Bad On Paper

This week we are using our platform to spotlight the incredible Black authors that we love. We have gathered some of our favorite books and also invited our past podcast guests 'drop by' to give their recs, too! We know that many people (including us!) are looking for ways to learn more about anti-racism, things that we can do, and ways to support the Black community in an active way. So we encour...

For this month's book club we're discussing The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendricks. This book came highly recommended by Grace's mom and it definitely sparked some fun conversation. While this is not the type of book either of us typically pick up, we wanted something more fun to take some pressure off during quarantine.    The story follows Patricia Campbell, a sout...

We loved all of your listener questions! We had so many that we split them into two episodes and today we are back with a part 2! We saved the most fun ones for this episode. We're covering everything from AIM screennames and celebrity crushes (Grace and Paul Rudd are going backpacking together? Becca stalks Scott Foley's wife for updates?) to home decor inspo, how we found (and decorated our apar...

After a highly requested (micro) deep-dive into Normal People (we loved the show maybe even more than the book!), we chat with Jules Von Hep! Jules is a celebrity tanning expert and the founder of the (clean! vegan!) line Isle of Paradise. We chat with him about how quarantine is going in the UK and then move along to his career and how he founded Isle of Paradise.  He walks us through his career...

In today's episode, we polled you to come up with a big grab bag of questions. We cover a wide range of topics from college life to cooking (Becca's carbonara!). We also talk about how we maintain our privacy (spoiler alert: we're in charge!) and all sorts of other things. Will Becca ever get a dog? Has Grace always been a cat person? Does she walk Tyrion? How did we meet? We got a ton of podcast...

Yesterday we talked about In Five Years by Rebecca Serle and today she is joining us to give a behind the scenes look at how she wrote the book! Rebecca is an author and television writer in NYC and LA, she has written 6 novels and co-developed the hit television adaptation of her YA series, Famous in Love. We talk about the differences between screenwriting and writing a novel (and why her heart...

This month, we read In Five Years by Rebecca Serle. We both absolutely loved this book and read it in under 24 hours. Before diving into the book, we do our usual quarantine catch up. We are both healthy, staying busy, and Tyrion (Grace's cat) seems to have developed a newfound love for Zoom calls.   This book is about best friends, Dannie and Bella. Dannie is a little bit uptight and is one of th...

Is it just us, or is quarantine making home chefs of us all?! In this episode we share our favorite recipes, favorite food inspiration accounts to follow, and our personal pantry and grocery shopping staples. We have some strong opinions on condiments, our panic buys,and quarantine cooking fails. We also talk about our cooking bucket list, the best things we've made during isolation, and where we...

Today, we poured ourselves a glass of wine and play a remote game of FMK (Fuck, Marry, Kill) with YOUR prompts! But first, we catch up on how we are holding up in quarantine. We are definitely a mix of adjusting and feeling trapped, but over all we are doing alright.   This episode is a weird one and we are into it. We go through all the important categories… books, meals, celebs, TV characters. B...

Stacey Abrams, needs no introduction but we'll give her one anyway. She's a New York times bestselling author, non profit CEO, and political leader.. and today she joins us to answer all our questions about voting rights: an incredibly important issue that we didn't know NEARLY enough about before this interview.   After losing her 2018 Georgia gubernatorial race, Abrams created Fair Fight to ensu...

In today's episode, we chatted with Sallie Krawcheck (founder and CEO of Ellevest) about the relationship women have with investing. Sallie has been one of our dream guests for some time now and we both learned so much from our conversation. Sallie explains the difference between the wage gap and the wealth gap for women, and the different ways that women spend, save, and manage money. Sallie give...

We couldn't stop thinking (or talking) about this book and our friend Jess, so we asked friend of the pod, Katie Sturino to join us to discuss Jessica Simpson's memoir, Open Book. Forget what you think you know about Jessica Simpson (seriously, none of us were superfans or even really fans before this book, but we sure as hell are now!). Her book dives deep into her childhood, music career, relati...

