Here's Where It Gets Interesting - Find Relief in the Regular Stuff with Nora McInerny

Episode Date: September 21, 2022

On this episode of Here's Where It Gets Interesting, author Nora McInerny joins Sharon to talk about vibes: good vibes, bad vibes, and the fact that most vibes are mixed, at best. When we recognize that life is full of regular stuff, it can take the pressure off. It’s okay to have a regular-looking kitchen with a regular, fingerprint-coated toaster! It’s okay to be sad at a funeral instead of feeling compelled to reassure everyone that you’re fine! Feel the stress to perform fade away as you listen to Nora and Sharon laugh together, just don’t slam the cabin door on your way out. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A&W is now serving Pret Organic Coffee, and you can get a $1 small coffee, a $2 small latte, or like me, a $1 small coffee and a $2 small latte. Available now until November 24th in Ontario only. Woohoo! This episode is brought to you by Dyson OnTrack. Dyson OnTrack headphones offer best-in-class noise cancellation and an enhanced sound range range making them perfect for enjoying music and podcasts get up to 55 hours of listening with active noise cancelling enabled soft microfiber cushions engineered for comfort and a range of colors and finishes dyson on track headphones remastered buy from dyson canada.ca with anc on performance may vary based on environmental

conditions and usage. Accessories sold separately. Hey friends, welcome. So happy to have you here with me today. And I'm very excited for you to hear my conversation with author Nora McInerney, who is hilarious. And we also have a couple of really specific things in common. I think you're going to get a chuckle out of this conversation. Let's dive in because here's where it gets interesting. I'm Sharon McMahon and welcome to the Sharon Says So podcast. Well, thank you for being here today, Nora. I'm really excited to chat. An absolute delight already.

If you all have not already read any of Nora McInerney's books or watched her TED Talk or watched a movie based on one of her novels, will you introduce yourself to us, introduce yourself to people who are listening? I am Nora McInerney. I am a little over six feet tall, but more than being a tall person, I am the author of several funny books about sad things, including my new book, Bad Vibes Only. And I'm the creator of a podcast called Terrible. Thanks for asking. And I am, I think one of the happier, sad people I know, or maybe one of the saddest, happy people I know. And all of my work sort of sits at the intersection of the absurd and the awful. Exactly where everybody hopes their life will end up. exactly where as a child, when I said, I hope I grew up to be an author, I was hoping that what I would be doing as an author was mining my own personal tragedies for

some kind of content diamond. I really did before everything and the everything that I'm talking about that I mentioned in my Ted talk, the everything is that in 2014, my husband, Aaron died of brain cancer and he died after my dad died of all the cancers. And my dad died after I lost my second pregnancy and Aaron had been sick for three years. But literally before that, Sharon, my life was so boring. My life was so boring that one of my main concerns was that I would never be able to be a writer because nothing had ever happened. concerns was that I would never be able to be a writer because nothing had ever happened. So the universe was like, we got you. Yeah. We'll take care of that for you. No worries. We heard you wanted to write a book. We heard you need just enough trauma and dysfunction to make you funny. Here you are. Here you go. Here you are coming up.

Here you are. Here you go. Here you are coming up. Well, I read your new book called bad vibes only and other things I bring to the table. And I was like, well, that is a person I need to know. Why do you bring bad vibes only to the table? Explain. Oh, I think it is a normal, natural reaction to the world around us. And bad vibes only is of course, a little bit tongue in cheek. It is a response to a TGMAX sign, to a popular t-shirt, to a sticker that I might see on somebody's water bottle, which is of course a signal that I'm not welcome. When somebody says good vibes only, what they're really saying is, oh boy, I'm not interested in your discomfort. And I'm really not interested in the reality of the world around me. And I think that if you've been

paying attention long before the world visibly fell apart in the way that I believe all of us, at least the people who had listened to this podcast are much more aware of now in the way that I believe all of us, at least the people who had listened to this podcast, are much more aware of now in the past few years, you know that the vibes are a mixed bag at best. You know that it is very, very hard to simply live, laugh, and love. And I do have a tendency when I am observing the world and observing my place in it to see even my good moments, even my happiest moments through, you know, with like a little sprinkle of sadness, I guess. I do think that if you've seen the movie Inside Out, I'm the Melissa McCarthy character who keeps touching things and turning them sad. And I wanted to write, I am also, you know, I'm known for all of these, these things that sound

like they're so overtly sad. And you, you told me my book was funny and it lit something up inside of me. It just, it pushed a validation button that I very badly needed pushed. But I think that it is possible. I've experienced this. I've seen it in other people. I think it is very normal to find a natural levity, even when things are actively falling apart. And I really wanted to write a book that is, it's a collection of essays. It is not a life story. It is glimpses into my life and the world around us that holds that dichotomy, that things are funny and bizarre and awful. And the book itself is not only bad vibes, but if you can pick up the title, if you're the kind of person who picks up the title, you already know that. Okay.

