Podcast

t’s summertime! Get your podcast listening on with our current favorites!

Michael’s picks:

• Dave Ramsey
• Planet Money

Allissa’s picks:

• How’s the pressure?
• Still Processing
• ADHD Rewired
• The West Wing Weekly
• My Dad Wrote a Porno
• Babysitters Club Club

This episode sponsored by

• Artichoke
• The Jojoba Company

Transcript:

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Michael Reynolds Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Massage Business Blueprint podcast, where we discuss the business side of massage therapy. I’m Michael Reynolds. 

Allissa Haines And I am Allissa Haines.

MR And we’re your hosts. Thanks for joining us today. Yes, Allissa. Go ahead.

AH It is like the crack of dawn, people. The crack of dawn.

MR It is?

AH Well, kind of. Okay, Michael’s probably been at the office for an hour. But —

MR True story.

AH — I’m still in my pajamas and the kids just left for school, and I only just down sucked down my first sip of coffee. I am ready for this exciting, summer-launching episode of our podcast. Michael —

MR Is today the first day of summer? Oh no, it will be the first day of summer when this releases. You’re right.

AH It’ll probably be just after that or right around there. And I wanted to — I’ve been thinking of ways to improve my summer and listening to different podcasts, it sounds so cheesy, but has been part of it. Learning different things but in an entertaining and at-my-own-pace kind of way is how I utilize podcasts. So I’m mixing up some stuff for the summer and doing a few other things. I’m making a commitment to have lunch with a friend at least once ever other week. My goal is once a week, but at least every other week all summer long. With a colleague and/or friend, lunch out somewhere enjoyable preferably where we can sit outside. That’s one of my summer goals, but also mixing up my podcast rituals a little bit. That’s a big one. Michael, what are you planning for the summer?

MR Actually, I’m going on a real vacation next week. An honest to goodness family vacation to Florida with the 3 year old. So that should be a lot of fun.

AH Nice.

MR So that’s happening. And then there’s a ton of little stuff happening around town. The museums around town have STEM nights and STEAM nights and activity nights down by the canal. Every Wednesday, kids can go build things or learn about nature or science or whatever so that’s kind of cool.

AH Oh my God, I just need to say, every night is STEAM night at my house.

MR Well, yeah, that’s a given. I mean, you’re —

AH Every night is —

MR You live with a scientist, so —

AH Every night is like — last night they were discussing how fluorescent lightbulbs work, how the ions move and then slam against something to create a glow. I am going in the other room, and I was like, Liam, can I borrow a Curious George book because I cannot handle the fluorescent lightbulb talk.

MR That’s fantastic.

AH Oh, I love that. I love that you’re taking advantage of Indianapolis family events.

MR Yeah, yeah. And we just got a membership to the zoo, and we’ve always had a membership to the children’s museum, so probably lots of just activity things like that happening. But one real vacation. So we’re looking forward to that.

AH That’s great.

MR Very much.

AH All right. We ready?

MR Yeah, let’s do it. I noticed you —

AH You go first.

MR — yeah, go ahead and explain what the topic is an — did we say the topic?

AH So we’re talking about our favorite podcasts for summer listening. We’re each just going to share a couple of our favorite podcasts that we listen to and we will put all the links and stuff in the podcast notes. But let’s talk for a second — Michael, how do people listen to podcasts?

MR It’s actually pretty easy. Most people listen on their phones. And so if you have an iOS phone, an Apple phone like an iPhone, the podcast app is the easiest way. Just open up the app, search, and you can find podcasts by topic and click the subscribe button and then you can just play them, and whenever a new episode appears or gets released, it will just appear in your feed and you can click it and listen to it. You can use headphones or connect your car or whatever. That’s really the easiest way. Then Android, I think Stitcher is a good app for Android. There’s a bunch of others I don’t really know because I don’t have an Android phone, but there’s a bunch of —

AH Google Play.

MR Google Play is a big one, obviously, yeah. So it’s pretty easy.

