Patreon Preview #307: Chatterbox 24

Summary

Hey Riddle Riddle Podcast Summary Episode: Patreon Preview #307: Chatterbox 24
Release Date: January 24, 2025
Hosts: Adal Rifai, Erin Keif, John Patrick Coan

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Introduction to Chatterbox 24

In this exclusive Patreon preview episode, the hosts of Hey Riddle Riddle—Adal Rifai, Erin Keif (referred to as Mariah), and John Patrick Coan (referred to as Gemma)—dive into a candid discussion centered around their New Year's resolutions and personal growth ambitions. The conversation sets a relatable tone as they explore themes of self-improvement, minimalism, and breaking daily routines.

Embracing New Year's Resolutions

The episode opens with the hosts contemplating the concept of New Year's resolutions. Adal kicks off the conversation with an enthusiastic suggestion:

Adal (00:02): "Why don't we go ahead and do a Chatterbacks adol?"

Mariah expresses her desire to reconnect with the group:

Mariah (00:10): "I feel like I have not caught up with my guys in forever. What the hell is going on, guys?"

Gemma humorously questions the popularity of New Year's resolutions:

Gemma (00:18): "New Year, New us. Nobody here does New Year's resolutions, do they? Not really."

Adal encourages the group to declare a public resolution:

Adal (00:28): "Let's publicly state a resolution right now that we're all absolutely going to adhere to."

Cultivating Reading Habits with the Libby App

Gemma shares her commitment to reading more, leveraging the Libby app to access a plethora of ebooks conveniently:

Gemma (00:42): "I have been reading more books and I'm trying to continue that into the new year... I've been reading a lot of fantasy books."

She elaborates on the flexibility the Libby app provides:

Gemma (01:10): "It's just like the library, but you can do it for ebooks. And then I can read them on my phone... I was reading fantasy books that had a thousand pages... but I was reading."

Adal injects humor into the discussion about carrying extensive book collections:

Adal (01:29): "I think Bruce Banner can hold a thousand page book. I don't think he needs to turn into the Hulk to carry a thousand page book."

Gemma further discusses the nuances of choosing books:

Gemma (01:40): "Sometimes I'll read a book and not really love it, but I wanted to read it anyway... I don't necessarily love all the things that I read."

Navigating Library Resources and Digital Rights

The conversation shifts to the strategic use of multiple library cards to maximize access to digital books. Gemma explains the benefits:

Gemma (02:28): "You can check out books from different libraries if you have access to different cards. People min max this shit so that they can have 13 books checked out at the same time."

Adal reflects on the complexities of digital library systems:

Adal (03:04): "It seems insane that you would run out of digital copies of a book."

Gemma touches on digital rights and library memberships:

Gemma (03:22): "You can buy guest passes, like annual memberships to the library. So you could have better access to both."

Adopting Minimalism and Reducing Consumption

Mariah shares her journey towards minimalist living, emphasizing the reduction of unnecessary purchases:

Mariah (04:10): "I'm trying to live way more minimally. I did a huge purge of my house at the end of December."

She highlights specific areas of focus, such as minimizing food and toiletries:

Mariah (04:45): "I just want empty drawers and I want to buy less food... only having one shampoo at a time."

Gemma expresses her admiration and humorously contemplates applying similar habits:

Gemma (05:17): "Would love to tell my wife about one shampoo at a time."

Enhancing Culinary Practices with Meal Kits

Adal discusses his aim to cook more at home, reducing reliance on takeout:

Adal (05:30): "We're trying to as best we can, like cook at home, make meals versus putting Jimmy John's kids through college."

Mariah adds her experience with meal delivery services:

Mariah (07:38): "We’ve been using the purple carrot meal delivery thing... it's all vegan, which is pretty cool."

Gemma notes the benefits of incorporating more vegetables into their diet:

Gemma (08:44): "It certainly has vegetables in it. You certainly are eating vegetables."

