A Few Things With Claire And Erica

Ooh, what a joy it is to talk Thingies with Véronique Hyland, the fashion features director at Elle who coined the term millennial pink and has a brilliant new book, Dress Code: Unlocking Fashion from the New Look to Millennial Pink, that checks so many boxes for us. But first, can we discuss cooking motivation…or lack thereof?   A smattering of dinner-making inspo if you need some too: 1) Brothy soup recipes—vegetarian lemon rice soup, beans and greens soup with harissa, and Helen Rosner’s Roberto specifically 2) The Magic of Tinned Fish: Elevate Your Cooking with Canned Anchovies, Sardines, Mackerel, Crab, and Other Amazing Seafood by Chris McDade 3) @glucosegoddess.   Véronique’s Thingies, coming through! Joe Iconis & Family, beach noir films + TV shows (including but not limited to Inherent Vice, Night Moves, Cutter’s Way, Veronica Mars, Terriers, and Moonlighting), and entertainment podcasts like I Saw What You Did, Junk Filter, and Nostalgia Trap. Key Twitter follows: @the_80s_man and this

It’s time for an update on how we’re doing with our (non-work-related) creative practices, and—hey, while we’re at it—we’ll go ahead and share some thoughts on what it's like to live in a shoe household vs. a shoeless one.    Claire’s creative resources: Wendy MacNaughton’s DrawTogether podcast, The Artist's Way (plus this New Yorker interview with the author Julia Cameron), and Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman.   Erica’s creative resources: Jami Attenberg’s #1000wordsofsummer and Refuse to Be Done: How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts by Matt Bell.   Share your creativity thoughts and feelings (and shoes-in-the-house musings) at 833-632-5463, podcast@athingortwohq.com, or @athingortwohq.   Get more recs in your inbox with a Secret Menu membership!   Try professional counseling with BetterHelp and get 10% off your first month with our link. Understand your reproductive health with Modern Fertility—$20 off your test with our link. Support your business of any

Introducing an ode to the beauty products and concepts we’ve been very into. Plus! The odd joy of creating entertainment syllabi to curb streaming (and reading) indecision.   If you’re also looking to take a Kirsten Dunst deep-dive, you’re gonna want to read this New Yorker piece.   The beauty products we’re all about: Escentric Molecules Molecule 01, Freck Cheekslime in Fielding, Westman Atelier Baby Cheeks Blush Stick in Petal, Trish McEvoy Long-Wear Lipliner in Barely Nude, Charlotte Tilbury Lip Cheat in Iconic Nude, Jenni Kayne Oak Essentials Cleansing Balm, Clinique’s Take the Day off Cleansing Balm, and Shani Darden Retinol Reform.    And if you’re looking to learn more about dry skin vs. dehydrated skin, dig into this Byrdie article.    Let’s not forget to acknowledge accidental plopping after a Sunday-night shower.   Share the beauty stuff you think we really have to try at 833-632-5463, podcast@athingortwohq.com, or @athingortwohq.   If you’re in the mood for many more recs, there’s a Secret Men

This week, we muse on cross-body phone holders—time will tell if the trend wins us over—and talk Thingies with Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind, That Kind of Mother, and Rich and Pretty…books that are Thingies in their own right.     His Thingies: The Fitbod app, audiobooks of dad books via Libro.fm, uniform dressing, Cate Le Bon, and some real page-turners including Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson, Luster by Raven Leilani, Last Resort by Andrew Lipstein, and Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor.    Share your Thingies guest noms! 833-632-5463, podcast@athingortwohq.com, or @athingortwohq.   A dose of our recs coming to your inbox weekly with a Secret Menu membership.   Try Nutrafol for thicker, healthier hair. Your first month’s subscription is $15 off with the code ATHINGORTWO. Give professional counseling a shot with BetterHelp—10% off your first month with our link. Slip into Honeylove, bras and underwear you can feel great about. 20% off your second item and 10% off your who

This episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct, or indirect financial interest in products, or services referred to in this episode.   Recording live from a frictionless day, we’re talking all about the home trends that we’ve been loving right now, from Murano glass to canned-tomato decor.   If you’re also having a Murano glass moment, check out this NYT article and this YouTube video showing the process and then dig into some of our favorites in the Murano and Murano-inspired world: Sogni Di Cristallo, Ichendorf Milano, LagunaB, Susan Alexandra, Edie Parker Flower, Face Vessel by Degen, Casa Celva, and Serena Confalonieri.    For fans of marble everything, No One Alike goes hard at the decor, Concrete Cat makes epic lazy susans, Voutsa x Lambert McGuire Design has incredible wallpaper, and if you’re ever in Italy, Il Papiro in Florence makes incredible marbled paper goods as does Conti Borbone in Milan.   For floral moti

