Optimus Prime

Have you ever put effort into something even though you knew it was a lost cause, convinced this last push was the winning one? Or put one more $20 on the proverbial craps table of life in a last ditch effort to recover all your losses? Maybe you’ve seen an episode of Bar Rescue? In economic terms, this seductive mental vice is called the Sunk Cost Fallacy. In emotional terms, this can mean getting stuck trying to solve a hopelessly unsolvable puzzle. Carrie and Jess get their calculators out and attempt to understand the powers and pitfalls in the mathematics of redemption. Music as always by SPELLLING https://www.spelllingmusic.com/

What was that you said? No, I didn't hear you. Can you repeat yourself? Clearly? LOUDER? Like you might actually believe it when you say it? EQ has awakened from a long, tumultuous slumber with a simple plea - just spit it OUT already! Do you find yourself or your loved ones hiding behind not rocking the boat, thoughts like "someone should say it, but that someone just can't be me" or (gasp!) even..... propriety? Carrie and Jess are here to encourage you to abandon your collection of things left unsaid. Episode 5 wants you to say it with your chest. (And you can always blow 'em a kiss on the way out if it makes it easier). Discussion musings include, but not limited to: defensive verbal gymnastics as the street team for whiteness, drinking from the fountain of real talk as a cultural and communal process, and the relational fever pitch surrounding 'ghosting.'  The Resmaa Menakem quote we couldn't remember!! “Trauma decontextualized in a person looks like personality. Trauma decontextualized in a family looks like family traits. Trauma in a people looks like culture.” — @ResmaaMenakem. Theme music by the endlessly inspiring SPELLLING - https://www.spelllingmusic.com/

Episode 4 of EQ, I'll Be Your Mirror, unpacks the ultimate relational deathmatch: Reflection Vs. Projection. Where do our fantasies end and our living, breathing relationships begin? Also discussed: building a digital mythology of self, a Jungian take on messy crushes, and coming to terms with Dolly Parton's apolitical business philosophy. 

In episode three, Carrie and Jess discuss budgeting and accounting as it relates to our emotional lives and relationships. How can we budget our time and energy more effectively to allow for sustainable emotional health and how can we put systems in place to acknowledge emotional resource in our collaborative environments? Also discussed: accepting chaos and disorder as regular visitors in our lives, convenience culture and the mythology of emotional abundance, romantic fairytales and rom-coms as a study of love and capital's codependent relationship, and daily life in a zero sum world. 

In the second episode of EQ, join Carrie and Jess for the dish on gossip in some of its many forms and functions: as social anthropology, as femme bonding, as team building and hazing, as The Lab of the Mythology of the Self, and more!

In the inaugural episode of EQ, Carrie and Jess dig into emotional optimization: why we do it, how we do it, and some of the barriers to realizing our better selves.