Ep. 95 - Ted Kennedy Watson - How to survive CoronaVirus quarantine in style

May 1, 2020

May? Really? After the longest possible March, April flew by without my even noticing. It was helped by unseasonably cold weather, which has been a boon to those of us who are really staying home. Like me.

Ted Kennedy Watson and Lisa Birnbach - via Zoom

My guest this week is lifestyle expert and retailer Ted Kennedy Watson, owner of two of my favorite gift shops, Watson Kennedy, in Seattle (and online). Ted knows a thing or four about making one’s home comfortable, cozy (my very favorite adjective), and inviting, so I invited him to give us some pointers on doing just that as we sequester on.

NOTE: We’re still recording the podcast from home, audio quality via zoom (not complaining, just explaining!).

If you are reading this, this is my written Blog. To LISTEN, please SUBSCRIBE to the Podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio – or wherever you get your Podcasts. It helps get my podcast noticed. And if you’d like to rate it as well, PLEASE DO!

If you ask me, the pandemic will not suddenly disappear this summer and give us the usual vacation schedule to which we are accustomed. Our summer has already begun, in a way – as has our fall. Those of you who are staying at home at your summer houses know this better than we do. You might be able to walk to the lake or the pond or the beach – separated by six feet. Us city mice are more confined and enclosed, but I cannot complain about it or anything else.

The 5 Things that made Lisa’s life better this week.

1. As of this past week, my Exhibits™ and I have a regularly-scheduled Zoom call. You may have heard that Exhibit A has his own exhibit, and that almost one year old steals the show and sometimes comes straight to the computer screen and gives us spectacular views of his tonsils. Seeing my brood all together gives me more joy than I can say. (We FaceTime one on one frequently, but I enjoyed their interactions with one another as well.) Since they are spread far and wide, I hope this is a custom we continue once we are allowed to socialize in person

2. Words With Exhibit C ™. When she asked if any of us played Words with Friends, I said I hadn’t (because I hadn’t), but now we play together. I think we’re well matched but so far she has won more games than I have.

3. Roast Beef Sandwiches. We cooked a roast beef, and it is the gift that keeps on giving. We got a second dinner out of it, and two lunches. Very tasty. My first roast beef. My growth as a cook has grown exponentially since we no longer eat at restaurants.

4. Food Delivery services. I cannot tell you how indebted I feel towards Fresh Direct and InstaCart. But I sort of just did.

5. My brother Jonathan took our mother out for a short drive over the weekend. It was her first time outside in at least six weeks. They drove over to my building, and we had a good socially distanced catch up. I am so grateful to Jon, and comforted by seeing her in person.

Ted Kennedy Watson at a book signing - glassbaby on Sacramento St., SF

Ted’s Tips

How to make your house more comfortable and pleasant during a long confinement

Light candles, even in the morning
Polish silver. You will be amazed at how therapeutic it is.
Have fresh flowers. SO good for the soul.
Wash your bed linens twice as often as you normally do. A fresh bed is heaven.
Use your produce as a visual. A big bowl of fruit is a beautiful sight.
Set the table for each meal. Treat every meal as special. Because it is!
Turn down dimmers for lighting. It instantly makes the space cozier.
Light extra candles while dining. I promise you will be happier.
Have relaxing music playing on low in the background throughout the day. For me, it is Classic King FM.
Use your favorite room spray, liberally. Gives a room an instant refresh.
Rehang artwork. It will give a wall a completely new look.
Rearrange a shelf/shelves. It can take a matter of minutes but the result will bring instant joy.
Add a stack of comfy throw blankets next to your sofa. That way you can curl up to read or nap and be extra comfy.
Move your furniture around. It refreshes a room and doesn’t cost a penny.
Make your dining table your desk. It allows you to spread your work out while giving you a different view.
Have a proper cocktail hour. Get dressed up for it.
Open up your windows wide. Gives an instant Spring-cleaning feel.
And lastly, use the good stuff! Bring out the beautiful old silver. Open up that special bottle of wine you have been saving.

Ted’s 5 Things:

1. My husband. Even after 32 years, he is still who I would choose to ‘shelter in place’ with.

2. Our pooch Bailey. You know how much I love our dog! At 14 1/2, I feel this incredible privilege of caring for her in her senior years.

3. Flowers. To me they are like air. I need them to survive. They don’t have to be fancy, but fine if they are too. Flowers make me crazy happy.

4. Friends. I miss seeing and being with our friends soooooo bad! A shared history is such a glorious thing in life.

5. The US Postal Service & FedEx delivery folks. They are doing incredibly hard work at this amazingly stressful time, putting themselves at risk, and still always give me a smile when they pick up or deliver our parcels.

