Bad On Paper - podcast cover

Bad On Paper

Becca Freeman & Olivia Muenterbadonpaperpodcast.com
Join Becca Freeman and Olivia Muenter every Wednesday for a dose of books and banter, along with interviews with women who inspire us.

Episodes

People We Meet on Vacation Book Club, with Emily Henry!

This week on the podcast we’re talking all things People We Meet on Vacation with the author, Emily Henry! For such a light, fun read the conversation gets quite serious. We talk about that feeling of discontent some thirty-somethings experience when they achieve their goals, her writing process, how real-life vacations inspired scenes in the book, and her favorite (and least favorite) romance tropes. We also talk about Amazon Prime Day Finds! Don’t forget: We are taking the month of July off bu...

Jun 30, 20211 hr 17 minSeason 1Ep. 183

Elin Hilderbrand Chats Beach Reads, Nantucket Eats, and More

This week on the podcast we’re chatting with one of our favorite authors, Elin Hilderbrand! We talk about the origin story of her first book, how she found her way to Nantucket, what book was the hardest to write, and how she feels about being called the “queen of beach reads.” We also talk about our really great weeks, Becca’s pilot scriptwriting process, and our excitement for the Summer 2021 TV Lineup! Find Elin Hilderbrand on Instagram at @elinhilderbrand Obsessions: Starstruck on HBO Max Ha...

Jun 23, 20211 hr 9 minSeason 1Ep. 182

Summer Shopping Favorites!

It’s been a minute since we’ve done a shopping episode so today we wanted to give you a big shopping update. This week’s episode is all about the clothes, skincare, beauty products (and more!) we’ve been buying lately. We also catch up on life, reading, and a recent TV fave. Where we’ve been shopping Fashion Farm Rio Hill House Home Nap Dresses La Ligne Castaner Espadrilles Madewell shorts Mister Zimi Gorman Tanya Taylor Swimsuits Bleu Rod Beattie One Piece Lulu’s Sandals Skincare Beauty Pie ( U...

Jun 16, 20211 hr 2 minSeason 1Ep. 181

(Career) Change Is In The Air!

This week is all about career changes! We talk about our career paths and answer your questions including: How do you know it’s time to change careers? How do you adjust to working from home? How can I make the shift from one industry to another? We also cover our impromptu Charleston reunion and how we’re pushing through the urge to doze off as our calendars fill up! Career Aptitude Tests + Resources The Princeton Review Career Quiz 123test Career Test 16 Personalities test The Everygirl Career...

Jun 09, 20211 hr 11 minSeason 1Ep. 180

Katie Sturino On Her New Book "Body Talk"

Today we are joined by our dear friend Katie Sturino, body acceptance advocate and founder of Megababe Beauty. This episode is basically a three-way phone conversation among friends but the big thing is that we talk about her amazing new book, Body Talk , and her journey towards body acceptance. We also use this time to catch up with Katie, covering her summer travel plans, new Megababe launches, what brands we want to see extend their size range, and the surprising struggle of creating Instagra...

Jun 02, 20211 hr 10 minSeason 1Ep. 179

The Last Thing He Told Me Book Club

This month we read The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave, one of both of our favorite authors. We were already HUGE Laura Dave fans (she’s also the author of Eight Hundred Grapes and Hello Sunshine), and we were so excited to see her branch into totally new territory with a thriller! In the book, Hannah Hall’s husband, Owen, disappears after only one year of marriage, leaving behind a note that reads: “Protect Her.” Her is Owen’s teen daughter Bailey. Hannah and Bailey work together to unravel...

May 26, 20211 hr 2 minSeason 1Ep. 178

Our Interior Designers, Erin Gates & Emma Beryl, Chat All Things Home Decor.

Whenever either one of us do a Q&A we get asked about working with an interior designer, so today we wanted to invite our friends (and interior designers!) Erin Gates & Emma Beryl to chat. Emma and Erin demystify the entire process of working with a designer (yes, even pricing!). They also share their experiences working with us, their favorite places to find great deals on decor items, and their thoughts on where to splurge and where to save. We also talk about ways to decorate a rental without...

