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.
Listen on:
Episodes
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Sunday Dec 06, 2020
Sunday Dec 06, 2020
Lauren Cerand, currently based in New York City, is a freelancer and jewelry student. In 2019, she gave up her apartment, sold most of her belongings and moved to Italy to learn how to make jewelry at the Alchimia Contemporary Jewelry School in Florence. We trace her path from a class at the 92Y to Pratt School of Design and finally to Italy.
Follow Lauren on Instagram or her project Shop Cerand.
Links
Alchimia Contemporary Jewelry School
92Y Jewelry programs
Brooklyn Metal Works
Pratt Arts & Design
Jewelry Arts in NYC
Ponte Vechio in Florence
Shibuichi metal
Civilization on PBS: Light and Color
The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron
Sunday Nov 29, 2020
Sunday Nov 29, 2020
Based in Denver, Colorado, Marni tells us why she picked up a deck of Tarot cards in 2016 and how she fell madly, deeply in love with all things Tarot. You will want to pick up a history book before you are halfway through the podcast and buy a beautiful deck by the end.
Follow @mystic.marni on Instagram
Show Links
Rider Waite Smith Deck
Mamluk Card Decks
Triomphe (Trump)
Visconti Sforza Deck
Tarot of Marsailles
Il Meneghello (Italian historical decks)
Crowley Thoth Deck
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
Holly Simple Deck
Dark Star Tarot on YouTube
Slow Holler
Sunday Nov 22, 2020
Sunday Nov 22, 2020
Scott Weston is a Chicago-based Drupal developer who would like to move to Schitt's Creek. In this episode we talk about the Moira costume party that opened the door of the Canadian sitcom to him, debate which characters had the most personal growth and we talk about our cats.
CW: We discuss a death by suicide that happens in Season 1 during our discussion about Bob. Hop from 1:10:00 to 1:12:00 to skip
The only link you need from this episode is: Fold In The Cheese
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