Character Actors, Josie and the Pussycats, and Weeknight Dinner Slumps with Lana Schwartz (Author of Set Piece from 831 Stories!)

Thingies time! We’re so excited to sit down with Lana Schwartz, the author of the newest 831 Stories release, Set Piece. We talk favorite character actors, joining ClassPass in 2025, and an incredible podcast season that inspired her book.   Lana’s Thingies include ClassPass (she’s been hitting up MADabolic, Lucent, Good Move, and New Love City), Lorne by Susan Morrison, Sex and the City rewatches, movie trivia at Syndicated, the Rilo Kiley reunion, and Easy Weeknight Dinners by Emily Weinstein.   Lana got some inspiration for Set Piece while listening to the You Must Remember This podcast season on Polly Platt.   Get more of Lana c/o her book Build Your Own Romantic Comedy: Pick Your Plot, Meet Your Man, and Direct Your Happily Ever After and upcoming 831 events in NYC, LA, and Boston.   Foxtails for all!   Want to stay connected with fellow listeners? Join our Geneva! You can also keep in touch at 833-632-5463, [email protected], and @athingortwohq. Last ep airs May 19! Start your store on Shopify and get a $1-a-month trial with our link. Get plant-happy with Fast Growing Trees. Take 15% off your first purchase with the code ATHINGORTWO. Change your clothes (monthly!) with Nuuly and get $28 off your first month when you sign up with the code ATHINGORTWO. Boost your hair with Nutrafol. Take $10 off your first month’s subscription with the code ATHINGORTWO. YAY.

Coming through with an exlcu: The A Thing or Two podcast is airing its last ep on May 19, ten years (!!!) since we started this thing. Get ready to walk down memory lane in the coming weeks, but for now, we’re sharing what we’ll miss about podcasting and what we’re ok to leave behind! But: The A Thing or Two newsletter will live on! What were your favorite moments of the podcast? Share em’ at 833-632-5463, [email protected], @athingortwohq, or our Geneva.Launch your store on Shopify and get a $1-a-month trial with our link. Sleep better with Bearaby and use the code ATHINGORTWO for an exclusive 10% discount. Get more plants in your life with Fast Growing Trees. Take 15% off your first purchase with the code ATHINGORTWO. YAY.  

Thank you to Nuuly, both for sponsoring today’s episode and for making it easier to get dressed during these hardest times of the year for CLOTHES (spring for Erica, summer for Claire, thanks for asking). Have we sold you on Nuuly yet? Use cases: trying out a bunch of jeans (or, gasp, shorts), dealing with wedding season, test-driving a bunch o’ new looks without having to own them, navigating maternity and post-partum dressing…we could go on. And! Right now you can get $28 off your first month of Nuuly when you sign up with the code ATHINGORTWO Starting off with our pre-season preparation, we’re curating a no-skips underwear drawer with help from Laura Reilly’s newsletter (and Claire’s love for the Natori Bliss Brief lives on!). We’re also giving our shoes TLC at Leather Spa and getting a little post-winter warm-up with Tan-Luxe The Gradual, Tanning Water, and St. Tropez’s Face Mist and Bronzing Mousse.  Ok, onto clothing and accessories! Porselli x Alex Mill ballet flats and Chalo cowboy boots have been in Erica’s rotation, and though she’s already found jean shorts from Agolde (ahem, via Nuuly), she’s looking for sporty shorts like Justin’s. The barefoot shoe crowd got us curious about the Xero Genesis, we’re going to The Consistency Project for jeans, and Claire is growing a jean shacket collection, intentional or not.  To try to reinvigorate our excitement for getting dressed, we’re reading Emilia Petrarca’s piece on embracing glamour for Harper’s Bazaar.  Respect to Rebecca Jennings for naming the Big Baby trend. How do you get yourself more excited to get dressed up? Let us know at 833-632-5463, [email protected], @athingortwohq, or our Geneva. Change your clothes (monthly!) with Nuuly and get $28 off your first month when you sign up with the code ATHINGORTWO. YAY.  

