229 – Our third to the last episode! In this installment of Downers, we answer listeners' emails and hear about Kate's big vacation! Kate's in quarantine, in Hong Kong, and has much to report about it. Also, along the way, we learn all about Jack's sofa grandfather (#sofagrandfather). Finally a look back: Jack's Composting Bin. For people who are just listening to Downers for the first time, Downers is a podcast about sadness and sometimes Korean food!

(Editor's note: sorry this came out so late. OATS was sunsetting.)

Plugs this week:

(Hao)
(Jack)
(Kate)

downersradio@gmail.com • /r/downersradio • @downersradio on instagram and twitter • https://hrf.org

228 – As Kate and Hao pack up parts of, or all of, their lives in preparation for the next month of their lives, we check in with them to see how they pack and what they pack. Along the way, they hit on big-issue topics like wet clothes and ransom.

As a brief aside, many of you who read the episode descriptions over these past four years may think that they are written by one of the hosts; but, in fact, they are written by me, Loam Quigley. I haven't always written podcast episode descriptions—no, I started my life as a street food vendor, selling seasoned slices of agave on the streets of Hyderabad. When dial-up internet became commonplace, I joined an internet forum of likeminded people, who were interested in writing pithy, concise descriptions of audio files. We didn't know it yet, but we were all honing our skills for the rise of podcasting, which would eventually take over our lives and rend our friendships apart. With Downers coming to an end, I'm not sure where the winds will take me next. The Summer Olympics is ending in Tokyo this week. Most athletes will go home, but some, a select few, will fall in love with the city and stay behind to forge new lives and loves. That community of expats will need well-traveled guides to aid them: someone to clean the house, someone to make spiced agave nectar. Someone to describe their podcast episodes. In the meantime, I bid you farewell, dear reader. I have trained a blockchain-based artificial intelligence agent on all 228 of my episode descriptions, and it will be taking over my duties. I hope we will meet again on some other RSS feed some other day. It's been a pleasure to serve you. My name is Loam Quigley, and I love Wednesdays and midnights.

Plugs this week:

Ransomware (Hao)
Aloha Collections' splash-proof travel bags (Kate)

downersradio@gmail.com • /r/downersradio • @downersradio on instagram and twitter • https://hrf.org

Downers: Recent Episodes

Jack, Kate, and Hao

228 – As Kate and Hao pack up parts of, or all of, their lives in preparation for the next month of their lives, we check in with them to see how they pack and what they pack. Along the way, they hit on big-issue topics like wet clothes and ransom.

224 – Local NYC politics AND a sensual take on New Pokémon Snap take focus on this week's episode of Downers. Why is Professor Mirror so thirsty for our photos? Call us at 3252-2109-66 and leave a voicemail.

220 – As a followup to the massively successful Sims episode, Kate and Hao decide to SLAY THE SPIRE. We journey deep into the spire in an attempt to kill The Heart on ascension 20. Also: Downers' new social media outgrowths; quinoa; and mean-heartedness on Twitch.

198 – Well, the gifting season is upon us, or it was when we recorded this anyway. In this episode, we explore gifts you could be giving to your loves, or common archetypes from monomyth, this winter season. It's never too late to give a gift, or a bullet, to someone! That's the Downers motto.

197 – Downers is expanding! We're launching a slate of 10,000 other podcasts, and this episode will be the upfronts/previews for all the content in our pipeline. Hear clips from your soon-to-be-favorite shows like The United Nations and Sad Soups. It's really good.

192 – Who are you in those first few moments when you wake up each day? This question we pose and attempt to answer in this hour of Downers. We also explore and further Kate's husband's struggles with sleeping next to Kate. Also: mud, soups, being in Hong Kong during the U.S. elections.

179 – Jack talks about his dream jobs. And then we talk about dreams in general! Also: homeopathic heating pads, bacon grease, kisses, and aliens. You can truly never talk too much about aliens. How can we use tarot as a way to explore our desires and fears?

178 (177 is experiencing some technical difficulties) – Twitch emotes! We've all seen them, but what to they really mean? The Downers private investigators are on the case. Some of them are mean!!! Some of them are nice. Also: fruit-forward breakfasts, tea houses, and five cups of ice.

