How to Embrace Winter (like Norwegians do)!

Gasp! Once again, the Outside/In team find themselves plunged into (a very predictable) darkness as winter descends on the northern hemisphere. In this episode, our second annual friluftsliv special, we turn to Norwegian culture for inspiration on how best to approach the coldest quarter of the year.  

The team offers our 2021/22 tips on how to enjoy the outdoors in inclement weather, and cozy (and not so cozy) indoor recommendations for those days when the wind is howling, the digits are single, and you simply can’t even. 

Producer Taylor Quimby modeling his gear in very absurd fashion.

Jessica resolved to walk 20 minutes every day (no matter the weather) in 2020. Since committing to the habit, she’s discovered that 20 minutes turns easily into one hour. Best part of winter walks? You never have to shower afterwards. Recommended equipment: A headlamp (for evening walks) and some microspikes.

Don’t want to slip and break your neck? Check out this review of various winter traction devices. 

EP Rebecca Lavoie, complete with hefty parka, frozen hair, and the smug smile of a morning person in single digit weather.

Rebecca takes it up a notch - she says you should commit to going out on the coldest days of the year. You can look cool posting pictures of your frozen hair, and brag about being a morning person. Recommended equipment? A very high-quality (but expensive AF) parka.

Read why Fast Company calls the Canada Goose “cold room” the best retail experience of the year. 

A wintry film photo by Justine Paradis - look at that grain! No filter required.

And while you’re out walking (in subzero temperatures) why not snap some pics? Only this time, Justine suggests you bring along an old-fashioned disposable camera and commit to taking the whole roll in one go. Good for memories, and great as gifts for family. Recommended equipment? Well, a disposable camera.

Read The LA Times piece on how the disposable camera is making a comeback among millennials and Gen Z. 

Koselig TV Recommendations

Jessica: 100 Foot Wave. A seminal big-wave surfing documentary, complete with staggering visuals, intense score, and larger-than-life personality. Follows extreme surfer Garrett McNamara’s journey as he pioneers new methods for taking on the world’s biggest waves. HBO Max.

Rebecca: Dark. At first, this cerebral time-travel story feels like a German take on Stranger Things - but Dark, frankly, is much weirder than that. Get hooked by the surprising twists, stay for the stellar performances from its ensemble cast. Perfect for a February binge-session. Netflix.

Taylor: Alone. Most reality TV relies on human interaction in order to create drama  - this one is just the opposite. Contestants film themselves as they try to survive the longest in harsh wilderness conditions without friends, family, or even producers around to see them do it. Hulu and Netflix.

Justine: The Great. An “occasionally true” look back at the reign of Catherine the Great, the devotee of enlightenment ideals who oversaw Russia during one of its most prosperous eras. Visually, it’s a great period piece - but what sets it apart is the raunchy, smart, laugh-out-loud humor. Hulu.

Justine’s bonus book recommendation (excellent on its own or paired with The Great): The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow, a book about freedom, the Indigenous influence on the Enlightenment, and what on Earth our ancient human ancestors were up to for hundreds of thousands of years. 

Non-screen Koselig Ideas 

Taylor: Put together a puzzle unlike any other.  

Rebecca: Keep yourself cozy with a rubber hot water bottle. 

Jessica: Make yourself some glogg.  Good for gifts, doubles as homemade potpourri!

Justine: Throw a fantastic winter banquet, with the help of How to Eat a Peach by Diana Henry. 

[Note: Please be cautious of CDC safety guidelines when planning any social gatherings during the pandemic - a good winter banquet need not be held indoors or have a large guest list to be a splendid time!]

Credits

Produced by Taylor Quimby

Host: Justine Paradis

Mixed by Taylor Quimby

Additional Editing: Justine Paradis, Jessica Hunt, Felix Poon, and Rebecca Lavoie

Executive Producer: Rebecca Lavoie

Our theme music is by Breakmaster Cylinder

Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions

If you’ve got a question for the Outside/In[box] hotline, give us a call! We’re always looking for rabbit holes to dive down into. Leave us a voicemail at: 1-844-GO-OTTER (844-466-8837). Don’t forget to leave a number so we can call you back.

Audio Transcript

Note: Episodes of Outside/In are made as pieces of audio, and some context and nuance may be lost on the page. Transcripts are generated using a combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers, and may contain errors.

Justine Paradis: Ok, so I just want to hear, like, the collective group reaction to this real quick…. sunset today is at a very cool 4:11 p.m.

Taylor Quimby: 4:11.

Rebecca Lavoie: I mean, it's justification for pouring that glass of wine a little earlier.

Justine Paradis: If nothing else.

[mux]

Justine Paradis: Hello hello, this is Outside/In, a show about the natural world and how we use it. I’m Justine Paradis. Now some people love winter - but there’s no denying that for those of us who live in Northern latitudes it is dark, and often cold - and it can be a slog of a season to get through. So today, we’re offering tips on how to stay keep cozy and survive the winter regardless of how frightful it is outside… and I’m here with producer Taylor Quimby, I understand you have been searching for inspiration from the natural world for how to thrive in the cold season?

Taylor Quimby: Yes!  Have you ever felt jealous of animals that hibernate?

