Episodes

  • How to Make Miniatures with Sara Schaefer

    How to Make Miniatures with Sara Schaefer
    May 13 2026
    Sara Schaefer is a comedian who’s appeared on or written for shows on Comedy Central, Apple+, Netflix, MTV, and more, and is the host of Crafting Through It on YouTube, where she, in her words, “infuses the handmade with the humorous.” In this episode of Finders and Keepers, Sara introduces us to the world of miniatures, from how to make a mini comedy club set to just how much math is involved, where to find materials, and why miniatures are so popular.In our conversation, she talks about her lifelong relationship with miniatures, what drew her back to the hobby during the pandemic, and how humor and tiny things turn out to have more in common than you’d think. Note: This interview was conducted in spring 2025.Here’s more of what you’ll find in the episode:1. The past has a way of finding you againSara’s obsession with miniatures started in childhood, where she used to play with her sister’s dollhouse. Around age eight or nine, she got her own dollhouse and spent years collecting miniatures but, over time, she became too busy, though the dollhouse lived with her for her whole life.But then, in 2020, she and her partner downsized, and she was finally forced to deal with the crumbling childhood dollhouse she’d been carting around for decades. Instead of tossing it, she decided to renovate, and that’s when something cracked open inside her.Within months, she was building miniatures from scratch, opening an Etsy shop, incorporating tiny scenes into her standup show, and launching her YouTube series. That falling-apart dollhouse she couldn’t bring herself to let go of was the gateway to a whole new facet of her career.2. Removing the audience changes everythingSara has spent her career making people laugh via everything from live storytelling shows to standup specials to late night TV and Emmy Award-winning writers’ rooms. She knows what it feels like to perform and be judged.Miniatures, she says, feel nothing like that: “I feel way less pressure doing miniatures than, say, writing or being funny because I’m just doing it for me really, and there’s no audience.”That freedom is what lets her voice come through most clearly. Without the pressure of a live room, she started making things with actual social commentary, like a miniature murder board complete with string and thumbtacks, and a tiny comedy club with hand-framed headshots on the wall. The audience, or lack thereof, gave her the opportunity to dive deeper than she would have been able to otherwise.3. What we can’t let go of tells us who we areWhen Sara moved cross-country, the question wasn’t just what would fit in the moving truck, but also what was too important to risk losing forever. For her, the answer was a handmade quilt sewn from her late mother’s clothes.That same instinct that kept her from throwing away a ruined childhood dollhouse has her saving every padded envelope to reuse for Etsy shipments and still holding onto miniatures her sister owned before she was born.These collections are about so much more than the objects themselves, but what they’ve meant to her, and what they might become someday in another form.Tune in to this week’s episode to hear about this and much more!About our guest:Sara Schaefer is a critically acclaimed stand up comedian, writer, and artist. Her Comedy Central Stand Up Presents half hour special debuted in November 2019 and she was the co-host of MTV’s late night show Nikki & Sara Live. Sara published her first book, Grand, in 2020 with Simon & Schuster. She has written for numerous television programs including Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, The Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, Would I Lie To You, and The History of Swear Words. She won two Emmy awards for her work at Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. In recent years, Sara’s satirical sketches have been viral hits, and The New York Times called her new solo show Going Up “ambitious and nimble” and “a feat of comedy.” Her new show, Crafting Through It, debuted on YouTube in 2025.Sara Schaefer websiteCraftingThroughIt.bizMiniature making tutorialsInstagram: @saraschaefer1TikTok: @yaysaraschaeferFacebookOnline shopCrafting Through It YouTube showFinders and Keepers is hosted by Rachel Kramer Bussel and is a production of Open Secrets Magazine. Thank you to Sound Off Network and Dan Schroeder for audio production support. Please rate and review wherever you listen to podcasts to help us reach new listeners. Want to share your own stuff story, tell us who we should interview next, or share your own most treasured possession? Contact us at findersandkeeperspod@gmail.com or leave a voicemail at speakpipe.com/findersandkeepersFor more about our attachments to our belongings, read the personal essays in the Object-ives and Stuff-ed sections of Open Secrets Magazine at opensecretsmagazine.com, where you can also submit your own essays. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or ...
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    38 mins
  • What to Do with Things We Inherit and How We Preserve Our Children’s Earliest Moments with Emily Hessney Lynch

    What to Do with Things We Inherit and How We Preserve Our Children’s Earliest Moments with Emily Hessney Lynch
    May 6 2026

    Emily Hessney Lynch, host of the podcast It’s a Lot, joins us to discuss two topics that are emotionally heavy and very much a lot: how to handle items we inherit from family members when we’re not sure why we’re inheriting them or what role they might play in our lives, and how to preserve memories of our children’s earliest moments. Emily shares why an apple juice bottle plays such a pivotal role in her son’s first months, and she and host Rachel Kramer Bussel explore the legacies we want to leave our children, who are currently toddlers, via our belongings. Additionally, we discuss her assorted collections from childhood to adulthood, and how the act of collecting everything from buttons to rocks and beyond has changed for her over time.