What to do with a vandalized storefront - The Watson Kennedy way

More about Ted Kennedy Watson

Website: www.watsonkennedy.com

Website: www.tedkennedywatson.com

Instagram: @watsonkennedy

Facebook: @WatsonKennedy

Twitter: @WatsonKenndey

Watson Kennedy: Fine Living | Fine Home: Store Locations: 206.617-9678

86 Pine Street Seattle, WA 98101

1022 First Avenue Seattle, WA 98104

The 5 Things That Make Life Better podcast is recorded and produced at The Field in NYC

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EP. 94 - With Billy Shore - NO KID HUNGRY

April 24, 2020

Another week in virtual lockdown. How’s it going for you? For me there is a kind of swirl of vagueness or dizziness, as I’m not always certain what day it is. It’s like being inside a Las Vegas casino – except with windows. It strikes me as weird, given that so little is going on, how the weeks still seem to be spinning out quickly. And a new observation: outside those windows I am hearing more car sounds. Where are people going? A few weeks ago there was hardly a single vehicle on the city streets.

I’m not bored and I’m not despairing, exactly, but I’m not making the most of this time. I’m weaning myself off being constantly battered by the news. I do watch the news at night, which I’m positive is not great for falling asleep, but at least it’s contained, as they say.

I speak to my family more than ever, as I suspect you all do as well. (In fact, I just got off the phone with my brother Norman, and we both worked ourselves up into frothing anger. Whoops!) I have no doubt that we will get through this together, if we are patient. The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced we have to be doubly cautious than has been advertised. We will probably suffer through COVID-19 through most of the year. So stay home, friends, as much as you can.

Lisa Birnbach Zoom chats with Billy Shore - Co-Founder of NO KID HUNGRY

Our guest this week, Billy Shore, runs NO KID HUNGRY, a campaign that is making sure children who were fed at school are being fed now that schools are closed. He is an expert on poverty and hunger, and cofounded Share Our Strength, which he still leads 35 years ago.

NOTE: If you are reading this, this is my written Blog. To LISTEN, please SUBSCRIBE to the Podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio – or wherever you get your Podcasts. It helps get my podcast noticed. And if you’d like to rate it as well, PLEASE DO!

Now, Lisa Birnbach’s Five Things that made her life better this week:

1. Cooking boo boos. Now that I’m a fulltime chef de cuisine, I’ve made some blunders. I made a cauliflower pasta dish that was just chalky. My partner made a meatloaf using rice instead of breadcrumbs that was …. Interesting. But there’s always wine during the Quarantine, and we’re learning.

2. Clementines. Whenever we go to the market, we pick up a bag of clementines or mandarin oranges. I never loved them as much as I do now. I guess they’re preventing my scurvy from staying inside.

3. My video doctor’s appointment. I had one yesterday and it was really good. First of all, my doctor’s office is way on the other side of town and in a hospital – which of course is now a COVID hospital. But the main thing I liked, is it felt like a house call. When we were little, sometimes our situations called for the doctor to come to our house in the evening, rather than risk our getting worse or inflicting our contagion on the other kids in the waiting room. The moment our pediatrician showed up I felt better. And if we were his last visit, my father would offer him a brandy or scotch when our examination was over. I couldn’t offer my doctor a brandy – it was the middle of the day, and she was at her apartment, but it had all those “feels”.

4. The videos that entertainers are offering nightly, daily, weekly – sure they love to entertain, they love an audience, but they are doing this for us, to give us diversions and enjoyment. It’s generosity. Check out your favorite performers on instagram or twitter !

5. Healthcare Workers, Essential Workers, and all the people at our hardware store and local market and all of the people still working those jobs. I thank them when I go out. I appreciate their efforts more than I can say. Will we ever be able to thank them enough?

Billy Shore’s 5 Things:

1. His family

2. Creating opportunities for others to share their strength

3. His bike

4. Being a volunteer firefighter

5. Writing

More About Billy Shore

Co-Founder and executive chair of Share Our Strength - parent organization for the No Kid Hungry campaign national nonprofit that is ending childhood hunger in America.

Website: www.ShareOurStrength.com

Twitter: @BillShore

Instagram @billshore

No Kid Hungry Instagram @NoKidHungry

No Kid Hungry Twitter @NoKidHungry

No Kid Hungry Website: www.nokidhungry.org

The 5 Things That Make Life Better podcast is recorded and produced by The Field in NYC

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EP 93 – with comedy writer Bess Kalb - World's funniest grandma ?

April 17, 2020

Hi Friends,

I hope you have been managing as well as can be. I have been staying inside my apartment for almost 5 weeks, and it’s starting to feel normal.

My guest this week is a talented humor writer whom I discovered in The New Yorker, and then met at a panel I hosted at our shared alma mater Brown University. Her name is Bess Kalb. Maybe you’ve followed her on Twitter or seen her on Jimmy Kimmel where she was a writer for eight years. Bess has written her first novel, an evocation of her grandma Bobbie called, Nobody Will Tell You This But Me.

One of my fears as we got used to living under an unpredictable and malevolent president was that we would begin to normalize our new reality. Even before there were life or death implications to staying home, we’ve been shrugging our shoulders as truths became “alternative facts”, as riots were caused by “some fine people”, and the double standards of a self-dealing family with no consequences became more and more brazen. I feel that my job is more “resistor” than podcaster, and sometimes it overwhelms me.

But since this is Five Things that Make Life Better, let me tell you what makes me feel better.

Lisa’s 5 Things:

1. You. You make masks, and raise money for food for those doing the saintly work in the hospitals and clinics. You applaud and strike pots and pans every night at 7 pm to express gratitude to the medical and essential personnel who keep your towns and cities operational. The actress and activist Celia Keenan-Bolger is part of a drive to provide dinners to essential hospital workers every night. You can give a little money to that effort. The link is here: https://www.mealtrain.com/trains/7yw221/donate

2. So many go over and above the call of duty. For example, Broadway star, Brian Stokes Mitchell has recently recovered from COVID. To show his thanks he now sings his trademark song, “The Impossible Dream” from his apartment window every single evening. You can see him here: https://www.nydailynews.com/coronavirus/ny-coronavirus-brian-stokes-mitchell-impossible-dream-20200413-mhwcn72drrhabiipzcgpactr2a-story.html

I just learned on Facebook that a friend’s son, who practices medicine in Louisville, is en route to New York to volunteer in an emergency room in one of our city’s overworked hospitals. It is vital, just now, to remind ourselves of the decency that is innate in almost everyone.

3. Making your bed every day. In telling you this I am reminding myself too. If we forget to make our bed in the morning, it sends me the message that I am only temporarily up and about. And yet, strangely enough it is not welcoming. The made bed says you are ready for the day.

4. Try to use your new exercise equipment every day, if only for a short time. (Note to self.)

5. Dr. Anthony Fauci. Whomever he officially reports to, he is our beacon of scientific truth. I am worried about his safety and health and so grateful that he appears on tv daily.

Bess Kalb’s 5 Things:

1. The hideous Fisher Price Rainforest Friends "Jumparoo" in my living room.

2. The "block" button on Twitter.

3. Rigatoni Bolognese from Speranza in Silverlake

4. Weekly walks with friends.

5. Begrudgingly, Alexa

MORE ABOUT BESS KALB

Nobody Will Tell You This But Me: A true (As Told To Me) Story By Bess Kalb

Website: www.BessKalb.com

Twitter: @BessBell

Instagram: @bessbessbell

The 5 Things That Make Life Better podcast is recorded and produced at The Field in NYC

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EP 92 – with Tim Gunn – The Future of Fashion and “Making The Cut”

April 10, 2020

Of course you can always listen right here, or for more episodes: at lisabirnbach.com/welcome .

Hi Friends.

It’s a sad day when coming up with five good things is impossible. I know I have an optimistic nature, and I admit buying a bunch of fresh basil put me in a better mood, until I looked at my phone to read the latest dire predictions in the COVID world. You could say, “don’t look at the news. Severely restrict your news intake.” Emotionally I could agree with you, but realistically I cannot. I am a communicator. I need to know what’s happening. And I can’t and won’t be an ostrich for the next 18 months. As a mother and a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a partner, a mother-in-law, and a friend, I have too many responsibilities to hide this one out. We’ve had friends and loved ones who have already been hospitalized and released, sick as dogs at home, and this is only the beginning.

As we know we’ll be hunkering down for much longer than was originally foretold, I wanted to present this interview with fashion mentor, teacher, and writer Tim Gunn.

You probably know Tim Gunn from his tenure on “Project Runway,” the 16 seasons-long fashion design competition show, winning an Emmy award and the admiration of myriad fans in the process. This month, Tim and his co-hosting and co-producing partner Heidi Klum are at the center of a new competition, that makes Project Runway look like small potatoes. The show is called “Making The Cut”, and this time the contestants are already professional designers, who travel around the world on assignments. The final prize is $1 million dollars. The show is available on Amazon Prime, where you can also buy the winning designs each week. The show is great fun and a great diversion now that you are, I hope, staying home.

Tim and I taped this podcast in late January, when we did not have a pandemic hanging over us like a permanent dark cloud. In retrospect, those were easy, happier days. Even so, Tim Gunn was tender and affecting, and let me just say, tears were shed. I am proud to share this interview with you all.

In the meantime. Stay home. It’s not hard to do.

The Five Things that made me happy this week:

1. More phone calls with more friends. Staying in much closer touch with my family.

2. Depending on my partner for so much, and his dependence on me. It’s a test, I suppose, which he is passing with flying colors.

