Finding Favorites with Leah Jones
Finding Favorites is where we learn about people’s favorite things and get recommendations without using an algorithm. Every other week, host Leah Jones sits down with a guest to learn about how they found their favorite thing, why they love it and why they think other people will fall in love, too.
Episodes

Sunday Feb 14, 2021
Kevin T. Porter loves Bruce Springsteen
Sunday Feb 14, 2021
Sunday Feb 14, 2021
Kevin T. Porter, host of the Good Christian Fun, Gilmore Guys and Inside Voices, makes podcasts about things he's interested in, but he loves Bruce Springsteen. We talk about how he experienced love at first note watching a PBS pledge drive, the kindness of fellow Bruce fans, and how there is a Bruce for every season. And yes, we also talk about the Jeep commercial.
Follow Kevin T. Porter on
Instagram
Twitter
KevinBakin cookies for LA County folks
Show Links (there are so many)
The mindmap and blog post that I talk about
Kevin on Don't Get Me Started talking about Bruce
Out in the Street - Kevin's love at first sight video
Seeger Sessions playlist
Rolling Stone top 500 - Born to Run is #21
Roy Orbison and Friends playlist
New York Serenade
Open All Night
Jamie Loftus on Andy' Richter's 3 Questions talking about her Lolita Podcast
The Queerness of Bruce Springsteen
Trouble in the Heartland - the concert after Reagan's election
141 - removed music from episode and republished
Kevin T Porter 0:00 Hi, my name is Kevin T. Porter, and my favorite thing is Bruce Springsteen. He's a singer-songwriter. He's kind of old now, but he has some good songs, and I like him a lot.
Announcer 0:14 Welcome to the Finding Favorites podcast, where we explore your favorite things without using an algorithm. Here's your host, Leah Jones.
transcript follows

Sunday Feb 07, 2021
Eyal chases the runner's laughter
Sunday Feb 07, 2021
Sunday Feb 07, 2021
Eyal Halamish, host of The Future City podcast, loves a lot of things, but ultimately we decided to talk about running. He's run marathons, completed triathlons and has some remorse for bullying the runners when he was on his high school soccer team.
I also deliver the eulogy that I wrote for my Uncle Jimmy who was buried yesterday.
Follow Eyal on Instagram
Facebook for The Future City podcast
Show Links
BimBam Yitro commentary
Subscription Compost in Chicago
Magic Candle Company
Tough Mudder
Runner's Laugh
Mask Recommendations
Rothy's
Tom Bihn
Sublime
Seal Face (Hello Tokyo)

Sunday Jan 31, 2021
Jasmine loves your dog
Sunday Jan 31, 2021
Sunday Jan 31, 2021
Jasmine Davila, host of Miss Spoken and writer, is my go to cat sitter and the go to cat sitter of most of my friends. We sat down to talk about "other people's pets" that she loves. Cats and dogs. Dogs and cats. I happen to know she also loves otters, but we didn't talk about them.
Follow Jasmine on Twitter and Instagram
#MeowyPoppins is a good way to meet a lot of Jasmine's favorite cats
Follow these pets on Instagram
The Dogist
Simon Sits
Shadow
Millie the Wunder Dog
Haddie the Pirate Dog
Mr. Willis the Cat
Popeye the Foodie
Shout out to Mike Murphy on YouTube. I went looking for an Audition tutorial tonight and his video was very helpful. About 10 seconds in, his voice unlocked some dusty memories. He was the bartender at the restaurant in Durango, Colorado, where I got my cat Spidey.

Sunday Jan 24, 2021
Vicki loves a garden in any country
Sunday Jan 24, 2021
Sunday Jan 24, 2021
Vicki Webb, a senior civil servant in London, has always loved to garden. We talk about gardens in literature, cooking tomatoes in pots and growing fruit trees in London.
Follow Vicki on Instagram From A Hackney Garden
Show Notes
Busy Lizzie flowers
Square Foot Gardening
Positive East (UK HIV Charity)
Wild Persimmons are purple
Persimmon seeds predict the winter
Chelsea Physics Garden
Weapons of Math Destruction
Gilbert Wilson Murals
A Moby Dick illustrated by Gilbert Wilson

Sunday Jan 17, 2021
Ezra Butler likes Andy Warhol but isn't a fan
Sunday Jan 17, 2021
Sunday Jan 17, 2021
Ezra Butler, a systems architect and artist based in Chicago, loves Andy Warhol for his art, philosophy and the life he lead. We sat down at my kitchen table to talk about all things Warhol and why it was so hard for Ezra to select just one favorite thing to talk about.
Follow Ezra Butler online
@EzraButler on Twitter, Instagram
@EzraButlerArt on Instagram
Atomic Einstein
Ezra Butler Art
Ezra Butler Consulting
Other Show Links
MashBash Tel Aviv 2008 video and the nametag that Ahuva made for us
Andy Warhol Retrospective at The Whitney
Campbell's Soup t-shirt
Andy Warhol shoes
Andy Warhol and the Jewish Museum