First of all, it's our 2 year podcasting anniversary! In today's ep we're sharing all our best quarantine distractions and recommendations. Between all the family FaceTimes, Zoom happy hours, Powerpoint parties, cooking, organizing, and checking in with family and friends it's easy to forget to keep a routine and take care of yourself too! We want to help by giving some light hearted and fun ways...

Our March Book Club Pick is I'll Give you the Sun by Jandy Nelson. Before we get into the book, we talk a little bit about Coronavirus and how we're feeling. This book is the perfect quarantine read as it feels a bit like a cozy warm hug.  The book is the story of Jude and Noah - twins who were once inseparable, but have now grown apart. Via alternating timelines, we learn the heartbreaking reason...

Alisha Ramos, Founder and CEO of Girls Night In, and self proclaimed indoor kid/introvert,  joins us to share her journey to create her company and the ways her business has changed as it grows. We talk about starting and scaling a business, work/life balance, and its challenges as a female founder. We dish on our self care pet peeves (we all have them!), our definitions of self care, and what is...

Kelley Robinson, Executive Director of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund joins us to answer all of our questions about the state of reproductive rights. Kelley explains some common misconceptions around Planned Parenthood, and then helps us to understand the spike in abortion restrictions that happened in 2019. We also dig into the abortion case currently in front of the supreme court, and talk a...

In this episode we dive into our personal reading histories and talk about our reading lives. We share stories about how we became readers, our favorite childhood books - Sweet Valley High, Babysitters Club, R.L. Stein, etc. Although we have different reading routines, ways we organize books, and views on putting a book down (to DNF or not to DNF, that is the question!) - we can agree that vacatio...

In this episode we talk clean beauty with the founder of Follain, Tara Foley. Tara, a self-described "activist-at-heart" shares with us her journey from discovering clean beauty to opening Follain. We dive deep on what clean really means and the regulation around the terms natural and clean (spoiler: there is none). She also gives us her top ingredients to watch out for. Our favorite part of the e...

Followers by Megan Angelo is a thought provoking take on influencer culture. The book alternates between the present day story of Orla and Floss living in modern day New York with their own reality TV show; and Marlow, 35 years from now living in a town called Constellation where influencers have become government employees and have their lives broadcasted 23/7. It's sharp and witty (and a bit of...

Taylor Lorenz is a journalist at the New York Times covering Internet Culture. In our conversation, she maps out the jobs that led her to where she is today and how she developed her own beat. We also delve into everything going on on the internet: from influencers to trolls to TikTok. Whether you're looking to get current (what is The Hype House?) or are an internet culture vulture with strong fe...

In this (highly requested) episode we are talking about being single in your thirties! We answer all of your questions about dating, and give the best advice we can from our own experiences. This episode is broken into four parts: why being single in your thirties is actually pretty great, how to stay positive, how to make new friends (and keep the old), and all things DATING (another hot topic)....

This is hands down one of our favorite interviews yet! Erica Cerulo and Claire Mazur, founders of Of a Kind (RIP!), join us to talk about founding and running a business with your friend. We dive into how they split their roles in the business, travel styles, and hiring a management coach (AKA a business therapist). We also chat about how they're processing the closure of their company and what's...

This month we read Good Girls Lie by J.T. Ellison. This book combines some of our favorite things: rich unsupervised teens at a boarding school, secret societies… and murder. Ash is an outcast, relocating from England to attend boarding school at the prestigious Goode School in Virginia. Her parents have passed away, she has an abusive past with her father, and she definitely has a lot of secrets....

We welcome back friend of the pod (and former Obama Deputy Chief of Staff), Alyssa Mastromonaco to answer our burning questions about this presidential election. Alyssa explains what happens to donations when a candidate drops out of the race, endorsements, and where you can go to find out more about the local politics that you can have a direct effect on. She also touches on Amy Klobuchar, Elizab...

We've got that January motivation and are talking all about organization in this ep! We share about how we organize our lives (both physically in our homes, and our digital lives). We discuss how we handle filing papers, managing our closets, email boxes, and even reveal how often we clean! Becca breaks down her calendar system and Grace tells us about a paper planner that helps you organize your...