Education
**Weirdly Helpful (formerly The Best Advice Show)**

Weirdly Helpful (formerly The Best Advice Show) is a short, weekly infusion of delightful, unexpected and strange ways to make life slightly and sometimes profoundly better. In each episode a different contributor offers an odd experiment, a silly ritual, a curious practice that you’ll find weirdly helpful. Stuff like howling when you’re despondent, eating oranges in the shower and metaphorically flushing your adversary down the toilet!

Latest Episodes:

Asking with Rob St. Mary Sep 21, 2020

Show notes

Rob St. Mary is the author of The Orbit Magazine Anthology

To offer your own advice, call Zak @ 844-935-BEST

TRANSCRIPT:

ROB: The phrase that pays, as I like to say is, it's better they say no than to not know.

ZAK: It's better they say no than to not know.

ROB: That's right. If there's a question you want to ask. If there's an idea that you have...just ask it. Just say it. Just come out with it. You know, um, it's better to do that than to, you know, walk away or to not get that opportunity and go, ah, you know, I really should have asked that question. But I think it even goes furthers when I think about it. Like where this idea of just being willing to ask the question and not feel stupid. It goes back to my dad. And he was always like impressed on me that there really is no stupid question. That it's ok to ask questions and to not feel dumb about it. Just because you don't know something doesn't mean you should feel bad about that. I mean, we're all ignorant in some ways. And asking the questions helps to fill in the gaps. So I found this it's better to say no than to not know. I mean that can go for anything. You know, you want to go apply for a job...why not? You want to go ask that person out, why not? I really wanted that car or I really wanted that thing but it was a little too much and maybe I should have asked the guy if he would have taken 500 dollar less or something. He might think I'm crazy, but you never know. Why not. It's better to be rejected, I think. I think people have a lot of fear of rejection but I think that just asking and finding out if you could do that...I think it helps me sleep better at night because I don't have a lot of regrets.

ROB: My name is Rob St. Mary and I'm a radio journalist here in Detroit. Also, published author, filmmaker, musician, cat dad.

ZAK: It's better they say no than to not know. As long as I've got you here, I might as well ask, right? How would you feel about going on to Apple Podcasts, if that's the servce you use and rating and reviewing this show. I would really appreciate that. At least I asked, right? You've been listening to The Best Advice Show. My name is Zak Rosen. If you have some advice I would love to hear it. The hotline is 844-935-BEST.

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Using Lemons with Louise Belensz Sep 18, 2020

Show notes

Louise Belensz called the advice hotline @ 844-935-BEST. You can too!

LOUISE: Hi Zak. My name is Louise Belensz. I live in North River, New York. And my advice is whenever you're going to cook something that you're going to put lemon on, like fish or grilled zucchini or eggplant, um, grill or cook or roast the lemon along with that food and then squeeze it on the food and it's so much better and you get so much more juice and it's way sweeter, so, that's my advice for one of your Food Fridays.

ZAK: Yes, yes, yes...the power of lemons. They make so many things better. Thank you Louise and thank you lemons. You've been listening to Food Friday I would love to hear your food related advice. You can let me know what that is at 844-935-BEST. Thank you so much. I'll talk to you soon.

Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Making Sanctuary with Jo Strausz Rosen Sep 17, 2020

Show notes

Jo Strausz Rosen (@bubjo) creates in Metro-Detroit.

To offer your own advice, call Zak @ 844-935-BEST

TRANSCRIPT:

ZAK: From my childhood backyard, I'm pleased to welcome to the show today...my mom.

JO: Ever since I created this outdoor space in my garden, its been such a healing place for me to come and paint all of the feelings that I have from the political upheaval through COVID. So I feel like painting alone, surrounded by beauty and nature helps me figure it all out and helps me get my head around it. Recently I spray-painted by some huge canvases and I've been drawing all these different faces and painting them in and everybody looks different but the one thing we all have in common is that we all have hearts and we all want to live.

ZAK: And so, what do you think the advice is?

JO: I think the advice is, if you can carve out a space somewhere...whether it's in your house or outside, if you're lucky enough to find a space outside. Make it your own and just let your creative juices flow. Think and play. I think everybody's creative in different ways. So maybe it would be a place to sing a song or write a poem or read and then write your impressions of something. There's so many ways to let your right-brain guide you.

ZAK: So what do you need for a bare minimum outdoor art space?

JO: I think a space where you can be quiet and you can appreciate the surroundings. You can hear the trees rustle in the wind. But you really only need a table or even a cement sidewalk where it can change and you can draw how you feel and then the rain will wash it away. I think the impermanence of having an outdoor space is kind of fun. It changes everyday.

I'm Jo Strausz Rosen. Mother, grandmother, wife, sister, painter, peacemaker, former cheerleader but I never stopped cheering.

