only surviving relative, so, like, I’ve had to deal with that, and, you know, his ashes are, like, sitting five feet away from me.
Sarah: And just to clarify, you have a, an, a bio-dad and a stepdad –
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: – ‘cause you talk about both dads, and if you talk about your other dad – [laughs] – I don’t want anyone –
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: – to be completely confused!
Amanda: Yeah. So I, I call my stepdad my dad. He has, like, custody and, you know, he’s been in my life since I was like three, so he’s very much my dad. But for the purpose of this conversation, when I say dad I mean my biological dad.
Sarah: Right.
Amanda: Okay. And then the last four years or so, I’ve had four family members die.
Sarah: Oof.
Amanda: So it, it’s been a rough several years. And this was something, hiring a medium was something I wanted to do when my grandmother died a few years ago, my dad’s mom, because that was kind of contentious, and I didn’t feel like I had closure, and I wanted to do something, but I didn’t. And then with my dad dying and Sarah doing the podcast, which I was supposed to host with her, but it was a rough time and I tapped out on that podcast episode, I was like, well, maybe I should try it.
Carol was very nice and very sweet, and she asked, are there any spirits you want me to try to contact? And I said, yes, and that was it. I just said yes; I didn’t say who or anything. She’s like, okay. Well, just so you know, there’s no guarantee that who you want to speak to will come through, but it’s, you know, if you have someone in mind. So that’s all I told her. I didn’t tell her anything ahead of time about my situation, why I was doing this appointment, anything like that.
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Amanda: And the first – so she, like, you know, kind of settles in, and the first person to come through, she said, it’s a, it’s a woman who’s just, like, filled with joy, and I knew immediately it was my grandmother.
Sarah: Ohhh!
Amanda: And she’s like, she just wants to hug you. That’s all she wants to do is hug you.
Sarah: Oh gosh!
Amanda: [Laughs, sniffs] And my grandmother gave the best hugs. And, you know, she mentioned, she’s like, she has a cough; was she a smoker? And I said, no, she had lung cancer, and that’s what she died of. You know, we were going back and forth with my grandmother, and, you know, she, like, mentioned things that – I know some people don’t give a lot of credence. People, like, research clients ahead of time and being able to find out a lot of stuff, but there were things that she mentioned about my grandmother that, like, there, there’s no way. Like, the fact that she would bribe me with, like, Tootsie Pops, or that, like –
Sarah: [Laughs]
Amanda: – or that, like, you know, ice cream was her favorite way to, like, make yourself feel better; or that, you know, that I moved away from her at a young age, and it was very hard; and that, you know, at the age of five, my grandmother pursued, like, visitation rights. Like, very specific timeline stuff that wouldn’t have been easily guessed or identified.
Sarah: Discoverable. Right.
Amanda: Yes! And it was just so sweet. There was one point towards the end where Carol was like, she’s making a, a needle motion. She’s like, did, did she craft, or do you craft? And I was like, I do cross-stitch, and she’s like, yeah; she’s like, your grandmother’s making a needle motion and, like, pointing, and I was like, yeah, I cross-stitch. She’s like, have you stitched anything for her? And I said, no, and she’s like, well, your grandmother wants you to stitch something for her, and she wants you to –
Sarah: Aw!
Amanda: – to turn it into a pillow or something that you can hug. So –
Sarah: Aw!
Amanda: – and I told Carol, I was like, I didn’t know I’d be getting homework, and she’s like, yeah, I know. You –
Sarah: [Laughs]
Amanda: – you pay me, and I give you an assignment.
[Laughter]
Sarah: So spirits are giving you homework?
Amanda: Yeah. So I was like –
Sarah: What the hell?
Amanda: And so the other spirit that came through was my dad, and this one was really hard. Pretty much the entire session I was crying like a baby.
Sarah: Well, that’s kind of why you booked it, right?
Amanda: Yeah! Just, I don’t know. Like, I, with my dad’s death, I didn’t exactly feel like there was anything in a left unsaid –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Amanda: – but it’s just weird.
