Is It Thursday Yet?

Sometimes I miss the nights of watching TV in the 90s. On Thursdays, NBC had a “Must See TV” line-up, which ran all of their funniest shows back-to-back. In various combinations, they lined up Friends, Mad About You, Seinfeld, and Fraiser, and I looked forward to it all week. I was fresh out of college, I had no more homework, I was making up for lost TV time, and it felt utterly indulgent.

A few years later, my husband went back to school, and we cancelled cable because we had to scrimp. The reception from our TV antenna was always sketchy, so we got out of the habit of planning our week around our favorite shows. Then I went back to school, we discovered Netflix, and we never returned to the land of commercials.

But “Look Forward To Thursdays” are back! Now with podcasts!

I don’t follow a ton of podcasts, but I’m very loyal to the ones I do. Some are regularly scheduled; others are happy surprises. Of the weekly shows, one drops on Tuesdays and the other two on Wednesday nights, so on Thursdays I can listen to all of them at once. It isn’t quite like the good old days when I just plopped on the couch—now I look for things to wash and fold and chop. The house tends to be tidier on Thursdays.

The line-up includes:

• Happier with Gretchen Rubin and Elizabeth Craft
• Happier in Hollywood with Liz Craft (same as above) and Sarah Fain
• By the Book with Kristen Meinzer and Jolenta Greenberg

The shows are semi-related. Gretchen got it all started with her sister, Elizabeth. Then Elizabeth (a.k.a. Liz) started a spinoff with her TV writing partner, Sarah. Kristen Meinzer was originally the producer for Gretchen’s show before taking off on her own with Jolenta. It’s all good stuff—conversations about happiness, habits and personalities, showrunning, and self-help books. The gals are successful, candid, entertaining, grounded, thoughtful, wise, positive, badass, and unashamed to admit that they have issues too. I want to have lunch with all of them.

My favorite sporadic shows are:

• The Unmade Podcast with Tim Hein and Brady Haran. Two childhood friends from Australia brainstorm themes for podcasts. Lots of funny ideas and contagious giggling.
• Art For Your Ear with The Jealous Curator, Danielle Krysa. Artist interviews and a friendly, inspiring connection to the art world.
• Adventures in Arting with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. I’m still new to this one. Julie does a little bit of everything. She works for Brother and AccuCut, has a craft show on PBS, a blog, a vlog, and a podcast, and I’m fascinated by her productivity.
• And, when he feels the whim, Wil Wheaton’s stream-of-consciousness Radio Free Burrito. (Because I like the California vibe, and I’m a wee bit of a Trekkie.)

Listening to podcasts gets me out of my head and leaves me with so many ideas to nosh on that I tend to bring them up in conversation, here, there and everywhere, so fair warning! 🙂