Stephany Writes

Categories: Life

August Recap

I remember how excited I was when August began, and how quickly I wanted it to pass because I’m just sooo anxious for my move! And, whew, August did not let me down in how quickly it passed. I can’t believe we’re in September and I’m just days away from my move. Eeks!

Before I get too excited about this month and all the fun changes it is going to bring, let’s discuss August!

READING

I read 12 books in August and hit 100 books! It’s looking more and more likely that I could cross that elusive goal of reading 150 books this year. We shall see! Here are my top three books from August:

WATCHING

  • The Floor Is Lava (Netflix) – This game show is completely ridiculous, but I loved every second of it, haha. I miss crazy game shows like this! The basics of this show is that people have to make their way across a room, jumping on tables and couches and other random objects to do so. All of these objects are surrounded by lava so if they miscalculate a jump, they could easily fall in and thus, they’re out of the game. So fun!
  • The Baby-Sitter’s Club (Netflix) – I finished season 1 (and I’m praying so hard for a season 2). I loved every second of this series and the changes they made to make it more diverse and inclusive. Give this one a watch, for sure!
  • Golden Girls, season 4 (Hulu) – Still working my way through Golden Girls and I love spending a few evenings a week with these ladies.
  • The West Wing (Netflix) – I’m still on season 1 of The West Wing as I only watch one episode a week. Still thoroughly enjoying it, although I find the way the characters talk to the president to be highly unbelievable (it almost feels disrespectful?? Hmm).
  • Big Brother 22 (CBS) – YASSSS. The only show I watch in real time is baaack. I was so thrilled when CBS announced they were going to do an all-stars season, and curious how it was all going to happen with COVID. The contestants went under a two-week quarantine before the show began and I’m pretty sure they get regular COVID testing while in the Big Brother house (but don’t quote me on that). Happy to have this super fun reality show back in my life!

LISTENING TO

  • Folklore by Taylor Swift – I have been listening to Taylor’s new album here and there, usually when I’m driving around, so I have only listened to it all the way through once. I didn’t fall immediately in love with it during my first listen as I did for Lover, but as I’m relistening, I’m realizing just how much I love this album and its quieter style.
  • Rob Has a Podcast – One of the reasons I am so behind on my podcast queue is that I started listening to Big Brother episode recaps from Rob Has a Podcast. Each recap is at least 90 minutes long and with three episodes a week, that’s, well, a lot of listening time! But it’s been fun to follow along with the RHAP team this season.
  • Behind the Bastards – I added this podcast to my feed this month and I’m currently working my way through the archives. Each episode is about an hour long, discussing a bad person from history and some of the bizarre factoids of their lives.

BUYING

  • Dining room table ($400) – I already mentioned this last week, but I bought a dining room table for my new place! My new dining room won’t be terribly large so I didn’t want something that would take up the whole space and I think this cute set will be perfect.
  • Bath containers (3 @ $20/each) – I love these containers so much that I now have four (my mom gave me one that she had but never used). They operate on a lazy Susan and are rather large so they can fit a lot of stuff into one container. I have two that I use for all my cleaning supplies and two I use in my bathroom.
  • Plunger ($15) – Such a boring adult purchase, but necessary. Earlier this month, my toilet clogged and I had to call the emergency maintenance line to have it fixed immediately. All he had to do was plunge it, and I decided I needed to get my own plunger so I didn’t have to worry about calling for such a simple request! Since I bought this plunger, I’ve had to plunge my toilet twice so I guess it was a good purchase!

MOMENTS

  • I went on a nice long walk around a nature preserve on a Sunday morning and it was exactly what my soul needed. An hour to be in nature, move my body, and listen to a podcast was perfect.

  • I celebrated seven years at my job! I can’t believe I’ve been there for so long. It’s nice to feel like one of the “OGs” of my department, though, and I’m thinking about ways to expand my role and open new avenues of growth for me. I had my annual review with my manager and director, which went wonderful, and they seemed keen on the ideas I proposed for growing my role.
  • I went to poll worker training! I learned so much and I’m looking forward to helping out in November’s election. (Quick note: Being a poll worker is not a volunteer position. I thought it was, but it is actually a paid position!)