Sarah: Well, yeah, and also, you know, grief and mourning rituals exist for the people who are still alive. They don’t exist for the person who’s dead; they’re not here.
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: So for you, in the quarantimes, far away, with your dad –
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: – who was in, he was in hospice, right?
Amanda: For, so he’s been living in a long-term care facility. He had a stroke, or he had a traumatic brain injury that led to a stroke to pretty much, you know, he couldn’t eat on his own, couldn’t walk, so he was living in, like, a long-term care facility for a while. And then my grandparents died, so I had to take that over, and then in July, or June, Father’s Day, I had to make the decision to put him in hospice, and he died on July 31st. So two months or so –
Sarah: Right.
Amanda: – he was in hospice.
Sarah: And, you know, you, you went down to see him, but there’s no, there’s no grief ritual, like, that you do with other people at this –
Amanda: No!
Sarah: – you know, if you’re, if you’re grie-, anyone who’s grieving now, a lot of people have to do it by themselves. Like, it’s really hard to process that on your own, ‘cause you’re like, oh, I’m at my house, and things are the same, except things are not the same. The hell do I do?
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: So this makes –
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: – a lot of sense.
Amanda: So –
Sarah: Whatever works for you, right?
Amanda: Yeah. And so she, she brought up things about, like, she knew that my dad had addiction issues and an addictive personality. She knew that he was in trouble with the law and that, you know, he was kind of like a, a black sheep, and then – oh! [sniffs] – she asked, she’s like, she’s like, you had to take on a lot of financial burden for this, didn’t you? And I said, yes, and she’s like, your dad knows, and he says he’s so grateful, because no one else would have done what you did.
Sarah: Ohhh!
Amanda: No one else would have rushed down to visit him or paid for his cremation, and he says that you are so brave and so strong –
Sarah: Oh.
Amanda: – and that you didn’t get it from him.
[Laughter]
Sarah: Oh no!
Amanda: [Laughs] Because he, he realizes he was kind of like a coward in his life. He was –
Sarah: Oh gosh!
Amanda: – a lonely person who kind of pushed everyone away and blamed a lot of his problems on everyone else, which is so true of my dad. So it was tough, but one thing I told Sarah that, like, blew my mind and – so my, my dad is a dog person. He’s always owned dogs; he’s never liked cats.
Sarah: Right.
Amanda: She’s like, did you have a cat pass away? And I said, no. And she’s like, well, your dad keeps pointing to a cat, and I’m like, well, I have a cat. And she’s like, is it a long-haired cat? And I said, yes. She’s like, is he two colors? Two light colors? And I said, yes. And she’s like, ‘cause your dad keeps talking about this cat, and I was like, that’s my cat!
Sarah: Right.
Amanda: Which is not something my dad would have known in life.
Sarah: Right.
Amanda: He’s never seen photos of my cat; he’s never met my cat. So for him to communicate that’s my cat is something that he would only know now. I’m seeing that your cat is playing with this, like, little round, white, round ball. Does he have, like, a toy that’s like a white, round ball? And I was like, yes, he does!
Sarah: Oh my gosh.
Amanda: And she’s like, well, when, when your cat is kind of like interacting with that toy, she’s like, that’s, that’s your dad. She’s like, your, your cat’s not fond of your dad, and your dad’s not exactly fond of the cat –
Sarah: [Laughs]
Amanda: – but he begrudgingly says it’s a nice cat.
And she’s like, your grandma’s saying that, you know, in life, I would have seen this sort of thing as a sin, and she’s like, but I know that’s not the case now. She’s like –
Sarah: Oh.
Amanda: – don’t believe it, don’t worry about it, so, like, she just knew pretty, like, intimate details about the kind of people both my dad and grandmother were. Yeah, and it was not like a, you know, like, I did a lot of crying, and I was talking to Eric about this, and he doesn’t put much weight into this sort of stuff –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Amanda: – but I was thinking, it’s like, why does it matter? You know, like, what if this isn’t real? Does that really matter in the grand scheme of things? In terms of, like, the way it made me feel, the way it, I feel like it’s helped, and I, and I don’t think it does! I don’t think it does matter.
