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A
Hello. You're about to drift into an episode of the Nightly, a podcast designed to help you unwind and relax. For the full phone free immersive light experience, visit Hatch Co. Enjoy. All right. I'm Mat.
B
Hi, I'm Sophia. Welcome to the Nightly from Hatch, a slumber party for pop culture lovers. How are you, Matt?
A
I'm not too bad.
B
I thought you were gonna say not too good. I got scared.
A
I was close, but then I thought, what's the point?
B
You had a glass half full moment. It could have gone either way.
A
Yeah, it's sort of a. What's the opposite of see through?
B
Opaque.
A
Opaque. I'm an opaque cup. Kind of die.
B
Wait, what do you mean?
A
I'm not even sure how full.
B
You can't even see. Totally. Totally.
A
Yeah, it's. It's a. It's a real surprise to me every day, but I'm all right. I've just. I've been in London a lot the past couple of weeks, and it's just too many people, isn't there?
B
How long were you there?
A
Only like three times a week.
B
Okay.
A
But I found a new system where I can drive to, like, the outskirts and then I get the new tube line in. Okay. Which is a real treat, the Elizabeth line, because it doesn't. It doesn't stink of urine.
B
Oh, thank God.
A
Because it's new and it's got air conditioning.
B
Oh, my gosh.
A
So that's been a real treat, I have to say.
B
Okay.
A
But it's still. The people are still there.
B
Yeah, that. Unfortunately, that's not going to change whether or not the people are there.
A
Yeah, unfortunately, there's not enough space anywhere. No, no, it's just too dense. But of course, you know, I'm moaning, but it's a nice position to be in. How are you?
B
Yeah, I'm good. There's, of course, a lot of people in New York as well, but actually, like, where I live now is much quieter than where I was before, which I enjoy. It's like a bit more residential, but otherwise I'm good. I'm just. I'm just hanging out. I'm hanging out with my friends and my cats.
A
Nice.
B
But I don't really know if I've had any, like, any amazing things happen to me.
A
I think hanging out with your cats is spectacular. That's good.
B
I know. It actually is. And the other day they were both, like, laying on top of me at the same time, like, very close to one another, which was really exciting because they don't. They don't Often do that.
A
Yeah. That's sweet, isn't it? It's the kind of thing that you always want to happen with a cat, but I know. Just don't. I found that whatever you want a
B
cat to do, they don't do it.
A
Generally speaking, it'll do the opposite. So.
B
Yeah, it really depends. They often do what I want them to do, but sometimes they really don't do what I want them to do. Sometimes they do really bad things.
A
Really bad things. Credit card fraud, stuff like that. Yeah.
B
Yes. Yeah. Yes. Sometimes they do, like, white collar crime, and I'm not like, super into that, but I let them work on it because it's like their passion project or whatever. But it's a living I keep. Yeah, it's okay. Yeah. They have to support themselves, is the agreement. And I don't ask any questions about how they do that. Basically.
A
Yeah. You're not in a position to, are you?
B
No. They're bringing home the bacon. They keep the lights on around here.
A
Right. Well, Safiyah, tonight we're gonna try and help each other if we can try and fix some small life problems with a segment that we're calling Hack Me if youf. So, Sophia, what's a small problem that you could use a hack for?
B
The thing I've been thinking is, like, I like to carry around my different drinks that I have.
A
Sure.
B
And. But I really don't like to have. It's. It takes up a lot of space. Like, I have oftentimes when I'm the kind of like, literal thing that I'm running into. But I. But who knows? Is like, I have my bottle of water and then I have like a protein shake, and it's like two big vessels. And I kind of have my idea. We can talk through it. But I do think that they. We should make some type of, like, some type of water bottle or bottle thing that has. Is like a cylinder with different. Different, like three cylinders, maybe that stack on top of one another and make up an entire bottle.
A
Okay.
B
Do you know what I'm saying?