Let’s talk about signing your name (hello, strange custom) and dig into Val Monroe’s Thingies! This genius woman—the former beauty director of O, The Oprah Magazine—writes the extremely thoughtful and epically named newsletter How Not to F*ck Up Your Face, and we’re fairly obsessed.   Sign up for Val’s newsletter at valeriemonroe.substack.com immediately. This is the moving installment on Facetiming with her granddaughter.   Val had a bunch of reading (and audiobook-listening) recommendations: the Wolf Hall trilogy by Hilary Mantel, How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan, Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson, Tom Stoppard: A Life by Hermione Lee, Mike Nichols: A Life by Mark Harris (see also: Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood by Mark Harris and Rewrites: A Memoir by Neil Simon), The News Sorority by Sheila Weller, The Overstory by Richard Powers, The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal, and All the

This episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct, or indirect financial interest in products, or services referred to in this episode. This week, we’re getting wrapped up in a conversation about robes, the practice of towel time, and our favorite shopping memories featuring dated (but iconic!) tie skirts and timeless wrap dresses.    Some of the robes we love, for your lounging pleasure and leisure: Parachute’s Classic Turkish Cotton Robe, Skin’s Sierra Robe and Basic Double Layer Wrap Robe, Eberjey’s Rosalia Robe and Alpine Chic Super Sherpa Robe, and all the fun ones Block Shop and Print Fresh make. And how ‘bout this wings + horns Ace take?   Share your robe and towel-time rituals! 833-632-5463, podcast@athingortwohq.com, or @athingortwohq.   For many, many more of our favorites, get yourself a Secret Menu membership.   Discover N°1 DE CHANEL.   Produced by Dear MediaSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and Calif

Get ready to take a trip down (your nose’s) memory lane because we’re talking about the scents of our youth. Oh, and: We’re making a plan to prevent contingency-planning from becoming a full-blown hobby.   Scent-sational reading: this 1988 New York Times article, written during the dawn of the age of the perfume ad, the book The End of Fashion by Teri Agins on how perfume and stockings became luxury-brand cash cows, and this BBC article about the heyday of celebrity fragrances.    Scentmatchers.com—go for the URL, stay for the extensive dropdown menu.    Check out our near-obsession Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman for a welcome perspective on time-management.    Did you have a signature scent? Is there some discontinued fragrance you’re sniffing around for? We need to know—@athingortwohq, podcast@athingortwohq.com, and 833-632-5463!    Sign up for Secret Menu for more, more, more where this came from.   Give professional counseling a try with BetterHelp—10% off your first month with our link. Support

This episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct, or indirect financial interest in products, or services referred to in this episode. We’re in need of things to enjoy—no, relish: Bring on the comfort content! Please! If you have recs, share ‘em with us at 833-632-5463, podcast@athingortwohq.com, or @athingortwohq.   Read more about CUNY’s anonymous cash donor in the New York Times.   Check out Lewis Miller’s Flower Flash book, his Instagram, all of it.   To watch All That Jazz (not on a Delta flight), it’s all about the Criterion Collection.   Listen to  Once Upon a Time…at Bennington College podcast for all the hot 1980s undergrad goss about literary icons. (Check out the oral history that inspired the podcast, too.)   Everything Mindy Kailing touches is gold, and we’re especially sweating The Sex Lives of College Girls (what a name). As for things we’re excited for in the future? Season 2 of Starstruck, Season 2 of Wh

This week, we talk Thingies with the writer, creative consultant, and theorist behind the 3 p.m. outfit expiration, Harling Ross Anton. She also breaks down her rubric for what makes a good recommendation. All this to say: Everything is nice in here.   Harling’s Thingies! Fleece-lined black tights (all of them, really), Merit's The Minimalist Perfecting Complexion Foundation and Concealer Stick (Harling uses the shade bisque.), Chinya’s milk frother, Mighty Sesame Co.’s Tahini in a Squeeze Bottle, a made-just-for-her button-down shirt from Chava, DGL licorice extract for heartburn, D-Mannose for UTIs, and fantasy novels like A Court of Thorns and Roses.   Plz, plz follow Harling for so many more recs! She’s extremely good at them.   Share your favorite thingies at 833-632-5463, podcast@athingortwohq.com, or @athingortwohq.   For more of our favorites, get yourself a Secret Menu membership.   Produced by Dear MediaSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art

