Mini-Ep 487: First Time Caller
Doree and Elise have a voicemail from a surprise “first time caller,” a couple of questions from DC-based listeners, and an endorsement for a shoe rec of yore.
Mentioned in this Episode
Tretinoin
Morpheus
Vitamin c
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Transcript
This episode transcript is AI generated.
Doree Shafrir (00:10):
Hello and welcome to Forever 35, a podcast about the things we do to take care of ourselves. I'm Doree Shafrir.
Elise Hu (00:16):
And I'm Elise Hu, and we're just two friends who like to talk a lot about serums.
Doree Shafrir (00:20):
And 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. But please remember, we are podcast hosts. We are not experts. We always encourage you to seek support first and foremost from a medical and/or mental health professional as needed. And if you would like to listen to an expert, medical professional, we have on Monday.
Elise Hu (00:41):
We sure did. And she's awesome.
Doree Shafrir (00:43):
Yeah. So if you haven't listened to that episode, I highly recommend that you do so.
Elise Hu (00:49):
I suddenly got really obsessed with fiber after our conversation. And then I was like, am I eating enough fiber? Are my kids getting enough fiber? Surely not. And she talked about how her kids, she makes sure she doesn't believe in hacks or anything, but this is Dr. Pasrisha from our Monday guest. She doesn't believe in hacks or anything, but she does feed her kids kiwis. They have a kiwi each day just to make sure that they get enough fiber. And so now for that weekend after we spoke to her, I was like, "God, I really got to stop my house with kiwis and make sure that the girls are eating kiwis." And then I told my ex- husband because he has the girls three nights a week and he was like, "Man, anytime you get your mind fixated on something, I don't want to stand in your way.
(01:38):
The most dangerous place in the world is between you and your current fixation." And he's like, "So I went and got a bunch of
Doree Shafrir (01:46):
Kiwi." Oh, that's so funny.
Elise Hu (01:47):
And he got a bunch of kiwi and was feeding the girls those before we came on spring break. And then Luna was like, "Where's my daily kiwi?" And she got used to it because her dad was doing it dutifully each day. And then I forgot. So now we're back to probably not enough fiber.
Doree Shafrir (02:09):
That's hilarious.
Elise Hu (02:11):
I mean, say what you want about that interview. It certainly prompted actionable change.
Doree Shafrir (02:18):
Yes, totally. Also, kiwis are good.
Elise Hu (02:22):
They are. It's a yummy treat. It's
Doree Shafrir (02:25):
A yummy fruit. Well, Elise, we got a voicemail from, I would say Pod Royalty that- Ooh,
Elise Hu (02:35):
A familiar voice, it sounds like. A
Doree Shafrir (02:36):
Familiar voice. Okay. Yes, that I do want to play.
Elise Hu (02:40):
All right.
Listener Voicemail (02:42):
Hi, Doran Elise. It's your old friend and former Forever 35 co-host, Kate Spencer, calling in because I just got your newsletter to my email and it said you were looking for seasonal skincare wrecks. And I realized I have the perfect thing to recommend. And I also was like, I've never called the pod before and share this. Hi. I love you guys. Love the show. Here's my recommendation for a really great summer moisturizer, but I actually use it year round. And I have fairly dehydrated skin and I love this stuff. I'm on my second bottle. It is the CeraVe Ultralight Moisturizing Gel. I'm holding the bottle of my hand. It says for all skin types, weightless feel on skin. Immediate and long lasting hydration helps restore the protective skin barrier with three essential ceramides, niacinamide and hyaluronic acid, fast absorbing. I love this stuff so much.
(03:43):
It is like the perfect lightweight daytime moisturizer. I think I use it year round. Again, I told you on my second bottle. The reason I even tried this stuff is because I bought it for one of my teen daughters and it was rejected because I thought it was like the perfect teen moisturizer, right? Like a super light gel. And I was like, "Well, I don't want this to go to waste, so I'll just use it until the bottle's done." And then I loved it and now I use it every day. You know I love a Sarah V, love the price point, especially in this economy. And so yeah, I'm almost done with this bottle, the second bottle, and I'll buy it again. I feel like it would be perfect in humid climates, summer. But again, I'm in SoCal and I use it all the time.
(04:27):
So that is my recommendation. Miss you, love you. Talk to you soon. Hi listeners as well. Hope everybody's doing great. Bye.