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I get that. But I'm guessing it would have to be if you wanted to maintain the same amount of liquid as you.
B
I know that's what's hard.
A
You'd have to make it really. Either really tall or really wide.
B
I don't want that.
A
Which would probably be worse.
B
Yeah, it's like. It's like a. It's like, wait, is this the right reference I'm about to make? It's like a didgeridoo does that mean anything to you?
A
Yeah, yeah, the really long.
B
And that was. Right.
A
Yeah. I've got a. I've got a cousin who I think for a while was a professional didgeridoo player.
B
I have these memories of, like in middle school or elementary school. Like, this guy would just like, come and like, play his didgeridoo for us. That is like something that happened to me growing up that I don't like, necessarily know why, but it was cool.
A
So not someone who went to the school, just a touring school. Didgeridoo. Yeah.
B
Yeah. Maybe it was honestly like someone's dad or something.
A
Yeah, well, you'd hope so.
B
You would hope so.
A
It's quite a strange. Strange career choice otherwise.
B
I hope someone knew him.
A
Yeah, I think we're on Earth in some stuff here.
B
Yeah. But, yeah, that. No, you're right. We definitely run into a problem of like, now. I don't want. It's not like. Instead of like three vessels, I want one giant vessel. I kind of want like one vessel that is a normal size, but somehow contains all of the liquid I could possibly need throughout the day.
A
I see what you mean. So you sort of want to compress the liquid rather than enlarge the container.
B
Yeah, I need a shrink ray.
A
Interesting shrink ray. Yeah, that's. That is one option. I don't know where we get hold of them.
B
Yeah, I wonder. I think they probably also have this. So I don't know how practical it is. Almost like water bottle bags. Do you know what I'm talking about? It's like a kind of Like a. Kind of like what a Capri sun comes in.
A
Oh, yeah. I was looking at. I started running again this week to try and, you know, stop me from murdering anybody in cold blood. So I run now three times a week to keep. Keep the voices quiet. But I was looking at, you know that you can get like. I don't know what you call them. They're sort of like waistcoats, but they
B
come with like the running vest, you mean?
A
Yeah, like a run. Yeah, running vest.
B
But is it long sleeve, short sleeve? It just goes over and they have all the compartments and stuff and it's
A
got like a water pouch which they.
B
Yeah, yeah.
A
Unattractively call a bladder. You could buy it with a bladder that you drink from.
B
I feel like they didn't need to call it that.
A
Yeah, I mean, call it anything else.
B
I liked water pouch.
A
What you just said water pouch works. So is that the kind of thing you mean, like.
B
Yeah, I guess so. I Just have pro. Everything that I come up with I have a problem with, which is that that thing doesn't keep anything insulated and seems difficult to clean.
A
That is true. As soon as it's even a slightly warm day. Because you're going to have body heat as well going into that.
B
Yes, yes.
A
Unless you want to carry around a lot of soup. Sort of room temp.
B
That's definitely one of the things I'm trying to carry around.
A
Yeah, I know what you're like. Every time I see you, you're always out with huge bags of soup.
B
Yeah, exactly. That's like my thing. Wait. Okay. I'm interested in your running vest.
A
I didn't get it in the end cause I thought it was slightly overpriced for what it was. And also I saw it was modeled on these kind of long distance runners in the pictures. And I thought they look a bit ridiculous. So if I were to put it
B
on, I certainly wouldn't look.
A
I can't even imagine. I wouldn't be able to go out the house. I'd be so embarrassed.
B
How long are you running for?
A
Around. Well, I thought I'd start like a half marathon training thing.
B
Oh, okay. Okay. Okay.
A
Just to see if I could still do it.
B
So you can do it.
A
I think I've got about. I think it's three months is the program. So this week I did a five mile and then two, three miles. And I think next week is like a six mile.
B
See, that's when you're gonna want the vest.
