Finding Favorites with Leah Jones

Briana Haas, co-host of the podcast Jobs Blow , loves New York City. No, really, love at first sight, 5th floor Upper East Side walk-up, Balthazar scones, L-O-V-E New York City. We talk about our surprising shared history of stand-up comedy, working together and getting laid off from the same marketing agency, and how she knew that New York was her one and only city. New! Follow Finding Favorites...

Jen Kling loves New Kids on the Block. Jen takes me through her teenage crush on Joey and becoming a fan all over again when the band reunited in 2008. Concerts, meet & greets, and cruises - Jen loves all of it and hopes that one of these days she can sit down with Joey for coffee. Follow Jen on Twitter Peloton Links Wilpers Bike Fitting Peloton Christmas Ad Ryan Reynold's response Ad NKOTB Links...

Note: I made a rookie mistake with copyright infringement the first time around and the clips of the Boss I used weren't short enough for fair use according to Apple and YouTube. This is a Bruce-free version of the episode, while still being 100% Bruce.   Kevin T. Porter, host of the Good Christian Fun , Gilmore Guys and Inside Voices , makes podcasts about things he's interested in, but he loves...

Pam Rose, an amateur puppeteer in Rhode Island, and I share a love of the podcast How Did This Get Made and improv comedy's favorite bearded fellow, Jason Mantzoukas. Lucky for Pam, she's engaged to Jason, "because of some Greek thing." We know each other through the fandom and spent a couple hours on Zoom talking about HDTGM, the fan group we're in, movie watch parties and the joy in picking a "s...

Seth Yavit, a DC-area therapist and artist , joined me on Finding Favorites to sketch out his path from Second City to becoming an art therapist. Seth and Leah met in writing classes with Kim Clark, founder of The Acorn Theater in Three Oaks Michigan. Show Links Seth Yavit Paintings New York Stories Interpol Longwave Palette 22 The Sacred and the Profane Learn more about Art Therapy

Veronica Arreola, a professional feminist and host of the Feminist Agenda, joined me in February to talk about professional women's soccer, pay equity and supporting the things we want to see in the world. We also talk about Wandavision a lot, so jump to 29:00 to skip to the Soccer Talk with Leah and Veronica. Subscribe to The Feminist Agenda Follow Veronica on Instagram and Twitter Las Ganas at U...

Kristal Milazzo, a designer, writer and improviser based in Dallas, Texas, loves the Mary Tyler Moore universe of TV shows. She traces her love of all things MTM Enterprises to noticing Mimsie the Cat in the closing credits of WKRP and then again on Newhart. We talk about the impact of MTM Enterprises on NBC, comedy tropes and how she portrayed working, child-free women to America. Find Kristal on...

Evonne Marzouk, an author and environmentalist in the DC suburbs, joined me this week to talk about how she wrote her first novel The Prophetess. Her novel was an example of "having an idea and bringing it into the world," which is one of her favorite things. Show Links Follow Evonne and The Prophetess online Evonne on Twitter and Instagram The Prophetess on Facebook Buy a copy of the book Additio...

Maria Carson, a Jewish scholar in Pittsburgh, takes us on an exploration of Terry Pratchett's fantasy series known as Discworld. More specifically, Maria shares why she loves the character Cheery Littlebottom more than anyone else in the expansive universe. Show Links and Notes Terry Pratchett's Discworld Cheery Littlebottom bio Guards Guards    Wyrd Sisters Going Postal Feet of Clay Thud The Fift...

Kevin T. Porter, host of the Good Christian Fun , Gilmore Guys and Inside Voices , makes podcasts about things he's interested in, but he loves Bruce Springsteen. We talk about how he experienced love at first note watching a PBS pledge drive, the kindness of fellow Bruce fans, and how there is a Bruce for every season. And yes, we also talk about the Jeep commercial. Follow Kevin T. Porter on Ins...

Eyal Halamish, host of The Future City podcast, loves a lot of things, but ultimately we decided to talk about running. He's run marathons, completed triathlons and has some remorse for bullying the runners when he was on his high school soccer team. I also deliver the eulogy that I wrote for my Uncle Jimmy who was buried yesterday.   Follow Eyal on Instagram Facebook for The Future City podcast S...

Jasmine Davila, host of Miss Spoken and writer, is my go to cat sitter and the go to cat sitter of most of my friends. We sat down to talk about "other people's pets" that she loves. Cats and dogs. Dogs and cats. I happen to know she also loves otters, but we didn't talk about them. Follow Jasmine on Twitter and Instagram #MeowyPoppins is a good way to meet a lot of Jasmine's favorite cats Follow...