Elise Hu (04:36):
Love that. Love to hear that. And I like a moisturizing gel. I haven't used this product.
Doree Shafrir (04:43):
I love a lightweight moisturizing gel. I kind of wish she had said ... You know how people are like longtime listener, first time caller? I wish she had said like longtime host, first time caller.
Elise Hu (04:54):
That would've been cute. That would've been cute.
Doree Shafrir (04:56):
Next time, Kate.
Elise Hu (04:57):
Yeah. It's so great to hear your voice, Kate. It
Doree Shafrir (05:00):
Is great to hear your voice. Thank you so much for this wreck. I'm going to check it out. I haven't tried it. Me too. I also love that your daughter rejected it and that you took it. All right. Elise, we got this email that was kind of directed at you.
Elise Hu (05:14):
Okay. I'll read it. Hello. I'm a proud native Washingtonian, the district, not the state. And after a decade of living in other cities and back home in DC, now with my spouse and two little kids, I love Elise's brief mentions of her time here and would love to know what was your life in DC like and what was your experience as a mom here? Where did you live and where did you spend your free time? And most importantly, any favorite food. Thank you both for the show. It has been such a comfort for me over the past few years. Living in DC was like walking through a postcard. It is so pretty in so many parts of the city and then it has the four seasons. And so I love that. I worked in Chinatown, NPR was in Chinatown when I was there and then it moved to the area now called NOMA, which is on the red line on Capitol Street, Northeast.
(06:11):
It's like 1111 Capital Northeast, I think is the address. And I lived there with my then husband and I had Ava there. So Ava was born in Washington DC and so I had my first two years as a mom there. And what was so cool is I really tried to take advantage of everything the city had to offer while we were there because I didn't know how long we were going to be there because I tended to move every three to four years, which I did. I think we lived there for only the end of the Obama administration or the second term of Obama. And so on the weekends, she loved going to the National Building Museum, which surely this caller takes her kids to. And I recommended that for Henry too. And I think that you guys went and it was such a great indoor play space, but also a museum for kids and the postal museum.
(07:03):
And we did holiday pictures at the Cogod Courtyard, which is part of the National Portrait Gallery. And Ava went to school, her first preschool was kind of like a co-op program by the Smithsonian. It was Smithsonian preschool. So we would meet in a classroom for this preschool and your parent had to go, like a parent or a caregiver had to go and it was only like three hours a day because she was only two and a lot of the kids weren't potty trained. They would meet at the Museum of Natural History. So you would like walk past the giant dinosaur exhibit in order to get to this classroom. And then you had these highly trained Smithsonian educators who would then teach class at the National Theater. They would go to the National Theater to do a class or they would do a program walking the Frick Gallery.
(07:53):
And so we really got to live like we lived there. And I have great memories of it. I also was still in my late 20s and I think I turned 30 there and then moved just shortly after. And so it was also the place of really rich friendships that you have in your late 20s when you're going out all the time. And I remember feeling like I didn't like them as much. The nine months I was pregnant because I was like, "Oh, I usually hang out with y'all when I'm pretty drunk. And now that I don't get to drink and all y'all are drunk, you're not as
Doree Shafrir (08:30):
Fun." That's really funny.
Elise Hu (08:32):
But no, I love you all. I love all my DC friends and I actually just saw them last year when we went back and we ate at a lot of the Jose Andres places like Zatinia, Halleo. He also had that Mexican restaurant, Oya Mel. These are all like places from 2010s DC. And then we had Tuesday Night Drinking Club where the four of us in the core group, each of us would take turns choosing where we would meet on Tuesday nights so we could be introduced to new bars and new places to hang. And there's a place near the Washington Post because I had a lot of Washington Post friends that were part of that club. There was a place near the Washington Post called Solis where a lot of like old government employees, like federal workers would go and get a drink. And it was so great.
(09:20):
It was sort of like in a basement and you hung out with all these like grizzled government workers and they poured really stiff cocktails. And so I love Soli's. I don't know if Solly's is still there. And then U Street was really big at the time because they say that every DC neighborhood has its moment depending on which administration is in charge. Oh,
Doree Shafrir (09:39):
That's
Elise Hu (09:39):
Funny. And so like Georgetown was really big during the Bush years because it was like Bush people.
