We Can Do Hard Things with Glennon Doyle - (BEST OF) Everyone Has a Beige Flag – What's Yours?

Episode Date: July 28, 2026

Remember Beige Flags? Today we’re celebrating the quirky little habits that aren't red flags or green flags—just delightfully... huh? In this laugh-out-loud Best Of, Glennon, Abby, and Amanda confess their own wonderfully weird behaviors, react to your funniest Beige Flags, and remind us that nobody is normal—and that's exactly what makes us lovable. - What Beige Flags are—and why everyone has them - Glennon's quest to finally feel "comfortable" - Why Abby sounds like she's from yonder yore (and answers banana phones) - Amanda's legendary collection of washed-out Ziploc bags - The funniest listener Beige Flags—and whether they're secretly red or green Follow We Can Do Hard Things on:  Instagram — ⁠https://www.instagram.com/wecandohardthings⁠

Hello, Pod Squad. Today we're bringing back one of my favorite kinds of episodes, the ones that remind us how weird and wonderful people are. It's a good time to remember that. All right, y'all, you remember beige flags? A few years ago, the internet couldn't stop talking about this idea. We all knew about red flags, the things that make you run. We knew about green flags, the things that make you stay. But beige flags? Bege flags are the quirky little habits in other people that make you pause, tilt, your head and think, huh, that's interesting. Not good, not bad, just delightfully or disconcertingly baffling. The thing about loving people is that eventually you realize nobody is normal. There is no normal. Every single one of us is out here doing something deeply strange and acting like it's completely reasonable. These are beige flags. In this episode, Abby Amanda and I confess our own beige flags. You'll learn why I change clothes approximately 17 times a day in pursuit of the mythical state known as comfortable that other people seem to be in and I never am. We also talk about why Amanda has never met a Ziploc bag. She couldn't re-wash, re-rewash, re-rewash,

and save for later. And why Abby occasionally sounds like she arrived here directly from the 1800s. And then my favorite part, we read your beige flags, which remains some of the funniest things we have ever heard, including one that reminds me of Abby's own secret talent, turning random objects into phones like bananas. This conversation is bananas. It's ridiculous, joyful, and exactly the kind of reminder I need right now that beneath all the seriousness of being human, we are also just wonderfully weird little creatures trying our best. So let's celebrate the quirks today, the oddities, the beige flags. Please enjoy. Welcome to We Can Do Hard Things. I'm already giggling today.

We are going to discuss today with you, our beloved pod squad, the phenomenon, the trend of beige flags in relationships. Now, the idea of beige flags is something that has gained momentum on the TikTok probably nine months ago since we have now heard of it. It is now a past tense trend. Right, right. It was a trend. The idea of a beige flag is you're in a relationship, whether it's a friendship, I think we're mostly discussing romantic relationships today. And you're watching the other person. You're monitoring, you're observing, you're getting to know this other person.

Sometimes there are red flags. Okay. So a red flag might be if like your partner is Shady McShaderton like taking phone calls in the other room doing, you know, problematic things, red flags. Green flags are things you're noticing your person is doing that are lovely and signal like this person might be great in a relationship. thoughtful things, green flags, go, go, go. And then there are beige flags. My idea of a beige flag and then I can see Sister's face and what I think she's bursting at the seams to do, my guess would be that she's about to ruin beige flags for us

by giving us the historical context of beige flags, which would be Sissy's beige flag. Everything for the feelers out there. In the New York Times article, they described it as a beige flag is simply something that would cause someone to take a three second pause and then continue the relationship. It's just a weird thing, a unique thing. Sissy, where did this idea of beige flags come from? Well, so I first heard it when we were talking to Logan Yuri in episode 219, where she was talking about it specifically. in the context of online dating profiles. And apparently that is in 2002, this woman, Caitlin McPhail, on TikTok, she invented this term beige flags. The original definition was when people lean into specifically online dating profiles, these generic things that are like, I like petting puppies. I like. I like. working out. It's this kind of thing that it doesn't offer any special information about the person.

It's boring. It's boring. But it's, I feel like boring. Plenty of people are authentically boring. And I feel like that's great. Own your boring. But for me, it kind of feels like it's like mealy. You know, like a mealy apple. You might not like apples, but either be an apple or don't be an apple. But don't be a mealy soft apple. I kind of see beige flags. is a little bit like not, there's no meaning to it. It's just like weird, quirky things that people do that maybe you've done your whole life that make them you, but like there's no like additive or negative value to it. But it didn't start that way.

