Add to Cart with Kulap Vilaysack & SuChin Pak

Episode: The Best of Add to Cart: Zouk’s Cubes CUBED (International Travel)

Date: August 26, 2025
Guests: Jason Mantzoukas (guest host, Zouk’s Cubes takeover), Kulap Vilaysack, SuChin Pak
Key Theme: The zen and art (and neuroses) of packing for international travel – the gospel according to cubes, pouches, bins, and pouches once more

Episode Overview

In this lively, irreverent, and deeply tactile edition, comedian/actor/podcast king Jason Mantzoukas takes over “Add to Cart” for the third time with “Zooks Cubes Cubed: International Edition.” SuChin and Kulap (mostly SuChin for this episode) join Jason in a deep dive on the micro-engineering of packing for international travel: packing cubes, bags, pouches, gear, and philosophical divides about what makes for emotionally and practically successful international travel prep. Packing as personality, as personal satisfaction, and as pure pleasure.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Packing Philosophy: No Checked Bags, Maximum Mobility

• Jason’s Rule: For almost all travel (excluding specialized trips like skiing), Jason aims to never check a bag.
  • “My goal is always check, no bags. Period.” (04:38, Jason)
  • For solo or light travel: backpack + roller carry-on, all meticulously packed and cubed.
• Family Travel Reality (SuChin): With kids, checked bags become inevitable, especially on long international trips.
  • “I go there with no checked bags and I come back with four checked bags.” (05:43, SuChin)
• Packable/Expandable Bags: Both endorse bringing lightweight, packable totes or duffels (Matador, Peak Design, Hyperlite) for the inevitable shopping at your destination.
  • “It’s so much better than buying bags there… when you’re on the road, if you’re like, I gotta buy something to ship stuff home, you end up with something crappy that falls apart.” (06:49, Jason)

2. Packing Rituals & the Joy of Bins, Cubes, and Piles

• Phased Packing: SuChin packs in phases over months—buying, testing, then segregating into “hefty garbage bags,” eventually making the final cut.
  • “I start to buy things, test things, and squirrel things away way in advance. Because once it goes into the hefty garbage bag and needs to be duct taped, it’s been vetted.” (09:33, SuChin)
• Jason’s Ritual: Packing begins with “the tarp” at home: lay everything out, hone selections, then cube up.
  • “I sent you a picture of all my cubes on a tarp… once I get it down to only what I’m going to bring, that stuff goes on the tarp. So now I’m only cubing and packing what’s on the tarp.” (11:13, Jason)
• Pouches & Bins System: Jason has multiple labeled bins at home (“pouches,” “miscellaneous,” “tarp,” etc.) to store and organize bag accessories, backup towels, and more.
  • “This is one of, like, ten bins of different things… the tarp lives in one of the bins.” (13:32, Jason)

3. Gearhead Corner: Specific Picks and Systems

• Jason’s Boasts:
  • Roller bag: Rimowa Cabin Plus (hard shell).
    • “I’m on the road a tremendous amount… I bought an expensive, burly ass suitcase that I can beat up and it will not fall apart.” (15:20, Jason)
  • Backpack: Tom Bihn Shadow Guide (“35 liters, can hold a lot”), or Tom Bihn Techonaut, or Evergoods Travel Bag.
  • Packing Cubes: Evergoods & Matador are favorites; cubes are color-coded by contents, packed Tetris-style.
  • Packable Bags: Hyperlite tote (made of waterproof Dyneema), other Matador duffels.
  • Tech pouch: Evergoods small pouch for gadgets.
  • Tarp: To set up a non-contaminated “packing zone” at home.
• Redundancy: Always packs backups (flashlights, towels, bags, etc.)
  • “One is zero, two is one, three is two.” (45:18, Jason)

4. Packing Styles: Methodical vs. Chaotic (or ‘Finger Shoving’)

• Jason: Everything in cubes, everything puzzle-pieced with “nothing loose.”
  • “All my underwear, my sleep shorts, my T-shirts, they go in one Evergoods zippered packing cube… I operate out of the cubes.” (19:24, Jason)
• SuChin: Aspirational order undone by last-minute additions (“finger shoving”).
  • “Sometimes a bag starts off where rolling works and then I add something and now suddenly I can only lay things down flat… there’s always something last minute that I’m not going to unroll and reorganize everything, it’s just going to have to be jammed, finger jammed into the edges.” (59:27, SuChin)
• Playful shaming from Jason:
  • “Suchin, respectfully, that’s madness.” (57:47, Jason)

5. Laundry and Item Counts on the Road

• Underwear & Socks:
  • Jason brings only 5-6 pairs for three weeks, sends them to hotel laundry or hand-washes with a paracord clothesline. (25:55, Jason)
  • SuChin brings way, way more (up to 20 for a 10-day trip), but often just buys new ones abroad (“something has happened, I miscalculated”).
• Laundry Rituals: SuChin always washes underwear before wearing, Jason doesn’t, Kulap admits she just puts things on as-is.
  • “Guys, I don’t wash anything. I just put it on and then I wash it after.” – Kulap (30:20)

