Weirdly Helpful (formerly The Best Advice Show)

Jules cleans their feet in Los Angeles, California.To offer your own advice, call Zak @ 844-935-BESTMorning Zesting with Drew Philp - https://bestadvice.show/episodes/2020424_morning-zesting-with-drew-philp/Restarting Your Day with Ken Haddad - https://bestadvice.show/episodes/2020513_restarting-your-day-with-ken-haddad/TRANSCRIPT: Sound of faucet turning on.JULES: Hi Zak, my name is Jules. I live in LA and my advice is to wash your feet because they often get forgotten and I thought in the shower when you would stand in the shower, your feet would get all washed but they just got neglected because they just had running soap and water all over it. So, give a little more attention to your feet. At the end of the long day, I like to just wash my feet in the bath to get all of the gunk off. Um, and it feels really good once you do it and you get in between the toes. It's something that's so easy to forget and feels so nice to do. ZAK: If you like Jules' advice, you might want to check out a few other episodes that are shower and bath related. There's Morning Zesting with Drew Philp and there's Restarting Your Day with Ken Haddad. KEN: I've discovered a new kind of coffee in the middle of the day and it's something that I'm calling the lunch-hour-shower. ZAK: Both of those episodes are linked to in our show notes. If you have some advice, call me at 844-935-BEST. I'm gonna go clean my feet.  Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information. ---Help Zak continue making this show by becoming a Best Advice Show Patron @ https://www.patreon.com/bestadviceshow---Fill out the TBAS listener survey to help Zak get to know you better.https://forms.gle/f1HxJ45Df4V3m2Dg9---Call Zak on the advice show hotline @ 844-935-BEST or email him a voice-memo at ZAK@bestADVICE.show---Share this episode on IG @BestAdviceShow Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Noam Kimelman stretches from his home in Detroit.I love hearing about morning routines. In fact I want to hear about yours. I'm thinking about making a master, morning routine montage track. To tell me what you do every morning, call me at 844-935-BESTTRANSCRIPT: ZAK: Every morning, Noam Kimelman rolls out of bed and then gets on the floor and stretches.NOAM: And if I don't do it, I definitely notice not feeling my best. Also, my legs get tired during the day, especially if I'm traveling or hiking and I don't do my stretches. My legs are, like, heavier, and I feel tired doing much less. And so, my advice is stretch 5, 10 minutes everyday. It'll change your life.ZAK: And so you get out of bed and you start?NOAM: I get out of bed. And the rule is don't look at your phone. But I always look at my phone. But I'm not supposed to look at my phone before stretching. And I tell myself it will make the day even better. But everyday I wake up and then I look at my phone. And then I stretch.ZAK: Uh huh, You can't do it all at once. It's one step at a time.NOAM: But this is just enough to make me feel good, without overwhelming.I love hearing about morning routines. In fact I want to hear about yours. I'm thinking about making a master, morning routine montage track. To tell me what you do every morning, call me at 844-935-BEST Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information. ---Help Zak continue making this show by becoming a Best Advice Show Patron @ https://www.patreon.com/bestadviceshow---Fill out the TBAS listener survey to help Zak get to know you better.https://forms.gle/f1HxJ45Df4V3m2Dg9---Call Zak on the advice show hotline @ 844-935-BEST or email him a voice-memo at ZAK@bestADVICE.show---Share this episode on IG @BestAdviceShow Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rich Feldman is a former auto worker and union official. He's a board member of the James and Grace Lee Boggs Center to Nurture Community Leadership. End of the Line: Autoworkers and the American Dream - https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/catalog/63wfe4tq9780252061486.htmlTo offer your own advice, call Zak @ 844-935-BESTTRANSCRIPT: RICH: This is Rich Feldman. I spent 20 years on the assembly line at Ford Motor Company out in Wayne. About 10 years as an elected, local official and about ten years with the international staff of the United Auto Workers. ZAK: Especially on the Labor Day, Rich says it's very easy to be nostalgic about the past. But this year is not like every other year.RICH: Well this Labor Day, which is taking place with almost 200-thousand people killed by COVID and the Movement For Black Lives since George Floyd was killed...it's critical that we not think of just going through the motions or just cheering on unions. So while I always say that without a union, you have nothing. With the union I believe you have a chance to have some security and have your voice heard and be responsible for what your work place should be. So my advice is, ask yourself what is the purpose of work and how do we become responsible workers and human beings? And returning to normal is not the way to do it...it's to create a new vision and a new purpose which is gonna take a lot, a lot of work and a lot of reflection. ZAK: Well, how do you answer that question? What is the purpose of work?RICH: So to me the purpose of work is for individuals to do what allows each of us to express our passions, to be responsible to our neighbors, to be responsible to our community and the planet. It's time for us to say, what are we producing as well as our rights and our contractual rights. ZAK: Rich edited an oral history called End of the Line: Autoworkers and the American Dream. I put a link to it in our show notes. Thank you for listening to a special Labor Day episode of the Best Advice Show. I hope today is full or joy and fun and rest and contemplation. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information. ---Help Zak continue making this show by becoming a Best Advice Show Patron @ https://www.patreon.com/bestadviceshow---Fill out the TBAS listener survey to help Zak get to know you better.https://forms.gle/f1HxJ45Df4V3m2Dg9---Call Zak on the advice show hotline @ 844-935-BEST or email him a voice-memo at ZAK@bestADVICE.show---Share this episode on IG @BestAdviceShow Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Howie Kahn is a writer and podcaster in NYC. His podcast is Take Away Only To offer your own advice, call Zak @ 844-935-BESTTRANSCRIPT:ZAK: You are listening to episode 100 of The Best Advice Show. That was fast. Today is Food Friday. I'm really excited for you to hear the episode but first I just wanted to say, thank you for listening. I really, really appreciate it. I wasn't exactly sure how this show would go when I started it, but I'm learning so much. I feel like I'm actually doing some good. A lot of you have reached out and let me know as much. That means so much to me. If you are one of those people who's finding this show valuable. I would love it if you would share it with your family and friend. Alright, let's get on with the advice. Thanks again.ZAK: There's at least a few kinds of grocery shopping. There's the rush-in, look at your list, get your stuff...maybe you're with your kid.HOWIE: I took my kid to the grocery store recently. And because of COVID he's obviously been inside more in the last 6-months than he ever should have been during normal time, or has been his entire life. And now going to a grocery store with him is like going to a rave with somebody who just can't handle their drugs. You know, are they gonna topple the end display? Is the can gonna fall on his head? Is he gonna get too close to the wrong person who doesn't want a tiny child close to them during a pandemic.ZAK: That's not the kind of grocery shopping we're talking about today. We're talking about the kind where you're not in a rush. The store isn't too crowded. And you can kind of relax a little...and if you want...HOWIE: Get totally lost in the grocery store. Like I go really slow at the grocery store when I'm by myself. Like my wife will be like, where are you? What are you doing? And I've been looking at, like, the blueberries very slowly.ZAK: And them maybe you'll head over to the vegetables to see what looks good.HOWIE: The little fairytale eggplants. The one's that have the beautiful purple and white modeling. They're like chubby, little squat eggplants like the size of a half an iPhone or something like that. And they're just delicious. Like the flavors really concentrated and it just doesn't take much to make them into really happy food, you know?ZAK: Now you begin to fantasize about what you're gonna do with these beautiful, little eggplants.HOWIE: Cut them in half, length-wise. Score em just a little bit. Salt em just a little bit. Let them sit there for like, minutes to let some of the water come out. Dab the water off. Put a little more salt in them. Get pan going with olive oil, pretty hot. Sear em skin side down. Give it a nice hard sear. 3-5 minutes. The inside will get all roasty and toasty and then sweet and delicious. It's fast cause they're small. Take them off. A little salt, pepper, hot sauce, some herbs. You got a happy, happy eggplant dish.ZAK: Most of us aren't traveling right now and we're craving adventure. And so if you love food and cooking, and you must because you're listening to Food Friday...next time you're at the grocery store, treat it as a little mini adventure.Before this interview, the last time I had spoken to Howie Kahn was when he was my counselor at camp. I was 12. He was 18. But now Howie is a New York-based food lover and writer and...HOWIE:...journalist and podcast maker and the founder of a production company called Free Time Media.ZAK: On his podcast, Take-Away Only, Howie's been talking to hospitality professionals all over the world as they continue to respond to the COVID-19 crisis. You've been listening to the 100th episode of The Best Advice Show. Thank you so much for being here. Talk to you soon. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information. ---Help Zak continue making this show by becoming a Best Advice Show Patron @ https://www.patreon.com/bestadviceshow---Fill out the TBAS listener survey to help Zak get to know you better.https://forms.gle/f1HxJ45Df4V3m2Dg9---Call Zak on the advice show hotline @ 844-935-BEST or email him a voice-memo at ZAK@bestADVICE.show---Share this episode on IG @BestAdviceShow Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Marcia Lee is the Director of Healing by Choice (@healingbychoice) and a coach and trainer for People's Hub, an online movement school.---RESOURCESThe Power of Online Spaces with Marcia Lee - https://peopleshub.org/project/the-power-of-online-spaces/Simple Spinal Health Practice with Aziza Knight of Healing by Choice! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIqHoqeEjwQ&feature=youtu.beTo offer your own advice, call Zak @ 844-935-BEST---TRANSCRIPTZAK: If you're feeling Zoomed out, today's episode is for you.MARCIA: I think oftentimes people are like, I don't know how I could energetically connect with people online. But you can do things like, if we do a movement with each other. Like if we try that right now, right. If you just follow me and move your hand in and move your hand out and then just have this idea of our hands moving together. But the key is do it in a way that's accessible, right? So, saying it might be moving your hand or any other body part that you would prefer to move or can move. So that people can have agency and choice.My name is Marcia Lee. I am the Director of Healing by Choice in Detroit and a coach and trainer for People's Hub, an online movement school.ZAK: So you lead like a ton of Zoom meetings. Is there a way that you like to start?Yeah, absolutely. We usually come in and say, yeah, you're welcome to bring your water, your food, your kids...whatever it is that you need to feel like you can show up. And also, sometimes it's ok to turn your video off if you need to. In general I try to hold meetings in a way where people feel like they've had an experience of healing or an experience of grounding and centering even in whatever meeting we're doing with each other.ZAK: Right, like even if you're talking about something dry like next year's budget.MARCIA: Absolutely. And sometimes, you know, we don't want to share about how we're feeling in the moment. Like, right now, one my friend's, Shaquilla Smith said, let's just say everyone is in a bad place, which is true. There's something in us that's hard right now and there's also joy amidst that. We get to feel both, but maybe we don't want to talk about that right now, so we can come up with different questions.ZAK: I think a lot of us have been talking about this lately, that the question, how are you? isn't sufficient anymore. So what are some ways that you're starting meetings or conversations. Lemme know by commenting on today's episode post on our Instagram page. That's @BestAdviceShow.In our show notes today I've posted a video called Simple Spinal Health Practice and in these times where we're spending so much time in-front of our computer, this video might help you out.Thank you for listening. This is episode 99. Oh my goodness! I thought we just started this show, like, a couple weeks ago. It's been really fun. Thank you for being part of it. If you're enjoying this show, tell your friends, tell your family. Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts if that's where you listen. Thanks so much. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information. ---Help Zak continue making this show by becoming a Best Advice Show Patron @ https://www.patreon.com/bestadviceshow---Fill out the TBAS listener survey to help Zak get to know you better.https://forms.gle/f1HxJ45Df4V3m2Dg9---Call Zak on the advice show hotline @ 844-935-BEST or email him a voice-memo at ZAK@bestADVICE.show---Share this episode on IG @BestAdviceShow Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brenden Murphy practices in Sterling Heights, MI.To offer your own advice, call Zak @ 844-935-BESTTRANSCRIPT:BRENDEN: Hi Zak, this Brenden Murphy from Sterling Heights, Michigan. I was just calling to let you know that practice helps you get better at things. And I know that sounds obvious. The problem is, most people think this just relates to sports. This relates to everything. People seem to ignore the most important things, like self-discipline. People will say, oh, I'm not very disciplined. Well discipline is being like a runner. You're not a runner if you never go running. But if you start running everyday, eventually you'll be a runner. If you start practicing self-discipline everyday, eventually you will be one of those people who manages to get all their stuff done. It also happens with things like road rage. If you practice getting angry. If you practice rage and hatred and yelling at people, you're gonna get better at it. It's gonna get more pervasive. And then you're just gonna be more rage-ful. If you practice things like kindness and peace and deep breathing and meditation...anything. You will get better at it. And that's my advice.ZAK: Thank you Brenden Murphy for your call and your great spiel. Now I want to hear your advice. I'm at 844-935-BEST. And if you don't think you have advice, think about a friend who you think would be great on this show and give them the advice hotline number. That's 844-935-BEST. Thanks so much! Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information. ---Help Zak continue making this show by becoming a Best Advice Show Patron @ https://www.patreon.com/bestadviceshow---Fill out the TBAS listener survey to help Zak get to know you better.https://forms.gle/f1HxJ45Df4V3m2Dg9---Call Zak on the advice show hotline @ 844-935-BEST or email him a voice-memo at ZAK@bestADVICE.show---Share this episode on IG @BestAdviceShow Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emily Barr is the CEO of Graham Media.To offer your own advice, call Zak @ 844-935-BESTTRANSCRIPT:EMILY: One of the things that I have learned is that when you screw up on the job you do something wrong, the best thing you can do is go right in to your boss or call them or whatever and just say, hey, I really screwed up. Cause they can't get mad at you.ZAK: If you own