Just Between You & Me with Jen Lee and Tim Manley

Jen and Tim are both not working. Jen is setting up her new life in Sweden. Tim is sick and mostly just sitting around reading. Quiet time, recovery time, reset time.

Jen is finding her footing in Sweden, spending time with friends and family. Tim is crashing hard into summer time and can barely remember what’s happening in his life. Thing aren’t bad! Jen makes even better bread and Tim goes shopping a lot.

Jen made it to Sweden. Tim made it to the end of Season 2 of The Feels. Both of them are pretty tired.

Jen and Tim have a lot happening: a big move across the country, and a big release of a show. But the reality of their days don’t exactly match the way the internet or movies would say they should look. Publicity, mental-emotional hangups, major life changes, fears about releasing a project, rom-coms – this is what they really feel like.

Jen and Tim debrief the road trip for filming Jen's "Gather."

Jen and Tim are both in unusual times. Jen is boxing up all of her projects before the family’s move to Sweden. Tim is preparing his show for release and also cleaning his apartment. It’s an unusual right-before moment.

Jen and Tim were depleted after major projects. But now they’re back in action. Super-powered. Fully stocked. 100%. Sort of. Or, at least, they’re in recovery.

Monday was the premiere of Bright Lights at the Manhattan Film Festival. Jen shares how it all felt for her.

Recorded a weeks ago but misplaced by Tim, and hampered by auditory issues, this lost episode has now been unearthed and is available for JCY&M archaeologists.

Jen and Tim both have way too much to do, but thankfully they know how to bend time so they can fit everything in. Or at least they have some ideas for how to try to do that. Also: maintaining spontaneity in projects that require careful organization.

Tim continues to make a web series around the edges of all the other things he does to pay the bills. Jen is running a fever and just doing deep, delirious thinking until she can get back into her work flow for real.

Tim continues to film Season Two of The Feels while starting work for the next phase of editing. Jen is cycling between many projects in different stages, thinking about her relationship to things like time and uncertainty. They are in a cafe, and it sounds like New York City in the morning.

Jen’s documentary, Bright Lights, has been accepted into the Manhattan Film Festival! It’ll debut in late April! She discusses all the thoughts and feelings that come along with good news.

Jen reflects on the pacing of her process: speeding for a time, and resting deeply for a time. Tim is mostly just lying broken by the side of the road. Maybe that counts as rest?

Jen is editing together the first footage from her film, and finding it’s… pretty great. Tim is almost halfway through shooting the second season of his show, and finding it’s… going well. Who knew? Maybe we’ve been doing things right all along.

Tim has begun filming Season Two of The Feels, and attempts to speak truthfully about what that feels like. (Something like: Depleting.) Jen shot one of the most emotionally challenging scenes for her film, and watching the footage afterwards forced her to confront her vanity. Real talk.

We’re both usually completing whole projects completely on our own, from start to finish. But now, either because of the scope of what we’re working on or because we’re getting smarter, we’re inviting others in to help. It makes everything so much better.

We’re trying to make sense of the past week, trying to make sense of what to do with ourselves, with our art, with our energies. It’s hard to know what matters and how to move forward. But we’re trying. Also, Tim got a haircut.

Jen is resting in bed, but about to enter a storm of work. Tim is preparing to enter Super Mode for the next six weeks, and so is being deliberate about everything he eats, reads, and listens to. We talk about the Women’s March on Washington, mixed feelings about social media, and new paradigms for thinking about work.

Jen is speeding through some trailers for her old documentary, and Tim is bringing together all the plans for the new season of The Feels. We talk about being unprepared, unrehearsed, and how maybe (hopefully) there’s some sort of magic found there.

It’s the new year and we are… fine? We’ve both been cleaning our closets and reorganizing our entire lives. We both have mixed feelings about it. We’re not really feeling clear-eyed, or optimistic, or much other than tired, but we’re continuing with the routines and hoping they’ll get us through to the other side.

We’re getting a little done, getting a lot of family time in, and mostly just keepin’ on keepin’ on. Not much to say, but we’re finding some real life, or at least, in Tim’s case, trying not to be too grumpy. This is what normal days sound like.

Tim is kind of hungover and exhausted, but less grumpy than in the past few weeks. Jen is open and lucid. We try to put into words what is unusual about Jen’s process in making this new film. Something about making it feel right in the room, instead of right on camera.

Tim is revising and revising the next season of The Feels in the wake of the new world order. Jen is listening to her children laugh and divining wise words while making fudge. Also, our first sports analogy.

After the holiday weekend, we’re both in recovery mode. Power down, then slowly do cleaning and organizational tasks. Prepare the space so tomorrow it’s easy to get going.

While we don’t want to consider what’s been happening the past two weeks normal, we do recognize we need to upgrade ourselves to become people who can exist within the new reality. This is us figuring out what that means and looks like. Also, a letter from a friend has the just-right words.

Jen takes some time to reflect on the past week, in physical health, in political health, and in creative milestones. Tim is still embroiled in rage and incapable of forming meaningful sentences. Moving forward, figuring it out, following the light.

We’re working on stories that are quiet, unpolished, and maybe human? And next we’ll try to exist in them honestly. Uncertainties and hopes.