It started specifically as not quirky, not interesting, not idiosyncratic. It started as people trying to be as unobjectionable. in their dating profiles as possible. So if you listen to episode 219, what Logan's saying is you actually aren't trying to be everything for everyone. You are trying to just be the thing for the person who's supposed to be with you. So pleasing everyone fails everyone, including yourself. Because you're actually trying to weed people out by being your quirky self. So that's how Bej flag started in 2022 was just this mealy-ass boring thing. And then people, kind of, you know, took the flag and ran with it and made it into...

It's not the thing that most attracts me about the person. It's not the thing that repels me from the person. It's the thing that I just go, huh. You do that thing. And I can't really tell whether I should be compelled or repelled by that. It's just a real, is a real interesting thing. Well, I like this definition better because the first one is just kind of like, I don't know, Boring. Okay, here we go. Bage flags. We like to offer ourselves up first. So Abby and I did sit this

morning and try to figure out beige flags for each other. And I will tell you, it's tricky. It is tricky to think of things about your partner or your friends that are not red or green, that are not good or bad, that you don't love or dislike because you came up with like a ton of things And I was like, no, those are red flags. Yeah. Okay. But we did come up with a couple. And then we have tons for that we have gotten from the TikTok.

Yes. But we haven't seen them. So we asked Audrey from our team to go through and find what the TikTok was saying about the beige flags. Because we wanted to see them for the first time on this to see if they are funny or make. make us scared. I have one for Abby. When we were first together, and I read her first book

for some background to look for red flags. I noticed this weird thing and I thought, this is so weird. Her editor must be really into like old fashioned language. Because it was almost like every once in a while you'd be reading a modern story about soccer and then there'd be like a

victim. Victorian word thrown in or something. And it just, and I was like, this editor is so weird. Like, why didn't they, oh, no, no, no. That's just how Abby talks. It is as if she has been her, in her past life, she was in the, in a Victorian, like, like, one of those lace necks. Or maybe you were in a suit. I don't know.

But it'll be in the middle of a sentence. And she'll be like, get in the car. We have to go to. to soccer. Like, go with. It will just come out. And I'm like, did you just say go with? Like, it's as if when the program was changed to her new life, they forgot. It was a glitch in the system and there's some old Victorian language. They didn't update her settings. Yeah, they didn't. Like, we still have the Victorian fun. All day, I've told you. And here to four, you have not listened to me. Yeah. Exactly. I think it might be some sort of like need to feel

smarter and I think that going into Victorian mode gives me this worldly sense. I don't know. Also, we can say Victorian and I'm not even sure that's correct. Oh, we don't know. We don't know. We mean a time before now. Yonder Yore. She sounds like she's from yonder yore, okay?

What I would say is that that does not feel like a red flag to me. It sure as hell doesn't feel like a green flag, but it makes me pause. and go, huh, it's quirky. Yeah. It's quirky. It's cute. I have a John. Oh, good.

John's beige flag is that he deep cleans every item in hot water and soap before he puts it in the recycling bed. And I'm just, it is, I just, hmm. Because I think to myself, I think self, this is ostensibly. for the environment, but is 16 gallons of hot potable water to rinse out a yogurt cup really on balance best for the environment? I'm going to back John up right now because he knows something that I just learned the other day. When you put something in the recycling bin and it is not clean, they throw it in the trash. Again, I say to you, you're telling me the 16 gallons of hot, drinkable water that people need throughout the universe.

I can't speak to that. The math on that is correct for the earth? I'd like to ask the earth. Would you rather have this recycled? Would you rather not waste 16 gallons of hot, quotable water? Remember when John got all of his shirts dry cleaned and pressed and like starch and all the things in order to donate them? It was so sweet. I know.

He's very serious about this. I like that about John. I have another beige flag for you. Okay. So you have a tendency to like change your clothes 10, 12 times a day sometimes. That is true. And her beige flag, I could actually care less if she changes her clothes that much. Her beige flag is when she comes in and she asks me, do I look comfortable?

