It goes without saying that The Amazing Race pushed me out of my comfort zone. Never in a million years would I go bungee jumping off the highest jump in Europe, or climb a thousand stairs, or EAT. MAGGOT. CHEESE. Also when, as a middle-aged parents living in North Carolina, would we have the chance to hang out with twin radio DJs from New Jersey? We wanted you to have the chance to meet Lulu and Lala on our podcast. We talk about their dynamic way of twin-speak, how they worked their way to the...
Mar 17, 2022•47 min•Season 4Ep. 22
Penn and I are recovering from a busy couple of weeks, so we wanted to go back to basics. We asked you to submit any and all questions to us. And let me tell you, you did NOT disappoint. Your questions led to some very interesting discussions about jam stands, hobby hunting, and optimal bedroom size. But the question that made us laugh the most was: "So, what's your deal?" We tried to answer that as honestly as possible, but most days I have no idea what my deal is. Tell us your deal and send us...
Mar 15, 2022•42 min•Season 4Ep. 21
While we are “getting back to normal” content in most ways, we will still want to spend some time and introduce you to some of the people we met along the way on our Amazing Race Journey. It’s strange to think about it now, but Cayla Platt and Raquel Moore were the very first people we met on the Race. We didn’t know it then, but almost two years after we met in that airport, we’d be going head to head in a battle to the very end. As much as we loved winning, our hearts broke that they didn’t. H...
Mar 10, 2022•1 hr•Season 4Ep. 20
In our years together, Penn has done an amazing job making me feel completely loved and accepted just the way I am - anxiety and all. And, in true Penn Holderness fashion, he’s not only learned to support me through my anxiety, but has pointed out positive parts of my anxiety that can actually be a benefit sometimes. Talking about anxiety is really HARD for someone with anxiety, but we put this out there because we really hope that someone can glean helpful information for themselves and/or thei...
Mar 08, 2022•35 min•Season 4Ep. 19
Did we just win The Amazing Race? This week on the podcast recap, we give you more behind-the-scenes about what things were like leading up to and winning the race. We also talk about being with our kids and the cast to watch the finale together. It was a moment we will remember for the rest of our lives. I can’t say enough about the producers and people behind the scenes at The Amazing Race. They had the seemingly impossible task of putting on a race during a pandemic and they kept us all safe....
Mar 05, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Season 4Ep. 18
If you’ve been following us here for a while, you know that we both openly talk about our mental health challenges. For Kim, it's anxiety and depression. For Penn, it's ADHD. We’ve written countless songs, skits, and blogs about these struggles. Most recently, Penn wrote a blog about how he processes his ADHD and turns it into his superpower especially through our time on The Amazing Race. Supporting each other's mental health has taken a lot of time and practice. Like sometimes your husband lea...
Mar 01, 2022•45 min•Season 4Ep. 17
All my life I’ve always been a rule follower. I don’t cut corners. I don’t take shortcuts. This week on The Amazing Race my rule following almost got the best of me. In a “needle in the haystack” challenge we had to turn over THOUSANDS of rocks in a coliseum to find a gold coin and get a clue. Despite having a head start, it took hours. It was a task that almost broke me. Hear more about what it was like to be part of this challenge on this week’s podcast recap and [SPOILER ALERT] how we are fee...
Feb 24, 2022•51 min•Season 4Ep. 16
When intimidating headlines like “college admissions scandals” are swirling around, it seems like a perfectly natural reaction to feel overwhelmed and stressed out when applying to college is on the horizon. For us, having a high school aged daughter, the college application process has already been a topic of conversation in our home. We spoke to The College Essay Guy , Ethan Sawyer, and he told us that we can not only make the college admissions less stressful, but we might even have a little ...
Feb 22, 2022•52 min•Season 4Ep. 15
We did it. We survived another leg of The Amazing Race. Besides, “when do you go to the bathroom” the next most commonly asked question is “what do your kids think of all of this?” So when we sat down for this week’s recap of the 9th leg of the Amazing Race, we had some special guests. Lola and PC joined us for the first few minutes of our recap to share their reactions to this week’s episode. They did not hold back. (Kids will keep you humble, man.) One of the things we didn’t expect in such a ...
Feb 17, 2022•54 min•Season 4Ep. 14
This week we interviewed our Amazing Race friends, Sheri and Akbar Cook. We wanted to bring this to you because they are pretty amazing people and have such an inspiring story to tell. I’m going to tell you now, you’ll want to have some tissues on hand for this episode. If you’re watching this season, Sheri and Akbar had some of my favorite moments of the season despite being eliminated at the end of leg 6. Perhaps you saw Sheri and Akbar snap at each other a few times, but I’m here to tell you ...