May 19, 20211 hr 1 minSeason 1Ep. 177

Post Vax Life: What We’re Wearing & Where We’re Going

Last week we reflected back on quarantine and the positive things that came from it. Now that we are both fully vaccinated we thought it would be fun to look forward. This week, we are looking toward the future and thinking about life post-pandemic. We (unsurprisingly) are excited about travel and actually getting dressed again. Although we have very different ideas of what getting dressed looks like these days, we are still both excited to refresh our wardrobes and share our favorite purchases ...

May 12, 20211 hr 2 minSeason 1Ep. 176

Favorite Snacks, Chores That Give Us A Rush, and The Brighter Side of Quarantine.

Today’s episode is a real grab bag! We start out with a topic close to Grace’s heart: snacks. We compare our snacking habits, our favorite snacks, and more. We also touch on our favorite chores (and our least favorites too!). You have probably never met two people who feel so strongly about doing laundry. And as we get closer to the end of quarantine and life going back to (almost?) normal, we also reflect on some bright sides of quarantine and what we are looking forward to now that we’ll both ...

May 05, 20211 hr 3 minSeason 1Ep. 175

Delicious! By Ruth Reichl Book Club

Today is Book Club, and this month we read Delicious! By Ruth Reichl . The book tells the story of Billie Breslin, who learns at a young age she has an impeccable palate. Years later she drops out of college and moves from California to NYC to work for Delicious!, the country’s most prominent food magazine. Her life changes drastically as she forms new relationships with colleagues at the magazine, chefs, and shop owners. When Delicious! is unexpectedly shut down, Billie is kept on board to hono...

Apr 28, 20211 hr 11 minSeason 1Ep. 174

Clark’s Botanicals Founder, Francesco Clark, on How Vanity Saved His Life

In today’s episode we are joined by Francesco Clark, the founder of the clean beauty brand Clark’s Botanicals. Francesco shares the origin story of Clark’s Botanicals: When he suffered a devastating spinal cord injury, he found himself paralyzed. One unexpected side effect of his paralysis was that his body could no longer sweat… and as a result, his skin changed dramatically. Together with his father (a doctor trained in homeopathy), they created Clark’s Botanicals. Francesco explains the chemi...

Apr 21, 20211 hr 8 minSeason 1Ep. 173

Listener Q&A: Big Life Decisions, Career Moves, Daily Routines, + More!

Grace has made it safe and sound to Charleston and we were due for catch up! We put a call out in the Facebook group for questions, and we tackle them all in today’s episode. We share our favorite book podcasts, how we choose what to read next, how we manage our day, and give advice to a listener on a big life decision. We also answer questions about if job hunting is all who you know, how to make friends in a pandemic (or in a new city), managing zoom fatigue, and the age-old question: is NYC w...

Apr 14, 20211 hr 20 minSeason 1Ep. 172

Childhood Nostalgia: Pogs, Beanie Babies, Starter Jackets, and Mall Culture

Today’s episode was the last one we recorded together while Grace was living in Brooklyn! As we embark on a new (remote) era of the podcast we thought it would be fun to take a walk down memory lane and talk about all of our childhood favorite things. As two weird kids (and now, weird adults), there were a lot of fun and silly memories to share. We share the things that we collected, the foods we coveted (and our strange bagged lunches), our love for the mall and our favorite childhood books. Be...

Apr 07, 20211 hr 1 minSeason 1Ep. 171

The Midnight Library Book Club

TRIGGER WARNING: Suicide National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 800-273-8255 Our March Book Club pick is The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. The book follows 35-year-old Nora Seed, who is full of regrets over how she lived her life. In between life and death she is given the chance to explore how alternate lives would have played out had she made different choices thanks to the magic of The Midnight Library. We also share our own regrets and wrong turns that ultimately led us to where we are today....

Mar 31, 202158 minSeason 1Ep. 170

Unpopular opinions: controversial things we love + hate

Between Grace’s upcoming move to Charleston and Becca’s immersion in RomComPods Season 3 production, we realized we haven’t had much time to catch up! So this week is a little off the rails grab-bag episode where we embrace all of our most unpopular opinions on popular things, and the other way around. It’s always fun to unearth more things that we don’t know about each other. This includes but is definitely not limited to our trash people tendencies, lowbrow loves, overrated beauty products... ...