AH And most podcasts, if you’re not into listening to things mobile, most podcasts have a website associated with them, and you can usually listen to an audio file right through the website.

MR Yeah.

AH So that’s a thing you should know. If you’re listening to this podcast, you probably know how to listen to podcasts —

MR [laughs] That’s probably true.

AH –but oftentimes, I’ve heard from people that they’ve been listening to ours through the website, not realizing that if they have a mobile device that’s an option too. So now you know, and everyone’s mission is to teach a friend how to listen to podcasts and do that. It’ll be great. Now, Michael, give us your favorite.

MR I notice you started with me because mine are boring.

AH Little bit.

MR The plan today is that I’ll list my boring ones and then we’ll do halftime sponsor, and then you list the fun ones that people actually care about. I have a number of podcasts on my subscription list, but most of them I listen to a little more sporadically. But the ones I listen to on a more regular basis are, surprise surprise, they’re all about money because I’m a money nerd. The one that I listen to pretty much every single day is The Dave Ramsey Show. You may have heard of The Dave Ramsey Show. He is a money expert; he has a radio show every day. And he spends — it’s a 3-hour radio show, but the podcast is about 40 minutes per episode because they break it up and they take out all the crap, so it basically gives you just the content so it’s nice. Each episode’s about 40 minutes, and he takes callers on the air and people call in, ask questions about money. Sometimes it’s pretty normal stuff like hey, should I pay off this or that first? Or how do I get out of debt? Or how should I invest this money or things like that. And other times it is more complex stuff; other times it is more life stuff where it’s more of like an online, or radio therapy session, almost, about dealing with life choices and money. It’s really fun; I enjoy it.

He’s not everyone’s cup of tea. I know that he’s a very controversial, abrasive personality so some people love him; some people can’t stand him. I happen to love his style. I agree with his style and his philosophy so I really like The Dave Ramsey Show. The reason I like this show is because it reinforces good money habits. Nothing — I rarely learn something earth-shatteringly new. Sometimes I do. Sometimes it’s like that’s a cool little trick or tip I didn’t know about or a little bit of insight that I wasn’t aware of when it comes to money. But for the most part, I like it because it’s like going to the gym for your money, basically, because every time you listen, it reinforces good habits like stay out of debt, don’t use credit, invest properly, invest sensibly, invest in these types of things, and be patient, invest for the long haul, and make good choices about money and life using these guidelines. And so it’s really, really good stuff if you want to stay on track with your money and your personal finance. He does go off on the political rant occasionally, which that may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s generally pretty entertaining as well as just good money reinforcement. I’m not sure if you listen or not. I know you’re aware of Dave Ramsey and have taken some of his courses. Any feedback on that podcast?

AH I listened to it a little bit. It’s not my preferred money podcast, so I don’t listen to it all that much. On occasion.

MR He’s not exactly your cup of tea, I know.

AH He’s not. He’s not. I find him to view things through a white male, Christian lens, and sometimes I just want to be like yeah, but not everybody has the opportunity that you have. But that said, I really firmly agree with his money theories and his approach, so I’m not trashing the system. I just sometimes want to shake him and say, you know, there’s women of color who’ve been raised in poverty who you maybe need to see their point of view. So that’s how I am. And actually, my thoughts on that will come through in my podcast choices. And that’s fine. You’re allowed. You’re allowed and I like it. Bring it. What’s your next one?

MR My next one is, gosh, I feel so boring, it’s Planet Money.

AH I love Planet Money, and it was going to be on my list if it wasn’t on yours.

MR Yeah. I don’t listen all the time. In fact, I’m pretty sporadic about Planet Money So what I usually do is I kind of look through the list of topics, and if there’s a topic that I really think will be interesting, I listen to that episode. But I stay subscribed and I watch every new episode as it comes out. I like Planet Money because it is — first of all, it’s an NPR podcast, and so it’s got that nice intellectual style that I really like, and they really go deep into topics and they really — one of the topics they covered was about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency which I’m really into and really interested in —

AH But they’re all between 15 and 25 minutes —

MR Yeah, they’re really short. Yeah.