A
Yeah, I remember last time I did it though, I just didn't. Cause water's hard to carry. I just didn't do it with a drink. But I think that's probably quite reckless. So we're anyway coming back to your problem. We are in sort of the same boat.
B
But the water pouch works for you. I think.
A
I think the water pouch would work for me because I've just got the single liquid. Where you're gonna run into trouble is the multiple.
B
I do think that probably the water pouch is the best solution for me. Unless we can think of something completely new, which is kind of where my shrink ray comes in to play. But it just doesn't seem feasible or
A
you can get like a lot of powdered things now. So you could have water in one section.
B
Yeah.
A
And two drops underneath. Powdered protein. I think these exist. I'll just send you a link.
B
Okay. Just link me.
A
Problem solved.
B
Okay. You know what? We hacked it. That's perfect. Do you have an issue that we need to that you need solving as well.
A
So many.
B
Of course, one.
A
That. One that I ran into in real life yesterday was my. My girlfriend was on, like, a zoom meeting because she was working from home and I had to leave for a gig. But I thought, you know what? I'm gonna try and be really helpful.
B
Yeah.
A
Which never ends. I don't know why I bother. I should learn. But I put the Hoover around, and then I thought, there's washing on the dryer. I'll take that off and I'll put the washing that's just finished on the drying rack. And then when I got home, she was just like, what? What is wrong with you? I was like, what do you mean? She said, well, all the washing that you folded up was wet. And I was like, no, it wasn't. I would have noticed that.
B
I definitely would have noticed.
A
Yeah. It's still. I mean, even like eight hours after the fact, it was still wet, but I hadn't realized how wet was it. Wet enough.
B
Like damp.
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You wouldn't want to wear it for sure. You wouldn't want to put it in a cupboard either, because it would get moldy.
B
I mean, I've had, like, a similar issue. I am. I really am interested in the degree of how wet it was because sometimes you do, especially when clothes are hot. I feel like you do sometimes. I've had it where I take them out of the dryer and then I get back to my apartment and I'm like, you know what? Like, these are damp. They're never, like, wet enough that it's like, a real issue. But I am like, this is not fully dry, but I just couldn't tell in the moment. Or sometimes things dry at different rates. Whatever.
A
That is a problem coming out of dryer.
B
Yeah, of course. But I am fascinated if you were pulling out, like, sopping wet clothes, being like, this will do.
A
Well, I mean, they must have been pretty wet if they were still wet eight hours later. But I think because we've got the drying rack.
B
But if you folded them, that also would have kept the moisture in. So devil's advocate.
A
Do you know what? That's really true. Yeah, that's very true. Yeah. So actually, it wasn't as bad as maybe I first thought, but it's because I think the drying rack was. It's out in the conservatory, which. It's so kind of temperature sensitive in there. Like, if it's a bit hot outside, it'll be roasted in there. If it's a bit cold outside, it'd be freezing in there.
B
Is that like a greenhouse?
A
Yeah, like a greenhouse, but attached to the house.
B
Oh, okay, okay, okay. Or like a sun room or something.
A
Yeah. If I was, if I was rich, I'd call it an orangery or something.
B
Oh wait, you'd call it a what?
A
An orangery.
B
An orangery.
A
Is that what people call it?
B
Well, I think that's what British people call it. I've never heard of that.
A
I could be completely wrong about that.
B
Okay.
A
That's for like big manor houses. They'd have like.
B
Should I look it up?
A
Yeah, like a giant greenhouse to grow in. Like grow citrus fruit in.
B
I'm consulting our encyclopedia here in the pillow fort and an orangery is a glass walled building or conservatory designed to grow citrus trees and other exotic plants in cool climates. So you're right. A conservatory is a glass walled building that creates light filled living space. Okay.
A
Yes. Yeah, yeah. So it's lightly orangery, but instead of citrus trees it's got like a drying rack and an old printer in there.
B
Perfect. That's like what it was meant to be used for.