And I say, I don't know if I can answer that. Like, are you comfortable? This is a woman who knows herself. This is an embodied woman. Do I look like I feel comfortable in my skin? That's exactly right. I'm sorry to ask, but do I appear about an apologetic? Oh, my God.

My whole life, I'm just trying to get comfortable. And by the way, I need the Potswit to understand. I'm never going anywhere. Like, I change, and I think 12 might be... Like four times a day. Like four or five times. Okay. For sure.

That's four more times than I change a day. Well, and you're probably also going places. Like, you leave the house a lot more than I do. I, all those changes are just, I don't know, I'm just trying to make it through the day. I'm just trying to get comfortable. You're like, I'm one outfit change away from being comfortable in my skin. If I put on this sweater, this is going to do it. It's always just a sweater, a sweatshirt, a different tank top, a different shorts.

And if I get confirmation from my wife that I look comfortable, then I am. Yeah. That is where her truth lies. Because I'm going to come to comfortable in this lifetime. Do I have beige flags or do my badge flags? We did think of one for you this morning. And that is your commitment to saving things as if you experienced the Great Depression yourself. Okay.

It's amazing. I've never known somebody to save. like the amount that's at the end of your Parmesan cheese bottle. And I'm like, oh, she just put it back. She didn't want to throw it out. No, no, no. She was going to use those 10 measly crumbs on something. Or when she used to drink wine and we would open up our refrigerator in the morning,

an entire wine glass would splash out because she had put a half drink glass of wine into the... Into the door. You know, the door part where it's very movable. Or she'll go to like a sporting event and like she'll have cool seats and they will have a buffet of food that she gets. So she takes food home. It's like Ross from friends how he takes all this stuff in the hotel room. Do you do that? Oh my God.

Abby, in her upstairs closet. Next time we go to her house, you're going to go upstairs. You're going to go to the little closet between her room and Bobby's room. It's not okay. All right. If a whole entire army of Smurfs came to her house, they would have enough shampoo and conditioner for a generation. Because she has so many small bottles. What are you doing now that? What are you saving it for?

Well, the hotels now are doing like the bigger bottles where you have to squeeze it into your hand. Like, are you, you bring it home and zip-up back to-off forever? I'm upset. Remember when I was moving and I thought you were going to have an intervention with me because you found my drawer. of washed out Ziploc bags. Oh my God. You were actually so upset about it. You were so upset.

Washed out Ziploc bags to reuse them. I mean, I don't know. I think we may have crossed over to Red Flag. No, I mean, look, that's what she likes. Who fucking cares? It's not her to know us. I care a little bit. And it's also kind of saving the fucking environment.

Like, I actually appreciate that. I got to make up for all that water that my husband uses. I want to be the kind of person in some ways. I do not. that like wants to feel like I should wash out the zip lock bags. I'll tell you what? It saves a lot of money when, you know, speaking of trends, you're like, oh, now we're doing high-rise jeans.

So now, well, don't worry, because I still have my jeans from 23 years ago. I'll just put them back on. If that's not true, that is the truest thing that you've said. You will look so trendy, but your jeans are from eighth grade. It's true. I did literally wear an outfit the other day. That was from 11th grade. No, she wore a dress somewhere a couple years ago. And I saw the picture. That dress is so pretty. And she said, it was my ninth grade homecoming dress. What? She's moved 20 times. How many storage units do you have? Oh, don't get us started on storage units. Also, I don't have any storage units. But you used to. Oh, you have an addict now.

And everyone who's gotten divorced is out of storage unit. Right, right. That's just part of it. It's a bit of a metaphor. This is not the episode where we try to get to the root of this. So I'm just going to know. We need to know what's happening. Okay.

With my hoarding psychologically. Right. Can we, maybe we should do an episode about like relationship to stuff and where it comes from. Yeah. And I don't want to say hoarding because hoarding is like an actual psychological issue. Right. But there is something that's just below hoarding. which is what I do, which is just holding very tight items.

Yeah. I feel like I have the opposite problem, though. Same. I'm like, I just like new things. Which is why I get all your old things. Yeah, she's usually wearing happy stuff. I'm like enabling your issue and you're also enabling mine. Today's show is sponsored by Strawberry.me.