3. Parmigiana cheese. It really goes on or in almost everything. Who knew?

Governor Andrew Cuomo and his brother CNN host, Chris Cuomo

4. The Cuomos. They are really filling the information gap with real facts, unlike the seepage of lies from the top of the federal government.

https://www.governor.ny.gov/

https://www.cnn.com/shows/cuomo-prime-time

Randi Rainbow

5. Randy Rainbow, the clever, hilariously-funny political song parodist who records new songs every week.

Tim Gunn. Photo credit: ScottMcDermott

Tim Gunn’s 5 (7) Things

1. A curious mind

2. Books

3. The Metropolitan Museum of Art

4. Empathy

5. Microwave popcorn

6. Dressing up

7. Fitness

Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn “Making the Cut”

MORE ABOUT TIM GUNN

Twitter: @TimGunn

Facebook: @TimGunn

Instagram: @TimGunn

Making the Cut TV Series:

Twitter: @MakingTheCutTV

The 5 Things That Make Life Better podcast is recorded and produced by The Field in NYC

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EP 91 – with Chris Lu - Surviving a pandemic.

April 3, 2020

Lisa Birnbach with Chris Lu, recording her podcast via a “Zoom” video call

If we turn our gaze to the more distant future, the future which is unknown both to you and to us too, we can only tell you this: when all of this is over, the world won’t be the same. I take this (non-paying) job seriously. I also take this COVID seriously. It’s bigger than all of us, and aggressive as hell. So at the moment, finding five good things isn’t too easy.

I have friends who are on the far side of this disease; have come out of the hospital and are recovering. I have loved ones who were sick at home. I have an old dear friend on a ventilator in a Connecticut hospital. And this is just the beginning. I am praying for you all and us all, and hoping one day we can look back to the time of COVID and know it was eliminated for good.

On the plus side, my guest this week, Chris Lu, is very knowledgeable about all things pandemic. As the Secretary to the Obama Cabinet, and later the Deputy Secretary of Labor, Mr. Lu was part of the team who helped in the transition to the Trump White House. Under his purview, he helped lay out “what to do in the event of a global pandemic” scenario to the incoming senior staff.

NOTE: I recorded my podcast from home, via the Zoom application, which has emerged as the go-to app for video conferencing, business meetings, family get-togethers, and podcasting. For the first time ever, you can actually watch the video interview on my YouTube channel HERE: https://bit.ly/LB91YouTube

Before I list my five things, I want to repost something I found on Facebook (a place I visit less and less). It was posted by my friend Naomi Foner, and it was written by the Italian writer Francesca Melandri. It’s a trenchant heads-up from Italy (two weeks ahead of us) on what to expect when we reach the apex of the disease.

Here’s the link to Francesca Melandri’s article as it appeared in English in The Guardian, and below it the full text. Read it: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/27/a-letter-to-the-uk-from-italy-this-is-what-we-know-about-your-future

I am writing to you from Italy, which means I am writing from your future. We are now where you will be in a few days. The epidemic’s charts show us all entwined in a parallel dance.

We are but a few steps ahead of you in the path of time, just like Wuhan was a few weeks ahead of us. We watch you as you behave just as we did. You hold the same arguments we did until a short time ago, between those who still say “it’s only a flu, why all the fuss?” and those who have already understood.

As we watch you from here, from your future, we know that many of you, as you were told to lock yourselves up into your homes, quoted Orwell, some even Hobbes. But soon you’ll be too busy for that.

First of all, you’ll eat. Not just because it will be one of the few last things that you can still do.

You’ll find dozens of social networking groups with tutorials on how to spend your free time in fruitful ways. You will join them all, then ignore them completely after a few days.

You’ll pull apocalyptic literature out of your bookshelves, but will soon find you don’t really feel like reading any of it.

You’ll eat again. You will not sleep well. You will ask yourselves what is happening to democracy.

You’ll have an unstoppable online social life – on Messenger, WhatsApp, Skype, Zoom…

You will miss your adult children like you never have before; the realization that you have no idea when you will ever see them again will hit you like a punch in the chest.

Old resentments and falling-outs will seem irrelevant. You will call people you had sworn never to talk to ever again, so as to ask them: “How are you doing?” Many women will be beaten in their homes.

You will wonder what is happening to all those who can’t stay home because they don’t have one. You will feel vulnerable when going out shopping in the deserted streets, especially if you are a woman. You will ask yourselves if this is how societies collapse. Does it really happen so fast? You’ll block out these thoughts and when you get back home you’ll eat again.

You will put on weight. You’ll look for online fitness training.

You’ll laugh. You’ll laugh a lot. You’ll flaunt a gallows humor you never had before. Even people who’ve always taken everything dead seriously will contemplate the absurdity of life, of the universe and of it all.

You will make appointments in the supermarket queues with your friends and lovers, so as to briefly see them in person, all the while abiding by the social distancing rules.

You will count all the things you do not need.

The true nature of the people around you will be revealed with total clarity. You will have confirmations and surprises.

Literati who had been omnipresent in the news will disappear; their opinions suddenly irrelevant; some will take refuge in rationalizations which will be so totally lacking in empathy that people will stop listening to them. People whom you had overlooked, instead, will turn out to be reassuring, generous, reliable, pragmatic and clairvoyant.

Those who invite you to see all this mess as an opportunity for planetary renewal will help you to put things in a larger perspective. You will also find them terribly annoying: nice, the planet is breathing better because of the halved CO2 emissions, but how will you pay your bills next month?

You will not understand if witnessing the birth of a new world is more a grandiose or a miserable affair.

You will play music from your windows and lawns. When you saw us singing opera from our balconies, you thought “ah, those Italians”. But we know you will sing uplifting songs to each other too. And when you blast I Will Survive from your windows, we’ll watch you and nod just like the people of Wuhan, who sung from their windows in February, nodded while watching us.

Many of you will fall asleep vowing that the very first thing you’ll do as soon as lockdown is over is file for divorce.

Many children will be conceived.

Your children will be schooled online. They’ll be horrible nuisances; they’ll give you joy.

Elderly people will disobey you like rowdy teenagers: you’ll have to fight with them in order to forbid them from going out, to get infected and die.

You will try not to think about the lonely deaths inside the ICU.

You’ll want to cover with rose petals all medical workers’ steps.

You will be told that society is united in a communal effort, that you are all in the same boat. It will be true. This experience will change for good how you perceive yourself as an individual part of a larger whole.

Class, however, will make all the difference. Being locked up in a house with a pretty garden or in an overcrowded housing project will not be the same. Nor is being able to keep on working from home or seeing your job disappear. That boat in which you’ll be sailing in order to defeat the epidemic will not look the same to everyone nor is it actually the same for everyone: it never was.

At some point, you will realize it’s tough. You will be afraid. You will share your fear with your dear ones, or you will keep it to yourselves so as not to burden them with it too.

You will eat again.

We’re in Italy, and this is what we know about your future. But it’s just small-scale fortune-telling.

We are very low-key seers.

If we turn our gaze to the more distant future, the future which is unknown both to you and to us too, we can only tell you this: when all of this is over, the world won’t be the same.

©️ Francesca Melandri 2020

This week my top five things are charities which are quickly deploying resources during COVID-19.

1. 1199 Home Care Workers:

Home Care Fund contact: Edwin Prosper: edwin.prosper@1199funds.org - (646) 473-8320

2. HELPUSA

https://www.helpusa.org/
Contact: Scarlet Watts SWatts@helpusa.org

3. New York State CoronaVirus - NY Health

https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/home

4. National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. - Dr. Fauci’s organization

www.NFID.org

https://nfid.z2systems.com/np/clients/nfid/donation.jsp

5. No Kid Hungry

https://www.nokidhungry.org/coronavirus

(https://www.nokidhungry.org/blog/how-your-donations-help-kids-affected-coronavirus)

Chris Lu - Senior Fellow, University of Virginia Miller Center

Chris Lu’s 5 Things

1. 10K steps every day

2. Twitter

3. Paid media subscriptions

4. Small businesses

5. Career government employees

More About Chris Lu

Twitter: @ChrisLu44

Senior Fellow - University of Virginia Miller Center

FiscalNote - Senior Strategy Advisor

The 5 Things That Make Life Better podcast is recorded and produced by The Field in NYC

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EP 90 – with RAGE BAKING authors Katherine Alford and Kathy Gunst

March 27, 2020

Honestly, I feel a little foolish trying to continue the exercise I began in the good old days of 2018. The reason I started this blog/pod combo was because I was so disappointed and feeling so useless in the days when Trump and his cronies were just always opting to do the wrong thing – always poised to help themselves and their investments first, and then maybe would pretend to think about working American (not immigrant) people second. NOTE: IF MY OPINION OFFENDS YOU, PLEASE UNSUBSCRIBE TO THIS RIGHT NOW. I WON’T BE INSULTED.

I’m writing this on March 23rd, and at this point 4 or maybe 5 people I know have been struck with COVID-19. And I’m sure the number will have risen since I typed this. I live in New York City, and we have become the epicenter of Coronavirus over the past week, our numbers tripling in as many days. I’ve been homebound since March 14.

That was the week I conducted this week’s interview with Kathy Gunst and Katherine Alford, who wrote this fantastic cookbook/reader: Rage Baking. They were enraged before it became trendy!

Do I mind staying home? No. It’s not a big sacrifice for me at all. It is, however, to many people in my life who need other people with them to do their jobs. What I object to is the attitude of the president, for whom no consequence will matter unless or until he ends up in prison (if he can’t figure out a way to pardon himself first). He makes me so angry I could bark.

Help corporations? How dare he! Help the people who are cowering in fear – with or without medical insurance – who have lost their wages and are having to do triage over food vs. medications for their family. Not to mention pay rent.

The good news comes from other places: a slew of doctors flew to Spain from Cuba, all to volunteer in that country’s hospitals; companies like Tito’s vodka and Estee Lauder, who are now manufacturing hand sanitizer, and Tesla, which promised to make ventilators. My friend Sara is using her time at home sewing face masks, as are other generous people with sewing machines. Then there are all the artists who are performing on Instagram and YouTube from their homes, singing in their bathrobes or sweatpants, giving, and giving, and giving – though they may not know when or where their next paying gig will occur.

There are good people, wonderful people. They constitute my top five of the week:

1. Governors Andrew Cuomo and Gavin Newsom. The two most populous states are fortunate that they have capable, compassionate people as their governors. These are men who believe in science and math, so they actually understand the enormity of this pandemic. Further they cherish human lives over the chance to make some money. They have become the leaders we need.

2. The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, which sends out a newsletter every day, which records the numbers of casualties and fatalities around the world. Numbers don’t lie.

3. My mom’s team. My wonderful mother is dependent on health care aides who live with her, and they are taking very good care of my progenitress. As I tell them, I am so grateful to them.

4. Rufus Wainwright. I don’t know him, but I love his music and his voice. Every day he makes a video of himself singing a song in his bathrobe. (I’ve seen 3 or 4 so far.) He calls these his “quarantunes,” and they help to pass the time.

5. Religious and meditation leaders on Zoom. I tuned into a prayer service last weekend, and found the experience moving. Watching the people congregating from their homes, participating in their own way, reminded me again, how we’re all in this together. Whether you are a believer or not, some of the zoom gatherings are helpful to buck us up, especially for those who live alone.

Kathy Gunst’s 5 Things:

1. Family, 2. Friendship, 3. Outdoors, 4. Food. Baking. Cooking. Chopping. Eating. Repeat. 5. The written word.

Katherine Alford’s 5 Things:

1. Being by/in/or on the water, 2. Quaker Meeting, 3. Cooking with/and for Friends, 4. NY's Chinatowns, 5. Spa Castle Korean spa in NYC.

Kathy Gunst:

Instagram @kathygunst

Twitter: @Mainecook

Katherine Alford:

Instagram: @katherine_alford

Lisa and Katherine taste Lisa’s Rage Baking experiment.

RAGE BAKING: The Transformative Power of Flour, Fury and Women’s Voices - A Collection of Recipes and Conversations for Our Time

By Kathy Gunst and Katherine Alford

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Rage-Baking/Katherine-Alford/9781982132675

Website: www.RageBakers.com

Instagram: @ragebakers

The authors have kindly allowed us to reprint one of their recipes here on the 5 Things That Make Life Better blog. Thank you Kathy, Katherine and Ruth! From Rage Baking: Oatmeal Cookies from Ruth Reichl

2 ½ cups instant oats

1 cup packed dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

Pinch of fine salt

1 stick unsalted butter, melted, plus more for buttering

1 large egg, beaten

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract.

Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Brush two cookie sheets with butter.

Mix the oats, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Add the melted butter and stir together with a wooden spoon. Add the egg and vanilla and mix until evenly moistened.

Drop slightly heaping tablespoons of the batter onto the prepared pans and flatten them with the back of the spoon. Bake until the edges of the cookies begin to brown, about 8 minutes. Let the cookies sit on the cookie sheets for a minute or two, then use a metal spatula to transfer them to a wire rack and let cool completely. If they stick to the cookie sheets, put them back in the oven for a minute, then try again. These cookies will keep in a tightly sealed container for up to 5 days.

Lisa Birnbach’s 5 Things That Make Life Better podcast is produced by The Field in NYC

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EP 89 – Lisa Birnbach’s Coronavirus Update

March 20, 2020

There is nothing funny or uplifting or better about life under the threat of the quicksilver spread of Coronavirus. Yes, we are all in the same fear together. COVID-19 doesn’t discriminate between nations, religions, socioeconomic levels, race, gender, environment, or species. It is after us all.

Writing this from home there is so much I want to tell you. I want to say that if we obey the agreed-upon protocols, we should be alright, but I know that doesn’t remove the terror. It doesn’t remove the worry about family members who are sheltering away from us. It doesn’t protect us against the sadness over missing key milestones in our loved ones’ lives: birthdays, graduations, bar & bat mitzvahs, weddings, funerals.

What’s most frightening to me is the information crisis. In a country that has to constantly ask itself, “Is the president lying?”, we have no idea what the true story of this disease is. We do know that this administration undid the epidemic funding that was in place under President Obama. We know that Trump lied when he said there were only five cases in this country and they were all “getting better.”

If we knew we were going to be homebound for six months, wouldn’t it be better to know now, rather than getting information in dribs and drabs – 2 weeks -- no 5 weeks -- no through the summer—no, till Christmas? Then we wouldn’t book flights that will be cancelled, we could titrate our expectations, and perhaps rejigger our patience for the isolation that has only just begun. (I don’t know about you, but in the good old days, I’d rather know that a flight was running 3 hours late before I headed to the airport, than hear about it in quarter hour increments, in an overcrowded airport waiting area.)

Flying. Vacations. Parties. Movies. Concerts. Meeting a friend for coffee. Going to the gym. Working with your colleagues at the office. These pleasures are gone for now, and we will have to make the best of that. For now, let’s do something safe and call one another on our phones (their OG purpose, after all), because hearing a loved one’s voice can be so reassuring. Let’s connect by letter (post offices are still open), and use the social and cybermedia that we have to check in with one another.

