The Liz Moody Podcast - The Healthier Together 2020 Holiday Gift Guide—Experiential Presents, Books, Inexpensive (But Awesome!) Options, BIPOC Businesses & More

Episode Date: November 25, 2020

The Healthier Together 2020 Gift Guide is here! I got Zack to join me for a look back on our year, his take on my present picks (including the best gifts we ever got each other), and more. Lots of experiential gifts (as always, you know I love these), but tailored to our current world. Plus picks for health, beauty, home, books, and more! For the full list of links, go to lizmoody.com/healthier-together-2020-gift-guide I can’t wait to hear your feedback on this episode! Screenshot and tag me (I’m @lizmoody) if you were inspired to get anything for your healthier together partners. PS: My foodie preset pack is officially live. You can get all 8 presets, designed to make your food pics look as good as they taste, at lizmoody.com/presets. PPS: Healthier Together is officially a number one best-seller! You can get your copy on Amazon or at lizmoody.com/cookbook. Please keep sending me your creations on Instagram—they make me so happy! This episode is sponsored by Lavva’s brand new Plant Based Milk. It’s some of my favorite plant milk I’ve ever tried—it’s super rich and creamy and made with pili nuts, which are a complete protein. Go to lovvelavva.com to find a retailer near you! This episode is also sponsored by Garden of Life, whose Advanced Omega fish oil I’m obsessed with. By buying it with my link, it lets the brand know that you found them through me, and it doesn’t cost you anything extra: https://amzn.to/2TwrGPl Healthier Together cover art by Zack. Healthier Together music by Alex Ruimy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, friends, and welcome back to the Healthy Together podcast. I'm your host, Liz Moody, and I am a longtime journalist and cookbook author. And I'm joined by a very special guest today for a very special episode. Guests, would you like to introduce yourself? Hello. Do you want to say who you are? Oh, I'm Zach. You're Zach.

Zach is my, I would call you my husband. That would be a fair title. Yeah, a husband of like three, four, five, four. Between four and five. Between four, five, really? Is it this May? Is it five years? It will be five years next May.

Wow. All right. So Zach and I have been together for a very long time. We were together longer than that before we got married. I'm very bad at dates. But he's like one of the best gift givers that I know. And also I think a lot of people struggle to get gifts for their partners or that special someone in their life. So I thought he'd be a really fun person to weigh in on this episode.

which, by the way, since I haven't told you yet, this is the annual Healthier Together holiday gift guide episode. I did this last year. It's a ton of fun. Basically, I talk through a bunch of gift ideas. I like this better as a format than just having it like on my blog or on my Instagram because I'm so huge on experiential presence. And so being able to sort of talk through the experience that I have in mind with the present

versus just being like, here's a pretty thing. Buy this pretty thing. I think is really, really nice. Better than like here are 20 links go click on all of them. Right. I like stuff. Kind of. I think that I'm really big on thoughtful gift giving.

I spend a lot of time and effort thinking of thoughtful presence for people. But I just think experiences are the best, best, best, best presents. Like I think the best present you ever gave me, I think was that stand-up paddleboarding trip. Like basically I am obsessed with stand-up paddleboarding. Oh, yeah. The tour to sup. The Tour de Sop, the What's Up tour. I'm obsessed with stand at paddleboarding.

I'm like obsessed, obsessed. I love it so much. It's like surfing for boring people who are afraid of waves. And I'm very into that. And one year for my birthday, I think it was my 30th birthday, because I was like, I want something kind of special that I feel really seen and something. I think I literally told you I wanted to feel seen. And every other birthday you've said something about similar to that.

Right. I'm big on birthdays. And being seen. And being seen. It's my love language. Whatever the being seen love language is. That's my love language. So Zach planned this like three day weekend where we drove up to Portland, Maine.

And every stop we did, we like drove up to Portland, Maine and then drove back to New York. And every stop we did on our tour, we had like a different stand-up paddleboard activity. So we did yoga, right, in Portland, Maine. And then we went to Cape Ann and did a sup out to an island. like a guided sup tour out to an island which was crazy do you remember how crazy the waves and stuff were on that one it was like adventure sopping they were insane and then we went off near newport and did a little private sep at like a beautiful beach and it was just like he'd planned all these sups it was very sweet i felt very safe but i love experiential presence and obviously

experiential presence are going to be a little bit different this year because you may have heard that there is indeed a global pandemic did you hear about that uh it's come up conversations with me. God damn it. That sounds like. Yeah, so there is one of those. So experiential presents are a little bit harder, but not impossible. So we still have experiential presence.

We also have a lot of very cost-sensitive presence. I know that people are in a different financial situation at the end of this year than many people started the year in, and I'm trying to be sensitive to that. and so having presents for all different price ranges. I also have a lot, as many as possible, presence from small businesses. I really want to support as many small businesses this year as possible, as well as BIPOC and female-owned businesses. So we have a lot of that for all of you.

And then last year, I did like all of the people in your life that you want to get healthier together with. So I did like healthier together for your mom, for your bestie, for your husband. And I didn't want to do that this year because I really don't like the idea that like when you look at gifts for your husband, it's always like these very like male gifts. It's like, oh, he likes leather bound things and wood smells and he barbecue stuff. You got to have your recreational hatchet. You would love if I got you a recreational hatchet. I have no idea what I would use that for.

To hatchet stuff. What's a hatchet? It's the thing when we got engaged in Canada. And we went to all the campsites and we realized that all the firewood was in big stumps, big tree trunks. Sure. And we were like, wait, how are you supposed to burn a tree trunk? And then we realized that every Canadian goes camping with their own recreational hatchet. And they hatchet their own trunks into burnable wood.

I'll let everybody else fact check you on that. Is that what it is though? Is that an axe? You'll have to look at it. What's the difference between a hatchet and an axe? Size. An axe is larger. An axe is larger.

If you want to see something terrifying, I highly recommend you Google the video where the girl is axe throwing. And the axe. Hatchet turn. Oh, she's hatchet. And the hatchet bounces off of the thing she's throwing it at and flies back towards her face. And it's literally the most frightening like eight second video. It all ends well, though. So don't be nervous.

Safe for work. But I don't like the idea that like Zach, to enjoy, you know, a nice bubble bath or some pink fuzzy slippers. And in fact, I do. And you do. You, you, I cannot get you out of bath with your pink slippers. No. It's the best place.

It's the best place. It has been since March. So I'm going to have Zach, like, weigh in and he'll give you a, you know, I wouldn't say you're a typical American male. I think you're a very special, extraordinary American male. But he will give you an American white man. perspective because we don't have enough of those in the world. Yeah, because we need a lot more of those this year. So we need more of those this year. So he'll weigh in on those. But I just didn't,

if you're wondering, like I think all of these could be enjoyed by your mom depending on what kind of mom she is. I think all of these could be enjoyed by your partner, whether they're male or female. It really more has to do with their specific, you know, identity and their specific preferences. So this is a gift guide for everybody who you want to get, healthier together with in your life, but it's not divided like that because we're all individual. And we all like gifts. And we all like gifts.

You're like kind of medium. Do you like gifts? I feel like you're like that. Absolutely. Okay. What's the best gift I've ever given you? Because I just said the stuff thing for me. Cool, cool, God, you've got me.

I'm spacing. So this is actually kind of hard because we stopped doing gifts for each other like a long time ago. We haven't done like. That's true. proper gifts since. Hence the subsperience. Yeah. And most of the gifts we get for each other are experiences or like dinners on our birthdays. I think, you know what? One that comes to mind is for one of my birthdays, you planned through me a, I guess it was a cocktail party. But it was like,

these are the days of your life cocktail party. It's your 30th. Yeah, absolutely. But it was, so what Liz did was she got people from the different phases of my life, like going from like childhood to the present, you know, people from grad school, people from like, I'm going to talk about me in New York from my, like, early college. And she kind of like broke up my life into all these chunks, which was very subjective of you, but lovely. And then she actually even flew in people who. Person. Don't make me sound like so fancy. Okay. You, you, you, you, so I didn't, I didn't have, anybody in New York from when I went to high school. I'm very close with my high school friends. She actually flew in one of my close friends from high school and like kind of filled in the gaps.

And then they went through and they all made cocktails that represented that time in my life, which they were both amazing and insane cocktails. Yeah, two comments on that. One, the person who got Zach in the future, he did a cocktail and he put it in a centrum vitamin bottle. and I used that as a cocktail shaker. And the idea was like, one, it was like sort of futuristic, but two is like for when you're old. It was Centrum Silver. Centrum Silver. And then two, I just thought it was so everybody's like lined up.

And I was like, okay, here is Brianna. She's doing, you know, eighth grade or whatever. And I was going through and kind of telling everybody we're all this Airbnb I'd rented in the Lower East Side. And then I got to high school. And I was like, oh, shoot, I forgot to like assign somebody high school. and I'd already arranged with his high school friend who was like waiting in the bedroom. I'd met him earlier that day. We tried to hide him all around Brooklyn all day from Zach.

Because I'm everywhere in Brooklyn all the time. You pop up, Zach. You pop up. And so that was like our code word was like, oh no, like I forgot about high school or whatever. And he literally walks out and he goes, I bet I could do something about that or something. It was like his one requirement was he wanted to say this very specific line when he waltzed out. The line of somebody like the pizza guy coming in there and a porno. What?

Yeah, and then he walked out and he made you your high school cocktail, which I think was gross because like everybody's cocktail to represent their high school experience is gross. Absolutely. It was like it was like, you know, like two buck chock mixed with, you know, very cheap like Shmirov vodka or something like that. All right. So should we maybe start with a few experiential presents because I feel like I'm talking. about experiential presence a lot. And I bet people are like, what is an experiential present for a time when you can't go out or do anything? So I have a few of those. The first one is writing classes with the shipment agency. So this is that thing that I did up in Oregon. Basically,

this amazing literary agency that represents all of these incredible world class writers is doing online writing classes. Their writers are like national book award winners. Like I feel like writing classes online are always kind of dumb. You know, you're just kind of like, you have a book and you, you can do it. And these are like incredible writing classes. And I did one. I did one on essay writing with Alexander Chi because I am working on something that I won't talk about too much yet. Hint, hint, hint. But I did one on essay writing with Alexander Chi and I outlined my entire book in that class. It was like pretty, pretty incredible. So if you know somebody who wants to use their time in quarantine to write a novel. I think this would be an

incredible gift. They started at around $100. They have poetry, memoir, creative writing, graphic novels, which I thought was really cool. And to stress it, they're taught by experts, but people who have actually published books in these domains. People who have published, not only like books, but like some of the most successful books ever of like of our time. And yeah, so I thought that was like a very cool thing to sort of, you know, appear during quarantine. The next one is as somebody that you know and like experiential present. It says Serena Wolf's cooking classes. I love Serena.

