🧪Your Podcast Potion | The Week of Dec 23
Play with others not against, Hallmark movie critic, waste time, don't listen to the dudes, what if you could only whisper, be near water, and ozempic.
Hi :) How’s the weather where you are? I can see out my window that it’s finally stopped raining and now I’m deciding whether to go for a bike ride or a walk. My kids are all at a trampoline park with friends while I revel in the quiet.
This week is an interesting one for all of us. We feel the pressure to recalibrate, write down our dreams and what we hope to manifest, and really make 2025 THE YEAR.
I’m tempted like many of you to make a shocking 180-degree turn in my life, to jump on the bandwagon of self-improvement and goal setting, to kick bad habits to the curb once and for all.
However, if everyone pushes me in one direction I often go the other.
With that said, I’d encourage you to approach January 1st like any other Wednesday and instead of harnessing your sparkly motivation, simply take a step. Today carries meaning and significance and surprise because it is TODAY not because of any certain date.
Perhaps on Wednesday, you choose to tweak one thing in your life, not twenty.
And like every other day, you decide to be as present as possible to the magic swirling in and around you and do your very best to see life through the lens of a creative wanderer, determined to let your questions and curiosity guide you joyfully to the next thing and the next thing after that…
This podcast potion is a curated list of worthwhile listens from the week of December 23 to the 29th. It’s designed to keep you company throughout the ebbs and flows of your daily routines and ease you into 2025 with zero guilt or pressure to do or be more than who you already are.
Monday
The Goal Digger Podcast | How To Finally Stop Caring What Others Thing with Mel Robbins | Dec 23 2024 | 1 hr 5 min
“You aren’t playing against anyone in life. You’re playing with them. And if you understand that happiness and success and money and love and friendship, these are all in limitless supply. They’re there for the taking. I didn’t understand this until I was 54 years old.”
-Mel Robbins
Tuesday
The Daily | How a Skeptical Critic Came to Love Hallmark Christmas Movies | Dec 24 2024 | 30 min
“I began to find them comforting. I didn’t want anything dramatic to happen. I didn’t want anything surprising to happen or stressful. I was already feeling enough of that. I wanted everything to be firmly predictable. And it was.”
-Amanda Hess
Wednesday
The Best of How To | Best of “How To”: Waste Time | Dec 16 2024 | 34 min
“Now the default is that we’re all moving incredibly fast and it becomes a form of agency to be able to sit with a problem, sit with an experience, not need to bring things to the next stage or figure out where they’re headed.”
-Oliver Burkeman
Thursday
Terrible, Thanks For Asking | You’re Not Lazy, You’re Overwhelmed (feat. Kendra Adachi, The Lazy Genius) | Dec 26 2024 | 25 min
“These dudes tell us that if every single day is not building on itself to lead an ideal future version of yourself, it doesn’t count. And that’s just the most untrue thing ever.”
-Kendra Adachi
Friday
How Stories Happen | Whisper | Dec 26 2024 | 22 min
“The internet has gotten more pushy and more obnoxious…in reaction to this noise and sensationalism, I say, we speak softly and carry a big idea.”
-Jay Acunzo
Saturday
The Science of Happiness | How Water Heals | Nov 7 2024 | 27 min
“It’s really cool science…that just listening to rain or waves, just the sounds of it can calm your neurophysiology of stress, reduce anxiety, give you better focus.”
-Dacher Keltner
Sunday
The Daily | The Sunday Read: ‘Ozempic Could Crush the Junk Food Industry. But It Is Fighting Back.’ | Dec 29 2024 | 31 min
“Researchers have also discovered something interesting about GLP-1’s, they change the kinds of foods that people are interested in eating. So instead of packaged, processed foods many users tend to gravitate toward fresh fruits and vegetables.”
-Thomas Weber
So much good stuff! I hope you find one that resonates and feels enlightening, entertaining, or encouraging in some way!
I’ll be back on January 1st with some timely words on how a curious wanderer might approach another year in the face of all the self-help and goal-setting talk.
Much love,
Charissa
PS: Here’s a little bonus episode from my “Good Stuff To Save” list: The Cult of Manifestation from Sounds Like A Cult.