  • All that said, I don’t know if I’m cut out to be a standby poll worker. I had so much anxiety waiting to be called in! And of course, I did: This is not the best scenario for someone with social anxiety. I didn’t know if I was going to be called in, where I would be working, who I would be working with, what I would be doing. I went through the training and read the manual and watched the videos, but actually WORKING at a precinct is an entirely different ballgame. My stomach was in knots while I waited and it took at least three days afterward before the anxiety fully left my system. (I’m even feeling anxious as I write this bullet point and remember how I felt!) I didn’t sleep well and was super distracted all week. So, next time around, I’d like to just be assigned to a precinct. I can’t do the waiting game again!
  • A dear friend sent me the coziest cat blanket for my new place (but of course, I’m already using it – how can I not?) I love it so much!

  • Kamala was announced as Biden’s VP pick and I couldn’t be happier about it! No, Biden is not my first choice (Kamala wasn’t either) but none of that matters. Our country is in crisis and Trump has shown time and again that he doesn’t have what it takes to be president. We need someone who is, and that someone is Biden.
  • My mom and stepdad officially moved into their house this month, finishing all of their pre-move tasks in the nick of time. 🙂 To celebrate, we had game night with my brother and older nephew! So fun!

  • I met up with some friends at a local park one evening, which was so lovely and filled up my cup! Officially, it was our ten-year book club anniversary but with everything going on, we just met for a picnic and chit-chat!
  • One of the sweeter moments of August was discovering that Lila will allow me to hold her now! She used to stick her ears back and get out her claws the minute I tried to pick her up, but she’s grown comfortable enough with me that she’ll let me hold her and snuggle her. It makes me so happy! (Now, if she would only let me administer her flea/heartworm medication, sigh. It’s a topical treatment and she fights me so hard on it!)
Categories: Life

Seven Things I Learned During Poll Worker Training

A few weekends ago, I attended poll worker training! I have wanted to find a way to get involved in politics (rather than ranting about issues to friends and listening to my liberal podcasts, heh), and becoming a poll worker seemed like a pretty good idea. After all, there will be a shortage of poll workers this year with COVID-19, considering many poll workers are older and more at risk for complications if they get the virus. I thought that becoming a poll worker would be a good way to get involved and provide a service for my community.

Let me tell you, my head was spinning after the three-hour training I attended. There is so much more to being a poll worker than I ever expected—so many checklists to follow and processes to know. It’s a big job, when you think about it, as poll workers are in charge of helping to make sure people can vote their ballot and getting that ballot to the proper elections office so it can be counted.

Here’s what I learned while going through this training:

1) A poll worker’s main job is to make sure no voter leaves without casting a ballot. Maybe not all poll workers operate this way, but they should. This point was particularly hammered home in my training that anyone who comes to a polling precinct to vote shouldn’t leave without voting (unless they’re at the wrong precinct). This is the duty of the poll worker, to help facilitate the voting process, and that’s what every poll worker should want to do. I realize that I have the privilege of being a white voter so I am not disenfranchised at the polls in the way BIPOC are, but I wanted to begin with this statement because no poll worker should limit a voter’s right to vote. Period, end of story.

2) You can vote without ID. I knew a little about provisional ballots before my training, but not much. A provisional ballot is a ballot that isn’t cast until questions regarding the voter’s eligibility are resolved. For example, if you don’t bring your ID with you to vote, you can still vote via provisional ballot! You should not be excluded from voting just because you do not have a specific form of identification. Voter ID laws are inherently discriminatory, but that’s a discussion for another day.

3) You can vote even if the poll worker says you can’t. This is another instance of being able to vote via provisional ballot. There are certainly cases in which a poll worker may tell you that you cannot vote. Perhaps the system shows that you already voted or your name isn’t showing up in the system as an eligible voter. There are also instances where a person’s voting eligibility is challenged, either by another person or a poll worker. In every case, you can still vote by provisional ballot. Don’t leave the polling site without voting your provisional ballot! (And no, this doesn’t mean someone is about to vote twice, if the system shows they already voted and then they also vote a provisional ballot. The provisional ballot will be spoiled if there is clear evidence that the voter did already vote.)

