Owning Your Fear and an Obsession with Strawberry Jam
Between the Layers #01
Hi from the studio,
It’s hard to believe we finally found the courage to publish our podcast… because we haven’t. Courage is overrated, and we’re still pretty scared.
(Did you catch the Philomena Cunk reference? I promise it’s not AI! If you found it cringe, I hate to inform you that this is just my humor.)
To be fair, doing it scared is where it’s at. You can publish a podcast and feel a bit nervous at the same time. It’s natural.
We started this journey by first owning our talents, and then we went to work. And now, we are owning our nerves as we wrap up our first official month in the podcasting space.
Ownership is a rather fitting theme for our first four episodes, too. In Finding Inspiration to Rethink Originality (listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts), we reclaim the concept of originality and find ownership in our contributions to the world — not because they are completely unprecedented, but because they are ours.
We quickly came to realize that AI greatly complicates ownership. In Mindful Engagement with AI as Part of Creative Work (listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts), we reflect on how much of our creative work we own when AI is part of our process. We try to understand how to use AI from a place of retaining ownership over our processes, our learning, and our unique contributions.
Doing this requires being in tune with your values (*foreshadowing*) — an exercise that affects everything we create, down to our very lives. In Committing to an Unconventional Life (listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts), we take ownership over our life choices as we recall times when we resisted norms and who inspires us on this path.
Inspiration can come in many forms. Sometimes, it comes in the form of jealousy. In Turning Jealosy On Its Head (listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts), we reflect on how jealousy — as uncomfortable as it can be — is actually an invitation to explore what we want more of in our lives — in other words, in calls us to own our desires. We explore what jealousy looks like for us and how we can turn it into something fruitful.
In this day and age, we own less and less (and I don’t mean this in a cutsie-minimalist-”does this spark joy?” type of way): neither the music or movies we stream nor the apartments we rent. But we can still own all of that is uniquely ours — no matter if that’s a talent, a wish, or a fear — and the occasional bad joke.
Let us know what you think of this month’s episodes — we are excited to hear from you in the comment section on Spotify or via e-mail at mixedmediamindspod@gmail.com.
Cheers,
Cristina
📚 What We’re Into
📖 Reading
Cristina: The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman: a strange short story about a woman with post-partum depression who becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper in her bedroom
Sitara: Empire of AI: Dreams & Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI by Karen Hao: an insightful exposé that casts OpenAI—and its architect Sam Altman—as modern-day empire builders, harvesting data, labor, and resources in a global tech conquest.
🎧 Listening
Sitara: “I’d Love to Change the World” by Ten Years After, specifically the guitar solo (perpetually on repeat) starting at 2:08
Cristina: Type O Negative’s greatest hits
📺 Watching
Cristina: Schitt’s Creek — upon Sitara’s recommendation in EP #01
Sitara: Interstellar & E.T. (currently on a bizarre/nostalgic sci-fi film rewatch kick)
📱 Using / Playing / Scrolling
Sitara: My Insta algorithm is feeding me offbeat film recs and I’m here for it (Die, My Love and The Chronology of Water are at the top of my list)
Cristina: The Sims 4 Jungle Adventure — perfect for hiding from the sun and forgetting about time
🍵 Wild Card
Cristina: My parents’ homemade strawberry jam
Sitara: Cristina’s parents’ homemade strawberry jam on rice cakes
🧰 A Peek Into The Studio
A little glimpse into our behind-the-scenes feels as we prepared for the creation and launch of MMM!
🌼 Small Delights
In the spirit of owning it — even when it makes us a little squeamish — pick your dare!
You made it this far? Consider us impressed. Now, if you could leave a 5 star review of our podcast on whatever platform you’re listening, we’d be double impressed (and very grateful!)
For your convenience: You can find Mixed Media Minds, the podcast, on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Until next month, take care! — Sitara & Cristina