Feb 15, 2022•39 min•Season 4Ep. 13
I’ll admit that even though we’ve lived it, I get anxious watching myself on TV when The Amazing Race is airing. But one of my favorite things has been recording the recaps after the show airs to help process what things you see on screen and the emotions around the day. It feels good to talk about what happened and give context to what was going through our minds. In last night’s episode, we had to eat casu martzu to earn a clue. I’ll save you the google search, it’s cheese made by (and with) r...
Feb 10, 2022•47 min•Season 4Ep. 12
When you've been with your person for 20 years, the hot and heavy dopamine of the early days tends to wear off. But luckily for us, I think the way Penn and I show love has improved. (There’s something special about knowing exactly how to love your person, right?) When you get older unsexy things can be sexy too. So in honor of Valentine's Day next week, we swap the five most unsexy things we find sexy about each other. We also talk a lot about farts in a jar... which I sincerely apologize for. ...
Feb 08, 2022•37 min•Season 4Ep. 11
Hi, my name is Kim. I used to live with anxiety and depression. Now I don’t. I have just fundamentally changed my personality. It’s as simple as that. (Please roll your eyes at those previous statements.) One of the most common questions I get about The Amazing Race experience (besides “when do you pee?”) is “How has this experience changed you?” I haven’t answered it before because I wanted to let this episode play out. In this entire experience, this is the one that changed me the most profoun...
Feb 03, 2022•53 min•Season 4Ep. 10
When we left for The Amazing Race, the biggest source of anxiety I had was the fact that we could not bring our phones with us. But not having screens ended up being our favorite part of the race experience. Once we got back home, we had a lot of catching up to do and found ourselves going in the other direction. We were on our screens ALL.THE.TIME. It felt like digital adultery spending more time with our phones than in connection with the people in our house. So we invited our marriage coach, ...
Feb 01, 2022•59 min•Season 4Ep. 9
Coming into The Amazing Race, I had made the decision I would do the “falling off of things” challenges. I would hate it. I would have tears in my eyes, but I would do it. It’s easy to say, of course, but when faced with having to bungee jump… I panicked. While I jumped, Penn panicked. The flood of emotions impacted the rest of our day (not in a good way.) We talked all about the jump (see our YouTube channel for the video), the hardest part of the race so far, and all the other things you didn’...
Jan 27, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Season 4Ep. 8
Someone recently asked us, “What advice would you give to a newlywed couple?” and we realized... we had a lot to say. We’ve been married long enough that we have to do math in our heads to remember how long it’s been (it’s been 16 ¾ years). Going through all the things we would tell our newlywed selves refreshed strategies that have helped us be better at being married, too. We can’t go back and tell our newlywed selves this now, but maybe sharing what we’ve learned along the way can help someon...
Jan 25, 2022•52 min•Season 4Ep. 7
For me, sometimes just showing up is a victory. Never has it been more true for me than showing up to start The Amazing Race, AGAIN. But we did it. After a 19 month pause in production, we restarted The Race. (SPOILER ALERT) In today’s recap we talk about our emotions going back, my mini-breakdown at a challenge and we chatted with our friends Moe Badger and Mike Norwood who, unfortunately, were eliminated last night. Tell us your questions and we will try to answer them in these recaps next wee...
Jan 20, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Season 4Ep. 6
This week we complete the second half of our interview with Ian Morgan Cron. We've never done this before, but there was so much good stuff that it had to be a two-part podcast. (And yes, we are asking Ian to bill us for the therapy session.) This week we dive into Kim's struggles as an Enneagram 1 and things get emotional. We also give an overview on all the enneagram types. Ian has released a wonderful new book called The Story of You. It is an enneagram-based book that not only talks about yo...
Jan 18, 2022•41 min•Season 4Ep. 5
Everyone has a story about what they were doing when the world shut down in 2020. Our story? Well, we finally get to tell you. We had just finished leg 3 of The Amazing Race in Glasgow, Scotland. (Spoiler Alert: We WON the leg, by the way!) In this week’s recap, we talk about what it was like on this leg of the Race and what was going through our minds when we learned that we’d be going home. Tell us your questions and we will try to answer them in these recaps next week! Call 323-364-3929 or e-...
Jan 13, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Season 4Ep. 4
This week we had Ian Morgan Cron on our podcast to discuss his new book, The Story of You . It’s an enneagram-based book that not only talks about your type, but also the common broken childhood stories we tell ourselves and how we can write new ones. There was so much good stuff that we covered, we felt it had to be a two part podcast. In Part 1, we discussed Enneagram 7 (Penn) and how they can sometimes be guilty of toxic positivity. Enneagram 7’s have a hard time accessing their full range of...