4) You can ask for another ballot if you make a mistake. This was brand new information to me! I didn’t know that I was legally allowed to ask for another ballot (up to two times) if I made a mistake on my ballot. I always thought that the ballot I was given was my ONE AND ONLY BALLOT DO NOT MESS THIS UP. Apparently, I didn’t need to be so precious about it. 😉

5) Every polling place has an ADA-compliant voting machine for individuals with disabilities, and you can also ask a poll worker to help. I had never wondered about what the voting process is like for someone with a disability, which just speaks to my own able-bodied privilege. How goddamn privileged to not have to wonder about ADA compliance! Every precinct has an ADA-compliant voting machine for people with disabilities and in my county, we use the AutoMARK machine that allows for voting via audio ballot, using a Braille touchpad, and using a sip/puff tube. Another option is to ask a poll worker to help. In this scenario, two poll workers of different parties will come with you to the voting booth and help you vote your ballot.

6) Every poll worker has a specific job. I mean, perhaps I knew about this somewhat but it was really interesting to learn about all the different positions and how they function. First, there’s the clerk and assistant clerk (I trained to be an AC). The clerk is the head honcho and the AC helps them out. The clerk handles any of the more complicated cases (i.e., the voter doesn’t have ID, the voter isn’t in the system, etc.) and deals with the provisional ballots. Then, there are four other positions:

  • Deputy – This is the person who greets you at the door and directs you to where you need to go. They also handle putting up election signs outside and taking them down, as well as maintaining order outside the precinct.
  • Inspector – Once you’re inside the polling precinct, you’ll go to the inspector who checks you in and gives you a voting pass. If they can’t check you in for some reason, you will be sent to the clerk.
  • Ballot distribution manager – After getting checked in, you’ll be directed to the BDM who will take your voting pass and then provide you with the correct ballot based on that ticket. If you mess up your ballot, you’ll see the BDM to get a new one. Before the polls open, the BDM has to count up all the ballots the precinct has received and note that on a specific audit sheet. Then, after the polls have closed, the BDM has to count up the number of ballots remaining and subtract that number from the number of ballots originally received and then cross-reference that with how many ballots were submitted into the voting machine. The number of ballots submitted + the number of ballots left = number of original ballots. Make sense?
  • Machine manager – This individual makes sure all of the ballots are correctly read by the voting machine. They are not allowed to look at the ballots (even if they have to rescue it from getting jammed). At the end of the night, the MM is the one who delivers all of the ballots that were fed into the machine to the election office.

7) The poll workers work looooong days. I was astounded to learn how long a poll worker’s day is! Poll workers must arrive at the precinct by 5:30AM to begin the set-up process and are legally not allowed to leave until the polls close at 7pm—but their day isn’t done then! Not only do they have to stay open until everyone who was in line when the polls closed has voted, but then they have to complete the closing procedures. For a small, local election, the poll workers are probably only there for an hour after the polls closed. But for a big election, like a presidential election? They’re probably there for hours after the polls close. (Not only that, some of the poll workers also have to take ballots and paperwork and precinct equipment to the appropriate location after they officially close the polling location.) WHEW! So, the next time you see a story about people waiting in line to vote way past 7pm, remember the poll workers. They have been working for almost 15 hours at that point, and their day isn’t even close to done.

In the end, I didn’t get called to be a poll worker for our local August 18th primary. Well, I did but when I got to the polling location, the clerk didn’t have anything for me to do and sent me home, lol. I’m glad I went to this training and learned more about the voting process from the “inside.” It gives me a deeper appreciation for our poll workers and voting as a whole.