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Here we go. This is from atemily.m.m.t underscore. They say, my wife's beige flag is that she's absolutely petrified of bugs, but she also won't let me kill them. So whenever one gets in the house, I have to chase it around with a cup and a piece of paper to try to capture and release it. But she also makes me take it at least 500 feet from the house.

So I end up sprinting down the street with the captured bug while fighting the feeling that it escaped and is crawling all over me. I love. Emily. What a good wife that person is. I get that. I feel like these are green flags on both their parts. Green and green and green.

They are living correctly to me. Yeah. I always feel so bad when I kill the spider. Well, you shouldn't do that. But I'm so scared. How do you overcome the fear with a piece of paper? Tell sister, why there's so many paper towels on our front porch. Jesus.

I go outside and like some days like the water, the sprinklers will go off. So now this piece of paper is totally eroded into like a mushy pile of, ugh. Well, anytime I go out there, I know that Glennon has found some sort of insect, gotten it, and then just open the front door and thrown the paper towel outside. Because I will not kill it. I will not kill. But I also, it can't be responsible. I have to get it out of my hand as quickly as possible, right?

Okay. So you take a paper towel. You sort of capture it around your hand in the paper towel. And then you eject the paper towel from the house. Yeah, which is, which I guess is just littering again. Yeah. I'm saving a life, but kind of not. I know, but it's like this funny game that you and the spider have.

I think the 500 feet away from the house is the right move because the spider is like, oh, I was here last week. And then it crawls back into the house. And then she does this whole charade like the next week. Yeah, I haven't gotten brave enough for what this person says. I haven't done the sprinting and screaming and going 500 feet. I might need to try that. be an amazing visual. It's just Glennon Doyle,

a running down the street with a freaking paper towel. Yeah, Emily, the next time this happens, can you please record running down the street? Because I think that's what we deserve to see. We really do. All right. Okay, this next one is at Katie Capelli. And they say, my husband's beige flag is that he waits into the last possible second

to use his windshield laborers when it starts to rape. He will let the entire windshield cover with droplets. until it's almost fully covered and then manually turned one way for a ride. This continues for the full ride. I think I know why. Because it's so satisfying. You know, when it's like a bunch of water and then it goes swish all at once and a bunch goes off at the same time.

It's so it's satisfying. I don't know about that. I like to be able to see through the window. Well, yeah. 100% of the time. Yeah. This is a good. Is it sort of like our obsession, Abby,

with beating the GPS. Is it like how few wipes do I need to make it through this ride safely? Yeah, maybe. I don't know. It's got to be scary for the passenger. It is. Oh. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. So this is posted by at Kai, the zombie slayer. My girlfriend's actual beige flag is that once every month, she'll get a banana for lunch. And after I've let my guard down, she'll frantically search for her phone, freak out, Ask me to call it because she can't find it. And when I do, she'll pick up the banana. Instead, it'd be like, yellow.

And I fall for it every time. I hate banana phone. Oh, my God. Yellow. Yellow. That's a green flag. It's gold to me. Every time.

You keep that one. That is a keeper. That is a keeper who understands the absurdity of life. After I've let my guard down. And she does it once every month. Yellow? Yellow. Oh, my God.

Just freaking out. You just queen her. You just queen her. My boyfriend's beige flag is he does this thing where he will randomly lay directly on top of me, completely dead weight and yell, bolder. It makes me push him off to, quote, train me off. survival. He does not move for any reason at all.

Only way out from under the boulder is to push him off myself. Oh my gosh. At cayley. Dot, we love this. To trace me survival. Last month, Abby laid down on the ground in our kitchen and wouldn't move until I showed her that I could perform CPR on her.

and move me around. And move her around. I was just dead weight because if I go down, I think I'm a goner. I do too. Yeah, I do too. I do too. I think I'm a goner. I like to have to prepare her.

I just ordered an AED machine just in case I go down. So she has some sort of tool to help revive me back to life. I was freaking out even during this simulation. She's like, I don't know what to do. I was like crouched over. And I'm like, you got to move me. Like, put me on my back. She's like, I can't.

You're too heavy. And I'm like, fuck. I am fucked. So now I'm going to like, I'm going to get one of those buttons that she or like one of those bracelets. Like the 99 year old. Yes. No, but I told her, I told her I think I'd be able to do it if I knew this was real.