One weird thing that I also told Sarah about is, like, during the session, there was a, a spirit trying to come through, and Carol described this person as, had a history of drinking, kind of like a single-syllable first name, and he had a, a tattoo of an anchor, and she said, usually that symbolizes marines or navy in terms of the military, and none of my relatives who have died really match that description? Like, a few of them had, like, you know, I have a grandfather named Roy who died of alcoholism, but he had no tattoos and wasn’t in the navy or marines, and, you know, like, no one fit that description. So I talked to my roommate, and I knew my roommate’s father was in the military, he was in the navy, but he wasn’t a drinker, and his tattoo was of something else.
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Amanda: So my roommate reached out to her aunt and was like, did Grandpa have a tattoo? Because she said her grandpa was a drinker and was in the navy and had a single-syllable first name, and her aunt responds, yes, why? And Stephanie’s like, oh, I, I just can’t remember what the tattoo was of, and her aunt respond was, responded with, well, he had a tattoo of an anchor.
Sarah: Oh my gosh.
Amanda: So I told Stephanie – [laughs] – and Stephanie told her aunt, and they’re like, what the fuck?!
Sarah: [Laughs]
Amanda: And, like, her aunt’s like, well, what did he say? And I’m like, nothing, because I told Carol I didn’t know this person, so, like, she didn’t kind of like allow him to come through. So Stephanie and her aunt might give this a try.
Sarah: Oh, that’s so cool!
Amanda: But, like, I thought it was so worth it.
Sarah: It clearly brought you some, some comfort and some feelings of acknowledgement of all of the stuff that you went through.
Amanda: Yeah! I mean, it’s not something that I would do, like, every day, obviously. Like, I would do it again if I felt like I had a reason to do it again.
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Amanda: And maybe after I make this pillow, maybe I’ll, I’ll do it again to see if Grandma approves. But it was just, I mean, the cat thing was nuts. Just, like, all these little details.
Sarah: I love that Linus does not like your dad, and your dad’s not fond of Linus. [Laughs]
Amanda: Which is, like, would be true. Like, if my dad –
Sarah: Yeah.
Amanda: – came and visited me, they would not mesh well at all.
Sarah: [Laughs]
Amanda: So it made it seem like my cat, my dad begrudgingly is accepting my cat because, like, my cat is the way to, like, communicate with me. [Laughs]
Sarah: Fine, I’ll talk to the cat. Talk not to the cat!
[Laughter]
Amanda: Talk not to the cat. But it was, it was really good! I thought it was worth it, and I’m glad I did it. I mean, it –
Sarah: You look like you feel better.
Amanda: I do feel better! I mean, it’s still, like, sad and weird, and I’m still kind of like, you know, making my way through this grief process, and, like, new things will come up and, you know, as I continue, but it’s definitely been helpful.
Sarah: Mm-hmm!
Amanda: Because, like, grief and dying is weird in the best of times.
Sarah: Oh yeah.
Amanda: Add in, like, what’s going on globally; add in the fact that, like, my dad and I didn’t have a good relationship –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Amanda: – and, you know, that was pretty strained in general –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Amanda: – and that I had to kind of step in and take care of a person who didn’t really take care of me –
Sarah: Mm-hmm. Those are some feelings.
Amanda: – makes it even weirder! Yeah!
Sarah: Those are a few feelings to deal with.
Amanda: Yeah! And, like, during the session, you know, Carol said, like, oh, your dad is saying that, you know, he is sorry that, like, you had to come in and parent him.
Sarah: Ouch.
Amanda: And, and she’s like, did he ever say sorry? And I said no! And she was like, well, he’s showing me an image of him in his hospice bed and you standing nearby, and he’s trying to say he’s sorry, but he can’t.
Sarah: Mmm.