Categories: Life

The Coronavirus Diaries | Update #12

It’s been a month since my last coronavirus update. In that time, not much has changed here in Florida. Case numbers have been steadily decreasing and we had our first day of cases under 3,000 on Monday. (The last time that happened was June 17.) We haven’t hit the 10,000 mark since August 1 (9,642 – close enough to 10,000 that I’m counting it), but things might change drastically once school is back in session. However, we’re steadily catching up to California in terms of deaths—this week, we passed the horrifying milestone of 10,000 COVID-19 deaths in Florida. When will things get better? Surely not while Trump is in office, which is why I lay awake at night, terrified that he will be re-elected.

Since my last update, I’ve done a few curbside library pickups and also had a vet appointment for Eloise—two things that went way differently than pre-COVID times.

  • Curbside library pickups – Six weeks after placing my books on hold, I finally got an alert from my library that most of them were ready for pickup! Yay! I called the library and scheduled an appointment for a Wednesday afternoon and it was busy when I got to the main library branch. The line of cars snaked all the way out onto the road! But it moved quickly. When it was my turn, I put on my mask, dropped off a few books I’ve had since early March, and then gave my name to the librarian waiting just inside the door. She was masked and gloved, found my books, set them in a container, and then used a stick to push the container over to me. It felt very apocalyptic, I have to say, but whatever it takes to keep librarians safe is fine by me! There are now three libraries open for curbside pickup near me and processing times are getting much faster, so hooray!
  • Vet appointment for Eloise – When I arrived at the vet, I parked and called the office to let them know I was there. A vet tech came out (I wore my mask when interacting with her) and took Eloise into the vet’s office while I stayed in my car. After 10 minutes or so, the vet called me directly to tell me that Eloise was lookin’ good, at a perfect weight, and had gotten her shots. Then the vet tech came back out and placed Eloise’s carrier back in the car and had me pay outside. And that was that!

I’ve recognized that I fall somewhere in the middle in terms of risk aversion. Since I am not high-risk, I find myself more at ease with going places like restaurants and Target. But I’m also not throwing all caution to the wind—I try to stick to restaurants that have large outdoor patios and I stay away from crowded spaces. I prefer going out for lunch to going out for dinner since it’s less crowded. You won’t see me at a theme park or on an airplane anytime soon.

It’s probably because my county has a mask mandate that I feel more comfortable being out and about. If we didn’t have that in place, I would be much more cautious about where I’m going. I do wonder about the moral implications of going to a restaurant, though. Am I putting the waitstaff in danger by being there? Obviously, if I was feeling ill at all (even if it wasn’t COVID!), I would stay home but I could also be asymptomatic, unknowingly spreading the virus to at-risk waitstaff. Masks are only required when walking around the restaurant—once I sit down, I can take it off. Then again, since our government isn’t doing anything to protect these workers, they need to work. They need people in their restaurants. The best I can do is limit my time at the restaurant and leave a big tip.

Two things I’ve been grappling with are going back to the gym and getting a massage. I really miss having a gym to break up my workout routine, but everything I’ve read advises against going to the gym. Plus, my gym is really small and I doubt anyone is wearing masks while they work out, so it doesn’t seem like a good plan. I really need to cancel my membership, though. I don’t know when I’ll feel comfortable being at a gym again!

But oh, do I want a massage. My body has been craving one, especially for my lower back and butt. I deal with sciatica nerve pain and a massage really helps to relieve the tension, but I don’t know if I “should” get a massage. I would wear a mask, of course, and my massage center has announced very strict sanitization policies. I’m less concerned about getting the virus if I go get a massage and more concerned about passing it along to my massage therapist. Maybe I should get tested before going, just to be on the safe side?

So many decisions these days feel more charged because there are moral implications to everything we do. And it’s really easy to judge the decisions other people are making—I know I am definitely guilty of that. But we’re all trying to do the best we can and what feels right for our situation. (Well, most of us are. I feel just fine judging anyone who is anti-mask.)

I am fatigued by this pandemic. I miss my friends. I miss traveling. I miss being out in public without a mask. I miss quick trips to my nearby library. I miss getting regular pedicures and massages. I miss normalcy. I don’t know when normalcy will return. What it will even look like when it does return.

