The Lazy Genius Podcast - #397 - My Favorite Things of 2024

Episode Date: December 23, 2024

I cannot tell you how excited I am about this episode. I’ve been keeping a note on my phone all year of my favorite discoveries and moments and just random stuff I want to remember. Helpful Companion Links Order my new book The PLAN or ask your library to consider carrying a copy. Honey Lip Balm in a little honey pot jar Sanditon on Masterpiece//PBS Jamie B. Golden on Instagram Shark HD430 FlexStyle Hairdryer Abby Jimenez, the author Austin Leather Swivel Armchair from West Elm Andrew Garfield’s Chicken Shop Date Sign up for the Latest Lazy Listens email. Grab a copy of my book The Lazy Genius Kitchen or The Lazy Genius Way! (Affiliate links) Download a transcript of this episode. 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

Welcome aboard via rail. Please sit and enjoy. Please sit and sip. Play. Post. Taste. View and enjoy. Via rail.

Love the way. Hey there. You're listening to the Lazy Genius Podcast. I'm Kendra Adachi, and I'm here to help you be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. Today is episode 397. My favorite things of 2024.

I cannot tell you how excited I am about this episode. It is the best episode to have the week of Christmas because it's a list and totally fun and has zero pressure to do anything or do emotional labor about anything or break down harmful paradigms about anything. It's just fun. I've been keeping a note on my phone all year of my favorite discoveries and moments and just like random stuff I want to remember. So today's episode is like part of that list. I'm not going to put these in any particular order. they're like mildly chronological because of how they're listed in my phone. But this is going to be quite random. If anything's a product, we'll have links in the show notes. Okay, first favorite thing of 24. It's a honey lip balm that comes in like a little honey pot jar. I have bought eight jars at this

point all year because of how much I use it, how much my kids use it, and how I want a little pot of it in every crevice of my house. I have one of my nightstand, one of my makeup drawer, several floating among like several purses, one in the junk drawer in the kitchen, one of the van. Then there are like others in my kids' rooms because they like take a pot and never get it back. Slash, that's fine because, you know, their fingers are not as clean as mine. So I'm fine with them having their own. I have never had great luck with any chapsticks or lip balms in the past. I've tried a million kinds, many of which are promised to be so great for sensitive skin. But this is the first lip balm that has moisturized my lips without making them sticky or feel weird, without making them more chapped

and without tasting like menthol or Dr. Pepper, plus the little honeypot. She's so cute. And she makes me so happy. So that's the first thing is this lip balm and there will be a link in the show notes. Okay. My second favorite thing of 2024, according to my list, was the show Sanditon. I don't actually know how to say it without saying it in an English accent. Is it Sanditon? Sanditon? Sanditon. I don't even know. It's fine. Sandton, y'all, there was a two, solid two months where that show, like, it had the tightest grip on my entire personality. If I watch one episode, it would happen again in a heartbeat. Like, that would become all I think about. I was just low-key obsessed for the first half to 2024. And I do not regret a single second of it. Sanditon is a PBS show. It came out in 2019.

and while all three seasons are excellent, the first season is what, like, Regency era dreams are made of. There is a young woman from a large family in a poor village who gets taken in by like a kind, slightly chaotic, rich family in their seaside town of Sandton.

This young woman, Charlotte Haywood, is caught up in various class drama and new friendships and like going to balls for the first time. And also there's a hot, older, brother named Mr. Parker, played by Theo James, who is ridiculously hot in his top hat and tails. It is moody and dramatic, but like barely, you know, it's like not emotionally trying. It's not obscene. It's just like really good TV. I mean, don't get me wrong. There's like some wild stuff that happens and little eyes should occasionally beware, but it's not Game of Thrones.

It's PBS. Now I want to go watch my favorite episode instead of finishing this episode, but I will be professional. Okay. My third favorite thing of 2024 was going to see Sweeney Todd on Broadway and after the show watching Jamie Golden bid for and win Aaron to Vate's bloody tank top. It was exceptional, an exceptional memory. Okay, so we see the show. It's so great. Even though Sutton Foster was supposed to play the lead, the understudy was awesome. The show was fantastic. Okay. They were doing a fundraiser after and the winning bid got Aaron to Vate, who's, he's pretty hot, got his bloody tank top from the show that he would sign, right? Because he is the demon Barbara Fleet Street. And so he

has blood on his hands and on his tank top. Well, when Aaron said what the prize was, the signed tank top and getting to meet him backstage, Jamie B. Golden, she sat up in her first row balcony seat. And I thought her eyes were going to fall out of her head. I could tell her wheels were spinning so hard and that she was going to do everything in her power to win this. So me and my like Enneagram one self voted most dependable in high school, magic question person. I immediately leaned over to her and I was like, hey, what's your limit? Because I knew she needed one.

And she said with light in her eyes, a thousand dollars. And then I just sat back and watched Jamie get into a bidding war with another couple who we ended up meeting after the show and pay $3,000 for Aaron DeVates tank top. No, it went to a charity. Like it was for a good cause, all the things. But still, it's so wild. So someone immediately came to our row when the lights came on. I have no idea how they got to us so fast.