Amanda: And towards the end of his life, he couldn’t talk.
Sarah: Right.
Amanda: Like, that’s how weak he was, where he couldn’t even open his mouth.
Sarah: Right.
Amanda: So yeah! It was emotional but good. [Sniffs]
Sarah: Cathartic, it sounds like.
Amanda: Oh yeah! Totally.
Sarah: Whenever I’ve talked to someone who has seen a psychic or a medium or had a reading done that has really affected them, and they have this sort of quiet, like, whoa, what just happened to me? kind of aura –
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: – about them, this sort of reaction of whoa, whoa, that was a lot? The, the value of just feeling seen and understood and – [huffs] – validated sounds like such a cheapening way to put it, but just to, to say, yes, this happened, and it was real, and it was hard, and here’s what you’re dealing with, and yeah! These are all things that are, that are true and difficult, and to feel that, to feel that sort of recognition of your own experience must be incredibly powerful.
Amanda: Yeah! I mean, I feel like there’s a lot of reasons why people would choose not to do this.
Sarah: Mm-hmm!
Amanda: You know, maybe, like, their faith makes them resistant, or, you know, they, maybe they think like it’s, it’s kind of like a con or whatever, but, like –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Amanda: – the, the way I feel post reading is such, like, a raw and real feeling that I can’t really argue against the decision that I made to do this. Like, the, the result of doing it is such, like, a, a very real outcome and experience. Like, what I’m feeling is so, like, intense –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Amanda: – and immeasurable that – I don’t know! Like, I, I feel like it’s one of those things that you have to experience to truly, like, understand?
Sarah: Mm-hmm! For sure.
Amanda: And I feel like once, once you do feel it, then you’ll know what I’m, then you’ll know what I mean.
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Amanda: But –
Sarah: And it’s not necessarily for everybody, but –
Amanda: No!
Sarah: – it worked for you, so who cares what anyone else thinks? You’re in charge.
Amanda: Yeah! [Laughs]
Sarah: Good news: you’re in charge! Bad news: you’re in charge.
Amanda: And you know, she was like, if something doesn’t make sense to you that I’m saying, don’t force it. Just tell me, you know, no, this doesn’t match anything, or I don’t understand, and there were times where she’s like, your, your grandmother is showing the number four; does that mean anything? And I was like, well, my, my birth month is April, and so was my father’s. She’s like, okay. She’s like, your grandmother’s saying no, that’s not what the four means. So it’s not like I would give Carol a yes to something and then, like, it would click.
Sarah: Right.
Amanda: You know, she would say no, that’s not what it means. So, but she was saying, like, four, there’s four of us, as in, you know, my grandmother, my grandfather, my father, and his brother; they’ve all passed.
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Amanda: So she’s saying there’s four of us here.
Sarah: Ohhh!
Amanda: So, you know, like, Carol doesn’t accept, you know, the easy answers necessarily?
Sarah: Right.
Amanda: And she also says that she could say something that doesn’t make sense right away.
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Amanda: Like, you know, she’ll say something and then, like, you won’t realize it until, like, a few days later.
Sarah: Yeah.
Amanda: Like, oh, that’s what this means.
Sarah: My brain is like that all the time!
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: All the time! All –
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: – all the time. I would, if I did something like this, I’d figure it out like next week, maybe next month.
Amanda: Yep. So, I mean, if anyone’s curious about it, I, I recommend it. I’m not being – [laughs] – paid to say this or promote it. I –
Sarah: Oh no!
Amanda: – did this all on my own. And, you know, just, I went with Carol just because, you know, Sarah spoke highly of, like, how comforting and warm and, and kind of approachable –
Sarah: Oh, she seemed lovely in our interview.
Amanda: She, she was!
Sarah: I don’t know if you listened to the interview. She was just very, like you said, warm and chill and kind and very accepting!
Amanda: Yeah! She, she really, I was put at ease pretty immediately. Like, it’s a little weird hopping on a Zoom call and, like –
Sarah: With someone you don’t know to go talk to the spirit world. I can see why that –
Amanda: Yeah!