Because I think I've heard people get superhuman adrenaline. So I think I think I could do it if it's real. Okay. You might want to practice the boulder. I don't know. Okay, the Becca Murray. My partner's base flag is that whenever I lose something and ask if he's seen it, he looks at me quizzically and hesitantly explains that the thing I'm looking for died 40 years ago.

For example, have you seen my phone? I don't know where I put it down. Phone, extended, pause, and worried look. Phone died 40 years ago. People are so wonderful. That's wonderful. Okay. Your turn.

All right. At Kate Austin underscore, my wife's beige flag is that she thinks reels are funny and absolutely refuses to download TikTok. She constantly shows me videos that were viral on TikTok two months ago like their brand new material. This is literally what our children say to us because we don't watch TikTok. This is literally what we're doing right now. Right now. Kate Austin, inspired by your wife, is this episode. She's going to love this episode.

Another beige flag of Glennins is that she gets a phone number or somebody calls her or texts her, but she just doesn't, she doesn't save them. No, never. She doesn't ever. I'm telling you, she has five people saved in her phone. And every other person is just like, well, can't be known who's calling me. Yeah. And so the amount of times she's like, hey, can you type this phone number into your phone so that when I type it in, it comes up.

And she's like, oh, so that's who it is. and yet still does not go ahead and save that person's name to the phone number attached. Well, I learned my lesson right now is when I admit to you that for one year, all right, Laura Perry, she's probably listening. I love you, Laura, okay? I thought for one year that I was conversing back and forth with Stacey London. Okay. Stacey London, right? Stacey London emails me and says, how are you? We haven't talked for so long. And I was like, what do you mean? We were texting for a year. No. I had Laura Perry saved as Stacey London. So I have been having a friendship with, so both of them, anyway, it's very confusing. That's when I learned my lesson. You can save with the wrong person, so it's better just to keep it a surprise. gosh. K-T-H. Wang. My boyfriend's beige flag is that he'll casually tell me the randomest facts

throughout the day that aren't even true. Hey, did you know that the reason ripples on waves exist is because of the sensitivity of water to tectonic movement? Oh, really? Ha! That was a lie. Like, then he'll proceed to himself proud that he succeeded to fool me. It's ridiculous. Dad used to do that. Remember when you swear to us that spam was called spam because they used it in the Spanish-American War? Yeah. I think half the things that I think are lies. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. My boyfriend's beige flag is that he sets timers instead of alarms. It's midnight and he needs to wake up at six. He'll set a six hour timer. Oh my God. I bet his brain just works differently. Like he needs to think of it not in terms of time, but in terms of hours. That makes sense to me. Well, just real quick. Before you go to sleep, does everybody here count how many hours before they're going to wake? up, like how many they're going to get? Yes. And then I lay there and, well, that's because you're always going to get like, 35 hours. I lay there and I'm like, if you don't go to sleep now, Doyle, if you don't, oh my God, now it's six and a half. Now it's five. Now it's gone to bed. And then I just

berate myself. I get so anxious that then the time keeps going down and then I get more anxious. And that's how I live happily and balanced. Red flag. If you and your partner are trying to conceive, You might know that you need a prenatal vitamin. But that doesn't make a ton of sense. Think about it. What your body is doing changes so much week to week. Why are we not questioning taking the same pill the whole time? I have people close to me who've been through pregnancy recently.

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gigabytes hotspot. Capable device required. Availability, speed, and coverage varies. See mintmobile.com. Fricker says my boyfriend's beige flag is that he cannot wait to give a present as soon as it's wrapped he is telling you what it is. If your birthday is next week and he has the present now, you're getting it now. I can't handle it either. I can't handle it. I don't know what that is about. This is at J. Dubbs 22. My girlfriend's beige flag, she drinks two, maybe three sips of her ice coffee that she can't start her day without. Small, medium, large, doesn't matter. Two to three sips.

She'll carry it around for two hours. No additional sips. 85% full. Why'd we get her eventy? No idea. Only two, three sips. She likes the feel of it. It's tethering her to the earth.

Okay? It's helping her have gravity. Yes. Yep. At Collins app four, this one is a person after my own heart. My wife's beige flag is that she keeps tags on everything. just in case she wants to return it.

Pillows we bought a year ago still has tags. Patio furniture, tax still in tech. Yes. I feel like it's important to cover yourself. You don't want to overcommit. Me too. A lot of times people will be like, oh my gosh, your tag's still on whatever. And then I have to pretend that it was an accident.

