

The Best Advice Show
Zak Rosen
The Best Advice Show is your reminder that there are weird, delightful and effective ways to make life slightly and sometimes profoundly better. In every (very short) episode of the show, a different contributor offers their take on making life more joyful, healthful and livable and it's likely gonna be something you can try today, if you want.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Oct 15, 2025 • 15min
The True Meaning of Discipline with John Cage and Mason Currey
Today's episode is based on Mason Currey's piece, John Cage on the true meaning of discipline. You should subscribe to Mason's essential newsletter, Subtle Maneuvers. And here's his piece about totally insane, unhinged, helpful strategies.
Mason's book, Making Art and Making a Living is available for pre-order here.
The John Cage interview excerpts come from The Internet Archive. Hear the whole thing @John Cage interviewed by Jack Hirschman in Los Angeles, 1963.
Mason was last on TBAS talking about procrastinating properly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 8, 2025 • 4min
Dogs and Berries Are Miracles. Why Not Combine Them?
Leora is a doctor and dog lover and berry lover. This advice originally aired back in August of 2020. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 1, 2025 • 7min
You Don't Need To Remember Everything with Susannah Goodman
Susannah Goodman is an artist and potter and community organizer in Detroit.
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Leftovering with Susannah Goodman
Noticing with Susannah Goodman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sep 24, 2025 • 29min
Zak interviews his hero Jonathan Goldstein
I originally interviewed Jonathan Goldstein, creator and host of the greatest podcast of all time, Heavyweight, back in 2017 for Transom.org. I'm playing it here to celebrate Heavyweight's grand return.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sep 17, 2025 • 8min
This Experiment Will Help You Move From Procrastinating to Creating with Malaka Gharib
Malaka Gharib is a writer, journalist, and cartoonist. She is the author of I Was Their American Dream: A Graphic Memoir, winner of an Arab American Book Award and named one of the best books of the year by NPR, The Washington Post, Kirkus Reviews, and the New York Public Library. By day, she works on NPR’s science desk, covering the topic of global health and development. Her comics, zines, and writing have been published in NPR, Catapult, The Seventh Wave Magazine, The Nib, The Believer, and The New Yorker.
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Mason Currey's Daily Rituals: How Artists Work
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Brad Stulburg on not needing to feel good to get going. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sep 10, 2025 • 7min
Don't Wish Your Life Away with Lilly Turmelle
Lilly Turmelle is a Maine-based creative and lifelong explorer. After calling many different countries home, she now lives on the Maine coast with her partner and their two-year-old son, embracing a simple life by the sea.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sep 3, 2025 • 12min
Tweenage Advice on Fear, Boredom, Crushes, Stress, Grief and Soup Dumplings
Naja, Sebastian, Asia, Jessica, Lenzia and Zora were just finishing 8th grade when this episode aired in 2022.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aug 27, 2025 • 27min
It's About How You Listen, How You Interpret, How You Care with Jay Allison and Erica Heilman
This is a conversation from the divine podcast, Rumble Strip. It features Jay Allison about the recent attack on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Recently, Congress passed a rescission bill that eliminates $9 billion in previously allocated funding, including $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which effectively defunds public media, which includes NPR, PBS and member stations around the country. This is a conversation about what that means and what we stand to lose.
Jay Allison has been working in and around public radio since it’s beginnings a half century ago. He's been an independent public radio producer, journalist, and teacher since the 1970s. He is the founder of Transom, where I learned to make radio, and 25 years ago he founded WCAI, a public radio station in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Jay's work has won most of the major broadcasting awards, including six Peabodys. He produces The Moth Radio Hour and was the curator of This I Believe on NPR.
Links
Adopt a Station: Where you can donate to your local public radio station or find stations to support
Transom: The place where good radio begins
Information on Transom story trainings
Recent New York Times interview with Bill Siemering about the fate of public radio
Rumble Strip episode w Jay called Fishing with Jay Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aug 20, 2025 • 14min
When There Might Not Be a Solution with Dr. Chioke I'Anson
Dr. Chioke I'Anson is the visionary force behind the establishment of the VPM + ICA Community Media Center, an innovative collaboration between Virginia Public Media and the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU. He's also the founder of RESONATE Podcast Festival
Congress has voted to rescind public media's funding. Help preserve independent journalism and community programming across America by adopting a station. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aug 13, 2025 • 8min
How To Plant a Garden with Limited Space and Time with Alice Bagley
Alice Bagley is a farmer, biker and time banker based in Detroit. She was last on the show. Don't miss her episode from 5 years ago on the joyus virtues of throwing seeds!
Courtney Daniels is a filmamker and author based in LA. Her new podcast is called Gen X at Midlife, where she talks to people about their experience of life after 50. Subscribe wherever you listen to TBAS! She was last on the show discussing the importance of a good cry.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices