After bingeing Season 1 of Your Friends and Neighbors on the plane home from Rome, Amy & Tommy dive into analysis. Does extreme wealth change the story of marriage, sex, and connection? Is repressed rage the common denominator for all of us? Why does Jon Hamm look so good in a suit? Also: watching raw and vigorous sex scenes on a personal airplane screen seems transgressive in itself. But when you're sucked in, it's hard to stop. Plus, it's all in the name of research! Mentioned ...

Coming off of Miranda July's All Fours, Amy & Tommy record the first of a few season-ending bonus episodes...from Rome! It's a honeymoon that patiently waited 21 years to happen. In 2004, en route to a 5-week drive through the Sahara desert, the newlyweds were to use their gifted "buddy passes" (standby airline tickets from airlines employees) to first spend a more honeymoon-ish couple of days in Paris before heading off to a gritty and arduous overland adventure. Needless to say, they di...

Amy and Tommy finish their in-depth analysis of Miranda July’s All Fours. They discuss the final chapters, about which they have a lot of feelings. Aren’t we all over Davey by now? But maybe if Benson Boone played him in the movie…. Were these two chapters written after the fact to appease an editor who needed more closure? Or perhaps if was an attempt to distance the story from Miranda July’s actual life? Whatever the reason, a labyrinth and a crystal and two spirit guides would have been ok...

Recording their first episode from their new bedroom in their very old (1896) new house, Amy and Tommy determine that Chapter 28 of Miranda July's All Fours should be the final chapter in the book. End it HERE. But the actual editors of the book disagree. They leave them to their fantasies of ending up where they started, but brand new in that same place. The repetition of days, like the repeating line in the blues, become more and more profound. Amy and Tommy discuss everything ...

In an attempt to stay out of our character's foray into the deathfield while navigating the sounds of "progress" during some hard-core home repair, Amy & Tommy go off-piste. There's the story of the two kittens that kept Amy from breaking up with Tommy 24 years ago, the one about Tommy's nervous breakdown in West Africa, and various discussions about art and the physical manifestation of heartbreak. This and more as they make their way to the end of Miranda July's epic novel, All Fours....

Is it a better way to be married? Or a better way to divorce? Amy & Tommy discuss Chapter 26 of Miranda July's All Fours, in which a newly conceived idea of marriage leads to the mythical "breakthrough" but not as anyone ever imagined. The couple compares this fictional transformation to their own real life version with its very different outcome. The magic moment of menopause, a wink at Miranda July's real-life ex-husband, and the fragility of happiness—get all of this and more in this l...

It's a pretty good band name, amiright?? It's also a composite of Chapter 25 of Miranda July's All Fours, at least according to these two intrepid podcasters. Amy & Tommy use the chapter as a jumping off point for a discussion about the staying power of monogamy, the way that jealousy can act like gasoline on the spark of desire, and the non-primacy of marriage. Did Miranda July use numerology at all for her book? Why so much triangle energy when the book is called All Fours? And why...

Is it an open marriage? Or co-habitation with girlfriends? Amy & Tommy discuss Chapter 24 of Miranda July's All Fours wherein kissing is invented and orgasms are water creatures. There's more, of course: how preparing for a first date is good advice for long term relationships, the way in which a flash of attraction that melts away should be available to all of us, and the pressure of "I love you" even when it's spoken by a journeying soul. It's all of this and SO MUCH MORE! ...

Amy & Tommy record this episode from the basement of their new house, Beatrice. Even in the middle of a major move, the two come together to discuss Chapter 23 of Miranda July's All Fours, touching on the subjects of vaginal dryness, third things, and polyamory. They know nothing about polyamory, but that does not stop them from discussing it, and also the lack of human predisposition to monogamy. Although for some, it may be a pre-installed program. Also, Taylor Swift's engagement makes ...

Join Tommy & Amy as they stumble into the house of mirrors created by the shifting identities of Chapter 22 of Miranda July's All Fours. They explore the new terrain created inside a spontaneous few days of role playing between our main character and her husband. Can we be more honest inside fiction then we can in real life? And does that honesty mean that real constructs (like marriage) can dissolve inside of that fiction AND in reality? It's a BIG chapter, full of so many opportu...

Do we ALL need a room of one's own? Could it just be Room 321 at the Excelsior? Amy thinks yes, yes it could. Amy & Tommy discuss Chapter 21 of Miranda July's All Fours, examining the anatomy of a marital standoff by sharing their historical responses in the aftermath of an unresolved dispute. This, and more, including the bodily freedom of pop stars, menopause as a catalyst, and spoons. And forks. Mentioned in this episode: All Fours by Miranda July Stasia's Style Schoo...

Chapter 20 of Miranda July’s All Fours is one of Tommy and Amy’s favorites. Our character invites her friends to Excelsior’s Room 321 in order to crowdsource marital advice and a whole lot more. But once there, the room expands into another dimension and a new portal seems to open, a place where one can begin to understand oneself and one’s own desires via the sharing of others. Through it all is the titillating question: “If you could have anything or do anything that would not jeopardize yo...

True to form, Tommy & Amy "very thoroughly" examine Chapter 19 of Miranda July's All Fours. In the aftermath of a marital fissure, our character moves through her days in a haze of formality, cupcakes, and bones to chew on. All of which allow our fearless hosts to explore their past marriage tensions, typically beginning with a tiny pea, twenty mattresses down. This chapter seems to mark our character's "rock bottom"—she even compares herself to an alcoholic and just one drink. But with ...

Amy and Tommy's discussion of Chapter 18 was particularly long...and juicy! So, they continue their conversation from last week in this episode and unearth a memory of the time that Amy got kicked off Facebook for a nipple. The marital clash in the chapter brings up a lot of "before times" incidents that Amy & Tommy enthusiastically excavate while the All Fours heroine treads water, alone in a metaphorical pond, wondering if transformation is even worth it at all? Mentioned in this...

Chapter 18 of Miranda July's All Fours is barely three pages in total. It only takes eight minutes to listen to it on audio. Tommy and Amy, however, do not let that stop them from talk talk talking for so long about rage, intercourse as a disappointing end game, and centering pleasure. They dig deep into the anatomy of a marital argument and hit on a profound distinction: working on your relationship vs. practicing loving. In fact, their conversation was so long that, once again, they ...

You can't always get what you want, but sometimes you get what you summon. And it will blow your mind. At least it did for our heroine at the end of Chapter 17 of Miranda July's All Fours. In this, the second part of their long and juicy discussion of this pivotal chapter, Amy & Tommy tackle pre-fab structures, reveal how objectification is a total turn-on, and consider the body as the entry point to the soul. Oh, and there's a little detour about penis size. Does it matter? ...

Chapter 17 is so long and juicy, that our discussion was long enough and juicy enough to to warrant TWO episodes. Welcome to Part 1! How long does real transformation take? In the twelve hours of this chapter, our reliably unreliable narrator transforms from a fixation on summoning Davey to an openness to having sex with the world. All because of a mind-altering bodily experience. It's the moment of deep darkness before seeing the light, the coming together of the mind and the body, her desp...

In our discussion of Chapter 16 in Miranda July’s All Fours, we cover solo parenting, self loathing, authenticity, and holding on to our wildness. Also, what does "ass-prone" really mean? But it’s our discussion of personal change as a constant that really brings this episode to its eerily meta level. Note Tommy’s sudden tendency to mansplaining, heretofore absent from the pod - "I mean, I mansplained the Nightbitch plotline... and I haven't even read the book! WTF??" Horrified, he’s blamed i...

The title of this episode was inspired by Portland writer Jenn Lalime. Her comment on Miranda July’s Substack piece spurred many juicy conversations, both in the comment section and in Amy and Tommy’s kitchen! Here’s the exact quote: “It look me nearly 20 years of marriage before I stopped living in the shadow of male sex entitlement and fucking the grumpy out of my husband.” Whoa. Right? She goes on to talk about how she took the lead to bring her and her husband to their ...

In Chapter 14 of Miranda July's All Fours, our increasingly unhinged heroine realizes that she has most certainly cried "Wolf!" or, in her case, "Menopause!" Now officially experiencing perimenopause, we follow her faulty reasoning as she concludes that her newfound libido may soon disappear along with her estrogen—she, and all women, will eventually fall off of a cliff. Or so she thinks. Amy confirms that not all medical providers are as evolved as Dr. Mendoza and the two hosts consider tha...