But I try not to think about the past or even the future too much. It just makes me panicky. I have to stay anchored in the present, live in this moment, and let the future meet me when it’s here.

Categories: Life

Five Months of Working From Home

Raise your hand if you thought we’d be here, five months after the COVID-19 outbreak in the States necessitated shutdowns and shelter-in-place orders. I sure didn’t.

When my company announced in mid-March that everyone would be working from home, I was convinced it would be for a few weeks. Mayyyybe through the month of April, but even that seemed outlandish.

And now, here we are. It’s been five months of working from home full-time and there’s no end in sight. Actually, everyone at my company has been so successful at working remotely that it’s prompted my company to look into having more flexible remote work opportunities. At this point, whenever things do return to “normal” (or whatever our normal will look like), I believe I can request to continue working from home full-time, which is really exciting for me.

Pre-COVID, I was going into the office four days a week with a work-from-home day once a week. I was very vocal to my supervisors about my desire for a more flexible work-from-home schedule—even one more remote day a week would have been acceptable to me! But what I desired most of all was the chance to experiment with full-time remote work. What would it look like for me? Would I even enjoy it? Would I need the structure of going into an office to work effectively?

I won’t lie: I was excited for the chance to experiment with a full-time remote work life. Of course, it was coming at a time when coffee shops were closed and I had to fully isolate myself from other people and I was freaking out about a global pandemic. These aren’t normal times. I couldn’t just meet up with a friend for lunch or hop over to a coffee shop to work for a change of scenery. I didn’t even have a desk to work at for the first month! I spent all of my time at home, only getting out for walks and my once-a-week trip to the grocery store. It wasn’t a true test of the remote work life. It was an experiment, for sure, but in a completely different scenario than I ever envisioned.

Working in an office is not the most ideal scenario for HSPs (highly sensitive people) and those with social anxiety, and I identify as both. The fluorescent lights are harsh on the senses, the constant conversation and people moving around are distracting, and making small talk with coworkers is anxiety-inducing. I made it work, but it wasn’t easy and caused a lot of internal anxiety.

That’s why working from home is so good for my soul. I can control my environment: the lighting, the smells, the temperature. I can work in complete silence (a necessity for me when I’m writing and editing) and don’t have to worry about the distraction of coworkers and other discussions happening around me. Sometimes I miss the camaraderie of working with other people, but let’s be honest, there were MANY days where I came in, did my job, and left without speaking to anyone.

Five months into this new work-from-home lifestyle and I am loving every second of it. I love the comfort of being at home all day and hanging out with my kitties. I love that I’ve eliminated the morning rush and can wake up 15 minutes before I’m supposed to log into work. I love not wearing makeup or doing my hair or wearing real clothes. I love the solitude and the quiet and the ability to work late into the night if I need to meet a deadline.

One part of my work-from-home lifestyle that I love the most is that I can take a short midday nap if I need to. I used to do this in my car on my lunch breaks (I even had a big pillow in my car that I could lean against the door!) on a regular basis, and now I just do it on my couch. 🙂 I only give myself an hour to nap, but that’s really all I need. While I always wake up groggy, it usually only takes me about 10 minutes to get my bearings. And then I feel energized and ready to tackle the rest of my to-do list. It’s such a luxury! I’m grateful that my supervisors are not micromanagers who check that I’m logged in and working from 8-5. They trust me to get the work done, and sometimes that means working a little later in the evening if I took a nap during the day. And I’m totally fine with that trade-off!

One of the things that’s been most interesting in this transition to full-time remote work has been finding the right work/life balance. I’ve never been someone who struggled with work/life balance. It’s just not in my personality to be laser-focused on work. I can leave work at work. I don’t check my email on the weekends. I never struggled with leaving the office at a normal time each evening. And then… I started working from home and staying at home. It became much easier to just pop online to check email or write a page or two on the weekend. I struggled with shutting down at a decent time and having a firm separation between work life and personal life. It’s so unlike me, but I guess that’s just what happens when your work life is at home. There’s no longer a delineation between your home and your office.

