Mini-Ep 439: Here To Be Servicey
Doree and Elise share their recent travels and hear from listeners about more great places to find simple but delicious dinner ideas, million dollar ideas for free muggers and water bottle holders, and the shock of the Forever35 astrology signs missing from our guest roster.
Mentioned in this Episode
Call Your Reps about library services and the humanities
The Road To Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett (out Apr 29!)
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Transcript
This episode transcript is AI generated.
Doree Shafrir (00:10):
Hello and welcome to Forever35, a podcast about the things we do to take care of ourselves. I'm Doree Shafrir.
Elise Hu (00:17):
And I'm Elise Hu. And we're just two friends who like to talk a lot about serums.
Doree Shafrir (00:22):
This is a mini episode where we hear from you, we share your comments and your thoughts, and we answer your questions to the best of our ability. Please remember, we are podcast hosts. We are not experts. We always encourage you to seek support first and foremost, from a medical and mental health professional as needed. And before we get started, I want to remind everyone that we are doing a listener survey. You can find that link in our episode description. It's also linked in our bio on Instagram. It would really help us out if you could answer the survey. It just takes a few minutes and yeah, we'll be so grateful. Thank you.
Elise Hu (00:58):
Yeah, it'll help us with the direction of the
Doree Shafrir (01:00):
Show. Totally. So Elise, you were at TED all last week.
Elise Hu (01:07):
Yeah, and it's so funny, this listener survey reminded me. I was having these conversations with other podcasters. There are many podcasters there about how Mel Robbins has overtaken Joe Rogan. Interesting. The most downloaded podcast in America, or Mel Robbins has often topped Joe Rogan, and it's sort of like why Mel Robbins? How did that, who is she? How'd that become a big thing? And I guess she's the gal who has popularized that notion of just let them, like if
Doree Shafrir (01:40):
Somebody wants to, she's let them lady.
Elise Hu (01:41):
Yes, she's the Let them lady. She's the Let them lady. But have you listened to the show?
(01:46)
Yeah, so I hadn't either, and I was like, what is Mel Robbins special sauce? And there was somebody who was saying, obviously there might be reasons of the zeitgeist. She just happens to tap into whatever self-helpy need that we happen to have at this moment in time. The other was that Scott Galloway, professor G, who's a major podcaster, was talking her up. I think it was Scott Galloway, who's been talking her up a lot and mentioning her constantly. And so there was a lot of crossover between the Prof G audience and Dr. Mel Robbins. Interesting. Is she actually a doctor? I'm not sure. I think she's called Dr. Mel Robbins, though. Listeners, you can school me on this if you're a big Mel Robbins listener. But the third thing of analysis that I learned about the Mel Robbins show that I think that we could be better at is that she actually adopts some of the practices of just classic commercial radio where she's like, Hey, today I have so-and-so on the show. And we're going to talk about that later, the tease stuff. And I'm Dr. Mel Robbins, the whole reintroducing who she is
Elise Hu (02:54):
And what the
Elise Hu (02:55):
Show is. And so I think it's been very good at bringing in people who are just casually dropping in for the first time.
Doree Shafrir (03:02):
Interesting.
Elise Hu (03:03):
So for any first time listeners of Forever35, this is a mini episode and we have mini episodes every Wednesday. And we start with kind of a just general chat where Dorian and I catch up because we're good friends, and then we jump into a listener mailbag, questions from you all. And that happens every Wednesday. And on Monday we have a longer chat where we catch up before we do interviews. So anyway, I might just, you throw in, I might throw in little reintroductions to who we are and the format of the show for folks just studying from the school of Dr. Mel Robbins.
Doree Shafrir (03:42):
I hope it sounded annoying for people.
Elise Hu (03:45):
The thing, it's like, how is that? Well, commercial radio works though. I mean people, so what somebody was saying to me was that because they have to hold your attention for an entire drive time, or you have these DJs that have shows for two hours long, you never know when somebody's actually getting in the car and starting to tune in.
Doree Shafrir (04:08):
So
Elise Hu (04:09):
You're getting a lot of Reids. Totally. I don't think we need to ID ourselves, but we might need to remind folks what the show format is. And so that is one area that I do want to learn from Mel Robbins.