169 – Quarantine houses! We've all seen the memes, now we get to hear the episode. First, we take a quarantine house quiz. Then we make our own! Yes, that's right, the content practically generates itself.

168 – Part of working with other humans is conflict. It's natural! How do YOU deal with conflict? In this episode, Jack and Hao take a quiz that Kate had to take at work. We find out how often, and to what degree, we use aggression, avoidance, and compromise to resolve conflicts at work.

167 – WHAT IF YOU HAD TWO BODIES INSTEAD OF ONE

166 – This is sort of a grab bag episode. First, we take a trip through the notes Kate took in her production notebook! Second, we do a Liquids Draft: Which liquids would you have on YOUR team? #LiquidsDraft Third, a coronavirus update. #StaringIntoTheVoid #LifeIsOffTheRails

162 – Some people are just plain happier, on a day to day basis. What's that all about? How can we quantify happiness? Is the pursuit of happiness futile? Only a special after-dark episode of Downers can answer, or guess at, these questions.

151 – From a Seattle bathroom, Hao calls in to discuss the sadness of flying in these United States of America. Then, in act two, we role play as two samurais trying to enter a spa. These are TWO, UNIFIED ideas that make up a CONSISTENT episode.

149 – Kate went to a night zoo in Singapore. In this episode, we dive into her experience there, and we discuss the sadness of crepuscular animals. Also, we check in with Kate's tonsils! Also, we plan our own night zoo.

147 – Kate went to Singapore and Cambodia, and we, as custom dictates, discuss. We also assign power rankings to each of the Bon Appétit chefs. It's that kind of episode. Plus, another exciting installment of Downers Tabletop RPG.

144 – We are all simultaneously turning thirty in the next six months. It's time to itemize, prioritize, and scrutinize the many things we have yet to accomplish. JOURNEY WITH US. Also, Christmas decorations!

142 – Take this New York Times article and add three charismatic podcast hosts, and you might get this episode! We talk Antonio Garza's YouTube channel, metamodernism, and how incredibly small Jack looks on his new webcam.

141 – Kate went forest bathing! She felt rocks as if they were a lover. She has much to report. We also talk flu shots! Jack has a new video camera!

138 – We devote the hour to the Bhagawan Shree Rajneesh's cult. We talk cults! We talk about the streak of individualism in the fabric of America's identity! We talk salad bars!

137 – Jack and Hao make a spreadsheet! It has three columns: things where you must kill something, things where you might kill something, and things where you won't kill something. We also tackle interesting physics problems, like dropping a knife from an airplane that's turned off its engines.

134 – Kate and Hao talk about the myriad of ways we try to make ourselves, to trick ourselves, into feeling better when we're sick. (In this episode, Kate's actually sick, which lends the show a real air of authenticity.) We're also going to talk about Korean food.

131 – No Downers this week! Here's an episode from a completely unrelated podcast called I HEART* NY by two people named Hao and Veronica!

129 – Crisis Crisis Crisis We wake up, one day, in a world without recycling. How are our lives different? This is the type of question that only our podcast is brave enough to tackle. We talk babushkas spoon-feeding borscht. We talk nuns vs. monks. We investigate the issues of today!

124 – Cat allergies? A party game called FORTUNATELY, UNFORTUNATELY?? What a content-packed episode! This episode was recorded during the Manhattan power outage of 2019, which gives it a spooky, dystopic tone.

123 – Microdosing psychedelic drugs is all the rage, maybe, these days, but what OTHER things should we be microdosing? Dust, perhaps?? We devote the hour to weighing in on this important topic!

119 – It's just Hao this week! We're gonna really get into it. We're really gonna tear it up. WHALE SONGS. THE NEWS. TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT: DOGS.

116 – Beefs! We all have past mistakes that haunt us. In this hour, we squash some of our beefs. Also, in the B-plot, we discuss hygiene. What's up with the shower industry, and the marketing around it? Only on Downers could an episode format this innovative make its way to your ears.

113 – We break our rule about current events to talk about places of worship. In light of recent horrific events, we cannot help but feel compelled to say nice things about them. Just Jack and Hao on this episode. Kate will be back next week!