When all this first began, I recognized after the first week that I would need to invest in a desk and office chair. I was working from a bar stool at my kitchen island, which was just bad news bears for my back and my butt and my overall well-being. So for $100, I found a desk and an office chair through Walmart.com. A few months later, I invested in a second monitor, which has been the single best purchase I’ve made this year. It is a critical component of my work life, allowing me to be more productive and efficient and I honestly don’t know how I made it nearly four months without it. I set up a tiny workstation in my bedroom, right next to my bed, and it works for my needs right now but I’m hoping that my new apartment has a corner of the living room that I can use as a pseudo-office. Having my bedroom be the place where I sleep and work isn’t the best option, but it was the best I could do at the time.

All in all, I’m grateful for the ability to experiment with full-time remote work, although I wish it didn’t have to happen because of a global pandemic. Five months later and I’m feeling so happy with my work situation and curious to see how things may have changed (or stayed the same?) over the next five months.

Categories: Life

My Favorite Podcasts (Round 7)

Every year, I like to do a round-up of my favorite podcasts at the moment. This is the SEVENTH year I’ve done this, which is crazy to me! Have I really been listening to podcasts for that long? Apparently so! It’s fun to see what podcasts have been on this list every year (looking at you, Stuff You Should Know) and what long-time favorites fell off my list.

This year, I selected 15 podcasts from the 36 that I regularly listen to. Hopefully, you can find something new to listen to from this list!

1) The Baby-Sitters Club Club – As much as I adore this podcast, it’s rather hard for me to recommend it to new listeners because, honestly, you have to start at the beginning to understand all of the inside jokes and segments. And since Jack and Tanner, the hosts, have been podcasting weekly since early 2016, that’s a lot of episodes to listen to. The premise of this podcast is that two men in their thirties read and discuss all of the books in the canon of The Baby-Sitters Club. I grew up on the BSC and have loved reminiscing about my childhood faves as I listen to each episode. I’ll admit that their humor is not for everyone, but it works for me and I’m always excited to listen to an episode.

2) Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend – How many “celebrities interviewing celebrities” podcasts does the world need? I’m not sure, but I do enjoy Conan O’Brien’s more than the others. Most especially because of his two “assistants,” Sona and Matt, and the rapport between the three of them. (Each episode starts and ends with a segment involving the three of them, and sometimes, if the celebrity being interviewed isn’t someone I’m interested in, I’ll just listen to those segments because they are just that good!) I love Conan’s interview style, though, and his sarcasm is right up my alley.

3) Code Switch – Do yourself a favor and download this podcast. It’s truly fantastic, looking at culture through the lens of race. I’m still working my way through their back catalog (which is EXTENSIVE, but so worth listening to), but I have found myself challenged, educated, and dismayed by their episodes. The episodes are short—typically less than 30 minutes—but they pack so much education and story into each episode.

4) Criminal – Criminal is a true crime podcast, yes, but it goes beyond typical true crime. It’s not just about unsolved murders and missing person cases. It’s about all the different ways crime interacts with our everyday lives, from the mundane to the peculiar. Some recent episodes focused on an enslaved man who found a way to free himself from slavery, an elusive bank robber, forgiveness in the legal system, and a crazy cremation scam that a funeral home was running.

5) Currently Reading – This is, by far, my favorite book podcast. I love that the hosts are always brutally honest about their true feelings about all things bookish. They have Strong Opinions about books, and I love hearing them (even when I don’t totally agree). This podcast has a very easy format where the hosts discuss their bookish moment of the week, talk about three books they’ve read recently, and then dive into a bookish topic. I always enjoy listening to their thoughts!

6) The Girl Next Door Podcast – By all accounts, this shouldn’t be one of my favorite podcasts since many of the episodes centers on motherhood. Thankfully, Kelsey and Erica maintain a great mix of topics so it’s a podcast that even this single, childless woman can enjoy! Each week, the ladies do a deep dive on a particular topic and many of their topics have sparked blog posts of my own. Some recent topics: household division of labor, things they are minor experts in, having hard conversations with kids, and keeping a kitchen (delving into their favorite kitchen tools, how to keep a kitchen clean and organized, etc).

