Emily Hessney Lynch, host of the podcast It’s a Lot, joins us to discuss two topics that are emotionally heavy and very much a lot: how to handle items we inherit from family members when we’re not sure why we’re inheriting them or what role they might play in our lives, and how to preserve memories of our children’s earliest moments. Emily shares why an apple juice bottle plays such a pivotal role in her son’s first months, and she and host Rachel Kramer Bussel explore the legacies we want to leave our children, who are currently toddlers, via our belongings. Additionally, we discuss her assorted collections from childhood to adulthood, and how the act of collecting everything from buttons to rocks and beyond has changed for her over time.

About our guest:

Emily Hessney Lynch is a digital strategist, content writer, and the founder of Serve Me the Sky Digital. She has more than 14 years of experience working with nonprofits, higher ed institutions, and businesses on sharing their stories through engaging digital content. In addition to her consulting work, she is an adjunct professor at Nazareth University. Emily is also the creator and host of It’s a Lot, a podcast about social media, parenthood, and other things that are a lot. When she’s not working, you’ll find her reading, visiting local libraries, or chasing her toddler.

servemethesky.com

It’s a Lot podcast

Instagram: @servemethesky

Finders and Keepers is hosted by Rachel Kramer Bussel and is a production of Open Secrets Magazine. Please rate and review wherever you listen to podcasts to help us reach new listeners. Want to share your own stuff story, tell us who we should interview next, or share your own most treasured possession? Contact us at findersandkeeperspod@gmail.com or leave a voicemail at speakpipe.com/findersandkeepers

For more about our attachments to our belongings, read the personal essays in the Object-ives and Stuff-ed sections of Open Secrets Magazine at opensecretsmagazine.com, where you can also submit your own essays.

How do we develop a lifelong reading habit? What turns someone into a “book person?” And once we are a confirmed book person, how do we decide which books to keep on our bulging bookshelves? Deesha Philyaw, author of the bestselling, award-winning short story collection The Secret Lives of Church Ladies and forthcoming novel The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman, shares her journey to becoming an avid reader, which books and teacher had a pivotal impact on her at a young age, what’s currently on her bookshelves, and how she curates her reading material and book collection. Note: This interview was conducted in spring 2025.

About our guest:

Deesha Philyaw’s debut short story collection, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, won the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the 2020/2021 Story Prize, and the 2020 LA Times Book Prize: The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction. Philyaw is a Kimbilio Fiction Fellow, a Baldwin for the Arts Fellow, a United States Artists Fellow, and co-host of two podcasts, Ursa Short Fiction (with Dawnie Walton) and Reckon True Stories (with Kiese Laymon). She is currently at work developing TV shows based on her short fiction. Deesha’s debut novel, The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman, is forthcoming from Mariner Books, an imprint of HarperCollins, in September 2026.

deeshaphilyaw.com

Instagram: @deeshaphilyaw

Threads: @deeshaphilyaw

Substack Writing, Wandering, Wondering

Finders and Keepers is hosted by Rachel Kramer Bussel and is a production of Open Secrets Magazine. Please rate and review wherever you listen to podcasts to help us reach new listeners. Want to share your own stuff story, tell us who we should interview next, or share your own most treasured possession? Contact us at findersandkeeperspod@gmail.com or leave a voicemail at speakpipe.com/findersandkeepers

For more about our attachments to our belongings, read the personal essays in the Object-ives and Stuff-ed sections of Open Secrets Magazine at opensecretsmagazine.com, where you can also submit your own essays.

Emily Mester, author of American Bulk: Essays on Excess, joins us to discuss the thrill of Costco shopping, the agony of online shopping returns, and why we just can’t quit the excitement of looking for the next item that will change our lives. Can shopping be just a pleasure instead of a “guilty” one? Join us as we dive into Emily’s family history with shopping, reading reviews of products we’re considering buying, which products she most enjoys shopping for, and the lure of browsing online and offline that keeps pulling Emily and host Rachel Kramer Bussel back in.

About our guest:

Emily Mester is from the suburban Midwest and went to Costco every Sunday. She holds an MFA in nonfiction from the University of Iowa, where she was the winner of the Prairie Lights Nonfiction Prize. American Bulk is her first book. She lives in New York.

emilymester.com

Instagram: @arbys_rising

Finders and Keepers is hosted by Rachel Kramer Bussel and is a production of Open Secrets Magazine. Please rate and review wherever you listen to podcasts to help us reach new listeners. Want to share your own stuff story, tell us who we should interview next, or share your own most treasured possession? Contact us at findersandkeeperspod@gmail.com or leave a voicemail at speakpipe.com/findersandkeepers

For more about our attachments to our belongings, read the personal essays in the Object-ives and Stuff-ed sections of Open Secrets Magazine at opensecretsmagazine.com, where you can also submit your own essays.

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