Follow-up time! We did some boots-on-the-ground reporting, and so did you: We have updates on anxiety bookshelves, Santa, calendar systems, PowerPoints as gifts, and (but of course) Kuromi..   Delighted to spot Kuromi in the flash tattoo folder at Haven Tattoo Studio!   If you’re heading to the theater soon, we highly recommend seeing Buena Vista Social Club and Grief Camp—and you’ll find us at LaGuardia High School’s All-School Musical come December!    Do you have any updates on our updates? Share ‘em at 833-632-5463, [email protected], @athingortwohq, or our Geneva.   Learn from the greatest (and most charming) with MasterClass and an additional 15% off any annual membership when you use our link. Get growing with Fast Growing Trees. Take 15% off your first purchase with the code ATHINGORTWO. Sleep better and get 20% off your Helix mattress when you use our link.  Give your hair some love with Nutrafol. Take $10 off your first month’s subscription with the code ATHINGORTWO. YAY.

Boy, do we have topics to cover: a go-to kids' podcasts, sweet treat updates, a new approach to nyms, duvet cover drama, and more.    Yes, we know about the Greeking Out podcast from National Geographic, and it is great. Speaking of NatGeo, we love Mickey Rapkin’s Pattie Gonia profile.   Our sugar fix(es): Katz Honey Vinegar, tiramisu served tableside at Piccola Cucina Osteria (or in a wee NY Yankees cap), See’s Scotchmallows, Zu’s Candies chic boxes, and pandan in cereal and ice cream sandwiches and many other treats.    This classic Onion article from 2000. Related: Are you an Onion print subscriber?   Backronyms! The Waffle House Index! We’ll cut it out with Wikipedia links for now.    Does anybody own a Nuvet? If so, share your review at 833-632-5463, [email protected], @athingortwohq, or our Geneva. Start selling on Shopify and get a $1-a-month trial with our link. Plant, plant, and plant some more with Fast Growing Trees. Get 15% off your first purchase with the code ATHINGORTWO. Change your clothes with Nuuly and take $28 off your first month with the code ATHINGORTWO. YAY.  

Update! Update! Come get your update! We learned a lot of info about Velveeta loaves, lucky girl syndrome, seasonal treats, minimal shoes, and more that we gotta share!    On Erica’s iPhone note for seasonal treats in April, you will find  an Ojai Pixie Party, Great N.Y. Noodletown’s softshell crab, and Styer’s Peonies, and coming up with DIY traditions reminds us of The New Better Off by Courtney E. Martin.    Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy gives cozy-soapy, which is exactly what we want right now.    Time for an acupressure mat update: Claire’s loving it! Erica’s still into her Yoga Toes.    Speaking of toes! We’re still thinking about minimal shoes, and we think these Adidas Taekwondo Shoes are a contender.    Do you have news we can use on things we discussed in previous episodes? Share them at 833-632-5463, [email protected], @athingortwohq, or in our Geneva.   Celebrate spring with Fast Growing Trees. Get 15% off your first purchase with the code ATHINGORTWO. Support your hair with Nutrafol. Take $10 off your first month’s subscription with the code ATHINGORTWOGIFT. Get good sleep with Bearaby and use the code ATHINGORTWO for an exclusive 10% discount. YAY.

We have Ollie to thank for bringing us this ep about a topic near, if not dear: the headache of feeding ourselves and others. (We have to do this multiple times a day?!?!). The app helps you figure out what to cook, makes your grocery list, and *learns what you like*—it’s a whole thing, and we’re grateful for the robots for helping us with this task. In related topics: our always-on-hand grocery items and supermarket immersive theater.   Stuff always in our pantries/fridges: Chara’s Kitchen Barbeque Sauce, Kewpie Roasted Sesame Dressing (the made-in-Japan version!), Mutti Cherry Tomatoes, Bjorn Qorn (related:nutritional yeast), Chaokoh Coconut Milk, The Rice Factory Rice, Painterland Sisters Skyr Yogurt, Portugalia Market tinned fish.    Recipes we love rn include Eric Kim’s shredded chicken in the Instant Pot for Food52, Sarah DiGregorio’s salmon and kimchi skillet for NYT Cooking, Smitten Kitchen’s slow-roasted sweet potatoes, and the tofu sheet-pan dinner from the cookbook Kid in the Kitchen by Melissa Clark,    Two exceptional easy-cooking cookbooks with companion newsletters: What to Cook When You Don't Feel Like Cooking by Caroline Chambers and Small Victories by Julia Turshen.   Download Ollie today in the app stores or at ollie.ai/athingortwo to save two of the recipes we’re cooking most.   What’s your grocery routine looking like? Share with us at 833-632-5463, [email protected], @athingortwohq, or in our Geneva.   Let Ollie help you figure out dinner: Download the free app and use the promo code ATHINGORTWO to cook what we’re cooking. YAY.