And I'll go, oh, no. It's not an accident. No, I sometimes, it feels like such a commitment. You know how I return a lot of things. Yeah, I know. But like after the second where, isn't it? Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. Just after first wear?

Yeah. You know, when you're like, I don't know. Well, we have a whole. She's just wearing it. You know, it's her 6,000 for the day. It's going to be changed in 25 minutes. Yeah. She has to make sure she looks comfortable.

I feel this way. I do the same thing if I have a shirt with a stain on it. And I put it on, but I like really like the shirt that I just wear it. And then the first time someone says, oh, you got a stain. I say, oh. Like I pretend that. Yes. Like it just happened.

I do that with watches. I have two watches. Neither of them have ever worked. Not one time. I've never set them. Never. I mean, they work. You just have never set them. Okay. Well, isn't that the important part of working? Is it the clock tells the time? Yeah, but they're automatic watches. So you actually have to set them every time. She's saying they're not broken. Absolutely they're saying functionally they are. Yeah. But I still wear them all the time. And then when anyone asks me what time it is, I look at my watch and go, oh. Because I can't say I don't use my watch for that. at Cassandra Palumbo.

My partner's beige flag is that he doesn't put his phone on silent mode throughout the night because he's scared it means his morning alarm won't go off. No matter how many times I tell him or secretly do it and it still goes off. He just won't risk it. And I have to be consistently woken up all night by all of his notifications. That's terrible. That's horrible. That's an example of maybe not a beige flag because I feel like what beige flags are

or they are not objectionable. That is objectionable. Yeah, but then you also have sympathy because maybe he has some like major anxiety around things. But it doesn't mean that it's not objectionable. Her ass is getting woken up all night long. Just test it out on your phone. Yeah, test it.

It's verifiable that that will work. Yeah, test it on your phone so that he can, for one night that it will still work and then he'll turn him off. But I feel like Cassandra, I mean, she's tried a lot of things. I don't think it's a lack of trying logical explanations that Cassandra's still waking up all night every night. This is not about logic. Okay. My boyfriend's beige flag is that he thinks he's a ways influencer.

I was wondering that you never thought they were. He marks it. There is no cop. He makes note. Traffic, don't confirm it's there. Stuck and dead stop traffic? He writes funny notes to everyone else. He gets really excited when people like his notes.

He got. 114 likes on a note the other day. It was a big deal. He would rather use a paper map than Apple or Google Maps. This man is loyal. Anna Redmond, that's good. He's a way of influence. Oh, Anna Redmond, he's like, you know, this is the future.

TikTok influencers be damned. The ways influencer is the one of the future. Get this guy a contract. It's super helpful. I've always wondered, like, when it shows up, like, still here or whatever, I'm always like, who's touching that? Yeah. Well, I'll tell you who is Anna's boyfriend.

And apparently you get, like, preferential treatment or some kind of points. I just learned about this. And so if you click this still there, somehow, you know. It's taking you're the best fastest route. You're tracking. No, no, no, no. But you're somehow, you're getting the equity, the social equity in ways. Something's happening that's good for you.

Oh my God. That's good stuff. I love it. All right, here we go. This is at Nat Row. My girlfriend's beige flag is that she laughed so hard at her own jokes. Like she just invented comedy. She has her own entertainment.

This girl will be tearing up by herself nonstop and will end with a I'm so funny. Even by just bringing up her beige flag, she will giggle. Oh, that's sweet. That's actually lovely. Yeah. Enjoying your own company. Green flag. I am so funny.

All right. You get a kick out of me. Get a real kick out of me. Okay. My partner's beige flag. They refuse to charge their phone until it dies. Yes. Same.

Five percent. Five percent. Just wait until it's dead to plug it in. Doesn't matter if there's a cord right there. It's not being charged. That is good. That is a beige flag for sure. Yeah.

And that is by at IRL Fleabag. Okay, at Dumpling Kingdom. My cat, my cat, oh, we're doing cats now. My cat's beige flag is that she only stays calm in the car if I meow the national anthem. I'm so glad this is a cat because when my eyes went down to this one, I didn't see the cat part. So I thought this was someone's partner that needed to be meowed the national anthem. So that's good. I mean, whatever you're into.