Sarah: – would be strange on many levels.
Amanda: Turning your camera on – you know, that sort of thing.
Sarah: While you cry for an hour.
Amanda: While I cry.
Sarah: Yeah, I would do that; I would be a mess.
Amanda: Yeah. But I felt pretty comfortable rather quickly with her, so I would definitely recommend her if anyone’s curious. The process was super easy. You know, you make an appointment with a, on a calendar. You get a Zoom link, and then you just show up –
Sarah: Yep! Boom, boom, boom.
Amanda: – when it’s your time!
Sarah: Yep.
Amanda: And I, I think I paid for a fifty-minute session? I think she has a shorter session, like thirty minutes –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Amanda: – or something like that, but the fifty minutes went by quickly, and I would have –
Sarah: Oh yeah.
Amanda: – I wouldn’t have minded doing another fifty. It was really good, really emotional, but I, I thought it was wonderful.
Sarah: I’m so glad!
Amanda: Yeah!
Sarah: Go you!
Amanda: [Laughs] Yes.
Sarah: In addition to reading with psychics, what are you reading?
Amanda: Ooh. So I’m reading The Roommate by Rosie Danan?
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Amanda: I think that’s how you pronounce her last name?
Sarah: A, a lot of people have mentioned that they want to read this book! Like, it was mentioned a couple times in the Hide Your Wallet.
Amanda: Yes! And I think we meant, like, several of our reviewers have already read it and have been talking about it on Slack. Yeah, the hero is, works in, like, the adult film industry? Which is something that I’ve always wanted to see more of in romance, and the, the few books that I have read that have sex workers have been bad, so –
[Laughter]
Amanda: Very, like, slut-shame-y, which feels like an antithesis to having someone in sex work?
Sarah: Right, like you give them that character background and then denigrate them for it; well, what was the point?
Amanda: Yeah. So, and I’m hoping to finish it while I am glamping.
And then – trying to think – I don’t know what’s up after that! I mean, I have The Duke Who Didn’t by Courtney Milan on my Kindle.
Sarah: Yaaay!
Amanda: I don’t mean to brag, everyone; I’m sorry! But I’m also, like, in a very, like, spooky horror mood? So there’s this one book that I just added to my Goodreads. It’s called The Beguiling?
Sarah: Ooohhh!
Amanda: By Zsuzsi Gartner, and the, the, like, blurb at the top says, “An electrifying debut from the Giller Prize-shortlisted author of Better Living Through Plastic Explosives that takes readers for a wild ride with urban-gothic flair and delectably wicked humour.” So –
Sarah: That sounds like all the words that you like.
Amanda: Yeah, so – “With ruthless wit and dizzying energy, The Beguiling explores blessings and curses, sainthood and sin, mortality and guilt in all its guises.”
Sarah: Oooh!
Amanda: “Weaving together tales of errant mothers, vengeful plants, canine wisdom, and murder –“
Sarah: Vengeful plants.
Amanda: [Laughs] “– it lays bare the flesh and blood sacrifices people are willing to make to get what they think they desire.”
Sarah: Oh damn!
Amanda: Yeah, so I’m very excited for that one, and I don’t, I don’t know when it’s out! Oh, it’s out at the end of October.
Sarah: So you’re going to listen to that one.
Amanda: Yeah!
Sarah: While you’re stitching.
Amanda: Yeah. I mean, that’s – [laughs] – stitching for a ghost and listening to a creepy urban Gothic story.
Sarah: As you do!
Amanda: Yeah! That’s what I have in, in progress and currently lined up.
Sarah: Very cool. Do you want to hear what I’m reading?
Amanda: Yeah, of course!
Sarah: Okay.
Amanda: Duh!
Sarah: Duh! So –
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: – I just finished Because Internet: Understanding –
Amanda: Oh, that’s right!