ZAK: You can look at my mom's outdoor painting sanctuary and at some of her paintings if you go the Best Advice Show Instagram. That's @bestadviceshow. If you have some advice I would love to hear. Please give me a call at 844-935-BEST. That's 844-935-BEST.

Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Demystifying Creation with Jay Acunzo Sep 16, 2020

Show notes

Jay Acunzo (@jayacunzo) is the founder of Marketing Showrunners.

Pair today's show with: Detaching with Hanif Abdurraqib- https://bestadvice.show/episodes/2020429_detaching-with-hanif-abdurraqib/

To offer your own advice, call Zak @ 844-935-BEST

TRANSCRIPT:

ZAK: Are you feeling creatively stuck or intimidated? If so, today's advice is going to help you to profoundly demystify what it means to make stuff.

JAY: First and foremost, creating anything is an act of you trying to understand it. The creator should be, for example, writing to better understand something. Not writing to share what you already understand. Because by forcing yourself to articulate something, you're gonna have to really interrogate your assumptions and the holes in your thinking. You're gonna have to learn how to articulate things that you can remember and others can hold on to. Write to understand. Don't write to share what you already understand. So you think of it as the process of self-discovery and learning instead of I'm a completed product or at least I'm done learning about this one thing and now I'm sharing that back to you. And the way you do that is you have to start creating. You have to force yourself to go a little bit further than you're comfortable because that's where you'll do your best work. And so for me, that's the act of writing before I understand something. I'm writing to understand. And then that leads to new questions. And that's the next thing you write. So it's this awesome, virtuous cycle.

When somebody assumes that their heroes or inspirational sources or even just whoever they're consuming today has it all figured out and now they're sharing what they've figured out, it prevents them from seeing writing or the creative process for what it is, which is the act of them understanding through them creating.

ZAK: Jay Acunzo is an author and public speaker. He's founded a company called Marketing Showrunners. He's also a really helpful twitter follow. If you have some advice on the creative process, fighting writers block...I would love to hear it. Give me a call on the advice hotline @ 844-935-BEST.

I think episode pairs particularly well with an early episode from this show. It's called Detaching with Hanif Abdurraqib.

HANIF: I see people talking about this idea of growth and it has be paired with a disdain for the work that one created before they grew. And I think a way that I've avoided that is by understanding that I did the best I could with what tools I had and because I wrote that book, I was able to grow and write something else.

ZAK: You can find that episode with Hanif in today's show notes. Thanks for listening and I'll talk to you soon.

Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Seeking Endings with Lauren Ober Sep 15, 2020

Show notes

Lauren Ober (@OberandOut) is the host of the podcast, Spectacular Failures.

To offer your own advice, call Zak @ 844-935-BEST

TRANSCRIPT:

ZAK: Are you a news junkie but feel like you just can't handle it anymore? If so, today's advice is for you.

LAUREN: I am a consummate news consumer. I love listening to the radio and I love reading the newspaper everyday and I have gotten to a point and I feel really sad about this where I can't consume the news anymore. It's so terrible. The view never changes. It's like catatonia, really. And so, I was like, I need something that feels like it has and ending. You know, that it isn't a story that lasts for six or nine or twelve months or whatever. I've always been interested...my guilty pleasure is British mystery novels. There's a beginning, a middle, and end, and then you're done. And I feel like our news cycle does not end with particular stories. And Corona virus is the most open ended hell you could ever conceive of, and these mystery novels...they're not like that. There are no real stakes. It's generally, like, a bunch of goobers who are just flitting about and like, maybe one person's gonna solve a mystery in their spare time. And most of the time they're like smoking pipes and reading The Telegraph. I'm just along for the ride but I know that by page 300, we're gonna be done. This problem is gonna come to an end. And that is very, very satisfying in this particular time that we're living in where nothing seems like it has an end-date.

ZAK: So yours happen to be mystery novels, but someone's else's could be like a quilt.

It could be. It absolutely could be. Any craft that has an end point. You start it and then you finish it.

ZAK: That's partly why making this show has been helpful for me lately. These episodes are short. I can start then and end them. There's something satisfying there.

LAUREN: My name is Lauren Ober. I'm the host of the podcast, Spectacular Failures.

ZAK: If you have some advice for getting through these hard times, I would love to hear it. The hotline number is 844-935-BEST.

Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Finding Hope with Steven Garza Sep 14, 2020

Show notes

Steven Garza is one of the main subjects in the spectacular documentary, Boys State. He's currently a student at the University of Texas.

Boys State | Official Trailer HD | A24 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1Kh_T5ZBIM

To offer your own advice, call Zak @ 844-935-BEST

TRANSCRIPT:

I consider myself of connoisseur of movie trailers. And the trailer for the documentary, Boys State, blew me away. The film is about over a thousand teenage boys from Texas who spend a week of their summer building their own government.