I think all my book titles are sort of like, they're a self-selector. If you're a person who believes that all stories have happy endings, you're probably not going to pick up a book called No Happy Endings. Okay. You're probably not going to. And that's okay because it wasn't meant for you. So I totally get where you're coming from too. That that's the depth and breadth of the human experience is being able to laugh during a

time that is incredibly overwhelming you with grief, to be able to be like, oh, remember when that one funny thing happened and to actually be able to laugh about it in that moment. I think that humor is such an important tool that so many of us are missing out on. I talk about it mostly in the context of government and politics of like, why do we all just need to exist in a perpetual state of rage? Like this is not helpful. This is not healthy. If you think the world is falling apart, maybe we should step off the rage machine. I don't know, just a thought. But I think if you talk about important things, but also have a real life perspective on it, that life is not meant to be just constant rage 24-7 or constant sadness 24-7.

No, no. Or like constant joy. I think a lot of my unhappiness has come from an internal and also like a subtle external pressure to always behave as though, present as though things are better than they are. And that is something that you can see anytime you open Instagram, anytime you open to, anytime you like walk through the world. I named my podcast Terrible Things asking, because what do you think people asked me after my husband died? How are you? What the hell do you think I said? I said, I was fine. I said, I was fine. If ever there were a time where it would be okay to be not good, it would be then. And even then the social conditioning to act as though I was better than I was, was so

strong that I told people that I was okay at a funeral. How are you? I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm really good. Thank you so much. This is a fantastic day. Thank you. What a beautiful night, right? Are you having fun? Good. Yeah. I am literally concerned that no one here is having fun. Are people enjoying this funeral? Are you? Okay. The deviled eggs are excellent. So don't miss it. I love what you say in your chapter called Holy Envy, where you say, so many of us are aching for a little bit of quiet in the world that is constantly screaming at us from little rectangles in our pockets, our phones. We tell each other to practice self-care as though there are enough bubble baths to protect you from a world where you can pay $15,000 in health insurance

premiums just for the privilege of still going bankrupt. I strongly dislike the whole bubble baths as self-care movement. I strongly dislike it. Yeah. But have you drank water? I do drink water. Have you tried water? Okay. Your one-step ad me. Have you meditated? Have you done all of these things? I do have a hard time, especially the work that I've done for the past seven years has put me directly in the path of other people's pain.

I make a podcast where we give people a platform to tell their story of a thing that they have gone through or they're going through. And we work with them to write the narrative, not just the thing that happened, but what it means. And I have such a difficult time with the idea that it is our personal responsibility to somehow life hack our way to okayness in a world where, as you well know, there are bigger forces at play. And we were completely financially wrecked by Aaron's sickness. And we were the lucky few who got to crowdfund their way out of it, who had an online fundraiser and a community of people who could spare an average of $10 each to pay off those bills and to have a little bit of money left over afterwards so that when I stopped going to work and they stopped wanting to pay me,

and then I stopped having a job, which honestly is very fair. And also we were okay, but my okayness was not some sort of innate ability that I had inside of me. It was the health of my community. And my resilience was not some sort of personal trait. It was that I had a community of people there to catch me. I also loved what you said in your chapter called The Craving, which was where you're talking about the woman who started Weight Watchers and what happened during her obituary, where her obituary reads that she died at age 91 in 2015. And that as recently as 2011, she was still at her goal weight of 142 pounds. And you said, I imagine her at 91, turning down slices of her own birthday cake and counting out slices of turkey for her lunch.