A
I think so it's practical, it works. But it was slightly cold, so. Yeah, yeah, the washing was cold. And I think it's those two extremes, isn't it? Both hot and cold. It's hard to tell whether the washing's dry or not.
B
I see. Oh, yeah, yeah. Okay. I'm trying to think of an amazing solution for your problem, if you would. I mean there's one. You. Do you guys have a dryer and a washer?
A
We only have a washer now to have a dryer.
B
Okay. Well one solution that is expensive is you could buy a dryer because sometimes they have. I was going to say they have a sensor on them and it'll tell you when they're. When it's dry. But sometimes, honestly that sensor doesn't work. And I'm going to put that out there and I'm going to be truthful about that.
A
I've never heard of that before. That's. In theory. That's great.
B
I know, but they'll have like sensor dry and it's like the idea is like they'll stop drying your clothes once your clothes are dry. And that is actually the most often. That's often the time when I'll like do that. And then I go get my clothes and they're still damp. I feel like I'm wondering if there's some type of like simple piece of paper where it's like you put the piece of paper Inside of a piece of clothing, if it comes back wet, you know that they're too wet to fold.
A
Okay. Yeah, yeah. I can see the.
B
You could also use your hands, your other senses as well.
A
That's the problem. You would think that's the easy answer, isn't it? But for some reason, my hands don't work. So I think the paper could be. If you could find a paper that's
B
like a thin, kind of like a filmy paper.
A
Yeah. But somehow has the same properties of like a. I don't know, a woolen jumper or something. Like something quite thick. So if that's dry, then the thickest clothes will also be dry.
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah, if that exists.
A
I'm fully on board with that.
B
You're on board.
A
Because I was thinking of some quite, like, elaborate color changing, like fabric. But that would mean that you'd have to.
B
But all your clothes have to be made out of that fabric then, huh?
A
Yeah. So you have got to replace the entire wardrobe, which would be more expensive than a dryer.
B
That's more expensive, for sure. We have to make that fabric, and then we have to develop that fabric, and then you have to also make all of your clothes out of that fabric. It would be a long process.
A
It's lengthy and expensive, that, isn't it?
B
It's quite lengthy and expensive.
A
I think ultimately probably that the real solution to all of this is that I need to stop trying to help now. Be the root of all my issues.
B
No, no, come on.
A
You know. You know as well as I do that you do a job badly once and you're off the forever.
B
I think the real solution is that you slow down, probably.
A
Yeah, yeah. Actually, that's lovely. Yeah.
B
But you don't like that one as much.
A
It's just such a boring thing to do, isn't it? Do you. Do you put anything on? Like. Do you have, like, headphones on or something? Do you listen to it while you fold?
B
Yeah, well, the thing about my life is that I go to a laundromat too, so I definitely am. I'm walking there with headphones and I'm listening to something. I'm folding the clothes while I'm at the laundromat. Putting them back in the bag, taking them home. The thing that I honestly put off doing is taking them out of the bag.
A
Sure.
B
And then I just have clean clothes sitting in a bag for a couple of days, usually.
A
That's not the end of the world, though, is it? As long as they're dry.
B
As long as they're dry. And they're often dry because I'm so scared of them not drying that I definitely set the timer for longer than it needs to be set.
A
Yeah, yeah.
B
It would be a bit annoying, honestly, especially where I live, to have a washing machine and no dryer here. Because then I'm hanging up so many clothes and I can't even imagine how I'm, like, drying my sheets. I would have to get whole contraptions.
A
That tends to be a radiator job.
B
Oh, yeah, yeah. Okay.
A
That's to hang the bed sheets over radiators. Yeah. And then in the summer, just bang it outside. It's fine.
B
Yeah.
A
Is that a choice, or is that because you haven't got a washer where you are?