Can you guys, can you guys try to meow the national anthem? meo, meo, meo, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow. Miao, meow, meow, meow. I just couldn't figure it out. I do it. And you did it so easily. I would like to look at her up because maybe she does it with a little more gusto. Yeah.

Oh, wait. It says that they have a video if you want to see it on the TikTok of her meowing to the tune of the national anthem while their cat sleeps in their lap that has 6.5 million views. Oh my God. All right. So at Smelly Belly. My husband's beige flag is that every time I'm watching my own show, he will join in and watch an episode, then proceed to call it our show, which means I cannot watch it without him.

I have zero shows that I can watch on my own. This Smelly Belly, Bella Moncada, this is upsetting to me. This feels like a red flag. Out of all of them, this is what you're picking. Yes, because he can't just like sit down and claim that now it's our show. Right. That has to be mutually agreed upon. Okay.

All right. Red flag. Red flag. I think it's sweet that he wants to watch all the shows with her. I don't know if he wants to because he would have done it from the beginning. Could be a little controlling. Okay. All right.

My boyfriend's beige flag is that he hates. he hates the number 11 specifically the fact that six plus five equals 11 he says that six and five are just two good of numbers to simply equal 11 and it really bothers him that the number that these two super cool numbers total up to is just 11 and it's anticlimactic and unsatisfying to him for some reason. I understand this because I think it's very unsatisfying that Chicago is a city inside of a state called Illinois. I feel like Illinois should be a city and Chicago should be a state. It's wrong.

So I understand this and like this dude a lot. Not a lot of people give that much respect to things like this. This is from faith at not faith core. I can get behind that six and five are cool numbers. I wonder why 11 is so decidedly objectionable. Yeah. I don't know. But you know what?

To me, it feels so satisfying. Six plus five equals 11. That's a good, 11's a good combination of six plus five. I don't think so. I think five is a terrible number. What? Six is also like, well. I'm like the opposite of this guy.

I feel like 11 is wonderful. How could 11 be consumed by this five and six? Oh. Okay. All right. This is amazing. This one is at Clarify for me. My girlfriend's beige flag is she will make absolute messes trying to feed me all of her food. Afraid to go in the car, all of her trust on a plastic fork trying to get it across my console while I'm driving. She's tried feeding me meatloafs and red sauce with a spoon across our fresh, clean, ready to stain bed sheets. Ice cream. You know that cone's coming at me a million times an hour while we are walking. I would say 50% of the shared food is on the floor. Oh, she just has an experience and it's so good that she's desperate for her partner to experience it too, regardless of how it happens. That's sweet. You know that cone's coming at me a million miles an hour while we are walking.

That's good. All right. So this is Mike Gottschalk. My girlfriend's beige flag is that she doesn't know her left and right. but also has a GPS in her brain. You could drop her in the Amazon with nothing and she'd find her way out in 30 minutes. But if you tell her to turn left, she has to take five and make an L shape with her hands to figure it out. Oh my gosh.

I mean, I feel like I do that still. Me too. Okay, left yet. This is the left side. An idea I had for an invention is that I think they should make yoga pants that have an L and an R on the bottom. because the yoga instructors always say, lift your left foot or your right foot, but it's so confusing. Because I don't know. I'm not like, that's not automatic.

Left and right are not automatic for me. I can tell that for most people they are, but it's not automatic. It takes me a minute. And also, the teacher's looking at you. It's a mirror effect. Yeah, they're opposite. Yeah. That's confusing.

And also it's always like, don't be thinking. Be in your body. Don't be in your brain. But then they give you a pop quiz every 30 seconds. It's like calculus. Right arm and left leg and I'm like, but you just told me specifically I didn't have to be in my brain. Exactly. So I do think that that would be good if everyone wants to make that.

L and R. Remember when I thought that we were all going to get really rich because I had an incredible new idea for an invention of a mirror app. And then I realized that everyone had a camera on their phone. Yeah. I was like, I cannot believe this doesn't exist. Oh, that's good. Okay, my fiancé's beige flag is that he doesn't like to eat dinner in silence. He will Google couples questions or relationships quiz and ask me the most random yet intimate questions in a room full of people as if we're in our own world.