Doree Shafrir (04:23):
From Old Mel.
Elise Hu (04:25):
Yeah. Besides just letting people do what? Just let them.
Doree Shafrir (04:29):
Yeah. There's been, as I think happens with a lot of these sort of pop psychology kind of things that enter the zeitgeist,
Elise Hu (04:40):
There's
Doree Shafrir (04:40):
Been a big backlash to her for sure. And the let them concept. And I just think as with all these things, they can be helpful, but they're also clearly oversimplified.
Elise Hu (04:58):
Yes. They cannot solve individual problems across the board. So take it with a grain of salt, just like you should take us with a grain of salt because we are podcast hosts.
Doree Shafrir (05:12):
We are podcast hosts
Elise Hu (05:13):
And not medical and mental health professionals.
Doree Shafrir (05:17):
No, no, no. Although I am a paid advice columnist.
Elise Hu (05:24):
That's true.
Doree Shafrir (05:26):
So I am a professional advice columnist.
Elise Hu (05:29):
That is true. So if you have any work questions, you don't just have to write into Slate or just have the option of writing into Slate. You can also write into us here at Forever 35.
Doree Shafrir (05:39):
Yes. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. And my slate column comes out every Tuesday. You got to remind people at least. Anything you want to
Elise Hu (05:51):
Plug? Nope. I don't have any MLM schemes. I'm running LuLaRoe LuLaRoe. Just kidding.
Doree Shafrir (06:02):
Well, you do host Ted Talks daily, which I feel like is a big deal.
Elise Hu (06:06):
Yeah. If you're not already tuned in or aware, I host a daily podcast called Ted Talks Daily, and I introduce a fresh TED Talk each day, but also have fuller conversations with some of these speakers off stage about their big ideas. And last week was the annual TED Conference, the big ted, the super TED in Vancouver. And there was a lot of discourse and dialogue as we have had over the last couple of years about AI and just how transformative it is, but also that the cows out of the barn or the trains left the station on how transformative this technology is. And it's like upending our lives and yet the engineers have lost control over how to stop it or how it even works at a certain level, and it can be deceptive now. And it's also self preserving. So we have maybe crossed the threshold of being able to turn it off, and that's really scary. But if you are interested in a lot of the questions around AI and its implications, we're having those over at TED Talks daily.
Doree Shafrir (07:16):
Very cool. Okay. Well Elise, before we take a break, I do want to play, actually, I want to play a couple of
Elise Hu (07:26):
Voicemails. Oh, okay, great.
Doree Shafrir (07:27):
If that's okay with you. Some pre-B break voicemails. Awesome. Some pre-B break voicemails. Indeed. Alright, here is our first voicemail.
Listener Voicemail (07:37):
Hey, this is Robin K, I had to pause the pod. I'm actually located in the Washington DC area. I was just listening to your mini episode and I work in the museum field, so I wanted to say I really do hope Tory went to go check out the National Building Museum with Henry. I have friends who work in collections there behind the scenes. They have some really great exhibits. Also a quick comment, but I have a lot of friends who work for the Smithsonian. They're still trying to fight the good fight and the behind the scenes. So please keep that in mind when you're walking around and taking in the exhibits. They're very aware of what's happening right now, and they are trying to make sure that our history is being told to the best way that they can. Also, a quick note that if you can contact your congressional representatives to bring back funding to the National Endowment for the Humanities and Institute, the Museum and Library Services have benefited from jobs from both of those grants throughout my 20 odd career, 20 odd long career in the museum field. It's been very disheartening lately, but all of us in the museum field are really still trying to make sure that all histories, all people are being represented. So please do reach out to your congressman people about bringing back funding to these important fields. So anyway, thanks, Robin. Living in the Washington DC area, 46 years old, really like the pod. Thanks again. Hope you enjoy. Bye.
Elise Hu (08:56):
Well, thank you, Robin. Yes. Call your reps. Call your reps.
Doree Shafrir (09:00):
Call your
Elise Hu (09:01):
Reps. Don't let American History be erased.