Another day, another grab bag! This time, books for dolls and/or anxious people, kitchen timers, TikTok decorum, and Miranda July’s mesmerizing Substack.    Meditations for Mortals makes a great case for pleasure reading.   Two of our current top Substacks: Miranda July’s and Heavies by Chris Gayomali.    Shoutout to Caroline Lusk on TikTok. We will be downloading your videos and sharing them with our pals for the foreseeable future.    Double shoutout to Nasirin’s Kitchen, Erica’s near–Carnegie Hall restaurant of choice.   If you’re looking for a low-tech kitchen timer, wind up Dusen Dusen’s Everybody Kitchen Timer and Frieling’s Magnetic Retro Kitchen Timer.    We have many questions about what happened during the 100 years of NY NOW.    Finally, is the anxiety bookshelf the Jibbitz of reading? Please share your intel at 833-632-5463, [email protected], @athingortwohq, or in our Geneva.   Learn from the best (and most charming) with MasterClass and an additional 15% off any annual membership when you use our link. Lean into spring with Fast Growing Trees. Get 15% off your first purchase with the code ATHINGORTWO. Promote a balanced gut microbiome with Ritual’s Synbiotic+ and get 25% off your first month with our link. Start your store on Shopify and get a $1-a-month trial with our link. YAY.

Are exposed ankles back? Luigi Mangione sure says so. Also, stuffie reports, Jibbitz musings, purchasable solutions, travel lacrosse balls, and more!   Stuffie bag charms are happening at 10 Corso Como, we ate up Liza Corsillo’s "I Spent 3 Hours at the Jellycat Diner" for NY Mag, and we’re just getting to know Mofusand and their loreless world via their Uniqlo collab.    Jibbitz-inspired living is taking over! The Boulder Public Library hosted a make-your-own jibbitz event, and shoe charms and sandal rings are coming for Birkenstocks. Speaking of Birks, do you have thoughts on Reykjaviks?    We love this Ruth Madievsky quote in her piece in The Cut about the Berlant/Novak podcast:  “The pair bonded over their mutual obsession with purchasable solutions to the problem of being alive.” Two of our current solutjions: a lacrosse ball when traveling and a magnifying mirror with a light. The concept made us think about the book Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman.   What purchasable solutions to the problem of being alive (aka Thingies?) do you rely on? Let us know at 833-632-5463, [email protected], @athingortwohq, or in our Geneva.   Treat your hair nice with Nutrafol. Take $10 off your first month’s subscription with the code ATHINGORTWO. Ring in spring with Fast Growing Trees. Get 15% off your first purchase with the code ATHINGORTWO. Sleep better and get 20% off your Helix mattress when you use our link.  YAY.

First things first: You won’t get sick from touching a bag of S’noods! We’re also coming at you with custard oatmeal, holiday mash-ups, and the many sides of the TikTok creator fund.   We have a lot of thoughts about S’noods, their origins, and the sweet kugel flavor.    Custard oatmeal is the new breakfast of champs around here. Erica’s recipe is from Life Around the Table, but there are a lot of fancier versions still.   The Minnesota Zoo and Anchorage Bird Rescue also got in on the fun of ex-centric V-day fundraising.    A follow-up on produce drawer cold remedies, @dr.beachgem10 has thoughts.   We found some comfort in Sarah Eckel’s "How I’m Staying Sane" installment of her Substack It’s Not Us.    Get your store running on Shopify and get a $1-a-month trial with our link. Welcome spring with Fast Growing Trees. Get 15% off your first purchase with the code ATHINGORTWO. Change your clothes with Nuuly and take $28 off your first month with the code ATHINGORTWO. Sleep better with Bearaby and use the code ATHINGORTWO for an exclusive 10% discount. YAY.