Naya hurt. That's by Naya. That's good. That's really sweet, actually. Green flag. Cody Ev. My girlfriend's beige flag is that she announces everything. Her stomach just growled.

I have to know. Dinner is ready? She's telling me. She has to tell me like it's the most important thing in the world. She's cold. She's calling me to let me know. Her FaceTime calls are just a daily news report. Oh my God. I like the news report. It's so true. Some people like to tell you everything, John, another beige flag he has is I'll be like, well, how'd the conversation go. He'll be like, okay. Well, I said, oh. And then they said, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then I said. And then I said. and then and then you just repeats, just repeats the conversation perpaino. And I'm like, huh, that's it. So it's like basically you're giving me a transcript. So then really, not a synopsis. Like next time maybe like an executive summary of the conversation, not like, you know, court reporter.

Because then what has to happen is you really have to decide how that conversation went based on the full report. You have to draw the conclusions that you were actually asking for. Okay. I just have to say this whole idea I think is going to help me. People are so absurd and delightful. Yes. I mean, it is so fun to think about the quirky, not bad, not good things, that neutral, weird area of, huh.

It's a good place to. be with people. Yeah. Also, it's a new opportunity. There's so many things that I've wasted so much time not being pissed about, like six plus five equals 11. I've never thought to have an opinion on that. Not once.

I have a lot of them about cities and states, if you want to know. When I did give the first speech to my family about how it's obnoxious that Chicago is not a state, but Illinois, as if anyone's ever heard of that is a city. You know? That's if everyone's sorry. Everyone's heard of Chicago. So anyway, Abby was looking at me at the table like she's looking at me right now in a little bit of embarrassment and disdain. And one of my kids goes, exactly.

I have always thought that. All right. Before we close Pod Squaders, also feel free to call in your beige flags. Yeah, call in 747-253-07. I mean, if nothing else, just to make us laugh a lot. But we realized last week that we forgot to do pod squatters of the week for a year and a half. That's our face flag. So we are back with the pod squatter of the week.

After episode 217, where we were talking about our daily delights, Carolyn called in with her daily delight. So if you haven't checked out that amazing episode 277, do that for a whole hour of delight. Great. This is Carolyn. I am a suburban mom, and I'm always in the car with my two kids. They are six and four.

And they are so delighted by any that is not, I mean, if they see like a purple car or like a green car, I mean, I get like a shout from the back. Purple car, double car, big car. I mean, it's just, and it's like, the delight has, like, spilled over to me. So even when I'm, like, alone in the car and I see a purple car, I'm like, you know, it's like, I just get so delighted now by all the bright colored cars on the road. Maybe you'll spot some bright colored cars now while you're driving around. All right, love you, keep up the good work. Bye.

So sweet. I'd like to end with the beige bag that I think we all have. because you and I gotten a little debate about this. I think it's precious that all of us if we are in a car and we pass by cows

or horses we have to say cows horses okay I just say move okay well something you have to acknowledge

the existence of cows and Abby told me that's not true people go by cows all the time and never so this was like a couple years ago so we're in the car then the time after this conversation debate we're passing a herd of cows and we are in a game of silence chicken and i'm like and i can feel the energy she knows how wrong it is that no one's yelling cow she knows it but she can't but she can't say it because then it will make me right. And so we are, I don't know, a half mile past the cows. I'm feeling like we broke a law

of the, of the universe. And she goes, cows. Did you see the cows? You saw those cows. God, what the hell is that? I was like, I don't say that. That is just not true for me. And it is true for me. And now I'm like, cows. I'm surprised by myself. It was like so subconscious before. It's like the color purple thing. It's like, this has got off if you see a herd of cows and you don't yell moo or cow. Is it herd of cows? Yeah. A gaggle?

It's a herd. It's a herd. A school of cows. A murder of cows. Do you have to murder of crows? I know, that's weird. That's really weird. I feel like of all the animals really crows.

I mean, I get like a murder of hippos. No, crows are scary. Yeah, they're scary. They look like they're about to murder. They really do. They're suspicious as shit. Okay. Okay.

We love you, Pod Squad. I don't know whether to say you're welcome for this episode or we are sorry. Either way, we will see you next time. We are proud to say that we can do hard things is an independent production brought to you by us. Treat Media. Treat Media makes art for humans who want to stay human. And you can follow us at We Can Do Hard Things on Instagram.