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.

Open Secrets Magazine is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Kristyana, April, and Twanna have been friends for over 25 years, and teddy bear Nathaniel Behr has been an integral part of their friend group. What started as a small purchase has morphed into decades of shared memories as the teddy bear has traveled with them on adventures around the world. The three friends live in different cities in the United States and Portugal, but their teddy bear gets sent between them periodically. They discuss how their friendship and joint ownership of Nathaniel Behr, whose travels and poses they document on a private social media account, have evolved over the years, and why even in midlife, their teddy bear is as active a part of their lives as he was in their twenties.

About our guests:

April Banks is based in sunny Las Vegas, Nevada, and works as a freelance proofreader, editor, and writer. She is also the owner of several stuffed animal friends. @april.is.not.just.a.month on Instagram

Twanna A. Hines, M.S. (she/her) is an award-winning sexual health educator, healthy relationships advocate, and entrepreneur. A Sundance Creative Change alum, she has written for many magazines and news outlets, including NBC News, HEALTH magazine, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Time Out, Mashable, Fast Company and The Huffington Post. She has been interviewed by outlets from coast to coast, from the San Francisco Chronicle to The New York Times. Founder and CEO of the social impact firm FUNKY BROWN CHICK, she has appeared on CNN, NPR, Sirius, CBC, Paris Première, and in documentary films.

twannahines.com

@funkybrownchick on Instagram

Kristyana is based in NYC and is a sales and marketing director in the natural consumer packaged goods industry.

@flightsofphamcy and @brownbearinnyc on Instagram

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.

Open Secrets Magazine is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

We’re thrilled to announce that this week, we’re launching the podcast Finders and Keepers, about our emotional attachments to our belongings, hosted by Open Secrets Magazine editor-in-chief Rachel Kramer Bussel. You can listen to the trailer above.

The podcast will cover everything from keepsakes to collections, minimalism to maximalism to hoarding and far beyond. If it’s about possessions and how they impact our lives, we’re open to covering it. The podcast builds on reader interest in our personal essay categories Object-ives and Stuff-ed, to explore why our stuff means so much to us.

Season 1 of Finders and Keepers features a wide range of topics, from a teddy bear who’s been jointly owned by three friends for over 25 years and travels around the world to bestselling author Deesha Philyaw’s book collection and how she became an avid reader, memoir author Edgar Gomez on gender and fashion, Kari Ferrell on how everyday objects get repurposed in jail, essayist Athena Dixon on her Black memorabilia collection, bestselling novelist Emma Straub on why book swag is so popular, American Bulk author Emily Mester on the allure of browsing Costco and other shopping highs, Crafting Through It host Sara Schaefer on how to make miniatures, Rob Hart on collecting and saving Lego sets, Avery Cundill, host of The Declutter Queen, on why we should be decluttering on a regular basis, navigating unwanted inheritances and parting with our children’s old toys, the return of indie print magazines, and what’s inside Jane Pratt multiple storage spaces, among other topics.

We’ll be launching this week with four episodes, and then will air a new episode every Wednesday, with short breaks between seasons.

Every episode will go out to Open Secrets subscribers (and if you want to opt out of the podcast emails, you can do so in your subscriber settings) and the show will be available on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.

Have a question or comment for the podcast? Want to suggest a guest or become a sponsor? You can leave a comment here, email us at findersandkeeperspod at gmail dot com or leave a voicemail at speakerpipe.com/findersandkeepers and you can follow us on Instagram @findersandkeeperspod for clips and fun news about art, objects, and possessions.