It’s the first episode we’re recording in 2022, and we have THOUGHTS! TO! SHARE! We discuss the It’s Not That Deep archetype, the wackiest (slash most ingenious)  “work smarter and not harder” moments, and acknowledgement sections—unskippable, if you ask us.   Related to the It’s Not That Deep mentality: Tune into our perfectionism ep (and maybe pick up Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, too.).   Two essays on the acknowledgment section: "With a Little Help From Their Friends (and Agents and Librarians and Fact-Checkers ...)" by Jennifer Senior and "Against Acknowledgments" by Sam Sacks.   One of our favorite acknowledgement sections of late was from Black Buck—and don’t worry, we asked the author Mateo Askaripour about it when we interviewed him.   Have thoughts (or a story about an extreme case of working smarter and not harder)? We want to hear them at 833-632-5463, podcast@athingortwohq.com, or @athingortwohq!If you like this, you’ll love Secret Menu. We think!   Produced by Dear MediaSee Privacy Policy

If you need a Week Two 2022 pick-me-up, how about an all-consuming romance novel and some Thingies from our guest Kelly Wright, founder of the internet’s coolest hardware store, Yuns?    For romance novels featuring autistic leads, pick up The Kiss Quotient, The Bride Test, and The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang (<< someone profile this woman!)! For a straight romance by a queer couple, read The View Was Exhausting by Mikaella Clements and Onjuli Datta. For one that features our beloved University of Chicago, check out People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry (and also her books Beach Read and Book Lovers, which is out in May). And for something Harry Styles fanfic–adjacent, grab If This Gets Out by Sophie Gonzales and Cale Dietrich.    If you want to *listen* to your next romance, check out Bone, Marry, Bury this February from Rachael King and Becca Freeman of RomComPods.   Time for Kelly’s Thingies! Edith’s Iced Cafe, Ronny’s Seltzer, Bonk Planners, "The Untold Story of Sushi in America" via The

This episode is all about the pressures we feel on our lives and our time (and, to a lesser extent, our necks and our tailbones). Don’t sleep on this one, is what we’re saying.   Live that ComfiLife! Side-sleep with a Hullo pillow!   The “Things We Want to Leave Behind and How to Start a Running Routine” ep we reference.   The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin—there’s also a quiz for that.    A handful of reads related to parenting (and, sigh, house work): All Joy and No Fun by Jennifer Senior, Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes, Drop the Ball by Tiffany Dufu, and More Work For Mother by Ruth Schwartz Cowan.   An enthusiastic endorsement of Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman.   Dirt’s “The season of tabs” newsletter by Alex Aciman. WE RELATE.   "The Myth of the Productive Commute" installment of Anne Helen Petersen’s Culture Study newsletter.   Talking about protecting your time with Mimi O Chun and “what happens if you don’t?” with Caroline Moss.   For last-min. presents, mig

We’re steaming (and pan-frying!) a lot of frozen dumplings, and we’re recommending a lot of Thingies. Come along with us, huh?   But first: latke cookies.    A dumplings-as-an-aesthetic episode of this very podcast.   Frozen dumplings we’re into: Fly by Jing and Nom Wah.   Stunning rainbow dumplings we’re into: Sandita’s rainbow dumplings.   Three things that make a big difference when cooking up dumplings at home: a bamboo steamer, Chinkiang black vinegar, and these Wing on Wo soup spoons. Another helpful resource: Lucky Peach Presents 101 Easy Asian Recipes.   Ok, Thingies!! Kevyn Aucoin Beauty The Volume Mascara (Claire) and Lily Lolo Natural Vegan Mascara (Erica), Saint Olio cleaner (plus hand sanitizer), Wolford tights (start with Velvet De Luxe 50 or 66), Zicam lozenges, Maldon salt (see: this Bon App article), Kewpie Deep-Roasted Sesame Dressing, Lo & Sons The O.G. 2 carry-on (plus a charming video), Kinto kids’ dishes, and Trader Joe’s Roasted & Salted Marcona Almonds with Rosemary.  

Caroline Moss, host of the podcast Gee Thanks, Just Bought It!, brings joy to everything she does, and we’re jazzed to ride her wave of holiday-giving enthusiasm straight through December and into 2022. Another thing we’re taking into next year is our new mantra: What happens if you don’t?   Julie Houts did the wonderful new illustration of us ya see in our podcast art! You’ve gotta check out her Instagram! Ooh, and shop her prints!   Related content: Erica waiting for Claire in fitting rooms.   If you don’t listen to Caroline’s podcast Gee Thanks, Just Bought It! yet, you’re in for a treat. Our Black Friday ep with her could be a good starting point. Don’t sleep on her gift guides either—or the book she co-wrote Hey Ladies!: The Story of 8 Best Friends, 1 Year, and Way, Way Too Many Emails.   Caroline’s go-to Hallmark holiday movie: The Christmas List.   A few holiday giving initiatives Caroline supports and you can too (like, this year—not at all too late!): Operation Santa (there’s a doc, Dear Santa, abo

