BABS

It's February, but let's time travel back to the first week of January where Amanda and Sam were still riding the high of ringing in the New Year at the Backstreet Boys concert. It was SUCH a fun trip... and that's usually not what these brats say after a trip. They recap the weekend to try and pinpoint what made this trip energizing instead of exhausting, because we need to recreate more of that...

It's our last podcast of 2025! Sam shares an update on being back with her boyfriend (it's a rollercoaster, we know), and Amanda discusses why lotto scratchers are a terrible holiday gift to receive from her ex... which somehow evolves into a conversation about how her dad and ex made her feel like she has too many emotions and is too much to handle. But the episode turns around when Sam and Amand...

After a crazypants October, your girls Sam and Amanda are burnt out and back to randomly crying at work. Amanda's fighting with her co-parent about books and softball through her daughters' therapists, Sam moved in with her boyfriend and broke up a day later. Plus, the state of the world is so bleak and depressing, it only makes them feel even more weary and heavy. But this is one of those convers...

Amanda debriefs a first date with Sam in real time, and while they still have no idea how to date without overthinking it, this is honestly when they're at their best. And by that, we mean at their best being dumb with each other. Debriefing is the fun part of dating, so dive on in with us besties! Green flags: he likes Taylor (but said she's not as popular with middle schoolers anymore!!!) (it do...

This is a super special episode (!!) because Amanda and Sam invite their first ever guest onto the podcast. Gail, owner of the event planning business Spoonful of Sunshines, invited BABS to speak at their first ever live show (!!), taking place at a festival in Palm Springs in January 2026 called We Are Enough (https://www.spoonfulofsunshines.com/weareenough). In return, Gail shares her story in t...

Your girls are still going through something. Their sinks are full of dirty dishes, Sam ditched her emotional support podcast lollipop for a bottle of sparkling wine, and Amanda is tired AF from trying to cram in new activities like pole dancing and line dancing and dating again while her daughters are with their dad, then going through the nonstop cycle of making dinner and worrying about creatin...

"Are we going through something?" Even though the basis of our podcast is that we're always struggling with something, it feels like Sam and Amanda are going through something a little extra lately. They're searching for dopamine hits from Costco, Jazzercise, softball, and pole dancing (ok, maybe just Amanda), and they're struggling with FOMO and the loneliness epidemic. However, while Amanda allo...

In this episode, Sam talks about her breast reduction surgery--something she's really wanted for the last couple years--and how shockingly complex and difficult it's been to say goodbye to her identity as Sam with big boobs. She equates the process or shock of how big of a change it was to... pregnancy and going to law school (it makes sense to her!). There are also references to ball sac boobs, d...

Amanda and Sam are back for season 2! They address theories about why they stopped talking for a few months (maybe they're not struggling anymore? LOL yeah right), and while it's not as juicy as an explosive feud, it does show the realities of how friendships ebb and flow. They had different priorities at the time (Sam on her health, Amanda on her work) and their conversations were bringing up one...

Oh my god, we're back again! Sort of. Sam and Amanda attempt to kick off a season 2 of BABS by explaining why their podcast dropped off the face of the planet and trying to figure out why they mutually stopped talking to each other for the second half of 2024. They recap what's been happening (spoiler alert: trying to fix their broken bodies and broken hearts), revisit season 1 episode 1 and laugh...

Amanda and Sam start off talking about the word lazy and why it triggers them, but it leads them to what they really struggle with: insecurities and unhappiness with their bodies and weight. It's a complicated heavy topic and there's no solving it in an episode or wrapping it up with a nice neat insight. In fact, they struggle with it so much they abandon the topic and segue into talking about goi...

Amanda and Sam take their first reader submission and discuss the concept of "ominous positivity," which leads them down another path of realizing they don't know what words mean including ominous, meme, and anti-hero. They go from sounding bitter about men and dating, to sounding literary as they discuss whether Jay Gatsby is an anti-hero. To Sam's horror, they realize that they are in fact just...