And I think to myself, how effing boring, how absurd. Not just in your 90s when you're in the final countdown, but always. How absolutely boring and enraging it all is. The calorie counts and the dressing on the side and the sandwiches with lettuce where the bread should be and the thigh gaps and the six pack. How dull to sit in a group of human beings and recount for one another the contents of your week's lunch. Yeah. It's so boring. It's so boring. I think about that time in my life, which was really maybe a catalyst into the worst part of my eating disorder, which then I think has just sort of morphed its way into other more socially acceptable ways of self-punishment and addiction. I can't remember the word now for when people are addicted to orthorexia, right? Where people are addicted to health and wellness in quotation

marks. And my foray into weight loss, into Weight Watchers was in college, was after my freshman year, where like everybody, I gained the freshman 15 and I was a perfectly acceptable weight and also was not because this is the early 2000s. This is the era of scary skinny Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, who were also sort of praised for that. This is also centuries of women being encouraged to reduce, to refine, to slim down. Every era has their version of this same thing, which is just a puritanical form of self-control and self-mastery dressed up as something else. And I look back at those years and those weeks and those moments as just such a waste. What else could we have done with our time and our brain power? It is such a bummer. It is such a bummer. Yes. Yes. You talk about like, what else could that group sitting weekly, what other world

problems could they have solved? Whose lives could they have been made better? And of course, this is not, I'm not saying people always have terrible motives. I'm not casting aspersions on people who do these things. But I mean, if what your obituary says is that you maintained your goal weight, like what kind of life have you lived? If that's what you're remembered for is weighing 142 pounds. I also, this may laugh in the chapter privacy settings. There are no parents on earth better than the ones who don't have children. I've said many times, like there are a lot of parenting experts out there. And then there are people who have kids. yeah how good of a mom were you before you had kids like how sure were you so good of all the things that you were not going to do and that your kids wouldn't do either because your kids are going to be different your kids would not I'm sorry you think my kid is going to play with like a primary color piece of plastic just because their brains respond well to those colors and

they're aesthetically pleasing and shaped for their size hands? No. Okay. No, because it might have a, what were we really worried about at one point? BPAs? Phthalates? I can't remember.

So many things. There's a toxin in it. And no, he's going to play with wooden toys. Like he's an Amish boy in the 1800s. Children of the past. Like his ancestors. Children of the past played with dolls made of corn husks and they became Laura Ingalls Wilder. So we're not doing any of this Fisher Price bananas.

No Fisher Price. And then the boomers played with toys that were like dipped in lead paint and they are all the better for it. So, you know, no, we don't need any of this stuff. And no, my kid won't have McDonald's literally ever, except that we do go there twice a week. We go there twice a week. It is four blocks from my house. They make the best French fries. I have eaten so many of my words along with those McDonald's French fries. But I think the biggest thing that has changed in my parenting

is what I do online with my kids. And I never thought of that before I had children. I never thought of the world that would exist in 2022. And I think it's very hard to remember that we were in a simpler time, even nine years ago, it was a simpler time in 2013 when Instagram was like just people who knew you. And sometimes you could use a hashtag, but even then it like, I mean, would you, I mean, would you, why, like, why would you? And I really had not thought through the way that sharing my kid's life online could affect his life and his reality, which is almost embarrassing to say now in 2022. But I just didn't. I thought of the internet of the internet as like my hometown in some way. Like, well, this is just filled with people

who already know me, right? And it was in many ways, that was a very, there's a reasonable assumption on your part because the internet was new. That's what it was. We were unable to predict what it would morph into becoming. As a Fizz member, you can look forward to

free data, big savings on plans, and having your unused data roll over to the following month, every month. At Fizz, you always get more for your money. Terms and conditions for our different programs and policies apply. Details at fizz.ca. Visa and OpenTable are dishing up something new. Get access to primetime dining reservations by adding your Visa Infinite Privilege Card to your OpenTable account. From there, you'll unlock first-come, first-served spots at select top restaurants when booking through OpenTable. Learn more at OpenTable.ca forward slash Visa Dining. Amazon's Black Friday week starts November 21st with new deals added every day.