Mar 24, 20211 hr 8 minSeason 1Ep. 169

Julia Turshen on Home Cooking, Body Image, and the word “Healthy”

Home chef and New York Times bestselling author Julia Turshen joins us to talk about her journey to writing cookbooks, her relationship with her body, and her personal, new cookbook Simply Julia . We also hear the adorable story of how she met her wife, Grace (a true Internet meet-cute!) and discuss her inclusive food database, Equity at the Table. More Julia: Simply Julia - Cookbook juliaturshen.com @turshen on instagram Equity at the Table Julia Rec: Maintenance Phase Podcast Instagram: @opalv...

Mar 17, 20211 hr 2 minSeason 1Ep. 168

Spring 2021 Edition: Everything we are watching and listening to right now!

It has been a year in pandemic purgatory and if you are like us (which we assume you are, because you’re here!) then you might be running out of ways to entertain yourself at home. We have both been recently watching and listening to a lot of great content and thought we would share a roundup of our favorite movies, tv shows, podcasts and more. Consider this your to-watch list! Join us in the Facebook group and give us your recs! Movie Recs: Minari Promising Young Woman Nomadland Fake Famous The...

Mar 10, 20211 hr 4 minSeason 1Ep. 167

An Interview with Frances Cha, author of If I Had Your Face

Today we spoke with Frances Cha, the author of our February book club pick - If I Had Your Face . Frances is a NYC-based author who splits her time between the US and Seoul. She shares her experiences researching plastic surgery, room salons, and mental health for the book. We discuss the way she developed her characters to each embody a different theme of Korean culture, the journey to finally releasing the book during the pandemic, and what she’s working on now! More Frances Cha: @franceschawr...

Feb 25, 202135 minSeason 1Ep. 165

If I Had Your Face Book Club

For this month’s book club we read If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha. Just 30 pages into this book, we both knew it had to be our book club pick. Neither of us haven read anything like it before and there is so much to talk about. The story revolves around 4 women who all live in the same apartment building in contemporary Seoul, South Korea. The book explores impossible beauty standards and strict social hierarchies, fangirling over K-POP bands, jealousy, relationships, sex work and room salons...

Feb 24, 20211 hr 5 minSeason 1Ep. 164

How We Read So Much + Hidden Gem Books (With Listener Recs!)

One of the things we get asked about most is how to read more. So we tackle that during the first fifteen minutes of this episode. (Spoiler alert: being single and childfree during a pandemic helps!) When we read, the advantages of audiobooks, and how to find books you truly love reading, and more! For the rest of the episode, we dive into our favorite hidden gem books. We each brought our five favorite hidden gem books to the table, peppering them in with recommendations from YOU! So this episo...

Feb 17, 20211 hr 19 minSeason 1Ep. 163

Small Business School with Luv Scrub Founder, Caroline Owusu-Ansah

Today we are joined by Caroline Owusu-Ansah, the founder of Luv Scrub! If you have been listening for a while you know that Grace is obsessed with her Luv Scrub—and rightfully so. This exfoliating cloth was awarded Allure’s Best of Beauty Award, leaves your skin baby soft, and replaces your old loofah or pouf - for good! Caroline shares the journey to build her business and her lessons learned, from ways to avoid burnout to finding a mentor to taking care of your mental health. More Caroline: ww...

Feb 10, 20211 hr 14 minSeason 1Ep. 162

Quarantine Winter: Updates From 11 Months Indoors

With almost a full year of quarantine life under our belts, we’re checking in with each other on how we’re feeling, what’s giving us hope, and how we are staying motivated to do anything more than watching Netflix. Grace shares more about her season of self-improvement and Becca talks about how big projects are giving her quarantine a sense of purpose. We’re also talking about the activities that are keeping us busy (puzzles!) and what we’ve been watching during our nights in. We want to hear ab...

