Hooked: A Pop Culture Podcast with Mary Carver

Welcome to a new episode of The Couch. Today I'm here with my new friend and fellow (in)courage writer, Rachel Kang.  Rachel is a writer of prose, poems, and other pieces, and a woman of African American, Native American, Irish, and Dutch descent. She's the founder of Indelible Ink Writers, and her first book, which is about creativity, comes out next year. We had so much fun chatting, and I think...

Welcome to a new episode of The Couch. Today I'm here with my friend and friend of the show, Michelle Reyes! Michelle is a second-generation Indian American author, speaker, and activist. She's the vice president of the Asian American Christian Collaborative and the co-executive director at Pax . She's also co-planted Hope Community Church in Austin with her husband, and as you'll figure out quick...

Welcome to a new episode of The Couch. Today I'm here with a new friend, Jessica Howard. Jessica lives in Flagstaff, Arizona, with her husband, two kids, and about 1,200 books. She works in a bookstore, and can pretty much always be found either reading, baking, or talking about books. If you need a good book recommendation, Jessica has you covered! We had so much fun chatting, and I think you'll...

Welcome to a new episode of The Couch. Today I'm here with my friend, Katie Reid! Katie is an author, a podcast host, and a singer/songwriter. She inspires others to live out their God-given purpose and lives in the middle of Michigan with her handsome hubby and five lively children. We had so much fun swapping stories about our favorite musicals, and I think you'll get a kick out of this conversa...

Welcome to a new episode of The Couch. Today I'm here with best-selling author, nationally respected speaker, and podcast host, Kathi Lipp. Kathi is warm and funny and, between you and me, someone I've admired for years. So to get to know her this spring and welcome her to the podcast has been a dream. We really could have kept talking for hours. But for your sake, we didn't—and I think you're goi...

Welcome to a new episode of The Couch. Today I'm here with my friends Lucretia Berry and Dorina Lazo Gilmore-Young.  Lucretia is the creator of Brownicity.com, a learning community that celebrates many hues and one humanity. She's a wife, mom of three, and a former college professor, and her passion for racial healing led her to becoming an author and speaker. And long-time listeners know Dorina,...

Welcome to a new episode of The Couch. Today I'm here with my brother and friend of the show, James Walters! James is a candlemaker, a small business owner, and—perhaps most relevant to this episode—a professional musician. He joined me to talk about our favorite TV theme songs and, while we kept things legal by NOT playing any clips of said songs, we just might have hummed or sung a couple along...

Welcome to a new episode of The Couch. Today I'm here with my best friend and best friend of the show, Anna Rendell! Anna is a writer and speaker who shares encouragement and celebration of the ordinary glory found in our everyday. She's a wife and a mom to four littles, and she's the digital content manager for (in)courage. And, of course, she's my partner in all things Hooked on Holiday Movies....

Welcome to a new episode of The Couch. Today I'm here with my friend and fellow podcaster, Latasha Ferguson.  Latasha is a speaker, writer, ministry leader, and host of the Overcome to Become podcast. She loves empowering women to do the hard work of heart work so they can overcome, own their story, and live authentically. Latasha has also spent the last 16 years in education as a teacher and admi...

Welcome to a new episode of The Couch. Today I'm here with my good friend and friend of the show, Jenny Rapson! Jenny is a writer, a shampoo slinger for Monat, and as you'll find out later in the episode, a blogger once more. As always, we had such a good time talking and I know you'll love this conversation too. In this episode, we're talking about the best (and worst) friend groups in TV. Which...

Welcome to a new episode of The Couch. You are in for such a treat today; I can hardly even wait! Today's guest is a new friend and, as of this spring, a fellow writer at (in)courage, Aarti Sequeira! Aarti is a producer, journalist, and food personality who can be seen on HBO Max's Selena + Chef, several Food Network shows including Guy's Grocery Games, Hallmark Channel's Home & Family, and most n...

Welcome to a new episode of The Couch. Today I'm here with my good friend and friend of the show, Kristen Strong! Kristen is a writer and speaker, a fellow (in)courage contributor and a dear friend. I know you love it when she's here on The Couch, and this will be no exception. In this episode, we're talking about how friends can help us make it through hard times and some examples of that in pop...

Today I'm joined by my very good friend, friend of the show, and Hooked on Holiday Movies partner, Anna Rendell. As you know, if you've been listening to The Couch for a while, Anna and I love holiday movies but we also look at them with a bit of a critical eye, especially when it comes to diversity. So today we're taking a look at the holiday movie season overall to see if the big networks (espec...