Justine Paradis: Yeah, I mean, like, of course, who hasn't? Who gets to sleep all winter?

 Taylor Quimby: So I reached out to a hibernation scientist...

Jim Staples: Hi my  name is Jim Staples, and I'm a professor at the University of Western Ontario.

Taylor Quimby: ...Because I wanted to know if there were any life lessons that hibernate eaters might have for us humans this time of year. And he told me something that I thought was very cool.

Jim Staples: We believe that hibernation is the ancestral state. We think that the first mammals were pretty good at hibernation.

 [mux swell and fade]

Justine Paradis: Oh my God, so hibernation is in us.

Taylor Quimby: Like deep buried in our genetic code. Like, if I was bit by a radioactive woodchuck, maybe I could start hibernating.

Justine Paradis: That would be like the most boring superhero movie ever. Like that he fell asleep for the rest of the show.

Jim Staples: They're avoiding the winter by slowing down their lives.

Taylor Quimby: So when an animal hibernates, what it’s doing is dramatically lowering the energy cost of survival. Their metabolism plummets, their breathing and heartbeat slows, their temperature drops. Which again, I dunno, sounds sort of pleasant to me, when I’m thinking about hibernating under the covers. But then Jim told me something. It sort of changed my opinion. 

 [mux]

Jim Staples: When they're in their hibernation phase. They are not actually asleep. They their brains are probably too cold,

Justine Paradis: Too cold to sleep.

Taylor Quimby: They're just sitting there freezing cold.

Justine Paradis: Oh,.

Taylor Quimby: So hibernation is not, in fact, a cozy months long nap so much as ice cold semi-coma. Actually, some animals have to stop hibernating just to basically get some actual rest. 

Jim Staples: For my study species, thirteen lined ground squirrel. They will be in hibernation for 10 to 12 days continuously and then spontaneously will increase their metabolism, raise their body temperature and leave it there for about 10 to 12 hours. They seem to spend a lot of that time asleep.

 Taylor Quimby: So, yeah, in retrospect, I think all this sounds terribly unpleasant. I've decided there are no great lessons for modern humans from the hibernation of the animal kingdom. 

Justine Paradis: Nothing to learn from the hibernators. 

Taylor Quimby… But maybe we can learn something from the hibernation scientist.  

Jim Staples: I imagine the impetus behind this program was because some of your listeners get kind of slumber and slow in the winter. I'm kind of the opposite, and I know a number of people who are. There's nothing I like more than a crisp, cold, clear winter day and after the sun sets. Well, it's hockey season, so watch TV.

 [SFX] 

Justine Paradis: So since there are no lessons to learn from hibernation and we cannot hibernate ourselves anyway, we must come up with alternatives to survive

Taylor Quimby: Nay thrive, we must thrive in the winter.

Justine Paradis: So welcome to Outside In's second annual Friluftsliv Show!

[Montage of people saying ‘friluftsliv’]

Taylor Quimby: If you haven't listened to last year's episode on it, Frilufstliv is a Norwegian term for living your best life outdoors, cross country skiing, cold weather, camping, saunas, ice baths, you name it.

Justine Paradis: And it has its counterpart, ‘koslig’.

 [Montage of people saying ‘koslig’]

Justine Paradis: That special wintertime coziness represented by the things like the glow of candlelight, the steam rising off a cup of hot cocoa.

Taylor Quimby: I think the word  ‘koslig’is quite crucial.

Justine Paradis: It sounds like a pillow.

[mux swell]

Justine Paradis: All right. So I better introduce the peanut gallery. Here we have two more winter strategy experts here to introduce. Welcome to Rebecca Lovejoy, Cashmere Queen.

Rebecca Lavoie: Thank you. Honorific, I will take it.

Justine Paradis: She is also the podcast executive producer here at New Hampshire Public Radio. And welcome also to Jessica Hunt, queen of finding antlers in the woods. 

Jessica Hunt: Yes.

Taylor Quimby: Antler Correspondent .

Justine Paradis: So for our recommendations show here we have three basic categories And I think we should start with Friluftsliv tips for getting outside - winter gear, activities - that sort of thing You all came with recommendations, right?

Taylor Quimby: Oh yeah.

 

Jessica Hunt: I’ll go first.

Justine Paradis: Jessica.

Jessica Hunt: Because mine's really basic and it's about starting small back in pre-pandemic days when I worked in an office. I made a resolution to walk for 20 minutes in 2020 every day, and because it was only 20 minutes, I kept to it pretty well. The amazing thing about winter to me is that you can go out in the middle of the day, you can go out any time and you can come back and you don't need a shower. I've been doing for two years now, so it's. And I generally walk for more like an hour, but I can say to myself, at least get out there for 20 minutes.

Rebecca Lavoie: I think the lack of showering is actually the key. As she mentioned.

Jessica Hunt: That’s right, because I would go out in the middle of the day. The reason I love winter is it's never hot. There are some things, though, that you need to have yak tracks or micro spikes on your feet if it's icy.

Taylor Quimby: I love my micro spikes. 

Rebecca Lavoie: Same.

 Taylor Quimby: And microspikes, for fair-weather listeners, are like miniature crampons that you can slip right onto your boots during the winter so you can walk on ice. 

Rebecca Lavoie: It makes you feel like a gecko when you have the attraction. It really does. It makes you feel like you're invincible. You. It's like the sheet of ice and you can just go across. I mean, don't be too confident, but you feel like you can. It's kind of awesome. Yeah.

Jessica Hunt: Yeah, great inventions, microspikes. But the thing that I'm thinking about is also like, maybe I just need to get a dog and you'll be going out for 20 minutes twice a day. Basically.

Taylor Quimby: Make that four or five.

Rebecca Lavoie: Twice is aspiration

Taylor Quimby: Twice a day, once at midnight, maybe at five a.m..

[mux swell and fade]

Justine Paradis: Who is next?

 

Rebecca Lavoie: Well, I have to go next because I'm building on Jessica. So Jessica, I have two dogs, so I also like You during the pandemic started a walking routine. I go out for almost an hour every morning. I am always morning. And the thing that I'm going to recommend is going out, especially on the coldest days of the year. And there's a reason why I say that the gear that you need for that, by the way, and you may have to save up because they are expensive, is the most expensive parka you can afford.That is key.

And as a side note, you can actually buy very expensive parkas second hand in places like eBay and Threadless. And if it's not your size and it's gigantic, you can actually bring it to a local tailor and they will take them in. So I go on the coldest days of the year because A) I never regret it, as Jessica says, B) You can take amazing photographs of yourself with frozen hair, an incredible landscape.

Taylor Quimby: I can vouch for the fact that, like frozen beard pictures make me feel so cool.

Rebecca Lavoie: That's right. Everyone thinks your bad ass, which is bonus and the feeling of superiority you have all day long. When people are complaining about the cold, the weatherman on the radio, everyone inside is like, Oh, it's cold out there and you're like, Uh-Huh. Sure, I was out there at 6:00 a.m. with my dogs guys… so I just want to say I would take Jessica's routine, be even more daring, elevate it and go out when it's 10 or 20 below. You will not regret it. You won't. 

Justine Paradis: So everything I've ever suspected about morning people and how they think that they're superior to me is true. Yes.

Jessica Hunt: Yes. Absolutely.

Rebecca Lavoie: 100 percent. Sorry.

Justine Paradis: Here's my question, though, Rebecca. Like when you say get the most expensive one you can find, I often find that like with luxury goods like the quality and the expense like don't necessarily align. But do you find that that's true with your parka and why?

Rebecca Lavoie: It is true with mine. The parka that I have, I don't... Should I say the brand name or not? 

Justine Paradis: Maybe not. 

Rebecca Lavoie: Ok. The parka that I have has the name of a country in it and the name of a bird...

Justine Paradis: You can probably guess.

 

Rebecca Lavoie: And it’s like wearing a house on your body. You don't even it's not even like you go outside and you feel the cold, but you're kind of warm. It's like you don't even feel the cold. The stores wear the parka with the country name and the bird, and it are sold. They actually have a cold room in the store so you can go in and try on their parkas. Are you serious? Yeah. And so if you're curious and you want to just see for yourself without buying one of these things, you can try it out. And maybe that will inspire you to maybe ask for 50 bucks from everyone in your life. For Christmas, you can go out and get one of these things yourself.

Taylor Quimby: What is the cold room like?

Rebecca Lavoie: Cold. Real cold.

Justine Paradis: Ok, but those like the very special brands you probably don't find in the thrift shop.

Rebecca Lavoie:  You do! Oh no, you do.  Look it up my friend, look it up. You would be very surprised.

Justine Paradis: That'll be the next episode. Thrift Shop Strategy Recommendations.

Taylor Quimby: We can have…  who's the rapper? 

Rebecca Lavoie: Macklemore!

Taylor Quimby: We can have Macklemore on.

Rebecca Lavoie: Poppin’ tags!

Justine Paradis: Very Outside/In.

 [mux swell]

Justine Paradis: Taylor, what is your recommendation?

Taylor Quimby: Ok, so I really appreciate these ideas about getting out on the regular, but I have a suggestion for sort of like one special event that can take place in the dark and cold of winter. My son came up with this great idea because he's a big fan of glow sticks, and he came up with this idea that we would do a special outdoor event called the Glow Olympics.

Justine Paradis: It's the funniest name. How old is Phin again?

Taylor Quimby: He is 10. I had to think about it. Geez. But you know, and he came up with a whole set of games and then we sort of talked through them and came up with what they would be. The first one was hide and go seek, where you know you'd hide a whole bunch of glow sticks on the playground in the dark and then send the kids out. And whoever collects the most gets, you know, the equivalent of a gold medal, which is also another glow stick. The second one was called the ‘Globstacle’ course, which was just an obstacle course with some glow sticks incorporated into it.

Rebecca Lavoie: I'm sensing a theme.

Taylor Quimby: Yes, we have a glow in the dark frisbee, so we did glow discus. And then the last one was we actually struggled to come up with a good pun name for this. It's a version of hot potato, and it can be either called Hot Glow-Tato or ]glow potato]. Basically, we set this up at the park, not far from where we live. We invited a few of Phin’s friends. We met at five fifteen, at which point it was already pitch black.

Rebecca Lavoie: Basically midnight.

Taylor Quimby: Yeah, and perfect for glow stick games. And you know, it was like an hour of some of the best fun I think these kids had had in a long time. It was a very successful and cheap event, you know, I mean, I think I spent 20 bucks on glow sticks and it was enough. Wow.

Rebecca Lavoie: And you're not to make up any sports, either. You just stole other sports and put the word glow in them.

 Taylor Quimby: Oh yeah, I did almost nothing creative for this.

 [mux]

Taylor Quimby: Ok Justine, what about you? 

Justine Paradis: I like taking film photos, and sometimes I'll do it on like my nice camera with nice film, but I also really like getting like a really crappy disposable camera and just being like, I'm going to take all of the photos today. Because a lot of the time I feel like we take photos, especially when we're on like special events like a birthday or when we go on vacation. And then sometimes I'll look back through my photos and be like, I haven't… I don't have any photos of just my ordinary days and my ordinary life. Hmm. And in winter, the light is really, really cool. Like the angles are really acute. And because there's no leaves on the trees, you can get some crazy shadows. So I would suggest taking a disposable camera out on a walk and saying, I'm going to take the entire roll. 

Taylor Quimby: I'm always looking for any excuse to sort of get beyond just taking a picture that ends up on this endless slew of pictures on my phone and the disposable camera thing like, you will print them, you have to print them. 

Rebecca Lavoie: Right! I brought my son a Polaroid a couple of years ago, and it was really, really funny, brought it to D.C. with him when he was a Senate page, and it was like the film was really expensive. So he only had 24 pictures at a time, and he would like that would last him like a month because one picture a day, you don't want to waste it there like a dollar each.

Justine Paradis: That's true. I mean, you don't have to get them printed. You can get them just developed into a CD. But what is kind of nice is like, let's say you have family that lives really far away and you go out with, you know, your kid or your partner or something, then you can, like, give the entire role to somebody. And it might just be like kind of a goofy gift.

Taylor Quimby: What on earth could you play? I don't have anything that can play a CD anymore.

Rebecca Lavoie: I don't believe one plays a CD of photos. Just throwing it out there. Skip! 

Justine Paradis: Not flattering.

……………….

Justine Paradis: We asked folks on our podcast facebook discussion group, which you totally join if you have not, what's your favorite or most essential piece of winter gear? A lot of people mentioned micro-spikes and headlamps, Barbara recommended a heated mattress pad and lots of knitting. Dane: studded snow tires. Andy recommended the classic New England treat - cider donuts. And Nathan Battey: 

A nice luxury I like having around is an external battery pack to keep the phone charged in the cold because those batteries can really run out in the cold -  but it also doubles as a hand warmer, which I never thought of!

[mux]

So why don't we take a break now that we've gotten through our free lips, live outside recommendations and we will be back with more? But before we go, remember outside in is made possible with your support, so please help us ring in the new year by making a donation. You can do that at our website. Outside in radio dot org.

[BREAK]

Justine Paradis: Welcome back to our second annual Free Love Sleeve recommendation show, where we are strategizing on how best to navigate the cold, dark months of winter. We have talked about our outdoor tips how to get outside our free live sleeve tips. And now we are on to the concept of ‘koslig’, which is the concept of coziness when you just can't see your way to getting outside and you need some good television, essentially.

 

Taylor Quimby: It's like you got... you gotta a binge for a while before you're like, Oh, OK, I should probably turn this off.

Justine Paradis: Jessica, you went first last time. Do you want to do it again? 

Jessica Hunt: I'm going to recommend something that surprises even myself, that I like it and that I sought it out and that I was watching it at a time when it was only coming out once every two weeks or once a month. And I was like, Oh! When is the next one?

Because I love British mysteries and I love the Scandi stuff. So this is a documentary about... extreme surfing.

Rebecca Lavoie: Wow! 

Justine Paradis: That's different. 

[100 Foot Wave clip]

Voice 1: Even though Mount Everest had been climbed, the 100 foot wave had never been written. 

Voice 2: I’ve been surfing my whole life, just looking for bigger and bigger and bigger.

Voice 1: He’s inspired a whole new generation to want to go ride these giant waves.

Voice 3: It’s scary - those waves are a place of death. 

Jessica Hunt: It was mesmerizing. The photography was incredible. And this person that they followed. He's surfing like 100 foot waves. 

What is this thing called? 

Jessica Hunt:It's called 100 foot wave ! Sorry, buried the lede. , I just fell in love with the guy himself, Garrett McNamara, who's doing this? He's 53 now or thereabouts. He's been doing this his whole life, the way he talks about his whole journey, like his struggles. He just wants to rush. Losing the rush. What it's like in the tube. How getting hurt. Getting older. It's fascinating.

 

Garret MacNamara [clip from 100 Foot Wave]:  We’re in the warehouse everybody is suiting up, and I remember walking up to everybody and I go look I’ll go out there with you guys but we’re going out there pure and simple, for the love of it. To have fun, just to go have fun. Surf for the right reasons. Not for everybody else except for ourselves. 