Yeah, she is awesome. So she is teaching these online cooking classes. I actually, Zach and I did an online class for authors for Black Voices that were like it was auctioned off. And Zach on Friday was like, what are we doing? And I'm like, you're teaching a cooking class with me today. It was great. Much like this podcast episode. And I texted Serena and I was like, I'm so nervous about this.

What are your tips and tricks for teaching a cooking class? And she gave me a zillion of them because she's so good at this. She just started doing this during quarantine. She teaches these online cooking classes. They have different themes. You can gift a monthly subscription, which I think is $2,99, and it gives you access to all of her classes for the month. Or you can do individual classes, which are a little bit less. less money than that. But I think she teaches them like every week. So the monthly subscription,

I think would be such a cool gift. There's like, wow. Yeah. It'd be like a cool thing for a couple, I think, to do. Like, would you like that as a gift? Yeah, absolutely. As like a thing to do with me. Yeah, I would like that as a gift from Serena. I'm not sure Serena's going to give you a holiday present this year's back. But I think it's a fun one if you're like, have a partner that you really like to cook with. Or I thought it would also be a fun when having a healthier together moment if you have somebody that's like from afar who doesn't live with you, somebody who's maybe single and alone during the pandemic and you gift them, you both do the classes together so you're cooking

this thing. It's on Zoom so everybody can see each other and hear each other. Yeah, it's a glue that pulls you kind of across the distance. Yeah, food. Food is the great distance traverser. Well said. It's what I always say. But I think that would be a really, really fun one.

She's written two cookbooks, too, the dude diet and the dude diet dinner time. And she's also just like very funny. Yeah, she's definitely one of the funier people. She's like, she's really funny. And I think that doing cooking classes with her would feel like a ton of fun. She's also, if you want more from Serena, she's on my book launch episode of the podcast. So it's like Serena, Ali, and me. And Serena was maybe funnier than.

me and that really frustrated me that night, but I, you know, move through those. Very big of you. I move through those emotions. Okay. The next one, Zach, you're obsessed with Tara, right? You think it's completely legitimate and accurate. It is how the future is told. So Zach, Tara is about the most woo-woo I get, and I can't say that Zach is like the biggest

supporter of this, but he does love the thing I'm about to say, which is my friend Kate Van Horn does these online tarot readings. And you love Kate. You think she's like actually intuitive and really smart, right? Oh yeah, Kate's the bee's knees. What is that expression? Well, so bees, their legs have joints. And in the middle of the joints, you have knees.

And they're pretty special. They're pretty special. Yeah, that's where the pollen comes from. That's not where the pollen comes from. I was joking. I obviously work for the bees. I don't know if you've heard about my bee bosses. I've heard.

You've heard. I talk about my B bosses a lot. Whenever we're hiking and we see B, I'm like, that's my boss because I did a sponsorship with the National Honeyboard, which isn't even still going on, but I still feel like I have a tie because I love the B so much. But I've done a few of these readings with Kate. Every time I can get a tarot reading with Kate, I do get a tarot reading with Kate because she is so intuitive.

She's an incredible, like she's like a therapist, a business coach, and a tarot reader in one. And she does these really, really cool sessions called the Her Fire Tarotoreoretians, and they're specifically designed around sort of business and your career. She has other ones as well, but I think this one would be really cool for somebody who's maybe doing like a change in life direction right now and wants to just feel like a little bit more stable or a little bit more inspired by which direction to go. So everybody? Yeah. So everybody. I got it when we were, We were up in Washuga and it was during the fires on the West Coast and I was about as depressed as I've been since the very beginning of quarantine when I was very depressed. Nothing adds to the anxiety of a respiratory disease like a bunch of smoke.

Like a bunch of smoke. And literally like we could not leave the house because the smoke was hazardous. And she gave me a reading and it made me feel and I also just felt like I had a lot going on with my business. but at the same time I didn't know what direction my business was going. And I just felt really airy. And she gave me a reading that made me have a lot of vision, a lot of clarity. It made me feel good. And it just gave me like a very clear path of where to go.

So I should have said this at the beginning of the episode. But I'm going to have links to all of this on my website, lizmoody.com. So you don't need to like take notes if you're driving or going for your daily walk or anything like that. but so go to lizmoody.com and I'll have links to all this but I'll link her calendar where you can get on her calendar and it'll be a Zoom tarot reading and it will change your life. Good. It would better. All right.

Next, this is sort of experiential. This is a 10% happier app subscription. So this is a meditation app. That's what I do. Yeah, isn't that fun? I think this is, Zach and I actually started meditating together this year and that was like one of my favorite things to come of this year. I'm not sure why or how that happened because I feel like I've wanted you to meditate with me for a little long time. And this year you just were like,

yeah, I will meditate with you today. Not leaving for the office very much. Really have a lot more time flexibility. More free time? Not more free time. Just more flexibility and when that time gets spent. Okay. So I have a question. If your partner was a meditator and they wanted you to be a meditator and they gifted you something like this app subscription, which is $99 a year. It's a really nice gift. Would you view that as like naggy or would you view that as a lovely present? Would it be like them adding work to your plate? You can be honest.

Or would it be like a lovely present? Oh, like all answers. It really depends. But I would, no, I think, I mean, honestly, like, listen, if you get someone, someone something and they're not interested in doing the thing, then it wasn't a very good gift. Clearly you need to know that the person is at least on the fence about maybe wanting to meditate or is meditating and maybe could use this upgrade in their practice. If they hate meditation and they're not going to be convinced.

What if you're sure? What if they maybe think they hate meditation, but you're sure they'll like love it and their life will be changed by it, which I feel like is so much in a partner situation, it's so often like, I know you're going to love this. That's the Liz Moody philosophy on life. I think it's just many people. I know better than you. And you're going to love this.

Actually, Liz does that for me with books all the time. She's like, here are 15 books. You're going to love reading in the next month. And I'm like, 15 books. But then you do love them. Oh, absolutely. And you have books always. And I think having a ready book.

I'm very behind on my pile of books. But yeah, I've been loving them. Yeah, I might have done too many where it's like a little overwhelming. Yeah. I should hide them. I have a suitcase of books. And dole them out to you like candy over time. little treats.

Yeah, I actually, you know, you should do, you should do like a scavenger hunt and I have to like find the books in different locations. Like I finish a book and at the end it's a clue to find the next book. Oh, my God, we're bored during quarantine. Yeah. But you wouldn't think it was like a naggy, like, I always wonder that with like workout stuff,

like self-improvement stuff. Is that a lovely gift? I'm thinking of you. I want you to be happier or healthier or is it like naggy? To see, see aforementioned. I mean, if the person clearly has no desire, and will not be swayed on that, they're just not going to use the gift. But if you think in your, the royal, your, like, you know, imminent judgment that they're

on the fence or could be swayed towards it, you know, take the leap. What do you think? Do you think workout gifts are saying, like, like, a negative commentary? I mean, it's better than, like, liposuction credits or something like that. But you wouldn't take it as, like, I'm saying something mean about your body if I gave you a workout gift, especially during court team. I felt like none of us are feeling like tip-top about our body. It would only be so you could, you know, your body's great though right now. I love your body. Thanks. Moving on. Okay. This is not experiential, but you love this too. These are the Juniper Ridge

soaps. That's that soap that smells like nature. I would argue it's an experience. It is. Makes the whole bath. It makes the shower smell great. I take a little bit of that. I put it in as a bubble bath when I'm popping on my little pink slippers, and I got to tell you, it smells like you're taking a bath in the forest. It smells like you're taking bath in the forest. And I think especially during these winter months,

when a lot of us are going to be cooped up indoors, bringing that outdoors into the indoors. It's called Juniper Ridge. They're made with all natural organic ingredients. They're scented with essential oils. So no chemical oil. I mean, they're chemicals, they're natural chemicals. I actually hate when people say it's not chemicals because it's like water is a chemical.

Most other chemicals. But they are non-toxic and they smell phenomenal. So they have a Christmas fur one that I just ordered for us that I'm very excited about. And that's like kind of their holiday special edition one. I had to order a few other things because they have $50 minimum shipping. So I just went ahead and added some extra stuff on to their. You're welcome. They have like a desert sage oil that I ordered.

I ordered all of their teas because I'm obsessed with their teas. They're all caffeine-free. They have like sage and wild mint and fur tips, Douglas fur tips in them and all of these just like really phenomenal ingredients. And they have candles and incense and the chicest packaging. So just go to their website. Everything's around $12. Like the tea is around $12.

I think the candles are a little bit more expensive, like $30. But the teas, the soaps, all of that's around $12. I think it'd be a really chic stocking stuffer for a nature lover in your life. or just a normal present because they're normal and I love them. And they also make your skin really soft. I feel like they're very non-drying as soaps go. Like I think our Dr. Bronner dries out my skin a lot more than these do. They have more like glycern or something in them.

Have you noticed that? Sorry. Good talk. Speaking of drying, this one is fun. It's the Yay for Earth sensitive skin face lotion. So this is founded by a woman who is zero waste. She was struggling with skin issues. And then she wanted to create a formula that was good for the earth and for her face.

It has the cutest packaging. I mean, the name itself is like, yay for Earth. You're like, that probably is really cute packaging. It looks like sunshine in a container. And it's amazingly effective. They have befores and afters on her website. And you just are like. Befores and afters of people's faces.

Of the face, not the Earth. No. I don't know if we're in the after face of the Earth yet. No. We need it soon. Yeah. But that's, I love that. I think that'd be a really fun stocking stuffer.

And it'd be a fun way to introduce somebody in your life to zero waste without saying that like, or low waste without saying that it needs to be, you know, crunchy or undesirable or unbeautiful or ineffective. It's a great way to be like you can go lower waste and have these really, really beautiful products in your life. That's what I want. I mean, honestly, that's just, that's just a strategy that people should just be adopting. Wait, what do you mean? Low waste or like? Well, I mean, obviously low waste, but just using good design to make things less. Yeah, yeah, to make things appealing while.