Doree Shafrir (09:44):
And then
Elise Hu (09:45):
14th Street came up during the Obama years because it was a lot of Obama people. And then of course, I have to shout out two restaurants in DC that are owned by my friend Rose, Compass Rose, which is now no longer there, but I think exists as a different concept that's on 14th Street. And then Maidan or Madon, depending on how you want to pronounce it, which is in an alley and it's a Michelin starred restaurant and remains a favorite in DC. So shout out to those places. And thanks for letting me go on my little DC reverie because I really do think that time of life was really special. I just don't think I am a DC person. There was a lot of like achievement, I think, and people who said they had hard stops at the end of meetings.
Doree Shafrir (10:27):
It's also a lot of lawyers- With all due respect to lawyers.
Elise Hu (10:33):
Your family members. Yeah, exactly. I was taking TRX classes because I had this colleague that was like, "You got to do this with me. " And he was like super in shape, but that class was full of these lawyer women who were just so next level. And I was just like, "This kind of workout pressure is not for me, but it also said something to me about the vibe of the city." It's a place where Flywheel was big, where people's scores were on the board and they liked it. They liked the ranking and things like that. And I have felt like psychologically that's something that we should get rid of that kind of thinking is because it's better for our relationships to not be in competition with one another. And so I needed to get out of DC, but I'm so, so, so glad that we ... I had that time there, that snapshot in time when Ava was really small.
Doree Shafrir (11:27):
Yeah, totally. I mean, when you were talking about it, I was like, "Oh yeah, I have had some really lovely times in DC." It is a great place to visit. All right, we are going to take a short break. Before we do that, please do call or text in with questions, comments, et cetera, for us for these episodes. 781-591-0390. You can also email us at forever35podcast@gmail.com. Our website is forever35podcast.com. We have links there to everything we mentioned on the show. Our Instagram is Forever35 podcast and on our Patreon, patreon.com/forever35. We have a ton of bonus content and extra features. And if you're listening to this on Wednesday morning, there is still time to join our Patreon and join us for the live casual chat, which is today, Wednesday, April 8th at 12:30 Pacific, 3:30 Eastern. All you have to do is join at one of the paid tiers, so at the $5 level or above, and you get access to our live casual chat.
(12:26):
And that is something that we're doing roughly quarterly, and it's so much fun. I love the first one that we did, and so I'm really looking forward to doing another one today. So that's at patreon.com/forever35. And we are going to take a short break. And when we come back, we have a question about crepey skin and one about a partner who snores.
Elise Hu (12:52):
Okay. We'll be right back.
Doree Shafrir (13:01):
All right. We are back. Elise, do you want to read this first one?
Elise Hu (13:06):
Sure. Hi, mini-up question for you and the listeners. I recently became horrified by my crepey skin. I am 56 and need something that can help with this. I've been using the Goldbond lotion for crepey skin, but haven't seen much improvement. Any recommendations for products that help with this? Thank you. I don't know. Do you, Tor?
Doree Shafrir (13:28):
I think that tretinoin maybe can help. I don't know that you're ... I would talk to a dermatologist. I don't know if you're supposed to put it on your neck. I think I've heard people say red light therapy helps with this. PRP helps with it too, but that's expensive. Any sort of like Morpheus is something that will help with it also, which is basically ... I think Morpheus is basically like radio frequency microneedling. These are expensive treatments. I personally don't feel like at this point a neck cream is going to do the job. I mean, keep it moisturized. I put vitamin C on my neck and I feel like it helps. But yeah, I mean, to me, this feels like an in- office treatment sort of situation, but I would love to hear if listeners, especially listeners in their fifties, have found things that help.
Elise Hu (14:29):
I was like today years old when I realized I need to put sunscreen on my neck.
Doree Shafrir (14:34):
Oh yeah.
Elise Hu (14:36):
I was like, "Oh my gosh, my neck is also exposed."
Doree Shafrir (14:41):
Yeah.
Elise Hu (14:42):
This truly was maybe like two to three weeks ago. So now at age 44, I have begun to put sunscreen on my neck, so we'll see what happens. But yeah, listeners call in. This actually, to me, sounds like it's time. This is a good sort of universe reminding us that it's time to have my dermatologist, Dr. Jenny Wong, back on to take some questions.
Doree Shafrir (15:10):
Yes, I agree.
Elise Hu (15:11):
Y'all loved her. Y'all loved Dr. Jenny Wong and so did we.
Doree Shafrir (15:15):
What's not to love about Dr. Jenny Wong?
Elise Hu (15:17):
She was pretty badass. Yeah. She's pretty
Doree Shafrir (15:20):
Badass.
