best podcasts of 2023

I wouldn’t call myself a podcast aficionado by any stretch of the imagination, but I do have a few podcasts that I listen to consistently and enjoy, so I thought I’d share a short list of my favorites that I’ve voraciously devoured over the course of the past year. Based on my TV interests, I’d think that I’d gravitate towards the true crime serial type shows, but I actually don’t listen to any true crime podcasts, oddly enough. I think I’ve found that my sweet spot is learning/unlearning things paired with snarky shit talking.

5-4 was a new podcast for me in 2023, and it became one of my absolute favorites. It’s one of the only podcasts that I actually pay for the subscription to access bonus episodes and since I’m fully caught up, I’ve been delving into the archives to get even more 5-4. Oddly enough (for me, I suppose) 5-4 is a podcast about the Supreme Court. More specifically it’s a podcast about how much the supreme court sucks. Having grown up in a conservative household and worldview, I never thought much about the supreme court or the decisions of the supreme court being positive or negative. I think I probably had the opinion that it was a protective body upholding the constitution. But I’ll admit outside of landmark cases like the recent Dobb’s decision, the Supreme Court wasn’t something I thought about much, especially in the context of my current leftist perspective. Learning from Michael, Rhiannon, and Peter — all left leaning lawyers— about notable supreme court decisions that have helped (negatively) shape legal precedent and US society has been really illuminating. And their hilarious commentary and snarky take downs make the podcast something I’ve laughed out loud to on many occasions, not something I would have thought I’d do listening to a podcast about the supreme court.

Maintenance Phase has been a staple in my podcast lineup since 2022. It’s essentially a podcast about debunking junk science and cultural ideas about health and weight. The hosts, Michael and Aubrey, take turns each podcast teaching the other about a topic, book, or public figure that has made an impact on the cultural discourse or widely accepted “science” surrounding weight, nutrition, and health. And while the hosts themselves are absolutely hilarious to listen to (again, a podcast I regularly laugh out loud to) they actually do a remarkably thorough amount of research for each episode. In a way I feel like it’s sneaky the way they spoon feed me so much incredible information and research because the podcast is a brilliantly enjoyable listen. Michael and Aubrey have the wittiest rapport with one another and, like 5-4, their humor is snarky and biting— right up my alley. These two are doing some serious heavy lifting in dissecting and debunking so much in the realm of fatphobia, and have been instrumental in a lot of my own personal unlearning in that area.

You might recognize the names of the hosts of If Books Could Kill— Michael is a host on Maintenance Phase and Peter is a host on 5-4. My podcast taste is a little incestuous it seems. What really happened is that I listened to Maintenance Phase and then Michael announced his new podcast If Books Could Kill and I knew that I’d enjoy it because I love Maintenance Phase so much. Then I listened to If Books Could Kill and enjoyed Peter so much, when I discovered he was on 5-4, I started listening to that. So there you go.

If Books Could Kill is essentially a podcast debunking and, you got it, talking shit about the runaway bestselling books that America has fallen in love with and potentially fallen for some bullshit ideas wrapped in the shiny cover of a seemingly life-changing book. So think… your Atomic Habits, The World is Flat, The Five Love Languages, The Coddling of the American Mind, The Secret, etc. This podcast has a similar format to Maintenance phase where each episode one of the hosts basically teaches the other one about a book or topic that they’ve read and deeply researched (though Peter will admit, Michael does the lion’s share when it comes to research). It’s wildly entertaining and oddly educational.

We Can Do Hard Things is a podcast that I don’t find myself listening to each and every episode of, but I do enjoy quite a few of their guests, so I’ll cherry pick here and there when they’ve got a guest who I’m interested in hearing. Most recently I listened to the newest Liz Gilbert episode, and the Dr. Becky Kennedy episodes are some of the most impactful parenting information/perspective I’ve gotten from a podcast. The format is typically the three hosts conversing with a guest, but they do have quite a few episodes where it’s just the hosts— Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, and Amanda Doyle. Glennon and Abby are married, and Glennon and Amanda are sisters, so they all have a fun dynamic. It’s a super heartfelt podcast that often has a deep spiritual and life-lesson-y focus, but they’re more irreverent and funny than, say, your Oprah SuperSoul podcast. They have lots of big-name guests on the show, including Kamala Harris, Michelle Obama, Brene Brown, etc. If you’re doing some deep shadow work and emotional healing in 2024, this might be a podcast you find helpful!

Best DIY Projects of 2023

2023 was a bit of a slower year project-wise but I love what I got to create this past year. These are in no particular order but I think my top three are the library, the fireplace, and the disco mirrors. I’m counting The DIY Awards as a DIY project because, well, it was quite possibly the most intense, stressful, and time consuming DIY project I did all year. Tap on each link to go to the tutorial for that project (and if you click the DIY Awards one it’ll take you to the Awards round up with photos from the event, as well as all the winners!).

I don’t have anything solid planned for 2024 projects, but I’ve had some things that have been needing to be done for many years and I’m hoping to get those projects ticked off this year (there’s a half finished bathroom staring at me right now).

All in all, I’m proud of what I did in 2023, most of all the rest I allowed myself to take. I’m feeling like I’m going into the new year recharged and re-inspired, whereas I basically dragged myself through January last year trying to finish up and put on the DIY Awards event, and then subsequently was burnt out for a good portion of the year.

So here’s to 2023 and her accomplishments, and a fresh new year ahead full of possibility.