Because again, we were like, we were in the first row of the balcony. And they rushed escorted us backstage. I held all of Jamie's things. Like I was Tony Hale to her, Julie Luey Dreyfus. And as we walked downstage, everyone knew Jamie one. Because, you know, it's a small theater. So everybody could like see and hear. they knew that she won it. So they were cheering for her as we were walking. It was so amazing. And then we got to go backstage and she charmed everybody back there, including Erin. I took their picture and it was a delight. And then we spent the next like two to three hours just calling various people for Jamie to tell the story to. We FaceTime Aaron Moon like almost immediately. She was about to get on a plane in like single digit hours to fly to, I think Paris for like her kids school trip or something. I don't know. That we FaceTime to Aaron from the street outside.

the theater in front of a falafel stand and Jamie told the whole story. It was just magical in every way. Like, I will never forget it. And I didn't have to spend the three grand to experience it. I just got lucky because when you do stuff with Jamie, you get lucky. If you're like, who's Jamie? Jamie B. Golden is my friend and also an incredibly talented podcaster who co-hosts a pop culture podcast called The Popcast with Knox and Jamie. She also talks about skincare and snark on Instagram at Jamie B. Golden. She is a delight. She is literally the funniest, funniest person I know. Okay. My fourth favorite thing of 2024 was my fancy hairdriar. My fancy hairdryer. I got the Shark HD 430 flex style. I had to look that up. It's like a hairdyer kit thing with, you know,

like curling and blowout attachments. I don't know. It's been so great. Y'all, I have so much hair. It is very fine, but there is a ton of it. So dry my hair takes a while. But it always. But it also causes like a lot of tangles and hassles. It's just annoying. My hair, it's always been annoying. I saw this hairder online, saw some folks using it. I thought, you know, maybe this will work. Maybe this is worth trying. It was super dupe worth trying. Now, it is not cheap at all, but it dries my hair quickly. It styles without heat. I use it on Annie's hair. Her hair is very similar to mine. It's so much faster and easier than a traditional hair dryer for us. It's like really totally been worth the investment. Aw, isn't something we need to travel for.

It's something waiting for us in everyday life, whether in a city street or a moment with a work of art. I'm Dr. Keltner, host of the Science of Happiness podcast. Join me for Cities of Aw, a special series on how our public spaces can spark awe, wonder, and enhance the quality of public life. You can find us wherever you listen to your podcasts. My fifth favorite thing from 2024 was discovering Abby Jimenez. She is a romance author, kind of like in the vein of Emily Henry, but I find her characters to be more fleshed out. I also think she handles mental illness in a deft, kind way. I have read three, four, I think four of her books. Yeah, four of her books at this point. And there is some kind of mental health issue at the center of everyone. And she does a fantastic job. She also just writes great characters.

great chemistry, great dialogue. Her books are exactly what I want when I read a romance. They're not super spicy. They're not super tame. They're like very PG-13. Maybe a little Rish here and there. But I really love how human they are. Just great stories, well-written, characters you care about.

I am now like a blind buy for Abby Menez now. The sixth favorite thing from 2024 is our leather chair that we got from West Elm, Whenever I show anything on Instagram that includes that chair, like in my living room, at least three people will ask me where the chair is from. It's genuinely so pretty, so clean, so comfy. We love this chair. Nobody like actively fights over who gets to sit in the chair, but at night, you do feel like a decent level of disappointment when someone else is already sitting in it. It is the Austin leather swivel armchair from West Elm. We also got the Austin leather swivel armchair from West Elm. we also got the ottoman and it is also a delight again it's quite a splurge but we've had the same

furniture since we got married cause and i've been married for 22 22 years 22 years it's a long time so after after COVID really like over the last couple of years we've just slowly been upgrading some of our furniture to comfier higher quality things we still have a ton of secondhand an IKEA furniture in our house. But getting a sofa in our living room and a chair and a bed. Those are the three main things that are like solid and awesome. It has been such a great investment. The chair is a big winner. I love, love, love my chair. The seventh favorite thing from 24 is that it was the year I started drawing and painting faces. I drew my first face on April 1st of 2024. And now I have like at least seven sketchbooks.

completely and exclusively full of faces. I genuinely love doing it. It's my go-to for when I need to de-stress or just feel like myself. If I feel really scattered, I just get out my sketchbook and a Sharpie and my watercolors and I make a face. I have done like quick sketches, like charcoal. I've done detailed colored pencil drawings. But my absolute favorite approach is to do a contour drawing with a Sharpie where I don't lift the marker. And I do the whole outline of the face. And then then I use watercolors to fill it in. Like even talking about it makes me smile. And I want to go paint one right now.