Breaking Routine with Advent Calendar Activities

Adal introduces a creative strategy to disrupt monotonous daily routines using an advent calendar box filled with diverse activities:

Adal (06:06): "We're going to roll a D20 every day... and then we're going to do whatever the box contains."

The proposed activities range from practical tasks like home repairs to engaging pastimes such as playing board games or discovering new restaurants, encouraging spontaneity and variety.

Mariah praises the idea, while Gemma shares the practical challenges of executing such plans in Chicago's harsh winter:

Mariah (06:44): "That's such a good idea."

Gemma (06:46): "It's also so hard to do, especially in Chicago in the wintertime too because it sucks outside."

Reducing Processed Sugar Intake

The hosts delve into their efforts to cut down on processed sugars, addressing the psychological challenges of dietary changes. Gemma explains their gradual approach:

Gemma (08:44): "We were like, we gotta get back into, like, the cooking habit... but we're, like, slowly getting rid of it and not replenishing it."

Mariah humorously remarks on their unintended increase in sugar consumption during the transition:

Mariah (09:28): "You're eating more sugar than ever before."

They recount a relatable incident involving Girl Scout cookies, illustrating the temptations faced during such lifestyle adjustments:

Gemma (09:48): "We have a bunch of girl scout cookies and I think I'm gonna hide these somewhere in the house and then hit myself in the head really hard so I won't know where they are."

Concluding Remarks and Humor

The episode wraps up with light-hearted banter, reinforcing the camaraderie among the hosts. The humorous exchange about hiding cookies serves as an entertaining close to their heartfelt discussions on self-improvement and lifestyle changes.

Mariah (10:09): "Well good luck."

Gemma (10:09): "1234 hey riddle riddles Click Listen to the rest of the episode now by starting your free 7 day trial at patreon.com heyriddle riddle."

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This episode of Hey Riddle Riddle offers listeners an intimate glimpse into the hosts' personal goals and the strategies they employ to achieve them. From embracing minimalism and enhancing culinary skills to fostering reading habits and reducing sugar intake, Adal, Mariah, and Gemma provide relatable insights and practical advice. Their authentic conversations, peppered with humor and camaraderie, make this preview episode both engaging and inspiring for fans and newcomers alike.

Transcript

[Adel]

Why don't we go ahead and do a Chatterbacks adol?

[Mariah]

I would absolutely love that idea. Cause you know what?

[Adel]

What?

[Mariah]

I feel like I have not caught up with my guys in forever. What the hell is going on, guys?

[Gemma]

New Year, New us. Nobody here does New Year's resolutions, do they? Not really.

[Mariah]

Does it seem like I do?

[Gemma]

What's the opposite of a resolution? Like a New Year's Devil getting worse.

[Adel]

I feel like being resign unraveling this year. Let's publicly state a resolution right now that we're all absolutely going to adhere to.

[Gemma]

Can I tell you it's not really a New Year's resolution because I probably started this like two months ago, but I have been reading more books and I'm trying to continue that into the new year. That's great. I don't know if.

[Mariah]

What have you read?

[Gemma]

I've been reading a lot of fantasy books. I have the Are you guys on the Libby app, like the library app that you can read books on your phone thing?

[Mariah]

I am not, no.

[Gemma]

Okay.

[Adel]

Gemini has that though.

[Gemma]

Yeah, it's just like the library, but you can do it for ebooks. And then I can read them on my phone, which I like because I was reading fantasy books that had a thousand pages and I don't love hulking around a thousand page book everywhere. But I was reading.

[Adel]

I think Bruce Banner can hold a thousand page book. I don't think he needs to turn into the Hulk to carry a thousand page book.

[Gemma]

But wouldn't it help?

[Adel]

You got me there.