To make good choices appealing. Like to make it so you're not forcing good choices on people, good choices are actually like the more appealing lovely option. I am always really surprised when I see things and you're like, it's a package within a package, within a package and everything's plastic. And you're just like, nobody finds this appealing. Nobody's looking at this and being like, oh, sexy. days. Like, I feel like I just feel guilty when I'm unboxing stuff and it is that. And we've had to order so much more on the internet these days, uh, because, you know, stores are not very open. I've noticed that. All right. The next one is art. I kind of miss buying art because we don't live in a

place anymore. We live in a lot of places. It's actually kind of fun. Like our last Airbnb that we stayed and had paintings all over. Like, we adopt the art of the place that we're in. Technically, we added to the art. We did a painting party. My little sister came out to visit us. She loves painting. It's like her therapeutic activity.

And so we did a paint party, all of us where we just, it was really fun. We like drink wine and we painted. And we put our paintings up on the mantle to display them for ourselves. And then we forgot about them. And our Airbnb host was like, did you intentionally? add art to my house. And we were like, no, you can throw those away. And she was like, because they're not like great, you know, like I tried my best.

Speak for yourself. Yours was great. It's funny. We actually ended up painting this. We both painted pigs in front of mountains. But I painted a purple pig floating in front of pink mountains with no sense of the pig being like on the ground because I don't know how to do that. And then with like a starry nice guy behind it that was like yellow and pink.

It was very surrealist. And then Zach painted literally like, like. like it looked like a photo but turned into a painting of like havelinas what's it called a thunder a squadron of havelina a squadron of havelinas crossing the street with like mountains so we both painted a pig with mountains but zaks looked real and everything was like the right size for like my pig if my pig was life size compared to my mountains my pig would have been you know like a quarter of a mountain sure which is not or just very close to what me the viewer okay don't worry about it And also, I'm sure as all of your listeners know, the endemic hovelina to the southwest of the U.S. is not a pig.

It's actually a large room. Nobody knows that. And also, nobody, like, wants to know that because it turns something that's cute into something that's not cute. Really? It's my new favorite large rodent. It turns stuff into, what's it called, the princess bride, like the rodents of terrible sizes? The bad-sized rodents. Nobody wants.

What's the acronym for rodents of sizes you don't really want to see the time, except when they're cute like hobolina? No, but they were cute until they became rodents. They dethroned the capabara for me, which is my previous large favorite rodent. Really weird about that. Anyways, we don't have a home anymore, but this, if I had a home, I would decorate it with Brea Paints,

framed prints, and canvas art. So Brea Paints is a business owned by Brea Nicole. She paints black and brown women. She paints nature scenes, and she just uses the most beautiful color palette. It's like pinks and tans and it just looks chic. Like you know those cool girl homes you see on Instagram and you're just like, where do they get all their cool girl pieces for their cool girl homes? This is one of those pieces.

They're just, they will make your house look cool. Like, I don't know if I'm allowed to cite the wing anymore because I know the wing is kind of fallen from grace. But it's like that sort of aesthetic where it just looks like a very cool woman decorated it for you. most of them are around $100. They start at $20, so they're very affordable art. And if we had a, I assume we'll have a home someday. So I'll be getting them for my home. I'll live in a cool girl home.

And then you'll live in it. I think our home was like medium cool girl home when we were in New York. Sure. One cool girl and me. Yeah, you're a cool girl. All right. Next I have Diaspora Co. Spices. So every chef I know is obsessed with these.

They're single origin spice blends. They taste light years better than any spices you can find at the grocery store. They partner with small, multi-generational family farms. They pay an average of six times the normal rate for organically farmed single origin spices. But you're like, well, that makes the spices very, very expensive for me. And they're a little bit more expensive, but they're not like significantly more expensive. And your money is like really going to a good cause. Are you telling me that big spice is just marking up spices?

I love many good spice companies, but these, you can taste the difference in these. So for somebody who is really into cooking in your life, I think these are really, really special. The turmeric is phenomenal. They also have a chili pepper blend that's like banana's good and a black pepper. I think the black pepper one is very underrated because black pepper, you put it in your spice grinder. I assume everybody has black pepper grinder at home if you don't buy one because fresh ground black peppers. quick add to the gift guide I know what's do you know which one ours is

it was like the best present Matt ever gave us our friend gave it to us yeah a close friend of ours was like you guys don't have a very good pepper grinder I don't know if we had one we use like the single serve pepper grinders yeah and he got us this one and I feel like it's called

like big black pepper grinder or like something like something like something like I don't know if you want make sure safe searches on it if you yeah yeah yeah I know but but that's Literally, it has a name like that, and that is what it looks like. It's like this, like, plastic, monstrous kind of, like, thing. But it's so good. Yeah.

It cracks that pepper. It cracks the heck out of that pepper. So, but I just think that's such an easy. You put black pepper on so many things. You put it on, like, your eggs in the morning. You put it on your pasta in the evening. And it's such a quick way to elevate almost every meal you have to use really high quality pepper because if you think about it, you're just putting like a little bit on it

of it as a finisher too. So it's not going into the dish and the flavors aren't getting blended, but it's a finisher on each dish. It's like having a really nice finishing salt, where it upgrades and elevates every single food you're going to eat throughout the day. So I think black pepper people sleep on that a lot. And then every season, this is even more exciting for Diaspora Co. Every season, they collaborate with two to three bi-pack led businesses to make their special edition. So right now, I scour the website. I've tried previous special editions. I have not tried these ones, but I literally want all of them. So stocking idea, maybe.

I won't remember this by Christmas. So just saying if you want to get me. Oh, that was for me. That was for you. That was for you. They have a black pepper chocolate bar that sounds insane. They have a turmeric latte that is incredibly complex sounding. It has like different peppers in it and it just sounds so, so good.

And then they have a caramel chai syrup that's made from dates. and I want all of them. So those are all special dish, and they start at $10. And for anybody who loves food in your life, I think this would be really special and creative and different. Or, you know, for anyone who's been stuck making their own food for the last six months. Oh, that's a really good point is, like, if you're bored by food at this place. I've been making eggs every morning. Please help me make my headspread.

For the last 240 days. Yeah, okay, so it's good for everybody. Right. Well, and to that end, pink salt ceramics. I love my ceramics. I feel like I need to like re-up my. I've been kind of using the same ceramics for a while. We travel with them because I use them for my food photography. But these are pink salt ceramics makes the cutest rainbow cactus and boob ceramics. They make these like they're like have boobs. Those are different types of ceramics? Or it's a rainbow cactus. I mean, that sounds great and pointy. Sure. But no, there's a rainbow mug and then like a cactus mug and a boo mug and they're really colorful and fun. And I think a lot of times ceramics, like the trendy ones are kind of like a neutral

palette and these have that trendy look, but they're really colorful. They are the spice for the neutral palette of your home. They're not the neutral palette themselves. Yeah, and I think that's really lovely. And I think stuff like ceramics. Again, speaking to Zach's point, it elevating those. things that we've been doing, like maybe you haven't been going out to your coffee as much, maybe you're plating all your own food. So I think doing things like upgrading your ceramics

is a really nice way to make those experiences feel really lovely and special, even if you're just continuing to do them at home. You do need to keep an eye on her Instagram because she does these drops and they sell out very quickly. But she's doing a Christmas, like, holiday drop soon. So watch out for that for sure. There's something new and so exciting that just launched in the non-dairy milk world. You might have heard of lava. They're famous for their super creamy plant-based yogurts. Well, they've just launched lava plant milk, which is going to be your new favorite

non-dairy milk. It's totally different than any other plant milk on the market because it's made with peeling nuts, a super nourishing food that's high in magnesium, vitamin E, and mono-unsaturated fats that support heart health and brain function. Peelie nuts are also a complete protein, making this honestly some of the most nutrient dense plant milk I have ever tried. Beyond that, the texture is unreal. It's super rich and creamy, not at all like some of the other plant milks you find, which essentially feel like white water. It's also got the best ingredient list that I have seen in a long time. It's made with

all real food ingredients, including coconut water, which provides a nice, gentle sweetness. They also have a chocolate lava plant milk, which is sweetened with dates and gets its delicious chocolatey flavor from unsweetened, fair trade cocoa. It even has mom. It even has mom. Maka, a hormone supporting superfood in it, which I thought was bananas, like how above and beyond can you get? None of their plant milkscifiers or sweeteners. I've been using the unsweetened milk as a base for my lattes now that the weather's getting cooler, and I love having the chocolate one as a little protein nash after my workouts.

And for you coffee lovers out there, I am talking to you, Zach. They're launching a plant creamer too. You can find the lava plant milks at Whole Foods, and you can find out more information about them at love lava.com. That is love with two Vs and lava with two Vs. They're going to blow your mind. They are so unique and so delicious, I can't wait for you to try them.

Now, let's get back to the episode. Okay, next up, Jenny Bird jewelry. This is my absolute favorite jewelry other than my pen necklace that you got me, which I wear every single day that I love. Also a great gift. Also a great. I think that was the best physical gift

that you've ever gotten me. It's a 1940s, it's a pen pendant, a pen pendant from a 1940s charm bracelet. I don't know where you found it or how, but. Etsy. Did you search a white pen necklace? Yeah, actually. I was like, I was like, I want to get Liz jewelry. What would be a thing that would be very Liz?

Well, Liz is a writer. Anyway, you can see how the process went. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I went on Etsy and I started like poking around with the old search feature. And I like really just struck literal gold and found this like gold 1940s pin charm bracelet. It has like a couple little like diamonds on the tip. And it was it was yeah. It was this very actually went back and was trying to find the seller just recently for some reason.

It was because the little top part broke and we were trying to see if there's 100% gold. Oh yeah. No, no, we're trying to find the carriages. Yeah. Yeah. Because apparently that matters for repair. wearing gold. And it was 100% right? That was good news because it wouldn't melt. It was really 100% gold. But it was gold enough. They were worried she's going to melt it with the heat gun,

which would be embarrassing if you gave a present and then like it wasn't as nice as you thought it was. Oh, this is just chocolate wrapped in gold foil. But it wasn't that. But I, back when I used to go out in public, I got complimented on this pretty much every time somebody saw it. You still get a notice in the checkout line. In the checkout line. Right below the mask. Yeah, glints off my mask chain beautifully. But other than my pen, pendant, Jenny Bird jewelry is my absolute favorite jewelry. I've given you this lecture probably more than you're interested in.

