Finding Favorites with Leah Jones

Bee Vargas loves Powerlifting

Bee Vargas, AKA the reigning Ms. Illinois, loves power lifting and joined Leah to talk about her journey to embracing her larger body in and out of the gym. Whether its rooftop yoga, crushing dead lifts or representing Illinois at the national level, Bee is a delight.
Follow Bee online
https://www.instagram.com/thatbeeword/
https://www.instagram.com/allbodiesaregymbodies/ 
https://www.tiktok.com/@thatbeeword
 
Show Notes
https://www.swipefatpodcast.com/
https://www.instagram.com/well_rounded.wellness/
https://blog.nasm.org/powerlifting-for-women
https://lipsticklifters.com/articles/female-powerlifters/
https://www.socalpowerlifting.net/post/how-do-powerlifting-meets-work
https://www.northamericabeautypageant.com/divisions/
https://www.thewrpf.com/

Joel Haber loves Shabbat stews (rerelease)

Donate to American Friends of Magen David Adom
 
Jerusalem-based tour guide Joel Haber joined Leah to talk about Shabbat Stews ahead of the release of his ebook Chulent & Hamin: The Ultimate Jewish Comfort Food. There is so much more to Chulent than beans and meat!
Follow Joel on Instagram and his blog Taste of Jew.
Follow @findingfavspod on Instagram and Twitter. Rate and review on Apple Podcasts
Show links
The Red Lady
Free Shabbat Stew Cookbook by Joel Haber
Machne Yehuda market
Gil Marks obituary
Ishtabach in Jerusalem
Shamburak
Birateinu
Beermiscuous in Chicago
Cardoon
Come for Cholent
Come for Cholent Again
 

Taylore and Michael love making movies

Taylore Nicholl and Michael Lester, a pair of independent filmmakers from Texas, joined Leah to talk about their love of film, making films, and dream projects.
Follow the pair online
Support Taylore and Michael on Patreon 
Carry On (Taylore's first movie)
@taylorenicholl on Instagram
What We Become  
Tik Tok @mediocre_michael
Show Notes
Duo of Greenville filmmakers
Jackass
The Disney Vault
Ira Glass, The Gap 
Danny McBride on Armchair Expert
Perks of Being a Wallflower
Little Miss Sunshine
500 Days of Summer
Garden State
Lost in Translation
Away We Go
Leah Jones - Piper Cub pilot
Hello, My Baby
Pretty Like Me

Jesse Dukes wrestles with Jimmy Buffett

Jesse Dukes, co-host of Upper Middlebrow, returns to Finding Favorites to wrestle with Jimmy Buffett's legacy. We talk about internal rhymes, lifestyle brands, and songs with more meaning on the tenth listen than on the first.
Keep up with Jesse online
Upper Middlebrow Podcast 
JesseDukes.com
Show Notes
Neuromancer
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
The Space Between Worlds
Jimmy Buffet - Songs you don’t know by heart
JimmyBuffett.com 
MBMBAM and Jimmy Buffett 
Escape to Margaritaville 
Red Headed Stranger
Internal rhyme
Best rhymes in Hamilton 
 The melancholy of margaritaville
Eater review of Margaritaville in NYC 
NY Times Jimmy Buffett does not live the Jimmy Buffett lifestyle
Steve O interview
Delaney Buffett
Go Cubs Go
Cowboy in the Jungle

Josh Mohr loves Tom Waits & road trip novels

Josh Mohr, Seattle-based author of Model Citizen, joined Leah to discuss his new novel Farsickness which he wrote this summer and is illustrated by his daughter Ava. We talk about teachers that change your life, collaborating with your children, making art during the pandemic, and grappling with PTSD.
 
Buy a copy of Farsickness today
Silly Gooses with Josh Mohr and Ava Mohr at Valencia 826 (look for more workshops this year)
Show Notes
Juniper Shelley (father/daughter collab)
Disney Weddings
Tom Waits
Fight Club
Alice in Wonderland
Grace Paley
Down and Out in Paris and London by Orwell
Cesar Cruz

