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Greetings, loyal listeners! In this episode, we mention nary a book at all until like the last 10 seconds! Instead, we explain What Happened during our many-month break from the podcast, beginning with a sudden and unexpected Big Life Event for Jackie, continuing with some real crazy hijinks involving a man rolling around in the snow, a mysterious bag of spiders, and some feral cats living in the walls, and ending with Rachel's baby being fat-shamed by a rich woman. Also, Bekah is trying to get jacked and Nikita is a huge grifter.

Thanks for sticking by us even as our lives slightly fall apart and are rebuilt piece by ridiculous piece. Onward and upward!

We’re back! We missed you! Just in time for summer of 2026, which we planned from the very beginning. (We actually recorded this podcast before our unexpected break, so come back next episode for the explanation. There is one, and it's valid, we think.)

In this episode, we talk about the J.D. Salinger short story A Perfect Day for Bananafish. We previously talked about his book The Catcher in the Rye (feel free to go back and listen to that miniseries!), but he also wrote a bunch of short stories about the fictional Glass family, of which this is one. The story content is pretty serious, but we have a li’l fun with it.

Nikita would prefer not to; Jackie has perfect audio; Bekah hates to say it; Rachel continues to not have a crush on Gabe from The Office.

Topics include: Polyphemus, the evergreen-ness of Bartleby, cornhole, The Summer I Turned Pretty, white male freaks (positive), HIPAA violations, scurvy, unprepared hostage-takers, mayonnaise, and the perfect cream cheese to bagel ratio.