AH Did you listen to the — it’s a recent one, “The T-Rex In My Backyard.”

MR No.

AH Oh my gosh, Episode 660. I listened to it yesterday. It’s about how they found Sue, the T-Rex, who is the dinosaur that is on display at the Chicago Field Museum. But it also talks about the marketplace for dinosaur bones and how that’s changed. It’s actually a replay from an episode a couple years ago, but you’re going to love it.

MR Interesting.

AH But sorry. Go ahead. Continue.

MR Well, it’s funny because they — I like the episode about basic minimum income, about how some countries are experimenting with it and what it might look like. So they really talk about — it’s much less about tactical, runway-level personal finance stuff, and it’s more about big, world-changing conceptual stuff, or really obscure, unique, off-the-beaten-path type of concepts. It’s a nice complement because those topics are just interesting from an intellectual level. Not super practical all the time, but just really interesting.

AH And also really — they had a really great episode called “Swamp Gravy” in May that was all about how a small town revamped its entire economy by producing a play. It’s so good. It was a great episode. They really do bring in a cultural aspect of applications of these financial theories and how wacky things happen with money. I learn a lot and it’s really enchanting. A lot of the episodes are really enchanting.

MR Yeah.

AH I’m giving you a pass because it’s less of a — in a lot of ways, Planet Money is less of a money podcast than it is a culture and money podcast.

MR That’s true. But they do always tie it back somehow, even loosely, to money.

AH Yeah, to the economy. It’s great.

MR Yeah. So I enjoy that. So those are my two main ones — there’s some other stuff I listen to, but they’re so specialized and so really into specific markets that I don’t think they’d really apply like a lot of marketing stuff.

AH Yeah.

MR Well, I’ll kind of mention — one I like is Marketing Over Coffee. It’s really super nerdy, but occasionally it might be interesting to some. There’s a handful of marketing podcasts I like, but those are the main two I think would be interesting to our audience. So I think we’ll probably stop there.

AH All right. Who’s our halftime sponsor?

MR It is jojoba.

AH Yay. Thanks to The Jojoba Company for being our continuing sponsor. We adore them.

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AH So let me talk about my handful of podcasts.

MR Which are way more fun than mine I assume.

AH They really are. The first one is actually a massage podcast, which frankly, is the only other massage podcast on iTunes that has been consistently producing content for any amount of time. There were a handful that have come and gone and produced really inconsistently. However, Haley Winter, who produces How’s the Pressure?, has been putting out these beautiful interview podcasts for quite some time now. I will be a guest on an upcoming podcast episode of his. He’s got great guests — the episode that just came out with Walt Fritz is beautiful, and he’s got one with Doug Nelson, and he’s got lots of women. I just want to point out that he has made a point to put lots of women guests on his podcast, which is huge in a field that is dominated by women and yet the top tiers of leadership are often dominated by men. Hats off of Haley for that. I love it. You should listen to it. It’s called How’s the Pressure? You can find it on iTunes and all of the other Google Play and you can also find it at howsthepressure.com. When my episode is out, please don’t make fun of me. I was really scared to be an interviewee for the first time.

MR [laughs] I’m sure you did great.

AH The next thing I listen to — and I’ve mentioned it here and there before — is a podcast called Still Processing. It is a New York Times-produced podcast. It is a culture conversation with Wesley Morris and Jenna Wortham. I used to get her name wrong all the time, and I finally got it right. It is wonderful. They talk about culture, race, class. They have episodes that are involving current politics but in a way that is a thorough, mindful, thoughtful discussion about things — and also kind of funny. It makes me a better person to listen to their podcast and get thoughts and points of view from people who are not white and who are eloquent. They have two episodes, I think, about when the African-American History Museum opened in DC, and I wept. It was good for me as a white person who grew up in suburbia to listen to this podcast and hear more and learn more and it is good.