    About our guest:

    Emily Hessney Lynch is a digital strategist, content writer, and the founder of Serve Me the Sky Digital. She has more than 14 years of experience working with nonprofits, higher ed institutions, and businesses on sharing their stories through engaging digital content. In addition to her consulting work, she is an adjunct professor at Nazareth University. Emily is also the creator and host of It’s a Lot, a podcast about social media, parenthood, and other things that are a lot. When she’s not working, you’ll find her reading, visiting local libraries, or chasing her toddler.

    servemethesky.com

    It’s a Lot podcast

    Instagram: @servemethesky

    Finders and Keepers is hosted by Rachel Kramer Bussel and is a production of Open Secrets Magazine. Please rate and review wherever you listen to podcasts to help us reach new listeners. Want to share your own stuff story, tell us who we should interview next, or share your own most treasured possession? Contact us at findersandkeeperspod@gmail.com or leave a voicemail at speakpipe.com/findersandkeepers

    For more about our attachments to our belongings, read the personal essays in the Object-ives and Stuff-ed sections of Open Secrets Magazine at opensecretsmagazine.com, where you can also submit your own essays.



    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit opensecretsmagazine.com/subscribe
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    52 mins
  • How Bestselling Author Deesha Philyaw Builds Her Book Collection and Became an Avid Reader

    How Bestselling Author Deesha Philyaw Builds Her Book Collection and Became an Avid Reader
    May 6 2026

    How do we develop a lifelong reading habit? What turns someone into a “book person?” And once we are a confirmed book person, how do we decide which books to keep on our bulging bookshelves? Deesha Philyaw, author of the bestselling, award-winning short story collection The Secret Lives of Church Ladies and forthcoming novel The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman, shares her journey to becoming an avid reader, which books and teacher had a pivotal impact on her at a young age, what’s currently on her bookshelves, and how she curates her reading material and book collection. Note: This interview was conducted in spring 2025.

    About our guest:

    Deesha Philyaw’s debut short story collection, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, won the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the 2020/2021 Story Prize, and the 2020 LA Times Book Prize: The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction. Philyaw is a Kimbilio Fiction Fellow, a Baldwin for the Arts Fellow, a United States Artists Fellow, and co-host of two podcasts, Ursa Short Fiction (with Dawnie Walton) and Reckon True Stories (with Kiese Laymon). She is currently at work developing TV shows based on her short fiction. Deesha’s debut novel, The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman, is forthcoming from Mariner Books, an imprint of HarperCollins, in September 2026.

    deeshaphilyaw.com

    Instagram: @deeshaphilyaw

    Threads: @deeshaphilyaw

    Substack Writing, Wandering, Wondering

    Finders and Keepers is hosted by Rachel Kramer Bussel and is a production of Open Secrets Magazine. Please rate and review wherever you listen to podcasts to help us reach new listeners. Want to share your own stuff story, tell us who we should interview next, or share your own most treasured possession? Contact us at findersandkeeperspod@gmail.com or leave a voicemail at speakpipe.com/findersandkeepers

    For more about our attachments to our belongings, read the personal essays in the Object-ives and Stuff-ed sections of Open Secrets Magazine at opensecretsmagazine.com, where you can also submit your own essays.



    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit opensecretsmagazine.com/subscribe
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    46 mins
  • The Allure of Costco and Bulk Shopping with American Bulk author Emily Mester

    The Allure of Costco and Bulk Shopping with American Bulk author Emily Mester
    May 6 2026

    Emily Mester, author of American Bulk: Essays on Excess, joins us to discuss the thrill of Costco shopping, the agony of online shopping returns, and why we just can’t quit the excitement of looking for the next item that will change our lives. Can shopping be just a pleasure instead of a “guilty” one? Join us as we dive into Emily’s family history with shopping, reading reviews of products we’re considering buying, which products she most enjoys shopping for, and the lure of browsing online and offline that keeps pulling Emily and host Rachel Kramer Bussel back in.

    About our guest:

    Emily Mester is from the suburban Midwest and went to Costco every Sunday. She holds an MFA in nonfiction from the University of Iowa, where she was the winner of the Prairie Lights Nonfiction Prize. American Bulk is her first book. She lives in New York.

    emilymester.com

    Instagram: @arbys_rising

    Finders and Keepers is hosted by Rachel Kramer Bussel and is a production of Open Secrets Magazine. Thank you to Sound Off Network and Dan Schroeder for audio production support. Please rate and review wherever you listen to podcasts to help us reach new listeners. Want to share your own stuff story, tell us who we should interview next, or share your own most treasured possession? Contact us at findersandkeeperspod@gmail.com or leave a voicemail at speakpipe.com/findersandkeepers

    For more about our attachments to our belongings, read the personal essays in the Object-ives and Stuff-ed sections of Open Secrets Magazine at opensecretsmagazine.com, where you can also submit your own essays.