Sarah: – the New Rules of Language by Gretchen McCulloch. It’s super interesting and super good, and particularly the chapters on things like the history of memes and memes as language, so that if you understand a meme, then you’re part of an in group –
Amanda: Yes.
Sarah: – and it’s a way of creating community, but it’s also main-, a way of maintaining community, so if you don’t understand the meme, you’re not part of the group. That part was –
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: – fascinating to me, because if you think about it, I mean, we’ve talked a lot about how the romance community has its own language, and in the absence of adequate descriptors for books, readers have made up their own –
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: – so that now we have authors and publishers marketing using reader-developed languages like tags from fanfic and here’s the trope, here’s the hero archetype, here’s the heroine archetype, here’s the, you know, there was only one bed and he’s a secret spy, and so you have –
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: – reader-developed languages being used to sell books because readers didn’t have sufficient language to really identify the difference between, say, a contemporary romance by Debbie Macomber and a contemporary romance byyy –
Amanda: Alisha Rai.
Sarah: – Alisha Rai! Those are different things! Those are very different things! So I loved that because I could see how it, how it applied to romance, but I also just loved the part where she talks about old internet? Like, if – I sent you that quiz when we were streaming.
Amanda: Yeah!
Sarah: What are the apps that you first used? Or what are the programs that you first used when you signed on? And, and just remembering things like Usenet, like alt.tv.x-files, like oh wow, I feel old! Yes, that is where I used to hang out. Apparently I am old internet, which I find hilarious.
Amanda: The, the section, like, memes and stuff I thought really interesting because I am a millennial, my brother is Gen Z –
Sarah: Mm-hmm.
Amanda: – and I feel like –
Sarah: I’m Gen X, yeah.
Amanda: – yeah – and I feel like communication with my brother and me, it’s half memes half of the time.
Sarah: [Laughs]
Amanda: It’s just like memes back and forth. And, like, that’s quite – like, we could have an entire conversation just sending memes back and forth from each other, and I think, like, people of a certain age have, like, a repertoire of memes –
Sarah: Oh yeah.
Amanda: – to use? You know what I mean? [Laughs]
Sarah: Oh yeah.
Amanda: So I thought that part was most interesting.
Sarah: Oh, you’ve already read it?
Amanda: Yeah, I’m, like, almost done with it!
Sarah: Oh my God, I had no idea you were currently reading it!
Amanda: Yeah!
Sarah: So we’re going to do a podcast where we talk about this book, and what I love is that I talked about it in our recent Hide Your Wallet – or not, not Hide Your Wallet; Whatcha Reading? – and Gretchen McCulloch tweeted, oh my God, my book’s on Smart Bitches!
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: So I want to invite her join us for a conversation about it, because I think with, with a, with a, a linguist and a researcher, it’s interesting to talk about the work they did because it’s, it’s still evolving. Like, the work that she does –
Amanda: Yeah.
Sarah: – is still changing, and the way that you and I each approach this stuff is going to be so interesting. So I just finished that.
So I have an audio listening copy from the, the publisher of a book by Dani Shapiro called Still Writing? I don’t know why I like to read and listen to books on writing? I do it all the time?
Amanda: Hmm!
Sarah: The writing thing, but I also like listening –
Amanda: Yeah. [Laughs]
Sarah: – and reading books on writing, so I’m enjoying that, because it’s part memoir and part writing, and this is the part that’s hard, and I’m like, yep, that sure is the part that’s hard! It’s all hard! Good – this is true. So that I just started yesterday while I was cooking. Now that the kids have started school, I am cooking even more. There’s a lot of cooking going on.
Amanda: Yeah!
Sarah: A whole lot.
Amanda: And we circle back to food.
Sarah: And we circle back to food! So I have made –
Amanda: [Laughs]
Sarah: – Denver omelet; I have made pumpkin bread; tonight I’m making Mac and cheese; tomorrow is Friday, so we’re going to do takeout; this weekend we’re making homemade pizza. We’ve got plans.
Amanda: Oh my gosh!