 

Taylor Quimby: He's got that surfer vibe. 

Jessica Hunt: He has this whole interesting backstory. His mom took him and his brother and joined a cult, a religious cult. And they grew up like scrounging for food. No shoes. I mean, it's not like he was this wealthy surfer dude out of California.

Taylor Quimby: And you can’t tell just from the sound of the trailer - these waves are unbelievable, they’re monsters. 

Jessica Hunt: Waves, and that's what they call them. They're like sea monsters. Wow. And they talk about being out there and this guy who's got it's great accent. He's just like out there for the first time on a jet ski. And he's like, I felt like I was being hunted! like everything's crashing around all, you know, it's just, it's so cool. 

Rebecca Lavoie: Where do I watch this thing?

Jessica Hunt: HBO Max. 

Rebecca Lavoie: Wow. I’m in.

Clip from 100 Foot Wave:  I got sucked up into the barrel and then like a cannon.. Just….

 

Justine Paradis: Rebecca, you go next.

Rebecca Lavoie: So mine is super bleak. I did not get the cozy note at all. I'm sorry, guys, but it's really good. I'm going to recommend a Netflix series called Dark. It's German. It was actually the first German language series on Netflix, and do not be deterred by the fact that it's in German, although I would say do not watch it with the English dubbing because the dubbing is so stupid. Watch it in German!

[clip from Dark trailer in German]

Rebecca Lavoie: You're going to want to watch it with subtitles anyway, because this is the kind of show that if you don't pay attention to it anyway, you're going to be completely lost. It takes place in a fictional tiny town of Winden, Germany, a town where there is sort of this looming, ominous nuclear power plant and clearly at some point some sort of nuclear disaster caused this little time travel portal situation. And there is this loop of time travel that's happening in 33 year increments. So at the beginning of the show, it starts with a missing child. And, you know, I think the viewer is supposed to believe initially the child is missing, and then it becomes clear very quickly that the child perhaps went back in time.

 

Justine Paradis: And the nuclear tie in for Outside/In. Very good.  n very yes.

 

Rebecca Lavoie: Yeah, I was told it should be loosely environmentally tied. So I'm like, OK, well, you know, there's implications there.

Justine Paradis: Yeah, there's energy. It's an energy story.

Rebecca Lavoie: Yes, exactly.

Taylor Quimby: I watched the first season years ago and I loved it. But when you know the time between the first season and the second season, long time, it was a long time. And when the second season came out, I just forgotten because it was a really complex show and I I couldn't remember all the stuff that had happened. This is a perfect time to binge the whole shebang. 

Justine Paradis: Dark. This show really reminds me of Twin Peaks and its vibe.

Rebecca Lavoie: It's got a lot of Twin Peaks and honestly, the acting that young actors in it especially are incredible. All the performances are great, but the young actor, especially who plays Jonas, the main character, I just adore him.

Justine Paradis: That is really rare. I feel like child actors are like almost always bad.

Taylor Quimby: Child actors are often not great, and teenage actors are often actually in their 30s.

[mux and clip fades in and out]

Justine Paradis: TQ.

Taylor Quimby:  OK, so my TV recommendation is the reality TV show alone, which is on the History Channel. It's streamable on Hulu, but there's also one season that's on Netflix right now. And the basic premise is that you've got a bunch of contestants. They go out into the so-called wilderness placed in different places each season. They've got a handful of basic tools that they're allowed to bring, and basically the last person to call it quits wins a bunch of money and all the footage literally shot by these contestants. So it's not like there's producers like hanging around there. They're always grappling with GoPros and setting up cameras while they're chopping down trees and building their shelter. So it really is more “alone” quote, unquote than probably a lot of the other shows that you would think in this genre. So, so anyway, the season that I watch is the one on Netflix, and it's it's just hard to describe how crazy it is. So I'm going to play this clip.

 

Clip from Alone: “You ain't gonna [bleeped] believe this! I just stabbed this Musk ox to death.”

Rebecca Lavoie: Wow! 

Justine Paradis: Jesus Christ. Warning.

Character from Alone: We got BIG game!

Rebecca Lavoie: OK. I didn't see that coming.

Taylor Quimby: Yeah, I jumped into a pretty pivotal moment there, but really like it is a bit of the sort of survivalist thing. But but the people who are doing it aren't are not necessarily like doomsday preppers. A lot of them are people who just have a lot of tracking and hunting experience. They really run the gamut from people who have different relationships with the outdoors, like some people who kind of almost see it as an enemy that needs to be dominated and other people who come in with this like much more wholesome point of view. So the show the show's been around since 2015, but I really knew nothing about it until my family recommended it. And and my stepsister and her girlfriend, they were talking to me about it before I watched it, and they were really interested in the gender dynamics of the show. First season has no women. After that, they started introducing them more and more. And you know, my stepsister was pointing out she's like, Listen, it's really wild, because a lot of the times you can tell when a dude is just about to drop out because he starts talking about how much he misses his family.

Rebecca Lavoie: And the women are just like, I'm so happy to be alone.

Justine Paradis: Finally, away from my family.

Taylor Quimby: So and truly, there was this one episode where there's like a couple of these really tough dudes. They've got like military experience. They seem like they are doing a very good job in the wilderness and then they more or less have some breakdowns. They drop out. And then meanwhile, Callie, this contestant who at first seems like flighty…  she like, seems like she's kind of goofing off a little too much in the beginning when she needs to be like getting down to business and making her shelter, and she's just like having a ball. She dressed up as a porcupine for Halloween and like has her own little nighttime, like little nighttime festival.

Callie, from Alone: It's such a powerful realization, you know, like there's all these conveniences and they're all nice, but there's something missing from it. And that thing that's missing is right here. It's a connection. It's a relationship, it's a depth and it's here and it's in this rabbit and it's in this fire and it's in this land. And I feel more free than I've ever felt because I get to do what I love. I love my family, but I'm loving this alone time. You know, I just know that the longer I'm away, the sweeter it's going to be when I see them again, because this is an opportunity to go deep.

Taylor Quimby: Just leave it at that. 

Rebecca Lavoie: Way to go, Callie.

Taylor Quimby: She's so cool, she's so cool. I won't give it away in terms of like, who wins or any of that stuff, but it just seems like a really interesting show to watch in the middle of winter when you're sort of all wrapped up and you don't have to worry about that stuff. I think you get a little of the like koslig because you're watching people who are not having a koslig time.

Rebecca Lavoie: Look at me and my blankets.

Callie from Alone: Trick of Treat! I’m a porcupine! 

Justine Paradis: All right. My TV recommendation is the great.

 

Rebecca Lavoie: Love it, love it. 

[Clip from The Great]

Voice 1: A toast to my new wife, the empress of Russia! 

Crowd: Huzzah! 

Voice 2: It is... 

Voice 1: No, you don't talk my love. 

Voice 2: Oh, of course.

Justine Paradis: So this is described as an occasionally true depiction of Catherine the Great, who in reality, after she staged a coup against her husband, Peter III was Russia's longest ruling female leader, and her reign was apparently considered one of Russia's golden ages. And the reason that this is relevant to Outside/in listeners, Catherine the Great was an enthusiastic supporter of the Enlightenment, which real quick a time in Europe, which coincided with the birth of the United States that was just, you know, hot with ideas of science and liberty and equality. Separation of church and state. Hard to overstate how revolutionary these ideas were and are. But science, you know, that's my very tenuous peg to recommending this for Outside/In listeners.

Rebecca Lavoie: Has a nice outdoor landscape, you know, scenes where they're walking around in the garden and stuff. 

Justine Paradis: I mean, there's thanks, Rebecca.

 Rebecca Lavoie: You're welcome.

Taylor Quimby: Yes, a lot of these shows have some outdoor scenes.

 

Rebecca Lavoie: So good. Nicholas Hoult and Elle Fanning. And it's hard to understate how great they are in this show.

Justine Paradis: But so, yes, a very fictionalized dark comedy drama. So Catherine's married to Peter, and he is, you know, an absurd king. And let's play a scene in which she’s been trying to get Peter, her husband and the public in general to accept very elation, which is a treatment of smallpox, which was a precursor to vaccines.

Catherine from The Great: I know there was fear of the pox. 

Peter III from The Great: What are you doing? 

Catherine from The Great: I have just collected the pus from Chekhov. But we can stop it if we place it in the bloodstream, a tiny amount our body learns to accommodate it. No, that's not. So it will not kill us. It is not unlike freedom. We absorb a small amount knowing it is not dangerous.

Justine Paradis: A lot of overlap here with current events.

Peter III from The Great: What the [bleep] are you doing? What the [bleep] are you doing? Stop. What is she doing? 

Catherine from The Great: Who will join me in moving our country forward? 

Peter III from The Great: Did you just put pox on you? You fucking idiot. Why would you do that?

Taylor Quimby: I haven't even seen the show in that clip made me laugh out loud when I heard it.

Justine Paradis: You got to see it. Season two just came out. So again, also a great time to watch this. I'm watching the second season right now. But a quick aside here, I mentioned that Catherine the Great was very pro enlightenment, and if you want something to pair with your TV entertainment, I’m actually reading this book called The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow… who argue that a lot of the ideas we associate with the enlightenment - like, freedom - were inspired by indiginous critiques of Western society. But The Great is very raunchy. It's very smart. And again, the second season was just released, so there's a lot to look forward to., but in any case. Hmm. The great is so funny.

Taylor Quimby: What's the platform? We can watch it on?

Justine Paradis: Hulu.

Taylor Quimby: Ugh.

Rebecca Lavoie: A lot of great stuff there.

Taylor Quimby: I sign up for Hulu for like one month a year.

Rebecca Lavoie: I'll give you my password. It's fine. I'll give you my password.

[mux swell and fade]

Justine Paradis: Oh, right, so that's our on screen recommendations, but now let's turn off the TV and turn to off screen activities and objects to recommend to get us through these winter months.

Taylor Quimby: I was very proud. My recommendation has a clip, even though it isn't screen based. 

Justine Paradis: Oh!

Taylor Quimby: So my indoor crucial activity is a very specific puzzle that I recently discovered have. Has everybody here also got into puzzling because of the pandemic? 