But I'm a big fan of the fact that you can change an outfit dramatic. Like, I like delicate jewelry, but I think if you want to change an outfit in seconds, bold jewelry is the way to do it because it just has more of an impact. So specifically the Walter Choker, that's that like chunky gold choker that I wear. from this company. Oh, yeah, that's fabulous. It's fabulous, right? Like, you can wear it with a sweatshirt and it changes your entire look. It's like you could even wear it with a sweatshirt.

She's mostly wearing a sweatshirt. That's all they wear away. And, yeah, you can wear with anything. But try it with a sweatshirt. Try it with a sweatshirt. They also have this other chain link one that's from their newer collection that I love. I actually have a code for Jenny Bird. I shared some of the stuff I loved with her over the summer

and so many of you guys asked for a code. So I reached out to her and she gave me a code and so I have a code but I don't, they like changed or something recently. Anyways, I will share it on my Instagram and I'll share it in the written gift guide which again is going to be on Liz Moody.com. I think it's going to get you like 20 or 25% off. So definitely look for that.

And will this be the show notes? The gift that is the show notes or it's its own guy. It's going to be on Liz Moody. It'll be a blog post on Liz Moody.com. Slash 2020. If you want to do a custom URL for me, me, that would be swell. Zach is the tech behind my, you know, I often get compliments for people.

We're like, oh my gosh, your design is so cute. Can I reach out to your designer? And I'm like, no, he grumpily did it for me and he will not do it for anybody else. You can send him compliments, but that's not as much as he'll engage with right now. He's not willing. Zach has, his background is in design and technology, but he has his own full-time job, but he'll, he'll hop in and you know he designed my site for me and stuff which was so so lovely and very appreciated but utterly unwilling to do it for any of my friends who ask sorry all of his friends

well you're really you make it really easy because you know exactly what you want so like and i'm just i just kind of brought your vision he also very conveniently forget to how much we argue when he does do the site as soon as the site is over no just keeping it polite for the people this is not a polite Have you listened to my podcast? Yes. I think the best case scenario for listeners would be to like actually hear us get into a hardcore solid fight and then make up and like have that whole process sort of captured on. Okay, 60 seconds.

Let's do it. Go. Do you think I'm clean or messy? Messy. You're so messy. Do you think my messiness is a reflection of my love for you? Absolutely not. And you know what?

I love you and thank you so much for, you know, kind of separating those two components. I think it's really mature. This is a real question. Do you think I've gotten less messy with time? Not because of me and my need, but because of my love for you. You're beautiful. Anyways, Jenny Bird jewelry, absolutely love it. It's also very reasonably priced for being incredibly high quality jewelry.

So if you want to, like, hit that level between, like, kind of crappy Claire's quality jewelry and, like, the very fine $1,000. I don't even know how much really expensive jewelry is because I don't buy it. But like that really expensive stuff that you don't really want to spend your money on, but you want something that's very high quality. But within that special occasion, but very affordable price. And I think the choker that I likes like 130 or something like that. So it feels super high quality.

I love it. Okay. This next thing you're going to love. I kind of want you to guess it. You know, me to guess it. Yeah. What? If I was going to give a food gift that was based on our favorite New York City.

food, what would that be? Do you know? Yes. Absolutely. It's probably like a like a like a like a like a like a like a starter kit one that combines other. I saw that they're putting these. I have an easy. It's not there. So I know what you're you're thinking of their starter kit for their burger. Oh yeah. They did a starting. Which is cool too. But this is I was going to have people gift the people the the burgers too cool too. Basically this is um a general gift idea. Basically. Basically it's a company called Goldbelly that we actually discovered at a startup fair.

Do you remember when we were invited to that startup fair like ages ago? It was the Y Combinator winter like kind of thing either last year or the year before. They got a lot of wine in like those beaker bottles. We walked around drinking the wine and it was really fun. But this company, Goldbelly, was there and they had all of their food on their table. So everybody was just like obsessed with their table because what Goldbelly does is it takes the signature food from different. regions, different restaurants, small businesses, stuff that you would normally like only be able to get in New Orleans, only be able to get in New York, and it ships it all over the country so that

all of a sudden you can get it everywhere. And a lot of restaurants have jumped onto Goldbelly during the pandemic as a way to get their food out there since nobody can eat in their restaurant. So one of our very favorite restaurants is called Emily, Emmy Squared, Pizza by Emily. It's all the same. There's like three different restaurants in New York. And they have, have a Detroit-style pizza, which is basically like a pizza. Zach's been experimenting with getting good at this in quarantine, but it's like a pan-made pizza, and it gets really yummy and like it's square. It's like a rectangle.

Liz tries to describe Detroit-style pizza. People from Detroit or fall. People from Detroit hate me. And it's almost like a vacaca. I'm going to stop. It's the best pizza I've ever had. So I think either you could do something like our Emmy pizza. You could scour it and look for, you know, just stuff that sounds good.

Or you could find a special food memory that perhaps you had with somebody or that you knew somebody loved back when people could travel more freely, when they could eat at restaurants more freely. And you could get that on Goldbelly if that's on there and have that delivered to them. And I think that would be really, really special. If there's like a restaurant that you and your best friend always ate at or a place you and your mom went when you took a trip to San Francisco once and you absolutely loved it, I think Goldbelly obviously doesn't have everything, but they have a lot of stuff. Yeah, it was interesting for me because I'm spacing on a lot of the options they have. Like, I couldn't like tell you a lot of them offhand, but I do remember going to the website

and being like, oh, that place I've heard or have been to that very iconic place in such and such and such and such. Or even if like you went to the Florida Keys and you had the best time, you could get like key lime pie and send it to your aunt or something like that to remind her of that. And so I think Goldbelly, but particularly Gold Belly, in a very evocative memory way and accompanying it with a very sweet card that conjures up that memory would be really fun. I'm all about food-based memories, which we haven't had as many of this year. But there's lots of fun stuff on there. Okay. Next up is an exfoliating sheet. Zach, how's your back acne?

You don't have any. actually. Yeah, I was going to say, you know, it's honestly the place that I have the least amount of information acne wise. Oh, wouldn't it be interesting if your back was covered in acne? Can I walk by like two mirrors outside and you look kind of like to decide and I just haven't told you just to protect you. Oh, you're so sweet.

This is really cool. So it's a mesh exfoliating sheet that you use with soap and the shower. It's kind of like if a lufa spread out and became a flat piece of paper. And it's amazing. It won the Allure Best of Beauty Award this year. And according to its founder, Caroline, it's been used in West Africa for years. Her Ghanian mother gave her one when she was five and was just like, it's time to start washing yourself with this now. And it makes your skin super soft and it's made incredibly well.

And it's really good for back breakouts particularly because it like lets you get those hard to reach places. I don't get a lot of back acne, but my back is always itchy or like, lack of a better way. Like, when I used to get massages, I always felt first the relief of not being as itchy anymore, if that makes it. I always feel a little itchy. So I just feel like there will be times where this is like walking with her hands full. And she's like, my God, my back itches. And she'd be like one of those cute bears like rub me up and down on a tree. But I like, I get really it's. I think I probably have dry skin because I don't moisturize my body, which is not a stance that I have in any way. I probably think I should moisturize my body and, in fact, excited to use my desert cedar oil from

Juniper Ridge that I just ordered. It's a spray bottle. But how are you going to reach your bag? You'll do it. No, it's a cute spray bottle I can do it. But yeah, I think this would like be a really fun present for that, a fun stocking stuff, or it comes in really cute packaging and really fun colors. And I just feel like I feel less itchy even just talking about it.

All right, clothing gifts. I know you've been really impressed by my expanding. sweats collection over the last few months. Yes. Yeah. I think this is the year that you were just like, you look best in all sweats, right? You really have brought the sweatsuit back into focus for me as an option for people to wear all the time.

There's the, I have one. It's all pink. And Zach literally won't go in public with me when I wear it. He lets me wear the, he's fine with the pants and he's fine with the sweats. and he's fine with the sweatshirt, but it's bubblegum pink. And if I wear them together, he won't walk around with me. There are virtually zero upsides to the current times, but you not being able to walk around an airport with your pink luggage set in a pink sweatsuit.

I'm okay. Pink headphones. I can kick that can down the road. It has to be clear, too. I have a pink suitcase and then a pink bag that goes on half of my pink suitcase. And then my pink headphones on because I'm afraid of flying. So I start to wear. wear my noise cancelling headburned for the second I get to the airport just to kind of pretend

I'm not at the airport. And then I have a pink travel wrap and I wear my pink sweatsuit, which I honestly don't need to do, but I feel like it embarrasses you so much that it's worth it. Thanks. Do you want to do a 60 second fight again? No, I think I've made my feeling pretty clear. Anyways, these are really cool. I I feel like I was going to recommend a tie-dye thing. I feel like the tie-day thing is kind of like phasing out, although I still love it. What? Tie-dye is? Forever.

It's forever, for sure. But I just want to, I feel like everybody kind of like maybe already has their tie-dye sweatsuit. What? Do you, you don't have your tie-dye sweatsuit yet? Oh, just no. Move on. It's a holiday present. Anyways, I thought this would be a little bit more fun.

So this is somebody named Haley, Elsa, Elsa. And I'm sure I butcher that. She has the coolest graphic t-shirts and sweatshirts. She has these ones that say like in 70s kind of style. It says like anxiety and serotonin on them. And I just think that's so cool. They're just really cheeky. They're brightly colored. I love the idea of like reclaiming something like anxiety by wearing it on like a brightly colored 70s style sweatsher. And I just think they're super fun. They're around $49. They have ones with hoods, ones with out hoods. They have T-shirts and a lot of other fun stuff too, but those are my favorite ones. And I just think it would be a really fun sort of cool sweatshirt gift that's a little different, I guess, than the tie-dye.

All about the tie-dye. Electric and Rose is my favorite probably like tie-dye brand right now. And Daydreamer is probably where I get most of my tie-dye if anybody wants to, and sweats and sets. It's a really cool, small woman. Why are you laughing at me? Just throw in my top ten favorite tie-dye sweatsets. But if you want a different alternative to tie-dye, then I think Haley's stuff is really beautiful. Okay. The next one, speaking of tie-dye, I got you a tie-dye shirt from this very company. Are you grabbing it?