Jen and Tim are both learning to ask for help. For a while, it was correct to learn how to do every part of the process on their own. What other options did they have? But now it’s time to invite people onboard, and trust everyone will find value in being a part of something.

Tim is trying to learn how to break out of his slow-and-steady routine, and allow space for lightning strikes. Jen advises.

Jen and Tim talk about the apparent poshness of creative work, and its relation to the regular work mentality that more effort leads to more results. In each of their new projects, Jen and Tim are embracing more sustainable and nourishing methods. Or at least Jen is, and Tim is trying to spend less time frowning at his laptop.

After Monday's call, Jen and Tim started recording again, and captured these bonus after-thoughts. Jen has a theory of non-linear time, where there is enough space to make room for her work, for new assignments, and for personal life. Time expands to allow everything its due attention. Tim keeps his eyes only half-open most of the time, but there are some upcoming choices that will require full attention.

Tim walks steadily, forward and forward, without resting much and without going too fast. Jen rests, lets everything silently settle into the right place in her head, and then takes a shortcut that speeds her ahead. In this episode, we talk about how and why we move at the pace we do.

Jen is inviting collaborators into her new project, but is worried about doing so when there could be unforeseen cracks in the plan. Tim is trying desperately to reach inbox zero in all parts of his life, so he can move forward without being worried about everything he’s forgetting.

Tim is finishing work on Season 1 of The Feels, and excited to reinstitute good daily habits and move into whatever’s next. Jen is continuing work on her new secret project, navigating what can or can’t be said aloud.

Sometimes it’s like a faucet, other times like a firehose. Jen and Tim are both in a moment of excess, with full schedules and too many things to juggle. But Tim’s work only requires him to be on the surface, while some of Jen’s necessitates deep-diving. Will they survive or will they drown??

Jen is secretly, quietly, sideways-working on a new idea without scaring it away, and letting it come out and get written down without going through all the doubt and hope. It’s a useful shortcut. Tim is mostly just sleeping in and watching TV, and maybe that’s okay.

Jen and Tim are both running on empty. It’s the end of the summer and Jen’s in the final stretch of family time. Tim’s The Feels is out, and he’s been juggling so many projects he’s not doing any of them just right.

Tim’s premiere of The Feels is tonight. He and Jen talk about the challenges of asking for help, and trying to help someone who’s buried in their work. It can be a gift to someone to let them help you. But it can also be a burden to be over-helped? You know, it’s complicated.

Jen returns home and re-establishes routines while avoiding emails. Tim presents Jen with a challenging decision for his online show: A creative studio would like to host it. He weighs the hopes and fears, and Jen offers her spot-on wisdom. Included: the dark arts of thinking about how to get an audience to see things on the internet, which can sometimes seem contrary to or a corruption of the art-making process. (!!!)

Jen and Tim are in totally different places–physically and with their work. Tim is re-navigating the age-old challenge of lessening stress and anxiety about juggling too many tasks at once. Jen is diving in deep, fully intuiting what is next, taking action on it immediately, and sharing the whole process here. It’s pretty awesome.

Jen and Tim each have a lot to say today that isn’t usually said publicly. Jen is surviving a long period away from home and routine. Tim is navigating a freelancing dilemma, trying to do right by himself and his work by requesting a higher rate and preserving time for his projects. This episode gets pretty real.

Tim’s Kickstarter is finishing up and his web show The Feels will be out in a month. But before that, Tim must go through all the doubts and fears that lead up to finishing and sharing a piece of work. And he is going through them today. Jen kindly helps to navigate and make sense of this challenging place.

Jen and Tim talk about Mike Birbiglia’s new film, Don’t Think Twice, and artwork and artists that feel like friends (and sometimes like frenemies). Also: Jen’s friend publishes a memoir for a limited audience. Deciding that if only the people you love saw your work, it would be enough.

Tim lets the wheels fall off his routine for the first time in a while, and realizes how well he’d actually been organizing his life. Outside forces throw Jen’s balance out the window, and she has to determine coping strategies. Also, how true love for anxious people is finding someone who helps you feel safe.

Summer has started and Jen and Tim’s normal routines are totally scrambled. Tim tries to hold onto good habits but the new Final Fantasy game on his phone makes that very challenging. Jen figures out a method to allow yourself to rest when you have a mind that always wants to be working: create a project that allows you to rest.

Walking on stage, walking into meetings, walking into rooms of loved ones or colleagues… Jen and Tim can sometimes approach these moments with a fearful mind. They talk about how to shift that mindset so you become the loving version of yourself, without disassociating or fearing the fear. Slowly trying to learn to be the person you really are.

Jen is beginning to show a draft of her film to the first circles of viewers, and her embarrassment is setting in. Tim’s work-around for this is pretending he doesn’t care about what he’s making, so the stakes feel lower. But that’s an absurd way to live, so today he once again tries to be a little more like Jen. But maybe without the embarrassment? Or maybe that’s an inescapable side effect. We don’t know.

Jen is in the long finishing process for her film, and Tim is probably not as close to finishing a draft of his novel as he thought. They talk negotiating personal deadlines, being present to the work, and The Godfather.

Jen and Tim get into some real talk about the days it seems impossible to lift your head, let alone a pencil. Coaching yourself through the hard times, and continuing to move forward even when you don’t feel like it.