6. Personal Comfort: Pillows, Bean Bags, and the Age of Preferences

• Both Jason and SuChin bring or buy specific pillows filled with barley or bean husks for sleep comfort.
  • “I just, this trip was like, I’m dangerously close to… just buying the pillow I know I like, sending it there, sleeping on it and letting them throw it away… I cannot do this shit anymore.” (54:23, Jason)

7. Travel Hygiene and In-Flight Survival Strategies

• Plane Rituals: Jason unpacks a tote-within-a-bag (“Tom Bihn tote”) with everything needed for the flight—noise-canceling headphones, iPad, chargers—at his seat, stowing everything else away.
  • “I pull just this tote with everything I need for the plane ride, put it on the seat, put my backpack up above… hang my tote bag off of the seat in front of me.” (37:24, Jason)
• Sanitization: Wipes down everything, refuses to eat food prepared on planes for sanitation reasons.
  • “You know, guess what? I don’t want food prepared less than 4ft from a toilet… Every galley in every airplane would get an F from the health department just by proximity.” (38:31, Jason)

8. Packing with a Partner – Must Philosophies Align?

• Jason is tolerant if partner has their own system, unless their disorganization wastes trip time for errands:
  • “If it becomes a situation where it’s like, ‘I don’t have [item], I need to go to a store’… now I’m annoyed, now we’re wasting travel time doing errands. This should have been figured out.” (48:11, Jason)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

“You can load them up like burros… you can use them as pack beasts.”
—Jason, on traveling with older kids (05:42)

“Buying cheap bags, nothing makes me more furious. Nothing.”
—Jason (07:21)

“People are gross. They’ll try things on in the store without underwear on or whatever and then put it right back.”
—Suchin, on why she always washes underwear bought abroad (30:35)

“What kind of suitcase?” “I don’t even know. It’s a soft kind of suitcase. It’s a great suitcase.” —Jason & SuChin, on her laissez-faire packing choices (61:45)

“The juice of life is chaos.”
—SuChin, on her freewheeling packing style (61:31)

“I find real pleasure in… gotten it all in there. And… blackout in Telluride… I had in my possession seven flashlights.” —Jason, gleeful about redundancy (51:16)

“I could finger cram your panties into a pouch, Suchin. I could finger cram your panties into a pouch.”
—Jason (28:28)

“That neckerchief should have a home… you should know where to get neckerchiefs.” —Jason’s horror at SuChin’s last-minute packing (57:57)

“I make love to my suitcase every chance I get.” —SuChin (61:33)

“If I pulled something out that I hadn’t worn in a very long time, would I wash it before wearing it? Maybe, maybe. But probably not always. Only if it was like… no. Because I feel like if it’s put away right, it’s clean. But I will not wear anything—if I am going to put on clean underwear fresh from a shower and the clean underwear falls on the ground, I will not put it on. It’s dirty now.”
—Jason (32:41)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 03:53 Zooks Cubes takeover begins: “Best cubes, pouches, packs, and gear for travel.”
• 06:09 The value of packable totes and buying extra bags at destination.
• 11:13 “Tarp talk”—Jason’s home packing system starts.
• 15:20 Gear specifics: Rimowa, Tom Bihn, Evergoods.
• 25:19 How many underwear/socks to bring? Laundry strategies.
• 37:24 Jason’s plane organization hack (tote at seat, bags stowed).
• 38:31 Why Jason refuses airline food.
• 45:18 Redundancy philosophy: “One is zero, two is one, three is two.”
• 51:16 Telluride blackout—Jason’s packing vindicated (“I had seven flashlights”).
• 54:13 The pillow/barley beanbag saga.
• 57:47 Jason’s respectful condemnation: “That’s madness.”
• 61:31 The juice of life is the chaos of travel packing.
• 62:11 Did SuChin become a convert to cubes?

Tone and Language

• Lively, playful, sometimes ribald (“finger shoving,” “finger cramming panties in a pouch,” pillow confessionals)
• Deeply obsessive, but always loving: packing as self-expression, satisfaction—even sensual pleasure
• Geeking out over gear, but warm in friendship—good-natured shaming, but ultimately mutual admiration for loving whatever works for you

Takeaways

• There’s no single way to pack “correctly”—it’s about joy and comfort (psychological and physical).
• If you crave order and control, cubes and pouches offer bliss and backup; if you thrive on chaos, let your suitcase become a soup of secret snacks and last-minute scarves.
• Pack for your own pleasure; appreciate or at least tolerate your travel partners’ neuroses.
• And, most importantly—always, always, consider pillow logistics.

Further Resources

• Check out all the bags, cubes, and pouches discussed on their Instagram: @addtocartpod
• Listen ad-free and catch bonus content on Lemonada Premium.

Endnote

Cube responsibly. And remember: “You’ve been cubed.”