Oh, oh my gosh, it's the real Russell. You could hear my Yucca Lund. So this is a company called the Parks Project, and they make clothing that is so much chicer than it feels like it should be. So Zach's holding up a tie-dye shirt that I got him, and it says vote environment. And then on the back, what does it say? be part of the solution not the pollution uh and it's so cool and the stuff they do they're just so cutely designed so like how do you describe the design style of them it's just they're so

sheke i feel like so you know it's really funny is this one's like not a shape no this is lovely but it but it kind of it reminds me of almost capturing like a simpler style of well like kind of tie-dye and maybe like light activism. It reminds me a lot of like growing up in Berkeley. And like these, this is like, it's like somebody took like what you would buy on the streets and like telegraph and stuff like that.

And then they and then they kind of polished it a little bit and brought it into, you know, made it like kind of reduced the garages. It's, it's somehow crunchy at all. I don't think. No, but it's like it's like a tasteful version of that kind of like crunchy design.

Yeah. Yeah, that's what I, it's like, it's outdoor chic. It's so fabulous. They have shirts. They have coasters. They have hats. They have water bottles. They have all this kind of stuff.

And then they partner with places like the National Park Foundation and then with the specific parks themselves like Death Valley, Yosemite, et cetera. And then each purchase specifically tells you where your money is going and what good it does. So I think that like that shirt we got you went to like trail cleanup in Death Valley. I love that. I actually love that for all things in the world. Anything where somebody's saying, oh, your money is going to go to this or like,

oh, you're helping this by doing that. I'm like, show me how. And I like when it's specific, like, yeah, it's not like the National Parks Foundation. It's like it will clean up a trail. Or they have underprivileged kids that they take to National Park so that they can experience nature and fall in love with nature. And it's like six kids.

kids are able to go visit the National Park because of your purchase. Because of my whole new wardrobe. Because of your whole new wardrobe. And it's super well made, super high quality. And I just, I can't overstate how cool the designs are. Like, I have a shirt that looks, it looks like a shirt you'd get at like a festival for bands, but it's for, it says like Parks Fan Girl or something. Sounds right.

It's, um, it's way cooler than, than I'm making it sound, but it's super fabulous. Next up, you're bored at home. You don't want to just. watch TV again every single night. What do you do instead? Ooh, that's a hard one. Play games. Oh, right. You play games. So I thought I would share some of the games that have been keeping us seen during this time. Or really riling stuff up. Or riling stuff. Yeah, do you want to start with that one? Yes. Do you want to explain it? Just in brief because it's such an annoying game. But okay, so if you like hate the people you're with.

Absolutely. Yeah, our friend who likes us less than we thought. gave us this game and it's called The Mind and it is a game where you basically sit around trying to read the mind of the person across from you, which sounds impossible, but it's about like you have these cards in your hand and they're all numbers and you have to put down the next card by quote unquote like showing no information and just reading the mind of everybody else. And what it is, it's this kind of game of like micro. Yeah, like it's like reading micro expressions and then getting furious at your teammates for not reading your micro expressions. I think if you're really like on the edge with the people that you're in quarantine with, I think this would tip you over.

Definitely. And that would be satisfying as a release. Yeah. And then it would maybe make you stronger. And I think that's what we've seen is people, you know, not talking to us for a couple of weeks. And then, you know, we go back to talking again. And honestly, when you do it well, there's no better feeling than like winning this game. You win, you're not competing against each other.

You're playing together to beat the game. And when you win, you feel superhuman. Oh yeah. It's only bad if you're bad. It only hurts. But everybody's kind of bad. Sure, sure. But like once, even just like with blind luck, you'll get it eventually.

And then you'll feel like you have superpowers. Superpowers. Next game, Bogle is a classic. I feel like people don't talk about it enough. I think it's such a satisfying game. It's great for two people or more people. Honestly, I feel like you could even. I don't know if this sounds sad, but you could even do it by yourself and just sort of like as an entertaining way to like work your brain, you know, see how many word you can get.

But Boggle, it's just a classic, great, fun way to spend an evening. And it's compact. They've done a really good job, a little timer in the box, everything's in the, everything's set. For sure. And then Moniker, which is like salad bowl. I don't know. I just recently heard about salad bowl. but if you live with four people or you're potting with four or more,

it is, I think, the most fun game on the planet. It's like combines like charades, taboo. Basically, you put it, you, moniker has all of the like celebrities and things and phrases already in it so you don't need to come up with them, but with salad bowl, you come up with them. And then in the first round, you can describe them using any words you want. And in the second round, you put them all back in and you have to describe them with or like get people to guess them using just charades so no words at all and then in the third round

you get one word and it's really funny because you just sit there and you're saying like queen queen the crown the crown queen and then they're saying the crown and you're just like you're stupid why don't you know from this one word and you can just say queen over and over and over again it's really fun it wasn't the crown i don't know it was an exam it was probably the crown it was probably the crown I love the crowd so much. That's what we're going to do when this is done recording. But yeah, it's a really, really, really fun game. And I just think games, the nights that we play games,

instead of just watching TV, I feel closer to you. I feel less depressed about my life. Games are like the gift that keeps on giving, I think. Absolutely. The other gift that keeps on giving is working out, which we talked about earlier. You would not be offended by a workout gift. I don't think I would be either.

So my two favorite workout-y-type gifts are actual like, subscriptions to things. I feel like we get really caught up in the gear side of things, but you don't really need that much gear to do a good workout. And I think it's more fun to give somebody the ability to do the workout. So the two I've loved is Megan Roup. She has a thing called the Sculp Society. They're amazing workouts. So I think a subscription to that, they're sort of like Pilates meets dance. And they really make your butt sore in a good way. I feel like my butt's gotten like very I know I say I work out for my mental health and that is the primary reason I do it for my mental health and my energy but there's always a part of me and it's like I hope this

makes my butt look cute and I feel like these workouts do do that well I think your butt's always cute but I do think mental health can sometimes be tied to having a cute and then rachel's good eats she has a rachel devaux has a good sweat at home program it's a bunch of workouts tips tricks, stretches, all of that. I love Rachel's workouts, and she has a ton of free ones on Instagram that are phenomenal. If you go to at Rachel's Good Eats,

but if you want to support her or to get just sort of more of an in-depth workout plan, I think her good sweat at home is incredible. All right. Now we're going to the kitchen. You're going to like this one. Okay. Hit me.

What kitchen thing? It's not even a kitchen thing. What have I gotten that has changed my life this year that costs like less than that. $30 that I talk about every single day. It's changed my hydration particularly. Oh my God. Your gosh darn sippy cup.

Which you call a sippy cup, but is really a, it's like a strawed thermos beverage container. I have it written on here as sippy cup. Right. Do you think that makes it more or less appealing? Depends who you're talking to. My simple modern sippy cup. So they sell it at Target.

It's 2499. It keeps like hot beverages hot, which I wouldn't use because the straw is plastic. But you could put a metal straw in there if you want to put a metal straw in there. I'm looking for a very long metal straw to replace it with, which would also be a really wonderful stocking stuff. I think we have a couple like gold ones. Long ones? Yeah. Okay.

You could replace that, but then the inside is all metal. And then the top is plastic to you, but your water isn't going to be touching the top. And something about having a straw to drink out of. And it fits really nice in your hand. and it fits perfectly in a cup holder too. And it makes your water, it keeps it like just at the exact perfect temperature. It tastes really crisp and clean and cool. And I have drinking 45 times more water since I've gotten this Sippy Cup every day.

Like 45 times more water a day. I am just water now. I am a water human. And it has changed my life. I found this on TikTok. It was in a TikTok from somebody being like, this product changed my life. All the supermodels, I guess, drink from it.

And it's this chick who, like, was a photographer for supermodels. And they were all going on about their sippy cups on set. And she was like, it's just a freaking cup. Like, why are you guys all talking about this sippy cups so much? Quit calling it a sippy cup. Supermodels. And then she got one. And she's like, no, it's actually life changing.

And I'm here to say that it is life changing. And it comes in all sorts of cute designs. So if you go to the actual symbol modern website, they have a zillion different ones. And then if you go to Target, they have, like, like a few, but less so, and they're just wonderful. Like, I just feel so hydrated. And it's just, I think it's such a cute present. And it'll actually, and then they'll think of you every time they drink water, you know,

which should be a lot. Sure. You know, regularly. Well, with a sippy cup. With the sippy cup. Yeah, what would have been before? Okay, next kitchen gift. The Vitamix food processor.

This is a game, like, if you already have a Vitamix, the Vitamix is like kind of on my perennial Christmas or holiday. list because I think it's one of the best things you can spend money on in a kitchen. But the food processor I've been testing recently, I made nut butter with it yesterday, and it made the nut butter in like a minute. It normally takes like 10 minutes to make nut butter. It literally blew my mind. It blew my mind. I called Zach over and it's like, Zach, look at this nut butter. Like, it had no right to be that creamy that quickly. I didn't really look at it. You just like shoved a forkful of it in my mouth and I was like,

it's good. It's really good butter. It's crazy. And I've been looking for a food processor that I actually like for a long time. I've tested a bunch of them for my job because I was looking for one to recommend. And I've always kind of recommended food processors, but recommended them with like a caveat. Like this isn't my favorite, but it's the best I found. It's the best that's available. And this is the first one I would recommend without a caveat.

One, it's so cool that you don't need to get a new base if you already have a Vitamix. So like saving that space. But two, we broke like every one of our. food processors. That's very kind of you to say. You broke so many of my food processors. So I went through a phase of, um, we don't have a standing mixer, but I was really into making pizza dough. And if you read online, like, how do you make pizza dough without a standing mixer? But you're too much of a lazy bum to, you know, do all the work with your hands. It was like, just throw it in your, you know, quezon art or whatever it is. And then he broke. And I would tell you. And I would tell,

you that it will definitely shatter the plastic of the models that we had. So, yeah. How's the sound on it? I didn't listen. I didn't hear it. People online say it's loud, but I actually thought it was really quite, but we've also been using that teeny quezon art.

It sounds like a... It sounds like banshee children screaming. Yeah, it does. It literally sounds, it's the most, the baby queesan art. One, it has terrible reviews online, but if you need a tiny food processor, it's literally kind of the only option that's available. And we've been traveling and needed a food processor, it deserves all of its terrible abuse. It's so bad.

The noise is excruciating. Yeah, our cat literally run and hides. I go follow the cat. Like we're both under the bed together being like one with the stop. It's so bad. The other kind of kitchen tool gift that I think would be really fun is the material knife set. I got this for your mother last year for the holidays. It's three knives. It's the only kind of three knives you need. It's a chef's knife, a serrated knife, and a paring knife. And they're beautifully made super high quality. Chefs love them. It's a really like chef forward, chef designed by company. It was really nice to replace like the 30 dull knives that have been collecting for the last three decades with those three knives. And it's also kind of nice to realize like you literally only need those three knives.

