Giving Up

The episode kicks off with a discussion of life's struggles that transitions to a conversation about the crew's study abroad experiences. The advice segment centers around the question of entering into a relationship with someone who is possibly entering into a green card marriage.  [Please note that this episode contains discussions and descriptions of intimate partner violence.] Media:  John: Ha...

The crew kicks off the episode with some musings on TikTok-related hydration misinformation before transitioning to a discussion of what to do as parents (not John) when a child's friends are being mean to them.  The Thunderdome swirls around wealth culture and the advice segement further explores economic despair by answering a listener question about the best way to critique capitalism.  Media:...

The crew starts off hot and heavy with a spirited discussion of gaslighting before discussing millenial consumerism in the Thunderdome. Nether-region higene is the advice topic of the day.      Media: Alex - Bridgerton and Andrew Scott Erotica Youngmi - Big Vape John - Final Fantasy VII (original)

This episode the crew sets aside formalities to address the difficult subject of pet death and the emotional landscape of considering creatures who's understanding of the world is so different from our own.    Our advice section continues to orbit around ADHD and Autism, this time as it releates to creativity and artistic expression.  Media: Alex - We're Here John - Furiosa Youngmi - Ashley Madiso...

Season two is in full swing as the crew talks about what the best age to have kids is and the show experiences an unprecedented Thunderdome result. John fields an advice question about his recent autism screening.    Our Media: Youngmi:  Aaron Hernandez Documentary Alex: Stranger Things John: NJ Turnpike Signs

Welcome to Giving Up Season Two! We arbitrarily took a break for a few weeks so we could come back with a slew of of innovations—including a listener advice section! Did you miss us?   Our Media: Youngmi: The Roast of Tom Brady Alex: Physical 100 and Mary and George John: The Idea of You

On this, the final episode of Season 1, the crew explores the joys of clinging to petty grievances while the Thunderdome yields a deep dive into Alex's past.    What We're Watching: John: Civil War Alex: It Youngmi: Rango

In this episode we yearn for a new name for our generation besides "millenial" and then try to tackle a tricky trademark issue. 

Yep, we finally talked about Barbie.      What We're Looking At: John/Alex: 3 Body Problem  Youngmi: It's Perfectly Normal

The crew discusses the relative merits of negativity. The thunderdome yields an exploration of psychological inheritances.    What We're Looking At: John: The Hidden Spring Youngmi: The Unbearable Lightness of Being Alex: Lost Patients  

The crew discusses the moral implications of continuing to post to twitter and the Thunderdome orders a ham and cheese on a roll. 

The crew discusses if millenials were ever cool while also exploring the pros and cons of office life and wether or not American Psycho needs a girlboss reboot.

In a groundbreaking episode, Alex and John work though a mad-adjacent conversation about the core goal of the podcast and the balance between authenticity of topics and catering to an audience. The Thunderdome yields a discussion of how individuals navigate their sense of self within larger identity structures. 

Youngmi triumphantly returns to talk about her cruise as it relates to the horrors of late-stage capitalism and the cheapness of commerical luxury. The crew also talk about dating as a teenager and wether or not it's normal to think that your loved ones are dead when you don't know where they are. 

In a first-and-most-likely-last episode of its kind, John and Alex record a Youngmi-free episode where they talk about social media platforms they never got into, Survivor, and the deeply disturbing novel Tender Is the Flesh.

This week the crew tackles a wide assortment of topics from Alex's defecatory struggles, Survivor, and what it means for aging millenials to enter their parental death era.

In their triumphant return to the airwaves, the crew re-aquaints themselves with the structure of their own podcast as they tackle subjects like fine dining, cannibalism, and The Sex Talk. 

On this momentous occasion, the tenth episode of Giving Up and the last episode before the holiday break, John, Youngmi, and Alex reflect on the past half season, share in their distrust of lakes, and finally dive into the Half Baked Harvest controversy that they've been threatening to talk about for months.  The crew ends the season with a rousing Newlywed Game and by sharing their hopes for 2024...

Returning after a two-week break in recording the crew catches up about Alex's trip to Mexico, Youngmi's son's pneumonia, and John's completely baseless feeling that Alex and Youngmi are mad at him because they stopped responding to the group text for five hours last Friday. The thunderdome yields a discussion of online fame.

Sorry if you're seeing this twice! A draft of the episode went up on Sunday by mistake, but we're not mad at you for listening!!! In this episode the crew wonders why the discussion always comes back to defecation and Alex and Youngmi are horrified that John sometimes forgets to eat. The Thunderdome results in a discussion of how each generation has a different level of intimacy with technology. ...

During a discussion of feeling one's age, the crew makes a collective realization that John and Alex are actually Hunter Schafer's parents. The discussion of age continues during The Thunderdome when the crew discusses age gaps in straight relationships. 

The crew starts with a fullsome discussion of constipation and infant feces before consoling John about the demise of his non-alcoholic drink company. The Thunderdome finds John, Alex, and Youngmi diving into their pasts with surprising results. 

The crew dissects the internalized misogyny and homphobia inherent in policing one's own speech patters and how to impugn someone's actions without coming off abelist. The results of The Thunderdome lead the crew to reflect on the relationship between restaurant working conditions and food media against the backdrop of Momofuku Ko's closure. 

John laments his indifference towards his own birthday while Alex and Youngmi ponder how to raise oppression-aware children without making them insufferable perma-victims. The Thunderdome features a surprisingly magnanimous outcome and the crew wonders, finally, what trick-or-treating will look like after the apocalypse.

Without planning on it, Alex, John, and Youngmi end up recording a Halloween special. John tells the group what it's like to have sleep paralysis and Alex recounts the time she cast a spell on herself and accidentally burned her house down. Spooky season indeed.