Doree Shafrir (09:05):
No, please. We did go to the National Building Museum.
Elise Hu (09:10):
Yay. I'm so glad.
Doree Shafrir (09:13):
Such an amazing building. How did Henry like it? He liked it. He liked it. I would say the bigger hit though was the National Children's Museum.
Elise Hu (09:22):
Oh yeah, that's classic. Yes. Great.
Doree Shafrir (09:27):
They have a Lego exhibit at the National Building Museum called Brick City and you can build stuff. And he was into that for quite some time, actually, longer than I thought. But the rest of the National Building Museum was just slightly too old for him.
Elise Hu (09:42):
Oh, too old. Okay.
Doree Shafrir (09:43):
Yeah. And he was like, I want to go. The National Children's Museum was amazing and we were there for quite some time and
Elise Hu (09:54):
Oh, good.
Doree Shafrir (09:55):
Felt like it was right at his sweet spot. This is a perfect museum for a five or 6-year-old child. But my 9-year-old niece loved the building museum and went to a bunch of different exhibits there and it felt more like it was more appropriate for her, I think like the whole museum. But I really liked it and wished I had more time there without my child. But also we went to errand space and half of Aaron Space is closed, so that was kind of a bummer, both because we couldn't see half of the museum, but also because I think that made it extra crowded. It didn't seem like they were limiting. They didn't seem like they had changed the number of people they were letting in. So it was extremely crowded. And some of the cooler stuff I think is closed until 2026 when it'll become the Bezos wing.
Elise Hu (11:03):
That's real. That's real.
Doree Shafrir (11:06):
Oh, it's real. Okay. We are going to take a break and when we come back, see, I'm trying
Elise Hu (11:16):
To see You're doing it. It's so
Doree Shafrir (11:17):
Good. When we come back, we have a lot of recipe suggestions, so stay tuned for those. Alright, we're back. And just a reminder to please call or text us at (781) 591-0390. Email us at february 35 podcast gmail.com. We do post everything on our website Forever five podcast. All the links that we mentioned on the show, they're all there. We are Instagram podcast. We have a newsletter forever five podcast com slash newsletter, and we have our favorite products, plus Rachel Goodwin's favorite products at shop my US slash forever five.
Elise Hu (12:03):
So a few weeks ago, Dorie put out an all call for easy Dinner ideas because she was in a dinner rut that we have now called Dory's Dinner Rut. Dory's Dinner
Doree Shafrir (12:15):
Dilemma. Dory's Dinner Dilemma. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what it was. Dory's Dinner Dilemma. Look, the listeners have really rallied for me.
Elise Hu (12:24):
Thank you. Thank you listeners, and
Doree Shafrir (12:25):
I am grateful. Okay. This listener says, if you have a rice cooker or instant pot, you can add rice. But then also like any seasonings, you can also add a whole bag of frozen veggies. This listener does curry powder, garlic powder, veggie broth, and turmeric,
(12:46)
And they say, just cook until the rice is done. Meanwhile, roast a lot of chickpeas with olive oil and smoked paprika in the oven in the two big casserole dish. Just sidebar for me, Dory. I love roasted chickpeas with smoked paprika, so I'm like, okay, I'm picking up what you're throwing down here. I'm liking it. Okay. And then when everything is done, you dump the rice and the veggies in the casserole. You mix everything together. You salted the table or don't. Yeah, no. Cutting. You can make it pseudo Mexican with beans, cumin and lime juice, or pretend Thai with coconut milk and curry paste. If your cooker is really big, you could skip the legumes and just add crumbled tofu straight to the cooker. Interesting. Okay.
Elise Hu (13:34):
This is exactly, this kind of reminds me of my favorite Instagram chef, who I think is eight years old. Easy peasy, Jordan. Easy peasy. Jordan is approximately my cooking level, and he makes so much delicious Japanese or Korean inspired dishes just in the rice cooker. It's always one pot. He cooks up a bunch of stuff, throws it in the rice cooker. Bam. Very inspiring. Easy peasy. Georgia.