You need a chef's knife, a serrated knife and a parry knife. And like there's not knives you need outside of that unless you're doing some very specialty weird kitchen stuff. I like a vegetable cleaver, but that's it's like almost like when was the last time you used a vegetable cleaver sack well when we used to have one where did that go it's in the storage unit right so you've clearly been fine without it for like a lot of cooked and were you cleaving vegetables when we had it oh absolutely all right i like to have people throw vegetables at me and i just like you know right through the air this next one is a great gift for a partner if your partner is zach it is a san francisco style sourdose starter from for health. It's $11 and you can make tangy San Francisco style sourdough bread at home.

Zach, why don't you tell us about sourdough bread? It's delicious. So Zach got into a sourdough like I mean, I feel like everybody kind of went through a sourdough face in quarantine. And if you haven't, you've read like the million articles who've been like, oh, these idiots are making sourdough all the time. That was one of them. I am still one. He's still one of them. But it's really brought a lot like one I think it's been cool for you you it's I don't want to call it like a hobby but it is a hobby like you're learning to perfect it you're researching articles about it you're trying out different techniques so it really gives you a lot to do in that realm and then for me I get to eat it all sure it's a great way to produce bread and um I think it'd be a really fun gift for a partner that

you live with if you want to eat bread yeah if you're into bread I am so into No but like I think If into bread was a category that we chose like winners Or if we did superlatives for our life Like you did in high school when you were like best eyes Best couple most likely you succeed Like Into Bread would be like my superlative

Was that in your yearbook? No I was Best Eyes thank you very much I'm so proud of that That's a win It was a big win I also went to a huge And I can see why I think my graduating class is like a thousand people too I went to a huge high school

So like, oh, and that's a sweet compliment. But so to be best anything, they're like eight best people and a graduating class of a thousand was pretty special. I would have taken. And during high school, I don't know if this was a boon to my success as best eyes or not. I was definitely doing that like all black rimmed eyeliner, you know, like the heavy city smoky eye situation too. But yeah, I think I think a sourdough starter like would you? just be a really fun gift. And then, you know, maybe you could pick up a sourdough cookbook or pull a few sourdough

recipes from online. You like the King Arthur once a lot, right? Absolutely. Yeah. King Arthur has a bunch. And honestly, what I would encourage everybody to remember is that the, well, the bread could be like a pain to make. Because it can be a little bit finicky to get it correct.

Right. It's just right. And there's tips. And it's a bit more of a hobby. At least for me, if you're really good at it, go to hell. but there's so many other things you can make with sour dough that are also like really fun. Like we're making like like scaly and pancakes. Yes.

Like yeah, pancakes and waffles like scalyon pancakes. Your crumpets. I'm going to make, I was going to make dinner rolls. Oh yeah. Yeah. I found a dinner roll recipe on King Arthur or it was served to me like by predictive content because that's how the internet identifies me these days. I send it to you in your sleep. No, no, no.

Google was like, you want this. And I was like, yeah. Yes, I do. But I just think it would be, yeah, so there's a lot of stuff you can do even if you don't want to do bread. And then if you do want to do bread, you can experiment with it. And I think that the fun is in the process. Like the fun is like not having the most perfect loaf every time, but being like,

I'm going to try this out. I'm going to try this technique. I'm going to try it. Zach makes a rye cardamom one that is literally the best thing I've ever in my entire life. So you can try different sort of flavors and flowers. And I just think it would be a ton of fun. I also think it will help you appreciate your local bakery. better. I feel like I sit around like underestimating how much work goes into a good loaf of bread.

And then you try to make it. And then you make it. You feel so good. It's like the food equivalent of the mind. And then the mind being the terrible game that we talk about with. And then you're like, wow. Like these people are real pros. They're real pros. You already know that I love my Garden of life products. The mood plus probiotic is my absolute favorite and I use the grass-fed collagen all the time in my smoothies. But ever since I interviewed Aviva Rom for the Ask the Doctor hormone edition episode of the podcast, I've been trying to get serious about incorporating a fish oil supplement into my diet since we talked about how important it was for women's hormones and mood in general. I chose to use the Garden of Life doctor formulated advanced

omega for a few reasons. It's a high potency, 1,2 milligram omega-3 formula containing EPA, DHA, and DPA. It's made from sustainably sourced anchovy that's non-GMO project verified and includes specialized pro-resolving mediators, compounds that naturally support normal inflammatory responses in the body. The capsules are lemon flavored and I can attest to the fact that they don't give you any fish burbs. I actually really hate the taste of seafood, weird fact about me, so I need a product that doesn't leave a fish taste in my mouth at all and these definitely don't. Finally, they're certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council, an independent nonprofit organization which sets the standard for sustainable fishing.

They also donate 1% of sales from the product to ocean cleanup and preservation efforts, and they purchase 100% certified renewable energy to match 100% of their manufacturing and headquarters electricity consumption, which is so cool. Basically, I love the values behind this product, and I love the product itself. I've been taking it for a few months now, and I highly recommend it. I'll leave a link to the doctor formulated advanced omega in the show notes. When you buy it with my link, it doesn't cost you anything extra and it tells Garden of Life where you found it. If you've been looking for a fish oil, I highly recommend this one.

Now, let's get back to the episode. Okay, next step is different than food. So here's the caveat. I really want a Dyson air wrap. Do you know what that is? I do not. It's like a blow dryer curling iron made by Dyson. So Dyson's kind of gotten into the hair tool game.

Oh, Dyson. Dyson is just, they just want to own air. They really want to own air. It's such an interesting category. They probably. They do, I guess. They own air. Impliance standpoint.

Can air be owned? Well, that's a capitalism question for you. But so they have this thing called an air wrap. It's wonderful. Every single friend I have who has it and every beauty editor I know who has tested it loves it. It's highly recommended. It's a really great product. It blowdrise your hair without damaging it.

It curls it. while it blowdrys it, it's also like $400. It is so expensive. So if you are like me or you know somebody like me who maybe wants that, but it's a little bit out of the price range, there's this thing called the Revlon one step hair dryer. And it's kind of like the dupe for that. It makes you have really sleek, really beautiful hair really quickly. It's kind of like a blowdry brush for your hair. And I think it's a great alternative if you know somebody who wants the air up, but perhaps you don't want to quite get up into that price range. Although if you know anybody's back who wants to get up into that price range, I am interested in an air app. I'll reach out to people I know.

Okay, great. But it really, I've, I've used this Revlon one for upwards of six months now, and I absolutely love it. You can get a lot of really great effects with kind of curling the hair as you go down, and then you can also just sort of blow dry it out straight. And I don't know, I think my hair's looked really good. It has. It's also fun to do with me because I get to like walk in the bathroom and go, what is that? That looks like things I'm kind of familiar. It's like proximate to a lot of things, but it looks like its own weird thing. It looks like its own weird thing. I actually have more food stuff. Let's do one more like beauty type thing and then I'll go back into food stuff. Okay. So there's this company called Kindred Black and it does really eco-conscious.

It's a small business that does really eco-conscious beautiful beauty products, vintage products. vintage products, all this types of stuff. And they have these oils. And they're in these gorgeous, like old apothecary bottles. Like it looks like you walked into an apothecary in the oldy days. But they're just stunning. They're like green glass and blue glass and orange glass with little stoppers on them. And they're expensive. I will, you know, say that. But I think if you're looking for sort of a very luxury feeling gift that is from a small business that feels. is a little bit unique, a little bit special. It's not like the sort of same Sunday Riley thing that everybody is getting for everybody.

Kindred Black is amazing. So they have a ton of different kinds. They have a tranquility oil that's made with chamomile and peppermint, and it smells insane. And I think it would be really fun to do this for a partner. You could gift the tranquility oil, which you can use for massage with like a little note promising your partner a massage. And then you could make it a really special experience, like what you would get at a high-end spa like light candles and why you laughing? I am not laughing at you. I was literally laughing

to joke in my head that I was planning on making in a second. Oh, go ahead and make it. No, it's okay. No, you have to make it now. Well, I just, you know, it's kind of like the one of the best ways to do experiential gifts in, you know, the if you're, if you're kind of locked down at home or whatever and you have to be else there is you look like the little coupon books. Like, you know, like the little like coupon pack of like I think the coupon books are cool. But I think the thing about the coupon books is they get overwhelming because you're just like I don't want to do like 20 things for you.

And then like people don't redeem them. But I think it's like a single coupon. Yeah. It's a coupon. Coupon. Coupon. I think it's sweet. It's super sweet.

And I would kill for a massage right now. Oh my God. I would literally do so much for a massage right now. Nothing you know that I could be arrested for. But like I would. Right up to the line. Right up to the line, I would love one. And so, like, I think, and really committing in that coupon style, like, you get an actual hour massage, there's candles, there's a sheet, you drape, you know. But to really commit to the coupon, you need to make a physical object that, you know, I like my coupons with, like, glitter, like bedazzled a little bit, like big spirally handwriting.

An expiration date, I think is really important to all coupons because it really forces. Do you actually say coupons? Because I definitely say coupons. And it's weirded me out now there. See, do you act like if you went to the store to buy something with a coupon. We'll just let the internet to say. Now, do you say coupons? Is that?

I say coupon. It's sounding weirder the more you make you say it. Like, you believe coupon is the right thing to say. And you say coupon? Coupon. Coupon. It's sounding weirder to me now, too. Oh, yeah.

Coupon. I feel more confident in mine than I think you feel confident in yours. We'll need, if you've listened to this point, the episode, please come to my Instagram and tell me whether you think it's coupon. Maybe I'll do a poll if it's coupon or coupon. But that's kindred black, gorgeous oils. They have face oils, body oils, and they're just so elegant and beautiful. Pairs nice with a coupon.

Okay. This is your idea. National Parks passed. Why do you think that's a good idea is present? Well, because I don't know about you, but I found that parks. and hiking and natural locations have been a really nice balance. It's been like a really nice way to, especially being like not going the busiest flipping times.

It's like a really nice way of getting outside, doing something actually like feeling like you're, you know, living your life or taking, you know, a kind of small vacationy type of thing while still being able to maintain some distance, don't being able to stay outside. You know, it's relatively responsible. I think hiking and stuff like that is a relatively responsible way to interact with the world these days. And they're shockingly affordable. Do you remember it was like $89? Yeah.

