Weirdly Helpful (formerly The Best Advice Show)

Latest Episodes:

This Experiment Will Help You Move From Procrastinating to Creating with Malaka Gharib Sep 17, 2025

Show notes

Malaka Gharib is a writer, journalist, and cartoonist. She is the author of I Was Their American Dream: A Graphic Memoir, winner of an Arab American Book Award and named one of the best books of the year by NPR, The Washington Post, Kirkus Reviews, and the New York Public Library. By day, she works on NPR’s science desk, covering the topic of global health and development. Her comics, zines, and writing have been published in NPR, Catapult, The Seventh Wave Magazine, The Nib, The Believer, and The New Yorker.

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Mason Currey's Daily Rituals: How Artists Work

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Brad Stulburg on not needing to feel good to get going.

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Don't Wish Your Life Away with Lilly Turmelle Sep 10, 2025

Show notes

Lilly Turmelle is a Maine-based creative and lifelong explorer. After calling many different countries home, she now lives on the Maine coast with her partner and their two-year-old son, embracing a simple life by the sea.

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Tweenage Advice on Fear, Boredom, Crushes, Stress, Grief and Soup Dumplings Sep 03, 2025

Show notes

Naja, Sebastian, Asia, Jessica, Lenzia and Zora were just finishing 8th grade when this episode aired in 2022.

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It's About How You Listen, How You Interpret, How You Care with Jay Allison and Erica Heilman Aug 27, 2025

Show notes

This is a conversation from the divine podcast, Rumble Strip. It features Jay Allison about the recent attack on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Recently, Congress passed a rescission bill that eliminates $9 billion in previously allocated funding, including $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which effectively defunds public media, which includes NPR, PBS and member stations around the country. This is a conversation about what that means and what we stand to lose.

Jay Allison has been working in and around public radio since it’s beginnings a half century ago. He's been an independent public radio producer, journalist, and teacher since the 1970s. He is the founder of Transom, where I learned to make radio, and 25 years ago he founded WCAI, a public radio station in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Jay's work has won most of the major broadcasting awards, including six Peabodys. He produces The Moth Radio Hour and was the curator of This I Believe on NPR.

Links

Adopt a Station: Where you can donate to your local public radio station or find stations to support

Transom: The place where good radio begins

Information on Transom story trainings

Recent New York Times interview with Bill Siemering about the fate of public radio

Rumble Strip episode w Jay called Fishing with Jay

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When There Might Not Be a Solution with Dr. Chioke I'Anson⁠ Aug 20, 2025

Show notes

Dr. Chioke I'Anson is the visionary force behind the establishment of the VPM + ICA Community Media Center, an innovative collaboration between Virginia Public Media and the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU. He's also the founder of RESONATE Podcast Festival

Congress has voted to rescind public media's funding. Help preserve independent journalism and community programming across America by adopting a station.

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How To Plant a Garden with Limited Space and Time with Alice Bagley Aug 13, 2025

Show notes

Alice Bagley is a farmer, biker and time banker based in Detroit. She was last on the show. Don't miss her episode from 5 years ago on the joyus virtues of throwing seeds!

Courtney Daniels is a filmamker and author based in LA. Her new podcast is called Gen X at Midlife, where she talks to people about their experience of life after 50. Subscribe wherever you listen to TBAS! She was last on the show discussing the importance of a good cry.

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Begin Your Day with Discomfort Aug 06, 2025

Show notes

Teresa Gretsen and Naomi Kreitman are friends based in Amsterdam who love to swim.

READ THIS COLD WATER SWIMMING GUIDE

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Two Strategies to Look at Your Phone Less and the World Around You More with Daphne Silbiger Jul 30, 2025

Show notes

Daphne Silbiger is a playwright, musician, and collage artist based in Brooklyn currently teaching at The School of Making Thinking.

You can see all the course offerings @ The School of Making Thinking @ https://www.theschoolofmakingthinking.com/

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Help Zak continue making this show by becoming a Best Advice Show Patron @ https://www.patreon.com/bestadviceshow

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Fill out the TBAS listener survey to help Zak get to know you better.

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Call Zak on the advice show hotline @ 844-935-BEST or email him a voice-memo at ZAK@bestADVICE.show
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Never Change Your Clothes with Anne Kadet Jul 23, 2025

Show notes

What advice from this show do you use in your life? Call Zak and let him know at 844-935-BEST. Thanks!

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CAFÉ ANNE is a weekly newsletter with a focus on New York City that takes a fresh look at the everyday, delights in the absurd and profiles unusual folks who do things their way.

It is created and written by Brooklyn journalist Anne Kadet, former NYC business and trends columnist for the Wall Street Journal and NYC startups columnist for Crains’ New York Business.

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Help Zak continue making this show by becoming a Best Advice Show Patron @ https://www.patreon.com/bestadviceshow

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Fill out the TBAS listener survey to help Zak get to know you better.

https://forms.gle/f1HxJ45Df4V3m2Dg9

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Call Zak on the advice show hotline @ 844-935-BEST or email him a voice-memo at ZAK@bestADVICE.show
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Share this episode on IG @BestAdviceShow

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Become the Animal You Are with Morrison Gong Jul 16, 2025

Show notes

Sign up for Morrison's online class, EXTREME PRIVATE EROS: PHOTOGRAPHY & DIARISTIC WRITING at The School of Making of Thinking. MORE INFO HERE @ https://www.theschoolofmakingthinking.com/private-eros.html

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Morrison Gong is a Chinese photographer with a background in performance and experimental filmmaking. They invoke the body as a site of haunting, wounding, conjuring and mythmaking. Their work converses with photography's ability to anchor eros and losses within the realm of the physical and the metaphysical. They have been invited as a visiting critic and guest speaker at esteemed institutions such as the Center for Photography at Woodstock, SUNY New Paltz, Haverford College, and Western Washington University. Their video works have been shown at Anthology Film Archives, Microscope Gallery, Vox Populi Gallery, CROSSROADS presented by San Francisco Cinematheque, Hong Kong Arthouse Film Festival, among others. Their photography has been featured on It’s Nice That, Whitehot Magazine and Lomography Magazine. Gong received their BFA from Parsons School of Design and their MA at the New School for Social Research. They are based in Brooklyn, NY.

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Howl with Laura Hawley

Get Froggy with Lauren Helmbrecht

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Help Zak continue making this show by becoming a Best Advice Show Patron @ https://www.patreon.com/bestadviceshow

---

Fill out the TBAS listener survey to help Zak get to know you better.

https://forms.gle/f1HxJ45Df4V3m2Dg9

---

Call Zak on the advice show hotline @ 844-935-BEST or email him a voice-memo at ZAK@bestADVICE.show
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Share this episode on IG @BestAdviceShow

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