Rebecca Lavoie: Yeah. 

Taylor Quimgy: OK. So I like puzzles. I don't love them. My girlfriend and I have been doing them as a way to, like, decompress at the beginning of a vacation. And so we don't want a puzzle that takes forever. Seven hundred and fifty pieces is our sweet spot, but our latest vacation over the Thanksgiving break, we discovered this puzzle that was just way more fun than any I have ever put together. It's made by a company called the Magic Puzzle Company. They launched their first series of puzzles on Kickstarter a couple of years ago and and here is a clip from their Kickstarter announcement.

Justine Paradis: Like a trailer for the puzzle?

Taylor Quimby: Yeah, exactly.

Puzzle trailer: Normally, jigsaw puzzles don't have an exciting ending. You put in the last piece and you're done. We've designed these so that when that last piece goes in, it triggers A magic trick which reveals the special ending to the story of the Puzzle. 

[Montage of people excitedly finishing puzzle]  

Rebecca Lavoie: Spoiler alert - I mean, what is it? 

Jessica Hunt: I just want to know if you squealed like that, when you did, when you finished your puzzle.

Rebecca Lavoie: You could tell listeners to fast forward like 30 seconds if they don't want to know.

 

Taylor Quimby: Yeah.

Justine Paradis: Ok, let's do it. Ok, starting now.

Taylor Quimby: Here is what happens. The puzzle itself is made out of like several giant pieces almost that after you finish the puzzle, you move them around according to secret instructions, and it opens a hole in the puzzle and then you open a second like envelope that has more pieces. And then there's like a secret story ending in the middle of the puzzle, and it was genuinely so delightful when we're all like high fiving and shouting with glee like these people from this goofy trailer.

Rebecca Lavoie: Wonderful, wonderful. 

Justine Paradis: I feel like that the alternative ending to puzzles is like someone. Basically, one person takes it on themselves to finish the puzzle, and they're kind of like grouchy at other people because everyone else has abandoned it. So like, yeah, the other ending to puzzles is so much more like alone.

Jessica Hunt: I find the ending to puzzles is never mind, sweeping back into the box. So this is perfect.

Justine Paradis: So what's the name of the puzzle again?

Taylor Quimby: Well, the company is the magic puzzle company, and they have three different puzzles. All of them have gorgeous art and also really high quality puzzle pieces, which I have now learned actually matters.

Rebecca Lavoie: Like matters a lot.

Taylor Quimby: Yeah, when your puzzle pieces start falling, falling apart before you're finished, that is a disappointment.

Rebecca Lavoie: Taylor, I've got something for you. Just so you know, I can ease you into the thousand pieces. There's a New Hampshire company called White Mountain Puzzles. They make very achievable thousand pieces that make you feel very good about yourself. And it's their very high quality and they last. So I will give you all of my used but still doable puzzles.

Taylor Quimby: Oh my goodness. I'm so excited.

Justine Paradis: I love all these puzzle opinions. It's amazing.

[mux]

Rebecca Lavoie: Let's have let's have Rebecca go next. All right, mine is brief, mine comes from way back in time in the year in which the first teddy bear, the Ford Model A and the first right flier airplane flight went in the air. My recommendation was patented. It is the rubber hot water bottle that you can buy At any pharmacy for approximately nine ninety nine. I have mine right here. I keep it in this very cute Harris Tweed jacket. I love the hot water bottle. You fill it with very, very hot tap water. And the trick is then you squeeze out all the air before putting the cap on and it stays hot all night. I put it in bed about like 15 minutes before I go to bed in the bottom. You get in. Your feet are nice and cozy. Then you can do is you can put it on the couch with you under your blanket while you're watching all your dark shows on Netflix or The Great. Cannot recommend it highly enough.

Taylor Quimby: Can I take a picture of you posing with it because it looks gorgeous.

Rebecca Lavoie: Yeah, the jacket not included. You can buy them on Etsy. They're great.

Jessica Hunt: Honestly, the red hot water bottle looks like something like from a medical supply place. When you put it in that jacket, it's like it should be on the crown.

Rebecca Lavoie: Isn't it the cutest thing in the entire world?

Taylor Quimby:  I was totally thinking of the Crown when I saw

Rebecca Lavoie: That. Yeah, well, this is Harris Tweed. It was made in the Outer Hebrides. I bought it in a trip to London a couple of years ago. So it kind of is like from the crown.

Justine Paradis: You know what clan it's from?

Rebecca Lavoie: No.

Taylor Quimby: You know, when I was a kid, my mother had that exact same pink hot water bottle and it used to weird me out.

Rebecca Lavoie: It's gross without the jackets. Yeah, it's real and it feels gross. But if you put it in, they also make these in fleece. I mean, you can buy a jacket for them for a couple of bucks. But covering it is actually very important. Otherwise, when you put your foot on it at night, it does feel like you're sleeping with a warm chicken.

Jessica Hunt: A warm rubber chicken.

 [mux swell and fade]

Justine Paradis: Jessica Hunt, you're up.

Jessica Hunt: Ok, I'm going to recommend something that I do every year. Actually, I do it earlier and earlier. Every year I make glug, which is it's mulled wine, which would be wine with spices, but it's more than that because it is fortified. And that means that it also has Port or brand or brandy or aquavit, I made it with several different things.

 

Taylor Quimby: I think you're going to say it with vitamins fortified with vitamins.

Jessica Hunt: Fortified with alcohol.

Rebecca Lavoie: It's the right kind of fortified

Jessica Hunt: And lots of it. It's very potent. All those warm spices like cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, star anise, lemons and oranges, juice and zest and raisins. Traditionally, you would put in a blanched almond, but I think they look like fingers, so I don't know. And it served warm and it's, you know, you can't overheat it because you'll boil away the alcohol, so you have to be careful. But it is a delightful drink to have it any time of an evening when it's getting dark, but especially when you come in from outside and being super cold and it smells amazing. Also this year, I straightened out all this stuff, all the like lemon and ginger and spices I used as potpourri on my oven.

Rebecca Lavoie: Nice.

Taylor Quimby: That's right. 

Justine Paradis: Very on, brand. 

Taylor Quimby: What's the where does glug come from? Do you know

Jessica Hunt: Sweden? I mean, every country has like a version of mulled wine, like glue Wine, I think is German.

Justine Paradis: It'll be honest. I love the idea, but I just like, can't handle warm red wine. It just goes right to headache for me.

Jessica Hunt: Also do it with white wine.

 Taylor Quimby: Warm white wine. If it's white wine, do you call it wugg?

 [mux swell and fade]

Justine Paradis: Ok, great one. I mine is also a sort of food and drink based recommendation. It is to throw a mid-winter banquet and I use the term banquet deliberately because this is not a dinner party. This is throwing like a serious, like formal throw out all the stops kind of party. Now the back story to this one is my my birthday's in January, and as anyone who has an early winter birthday also knows that it's like a serious drag to have a birthday in January. People have just partied a lot and like many people have done New Year's resolutions where they don't want to, you know, have delicious things or don't really want to spend a lot. So it's like if austerity was like a time of year, it's the first two weeks of January, you know?

 

Taylor Quimby: Justine, I bet you didn’t get as many presents as a kid. 

Rebecca Lavoie: I bet you got a lot of combo like this is for Christmas and your birthday, right?

Justine Paradis: It was like right on the edge where that but like people were out of ideas, you know? So it's it was. It's fine, it's fine. Like, some people have that lot in life.

Rebecca Lavoie: People say it's fine when it's not. It’s code.

Justine Paradis: So but a couple of years ago, I was talking with a friend who had this same affliction, and we decided that we would combine our birthday celebration and just push it off a little bit to midwinter when everyone wants a party. You know, it's like a public service to have, like a good party, and the dress code was formal, so put your bells on. It could be goofy, formal, but like wear something cool, we got like pretty candles and tablecloth. We bought like half a case, a nice wine and just like, put it out, you know, so it's like, not like, should we open another bottle? It's like the bottles are open, you know? And then for dinner, I used this cookbook, which is basically it's called How to Eat a Peach and it's a book of menus. So you know, when you have like a really amazing dinner with many, many courses, but at the end of it, you don't feel full. You just feel like peaceful and good, like a really well-designed dinner.

Taylor Quimby: I would love to tell you that that is something I've experienced, but my eating habits are like, don't eat during the day and eat three meals at night.

Rebecca Lavoie: Taylor is like, give me a fistful of hot peppers and then a bunch of Twizzlers.

Taylor Quimby: Too close.

Justine Paradis: Well, that is a great idea for good evening as well, but it's just a different evening than this one.

Justine Paradis: So we just we picked one of these menus. And like, it's kind of like the Glow Olympics. It's like, Make it friggin special. You know, let's let's call this like a banquet. Let's call this a fabulous evening. 

Taylor Quimby: I love this idea. I mean, I think this is the struggle in wintertime is that it is often just easier to kind of like put off your plans to bail on the thing that sounds exciting, but requires you to go out when it's been dark for two hours already. And so in finding any excuse to be like, we're making this a moment seems like a really positive thing. I like this a lot.

Rebecca Lavoie: I like it too.

 

Jessica Hunt: I'm waiting for the invitation.

Rebecca Lavoie: No kidding. I mean, she shouldn't have talked about this in front of us because now we're just going to feel dissed.

Justine Paradis: We can do a big banquet. Why not?

Rebecca Lavoie: I feel cozy.

Taylor Quimby: Very koselig.

Justine Paradis: Well, thank you, everyone for your incredible recommendations and thank you everyone for listening. Happy New Year!

Jessica Hunt: Happy New Year! 

Taylor Quimby: Hey, happy New Year.

Rebecca Lavoie: You guys too.

Jusine Paradis: So if you’ve got your own winter survival tips you’d like to share, please email us at outsidein@nhpr.org… we’ll be assembling them all for our next newsletter - there’s a link to subscribe in the show notes. Thank to everybody who has written in already, including Carl, who has this final bit of frilufstliv wisdom:

“In olden days when rural kids had to walk to school, their moms would bake potatoes to put into their pockets. And at recess or whatever they called it in those days, the potatoes could be a morning snack or even lunch.”