7) Good Christian Fun – Good Christian Fun is about Christian pop culture, but more than that, it’s about faith and what it means to be a Christian today. It’s a podcast that has helped me come to terms with my own faith journey and recognize all the ways the church marginalizes women, people of color, and the LGBT+ community. Every episode includes a guest who spends the first half of the episode discussing their faith journey, which is often emotional because the church has caused so much pain to so many people. The second half of the episode, though, is much more lighthearted as they dive into their pop culture topic of the week. I want to be clear: This is a comedy podcast and it’s definitely filled with humor and happiness and hope. It makes me laugh and feel good and feel less alone in my faith struggles, and I love it for that.

8) Hall of Shame – Hall of Shame is the kind of podcast I have been waiting for. Each week, Rachel and Rachna take listeners on a journey through a crazy sports story. Some you may know about, like the Ryan Lochte robbery scandal from the 2016 Olympics, and some you most likely don’t, like the insane 2010 Auburn tree poisoning scandal. Give it a listen and recognize a) how crazy athletes are and b) how even crazier sports fans are.

9) In the Dark – This investigative journalism podcast is the best there is, and Madeleine Baran deserves all of the awards. There are currently two seasons of the show: The first season discusses the kidnapping and murder of 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling and all the ways the police bungled that investigation. The second season is about Curtis Flowers, a man who was tried and convicted six times by the same prosecutor (and eventually his last conviction was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court based on evidence uncovered by the In the Dark team). This podcast is so goddamn good, and Baran and her team are so incredibly tenacious when it comes to finding out the truth.

10) Lovett or Leave It – One of my favorite political podcasts, Lovett or Leave It discusses the week’s news in a fun, lighthearted manner (without diminishing the seriousness of the news). While I think the podcast was much better when it was a live event (usually recorded at a comedy club), the at-home episodes have been great, especially the segments of comedians reacting to Lovett’s beginning monologue. If you want to keep up with the news of the week without falling into despair, Lovett or Leave It is a great option!

11) Office Ladies – This podcast is hosted by two former actresses on The Office, Jenna Fischer (who played Pam) and Angela Kinsey (who played Angela). Each week, the ladies break down an episode of The Office, offering behind-the-scenes insights and production tidbits. While I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with the podcast (I find Jenna and Angela’s dynamic to be a bit… much… and the “frenemy” vibe they have isn’t my favorite), learning how each episode was created is fascinating enough on its own that I put up with Jenna and Angela’s weird vibe. 🙂

12) Pod Save America – My beloved. I would not have been able to survive these past three years without my twice-weekly Pod Save America episodes. Hosted by former Obama staffers, this podcast delves into the news of the week in an easy-to-understand format. (Truly, the Stephany of five years ago would have never imagined she’d look forward to listening to hour-long episodes about politics twice a week, yet here I am.) It’s a very left-leaning podcast so I feel at home listening to these men discuss politics and lament about Trump’s latest antics.

13) Stuff You Should Know – I’ve been listening to Stuff You Should Know since 2013! That’s seven years of learning about stuff. It remains one of my favorite podcasts because I’ve learned so much about so many topics! Also, I just adore Josh and Chuck’s dynamic, even if Chuck can be a bit grumpy at times. The podcast is simple: Josh and Chuck will spend 45 minutes to an hour telling you all the ins and outs of a specific topic, from hurricanes and miniature golf to the Black Panther Party and the KGB.

14) Throughline – Throughline is such an interesting, thought-provoking podcast and it’s rare that I don’t come away from an episode without learning a great deal of new information. This podcast takes on today’s current events and views them through the lens of the past. It’s truly amazing to see how many things have changed and have stayed the same when looking back on our history this way.

15) What a Day – What a Day is a daily news podcast and I love getting a quick look at the top headlines from Akirah and Gideon. They keep things light and funny when possible, which is much needed in our current political climate.

Do you listen to podcasts? What are some of your favorites?