Yeah, it's $89. It's like $80 for the year. You know, if you're of a certain age, it's $80 for the rest of your life. My dad has that. He's really proud of it. I think he was disappointed when we bought our own National Parks pass this year because he like was like, oh, I'm your in for the National Parks. I got you, fam. Yeah, got you fam.

He was really sad. But yeah, I think a National Park Pass, it's experiential, but it's like a physical gift, too. And I think that's a nice. It's a card. It's a card. And I think that's a nice combo. Speaking of experiential and physical as well, this is, I thought this was a cool idea. So there's this company called Taylor Ray.

It's a small woman-owned business. And they make the most beautiful cheeseboard platters that I've ever seen. They're like wooden platters and they're dipped in resin. So they have like, it almost looks like a white or blue like ocean, but it's halfway up the board. They're indescribably gorgeous, honestly. They're so beautiful. So it's Kayla Ray, and I think it'd be really fun to create like a cheeseboard package to send to somebody. So you get the cheeseboard platter, so from Kayla Ray or somebody else. And then you package it with some fancy crackers, maybe some homemade of my quick candied healthy nuts with the maple syrup.

I have the recipe on my Instagram if you want it and maybe some nice cheeses, like all the fixins for a cheeseboard and then you package it all up and give it to them. I love that. That's actually, it's like the, like the upscale version of like the Harry and David, you know, like baskets of yeah. Yeah. Like Christmas stuff. I like home-made. Yeah. And I think there's so many different popcorn. Different. There's many different directions you can go to the cheeseboards up and you can make it a little customized. And I just think it'd be really, really fun. And those are really pretty cheeseboards. Some other sort of like nice food type gifts. Zach has this pour over coffee that we always get comments on when we're on Instagram when I show him making coffee on

Instagram. And I think it's a really great way to add a ritual into a person's life. And I think gifting somebody the ability to have a ritual is one of the most special things you can gift somebody. So do you want to talk about your pour over coffee first thing? Sure. Yeah. I mean, I, a while ago, got into pouring my coffee, pouring hot water over coffee into craft because I was looking at coffee pots and I was trying to find ones without plastic. Yeah. And I spent a lot of time being like, oh, maybe I should just make a coffee pot. Didn't you prototype one at one point? I feel like you did. Yeah. And now... Do you want to know it's act as for fun?

This is like a number year ago. And I still don't think they really exist out there. So if you figure out a way. But why do they need to? And this is a very. so good. Well, and that's what I decided is, is, you know, and we've, I've had like a Kim X, some other stuff, but I really like the Haribo, Heribo. I think it's Hario. Hario. H-A-R-I-O. Well, you wrote it down, so you just tell me. That's what I have written down. Haribo's the gummy candy. The Bears, and they don't make a porover, but that's what I was thinking. It wouldn't be very structurally sound. Yeah, the Hario, Horeover, they have been all different colors and actually materials.

I had one for camping that was like, they make a copper one, I think. Cool. But I have like a white ceramic one over just a glass base. And it's pretty. Yeah, it's pretty.

It's, um, I actually got into a chat with, with a buddy about like, do you get one that's insulated? Do you get one that's not? And I go for like the pure glass, but it's flame proof.

So you can put it on your stove and reheated and kind of adjust the temperature. And what you do like all day? I do. I do. I'm happy, happy to do it all day. Or at ice. Why not? Or are you at it?

So, yeah, and then, you know, pair that with good on ground, good, good whole beans, like a good, I like a good dark roast. I mean, I'm a big fan of like, you know, like the Pete's coffee, you're getting a French roast or whatever, and then actually, you know, grinding it that moment, getting a fresh grind. Delicious. I mean, and I think it's just such a lovely way. Like, I don't drink coffee, as most of the people listening probably know, but I still actually really like making you your coffee because I just think it's a really beautiful

ritual. It's a very calming, peaceful. It has the smell. It has the sight. It's just like a very nice way to start your day. So I think putting people into that ritualized mindset is really nice. And then if you don't drink coffee and you want to have a little fun, Hario also makes a cold brew tea container, which is so chic. Oh, that's Hario too. The one you have? Yeah. I love this. It's so chic. It's made of glass. You put your tea leaves in and then it cold, steeps. for six hours, 12 hours. I just kind of leave the tea in until I drink it, but I do a minimum of six hours. And then you pour it out and it has a filter in the top.

And you could heat it up at that point, honestly, too, if you want a warmer drink in the winter. But if you just kind of want a way to drink water, but it tastes a little better, I find it just a nice way to make flavored water throughout the day. It's like the sippy cup of tea. And I think packaging that with some really nice teas, I love Wosh Wellness, which is a small woman own business. Juniper Ridge, as I mentioned before, makes phenomenal teas. And then Vana Tizans makes incredible teas. I like to use them for caffeine-free teas because I can't drink caffeine, as I mentioned. And I also find that when you do a caffeine-free blend, you can let it steep basically

forever without having to worry about getting too much caffeine or oversteeping it. Yeah, you really like one summer this year because Liz would trot out these like cold, delicious teas at like random times It was really hot out. It was the main thing. Yeah. It's really, it's like just a fun way to make water taste delicious. So that's the Hario Cold Brew tea container and I highly recommend it. So this is basically what you want this year for Christmas, which is like gifts that enable nature adventures.

So you want a lot of camping gear and stuff like that. And then also this was on your list, but we bought it for ourselves, which is the retrospect weekender paddleboard. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So retrospect is this very cool company. all of their stuff is incredibly designed. It's just very chic and cool looking, but their prices are insane.

Like they have bikes for $300,400 or something, which is crazy for a bike. It's obviously a lot of money in general, but for a bike. And then they have paddle boards for $2.99, for $300, basically, which the only other place you can get a paddleboard for that price is Costco. And this one is, I think, from all the research that I did a better quality, and it's certainly much chicer looking. and it's a really high quality paddle board,

but it's one of those places like cuts out the middlemen. It cuts out brick and mortar stores, blah, blah, so that they can be a small business, ship it directly to you and have you pay lower prices. To be clear, and just to clarify,

it is an inflatable paddle board, which is a class of paddle board, right? Yeah, yeah, and one of the things that's really cool about is it compresses into a backpack. It's not the smallest backpack, but it is backpackable. Yes.

So you can like, you know, take it down too late. Yeah, you can like drive to your apartment. parking spot, pop this bad boy on there, hike to your body of water. And then get in. We like a river.

Lake, river, whatever you want. Anything that enables nature activities is like great. Like sleeping bags, camping gear, this, the bikes that retrospect sells to. I do think in terms, like camping, Kim, we're asking for camping gear and stuff like that this year for the holidays for people who want to get us physical presents, even though we always discourage that. But Zach's mom is always like, no, I want to. get you physical present.

We're like, okay. But she's going to probably end up getting a camping gear. My mom is the same where she just likes to like be traditional in that way. But I feel like the retrospect stuff is nice because it feels like giftable because it looks sort of wow worthy out of the package. Whereas a tent or a sleeping bag or something like that doesn't have that same sort of like wow factor, which is why. And it might be like a like a look, a bit of a luxury good that you might not jump, jump

themselves. Yeah. So we have it. We love it completely. Just a few more at home things. Silk pillowcases game changer. I have a skincare podcast coming up and silk pillowcases were one of the few parts of my skincare routine that she didn't absolutely blow up and tell me I was doing wrong. And they've done wonders for my hair. They've made Zach's hair look beautiful. And it's just, again, it's making those things in our lives that we have in our home that we do in our daily life. It's upgrading them a little bit and making them feel more luxurious. So silk pillowcases are great for your skin. They're great for your hair, and they also just feel really nice.

I picked one from a brand called Upstate. It's a small business in New York, and this is a galaxy silk pillowcase. It's kind of tie-dye. Galaxy. It looks really, really cool. And I just think that's a really fun way to upgrade your daily life. And similar to that is my kimono, which is a recent purchase in my life, my Mason-Gray kimono. it's the softest, comfiest robe.

It's, I just, I like to get up and swan about in it. And I just feel really cool and elegant. And I feel like we're in a time where you want your loungeware to make you feel good. You want it to make you feel pretty. You want it to be soft and cozy and comfortable. And Mason Gray does the best loungeware that's, it's just buttery soft and the most beautiful fabrics in print. Yeah, it's like a very nice, elegant cotton. robe.

And, well, and then they have these nightgowns, and they call them nightgowns, but literally their dresses, but they're made of, like, soft nightgown material. You know that blue kind of like tie-dye dress that I have? And I wear it with my star jacket. Yes. That's a nightgown, but it's so soft. You can, like, wear it out in public or, but it's actually soft and cozy enough that you could sleep in it.

So that whole, everything that company does, they do sweatsuits. If you're interested in a sweatsuit. You know I am. And they do these kimonos and they do these nightgowns. And it's just a really fabulous woman-owned small brand. I believe there's just like two women doing all of it, which is incredible. Yeah. Then I have some books.

But the last thing I have before books is what I'm calling a calm kit. This has been a mildly stressful year. And I think putting together a little basket of calming focused items is a really fun idea. So for me, that would be CBD. You know I love my Kyoto Botanicals. I have a code for them that's healthier together, I think, for 25% off. But they're my favorite CBD. I tried like 40 million CBDs before I finally found one that I love and work with.

So I do a little bottle of CBD. I do some like lavender essential oil. I would do a weighted eye mask, just like one of those sort of like lavender weighted eye mask. There's some really good ones at anthropology. If you look at anthropology. And then maybe some like Epson salts. And I'd package it up all cute together. And the idea would be like when you have stress, just like go to this.

And this could be your go-to little stress relief kit. I would take that kid. Maybe some cookies. Yeah. Yeah. Like make some BHCs. Throw them in there as well, best healthy cookies. Luthamody.com slash best.

slash BHC. Is it really? You've made BHC for me? Did you actually? I'm going to test that. I'll be real disappointed if it doesn't. That's cool. Yeah, I'd make some like chocolate chip cookies, throw them in there, and I just feel like a little stress relief.

It would just make me feel really loved and seen and taking care of. All right, let's talk about some books. We're big book gift givers in this house for sure. That's like a staple thing. So I have a few books this year. If you want cookbooks, the flavor equation by Nick Sharma. It is the new sort of J. Kenji Lopez alt book. It's the new salt fat acid heat.

