Episode 22: There Is Something Living In Our Ceiling

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit marycatherinestarr.substack.comIn this episode, Ben and I sit down for a conversation that is—thankfully—much more relaxed than our last one. We start with a post-mortem on the “Great Christmas Gift Wrapping Experiment.” If you were hoping for a success story about a perfectly equitable domestic shift, well, there’s always next year…We also dive into:The Creator’s Dilemma: How do you keep making “silly little comics” about motherhood when the world feels like it’s on fire? I talk about the tension of being an artist in a heavy political climate and the fine line between staying informed and finding a necessary reprieve. The Things That Go Bump in the Night: We are currently being held hostage by a mysterious creature living in our ceiling. We discuss the fear of living with unidentified nocturnal “skittering,” Ben’s refusal to call the exterminator, and the very real possibility that our house is actually Noah’s Ark for local rodents.Humans or Dollar Signs?: A deep dive into the weird ethics of the service industry. Whether it’s teaching yoga or coaching basketball, we discuss what it feels like when your paycheck is tied to the number of bodies in the room and the mental shift from “government salary” to “self-employed hustle.”Biological Debates: Is an owl a mammal? Ben has some thoughts. (Spoiler: He is very, very wrong.)