B
I don't have one in my building, so there's a Laundromat that's like, right around the. Right around the street or around the corner. But I would love to have. I would love to have a washer and dryer in my apartment. But we've had this. I've had this discussion on here before, which is that I'd prefer to have a dishwasher. Then if I had my pick, I would have a dishwasher over having a. Or wait, no, maybe I would have. What? Which one did I say? And I was so opinionated about it. Now I forget. Which one would you have?
A
You were so opinionated that you've forgotten.
B
And now I'm like, maybe I would rather have. I don't know.
A
I was right there with you when you said dishwasher. But actually, yeah, the more I think about it, I think washing machine is. It's got to be that to be fair. Washing, like dishwashing, that's the closest I get to meditation. I think it's quite nice.
B
The dishwashing is pretty fast also. But the problem is that I do the dishes so much more than I do my laundry. And that's. That. That's the kind of issue that I'm running into in deciding, do you have a dishwasher?
A
No, I am a dishwasher. Yeah.
B
Okay. Okay.
A
I. We like. Whenever my girlfriend's away, it's great because I'm so economical with my use of cut.
B
I know, it's really interesting. I like that. I like that game that we can play. I do that in my apartment too, where I'm like, and I'll reuse this plate.
A
Yeah.
B
And I'm using paper towels for as plates all the time as well, whenever I can.
A
Paper towels for plates. That's a new One, if it's like
B
a snack or something like simple that's not like messy. I'm like I'm gonna put that on a paper towel. I'm not gonna put that on a plate.
A
Have you thought about paper plates?
B
I. It just that and it's silly cause I use so many paper towels probably. But I feel. Well I, I don't think, I don't feel compelled to use paper plates. I think one, cause I'm like that's feels wasteful even though I'm doing the paper towel thing. And two, just vibe wise I'm not really feeling a paper plate as much.
A
Always feel like you're at a child's birthday party.
B
Yeah, exactly.
A
With the paper towel. That's always like you're eating a sort of cake from a party, isn't it? That's always.
B
Yeah. Yeah. I was doing paper plates for a while after I broke my arm because it was annoying to wash things and it is nice to just throw stuff away but it feels a bit like okay, let's, let's be adults here. Let's be adults about this and eat it on a paper towel.
A
It's the grown up thing to do.
B
Yeah, yeah. It's a respectable thing to do.
A
Well on that note, thank you very much for your solutions, Sophia. That's. Is it going to change my life? It might change my life. I need to give myself more time.
B
Yeah, give. Slow down. That'll change. If you, if you take that into account, that could meaningfully change your life.
A
I am, I am going to start right now by going to sleep. So this has been great but I'll, I'll see you next time.
B
Good night to everyone.
A
Sa. To learn more about our phone free light and audio experience, head to Hatch Co. You can also follow us Hatch Podcasts.
Hosts: Mat (A), Sophia (B) – Hatch Podcasts
"Didgeridoos & Damp Clothes" is a cozy, conversational episode of The Nightly, designed to help listeners unwind at bedtime with playful banter and pop culture-infused problem-solving between hosts Mat and Sophia. This week, the duo tackles small, relatable life hassles—how to schlep multiple beverages with minimal fuss, and the age-old question: “Is my laundry actually dry?”—all while spinning off into whimsical detours about cats, running routines, and uniquely British glasshouses.
The conversation is breezy, witty, and gently self-deprecating, with dry British humor (Mat) and a playful New York charm (Sophia). Their digressions—cats, didgeridoos, running, and domestic foibles—feel like the friendly repartee of a late-night phone call between friends.
“Didgeridoos & Damp Clothes” captures the small (but universal) obstacles to grown-up coziness—transporting too many beverages, the eternal confusion of damp laundry, the value of a well-placed paper towel, and the ongoing quest for life hacks that are more fun than functional. The episode’s gentle humor and practical brainstorming, punctuated by musical didgeridoo memories and debates over British architecture, make for a warmly rambling bedtime hang.