Save on home goods to deck their halls, toys to stuff their stockings, Amazon's Black Friday week starts November 21st with new deals added every day. Save on home goods to deck their halls, toys to stuff their stockings, and fashion like slippers to mistle their toes. Shop great deals on Amazon. It made me laugh so hard when you were talking about the cabin rules. So we both grew up in Minnesota. I am here to tell you that the cabin rules, these are the correct cabin rules. Yes. Share with everybody what the rules of the cabin are. First of all, my grandparents' cabin, if you are imagining a modern home, which is now what cabins are.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. It was logs. There were logs. There were logs. It was logs. There were logs. There were logs. It was a log cabin. There was also, there had been a recluse, a hermit who lived in the shack next door. And when he died, they bought that shack and we were allowed to stay in the shack. We called it Walters because that was the name of the man who had died there. And so we were allowed in Walters, but not during the day. You could not be in the cabin during the day. You had to be outside.

You must be outdoors at the cabin. You will be outdoors at the cabin. Preferably you'd walk down this very dangerous, very steep path to the lake where you would be unsupervised with all of your cousins who were within a year or two of you. Were their personal flotation devices. There were three of them. They were from the 1970s. And obviously you didn't wear them because that was what nerds did. No, no, no, no, no. You were just down there at the water. You could not come in and use the bathroom unless it was absolutely number two. Otherwise you pee in the woods or in the lake, like a normal person. You never went in my grandparents' cabin ever, except with express verbal permission. And it was never all of us at once. It was a one-on-one maybe. No, that's their home. That's their home. My grandpa might crack open a Coca-Cola and pour it into two

small vintage three-ounce glasses for you to sip on. You might pan fry some sunfish. You were there for a brief amount of time. When the invite was done, you were back out. And if you went in and out of either structure and allowed the screen door to slam. Nope. On its, which also it's done a little spring. So if you don't want to slam, maybe pick a different structure, but okay. We were expected when we left the cabin to like hold the door to its natural close and let it click almost silently into place.

And those were the rules. Do not let the door slam. Do not. It is truly, it's like a criminal offense. And if we were eating, it was take all you like, but eat all you take. You had to eat everything that you selected to put on your plate. No exceptions. You don't throw food away. You do not throw food away. Absolutely not. There's no, no, no, no. Here's what you cannot do is come into my

house, dripping wet. Do not come in here with your wet swimsuit. And I mean, if it's an emergency, I will, I will sigh heavily and mutter to myself and permit you entrance into the cabin, but I will not be happy about it. And if you slam the door when it happens, dear God, you won't be welcome back. You won't be welcome back. The amount of time I spent swimming unsupervised as a child is truly staggering. This is no shade to my parents. That's how it was. And we lived a couple blocks from a river with waterfalls and cliffs that you could jump off of. And we were there swimming unsupervised from the time we were like 10 and eight years old. And the rule was never don't

get a TBI, wear a life jacket. No, it was be nice to each other. Be nice to each other. And also don't come home. Don't come home. But it was always be nice to each other. You were probably babysitting when you were 11. Oh, I was. Absolutely.

I totally was. I absolutely was. I was babysitting a nine-year-old when I was 11. Your wisdom allowed you to have authority over that nine-year-old. This is a person who is now like my peer. And at one point in time, I was like, actually, no, you can't have a root beer. Okay. Because you didn't eat your hot dog. Next question. Yeah. The idea that this is something I've talked about before too, and this directly relates to like there's no parents as good as the people who don't have kids is that at no time in human history ever, not ever, not even a little

bit, have women been expected to play with their children? I'm not talking about your baby dangling around. I'm like, people have never been expected to like play Roblox with their children. Like, are we building elaborate Lego setups and like, oh, no, Barbie, I don't want to go on that thing. Nobody has ever had time for that. That has never been a societal expectation of women, that women would spend all of their time creating elaborate crafts and elaborate imaginative- A Pinterest birthday party. Yes. Suddenly women are meant to feel guilty if they don't spend enough time engaged in playing with their children. Yes. Engaged in playing. And then also being like caring about your child's mental health, also new, right? Like engaging with your child on a deep emotional level, entertaining them,

providing them with a adorable and aesthetically pleasing environment. I don't know what your room looked like as a kid. Mine was like two posters pulled out of a highlights magazine with still the crease marks in them taped up with masking tape. Masking tape is not meant to hold anything up. They kept coming down. Maybe some like puffy stickers that I might've put on the wall, but mostly obviously stickers were meant as a form of currency. They stayed in the book. They stayed on the sheet. Why would you ever actually stick a sticker? Why would you use the stickers? Stickers are not for using. They're for, you can look at them. They're meant for trading. Appreciate. Yes. They're our currency. And if society collapses, you know what? Stickers will come back.