It's the book for the person in your life who loves to cook but wants to learn more about the wise behind cooking and how it's all done and all of the science behind it. Nick is a, he's a chemist and he's a cook. Like he's a chemist by trade. He went to school in chemistry. And he's a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. He writes from New York Times all the time too. His first book was so beautiful.

One of my favorite books ever. It's sort of, he's Indian. and it's sort of Indian influence, but he doesn't just cook Indian cuisine. But this breaks down like what compounds in different things, give it an umami flavor and what compounds make it sweet and what happens to different foods texturally when you're cooking them or not cooking them. And it's just fascinating. It's like the kind of book you want to curl up in bed with and just learn from.

And so highly recommend for that really deep foody person in your life, the person who doesn't just like to cook but loves it. I mean, or just that deep information well person. That's a Zach gift for the Zach in your life. Oh, good. I already have it. So, sort it. That's the flavor equation by Nick Sharma.

And then we have the book Bakerita by my friend Rachel Connors. This is an incredible book. It's all gluten-free, dairy-free, refined sugar-free recipes. So the baker in your life who wants to have like a little bit of a healthier twist, highly recommend. And then simply Laura Lee, which is the new book by my friend Laura Lee. I feel like she cooks just like me. And I like that because I like to cook the way that I like to go for a reason.

She was on my panel from my book tour in Nashville. And she would like literally take my answers because we like we have the same secret ingredients we always like to use for our stuff. No, you like onion powder. No, you like onion powder. Yeah, it was literally that. And it was such a love fest. But her new book, it's a, it's a, it's a tone.

It's like a very big book. But it has so many really accessible. She's really big on cooking with ingredients that are affordable that everybody can find and making comfort food but making it really healthy. So highly recommend. And then also, I have to say my book because it'll be an anthropology right next to the lavender eye masks. Yeah, exactly. It's still an anthropology. You can still find it any bookstore. If you're new here, I wrote a book called Healthy Together. I feel like if anybody doesn't know that they're like, we got it, Liz. Like the podcast that we're listening to? It's called Healthy Together. And it's,

I think it's fun. I know a lot of people have been using it during this time where you can't see the people you love and they each get a copy of the book and then they cook through it together from far. And I think that's a really fun way to use the book during this time. I also think with any cookbook, it'd be really fun if you are living with somebody to do like a little date night in gift package. So you gift like a really yummy bottle of natural wine and the ingredients to make a recipe and the cookbook. So it's like all packaged together and you can plan an evening and make it sort of experiential in that way. I'm totally dead with groceries as gifts. And that's the hot take. It's the, especially the time saving.

It's just like it's the planning being done and you just have to show up. Absolutely. I think any gift you just have to show up for. And then a few other gifts I think would be really fun in the book realm. The Undocumented Americans is a phenomenal book by an actual undocumented, the first undocumented woman to graduate from Harvard, I believe. And she's really telling stories and essay form about undocumented people in the U.S. It's very thought-provoking. I think it would be a great book to start conversations.

The Vanishing Half by Britt Bennett was one of my favorite fiction picks this year. I absolutely loved it. Atomic Habits by James Clear, if you have sort of that self-help-minded person in your life, like the self-help people who don't like self-help per se. I think Atomic Habits is like, we're not gender stereotyping in this, but I think a lot of men would like it, a lot of women too, but it's a great book to kind of jumpstart somebody who wants a jumpstart.

It jumpstarted me a lot when I read it. You've been reading it and referring to it. Yeah. Well, I finished it a few months ago, and it really, it changed how I viewed my habits in my mornings. And then I have to shout out Tara's book. My friend Tara Shuster wrote a book called Buy Yourself, The Effing Lillies. And it's like the ultimate self-care book.

It's about how she's moved through a lot of traumatic experiences in her own life by building self-care routines that really, really work. And it's fun. It's witty. It's just a really great read. highly recommend it. Another podcast guest, Stephanie Danler, wrote a book called Shray. It is a beautiful memoir. It's like, it's about cheating and it's about open relationships and it's about childhood and becoming the way that we are. And it's just a very gripping read and will take your mind

out of this moment and into her life in a really beautiful way. Tara was also on the podcast. If you want to check out the Tar Shuster episode of Healthier Together, phenomenal. The Book of Longings by Sue Montkhead, one of the best fiction books that I read this year. It's about if Jesus had a wife, what her life would be like. We don't know. It's like an interesting, historically debated thing. Most people think that he didn't, obviously, but it would completely change the game if he did. And it's good, whether you're religious or not, I think it's a really enjoyable read.

It doesn't, you know, tear apart any beliefs that are foundational to religions, and it's pretty respectful of religion. but also you don't need to be religious in any way to enjoy it, which I'm not particularly religious, and I was nervous you had to be, but you don't. It's more historical than anything, and it's really, really beautiful. I think like a monk is another one, like atomic habits where I think for maybe less of a reader in your life, but if you want to get them a book that's inspiring, that will help jumpstart, inspire them, that's great. And then you did two sci-fi picks. I'll let you talk about them. Sci-fi. I feel like dudes love sci-fi. Again, I'm gendered. Why is the books the point where my gender normalizing stereotyping.

It's a good question. It's something you should work on. I should work on that. So you asked me for a book I read recently and then like a classic. And I responded both in the realm of general science fiction because I love science fiction and I think it's basically just like a way of exploring interesting philosophical concepts. And doing so by kind of giving.

permission to the author to kind of basically set up a world as they see fit to show and explore and prove those kind of concepts. So one I read this year was the space between worlds. I have it here in a pile of books that I've read and not read. By the 15 books that I got you. Yeah. It is by an apologies for the first name. Mackiah, Micaiah Johnson. we'll have it written. Oh, absolutely. The space between worlds, it's a really cool science fiction book that uses, it uses parallel universes to kind of discuss class differences. And it's, I found it powerful.

And like issues of racial inequity and stuff like that. Yeah, specifically issues of inequality. Yeah. And kind of like haves and haves not. have knots. I think it's a cool way to kind of have the conversations about a lot of the stuff that's happening in the world today. Like once you've sort of made it through the reading list of a lot of the stuff we were

all diving into earlier this year, if you want to keep having those conversations, but maybe keep them on in a different way. It's a cool way to do that. And a classic. And then the classic. It's like your all-time favorite sci-fi book, right? It is a foundational text, is Dune. and I bring it up, Frank Herbert's Dune,

I bring it up because they tried to make a movie about it back in the day that I think was generally considered to be me. And now one of Liz's favorite heroes is going to attempt to play the lead. I don't know if he's the lead. I don't know, I don't know the characters, but he's definitely in it. He's, he's. Yeah, you already, I guess you would understand the trailer more than I. Yeah, absolutely.

Timothy Salome. You don't know his name? No, I, I, I know. Oh my gosh. Say Sir, Sir, Shalhan. Zach still hasn't seen call me by your name, even though I've tried to make him watch it like five times. You have not seen it to completion. You fell asleep like three times watching it because I would like get, we'd go out to like a bar back when we did that.

And I would be like, call me by your names. Like, it would come up in conversation. This is exactly the problem. And from what I've seen the movie, it is fantastic. It is really a fantastic, beautiful movie. but often, you know, we would be out at a bar and Liz would be like, it's my favorite movie!

And then she'd bring us home at 2 a.m. put it on. And it is so hard to watch the first half of a movie three times in a row and then be like, all right. But you can't just jump in halfway. No, because you can't. You can't just jump in halfway. You have to reboot it. That'll be a maybe a December.

Also great movie. Hopefully everybody brings the same game to the Dune. To Dune. You know, why it's hard because everybody really hated the first one, so that's like a hard. Well, that should actually make it easier, I think. But like, yeah. The thing is, it's one of those books that matters to a lot of people. And it's, you know, it's going to upset people.

You do anything that people really care about and you try to make an artistic representation of it. It's going to upset people. But I hope that it's also celebrated. And I'm really excited about it. And if you haven't read the book or you know someone who plans on seeing the movie and they haven't read the book, get them the book. It's a great. It's a great book. It's a great book.

I also share a ton of book reviews on my Instagram all the time. I have a hashtag LM book reviews. So if you want more book recommendations, I'm talking about books literally constantly because I love books so much, which is why I bought my husband 15 books to work through this month. It's going well, people. It's going well. All right. So as I said at the beginning of the podcast, all of these links and everything like that

will be up on Liz Moody.com. And I'll also share swipe of links to all the products on my Instagram. and I'll talk about them on there. The show notes are going to be like, go here. I can put that. I don't know. We'll figure it out. There will be links, though.

So there's something that's out of intriguing and you'll be able to recognize it. But I also just, I like, you know, getting to spend this time with you and really talking you through the experiences behind everything and why I love everything. Like the cheeseboard link is just going to say, like, here's your cheeseboard link. And you, you listener, will be like, I'm going to serve that with the bacon nuts and some fancy crackers and make a little cheeseboard kit. So it's going to be. delicious. Thank you so much for hanging out with me. I hope that you have a really wonderful holiday. I hope that you're still feeling inspired and excited by the holidays. I know that the holidays

feel a little bit different this year, but I still think that we can find a lot of beauty. We can find new rituals. We can find new ways to celebrate, new ways to let the people in our lives that we love know that we love them. And I'm trying to be excited and galvanized by all of the potential magic of this season rather than focusing too much on what we're losing. Although, of course, you know, I recognize the sadness too, and I want to say to anybody who's feeling sad right now, like it's understandable and, you know, we can feel what we've lost and we can also feel what we've gained. And I think that all of those things can co-exist. So thank you for joining me, Zach. I'm excited to spend the holidays with you. I want to make a lot

of cookies. That's like my big holiday plan this year is to make a really bananas amount of cookies. Do you have anything you're excited about for the holidays? I am excited about consuming a banana's amount of cookies and I'm excited about, you know, doing the holidays in as safe of fashion as we possibly can this year. I'm excited about, you know, us all staying as safe as we can and basically taking the current situation as seriously as it needs to be. That's what you're excited about? Yeah, it is what I was having. And I guess it's been a long year of watching people not take stuff seriously or safely,

so maybe. Fingers crossed. Fingers crossed, for sure. And the smell of a Christmas tree. I'm excited to, like, have that smell in my house. All over that. I think that would be really nice. Yeah.

All right. So happy holidays to every single person that's listening. I love you. I so appreciate being a member. of our little HG fan. The mattress that you sleep on is one of the highest exposures that you have. Like, if it's off gassing, you're breathing that in for basically a third of your life. And most conventional mattresses are loaded with synthetic foams, flame retardants,

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