Jan 11, 2022•30 min•Season 4Ep. 3
Watching ourselves on The Amazing Race is supposed to be the fun part. We’ve already done all the work and we know how the story ends. What I didn’t account for is how watching the challenges would make my body re-live the stress and anxiety of the race all over again. [SPOILER ALERT] In week one, we discuss Penn’s ADHD… the blessing and the curse. It may have gotten us through the art puzzle in the first leg but it also cost us time on the Mail Rail clue the next day. We also revisit the Cake F...
Jan 06, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Season 4Ep. 2
Before Penn and I went on The Amazing Race, we trained and planned as much as we could. But another thing we did was talk about how we were going to talk to each other. The race can be a lot of pressure and we anticipated tensions to run high. As competitive as we planned to be on the show, our marriage is a priority. Penn and I talk this week about our tips for wartime vs peacetime conversations in a partnership. We also discuss what we do and don’t like when we are under stress… spoiler alert:...
Jan 04, 2022•29 min•Season 4Ep. 1
Penn and I couldn’t be more opposite when it comes to making and keeping resolutions. This week on the podcast we heard from all of you about how you keep resolutions. In this weird week between Christmas and New Year’s, it was motivating to get your take on how to make a New Year resolution a success, including not making them at all! (Thanks Gary.) We also had some fun with a TikTok comment we got from a fan that lead into an analysis on the phrase “just saying.” For the record, you cannot say...
Dec 28, 2021•42 min•Season 3Ep. 38
This week we sit down to talk to Shawn Johnson and Andrew East about their transition from being professional athletes to content creators and everything in-between. Shawn and Andrew are so fun and have wisdom beyond their years. We talk about how they met, their take on youth sports, and how we all might jump into a zero-gravity jet! You can listen to their podcast (just nominated for a People's Choice Award) and learn more about their tour here: https://www.couplethingspod.com/ Don’t forget to...
Dec 21, 2021•53 min•Season 3Ep. 37
Penn and I both agreed that being on The Amazing Race was a bucket list item for us. It was a fun dream because in our minds there was a ZERO percent chance it would ever happen. Until it did. We’ve had to keep a secret for almost TWO YEARS that we were competing on The Amazing Race in Season 33. We left in February 2020 and we were in Europe as the world was shutting down. Earlier this year, we left again to finish the competition and we learned a lot about ourselves. Anxiety and ADHD make quit...
Dec 14, 2021•34 min•Season 3Ep. 36
Marriage isn’t always 50/50. In fact, in our marriage, there are times one partner is pulling the entire load. The last few weeks have been tough for our family. On top of the “normal” family struggles that bubble up in every house, my grandmother’s health took a sharp decline. So Penn started using this phrase and pairing it with thoughtful action: “I’m anticipating your needs…” then he would do the thing that I needed. Let’s face it, you know your person better than anyone. You know what would...
Dec 07, 2021•40 min•Season 3Ep. 35
It's always fun to interview people we can fangirl over and this week's guest is no exception. Penn and I talk to stand-up comedian, writer, actor, and fellow North Carolinian Fortune Feimster! Everything Fortune does seems to be steeped in positivity. We talk about her growing up in NC, what her parents must have thought about her becoming a comedian, and how she accidentally stole the show in the movie Office Christmas Party . We love Fortune's unique brand of comedic storytelling which she at...
Nov 30, 2021•35 min•Season 3Ep. 34
We thought it would be fun to hear from you guys this week on some of your favorite Thanksgiving traditions and your crazy stories... and thanks to this new invention called a TELEPHONE we get to actually hear your voices too! This Thanksgiving is going to be a hard one for our family, but your calls brightened our day and made us laugh. We are thankful for you. Don’t forget to call us and leave a message - we might play your question in next week’s episode! You can tell us what you like or you ...
Nov 23, 2021•34 min•Season 3Ep. 33
Penn and I talk about treating your marriage like a team using the most inspirational and uplifting muse we know… Ted Lasso. Our family loves watching Ted Lasso, and we’re going through withdrawals now that Season 2 is over. So we thought we’d use some of the show’s best one-liners to talk about treating your marriage as a team. (Who needs couples therapy when you have Ted Lasso, right? Totally kidding.) Thank you for listening! Your support means the world to us. Do you have ideas for podcast g...
Nov 16, 2021•33 min•Season 3Ep. 32
*This podcast episode is around the heavy topic of social media and the prevalence of sexual predators. There is content on the show that people may find disturbing. Though it’s important to have these conversations with your kids, we recommend listening on your own first.* We interviewed my friend, Roo Powell, on our podcast in February 2020 where she talked to us about her work uncovering online sexual predators. Roo is a mom, writer, advocate, and the founder of SOSA , Safe from Online Sex Ab...
Nov 09, 2021•45 min•Season 3Ep. 31