The next one I listen to recently — I’m only a couple of episodes in — one of our Massage Business Blueprint premium members actually recommended it in our discussion group — ADHD reWired with Eric Tivers. Eric is an adult with ADHD. He talks about how he got diagnosed in college. He talks about techniques he uses in his life to be a productive, effective adult running his own business. He’s also a therapist — not a massage therapist, a mental healthcare provider. But he’s self-employed and has these projects and what it’s like to have ADHD and self motivate to do these kinds of projects independently, which can often be a big stumbling block for people with attention issues. It’s great. So that’s the ADHD reWired. Again, we’ll have links to all these in our podcasts notes.

I also love listening to The West Wing Weekly.

MR Oh, The West Wing is such a good show.

AH Yeah, with Hrishikesh Shirway (sic) — and I think it’s Hirway, not Shirway, sorry — and Josh Malina who was on The West Wing. They have a podcast episode for every episode of The West Wing, and they literally start with the first episode of The West Wing and go through discussing each episode. Recently, they put out a bunch of live episodes where they travelled all over and did a tour and taping of live episodes. They have great guests like Allison Janney’s been on a couple times and Bradley Whitford and lots of other people who’ve been on The West Wing or writers — they’ve had Aaron Sorkin on a bunch of times. People who actually work in the government jobs that The West Wing portrayed, they have them on on occasion and they really relate things topically to current stuff. It’s funny. I love it. It made me want to watch The West Wing again, which I did. It’s funny.

The next one — cover your little kids’ ears if you got kids in the car. I won’t say a bad word except they’ll ask what this word means. There is a podcast called My Dad Wrote a Porno. It is hilarious. It is a couple of friends discussing the porno book and books, I think, that one of their fathers wrote, and it is hilarious. It is so funny and so wrong and you will not listen to it with your children around. And you might find you listen to a couple episodes and you’re like yep, I’m done with it, but it’ll be really, really funny. So there’s that.

The next thing — the last episode — and, again, this is purely for funsies. There’s a podcast called The Baby-Sitters Club Club where two hipster, I’m going to say late-20s/early-30-ish, guys who work for Buzzfeed started reading through the old Baby-Sitters Club books, which I read when I was a tween before we had the word “tween.” And they go through them book by book and they come up with all these great commentary on the plotlines and also a lot of interesting conspiracy theories about the subplots within The Baby-Sitters Club books. If you read the books as a young woman, you should listen to a few episodes of The Baby-Sitters Club Club. It’s hilarious.

And that is how oftentimes I unwind. When I’m too tired to be reading — we should do some favorite book stuff, too. We should definitely do a book and book club and even some fiction stuff. But that is it for podcasts for me for summer fun. That’s all I got, Michael. Bring it home.

MR Well I feel like I should commit to subscribing to a fun podcast now because everyone else — everyone I talk to has fun podcasts they listen to and mine are all business. I feel like I should find one. I feel like I should find a Star Trek podcast. There’s a bunch out there.

AH Oh my God, yeah.

MR All right. I’m going to commit to that. I’m going to commit to finding and subscribing to a fun podcast to let my brain shut off and have fun for a while. My podcasts are kind of boring.

AH Are you at least reading fun books or something?

MR I tend to read business books.

AH There’s a couple of good comedy podcasts, too.

MR I read parenting books now, too.

AH Yeah, I do too. Oh my gosh. I’m deep into some books on adolescent girls and perfectionism and the neurology of adolescence. This is why I need to listen to The Baby-Sitters Club Club.

MR [laughs] Fair enough. All right. I’ll report back on what I find. All right. Well, thank you, everyone, for joining us. Hope our list has given you something new to listen to. We appreciate you being a listener. You can find us online, as usual, at massagebusinessblueprint.com. Check out our premium membership there as well as all of the resources we have available. Our email address is, as always, podcast@massagebusinessblueprint.com. Feel free to send us questions or topics you’d like to hear discussed on future episodes. Again, thanks so much for being a listener. We appreciate it. We’ll see you next time.

AH Bye.