    Open Secrets Magazine is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.



    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit opensecretsmagazine.com/subscribe
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    1 hr and 15 mins
  • Meet The World-Traveling Teddy Bear Jointly Owned by This Friend Group

    Meet The World-Traveling Teddy Bear Jointly Owned by This Friend Group
    May 6 2026

    Kristyana, April, and Twanna have been friends for over 25 years, and teddy bear Nathaniel Behr has been an integral part of their friend group. What started as a small purchase has morphed into decades of shared memories as the teddy bear has traveled with them on adventures around the world. The three friends live in different cities in the United States and Portugal, but their teddy bear gets sent between them periodically. They discuss how their friendship and joint ownership of Nathaniel Behr, whose travels and poses they document on a private social media account, have evolved over the years, and why even in midlife, their teddy bear is as active a part of their lives as he was in their twenties.

    About our guests:

    April Banks is based in sunny Las Vegas, Nevada, and works as a freelance proofreader, editor, and writer. She is also the owner of several stuffed animal friends. @april.is.not.just.a.month on Instagram

    Twanna A. Hines, M.S. (she/her) is an award-winning sexual health educator, healthy relationships advocate, and entrepreneur. A Sundance Creative Change alum, she has written for many magazines and news outlets, including NBC News, HEALTH magazine, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Time Out, Mashable, Fast Company and The Huffington Post. She has been interviewed by outlets from coast to coast, from the San Francisco Chronicle to The New York Times. Founder and CEO of the social impact firm FUNKY BROWN CHICK, she has appeared on CNN, NPR, Sirius, CBC, Paris Première, and in documentary films.

    twannahines.com

    @funkybrownchick on Instagram

    Kristyana is based in NYC and is a sales and marketing director in the natural consumer packaged goods industry.

    @flightsofphamcy and @brownbearinnyc on Instagram

    Finders and Keepers is hosted by Rachel Kramer Bussel and is a production of Open Secrets Magazine. Thank you to Sound Off Network and Dan Schroeder for audio production support. Please rate and review wherever you listen to podcasts to help us reach new listeners. Want to share your own stuff story, tell us who we should interview next, or share your own most treasured possession? Contact us at findersandkeeperspod@gmail.com or leave a voicemail at speakpipe.com/findersandkeepers

    For more about our attachments to our belongings, read the personal essays in the Object-ives and Stuff-ed sections of Open Secrets Magazine at opensecretsmagazine.com, where you can also submit your own essays.

    Open Secrets Magazine is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.



    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit opensecretsmagazine.com/subscribe
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    49 mins
  • We're Launching the Finders and Keepers Podcast This Week - Here's the Trailer!

    We're Launching the Finders and Keepers Podcast This Week - Here's the Trailer!
    May 4 2026

    We’re thrilled to announce that this week, we’re launching the podcast Finders and Keepers, about our emotional attachments to our belongings, hosted by Open Secrets Magazine editor-in-chief Rachel Kramer Bussel. You can listen to the trailer above.

    The podcast will cover everything from keepsakes to collections, minimalism to maximalism to hoarding and far beyond. If it’s about possessions and how they impact our lives, we’re open to covering it. The podcast builds on reader interest in our personal essay categories Object-ives and Stuff-ed, to explore why our stuff means so much to us.

    Season 1 of Finders and Keepers features a wide range of topics, from a teddy bear who’s been jointly owned by three friends for over 25 years and travels around the world to bestselling author Deesha Philyaw’s book collection and how she became an avid reader, memoir author Edgar Gomez on gender and fashion, Kari Ferrell on how everyday objects get repurposed in jail, essayist Athena Dixon on her Black memorabilia collection, bestselling novelist Emma Straub on why book swag is so popular, American Bulk author Emily Mester on the allure of browsing Costco and other shopping highs, Crafting Through It host Sara Schaefer on how to make miniatures, Rob Hart on collecting and saving Lego sets, Avery Cundill, host of The Declutter Queen, on why we should be decluttering on a regular basis, navigating unwanted inheritances and parting with our children’s old toys, the return of indie print magazines, and what’s inside Jane Pratt multiple storage spaces, among other topics.

    We’ll be launching this week with four episodes, and then will air a new episode every Wednesday, with short breaks between seasons.

    Every episode will go out to Open Secrets subscribers (and if you want to opt out of the podcast emails, you can do so in your subscriber settings) and the show will be available on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.

    Have a question or comment for the podcast? Want to suggest a guest or become a sponsor? You can leave a comment here, email us at findersandkeeperspod at gmail dot com or leave a voicemail at speakerpipe.com/findersandkeepers and you can follow us on Instagram @findersandkeeperspod for clips and fun news about art, objects, and possessions.



    This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit opensecretsmagazine.com/subscribe
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    3 mins