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?

Original Music:

Song: Beachball

Artist: Ian and The Deep Sheets

Album: Lick the Razor Clean

References in this episode:

All Fours by Miranda July

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Don't miss the good stuff! Click here to get on the list for our monthly newsletter (or subscribe directly on Substack) which includes book reviews, date night ideas, and more juicy tidbits from the bed and beyond!

Work From Bed Friday is a podcast hosted by Amy Hoffmann and Tommy Borden, a committed couple of 30+ years. Funny, spicy, and insightful, they discuss marriage, sex, and connection through the lens of contemporary books and media. Every Friday. From bed.

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 desperate desire to know, "How does he fuck?"

Original Music:

Song: But for the Japanese

Artist: Muistardeaux Collective

Album: KTWE

References in this episode:

All Fours by Miranda July

"Indecent Proposal", screenwriter Amy Holden Jones

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Don't miss the good stuff! Click here to get on the list for our monthly newsletter (or subscribe directly on Substack) which includes book reviews, date night ideas, and more juicy tidbits from the bed and beyond!

Work From Bed Friday is a podcast hosted by Amy Hoffmann and Tommy Borden, a committed couple of 30+ years. Funny, spicy, and insightful, they discuss marriage, sex, and connection through the lens of contemporary books and media. Every Friday. From bed.

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. Here's Tommy:

"I mean, I mansplained the Nightbitch plotline... and I haven't even read the book!"

Horrified, he’s blamed it on the ubiquity of personal change and promises its demise.

Sometimes the best parts of the pod happen between recordings!

Read along or just enjoy the ride! Subscribe to Work From Bed Friday wherever you get your podcasts. To join in the discussion, subscribe to our Substack here! Next week: Chapter 17!

Original Music:

Song: The Gourmand

Artist: Rick Real and The Warmth

Album: You Too, October

Referenced in this episode:

All Fours by Miranda July

Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder

Husbands by Holly Gramazio

Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane

The DIY Bar

Magnificent Sex by Peggy J. Kleinplatz, Ph.D. and A. Dana Ménard, Ph.D.

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Don't miss the good stuff! Click here to get on the list for our monthly newsletter (or subscribe directly on Substack) which includes book reviews, date night ideas, and more juicy tidbits from the bed and beyond!

Work From Bed Friday is a podcast hosted by Amy Hoffmann and Tommy Borden, a committed couple of 30+ years. Funny, spicy, and insightful, they discuss marriage, sex, and connection through the lens of contemporary books and media. Every Friday. From bed.

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 own “breakthrough” ten years ago. So good.

Chapter 15 of Miranda July’s All Fours gets us from gym culture to Wile E. Coyote to fucking the grumpy out. Go figure.

Read along or just enjoy the ride! Subscribe to Work From Bed Friday wherever you get your podcasts. To join in the discussion, subscribe to our Substack here! Next week: Chapter 15!

Original Music:

Song: Option Lane

Artist: Ian and The Deep Sheets

Album: Ball Simon

References in this Episode:

All Fours by Miranda July

Magnificent Sex by Peggy Kleinplatz and A. Ménard

"The Pussy of My Friend" by Miranda July on Substack

Jenn Lalime, Writer

Amy on Tania Fatovich's podcast, On the Human Spectrum

Send us a text

Don't miss the good stuff! Click here to get on the list for our monthly newsletter (or subscribe directly on Substack) which includes book reviews, date night ideas, and more juicy tidbits from the bed and beyond!

Work From Bed Friday is a podcast hosted by Amy Hoffmann and Tommy Borden, a committed couple of 30+ years. Funny, spicy, and insightful, they discuss marriage, sex, and connection through the lens of contemporary books and media. Every Friday. From bed.

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 that any prescription for perimenopause should include a rumspringa, as Mary suggests. Tommy admits that he might be married to his “Davey” while Amy pushes journaling and fantasy. All this and more!

Read along or just enjoy the ride! Subscribe to Work From Bed Friday wherever you get your podcasts. To join in the discussion, subscribe to our Substack here! Next week: Chapter 15!