01/ The Ikea-hack built-in library

02/ The DIY Modern Garden Trellis

03/ The DIY faux concrete electric fireplace

04/ The Disco Mirror projects

Disco Mirror Jr.

big disco mirror

DIY Disco mirror booties

05/ The DIY Awards

A DIY Minecraft Birthday Party

The two weeks before Christmas are always a little bit of a mad dash since Jack’s birthday is in that time period. Every year I try my best to create a really fun party for him to help ensure his birthday doesn’t get rolled into the busy-ness of the holiday season. This past year he’s gotten super into Minecraft (and TBH our whole family has, which has been a blast), so we obviously had to do a Minecraft themed birthday party.

All three of us were Minecraft characters for Halloween, so I saved those costumes to use as decor for the party (the Ghast below was Dan’s costume). Some of the decor was just Minecraft party decor from Target, like the table cloth, but most of it was DIY! I grabbed some of the printable decor from the Jennifer Maker blog, and then I tweaked some of her downloads in photoshop to add more things.

One of the fun ideas I got from her blog was to incorporate the in-game food as the party food. So we had melon (watermelon), apples, carrots, sticks (chocolate pocky), chicken (chicken nuggets), rotten flesh (beef jerky), and potions (apple juice and koolaid). I usually do a pretty fancy cake and this year’s was one of the harder ones I’ve done, simply because fondant is way harder to apply to a square cake, but we made it work. I did a grass block for the base layer and did green fondant with green food coloring painted squares for the grass, and then brown sprinkles stuck to chocolate frosting for the dirt part. Then the top layer was all fondant frosting and I printed the TNT on paper, cut the letters out, and stuck them on with water.

We made Minecraft themed perler bead patterns as a craft, which is definitely a 7/8 year old and older activity, but it was super fun.

I have a feeling this obsession might continue far into the future so this might not be my last Minecraft birthday party, but it was for sure a fun one!

Abstract art making and attuning to intuition

My comfort in formative art lies in the comfort I feel knowing I’m capable of replicating an object or image realistically. I know that once I choose a subject, I’ll be able to render it sufficiently. Abstract art removes that crutch entirely. In the past I’ve approached abstract art by replicating other abstract art— basically doing the same thing I do with representational art, applying it to abstract art that I enjoy as a viewer. But that’s not my art. In order to make my abstract art, I would have to stop looking outside myself and tap into something inside myself and that, folks, is uncomfy. I’m not great at listening to my intuition. I’d rather take a course, or hire a coach, or follow some kind of template, or, or— instead of quieting all the outside influences and seeing what oozes out of my own intuitive creativity. 

There’s also a guarantee of “goodness” in my representational work. Because I know I’m able to render things realistically, I know that it will turn out “good” or at least good enough to not trigger fear or anxiety. In my representational work I avoid the pain of creating “bad art” to a certain degree. Which isn’t to say that everything I’ve made that is representational and realistic is good art, far from it. But at least the badness about it can at least partially be looked over by the fact that it looks alright from a realism standpoint.

I was painting over this orange monstrosity earlier today, and Dan came over and watched me for a moment before I lamented to him about how abstract art feels so unnatural to me. And maybe that’s true, maybe I’m really not an abstract artist. But he reminded me that I’m new at creating abstract work and that I should expect to be amazing at it first try (how dare he. I must be amazing at all things first try, doesn’t he know?!?).

I was on the verge of completely giving up on the piece, and I may still paint over it completely and start over, but I think I might still try to push into doing abstract work. The above screenshot from my IG story yesterday mentions bringing in typographic elements, and I think I might attempt some mixed media elements. I really l love postmodern and pop art and have since college, and 90% of the art I have hanging in my house is typographic. Maybe it’s the writer side of me elbowing my way in, or the printmaker, but I really really love typography elements in fine art.

So. Here I am. Just a girl, standing in front of a canvas, asking abstract art to come out of my brain and onto the canvas.

DIY Disco Mirror Jr.

Look who made another disco mirror after saying she was never going to do it again looooooool. This one was for a good cause though, and if there was ever going to be a reason for me to make another disco mirror, DIY for a Cure is the reason. Every year DIY for a Cure puts on a week of DIY devoted to raising money for childhood cancer research with the goal of reaching $100,000. They host a ton of raffles to win amazing items from brands and anyone can participate as a DIYer by offering up something to raffle off. You see where I’m going with this? Yup, I got down to business glueing tiny 5mm mirrors once again, this time with the goal of raising $1000 for DIY for a Cure.

I made this one slightly different than my full length mirror version I finished in February. I intentionally made that one to be more like melted disco balls and so I used spray foam to create the forms. For this one, I wanted it to be more like half-disco balls all joined together, so the base for this one is styrofoam spheres I grabbed at Michaels. I joined them together using spray foam that I carved so that each ball seamlessly blended into its neighbors.

Knowing that this mirror was going to be sent to someone else, I was also much more intentional about making sure it was finished really professionally. I covered the mirror with paper while I worked so the surface of the mirror didn’t get scratched while I’m working (unfortunately my big mirror is covered in scratches from working on it uncovered for months). I also spray painted the balls silver before putting the mirrors on so any blank spots would be silver (TBH I could probably have skipped this— using 5mm mirrors the coverage is pretty solid, but had I been using 10mm mirrors I think there would probably be more visible gaps).

Anyway, I’m so so thrilled with how this one turned out and I’m a little sad to have to send it off, but I’m also thrilled that someone else will get these sparkle disco vibes in their life!

There’s one more day left to enter to win this mirror! A $50 donation to my DIY for a Cure page gets you entered to win! Just donate, screenshot your donation and DM it to me, and you’re entered to win! The raffle entries close at 6pm Pacific on Sunday Oct 8th, 2023.