It's just been one of the most surprising sources of joy for me. And 2024 is the year I started doing it. So my eighth favorite thing from 2024, but eighth only in order, not in favoritism, which will be obvious with this is Andrew Garfield's chicken shop date. I talked about this in a newsletter a couple of months ago, but I cannot, I cannot tell you how seven minutes has brought me so much joy. Like nothing, nothing has brought me so much joy than this little YouTube video. So chicken shop date is a YouTube show hosted by Amelia de Mildenberg where she goes on first dates with like various celebrities in an English chicken shop,

which is basically like a non-chain fast food place that sells chicken fingers. The episodes are usually like snarky and a little weird and awkward and amazing. But this, was like, this was a real date. Andrew was really wishing it was a real date. I won't get into it here because I could do a whole TED talk on it when he said, but how at the end of the date? And we just don't have time for that kind of breakdown that I want to do. That's why I did it in the newsletter. But it's fair to say this has brought me a like a ridiculous, a ridiculous amount of joy in 24. I watched it so many times. It's almost embarrassing. Not quite because I refuse to be embarrassed by it, but it would be embarrassing if you saw how many times I've seen it. Okay.

My ninth favorite thing from 2024 was one I did not anticipate and that is cutting my hair. I had super short hair as a kid. I went like medium length as a teenager. I tried to do the Jennifer Aniston thing and I just looked like a sad Cocker Spaniel. It did not go well. And then I went super short again as a young adult. We're talking like pixie short. And then after I had both my boys, I started growing it out and it was really long through most of my 30s. Then when I turned 40, the texture of my hair started changing and the long hair, it just would not respond in the way it used to. I resisted cutting it for two years, always asking friends if I should do it, but just never having the guts to actually go for it. I make it sound like I was

cutting off the entire length. I wasn't, but it kind of felt like it. Like I had gotten so used to long hair. I was afraid I would be so disappointed if I cut it. And since I'm, I am fairly emotionally connected to how my hair looks. Like I'm deeply in the camp of Fleabag saying, hair is everything Anthony. Like I worried that I would really deeply regret it. But this fall, I decided to go for it. I was going to go just a bit shorter, just below my shoulders, give it some layers, and just hope I didn't hate it. And it turns out I love it. I love it. it so much. Like there was no emotional trauma from the choice. But I also think it's worth noting, like, it's a favorite thing for me because I took a risk. I did something that I didn't know the

end of, and that is usually not my MO. That's also why painting faces is so good for me. The result doesn't matter. And I need practice at that in my life. But I do love my hair. And I'm so glad I cut it. My 10th and final favorite thing from 2024 that I will share today is high school football. My oldest, Sam is a freshman in high school and a member of the marching band, which means he plays at the football games. Well, lucky for us, our team is really, really good, like ranked number one in the state good. But even if we weren't good, this would still be a favorite thing. Like, I love watching football just in general. I love cheering for kids who are trying so hard. I love the chillyish weather of like a Southern November. I love seeing the band March, seeing my kid love it so much. He loves it so much.

it has genuinely been such a fun addition to our family life, and I did not anticipate loving it so much. So while this is not like a complete list by any means, these are the things that I made time to mark on my phone that are relevant and relatable enough to share as favorite things. Lip balm, Sandton, watching Jamie get her bloody tank top, my fancy hair dryer, Abby Jimenez, my leather chair, drawing faces, Andrew Garfield's chicken shop date, cutting my hair, and I school football. It's such a chaotic list. I love it. And those are my favorite things of 2024. Okay. If you enjoyed this episode and you like to hear my take on things that I'm loving, you should for sure join the mailing list. The latest lazy letter is my monthly newsletter,

monthly, just once a month, that has this energy, but also sometimes with pictures and it has book reviews. And it's only once a month. We have an astonishing open rate for our newsletter. and I'm so glad because it's something I love writing. The next one will go out on Wednesday, January 8th. So go ahead and join the mailing list now. So you don't miss it. The lazy genius collective.com slash join. Okay, before we go, let's celebrate the lazy genius of the week.

This week it's Megan Suu-Sai. Megan writes, I have a dedicated plastic container in my fridge whose only job is to hold defrosting meats. It lives there permanently and catches any leaks from going all over the fridge or on my floor. when I pull out the meat since I pull out the entire box. Mine was a few bucks from Aldi, and it is simple but so important to me.

What a great small idea this is. Y'all, solving small problems is the literal best thing. There is a really good chance that Megan has had stretches of time where she's so frustrated by the process of cooking dinner all the time, but without naming the stress of dealing with leaking packages of meat. And we try and solve the stress of dinner by creating some big new meal plan or fridge organizational system or some other unsustainable thing that isn't really the problem in the first place. This is the perfect example of solving a small problem and then naming the joy

that it brings. Noticing stuff like that makes all the difference. Thank you for sharing, Megan, and congratulations on being the lazy genius of the week. This episode is hosted by me, Kendra Adachi, and executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna Fisher, and Angela Kinsey. The Lazy Genius podcast is enthusiastically part of the Office Ladies Network. Special thanks to Leah Jarvis for weekly production. Thanks y'all for listening. And until next time, be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. I'm Kendra, and I'll see you next week. You ever felt like you were living just a B or B plus life? It's so dangerous to live that. More dangerous than a B minus or a C plus life, because when you're living a B or B plus life,

you don't change it. You think it's good enough. Is it? I'm Susie Welch. I host a podcast called Becoming You. People think, okay, an A plus life is not available to. me, but there is a way. We are all in the process of becoming ourselves. Listen to becoming you, wherever you get your podcasts.