TRAILER: My name is Steven Garza and I'm running for governor.

Steven Garza is one of 4 main characters in Boys State. Since the movie came out, he's become a kind of folk hero and a symbol for why are politics aren't necessarily doomed.

TRAILER: When we show the world what patriots are made of. That when things get tough, we pull ourselves by our bootstraps...one nation under God...members of the constitution of the United States of America!!!!!!!!

ZAK: To find out if Steven won his governor's race, you're gonna have to see Boys State. It's on Apple+ and the movie is just as good as the trailer. Its been a few years since the movie was made and now Steven is a sophomore at the University of Texas in Austin. We Zoomed from his dorm room.

Theme song

ZAK: A lot of are pretty disenchanted with, uh, the electoral process and especially, like, as the political season is in full-gear right now...what does it mean to you to be hopeful right now?

STEVEN: I think you have to stay hopeful and you have to stay optimistic about the future of the country, no matter how bleak it is because personally, if I ever lost hope or lost that optimism or idealism about our country, then that's a major defeat mentally and spiritually for me, because it's a huge part of my identity. And you're basically give up on the country...you're giving up hope and you're resigning yourself to the circumstance that the bad guys or the dark will win.

ZAK: On those bleak days when it's really hard, what does your self-talk sound like to, you know, remind yourself of the citizen you want to be?

STEVEN: It's looking back at the history of the country and realizing, you know, the history of this country I think is...the American people continually fighting for the rights that they're owed. Weather it be the Civil Rights Movement, Woman's Suffrage, Disability Rights, Farmers Movement, LBGT...and just imagining how bleak it must have seemed before for people back then, especially that 600-thousand people had to die in a way for slavery to end in this country. And then for another 100 years after that, they were denied the promises guaranteed ot them in the Constitution and they were beaten and murdered...It's just complete awfulness. They were treated as...not even second-class citizens. And the perseverance that they had to have...people like John Lewis, like Dr. King to get thrown in jail...be, you know, threatened and sometimes these people were murdered for their views. But not wavering and not letting that fear get to them. It's, you know, that's the only way, um, the only way that I think change is ever come to this country is by the people rising up and taking, you know, to the streets and demanding that change come to them.

ZAK: If you want to give some advice on civics or citizenship or electoral politics of anything, I'd love to hear it. Give me a call on the hotline at 844-935-BEST. You've been listening to The Best Advice Show. Thank you so much. I'm Zak Rosen. Talk to you soon.

Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Calling Ahead with Stevie Lane Sep 11, 2020

Show notes

Stevie Lane is a producer on the podcast, Heavyweight.

To offer your own advice, call Zak @ 844-935-BEST

ZAK: Maybe you've had this experience, where you go online and try to make a reservation at a restaurant.

STEVIE: And you go into the reservation, you know, portal, and you put it in the time you want and the number of people and the date and it's like, no reservations except at like, midnight or like, 3 pm. And you're like, well, that's not helpful. I found that in those situations, the best thing to do is just call because I feel like 8 out of 10 times, there is actually a reservation and once you just get somebody on the phone, you can usually make that reservation.

ZAK: I think that that's great and practical. And I also feel like there's like, a deeper meaning there, insofar as like, yes, machines and tech can, like, help organize the world. But there is nothing like, actually, connecting with another human.

STEVIE: Oh, absolutely. I mean, my feeling is like, in a world where everything is about texting about maximun efficiency and you can just text your doctor's office to make an appointment or like, message your lawyer on Instagram, or you know, whatever. With all these sort of fast ways of getting in touch, I think people just aren't really calling and having this in-person conversations anymore and it's so easy not to. But there's nothing like actually hearing a voice on the other end of the phone and when you're faced with that person's voice and having that kind of connection with them, you want to help or you want to listen or you wanna be helpful and I think that's part of it too. When you're on the phone with the host, they're like, yeah, maybe we can squeeze you in. Whatever it is, because you're having this kind of like, in-person interaction.

My name is Stevie Lane and I'm a producer on the podcast, Heavyweight.

ZAK: If you haven't listened to Heavyweight...it's really one of the all-timers. It's my favorite show. You should definitely listen. And if you want to give some advice, I would love to hear it. Give me a call at 844-935-BEST. And we're kind of running low on Food Friday advice so I would love to hear your advice on anything but especially something food-related, like today's episode. And if you're enjoying this show, please consider leaving a rating or review on Apple Podcasts. That's one thing you can do that's gonna help other people discover this show. Thank you so much.

Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Iterating Gradually with Christine Buckley Sep 10, 2020

Show notes

Christine Buckley is the author of Plant Magic: Herbalism in Real Life.

More on Asclepius - https://www.ancient.eu/Asclepius/

To offer your own advice, call Zak @ 844-935-BEST

CHRISTINE: This is advice that's attributed to, I think a demigod.