We'll all wish we still had stickers. Again, this idea that you provide your child with aesthetically pleasing environment is a brand new phenomenon in human history. Brand new. And can I just tell you, if you feel bad about the way your house looks, your kids don't care at all. And my kid's room is so popular with his friends because it's a kid's room. There are Pokemon posters on the walls that he put up himself. So they're very low. There's so many stuffies, just the grossest collection, some quality stuffies, but also some gas station stuffies. Okay. You know what those feel like? Can you feel that, that texture? It gives me just like, oh, it gives me the ick even

thinking about it. Okay. Like mismatched everything. Like it is everybody's, every kid's favorite room in the house because it is especially for kids. And my kid could not care less about any of like, I think about the baby room I put together for him. I don't even think, can babies see? When can babies see? Do babies want to be in this room alone? The answer is no. The answer is no. The answer is no. That room was for me. That room was for me. I was like, I don't know. I want like a diaper changing pad. That's like cuter. It's going to be covered in literal human feces. Yeah. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. Yes. Constitution was not written by people with aesthetically pleasing nurseries. They were just like slept in a drawer or like a nest of hay near their parents.

You know what I mean? This is not, again, we've advanced from a safety perspective, sure. But the pressure to make sure that everything looks perfect is one that is mostly born just by women. And it's only in the last 40 years. Oh, and it's like my mom would get Martha Stewart magazine when it was very new and would get like house beautiful or all the Meredith magazines that were all like home decorating magazines. But the cycle, even when you think about it, like the trend cycle or the decor cycle was as slow as magazines. And the only way that you really could peek into like, oh, look at this absolutely gorgeous, perfect house on Nantucket was by seeing it delivered to you with like, you know, paint and fabric samples that, by the way, were like totally out of your budget and you could not get it at Ace Hardware. samples that by the way, were like totally out of your budget and you could not get it at Ace Hardware. And I just think it was such a different time. And my mom had plenty of pressures and she

worked full-time and she did so much that I did not appreciate from her at all. And also like, she did not have to know that her colleague from eight years ago just redid her kitchen for the third time since 2010. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. See like a stranger's like perfect paint, also pantries. One of the things that I really found amusing about your Instagram account too, was where you were recently did a series of like stuff in my regular house. And you're like a toaster. So nobody on Instagram has those anymore, but I do. So I thought I'd just show it off. Cause it is a little, it's a novelty in today's world to have like a toaster. Yeah. I don't know if you guys have seen one of these, but it is a ninja blender. It is the worst name. It is the loudest thing I've ever heard. I will keep it till it

dies. Thank you so much. I love seeing people in houses that are lived in. I love going into a house that is lived in. I love when I step into a house and that smells a little weird. Like it smells like the family, you know, I'm like every family has their own smell. Like I can still smell the Shannon's house and the Mulcahy's house from growing up. Like that is a sense memory that is deeply embedded in my skull. I love seeing people's mail on the counters. I love seeing just life. I love that so much.

I love when like the pillows are askew or even better. Like they're all on the floor because you can't find your phone, which is very relatable. I don't know. Like right behind me, it's like just piles of stuff. Okay. So like, this is the cutest spot in my office and also piles of stuff, piles of stuff. It is what I love. I love it.

Houses are meant to be lived in. I love a lived in house. And I think it takes like a lot of pressure off of people. Whenever I see somebody else's life looking too perfect, it immediately makes me hate my perfectly good life. Like it perfectly, our bathrooms are fine. The toilets flush. Okay. Haven't always been able to say that in my life, but I can right now. All of our mechanicals work. They're perfectly fine. And when I see someone who's like, and I put in like these heated floors and like the tile is from whatever, I couldn't even identify different kinds of tile. I'm like, oh man, man, oh man,

look at this dump. Look at this. I can't believe I live like this. I can't believe my floors aren't heated. It's 104 degrees today. I can't believe I have a toaster. How dare I? We have to talk a little bit more about being tall women. I love this part of your book in the chapter reunion where you say you're going to a class reunion and you say, I mistakenly make eye contact with a group of men from the class of 55, some of whom I recognize from the golf course. They're so little, like a group of lawn gnomes. Their face is somehow smoothed to look like shiny white and pink pebbles. I know exactly who you're talking about. Their names

are usually things like Jean. Bill. I think that, yeah, they could all be a bill. They could all be a bill. Yeah. Yeah. Women are so tall now. One of them shouts up to me and I nod. It's terrible. I agree. And they laugh, but really it is terrible. My legs are too long and my head is up way too high. Just made me laugh. My head is up way too high. You know, sometimes we're like, I moved through the world truly believing that I'm an average size person. I mentioned this to you earlier. I have a strange body dysmorphia where I think I'm anyone I'm looking at.