[music]
Sarah: And that brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you to Amanda for hanging out with me again, and thank you for all of your email and recommendations. If you would like to get in touch, you can email us at [email protected]. I have heard from so many of you who enjoy the episodes with me and Amanda, so we’ll try to make it a more frequent feature, and if you would like book recommendations, email us. We love telling you what to read. We are very expensive people to know, and we know this. But we love hearing from you, so please get in touch if you would like to; we love your email.
Thank you again to the Patreon community for keeping the show going every week. You can be a part of the excellent Patreon community and get a heads-up about upcoming interviews. Have a look at patreon.com/SmartBitches.
I will have links to all of the recipes and the books that we talked about; do not worry.
And as always, I will close this episode with a bad joke. This joke comes from Jennie, and since so many of us have now gone fully back to school, whether that’s virtual or hybrid or in person, we have a math joke. Which is great, ‘cause I’m terrible at math, but I like this joke. You ready? Here we go:
Why was six afraid of seven?
Well, because seven ate nine, you knew that.
But why did seven eat nine?
Because he heard you should eat three squared meals a day!
[Laughs] Yes, math jokes! Math jokes are the best! Thank you, Jennie! Please, please send me your bad jokes; they make me so happy! I giggle like a goofball, and then my family comes to the office and they’re like, what are you laughing at? Are you telling bad jokes again? [Laughs again]
On behalf of everyone here, we wish you the very best of reading. Have a wonderful weekend. We will see you back here next week.
Smart Podcast, Trashy Books is part of the Frolic Podcast Network. You can find outstanding shows to listen to while you do math at frolic.media/podcasts.
[jaunty music]
This podcast transcript was handcrafted with meticulous skill by Garlic Knitter. Many thanks.
@SBSarah @SBAmanda:
Cinnamon Graham crackers are amazing, if you’ve never had them. I don’t know if they would work with s’mores though. Also, I’ve never made a recipe for any type of Graham cracker, or any type of cracker, so the amazing cinnamon variety was the one you get from the grocery store.
First—I want go glamping in Maine.
Second—I want to hug Amanda because the work she had to do to even entertain caring for her father took an unfathimabke amount of courage and grace.
I am so excited that you’re going to be doing a podcast with Gretchen McCulloch! Two of my favourite podcasters in one go!
I love these episodes with all the food talk. (The rest of the episode was also awesome – the stuff about the reading was fascinating – but I mean, come on, FOOD!) I have made that chicken bacon lentil stew after hearing Sarah talk about it, and it is wonderful.
Like Amanda, I love mac and cheese and hot dogs. This may appall some people, but I sometimes make a quick and easy meal I like to call Dinner for an Eight-Year-Old, and it’s Kraft Mac and Cheese with hot dogs, and the key part is you cut up the hot dogs (about three per Mac and Cheese package) and boil them with the noodles, then proceed with directions as usual. I do love “real” macaroni and cheese, but some days it’s just too much work! And Kraft Mac and Cheese has its own merits, so sometimes I just go with it.
I must say, I appreciate the high standards this podcast has for comfort food. Home-made graham crackers? Gourmet mac-n-cheese? Yes please.
These cozy, compassionate chats between Sarah and Amanda have been such a balm to my soul and a weekly refuge. Thank you for your vulnerability, Amanda, in sharing your experience visiting with Ms. Cotrell. I’m glad you found solace and a bit of catharsis. I’m sorry these past 4 years have brought you so much grief. I hope the next four are more joyful for you.
Thanks for an enjoyable and fascinating discussion, Sarah and Amanda. And thank you, garlicknitter, for the transcript.
I know I’m a bit late but…
“I saw a smores recipe involving graham crackers, hot marshmallow, and a Reese’s peanut butter cup.”
A warning to everyone who wants to make this. My mother made something very similar to that, and she basically made cement which was extremely hard to cut. (A dollop somehow ended up on the kitchen tile under the dishwasher and we’re pretty sure it’s stuck there for all eternity.)