Bad On Paper

Our September Book Club is here and we are so excited to dig into Katharine McGee’s American Royals, but beware it’s sprinkled with spoilers! This book posits a world where George Washington was the first King of America rather than the first President. The story follows his descendant, Princess Beatrice and her dramatic road to the throne. We also talk about everything Royal from books, movies, weddings, and gossip, and what we have been reading (and what we are close to putting down!).

Friend of the pod and former Obama Deputy Chief of Staff, Alyssa Mastromonaco, joins us to help break down what is happening in the current presidential election. Why are there so many candidates? Is this normal? When will the field narrow? And how does the primary process even work. Then we talk about how to learn about candidate platforms and how to get personally involved in politics.

Bad On Politics Preview

In this week’s episode, we get to chat with the amazing (sparkly!) Simon Doonan about his brand new book Drag: The Complete Story - the first modern book about the cultural history of drag! Simon talks all things drag with us while answering your questions about finding your own personal style, his relationship with Jonathan Adler, and whether or not he will be appearing on another season of NBC’s Making It (spoiler: he is!).

In this week’s episode, we discuss how we manage our time, calendars, and inboxes. We also discuss avoiding distractions like Instagram and email (spoiler: we’re a work in progress here), the comparison trap, and our biggest lessons on productivity. Grace explores the power of saying “no” and Becca has plenty of very Virgo-esque tips for organizing your calendar in inbox.  We also have a very exciting announcement about our NYC show and some strong feelings on hot sauce!

Today Grace’s sister Rebecca Atwood joins us! With two “Becca’s” and two sisters who sound almost exactly alike, things get a little wild! Rebecca is an artist and textile designer who has her own incredible product line and just wrote her second book! Today she's answering all of your questions about home decor... giving us the rundown on tastefully adding more color to our homes! Stay tuned ‘till the very end for hilarious Atwood sister childhood stories from growing up in Cape Cod.

Lisa Taddeo, the Author of our August Book Club Pick—Three Women—joins us to share how the book got made. She talked to us about how she found the three women profiled (and the hundreds of others that didn't make the cut), how the book has exceeded her expectations, and what's next for her (hint: there's a TV adaptation in the works).

For our August book club, we're tackling our first non-fiction pick: Three Women by Lisa Taddeo. The book explores the psyches and sex lives of three very different women. It's equal parts salacious and emotionally relatable, and we have so much to say about this book. We also catch up about online dating apps, scheduling as self care, and what we've been reading and obsessing over.

This week we’re joined by Morgan Hoit, marketing manager at Avid Reader Press and voice of NYC Book Girl (one of our favorite bookstagram accounts!). We chat about everything from her love of theatre and how she manages anxiety, to how she feels about the Soul Cycle boycott and the three books she can’t wait to read next year. Check out tickets to our Fall live shows in San Francisco, DC, Philly, Atlanta, and Dallas. Join our FB group for amazing book recs & more!

This week we're joined by freelance journalist, author, and political activist, Lauren Duca. We chat about her career transition from pop culture to political writer, her hard-won skills on dealing with criticism, and her major year of changes from divorce to coming out. But most importantly, we also chat about her forthcoming book: How to Start A Revolution (out Sept 24).

Today it's just us, and we're talking about all things BEAUTY! We both discuss the products we're loving (or in some cases a little underwhelmed by) this summer. We talk everything from skincare and makeup to sunless tanning, SPF, and hair removal. But before that, we announce our Fall tour dates! We're hitting 6 cities this fall and are hoping to announce a couple more dates soon. If you live in San Francisco, Atlanta, DC, Philly, Dallas, or New York we hope to see you there!

Today is our July book club and we are discussing American Spy. We are so honored that the author, Lauren Wilkinson is joining us remotely! Of course, we talk about the book, her writing process, how the book began, and why she chose to leave the book open-ended. We also talk about more difficult social topics and how that inspired the book. Also, Grace is feeling like a celebrity and Becca admits that she still thinks about the game Bloody Mary every time she goes to the bathroom at night.

In this episode, we’re talking MONEY. From salaries (actual numbers!) to negotiations, asking for raises, and talking to your friends about money, we are diving deep. We answer your questions like how often do you ask for a raise and how to know how much to ask for? Becca steps on her soapbox when talking about stock options and how she wishes she could give her past self this advice. No matter where you are in life, we hope you find this episode helpful! 

In this episode, we are joined our other sorority house member and our other best friend, Alex Dickerson. Alex has had an incredible career thus far, complete with nearly being the star of a reality TV show and going to business school in Barcelona. We also talk about her messy dating story, and how that has changed her into the person she is today. Also, Becca has purchased a home luggage stand, and Grace is obsessed with Sephora’s new clean beauty line.

It’s just us this week, and we’ve got all your questions covered. We truly cover a little bit of everything in this episode, like dating (yes, we are on the apps. No, it’s not fun), travel rituals, reading (of course!), the future of the pod (total world podcast domination), and so much more! It was fun to get to interview ourselves this week! Meanwhile, Grace is feeling like she’s getting her life together post-tour, and Becca read two full books during the long weekend.