[Gemma]

I just read two Cory Doctorow books and he does like. I guess he kind of does sci fi, but these weren't really sci fi. They were just like modern fiction. And now I'm in the middle of another one which is sci fi. And it's longer. It's called Walk Away. Which the reason I don't really like to talk about books that I'm reading is because sometimes I'll read a book and like, not really love it, but I wanted to read it anyway, you know, So I feel like I read a lot, but like, I don't necessarily love all the things that I read. Not to say that his book isn't great or that he's not a good author. I know Corey, he seems like a fun, cool dude, but. Yeah, but sometimes I read books that are just like not my vibe and I don't really gel with. But I've been reading more and I'm continuing that into the new year and the Libby app has helped a lot. And then I'VE also seen. I don't know if you guys. Well, you guys probably haven't because I just started talking about the Libby thing. But there are people that have like different library cards because the Libby app you can have multiple library cards. I don't know why it would be the case that you could do that. But like you can rent or like check out books from different libraries if you have access to different cards. It's a whole thing. People min max this shit so that they can have 13 books checked out at the same time. If it's a popular book, you'll be like, I want to read it from the library. And they'll be like, great, you're 150th on the list. You have to wait a year for the book or whatever.

[Adel]

It seems insane that you would run out of digital copies of a book. But I know that Gemma last year at some point used her parents address in Brooklyn to get a Brooklyn Libby card or something. And I was confused about that. But now that makes sense. Sense if it's like availability or whatever.

[Gemma]

My brother in law, it's also like a digital rights issue, I guess. My brother in law works for a library in Florida and he was telling me that you can buy guest passes, like annual memberships to the library. So if you want to pay money for it, I could get a library card at his library in Florida for the non state resident price or whatever too. So you could I think do that to like also have better access to both.

[Adel]

Up your odds.

[Gemma]

Yeah, yeah, but if I want to get a library book from Florida, it's going to have all of the Florida book banning restrictions on it. And I actually don't think that's true.

[Mariah]

It's going to be covered in alligators.

[Gemma]

What about you? Does anyone else have anything that they're trying to bring into the new year?

[Mariah]

I too am trying to read more. I just finished Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow.

[Adel]

Ooh, love that book.

[Mariah]

It fucked me right up. Yeah, turns out. But I do want to read more and I'm also just trying to like buy less of everything. Like I really am trying to streamline.

[Gemma]

Eleven eggs, five bagels, yes, one sock, one Twix.

[Mariah]

I'm trying to live way more minimally. I did a huge purge of my house at the end of December.

[Adel]

One hour a year, you can kill whatever you want in your house.

[Mariah]

Yeah, Lou and I killed a lot of stuff. Mostly every guest that walked in. But I really want like, I just want empty drawers and I want to buy less food. Than I think because I just want to focus on like food waste and yeah. Not buying any more than I need. Like toiletry wise, like only having one shampoo at a time. Wow, that's working on that.

[Adel]

Love that.

[Gemma]

Yeah. Would love to tell my wife about one shampoo at a time.

[Mariah]

Yeah, get her, get her, get her ass. Adel, what are you trying to bring into the new year?

[Adel]

Two things I can think of. One is that we're trying to as best we can, like cook at home, make meals versus putting Jimmy John's kids through college. If Jimmy John's has kids, I think.

[Gemma]

He does and I think they're awful.

[Adel]

Oh, well, that's all the more reason to stop ordering Jimmy John's. And then I'm also. I feel like a lot of times I get stuck in routine every day where I'm like, oh, I sit at my desk for six hours and do this or check on email replies and business, whatever that is. So I'm trying to break out of routine a little bit. So I got this advent calendar box with like a bunch of drawers.

[Gemma]

Okay.

[Adel]

And so Gemma and I are like writing little things, like little maybe half hour to two hour activities and putting them in the box. And we're going to roll a D20 every day, or not every day, but whenever we have the impulse or the free time. And then we're going to do whatever the box contains. So it might be.

[Gemma]

Oh, that's fun.

[Adel]

It might be like, let's watch a video on like how to repair something around the house for half an hour or let's play a board game or let's go for a walk or let's take a drive and try and find a new restaurant we haven't tried. Which immediately goes against my let's cook more at home rule. But just trying to break up routine with more sort of new input.

[Mariah]

That's such a good idea.

[Gemma]

That's a very good idea. And it's also so hard to do, especially in Chicago in the wintertime too because it sucks outside. And it's like to want to be like, I want to go do something. And then you're like, okay. And then I have to put on all these clothes and then like have.

[Adel]

A car warm up.

[Gemma]

And then it's like, okay, then I have to get inside a building as quickly as possible. Like, what can I do that gets me inside of the building as quickly as possible.

[Adel]

Yeah, I think it's going to turn into a lot of like, make pants for the cats, like stuff. It's Just little projects around the house.

[Mariah]

Well, that sounds kind of awesome.

[Gemma]

Tell me that you wrote every drawer.

[Mariah]

Is make pants for the cats 20 times.

[Gemma]

Jim was so thoughtful about yours. Hers. You crushed yours in six minutes. You're like, make pants for the cats. Make pants for the cats. Eventually, you just started running. Cats, pants, cats, pants, cats, pants.

[Mariah]

Any other resolutions, or.

[Gemma]

This is not a resolution per se, but along those same lines. And this is, I guess, not an ad, but I think Adel, you were the one that clued me into. It was like, the purple carrot meal delivery thing that you did for a little while. Yeah, Mariah and I have been doing that for a few months now. Just, I think, like, the smallest one that they have, which is like two. Two meals a week. But it. Cause we were like, we gotta get back into, like, the cooking habit. And it would be, like, nice to have a meal kit. And it's all vegan, too, which is pretty cool. But we've really enjoyed that. That's been really nice. And it's. And it has helped us, like, cook, you know, a little more. Yeah. Especially when you're, like, cooking for a kid. Like, you're like, okay, like, I gotta, like. I need some brain juices flowing to think of, like, more things that I can feed a kid.

[Adel]

Yeah, it also. I feel like purple carrot, when we were using, it felt, like, healthy or at least healthier than stuff. But I guess any vegan or vegetarian is gonna be a little bit healthier, I think, than most stuff.

[Gemma]

I don't know how healthy healthy it is, but it's like. It certainly has vegetables in it. You certainly are eating vegetables.

[Adel]

It felt better than if I was eating an Italian beef every day.

[Gemma]

Yeah, you should say that twice a day. Jimmy John's ordering. It's much healthier. But we've been trying to. We were like, in January, we want to, like, try to, like, reduce our processed sugar intake. But then we were, like, going through the house. Erin. Food, waste, and looking at all the things that we had that had, like, processed sugar in them. And we were like, okay, we don't want to throw away all of this stuff. We just want to, like, not buy new. We don't replenish the processed sugar, you know, so we're doing this thing where instead of just, like, cutting it off cold turkey, we're, like, finishing the shit in the house that, like. No. Like, binging on everything that has processed sugar.

[Mariah]

You're eating more sugar than ever before.

[Gemma]

Than ever before. But we're, like, slowly getting rid of it. And like not replenishing it so that we're like out of processed sugar. And then the other day we got a knock on the door and it was a girl scout who was selling girl scout cookies. We're like well we're not gonna be the fucking assholes that don't buy any girl scout cookies from the one that's coming to your door. Selling things door to door is hard enough and I'm not gonna do it for like the bug spray people but I'll do it for the girl scout cookies. So then now we have a bunch of girl scout cookies and I was like I think I'm gon hide these somewhere in the house and then hit myself in the head really hard so I won't know where they are and we can continue living without them.

[Mariah]

Well good luck.

[Gemma]

1234 hey riddle riddles Click Listen to the rest of the episode now by starting your free 7 day trial at patreon.com heyriddle riddle.