Listen to Our New Podcast Finders and Keepers
We launched 4 episodes on our attachments to our belongings, from a world-traveling teddy bear to the allure of Costco to Deesha Philyaw's book collection and unwanted inheritances and baby mementos
Big news: Today we launched our podcast Finders and Keepers, about our emotional attachments to our belongings! We’ll be covering everything from collections to keepsakes, minimalism, maximalism, hoarding, and everything in between. Hosted by Open Secrets Magazine editor-in-chief and recovering hoarder Rachel Kramer Bussel, Finders and Keepers is available on all major podcast platforms and going forward, Open Secrets subscribers will get 1-2 new episodes in your inbox weekly. Don’t want them? You can adjust your subscriber settings to only receive our essays and text posts outside the podcast.
Without further ado, here’s our four launch episodes:
Meet The World-Traveling Teddy Bear Jointly Owned by This Friend Group
Kristyana, April, and Twanna have been friends for over 25 years, and teddy bear Nathaniel Behr has been an integral part of their friend group. What started as a small purchase has morphed into decades of shared memories as the teddy bear has traveled with them on adventures around the world. The three friends live in different cities in the United Sta…
The Allure of Costco and Bulk Shopping with American Bulk author Emily Mester
Emily Mester, author of American Bulk: Essays on Excess, joins us to discuss the thrill of Costco shopping, the agony of online shopping returns, and why we just can’t quit the excitement of looking for the next item that will change our lives. Can shopping be just a pleasure instead of a “guilty” one? Join us as we dive into Emily’s family history with…
How Bestselling Author Deesha Philyaw Builds Her Book Collection and Became an Avid Reader
How do we develop a lifelong reading habit? What turns someone into a “book person?” And once we are a confirmed book person, how do we decide which books to keep on our bulging bookshelves? Deesha Philyaw, author of the bestselling, award-winning short story collection
What to Do with Things We Inherit and How We Preserve Our Children’s Earliest Moments with Emily Hessney Lynch
Emily Hessney Lynch, host of the podcast It’s a Lot, joins us to discuss two topics that are emotionally heavy and very much a lot: how to handle items we inherit from family members when we’re not sure why we’re inheriting them or what role they might play in our lives, and how to preserve memories of our children’s earliest moments. Emily shares why a…
Finders and Keepers is hosted by Rachel Kramer Bussel and is a production of Open Secrets Magazine. Thank you to Sound Off Network and Dan Schroeder for audio production support. Please rate and review wherever you listen to podcasts to help us reach new listeners. Want to share your own stuff story, tell us who we should interview next, or share your own most treasured possession? Contact us at findersandkeeperspod@gmail.com or leave a voicemail at speakpipe.com/findersandkeepers
For more about our attachments to our belongings, read the personal essays in the Object-ives and Stuff-ed sections of Open Secrets Magazine at opensecretsmagazine.com, where you can also submit your own essays.
*If anyone out there knows how to make a much prettier version of the black and white horizontal logo sized for Substack’s banner specs of 1200x630, please let us know!