Being angry and afraid is fine, but in the long-run, not sustainable. Know that I’m thinking about you, and will be here, online, for fans of the podcast and the 5 Things blogs.

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Now, sheepishly, I offer my five things for this week:

1. If you like opera, the Metropolitan Opera in New York is streaming operas daily.

2. The 92nd Street Y, with its storied talks, readings, and celebrity interviews is streaming those programs online as well.

3. Various museums are offering virtual tours of their galleries online for free.

4. Books! Make a new stack of the books you have at home that you always meant to read, and start reading them.

5. Love. It transcends phone lines and ethernet. It will sustain us through hard times.

Next week we’ll be back with our interview format. Our guests will be the authors of Rage Baking - The Transformative Power of Flour, Fury, and Women’s Voices, Kathy Gunst and Katherine Alford.

This podcast is produced by The Field, in NYC

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Ep. 88 – with Jesse Kornbluth - Sex, Lies and JFK

March 13, 2020

NOTE: If you are reading this, this is my written Blog. If you enjoy LISTENING to the podcast, please SUBSCRIBE, RATE and REVIEW the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio – or wherever you get your Podcasts. Every positive review helps new listeners find our show. THANK YOU!

Lisa Birnbach and Jesse Kornbluth in the Studio at The Field

I have 2 months’ worth of oat milk in my fridge and am awaiting a delivery of 5 bottles of antibacterial hand sanitizer. Am I crazy? Wait. Don’t answer that. We are entering even a more dystopian period than I have ever known, and my brief, my assignment to come up with five things that make my life better – an exercise that I have grown to appreciate – is going to be harder than usual.

Our guest this week is writer Jesse Kornbluth, long time magazine writer, novelist, screenwriter, and man about town. His new novel is about President John F. Kennedy and his alleged long-time mistress Mary Pinchot Meyer.

I really really want to give you my list of five things that made my life better this week. I’m going to need a moment.

The 5 Things that made my life better this week:

1. I like that my iphone or is it AT&T notifies me when a telemarketer calls and even screens many spam calls. That’s a time and annoyance saver that I appreciate.

2. I saw the first half of the play “Inheritance” on Broadway this past Sunday. In a whirlwind 3 hours and 15 minutes I experienced the excitement, hilarity, rage, and despair of a group of gay male friends in 2017 and 2018. The writing, by Matthew Lopez and Stephen Daldry’s direction made it riveting and moving.

3. And move I did, like a banshee when I recognized Mayor Pete and Chasten Buttigieg a couple of rows in front of us. I stepped on my boyfriend’s foot and trampled a couple of other people sitting next to us in order to go and pay my respects to this wonderful patriotic couple. It made the play even richer for me. And frankly I was glad that the Buttigieges made time for themselves to enjoy this play. It’s closing this weekend (March 15). If you can see it somehow, do.

4. Writing Assignments. I’m writing a couple of feature stories right now; one for a magazine, and one for The New York Times. I am enjoying the experiences so much. It’s a different kind of pleasure to conduct interviews off the air. But I feel lucky when I get to write for a large audience.

5. Two of my exhibits ™ are celebrating their birthdays this week. Exhibit A and Exhibit C are interesting, vibrant, original, intelligent people. Happy birthday my loves!

JESSE KORNBLUTH’S 5 Things

1. Driving his17 year-old daughter 20 blocks to school.

2. Reading real books - not kindle, movies with subtitles, movies in the theatre and Turner Classics.

3. The off-season.

4. Whatever he’s writing now.

5. Whatever he’s about to write.

Book cover Cut Out - JFK and MARY MEYER.jpg

MORE ABOUT JESSE KORNBLUTH

His Book: JFK and Mary Meyer: A Love Story - By Jesse Kornbluth

Website: www.JesseKornbluth.com

Twitter: @JesseKornbluth

Twitter: @headbutler

Facebook: @JesseKornbluth

Facebook: @headbutler

Instagram: @jessekornbluth

The 5 Things That Make Life Better with Lisa Birnbach podcast is recorded and produced at The Field in NYC

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Ep. 87 – with Joe Lockhart – Lisa Birnbach’s Five Things That Make Life Better

March 6, 2020

What are you looking forward to? I mean aside from stockpiling anti-bacterial wipes and the election to be over? Just kidding, but sometimes the world seems to be intruding on our private joys and woes. I look at pictures of past presidents and remember how shocking it was to see how profoundly they’d aged – visibly aged – in their four or eight years in the Oval Office. That’s how I feel about the last three years about myself.

Today’s guest knows that office space well. Joe Lockhart was Bill Clinton’s Press Secretary during Clinton’s last two years, as you recall, the really really difficult ones. A fascinating career followed (not that it was shabby before), and he worked with John Kerry, the NFL, Facebook, and his own consulting and lobbying firm, Glover Park. These days Joe Lockhart hosts a wonderful podcast, “Words Matter” and is a contributor to CNN.