Welcome back to The Christmas Couch! In these weekly bonus episodes, a friend and I recap and review the new holiday movies we watched the weekend before. We tell you if we're giving it a thumbs up or down, how diverse the movie was, what made us groan, "C'mon!" and if we're still hooked on holiday movies. This week's episode is super fun, because both my guest and I brought our daughters along to...

Welcome back to The Christmas Couch! In these weekly bonus episodes, a friend and I recap and review the new holiday movies we watched the weekend before. We tell you if we're giving it a thumbs up or down, how diverse the movie was, what made us groan, "C'mon!" and if we're still hooked on holiday movies. This week, I'm hanging out with my friend and friend of the show, Tori Rask, to talk about t...

Welcome back to The Christmas Couch! In these weekly bonus episodes, a friend and I recap and review the new holiday movies we watched the weekend before. We tell you if we're giving it a thumbs up or down, how diverse the movie was, what made us groan, "C'mon!" and if we're still hooked on holiday movies. This week, I'm hanging out with my friend and fellow podcaster, Misty Wagner, to talk about...

Welcome back to The Christmas Couch! In these weekly bonus episodes, a friend and I recap and review the new holiday movies we watched the weekend before. We tell you if we're giving it a thumbs up or down, how diverse the movie was, what made us groan, "C'mon!" and if we're still hooked on holiday movies. This week, I'm hanging out with my new friend and fellow podcaster, Jane, to talk about the...

You asked and I answered! Today I'm joined by my good friend (and friend of the show), Alana Dawson. Alana is a podcast coach and podcaster, as well as a fellow fan of pop culture, and she is here for another round of "Ask the Couch." You all have sent me your burning questions about TV, movies, books, and more—and I'm here with the answers. Or at least my opinions. Either way, we had a lot of fun...

Welcome back to The Christmas Couch! In these weekly bonus episodes, a friend and I recap and review the new holiday movies we watched the weekend before. We tell you if we're giving it a thumbs up or down, how diverse the movie was, what made us groan, "C'mon!" and if we're still hooked on holiday movies. This week, I'm hanging out with fellow blogger and kindred holiday movie lover Erin Mohring...

Today I'm joined by Rebekah Hoffer. Rebekah is a blogger, podcaster, wife, and mom—and you may recognize her from the Sorta Awesome podcast team. She is here this week to talk with me about romance novels, and you all? You are in for a treat. We had so much fun talking about all the many different types of romance novels are out there, as well as things like Facebook Marketplace and TikTok. You ar...

Welcome back to The Christmas Couch! In these weekly bonus episodes, a friend and I recap and review the new holiday movies we watched the weekend before. We tell you if we're giving it a thumbs up or down, how diverse the movie was, what made us groan, "C'mon!" and if we're still hooked on holiday movies. This week, my very good friend (and very good friend of the show) Anna Rendell joins me to d...

Today my friend, Dr. Michelle Reyes, and I are talking all about fairy tales. Michelle is a brilliant writer and teacher, who writes and speaks about faith, culture, and justice. She's also a pastor's wife, an activist, and the vice president of the Asian American Christian Collaborative. I'm truly honored that she joined me on The Couch to talk about fairy tales and how Disney keeps getting them...

Welcome back to The Christmas Couch! In these weekly bonus episodes, a friend and I recap and review the new holiday movies we watched the weekend before. We tell you if we're giving it a thumbs up or down, how diverse the movie was, what made us groan, "C'mon!" and if we're still hooked on holiday movies. This week, my friend (and friend of the show) Alana Dawson joins me to discuss Holidate (Net...

Today I'm joined by my friend and marketing powerhouse, NJ Rongner. NJ is a full-time working mom who also hosts not one but two podcasts, and she was kind enough to come hang out with us this week. We are well aware that this episode is coming out the week of the U.S. presidential election, and we are well aware that this might mean you're having a challenging week. Since this is not a podcast ab...

Welcome back to The Christmas Couch! In these weekly bonus episodes, a friend and I recap and review the new holiday movies we watched the weekend before. We tell you if we're giving it a thumbs up or down, how diverse the movie was, what made us groan, "C'mon!" and if we're still hooked on holiday movies. This week, my friend (and friend of the show) Kristen Strong joins me to discuss Jingle Bell...