Vicki Webb, a senior civil servant in London, has always loved to garden. We talk about gardens in literature, cooking tomatoes in pots and growing fruit trees in London. Follow Vicki on Instagram From A Hackney Garden Show Notes Busy Lizzie flowers Square Foot Gardening Positive East (UK HIV Charity) Wild Persimmons are purple Persimmon seeds predict the winter Chelsea Physics Garden Weapons of M...

Ezra Butler, a systems architect and artist based in Chicago, loves Andy Warhol for his art, philosophy and the life he lead. We sat down at my kitchen table to talk about all things Warhol and why it was so hard for Ezra to select just one favorite thing to talk about. Follow Ezra Butler online @EzraButler on Twitter , Instagram @EzraButlerArt on Instagram Atomic Einstein Ezra Butler Art Ezra But...

Shai Korman, host of Friday Night Podcast and Goldnerds , is back on the podcast for a very silly episode about cereal. Top ten favorites, honorable mentions, discontinued cereal and more. Follow Shai online, he's Pancake4Table on Twitter and Instagram Show Links Obituary for Lucy Shair Cap'n Crunch Controversy on CNN and the follow-up with Chrissy Teigen on TMZ Frosted Mini Wheat Commercial Rocky...

Lucas Cao, president of Squid Industries , got so into flipping balisong knives (AKA butterfly knives) that he turned his hobby into a manufacturing company. Lucas walks me through the skills-based hobby of flipping and how his search for an affordable, quality knife turned into opening his own company to make the knives and trainers he wanted to see in the world. Show Links Squid Industries on In...

Jocelyn Geboy, owner of Three Left Productions and concierge services in Chicago, loves the Avett Brothers. She tagged along to her first concert and now travels to three-night runs with other fans of the North Carolina-based band. (The uncut version of this interview is two full hours, so my apologies for the stories that got left on the floor of the podcast studio) The first four albums to track...

Jen Usellis is a Chicago-based performer known online and in Star Trek circles as the Klingon Pop Warrior. With lifetime membership in the Klingon Language Institute, Jen translates and records covers/interpretations of pop songs. She went "moderately" viral last year with her performance of Let It Go from the movie Frozen. We talk about how singing in a Twin Cities cover opened the door to perfor...

David Simmer II, known to old school bloggers as Blogography, is a photographer and traveler based in Washington. We hopped on Zoom on Thanksgiving to talk about all aspects of his world travels including trips with his mom, falafel in Israel, returning to Spain and his photography expedition to Antarctica. Show Links Blogography Posts about David's trip to Antarctica Posts about his travels to Ba...

Lauren Cerand, currently based in New York City, is a freelancer and jewelry student. In 2019, she gave up her apartment, sold most of her belongings and moved to Italy to learn how to make jewelry at the Alchimia Contemporary Jewelry School in Florence. We trace her path from a class at the 92Y to Pratt School of Design and finally to Italy.   Follow Lauren on Instagram or her project Shop Cerand...

Based in Denver, Colorado, Marni tells us why she picked up a deck of Tarot cards in 2016 and how she fell madly, deeply in love with all things Tarot. You will want to pick up a history book before you are halfway through the podcast and buy a beautiful deck by the end. Follow @mystic.marni on Instagram Show Links Rider Waite Smith Deck Mamluk Card Decks Triomphe (Trump) Visconti Sforza Deck Taro...

Scott Weston is a Chicago-based Drupal developer who would like to move to Schitt's Creek. In this episode we talk about the Moira costume party that opened the door of the Canadian sitcom to him, debate which characters had the most personal growth and we talk about our cats. CW: We discuss a death by suicide that happens in Season 1 during our discussion about Bob. Hop from 1:10:00 to 1:12:00 to...

Aimee Giese is a Denver-based graphic designer and concert photographer. We talked about how organizing a fundraiser at her son's school opened the door for her to become an accomplished concert photographer. She explained to me the rules of shooting concerts, declares Red Rocks the best venue in the world (fair) and introduced me to a dozen new bands and photographers over the course of our conve...

Caroline Dorn and Ellie Klein Goldman are the women between @ RogueShul . Until this week, the account was anonymous, but that didn't stop it from being at the center of many delightful conversations for people active in the Reform movement (and beyond). The account was from the POV of imaginary synagogue staff dedicated to the mission and the people, but a little exasperated from time to time. El...

Sean Ellis is a co-founder of the Los Angeles Historical European Martial Arts Society and an avid participant in Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) aka sword stuff. If you were ever obsessed with the sword fight in Princess Bride, this episode will teach you what the dialogue really means and Sean will find a way to get you psyched about picking up a sword this year. Link Round-Up LAHMAS on...