The 5 Things that made my life better this week:

1. Pete Buttigieg’s speech about withdrawing from the presidential race. It was so measured and so eloquent. He never seemed as presidential as then; so did his husband, Chasten, whose moving introduction, filled with emotion seemed like the perfect “First Spouse” or whatever we will call him one day. If a Democrat does win the 2020 election, I would not be surprised to see Mayor Pete as our Secretary of Defense or Ambassador to the United Nations. He’s a patriot and a hero to me. I know this is just the beginning of his trajectory.

2. Cooking with Ghee. Exhibit B ™, who may be lactose intolerant, first told me she cooked with ghee, which is clarified butter, known as something used by the Ayurvedic in India. It has much less lactose than regular butter, and Ghee has a higher burning point than standard clarified butter, which means it is ideal for frying or sautéing foods.

3. The New Yorker. I read one issue almost cover to cover on my flight to Los Angeles and another one on my flight to Washington, D.C. You don’t necessarily know what will interest you; often it’s the writing that draws you in, regardless of the subject matter.

4. Community in tough times: Monday morning I went to the supermarket to stock up in case Coronavirus closes down our city. Even though our huge supermarket (by Manhattan standards) was packed; even though many of the shelves were picked clean – (pasta, pasta sauce, and sodas in particular) – there was a sense of camaraderie which I never feel there. Often people push and are rude. This time we became buddies. “Should I buy Fritos?” “Why the hell not?” We waited on a very long line to pay for our groceries and it was a kumbaya experience.

5. Youth. Not my waning youth, but spending time with college students, now a group that’s pretty much younger than my own exhibits ™. I spent the weekend at Georgetown University for an article I’m writing, and I enjoyed their earnestness. And I met some very funny kids.

Joe Lockhart’s 5 Things

1. His family

2. Maine

3. Political passion

4. Friends

5. Cold beer

MORE ABOUT JOE LOCKHART

Twitter: @JoeLockhart https://twitter.com/joelockhart

Twitter @WMM_podcast https://twitter.com/WMM_podcast

The 5 Things That Make Life Better podcast is recorded and produced at The Field in NYC

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Ep. 86– with Congressman Harley Rouda – Lisa Birnbach’s Five Things That Make Life Better

February 28, 2020

Lisa Birnbach and Congressman Harley Rouda

I’ve been thinking about the debate over a free press. On the one hand, democracy and our Constitution demand it. On the other, those who don’t like what the press writes denounce journalism as fake news. And then, there are the tabloids, which are absolutely unethical, and really aren’t considered journals of record. They are trashy entertainment, for readers who love to take swipes at their idols and watch them crumble. Tabloids – even if they are written or edited by graduates of accredited journalism schools – should not be confused with journalism. They are sensationalist purveyors of schadenfreude and thrills. Real journalists like Julie K. Brown at the Miami Herald, Twohey and Kantor at the NYT, Bob Woodward, Philip Rucker at The Washington Post … there is just no comparison. What the tabloids do in the UK is so much worse, if possible than mere catch and kill, as Ronan Farrow has explained in his book of that name. They hound celebrities and physically crowd them so that they cannot pass a street, a door, a car without being almost trampled. That is no way to live. Sensibly, the British have admitted they must rethink laws surrounding paparazzi.

My guest this week is freshman Congressman Harley Rouda, Democrat of California’s 48th District in Orange County. He defeated the longtime incumbent Dana Rohrabacher in a very close race in 2018. He is a good man.

The 5 Things that made my life better this week:

1. “My Name is Lucy Barton”, the play, based on the book by the same title. A tour de force of Laura Linney, a respected actress who I think is still undervalued. She’s remarkable as Elizabeth’s Strout’s heroine. The adaptation is wonderfully faithful to the book and the show is on Broadway. Just before the lights dimmed, I heard someone in the audience say, “I hear they brought the whole cast here from London.” Well that is true, but the whole cast is Laura Linney.

2. Democracy. It feels so good when it works. When you gather with people who know right from wrong. Who know how the system works, and feel a collective ache when it’s misused or abused. The 100 people who gathered with me in Los Angeles were just like any 100 people who could have gathered in a New York living room too. They were also wearing black.

3. Lt. Colonel Alexander Vindman. I have learned through the digital grapevine that his synagogue is now accepting mail for him, if you feel like writing. The address is here: execdirector@adatreyim.org

4. Harvey Weinstein’s guilt. He didn’t get the most severe sentence, but thank goodness he will be in jail for the foreseeable future. He will probably also be tried in the courts of Los Angeles and in London. This is a message to all predators out there. You may feel you can do what you want to whom you want. You may hire the most expensive goons to harass and intimidate your victims. But in the end, if you treat people miserably, you may face karma. Also, no one fell for your prop walker.

5. My friend Heidi. One of the most positive and joyful friends I have, who’s gotten hit with a bevy of crises all at once. She’s strong, she’s smart, and she will pull through. I know it and I want her to feel proud of herself as I am of her.