Weekly Recap — 1/15/21
Stitcher has a plethora of podcasts worth listening to. Each week, we’re giving you new episode recommendations from some of our top shows to help keep you up to speed and ease the pain of the pod discovery process.
Literally! With Rob Lowe — “Walking Into Rooms (w/ Lisa Kudrow)”
On Literally! this week, host Rob Lowe welcomes Lisa Kudrow and can’t help but consistently praise her, almost immediately comparing her and her Friends co-stars’ success to that of the Beatles. He starts the show asking her when she and the rest of the cast knew they were reaching that level of fame. Kudrow admitted it was when the cast first appeared on Oprah and learned that fans were throwing parties and gatherings to watch the show.
Some good news for Friends fans is revealed in this episode. Kudrow tells Lowe that the Friends reunion was going to start shooting in early Spring. But Lowe wants to know more. “It’s not a reboot,” Kudrow clarified. “It’s not like a scripted thing. We’re not portraying our characters. It’s us getting together. Which doesn’t happen a lot and has never happened in front of other people since 2004 when we stopped.” Kudrow says she did not know fully would it be, but that she did pre-shoot “something” for it.
Lowe admits he would be satisfied if the cast just walked into a room and left. “If the Beatles walked into the room they could literally just walk into the room and I’d be thrilled.”
Kudrow’s response? “And that’s what our show is. We’re just walking into rooms.” Hence the title of the episode.
Full of surprising and hilarious anecdotes, the conversation delves into Kudrow revealing how her car used to be searched by Warner Bros. security after filming Friends because they thought she stole items from the set. “They didn’t remember me from one time to the next. I was so forgettable to them.”
Speaking of cars, Lowe can’t help but bring up his envy of the rides driven by the Friends cast. “You guys had a showroom. You had an expensive used car showroom at the end.”
Listen to the episode to hear how Kudrow helped Lowe discover his ancestor fought in the Revolutionary War, Kudrow’s first reaction to seeing Lowe in person at a party in the ’80s, and why good actors are actually terrible liars.
Porsha4Real with Porsha Williams — “Ohh!”
For a show that gives listeners a glimpse into the close-knit dynamic of Porsha Williams and her family, this week’s episode certainly got fans closer.
The latest episode starts with Porsha telling a story of finding her mom dancing with her boyfriend as she was “on the yak.” To which her mom could only say: “I have been sick with arthritis in my hip all week, but I was up there getting down.”
Quotes like this are what make the podcast and this episode in particular such a joy to listen to.
The trio delves deep into a topic they have yet to cover: Sex. “I specifically wanted this episode to hopefully help all my ladies out there,” Porsha says. First she checks to see if her mom was comfortable, she is. Her mom asks if her daughter was comfortable. She isn’t. “What’s wrong you don’t want to hear about senior sex?” her mom asks. The host insists she’s fine hearing about senior sex, but doesn’t want to hear about her mom’s sex life. But her mom reminds her: “You should want to hear from my perspective so you’ll know what to do when you get over 50, over 60.”
The episode’s best moments involve Porsha’s mom commenting on something sex-related and hearing Porsha and her sister’s reactions. Moments like when Porsha’s mom accidentally calls herself a baller, when she says she prefers men that “go right on to the pie” in the bedroom, and that she just likes “breathing together” with a man.
One of the episode’s funniest moments comes when the group explores the importance of music when getting intimate. “Has anyone been using the same song for years?” Porsha’s mom asks. Porsha doesn’t want to know the song her mom uses. “If you say Michael Jackson I’ll never be able to dance again.”
The trio soon realize they are in different phases of their sex lives: Porsha’s sister is “super fast,” Porsha is “fast to dead fish” and her mom is (Porsha imitates slow breathing).
Listen to the full episode to hear why broke men are best for sex, why it’s a bad idea to discipline a kid with a thong on (“At some point I got to stop this because I’m sure I’m messing him up”), and a special PSA from Porsha to men to make sure they always wash one particular part of their bodies.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty — “Gretchen Rubin ON: How Understanding Your Habits Allows You to Thrive in Work, Love and Life”
On this week’s episode of On Purpose, host Jay Shetty welcomes New York Times bestselling author Gretchen Rubin, who has penned notable books such as Happier at Home and The Happiness Project.
Each week Shetty welcomes new insightful guests, ones that can range from doctors to spiritual leaders to entrepreneurs to writers.
In the latest episode, Shetty and Rubin explore the idea that it’s never too late to start on a new path. “Sometimes things take time, but that doesn’t mean they’re the wrong thing to do,” Rubin said. The author originally found herself in a successful law career, but as her career progressed she realized she was taking the path of least resistance. Rubin wanted to be a writer. “I would rather fail as a writer than succeed as a lawyer,” she tells Shetty.
Though she didn’t have any experience in writing at the time, she knew she had to give it a shot because she says she would be haunted if she didn’t try. She clearly succeeded, but both her and Shetty emphasized that success takes time. Shetty adds: “We expect ourselves to be perfect at something the day we try it, not realizing that it may take sometimes another 10, 20, even 30 years in some cases.”
The rest of the episode delves into Rubin’s book, The Four Tendencies, which analyzes and reveals people’s personality types and tendencies, summarizing them into Upholders, Questioners, Obligers, and Rebels.
It’s a fascinating conversation on how, no matter which one you fall into, each category has its own set of strengths and weaknesses and the sooner you realize which one you are, the sooner you can embrace it and succeed in whatever path you choose. “Your little boat is going to float much faster,” Rubin says. She also says one can use the tendencies to minimize conflict and show more compassion to yourself.
The episode is worth a listen to hear which categories match well romantically and in the worklife, what professions are best suited for which personality types, and Rubin’s one-minute rule for happiness.
— Ian Goldstein