I'm like, we're like, yep, same, same size, whatever. When I went to a Beyonce concert, I was like, oh yeah, I could wear that. I go to a Taylor Swift concert. I'm like, I could wear that. Like I see Ariana Grande, who's I believe like four feet tall. I'm like, same, absolutely same. I go through the world believing I'm an average size person until I see photographic evidence where I'm like, oh my God, I'm so tall. I, every once in a while will feel like Alice in Wonderland after she took one of the things where she's bursting out of the house. And that is how I felt then. Yes, I was wearing Sven clogs from Minnesota. I don't know if you've ever had Sven clogs, Sharon, Erin, change your life. They're the best. They're handmade in Minnesota. They're the best. They do make me like six, three, every once in a while, I'll have this

strange bodily awareness of just how tall I am. And I will feel like, Oh God. Oh man. Oh man. How am I going to get out of this pickle? How am I, how am I going to get across the room with legs like this, with my moving like this? Are you serious? How small are these chairs? It's just so shocking. And especially when you meet people from another era where I think people like me were more rare, men of a certain age specifically will stop, look all the way down at my feet, all the way up at my head, down at my feet, then make eye contact and say, do you play basketball?

Oh my goodness. If I had a nickel, if I had a nickel for the number of times I have been asked, for the number of times I have been asked, do you play basketball as though it's the only thing I'm good for is entertaining you with a sport you wouldn't watch anyway, right? Right. Bill, you wouldn't watch women's basketball anyway. So what does it matter to you? Sharon? I've said in Minneapolis where I live there, yes, I play for the Lynx who have won many WNBA championships. And because yes, men will not watch the WNBA. Men have been like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course you are. Yeah. Oh, good. Oh, okay. Good for you. Good for you. Yeah. Okay. Keep it up. That's what they would say. They would just believe you. What became your

standard comeback for when people said, do you play basketball? Well, for a while it was true. So I would say yes. And then depending on the audience, I will still say yes. And I will just make up a story. I'd be like, yeah, I play pickup every weekend. I do. I was hired by the YMCA to just, you know, like I just stand in the, in the gym and anybody wants to play with me like right now we'll play. You want to go right now? You want to one-on-one it's too much touching. It's shirts versus skins. And I'm skins baby. Okay. Yeah. I was like, make you feel weird. Okay. Too bad. I remember when I was in high school and people would say, you're so tall. I would like snap. And I would say, well, aren't you observant?

I had a very deep, deep snarky, sarcastic streak as a teenager. And of course, teenagers also know everything and they know better than all of the stupid, stupid adults who are asking them stupid questions. A hundred percent. Adults are so embarrassing. So stupid. Yeah. Disgusting. And so when people would say you play basketball, I would say, no, do you play miniature golf? with like as much venom as I could muster. Do you play miniature golf?

Nora is speechless. Once in a while I'm reminded I'm just not that quick. That is so good. Never in my wildest, not even like given like 45 minutes to prepare. Could I come up with something better than that? That is so good. You're free to steal it. You're free to steal it. Take it and run with it. Wow. That's good. Oh my God. God. Oh, that is a great, great way to empty a room. Absolutely. Oh, good. Well, we could just keep chatting forever and ever and ever about cabins and being tall and your funny book, bad vibes only and other things I bring to the table,

but tell everybody about, I was excited to hear from you about your podcast tour, because it sounds fascinating. Tell everybody about that. I love doing podcast tours. When we do live shows on Terrible Things for Asking, I mentioned its narrative. So it's not like going and just watching two people talk on stage, which is also great. And I love shows like that, but we do basically theatrical version of a terrible thanks for asking story, which is a person's personal story. So it'll be something you haven't heard yet. And it will be something that we won't broadcast live. So our live shows are kind of like, if you're there, you're there. And if you're not, that's also okay. And we are going to 11 different cities with the live show. So when this comes out, I will be heading to Philadelphia, DC, Boston, Toronto, Chicago, and Minneapolis. And then the week after that, I will be in Milwaukee, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Madison, Connecticut, somewhere outside of Philadelphia. I should know these off all off the top of my head,

