We are taking a little break from new episodes, so we will be posting some of our favorite past shows. This one is from June 2025, with one of our favorite guests!

Join us for this bright and uplifting conversation about Issa Rae's masterpiece about being Black, young and not so sure of yourself, "Insecure". Our guest is writer, researcher and storyteller Kelly Macias. We really enjoyed this one and we hope you do, too! And check out "Insecure" on Netflix (it's heartfelt and hilarious and also kinda spicy so don't watch with your kids) because it's wonderful).

Kelly Macías (she/her) is a writer, researcher, and storyteller based in Los Angeles. The multidisciplinary arts-based approach to her work is inspired by the many lived experiences of Black women and what emerges from their wisdom and magic across time and geographies. Her writing has appeared in Prose Online, The Sunlight Press, Newsweek, The Baltimore Sun, and elsewhere. She is the creator of Toogood Stories, a platform dedicated to documenting, preserving, and making visible the many facets of Black women's lives. When she isn't engaged in her mindfulness meditation practice or binge watching Netflix, she can be found somewhere in the world dancing Argentine tango in a pair of Chuck Taylors.

You can find her on Instagram and on her storytelling platform. Toogood Stories.

We are taking a little break from new episodes, so we will be posting some of our favorite past shows. This one is from March 2024, with two of our favorite guests!

We've got a lot of living to do as we talk "Bye Bye Birdie", the 1963 film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical. Our guests are real life sisters Genevieve Dreizen and Olivia Howell, co-founders of Fresh Starts Registry, a registry for people who are making big changes in their lives to get the things that they need to start again. You might recognize Olivia from our recent Hallmark Christmas Movie episode! This was a sister-riffic episode, and we reminisced about a movie that all 4 of us were obsessed with, the eternal hotness of Ann-Margaret, and how everyone SHOULD love Dick Van Dyke. Get on your dancing shoes and join us!

In 2020, after her divorce, Olivia wanted to create a system of support for the moments in life when we start over. Alongside her sister, Jenny Dreizen, Olivia founded Fresh Starts Registry, and since then, it has been named the “the first divorce registry of its kind” by Forbes. It has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine, Forbes, The Cut, The New York Post, and more.

Fresh Starts Registry is the first registry and online platform for everything a person needs to begin their life again after a major life change, such as divorce, job changes, moving, or coming out. They provide a free registry builder and bundles of products based on rooms of the house and budget to eliminate the overwhelm of creating a registry for restarting their life. The platform features 100+ vetted Experts in all categories to support people in all processes of their life changes. It is always free to build a registry and access the experts. Fresh Starts aims to eliminate the overwhelming feeling of starting your life over again with all the home items and Experts you need to empower you on your journey forward.

https://www.freshstartsregistry.com/

Find Olivia on Instagram and Genevieve there as well!

We are taking a little break from new episodes, so we will be posting some of our favorite past shows. This is from October 2024!

Friend of the show Catrina Parker dives deep into the beloved world of The Golden Girls with twin sister Leslie and Producer Sam. Twin sister Lynne was unavoidable off to St. Olaf...

Catrina is the host of the Quirky Pop Podcast where she explores quirky characters in tv, film, and other areas with hint of social science. Catrina has been on panels a fan conventions and interviewed in The Guardian, The New York Times, and WGN Weekend News. Catrina lives with her two teens and cat, Gallifrey in Bloomington, Il. You can find her on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

This week our new episode is on a Monday because it is May the 4th, also known as Star Wars Day, and our episode is about Episode VI, "Return of the Jedi". That movie has twins in it, and so does this episode: our guests are twin brothers Al and William Penn, and you know that your hosts, Lynne and Leslie, are too. This was a really fun one, where we talk legacy and betrayal and Jabba the Hutt. But mostly, it's about family, chosen or otherwise, and we hope you like it!!

Check out Al's Substack page here!

And oh yeah, May the 4th be with you.

It's Leslie's turn to share her favorite something with us, and that something is the 2016 version of the cowboy classic but with more Denzel, "The Magnificent Seven". We talk why a western with a multiracial cast would be based in reality, villains so bad you can't wait for them to get got, why it doesn't bode well for a character when he is played by an uncredited recognizable actor, and why Ethan Hawke is everything. We hope you love it.

Born in hood-adjacent Baltimore City, Leslie Streeter is a columnist for the Baltimore Banner, and the author of the 2020's memoir Black Widow: A Sad-Funny Journey Through Grief for People Who Normally Avoid Books with Words Like “Journey” in the Title and 2025's novel Family and Other Calamities. Her next novel, "Beignets and Big Feelings", comes out in October 2026 and is available for pre-order right now. She is the cohost of this here podcast Fine Beats and Cheeses, and a frequent speaker on grief. She is also a slow runner, an amateur vegan cook, and a fan of Law & Order. Leslie lives in Baltimore, Maryland, with her son, Brooks. Follow her on Facebook, Threads and Instagram.

Love is in the air this week as co-host Lynne becomes the guest to talk about one of her all-time favorite movies! It's Baz Luhrmann's 1992 colorful, wacky and heartfelt "Strictly Ballroom". We talk joy and gatekeeping and what it looks like to be you doing things that you love. It was a really good time and we hope you love it.

Lynne Streeter Childress is a playwright, actor, teaching artist, singer, director, and the founder and artistic director of Building Better People Productions, a professional theater company based in Annapolis, MD (but they travel!), that does shows for young audiences all based in themes of empathy, kindness, respect and the things that make us all better people. Lynne has been in professional theatre for over 30 years, with much of that experience in theater for young audiences. This includes performing at the Kennedy Center, Arena Stage and Adventure Theatre, and teaching for institutions like the Folger Shakespeare Library, Everyman Theatre, and Baltimore School for the Arts. Through all those experiences, Lynne has seen firsthand how theater can communicate the most important things in the clearest and most interesting of ways, especially to young people. Lynne is on the Arts In Education roster for the Maryland States Arts Council and the Arts Council of Anne Arundel County, and through Building Better People Productions, has served students served by the Arlington (VA) Humanities Project, Arts Every Day, and the Howard County Arts Council. Lynne, along with fellow teaching artists Khaleshia Thorpe-Price and Jennifer Ridgway, facilitates Empathy Works, a program that helps organizations discover how empathetic thinking can change their company for the better. She co-hosts this here podcast Fine Beats and Cheeses with her twin sister Leslie Gray Streeter and their producer, Sam Lewis. Lynne lives in Annapolis, MD, with her family.

You can find her on Facebook, Instagram, Threads and LinkedIn, and you can find Building Better People Productions here to book one of their shows, workshops, residencies and professional development sessions.

Our hearts WILL go on, darn it, because this week, we talk all things Titanic with author, podcast host, and entertainment journalist Nelson Aspen. We discuss the ship, its sinking, the 1987 hit movie based on all of that, as well as Nelson's personal enthusiasm and connection to the doomed ship. This was a TRULY fun episode and we hope you love it.

NELSON ASPEN is one of Entertainment's most charming and popular personalities, having spent three decades on morning television outlets around the world, bringing the latest in entertainment and pop culture to millions of viewers! But there's a lot more to this Showbiz Insider than just empathy, wit, A-list contacts and masterful storytelling ability. You'd be hard pressed to name a celebrity he hasn't interviewed or an entertainment story he hasn't covered, which is why in 2020, the 5-time Publicists Guild of America nominee was recognized as International Media Journalist of the Year. A lifelong Titanic enthusiast, Nelson co-hosts the popular "Titanic Talk" podcast and speaks frequently on the subject of the Ship of Dreams. His 2025 historical fantasy, "Kindred Spirits: A Titanic Tale," has taken the Titanic world by storm with its unique perspective on the classic story. Reviewers say "it weaves history with wit and charm" and "one of the most unusual love stories you'll ever read with the bonus of being an intriguing mystery."

You can find more about Nelson at nelsonaspen.com, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube!

Producer Sam has hijacked the format, as Fine Beats and Cheeses records our very first round table podcast! Funk and funk related music is the topic! See more of Sam at http://www.madebysam.com