Ronnie Raviv only dabbles

Ronnie Raviv joined Leah to try and figure out if he has any favorite things. We talk about cocktails, cocktail bars, books, TV, great meals and our friendship origin story. For someone who claims to have no favorite things, there was no lacking in conversation.
Like my beloved Zouks, Ronnie is not on twitter.
Show Notes
Second City Conservatory 
Quipfire Improv 
Sally Albright
Chicken Pot Pie origin story 
Mexican Mule
Journeyman White Whiskey
Jasper Fforde 
OCD TLV
Taizu 
Fantastic TLV 
Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
Blind Barber
Duck Duck Goat
Aviary
Rosemary
Tango Sur
Bar Roma
Frasca
Monte Verde
Dear Margaret 
Yom Tov Deli (Tel Aviv)
Harry's Epic Israel Food Tours
Transcript follows
Ronnie Raviv  0:00  Hello, my name is Ronnie Raviv. And I don't think I really have favorite things, but I have a lot of things that I like a lot, and you can hear all about them. In this week's finding favorites.

Poet Dan O’Brien loves modern British comedies

Poet and playwright Dan O'Brien joined Leah this week to discuss his three books coming out this fall, before diving into the world of British comedies of the last 10-20 years. (We start talking about comedies at 35 minutes, but first 30 minutes is a lot of cancer talk.... schedule your mammograms and colonoscopies, friends).
Follow Dan online
Instagram @bydanobrien
DanOBrien.org
Buy or pre-order Dan's books
Our Cancers
True Story: A trilogy
Survivor’s Notebook
From Scarsdale
Show Notes
The Deep Dive podcast
Foundation for Peripheral Neuropathy
Colon Cancer screening info
Mammogram guidelines
Scanxiety 
Story Studio Chicago
Menopause: A Comic Treatment
Lucy Shair Foundation
Garth Marenghi's Darkplace
Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing
Toast of London
Alan Partridge
The IT Crowd
Steve Coogan 
Matt Berry
The Fast Show
That Mitchell & Webb Look
The Peter Serafinowicz Show 
Armstrong & Miller
Harry and Paul's 
The Mighty Boosh 
Bob Mortimer Would I lie to you compilation 
Tim Key
Green Wing 
Party Animals
Midsommer Murders
Rate and Review on Apple Podcasts or Good Pods
Send questions, comments or guest pitches (pitch yourself and YOUR favorite thing) to findingfavoritespodcast [at] gmail.com
Otter.ai Transcript  follows
Dan O'Brien  0:00  Hello, my name is Dan O'Brien. And my favorite thing is British TV comedy of the last 20 years.

Bindy Bitterman loves limericks

Bindy Bitterman, a Chicago-based author, published her first book Skiddly Diddly Skat at the age of 90 and joined Leah at the inaugural Chicago Jewish Book Fest for a storytime and live podcast interview. We talk about limericks, the Catskills, art collections and saying yes to all adventures.
Keep up with Bindy online
Show Notes
Society of the Fifth Line
Nautical Embroidery
Bindy on PBS
Jewish valentines?
Maquette
Elsa Wachs

Illustrator Rachel Duggan loves BUTTS!

Rachel Duggan, a Milwaukee-based illustrator, loves butts, foxes, and pretty rocks. We sat down to talk about her book All Butts are Good Butts, how she became the wedding butt illustrator and how much she loves finding things in her natural environment.
Follow Rachel online
RADIllustrates.com 
Instagram @radillustrates
Tik Tok @radillustrates 
All Butts are Good Butts 
Show Notes
Lion's Tooth bookstore
What is fool's gold?
Finding Beach Glass in Milwaukee
Dune Stinkhorn 
Bob's Burger episode about fungus
Picture Mushroom app
Merlin birdsong app

Vanessa Ricci-Thode loves Monarch butterflies

Canadian author Vanessa Ricci-Thode has turned her front yard into an official Monarch butterfly waystation and joined Leah Jones to talk about her love of the migrating butterfly. We talk about the very long commute from Mexico to Canada, simple steps to conservation and their second love of gigantic trees.
Vanessa's new book True Flame (Book 2 of the Fireborn series) is available now and books 3 and 4 will be published in the next year.
Vanessa Ricci-Thode's website 
Instagram @vriccithode
Blue Sky @vriccithode.bsky.social
True Flame
Dragon Whisperer
Get Vaness's books in Canada
Show Notes
Journey North
Monarch Watch
time lapse of a Monarch butterfly transformation 
Bee balm
Climbing Giant Sequoia 
National Geographic
General Sherman
Good Company Chicago
Upper Middle Brow
Chicago Jewish Book Fest 2023