Elise Hu (15:21):
Listeners, if you have any suggestions, call in. I mean, that's what these episodes are for.
Doree Shafrir (15:24):
Yeah, totally. All right. This is an email we got. Hi, I'm a listener since the very beginning and have thought to send in this question many times. I'd love to hear about sharing a bed with a partner who snores, tricks, solutions, commiseration. Thank you for covering all sorts of questions and concerns with sensitivity and good humor. You are the best. I've been there. I was there. I was you for a long time. For a while, we were sleeping. When it was really bad, we were sleeping separately. Matt was sleeping on the couch because I literally could not sleep with him in bed with me. Before it got really bad, I wore earplugs and I also found that if I fell asleep before him, I was usually able to sort of sleep through it. But if he fell asleep before me, I wasn't able to fall asleep with him snoring.
(16:23):
So that was one thing. But then the thing that really changed everything was when Matt got a sleep study done, found out he had pretty severe sleep apnea, wasn't really sleeping, and got a CPAP machine. And that completely changed his sleep, his life. He came back and slept in the same bed. He sleeps silently now.
Elise Hu (16:51):
That's crazy.
Doree Shafrir (16:52):
It's pretty crazy. We have ... Oh, actually I should mention this. We were in San Diego recently, because Henry was on spring break, and we went to the ... It's called the New Children's Museum, really cool children's museum. If you have kids under eight, I would say it's definitely worth going to. And someone came up to me and was like, "I'm a Forever 35 listener." And it was our listener who had been writing in about her snoring.
Elise Hu (17:22):
That's so great. Which
Doree Shafrir (17:23):
Is so funny. And she had said she did do a sleep study and she doesn't have sleep apnea. She and Matt actually talked a little bit about snoring.
Elise Hu (17:35):
Oh, okay. Great. Connections.
Doree Shafrir (17:38):
Yeah, exactly. So yeah, so I would have them do a sleep study and see if it is sleep apnea because if it is sleep apnea, the sleepPAP will really, really help. In the meantime, get some good earplugs or even if you can fall asleep with headphones on, like noise canceling headphones, that is also an option. Matt would sometimes use those breathe right strips and
Elise Hu (18:05):
Those
Doree Shafrir (18:05):
Help a little bit. I think also mouth tape can help, but if it's really severe, it might be something that can only be helped with a CPAP.
Elise Hu (18:16):
This is great, Dora. Yeah. Feel like this is a very complete answer.
Doree Shafrir (18:19):
Okay. Thank you. Couple more texts before we take another break. This one, very short. The Nalgene travel containers are incredible. Wow.
Elise Hu (18:27):
Agree.
Doree Shafrir (18:28):
I feel like I need to get these.
(18:30):
They look great. All right. And then this is about gardening as self-care. And this listener says, "I love gardening as self-care, Elise. I highly recommend using an AI chatbot as your plant Rx. You can upload pictures and write a prompt asking your specific question and include context like where you're located in the country or what type of watering and light the plant receives. I use ChatGPT, but I'm sure other versions work well too. I've used it to create a mood board/collage of various plants to see how they would look together. I've had it diagnose plants that aren't doing well. Both house plants and outdoor plants also ask many questions about maintenance and care of specific plants. I hope to use it to do some small scale landscape garden planning, as well as teach me how to install a simple drip irrigation, happy gardening.
Elise Hu (19:23):
You know what? I started getting all these plant apps sold to me after we talked about this.
Doree Shafrir (19:29):
Oh, that's funny.
Elise Hu (19:30):
Because there's all these apps where you can take a picture and it will use AI to try and to essentially diagnose your problem and tell you what you need to do. And there are so many out there and they're all competing with one another and you have to buy a subscription for 29.99 or whatever it is. I haven't deployed technology to try and address this problem, but if it can keep my plants alive longer, then maybe it offsets the water use of the data center. I don't know how the math works out, you know? Though this speaks to what we've talked about before, which is like we all feel like individually responsible for such a structural problem. And what we really got to push for is structural changes. Where are we going directionally as a country and as a planet? Meanwhile, I do want to keep my plants alive, so thank you for the tip.
Doree Shafrir (20:20):
All right. We are going to take another short break and when we get back, we have an interesting home organization tip.
Elise Hu (20:30):
Oh, okay. Can't wait to hear it. We'll be right back.