Doree Shafrir (14:02):
Oh man, I love a one pot. Just love a one P Pot. Agree. Moving on. This listener says that when they're in a dinner or recipe rut, they check cookbooks out at the library. It's a great free way to spice up the meal rotation for a bit and try new things without buying a new cookbook. I find searching for recipes on the internet can be overwhelming a lot of the time, and looking through new cookbook or two helps narrow down the choices. Great idea. Love this idea. Great
Elise Hu (14:33):
Idea. Did you know you can also check out Power tools at the library,
Doree Shafrir (14:38):
Elise? I did know that I have, but I have not.
Elise Hu (14:41):
I, okay. I did not know that I could go check out
Doree Shafrir (14:44):
A drill. This is a thing that comes up periodically in various mom groups I'm in people like, Hey, did you know that you can check out power tools from library? I did actually once look into it, just out of curiosity and everything seemed to be checked out. I imagine it's popular to check out tools from library, but where we live, there's two, or I live, there's two library systems that I have easy access to. One is the Los Angeles Public Library, the city library, but then there's the Los Angeles County Library system, and they have a whole different array of things, so you can always look at both. Okay. Moving on. Another voicemail.
Listener Voicemail (15:28):
Hi. So I was calling about Doree's Dinner Rut and there is a food blogger that I follow. She used to be on Food Network, her name is, so it's KE LSE yn. That's what she's on Instagram. She even has a little podcast called Kitchen Prescription. It's really short. Every week she'll give you some tips and some things that she's making. She does have a recipe club you can pay for, which I have not done, although it sounds awesome. But she'll often give really easy meal tips on her Instagram. She uses Trader Joe's products all the time, which I feel like totally aligns with you guys. And often those are like five ingredient meals. She's all about getting meals on the table. She has three young kids. And anyway, I just feel like it something that a lot of people could follow and enjoy. She often will let you get a recipe for free on certain posts. If you just comment, she'll send you the link. So you could even try some of her recipes and see what you think. But I just think she has a really fun follow and really realistic for getting jitter on the table. Okay, thanks. Bye.
Doree Shafrir (16:42):
Good. Thank you for this. I love Kelsey. In fact, I would describe her as a friend of the pod. She has always been very supportive of both of my podcasts and she's just like a lovely human. I met her once in Portland. Kelsey, if you're listening, let me know if that is correct. I think she used to live and then she moved to la. But she is lovely and has a great Instagram, and I endorse this recommendation.
Elise Hu (17:15):
Love it. Well, now I have a new follow because I didn't know about this. Had you not been in Dorie's Dinner Dilemma trademark, then we wouldn't have gone down all these roads of Easy dinner ideas. And it's true Food Instagrammers.
Doree Shafrir (17:31):
Yes, yes, yes. So thank you. It's
Elise Hu (17:33):
Really a service to us all.
Doree Shafrir (17:36):
It is truly a service to us all, and we are just here to be servicey. Elise, let's take another little break.
Elise Hu (17:47):
What happens when we come back door?
Doree Shafrir (17:49):
Well, we have a million dollar idea from a listener, I'm just saying, and some astrology talk.
Elise Hu (17:58):
Okay. So stick around.
Doree Shafrir (17:59):
We'll be right back. Stick around. Okay. We have returned, this listener had some feedback on a recent casual chat that we had on Patreon.
Elise Hu (18:18):
Just a
Doree Shafrir (18:18):
Reminder, you'll just have to listen.
Elise Hu (18:19):
Yeah, I to know what she's talking about. Now we're getting so tease happy. But you can just go to patreon.com/forever three five and join us where we have casual chats every Friday.
Doree Shafrir (18:32):
Yes.
Elise Hu (18:32):
And you'll be in on the more exclusive conversations.
Doree Shafrir (18:37):
Very exclusive. Alright. $1 million idea. Instead of exterior car cup holders, someone should make drinking vessels, water bottles, travel mugs, regular mugs for the free muggers, et cetera, that have a magnetic base. That way when you set it on top of the car, it won't tip over and fall off. No need to pay me, but please thank me. When you present this idea on Shark Tank,
Elise Hu (19:04):
This is such a Shark Tank idea, such I cannot believe somebody hasn't already, this
Doree Shafrir (19:10):
Is so funny.