it.EMILY: If you own it. So what happens is they say to you, well, ok, why don't you tell me what you did and then I'll let you know if you really screwed up. And then you say, well, you know I, I thought I was supposed to call this person and do this and I didn't do it and I forgot or whatever and now they're mad at me, whatever the story is. They usually come back and say, ok, that wasn't good but I gotta tell you. That's nothing, let me tell you about the time I screwed up. hahaha. They basically, they take on the responsibly and they totally absolve you. You know you can't do it over and over again, obviously. But it is a really good way to diffuse what could be a bad situation. Because I think what human nature does is, usually you you try to cover up the thing you did wrong. You think about when you're a little kid. When you have little kids and they have chocolate all over their face and you say to them, did you just eat a bunch of chocolate? And they lie, they're like, no, I didn't eat it. And of course when you're a little kid it's just funny but when an adult does that. Basically, did you ever call that person? And they go yeah, yeah, I called and left message and it flat out never happened and they know you're lying. And there's no trust there. There's no bond. But if you just fess up and say, you know, I messed up. I forgot to make the call. I should have done it. I feel horrible. And especially if you can go to them before they come to you. You know, so you kind of circumvent the problem that way. And usually they have a lot more faith in you after that.ZAK: Usually the boss has more faith in the employee who speaks up?EMILY: Yeah. Yeah.ZAK: So, you're a boss. In fact you're my boss's boss which makes you my boss. How common is it for your employees to come and own their mistakes?EMILY: Not as common as you might think. I suspect most people think they're going to get into trouble. And the irony is they're going to get into less trouble if they just own the mistake. Typically. I mean if it's a really terrible mistake maybe not. But most mistakes aren't fatal. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information. ---Help Zak continue making this show by becoming a Best Advice Show Patron @ https://www.patreon.com/bestadviceshow---Fill out the TBAS listener survey to help Zak get to know you better.https://forms.gle/f1HxJ45Df4V3m2Dg9---Call Zak on the advice show hotline @ 844-935-BEST or email him a voice-memo at ZAK@bestADVICE.show---Share this episode on IG @BestAdviceShow Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Leora is a medical student and dog lover, living in SF. I think an alternative name for The Best Advice Show could be the weird things we do to get through the day. What's that thing for you? Give me a call at 844-935-BEST. TRANSCRIPT: ZAK: Welcome back to The Best Advice Show. Today I've got another contribution from the hotline. I don't know the advice-giver but I feel like I do after having heard her advice. It's so specific and unique and I think joyful. LEORA: Hello. I'm Leora. I'm a former museum worker, current fourth-year medical student living in San Francisco. My piece of advice is mainly for dog owners or otherwise dog adjacent people who are prone to melancholy. And the advice is to occasionally feed your dog a berry. How you feed the dog a berry is obviously up to you but my preferred method to blueberries is to use my teeth to bite the berry in half and I then spit it out and hold it between my thumb and fore-finger and then my dog, who's attention at this point is totally on the berry uses his little front-teeth to nibble away at it, bit by bit. Sometimes he'll put his paw on my hand to stabilize as he eats, which, you know, is it's own separate act of extreme cuteness. And this activity combines a few things that I think stand a chance of breaking open some, like, old bubble of serotonin hiding away in my mind. First of all, just the mere existence of berries kind of feels like a miracle...their color, their sweetness, etc. And the same goes for dogs. They're just generally so much nicer and softer than they need to be. And then the fact that dogs love berries and can eat them so gently, or at least Rudy can...my dog. Feels like it sort of belongs in a children's book which is itself a kind of salve. You know that in this moment there are also berry-eating dogs with paws gently placed on your hand. ZAK: I think an alternative name for The Best Advice Show could be the weird things we do to get through the day. What's that thing for you? Give me a call at 844-935-BEST. Oh, and you can see a picture of Leora and her dog Rudy on our Instagram page. That's @bestadviceshow. It's very cute. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information. ---Help Zak continue making this show by becoming a Best Advice Show Patron @ https://www.patreon.com/bestadviceshow---Fill out the TBAS listener survey to help Zak get to know you better.https://forms.gle/f1HxJ45Df4V3m2Dg9---Call Zak on the advice show hotline @ 844-935-BEST or email him a voice-memo at ZAK@bestADVICE.show---Share this episode on IG @BestAdviceShow Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Blair Nosanwisch is a rabbinical student and a pickler.Blair's Vegetable Fermentation Guide - https://www.dropbox.com/s/j6aa8jld3pfmk36/veg%20fermentation%20handout.doc?dl=0To offer your own advice, call Zak @ 844-935-BESTTRANSCRIPT: ZAK: Blair Nosanwisch is a rabbinical student and a pickler and her advice is grab some salt, grab a vegetable and learn again how your hands can create the very things you want to nourish you.BLAIR: Like basically, nowadays we have processed food and I'm in favor of us becoming the processors again in our own kitchens. I think that in that way, not only do we learn skills that we would otherwise lose but we also allow just the fact that the work of our hands can be something that nourishes us to come back into our lives. And the other think I was thinking about was that we're all going through this sort of radical level of change. Change that happened so quickly, that happened to us, that leaves us feeling disempowered and out of control. And I think that learning how to ferment and realizing how simple it is is a tiny way...a tiny and healthy way to take back some control in our daily life.ZAK: Yeah that seems to be so much of the work right now is to reckon with this profound unknown...not knowing and just figuring out what are the little ways in which we can exert some control so that we don't feel wholly helpless.BLAIR: Yeah, in the first few days after this pandemic took its first turn where like, I and think everyone else started to realize, like, holy crap this happening...I had this night where I was like, oh my God, I know what to do...I need to make sauerkraut. That's obviously the thing I should be doing right now. And part of that realization for me is that it's familiar and comfortable and I know how to do it and also that it's a really positive place to put that nervous energy. To say, you know what, I'm gonna remind my hands that they know how to make food that can keep for a long time. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information. ---Help Zak continue making this show by becoming a Best Advice Show Patron @ https://www.patreon.com/bestadviceshow---Fill out the TBAS listener survey to help Zak get to know you better.https://forms.gle/f1HxJ45Df4V3m2Dg9---Call Zak on the advice show hotline @ 844-935-BEST or email him a voice-memo at ZAK@bestADVICE.show---Share this episode on IG @BestAdviceShow Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Patia Braithwaite is Senior Health Editor at SELF Magazine8 Tiny Things I’ve Tried to Make Mondays More Pleasant - https://www.self.com/story/monday-morning-tipsTRANSCRIPT: ZAK: You call it the Sunday scaries. I've always thought of them as the Sunday blues but I think we're talking about the same thing.PATIA: Absolute. It's that feeling of dread, sadness. It's like that realization that the weekend is going to end.ZAK: It's so real.PATIA: My name is Patia Braithwaite. I'm a Senior Health Editor at SELF Magazine where I focus on everything from health, wellness, relationships and dating.ZAK: What do you do to alleviate your Sunday blues?PATIA: I know that around 4 PM, I start to get that feeling of like, oh no, the weekend's over and I have to go back. And I have all these things to do. And so, once I noticed that I was having that feeling at 4 o'clock, I just started doing something physical to distract myself. So before the pandemic, that was like going to a yoga class. Now that can be like, going for a walk. That can be using my rower. Just something to distract myself during that time. And obviously exercise stimulates a relaxation response.ZAK: And one thing you also talk about is...on the Friday before, you do some planning for Monday mornings.PATIA: Yeah, for sure. About 15-20 minutes before I'm ending the day. I just take out my to-do list and write down all the pressing things that need to happen on Monday mornings. I might also put in any meetings. Just put them on the to-do list so I know that they're there. It's sort of a brain dump. It's a way of getting those things out of my brain, on to the paper, so that on Monday I'm not disoriented. And so on Sunday nights, when those, like, Sunday Scary's happen, I'm not thinking of obligations and trying to commit them to memory. They're already on a piece of paper that lives on my desk.ZAK: Do you find there's one thing in particular that you have told folks about that really seems to resonate?PATIA: Hmmm. I think this is probably an anti-tip. But I think just understanding that bad days happen. Understanding that we're dealing with an incredible challenging time right now. And understanding that sometimes Mondays are just gonna stink, has really resonated and I think makes people more receptive to trying small things.ZAK: I put a link to Patia's piece in our show notes. It's called 8 Tiny Things I’ve Tried to Make Mondays More Pleasant. Hopefully today's episode will help you start making your Monday's more pleasent if they haven't been. If you're enjoying the show, please consider rating and reviewing on Apple Podcasts and telling your friends and family about it. That's the best thing you can do to help this show sustain itself. I really appreciate it. Talk to you soon. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information. ---Help Zak continue making this show by becoming a Best Advice Show Patron @ https://www.patreon.com/bestadviceshow---Fill out the TBAS listener survey to help Zak get to know you better.https://forms.gle/f1HxJ45Df4V3m2Dg9---Call Zak on the advice show hotline @ 844-935-BEST or email him a voice-memo at ZAK@bestADVICE.show---Share this episode on IG @BestAdviceShow Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices