Podcast Summary: Post Reports

Episode: Strangers showed us their Notes app. Here's what we learned.

Host: Colby Itkowitz
Guest/Co-Host: Elahe Izadi
Date: December 4, 2025

Main Theme

This episode explores the secret lives of smartphone Notes apps, uncovering how people use these digital notepads for everything from lists and reminders to recording deeply personal thoughts. Reporter and co-host Elahe Izadi shares her experience of asking strangers to open up their Notes apps, revealing what these glimpses show about the way we live, remember, and connect.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Notes App as a Digital Diary

[01:13–02:33]

• The Notes app is described as "a little piece of technology that helps us keep track of our lives," functioning as both utility and confessional.
• Elahe Izadi: "It's like this full collection of the totality of our lives." (03:37)
• The app is simple but powerful, available on over 2.35 billion Apple devices, and serves as a blank canvas for thoughts too fleeting or private for social media.

2. The Reporting Experiment: Asking Strangers to Share Their Notes

[04:08–05:16]

• Izadi approached people in Washington, D.C., and over the phone to ask if she could see their Notes app.
• She was surprised by how willing people were to let her look, despite the private nature of their notes.
• Colby Itkowitz: "Your Notes app is just for you... the fact that people let a Washington Post reporter just like, scroll through their phone—who knows what they'll find?" (04:56)

3. What the Notes Reveal—From the Ordinary to the Deeply Personal

[05:17–07:38]

• Many notes were mundane: packing lists, groceries, passwords.
• Others offered intimate glimpses:
  • Sasha Taskier kept her kids' teachers' coffee orders to give thoughtful pick-me-ups, showing care and attentiveness.
    • Elahe: "It just told me something immediately about her and how she moves through the world." (06:40)
  • Christopher Davis, 24, had a coffee order and a note reading "the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit," capturing the sacred and the mundane side by side.
    • Elahe: "The juxtaposition of those two things, like the holy and the banal, like that's life, right?" (07:01)

4. Using Notes for Support and Survival

[07:38–09:40]

• Olivia Norman used the app to privately document her breast cancer diagnosis and chemotherapy. She recorded symptoms, fears, and milestones as a way to process and remember, without subjecting herself to outside commentary or blame.
  • Olivia Norman: "I didn't want to be blamed for something that I couldn't control. It was a very private thing." (07:57)
  • Elahe: "It's a different type of nostalgia when you read what you wrote in the moment of going through something... it's like you're looking back at your past and like, if only that person knew what was coming." (09:09)
  • Olivia: "I never want to think about it, but if I ever get a recurrence, I know exactly what was done the first time." (08:57)
• These moments show Notes as both journal and historical record.

5. Innovative and Surprising Uses

[12:04–15:36]

• Some use Notes as a social memory bank:
  • Michael Lussier keeps a note for every friend—"birthdays, day we met, milestones, details to follow up on"—to be intentionally present in relationships.
    • Elahe: "It's his way of bringing a level of intentionality and that he can be really present with someone when he's with them." (14:02)
• Others use it for emotional prep:
  • Drafting difficult texts, emails, or conversations.
  • Colby: "I also use it for the first draft of, like, really hard conversations..." (14:45)

6. Notes as Artistic Workspace

[15:36–16:38]

• Creatives draft ideas, set lists, or song lyrics.
  • Elena Torres, comedian: "Usually the best joke ideas don't come when you're, like, sitting at your desk... or when you have a pen and paper." (15:43)
  • Elena: "I have one that's just titled '10 to 12 deep.' And that's it. I don't know what that means... but some of her greatest jokes started as a note like that." (16:07)

7. Nostalgia, Memory, and Digital Ephemera

[16:42–18:46]

• Colby and Elahe discuss differences between digital notes and physical journals.
• Concerns arise about digital memory loss over time—emails, text drafts, and Notes vanish, leaving gaps in the "archive" of a life.
  • Elahe: "It raises this question of, like, how will our future selves in the future... what will be their understanding of what it was like to live our lives right now if so much of it exists digitally?" (17:19)
  • Colby: "All of those college emails... are gone. I do wonder, like, will my grandchildren someday... they're not going to be able to see..." (18:24)
  • Elahe shares a story of a friend keeping a breakup draft that was never sent—now part of a love story.

8. Turning the Experiment on the Reporter

[19:05–20:22]

• Colby asks Elahe to read from her own Notes app.
  • Elahe shares a grocery list, loan calculations, and a note: "grief brings you back to your love of life."
  • Elahe: "Someone said something to me that really struck a chord, and it was worth writing down." (19:59)

9. Notes as Personal Keepsakes

[20:22–21:07]

• Colby shares a treasured note she saved from her late father:
  • "Just be the best you can be in whatever they hand you. It will work out. Be patient." (21:00)

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On the profundity of kids:
  • Colby (sharing her daughter's song lyric): "The odds aren't great, but the evens aren't perfect either." (00:54)
• On the Notes app's blend of personal and mundane:
  • Elahe: "The juxtaposition of those two things, like the holy and the banal, like that's life." (07:01)
• On digital memory and loss:
  • Elahe: "These things are ephemeral in a way that physical paper and pen are not." (17:19)
• On Notes as keepsake:
  • Colby: "Whenever I have a hard moment, I open up that app and I feel like he's right there. He's telling me that again." (21:00)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Introduction / Notes App as Diary: 00:01–03:37
• Asking Strangers for Notes: 04:08–05:16
• Intimate Glimpses in Notes: 05:17–07:38
• Notes as Health Diary (Olivia Norman): 07:38–09:40
• Innovative Uses—Social Intentionality: 12:04–14:02
• Notes for Drafts and Artistry: 14:45–16:38
• On Digital vs. Physical Memory: 16:42–18:46
• Host Shares Own Notes: 19:05–20:22
• Notes as Emotional Keepsakes: 20:22–21:07

Tone & Style

The conversation is warm, exploratory, gently humorous, and empathetic—revealing not only technical or lifestyle insights but also emotional truths. Speakers use a personal, reflective, and inviting tone, inviting listeners to consider their own habits and memories.

Conclusion

The episode turns the seemingly mundane Notes app into a mirror for modern life, capturing everything from forgettable lists to unforgettable feelings. By peering into these digital nooks, the hosts and their interviewees highlight a surprising depth—and prompt listeners to reflect: what do your notes say about you?