Doree Shafrir (20:32):
We'll be right back. All right. We are back. Elise, do you want to take this one?
Elise Hu (20:44):
Sure. Here's our interesting home organization tip. Not really home organization per se, but every winter I pick a room in my normal lived in one person home and paint it and purge it. It usually takes a few days looking at you, MLK weekend, but it makes decluttering and organizing so much less overwhelming and keeping my wall paint fresh in a more bite-sized way than it's time to paint my entire house. Just a good system that works for me. I like that. I like this idea. I like that. Just taking a room, tackling it, making it new.
Doree Shafrir (21:16):
But taking it down to the studs. Do you know what I mean? Totally. Because if you want to paint a room, you have to-
Elise Hu (21:24):
Take everything out. ...
Doree Shafrir (21:25):
Take everything out. So that really forces you to think about what goes in this room. So I really like that. Thank you for this tip. I'm not going to do it, partly because I don't own my home, but I like this tip. All right. We have another voicemail that made me chuckle. It's actually quite sweet.
Listener Voicemail (21:48):
Hi, this is Michelle. I had a question for Doree. Back during your gift guide episode, you mentioned the Tiva Reember slip-ons. I have them. I bought them for myself, I think two Christmases ago with some REI gift cards that I got, and I adore them. I love them so much. So I just wanted to see if Doree ever got them because they're amazing and you were thinking about it and maybe you should get yourself a little shoe treat. That's all. Bye.
Doree Shafrir (22:21):
Thank you. I love this call back. I love that this person has been thinking about this. I never got them. Partly because I was like ... Well, I was like, oh, they're like 80 bucks. I don't know. It just felt hard to justify spending the money on them, but I feel like this listener has now given me permission to spend the money on them.
Elise Hu (22:42):
Yeah, girl.
Doree Shafrir (22:43):
So also my birthday's coming up, so maybe-
Elise Hu (22:46):
And still in the double digits.
Doree Shafrir (22:48):
Right. Yeah. They're not over a hundred. Thank you so much for this. I had actually forgotten that I'd recommended these, but I'm also glad because sometimes when you recommend something that you haven't actually tried yourself, it's good to hear from people who actually- Okay, I've actually worn these. This is actually great. Yeah, exactly. Okay. And our last email, very sweet, from Jackie in DC, big DC day.
Elise Hu (23:13):
Yeah, it's a real theme.
Doree Shafrir (23:14):
Yeah. And they say, longtime listener, since before Doree was pregnant with Henry, that is a long time listener. Writing to recommend The Uncles-In-Law Podcast, which Doree recommended recently hosted by her brother, husband, and brother-in-law. If you also find men to be mysterious creatures, I've enjoyed having a window into three who seemed like really nice guys and hearing how they talk about work, family dynamics, hobbies, body image, and each other. And the familiarity of them as extensions of Doree makes for an easy transition to a new cast of podcast characters. That's so sweet. They are really nice guys. They are ...
Elise Hu (23:54):
Your family.
Doree Shafrir (23:55):
Yeah, they're my family, but sometimes your family is problematic. So yeah, that's really nice. Thank you so much for this. I also think Uncle Law is a great listen. And I mean, for me personally, it's nice, especially to get a window into what my brother is doing and what he's thinking and how he's doing.
Elise Hu (24:17):
Yeah. Yeah.
Doree Shafrir (24:18):
He's not forthcoming in conversation.
Elise Hu (24:22):
Is he more forthcoming on a podcast?
Doree Shafrir (24:24):
Yes.
Elise Hu (24:25):
Interesting.
Doree Shafrir (24:26):
I have found this to be true. Maybe it is a man thing, but it's like they get in front of a microphone and suddenly it's like they're able to bear their souls or maybe Matt brings it out of him. I don't know.
Elise Hu (24:37):
Yeah. Matt's a good host.
Doree Shafrir (24:38):
Matt is a good host and kind of has that sort of warm and non-threatening demeanor. And so I think he's able to get my brother to talk about stuff that maybe he wouldn't have talked about. So yeah. Oh, I love that you love it and thank you so much for recommending it. And yeah, they are the Uncles-in-Law podcasts available wherever you get your podcasts, including YouTube. They are also on YouTube. So thanks. All right, everybody. Thank you so much for listening. Take care. We'll talk to you soon. And if you're a Patreon supporter, we will see you today.
Elise Hu (25:13):
See you in a little bit. All right. Bye.