somewhere outside of Philadelphia. I should know these off all off the top of my head, North Carolina and Cincinnati for free bookstore events. And all those will be on my website, which is noraborealis.com or on the TTF a website, which is ttfa.org. And I love doing live shows and I'm so excited. And yeah, that'll be that. That's my whole October. It's my whole October is being away from the family. Yeah. It's like flying around and training around and driving around. Going city to city, to city, to city. And I am so excited for it because it's been, I mean, as everybody knows, we have not been anywhere since 2019. So it'll be good to be in a room with people again. Oh, I just can't wait. I can't wait. Mm-hmm. And so people can go to the terrible thanks for asking podcast website, ttfa.org, and it has like all the dates and the links to where they can buy tickets and all that.

Has all the links. Yeah. And I mean, I will try to put it on Instagram, but literally every single time I put something on Instagram, there will be an error. There will be a major error. There will be the link won't work. Okay. Or the link. One time I put up a link, I was like, here are tickets to the website. And someone's like, that's a tick. It's a ticket to a pair of pants. I was like, Oh no, I was shopping online. They're tickets to my professional basketball game. They're tickets to the Minnesota Lakes. Oh, sorry. I was shopping for pants.

You caught me. Pants for giant people. Accidentally linked that. Whoopsie doozles. Yes. If you're interested in my show, you also probably need extra long pants. And to answer your question, I get them at J crew. Okay. That's where I get them. They have them. That's where they have them. That's right. Yep. Yep. And gap gap and gap, nothing fancy. I'm telling you

gap still does it. They do just get some, get some khakis. That's where you're going to get up. Is that, is that gap? Just go down to the Gap. Order them online. They probably don't have them in the store, but they do have them online. They don't have them in the store. No. But you can order them. They won't sell them in store, and they also won't take returns in the store. They're like, no, no.

We have no chance of selling these in the store. We don't take freak returns. Okay? We don't take freak returns. There's no returns for folks here. We'll take regulars only. Well, thank you so much for doing this, Nora. Again, your book is bad vibes only and other things I bring to the table. It's a tongue and cheek title. It's not a book that is all negative. It's actually very, very amusing,

touching, and it's real life. And I appreciate that. Thank you. I appreciate you so much, especially because I mean, like many people I've gotten so much dumber since high school. I think the smartest I was, was maybe junior year and it's all been downhill since then. Every passing year, I'm like, huh? Like, excuse me? Just feel the brain cells just evaporating. Say what now? Votorama? I've never heard of that. What is that?

Never heard of it. And we do it. Wow. Okay. Wow. We do that every. Okay. Yep.

All right. I'm not supposed to have no toaster. Check Votorama. Okay. I'm trying to get it. I'm going to try to get it. I will vote and I will maintain my toaster. Okay. No, I'm going to get it. I'm going to try to get it. I will vote and I will maintain my toaster. Okay. No, I'm going to do both of those. Yes.

Yeah. Thank you so much, Nora. So great to have you here. You are so wonderful. Truly just a delight. Just a delight. We'll talk soon. Thank you so much for listening to the Sharon says so podcast. I am truly grateful for you. And I'm wondering if you could do me a quick favor. Would you be willing to follow or subscribe to this podcast or maybe leave me a rating or a review? Or if you're feeling extra generous,

would you share this episode on your Instagram stories or with a friend? All of those things help podcasters out so much. This podcast was written and researched by Sharon McMahon and Heather Jackson. It was produced by Heather Jackson, edited and mixed by our audio producer, Jenny Snyder, and hosted by me, Sharon McMahon. I'll see you next time. Hey, Torontonians. Recycling is more than a routine. It's a vital responsibility. By recycling

properly, you help conserve resources, reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, and protect the environment. Toronto's Blue Bin Recycling Program ensures the majority of the right items are recovered and transformed into new products. Recycling right is important and impactful. Let's work together and make a difference, because small actions lead to big change. For more tips on recycling, visit toronto.ca slash recycle right.