There's a lot packed in this episode - Sam admits she is still in love with her ex and how hard it is to stop cuddling with him; Amanda talks about Sam being mad at her the weekend before her birthday... even though it was all in Amanda's head, spun up by her own self-loathing thoughts; they finally talk about Asian stereotypes they struggle with and why; and they explain why the podcast is releas...

Sam is recovering from both a cold and the harsh reality that getting under somebody new doesn't help you get over someone you loved (sorry to Sam's brother who has to listen to this!). After trying a matchmaker and shuffle dating, she's back to the apps and is immediately appalled at the amount of men who ask her if she's a Dom or Sub. After ranting about the woeful despair of the dating app expe...

In true Bay Area brats style, Amanda and Sam talk about getting reorged (as in, their work organization reorganized) and the impact on their mental health. Amanda fell into a depressive episode after her bosses were laid off and she was moved to a team with her ex, but shares what Sam did to help her through some particularly dark thoughts. Just in time to help Sam make some impulsive dating decis...

Amanda and Sam question if the podcast and being so open about their mental health is making everyone more anxious when talking to them. Then they get annoyed with themselves about their overthinking and want to throw their podcast mics across the room. But at the end of the day, talking about mental health and being open about it with your loved ones is always a good thing........ right? Hosted o...

Well shit. Amanda accidentally manifested a major plot twist when she said she wanted an exciting life full of interesting stories in the last episode because now the big love affair and heartbreak she thought was forever in her past will soon be making a reappearance in her life. She is struggling with wanting to act unbothered vs actually being unbothered, and Sam is struggling to understand why...

Just as Amanda thinks she's had a breakthrough with her anxious attachment and why she confuses drama and toxic behaviors for love, she asks, "Love isn't supposed to feel painful...... right?" Sam realizes there's a lot more to unpack here, including what words like boring and passion mean, and they end up in a debate about the difference between shady and mean. Is this turning into a podcast of j...

Sam and Amanda talk about anxious attachment again, creating scenarios in their heads and assigning meaning to things in their minds that are not necessarily true (aka causing a freakout), which makes it hard for them and others around them to know what they're really feeling and what they need. Sam gives an update on where she and her ex stand after she confessed her feelings, and Amanda gives an...

Well, Amanda and Sam finally made it to the end of February, and they are not well. They recap their week of being apart where Amanda lost her shit on a boat and Sam was tired in Miami, they both forgot their anti-anxiety meds, and worst of all... they were apart and unable to communicate for a couple days. Amanda is still dealing with anxious attachment, Sam is still getting texts from "friends"...

This is affectionately referred to as the "grumpy episode," which honestly wasn't going to see the light of day. Amanda and Sam were being burnt out by the month of February--all good things, but exhausting nonetheless, and they were only halfway through the month at this point!--and they were hella grumpy while recording. Feeling like it was too bratty to post, they were going to shelve it. But a...

Surprise! It's a supersized episode because Amanda met somebody she's finally excited about--but the twist is he lives across the country and now her anxious attachment has reared its ugly head and she's forgotten how to play it cool. Sam assumes the role of the calm, supportive voice of reason... even though they accidentally manifested F boys coming back from the past and she got a "hey you up?"...

It's been a week, Brats. Amanda shares how the guy she was dating turned out to be the type who says one thing over text but acts a different way in person. Someone said to her, "The universe will keep sending you lessons until you learn it," and her lesson is around setting and holding boundaries with men who keep violating her safe space. Sam did a brave thing (we think) and told her ex she stil...

After a couple lighter episodes about dating, Amanda and Sam get back to talking about mental health and what depression looks like... because from the outside a person might look completely fine, but you never know what they're struggling with. If there's only one thing you take away from this episode, it's that when someone tells you how they're feeling, believe them . Sam and Amanda also get vu...

Hear what happened on Amanda's first date on Friday, AND - surprise! - another first date on Sunday with another guy. Sam hears about the Sunday coffee date in real-time and helps Amanda figure out if she likes any of them, or if she just doesn't hate them. Amanda and Sam also discover that maybe discussing something on the pod real-time without discussing beforehand is a little TOO chaotic. Thank...