Elise Hu (19:11):
Pitched it. We're onto
Doree Shafrir (19:13):
Something. Two pop culture events that happened during your labor. The Chris Rock slash Will Smith slap Oscars was on when I was in labor with my son. I will always remember watching it in my labor and delivery room also because that was the last Academy Awards where I had seen any of the movies
Elise Hu (19:33):
Law.
Doree Shafrir (19:35):
Funny. The first time I
Elise Hu (19:36):
Ever got was that night of the Oscars of the slap. Oh my God. I had 102 temperature and was sweating profusely, sweating. And then I was in that sort of fugue state when you're really feverish. So I looked up at my TV and I was watching it with the sound on it, but the sound dropped out as I'm watching the Oscars after the slap, and I was like, the sound dropped out. I don't know if this is real. And then I think I saw Will Smith come out of the audience and slap the host. But I think I'm hallucinating. I thought I was hallucinating for hours until the news headlines came out about it. Oh my God,
Doree Shafrir (20:22):
That's so funny.
Elise Hu (20:25):
So we share that slap night as being a memorable night in common listener. Yes, indeed.
Doree Shafrir (20:30):
On our Patreon, we do this forever 35 questionnaire, which is a little bonus round of questions that we do with our guests, and one of the questions that we ask is, what is your astrological sign? And do you think it fits? The responses to this are always fascinating to me because I would say that, and Elise, tell me if this is also your impression, but my impression is that the vast majority of people say that their sign does fit.
Elise Hu (20:57):
Yeah, yeah. I mean, vast majority, I'd say like nine out of 10 guests.
Doree Shafrir (21:02):
Yes. And the one out of 10 are the guests who are like, I don't really follow astrology or, you know what I mean? People are into their astrological signs. Anyway, so I thought it'd be fun to chart which astrological signs are popular amongst our guests. The results were shocking.
Elise Hu (21:23):
They
Elise Hu (21:23):
Were shocking.
Doree Shafrir (21:25):
We published them in our newsletter and since, I mean, we've been doing the Forever 35 questionnaire since Elise started on the show. So almost a year ago. Almost a year since then, we have not had any guests who were Tauruses.
Elise Hu (21:40):
It's because you represent the Taurus faction so strongly. Tori, I guess.
Doree Shafrir (21:44):
And then what was the other one? It was either Leo or Libra. Libra that we also didn't have. It was Libra. We're also missing Libra. There's a lot of Leo guests. You're also missing and a lot of Gemini guests.
Elise Hu (21:57):
So we have some astrological sign, DEIJ issues.
Doree Shafrir (22:04):
We're going to start asking people's astrological signs before we book them. Okay. So one of our listeners wrote in and said, I'm a Taurus. Taurus sun and rising. I'm also shocked. We're so underrepresented. So often I find myself nodding along to Dory. I would be right at home at Dory's Hotel. I mean, Tauruses have perfected. We love the finer things in life. We are particular about what we love, but we love it hard and forever. Unless we get betrayed. Then we'll remember forever. I mean, this does describe me. So
Elise Hu (22:38):
My brother is a Taurus. I feel that. I feel that.
Doree Shafrir (22:43):
Oh gosh. Yeah. Listener, I'll keep you posted. I agree. We tauruses love the finer things. I mean, my son also a Taurus, he loves being cozy. The other night he was like, mama, can we put the bath pillow in the bath so I can relax during my bath? Make the
Elise Hu (23:04):
Bath even more relaxing.
Doree Shafrir (23:06):
Yeah, he's five. I was like, this is hilarious. So yes, I feel you, listener. Alright, well that about does it for today's show. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed our cheeses and
Elise Hu (23:21):
Thanks for sticking with us.
Doree Shafrir (23:23):
Yeah. Come back on Monday where we have a full length episode with the author Annie Hartnett, who is so delightful and her new book is so good. It's such a great novel. If you're looking for a great novel, you have to read her book. It's out April 29th. Okay. Listen to our episode on Monday with her and we'll talk to you soon.