What an episode we have in store! We’re going deep on some of our favorite recent discoveries from our Monday newsletter—which: If you aren’t signed up for that thing, now's your chance to fix that.   The usefulness of the term bitch eating crackers (BEC) (for context: Someecards).   Celebrity memoirs as audiobooks: Inside Out by Demi Moore, Acid for the Children by Flea, and Yearbook by Seth Rogen (see also: this profile by Jonah Weiner for NYT Magazine). Next up: My Life So Far by Jane Fonda, Faithfull by Marianne Faithful,  The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish. Oh, and: the podcast Celebrity Book Club with Steven & Lily. Also: Please read Open by Andre Agassi and J.R. Moehringer!   Important breaking news: There is now Spelling Bee merch.      Let’s hear Claire’s QVC pitch for the Pattern mist spray bottle!! Somewhat related: Mario Badescu Facial Spray with Aloe, Herbs and Rosewater...as a hair product?   Erica’s 11 a.m. tea go-to: Soul Chai. Another (slightly sweetened rec): Dona.   A wo

You know what we love? When someone makes a thing we’re really desparate to use. Which means we can’t wait for the launch of Postcard, a tool to help us share our travel recommendations in an intuitive and aesthetically pleasing way. We’ll let David Cho tell ya all about it...and share his Thingies. That’s right: a guest Thingies ep. Tell us how you feel about that?? Two relevant celebrity memoirs: Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling and Yearbook by Seth Rogen.   Oh, the joy of a website called findcelebrityjobs.com.   Be Postcard guinea pigs! Make some lists! Send them to us!   David’s Thingies! Orion Turtle Chips Choco Churros Flavor (and Sweet Corn if you’re us), Rose Delights, therapy!!!, Golden Fertile Eggs, Sun Ha Jang in L.A., and “A Home Movies Thanksgiving Special with Alison Roman” (also her spring chicken with crispy leeks recipe).   Do you have Thingies noms? Hit us at 833-632-5463, podcast@athingortwohq.com, or @athingortwohq.   For so many more of our favorites, get yourself a Secret Menu subscript

Gift Guide Round 3: Siblings, Teens, Co-Workers, Friends, and Grandparents!   Our third gift guide ep already?! We know. There’s so much ahead—and behind if you missed part 1 and part 2—but if you’re still on the present hunt, subscribe to Secret Menu for many more holiday-shopping thoughts ‘n feelings.   Kids and Teens!   Almost 14 year old girl Brooklyn kid Art! Ideal Bookshelf 974: Feminists by Jane Mount, The Ten Largest, No. 2, Childhood, Group IV by Hilma af Klint, Krista Marie Young painting, and Amber Vittoria prints The start of a charm bracelet, maybe with this Catbird Holy Cannoli charm Studs e-gift card Lizzie Fortunato Little Candy DIY Kit (for a younger kid: Super Smalls or Susan Alexandra) Olive & June mani system Dye Kween Sleep mask or socks Kule T-shirt This Is What I Know About Art by Kimberly Drew Macmillan Visual Dictionary D C-T! by Joana Avillez and Molly Young Donation to Girl Up Monogrammed tech accessories from Leatherology   Angsty teenage nephews wh

If you just CAN’T with the gifting stress, drama, and intrigue this year and are looking to do some one-stop shopping, well, welcome to our second gift guide of the season, in partnership with the glorious, aesthetically driven team over at MoMA Design Store. Use the code ATHINGORTWO online or in store for 10% off your purchase now through November 24 (fine print below)—and know that every purchase supports the museum's collection and education programs. Talk about a GWP!   Heyo: Dig into all of our MoMA Design Store gifting picks.   Healthcare practitioners who I see regularly but don't know on a personal level 2022 Stendig Poster Calendar or 2022 Jumping Point Calendar  Yoshitomo Nara Bandages Italian Ball Candle MoMA Monet and Ed Ruscha artist masks   My new colleagues who I want to love me. Something cheap, cute, and maybe useful. Extendable Phone Stand Denis Guidone Milano Times Hourglasses Twist Cable Protector - Set of 3 MoMA Touchscreen Mist Cleaner   I have to buy gifts

Gift Guide Round 1: Moms, Dads, and Significant (or Formerly Significant) Others   It’s gift-guide season around these parts, and here we are with the first of three—three!—installments to help you along with the hardest-to-shop-for people in your life (hopefully). If you need more ideas, subscribing to Secret Menu might be just the answer.   Moms and Mothers-in-Law!   Single mom by choice to an amazing little girl. Since it's just the two of us and she's a toddler, I need to help her buy her a gift for me. I realize that buying a gift for one's self shouldn't be difficult but I'm saving to buy us a condo and this will be my one quality and/or impractical spend for the foreseeable future. So I want to make it count and I'd love your help. I am willing to spend up to $400.00. I appreciate smart function in design and I have lost zero baby weight, so anything that involves sizing has the potential to make me cry, which feels like it would defeat the purpose. I work about 75 hours a week and am currently doing s