Sunday Jan 10, 2021
All-Time Favorite Cereals with Shai Korman
Sunday Jan 10, 2021
Sunday Jan 10, 2021
Shai Korman, host of Friday Night Podcast and Goldnerds, is back on the podcast for a very silly episode about cereal. Top ten favorites, honorable mentions, discontinued cereal and more.
Follow Shai online, he's Pancake4Table on Twitter and Instagram
Show Links
Obituary for Lucy Shair
Cap'n Crunch Controversy on CNN and the follow-up with Chrissy Teigen on TMZ
Frosted Mini Wheat Commercial
Rocky Road Commercial
Roaring Fork in Austin
Monster Cereals
A Tam Tams Stuffing recipe
Cotton Candy Twist from Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream (have it shipped to you)
The Dating Game segment on Thursdays with Huebel and Scheer
Drawsome - online Pictionary

Sunday Jan 03, 2021
Lucas Cao loves flipping balisong knives
Sunday Jan 03, 2021
Sunday Jan 03, 2021
Lucas Cao, president of Squid Industries, got so into flipping balisong knives (AKA butterfly knives) that he turned his hobby into a manufacturing company. Lucas walks me through the skills-based hobby of flipping and how his search for an affordable, quality knife turned into opening his own company to make the knives and trainers he wanted to see in the world.
Show Links
Squid Industries on Instagram and #balisongtrainer for videos
2017 Bali Buyers Guide with Ben Petersen and Lucas Cao
Speed Solving
How I Built This with Guy Raz
BladeHQ.com
Bladeshow Trade Shows
Balisong SubReddit
That one post on Reddit with a Squidtrainer
Deanza Community College
Vertical CNC Mill
Knives
Benchmade 51 Morpho
Bradley Kimura
Bradley Kimura XI
Full Squid Industries line-up of trainers, knives and accessories

Sunday Dec 27, 2020
Avett Brothers 101 with Jocelyn Geboy
Sunday Dec 27, 2020
Sunday Dec 27, 2020
Jocelyn Geboy, owner of Three Left Productions and concierge services in Chicago, loves the Avett Brothers. She tagged along to her first concert and now travels to three-night runs with other fans of the North Carolina-based band. (The uncut version of this interview is two full hours, so my apologies for the stories that got left on the floor of the podcast studio)
The first four albums to track down are Live Volume 3, Emotionalism, Mignonette, and Four Thieves Gone
Show Links
Follow Jocelyn on Twitter and Instagram
Hire Jocelyn at Three Left Productions
YouTube Playlist of songs and scenes from different Avett Brothers' concerts
A Custom of the Sea by Neil Hanson
May it Last: A portrait of the Avett Brothers
Press On Fund
St. Jude Children's Hospital
Spend NYE with the Avett Brothers
Crossover episode: Avett Brothers on Armchair Expert

Sunday Dec 20, 2020
Jen Usellis is the Klingon Pop Warrior
Sunday Dec 20, 2020
Sunday Dec 20, 2020
Jen Usellis is a Chicago-based performer known online and in Star Trek circles as the Klingon Pop Warrior. With lifetime membership in the Klingon Language Institute, Jen translates and records covers/interpretations of pop songs. She went "moderately" viral last year with her performance of Let It Go from the movie Frozen. We talk about how singing in a Twin Cities cover opened the door to performing in Klingon. Do we talk about Klingon music theory? Yes, yes we do.
Klingon Pop Warrior's third Kickstarter campaign for her COVID-produced EP launches on January 1, 2021 and you can find it here.
Follow Jen online
Twitter and Instagram
KlingonPopWarrior.com
Bandcamp and Twitch
Show Links
Commedia Beauregard
Klingon Christmas Carol
Warrior Song and lyrics to Warrior Song
Improvised Star Trek: Today A Good Day to Cry
Klingon Language Institute
Jen's second Kickstarter
Marc Okrand (creator of Klingon language)
Extralife Fundraising - Chicago Guild

Sunday Dec 13, 2020
Traveling the world with David Simmer II
Sunday Dec 13, 2020
Sunday Dec 13, 2020
David Simmer II, known to old school bloggers as Blogography, is a photographer and traveler based in Washington. We hopped on Zoom on Thanksgiving to talk about all aspects of his world travels including trips with his mom, falafel in Israel, returning to Spain and his photography expedition to Antarctica.
Show Links
Blogography
Posts about David's trip to Antarctica
Posts about his travels to Barcelona
I love you around the world and back (traveling with his mom)
Philosophy Shampoo
Ted Lasso preview
Adventures by Disney
Photography Will Burrard Lucas
The Little Insurgent in Warsaw
CADIC in Ushuaia
First night Hanukah candle with Hanukah on Miller Drive
Sound effects by Freesound.org users Klankbeeld and trouby

Finding Favorites with Leah Jones
Everyone loves something. A hobby, a musician, an artist, a book genre - everyone has a favorite thing and this is the podcast where we hear the stories.
How did you discover your favorite thing? What do you love about it? Who have you met through it? How would someone sample your favorite thing?
At Finding Favorites, we get recommendations without using an algorithm.
Hosted by Leah Jones