ZAK: The only demigod I know is Maui from Moana.

CHRISTINE: Oh yeah, that's a good Demigod. I should watch Moana tonight.

ZAK: It's really good. Who is this demigod?

CHRISTINE: I actually don't know how to pronounce his name but Asclepius of Thessaly. He was the son of Apollo.

ZAK: I looked it up. It's actually Asclepius. He was also the Greco-Roman God of Medicine.

CHRISTINE: My name is Christine Buckley. I'm a community-based herbalist and professional cook.

ZAK: So, Asclepius' advice went like this. First the word, then the plant and lastly, the knife.

CHRISTINE: This is all in regard to some kind of therapy for your body or mind.

ZAK: First the word, then the plant and lastly, the knife. What is an actual, real-world application for this principal?

CHRISTINE: Ok, so right now, lots of us are alone and on top of that we're dealing with many other things. So, as an herbalist my advice would be to just step outside and to see that you're part of this earth where there are trees growing and flowers beginning to form. So I think that would be the first step to ease this loneliness.

ZAK: Right, so that's the first part of this advice. First the word. The word in this case being...go outside.

CHRISTINE: The next thing is, ok, maybe that's not enough. We're gonna put some plants in our body. Then in this context that would be things like, nerviness to calm your nervous system to help alleviate the anxiety and stress that you're feeling.

ZAK: So that's step two, the plant. And if that's still not enough.

CHRISTINE: Then you move on to the next strongest thing which is like, maybe you need to take a Tylenol PM to help you sleep. Or maybe you need that beer to help you calm down. Like, see how it gets progressively stronger? That's what we're talking about. We don't just jump right into the strongest thing first. We move through little shifts because what happens in little shifts are windows into change that can be longer lasting. Whereas like, the further you get down the line, it makes you feel better immediately but it doesn't really solve the foundational problem.

ZAK: First the word, then the plant and lastly, the knife. Christine Buckley's new book is called Plant Magic: Herbalism in Real Life. If you're finding this show valuable, consider sharing it with a friend. I really appreciate it. We live at BestAdvice.Show. Talk to you soon.

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Washing with Jules Yun Sep 09, 2020

Show notes

Jules cleans their feet in Los Angeles, California.

To offer your own advice, call Zak @ 844-935-BEST

Morning Zesting with Drew Philp - https://bestadvice.show/episodes/2020424_morning-zesting-with-drew-philp/

Restarting Your Day with Ken Haddad - https://bestadvice.show/episodes/2020513_restarting-your-day-with-ken-haddad/

TRANSCRIPT:

Sound of faucet turning on.

JULES: Hi Zak, my name is Jules. I live in LA and my advice is to wash your feet because they often get forgotten and I thought in the shower when you would stand in the shower, your feet would get all washed but they just got neglected because they just had running soap and water all over it. So, give a little more attention to your feet. At the end of the long day, I like to just wash my feet in the bath to get all of the gunk off. Um, and it feels really good once you do it and you get in between the toes. It's something that's so easy to forget and feels so nice to do.

ZAK: If you like Jules' advice, you might want to check out a few other episodes that are shower and bath related. There's Morning Zesting with Drew Philp and there's Restarting Your Day with Ken Haddad.

KEN: I've discovered a new kind of coffee in the middle of the day and it's something that I'm calling the lunch-hour-shower.

ZAK: Both of those episodes are linked to in our show notes. If you have some advice, call me at 844-935-BEST. I'm gonna go clean my feet.

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Stretching with Noam Kimelman Sep 08, 2020

Show notes

Noam Kimelman stretches from his home in Detroit.

I love hearing about morning routines. In fact I want to hear about yours. I'm thinking about making a master, morning routine montage track. To tell me what you do every morning, call me at 844-935-BEST

TRANSCRIPT:

ZAK: Every morning, Noam Kimelman rolls out of bed and then gets on the floor and stretches.

NOAM: And if I don't do it, I definitely notice not feeling my best. Also, my legs get tired during the day, especially if I'm traveling or hiking and I don't do my stretches. My legs are, like, heavier, and I feel tired doing much less. And so, my advice is stretch 5, 10 minutes everyday. It'll change your life.

ZAK: And so you get out of bed and you start?

NOAM: I get out of bed. And the rule is don't look at your phone. But I always look at my phone. But I'm not supposed to look at my phone before stretching. And I tell myself it will make the day even better. But everyday I wake up and then I look at my phone. And then I stretch.

ZAK: Uh huh, You can't do it all at once. It's one step at a time.

NOAM: But this is just enough to make me feel good, without overwhelming.

I love hearing about morning routines. In fact I want to hear about yours. I'm thinking about making a master, morning routine montage track. To tell me what you do every morning, call me at 844-935-BEST

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