Feb 03, 20211 hr 2 minSeason 1Ep. 161

An Interview with Elizabeth Gilbert

Today we are joined by Elizabeth Gilbert the New York Times best-selling author of Eat, Pray, Love, City of Girls, and (of course!) our January Book Club pick Big Magic. We talk about her decision to write Big Magic and the writing process behind it. She shares her unique perspectives on creativity and how every person can find and grow in that space. She talks about staying actively (and not-so actively) creative during the pandemic, ditching social media for the greater good, and learning how ...

Jan 28, 20211 hr 2 minSeason 1Ep. 160

Big Magic Book Club

We found it fitting that Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert was our first book club of 2021. Becca reads this book every January to jumpstart her year, and we wanted to include you on her tradition. Reading this book is the creativity pep talk we all need so badly right now. Elizabeth approaches creativity with lightness and joy. Even if you don’t consider yourself a creative person, you will take so much away from this book. We touch on each chapter and our biggest takeaways and share our own journ...

Jan 27, 20211 hr 14 minSeason 1Ep. 159

Azora Zoe Paknad, founder of Goldune, talks Sustainability

In today’s episode we are joined by Azora Zoe Paknad, the founder of Goldune. Before starting Goldune in the middle of the pandemic (in the short span of 5 months!), Azora Zoe worked for Food52 and before that, she was Grace’s social media intern at BaubleBar! She has worked in the ecommerce and content space for years and when quarantine started she got to work and started her own e-commerce site, selling the best sustainable homewares. Azora Zoe shares the intense process of building a company...

Jan 21, 20211 hr 23 minSeason 1Ep. 158

2021 Resolutions

It’s the time of year where we reflect on past resolutions and create new ones for the new year ahead. As we look back on the insanity of 2020 and the way that it affected our goals and ability to achieve them, we found some silver linings! Although we are definitely cautious as we set our 2021 goals, we’re also optimistic. We talk about our personal, business, and mental and physical health resolutions and the steps we are taking to get there. Whether you like to make resolutions or you just li...

Jan 13, 20211 hr 14 minSeason 1Ep. 157

Your 2021 Tarotscope with Kelley Knight

We’re back with our first episode of a brand new year! To kick off 2021 we are joined by Kelley Knight, author of Spells for the Modern Mystic Ritual Guidebook and Spellcasting Kit. Kelley is bringing mysticism into the mainstream, and we are here for it! We chat about her own psychic awakening, building her business, and her freakiest predictions. She does a mini tarot reading for each horoscope sign to see what lies in the year ahead. We also have a bonus January reading for those Virgos and L...

Jan 06, 20212 hr 32 minSeason 1Ep. 156

The Cousins Book Club

For the last book club of 2020, we chose The Cousins by Karen McManus. This is a twisty YA thriller, sans murder - making it kind of the perfect book for both of us! This is the tale of Milly, Aubrey, and Jonah Story: three cousins who barely know each other but are invited to work at their estranged grandmother’s resort. All of their parents have been disinherited and the cousins learn more and more about the dark secrets of their family’s past. We chat about which cousins we relate to most, ou...

Dec 16, 20201 hrSeason 1Ep. 155

The Best of 2020

2020 is coming to a close and we are not going to let this year end on a negative note. There were really some great things about this year (politics and pandemics aside, of course). In this episode we talk about our biggest professional and personal accomplishments this year and all of our favorite purchases. We reminisce about our favorite episodes of the pod this year, our favorite books, clothing and beauty purchases and all of our favorite ways that we self-cared our way through 2020. Grace...

Dec 09, 20201 hr 13 minSeason 1Ep. 154

The Holiday Episode

How is it possible we’ve never done a holiday episode?! Let’s fix that starting… now! In this episode we talk about our favorite holiday traditions, how we decorate, our fave holiday foods, and, of course, the best movies and books to get you into the holiday spirit. We also share our favorite small businesses that you should know about for gift shopping this holiday season! Join us in the FB group and tell us your favorite small businesses! Holiday Movies: Elf The Christmas Contract A Christmas...

Dec 02, 20201 hr 21 minSeason 1Ep. 153