How To Do Anything

....including taking a break

We’re taking the week off for Anne to recover from her most recent marathon, and for Melody to recover from the heinous Supreme Court term — so we thought it’d be a great time to revisit our first 30 episodes and pick out some highlights!

One of the main perks to being a paid subscriber is getting access to the Ask Anne Anything part of the show. Sometimes it’s a continuation of the conversation that came before it, and sometimes it’s completely unrelated. Sometimes the guest host joins, and sometimes Melody taps in. If you’re not yet a paid subscriber, or you just recently became one, here are ten things you can learn by listening to the AAA part of the show.

1. How to create a low-key skin care routine

2. How to get out of a pop culture rut

3. How to manage a social calendar that feels too full

4. How to find the inner strength to keep trying dating apps

5. How to pick the right plant for your office

6. How to celebrate your own relationship when your friends are getting divorced

7. How to manage the mental load that comes with parenting around the holidays

8. How to stop feeling guilty about your student loans

9. How to make friends in your 30s and 40s

10. And… how to listen to Beyonce’s cover of “Jolene”

Melody just wanted an excuse to show you her porch goose’s July get-up

If you need advice, recommendations, or takes, fill out the Google Form, and your question may be answered in a future episode!

And if you’re not already a subscriber, it’s the perfect week to become one and catch up on all you missed. If you already subscribe to the Culture Study newsletter, check your email for a promo code to get a full year of the Culture Study podcast for just $30.

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Other things we’re loving…

Anne:

• I can’t link to the black licorice ice cream I had after my marathon but I can tell you to always choose it if you see it on the menu (and absolutely choose it if you’re at the Big Dipper in Missoula, Montana)

• My galley of Chris La Tray’s Becoming Little Shell: A Landless Indian’s Journey Home, which you can pre-order here

• Just alerting you to the existence of Spindrift Hard Seltzers (Grapefruit is tops)

• One of my favorite small flower farmers (Micro Flower Farm) just made a move to a slightly less micro farm and I’ve loved watching the process

Melody:

• Shrimp girl summer (particularly this sandwich)

• Margo’s Got Money Troubles

• All Chappell Roan, all the time

• When it’s too hot for walks, keeping Polly entertained with a puzzle full of these nasty-smelling-but-apparently-delicious treats

• Season 10 of 90 Day Fiancé (perfect accompaniment for rotting/scrolling)

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We’ve made enough through subscriptions to pay Melody through August but without more… we can’t keep making the show. (And if you’re already a Culture Study newsletter subscriber, you get a screaming deal, but you have to click there to use it; it is *not* applied automatically).

And if you’d like to add the subscriber-only podcast to your podcast app, here’s how. Also, you can now access the subscriber-only feed in Spotify!!! Go here to set it up.

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We’re currently looking for your questions for future episodes about:

• The current podcast landscape (why do some things get canceled, how do pods make money, anything and everything — we’re talking with pod industry master Nick Quah!)

• Why/how the internet makes it so hard to decide what to cook

• The upcoming “season” of Bama Rush

• Sydney Sweeney (and Gen-Z Stardom)

• Learning to craft / make things / hobby-around-the-house

• Trad wives, featuring a co-host who used to be one

• For our continuing series on romance novels: QUEER ROMANCE and ROMANCE BOOKSTORES

• Artificial Intelligence (we’re gonna see if we can figure out an actually interesting theme here, so send us your weirdest or most mind-boggling questions)

• The economy, a.k.a. why is everything so damn expensive right now (my dream here is like an Odd Lots guest who doesn’t have private equity brain, please let us know if you have suggestions!)

• Contemporary ideas of self-care

• Buy Nothing groups and/or the current state of the secondhand market

• Anything you need advice or want musings on for the AAA segment

• You can submit them (and ideas for future eps) here