Original Music:

Song: Dintendo and Old Lace

Artist: Rick Real and The Warmth

Album: USA #1

References in this Episode:

All Fours by Miranda July

Transformative Experience by L.A. Paul

Rumspringa

Miranda July's Substack

Send us a text

Don't miss the good stuff! Click here to get on the list for our monthly newsletter (or subscribe directly on Substack) which includes book reviews, date night ideas, and more juicy tidbits from the bed and beyond!

Work From Bed Friday is a podcast hosted by Amy Hoffmann and Tommy Borden, a committed couple of 30+ years. Funny, spicy, and insightful, they discuss marriage, sex, and connection through the lens of contemporary books and media. Every Friday. From bed.

Amy delivers that line with so much enthusiasm (and only flubbing one word) that it's as if she's hoping it will be considered as her audition for the next incarnation of the audio book. Or the Starz series?? One can dream...

In Chapter 13 of Miranda July's All Fours, our increasingly unhinged heroine pleads menopause, finally agrees to adopt a puppy, and witnesses the moment that her desperate attempt to connect with her lover comes full circle—and lands under her linden tree. Amy & Tommy discuss big life change, jealousy, masturbatory cleaning, trad wives, and more.

Original Music:

Song: Tomsom

Artist: Muistardeaux Collective

Album: Face the Music

References in this Episode:

All Fours by Miranda July

Stasia's Style School

Ester Perel interviews Miranda July

Miranda July's Substack

Starz acquires the rights to develop All Fours

Ballerina Farm

The Rise and Fall of the Trad Wife

Send us a text

Don't miss the good stuff! Click here to get on the list for our monthly newsletter (or subscribe directly on Substack) which includes book reviews, date night ideas, and more juicy tidbits from the bed and beyond!

Work From Bed Friday is a podcast hosted by Amy Hoffmann and Tommy Borden, a committed couple of 30+ years. Funny, spicy, and insightful, they discuss marriage, sex, and connection through the lens of contemporary books and media. Every Friday. From bed.

Oh, heartbreak. You are so maddeningly universal. The sick feeling. The roboticism. The detachment from reality. As our character re-enters her domestic life, heartbreak haunts her. She lives the image from the beginning of the chapter: a frozen soul, in her basement, between a trampoline and a couple of suitcases.

Amy & Tommy examine the bleakness of this chapter, but not without cackles of laughter and memories of their own heartbreak and miscommunication. Amy vouches for the healing power of young pilots in Singapore and Tommy recounts the slow response to his marriage proposal via accordion song. The unsung power of both fax machines and engagement rings are discussed. It's all in episode #13 of Work From Bed Friday!

References in the Episode:

All Fours by Miranda July

The Wendy Award by Walter Scott

Pat Jackson with Paul Michael Thorpe

The Legacy of Pat Jackson's American Dance

Original Music:

Song: I Almost Got Hen Hunched on the Bus

Artist: Rick Real and The Warmth

Album: FM Perspective

Send us a text

Don't miss the good stuff! Click here to get on the list for our monthly newsletter (or subscribe directly on Substack) which includes book reviews, date night ideas, and more juicy tidbits from the bed and beyond!

Work From Bed Friday is a podcast hosted by Amy Hoffmann and Tommy Borden, a committed couple of 30+ years. Funny, spicy, and insightful, they discuss marriage, sex, and connection through the lens of contemporary books and media. Every Friday. From bed.

"I'm thinking something, what am I thinking?"

In fact, there is no thinking at all. Just action, sensation, and a new understanding occurring at a subterranean level. Chapter 11 of Miranda July's All Fours is a veritable feast of subconscious mystery: sex dreams, uncharted intimacy, and the perilous territory of goodbye. Amy & Tommy dig right into the middle of it, excavating juicy bits of their own past--it's SPICY!

Are we all just landscapes with unexpected rushes of pleasure hidden even from ourselves? Suddenly, a trifecta arrives: an element of surprise, a little push against a moral boundary, a subversion of etiquette, and we are turned ON. Listen for aaaaaaaaallll the details and weigh in on our Substack!

Read along or just enjoy the ride! Subscribe to Work From Bed Friday wherever you get your podcasts. To join in the discussion, subscribe to our Substack here! Next week: Chapter 12!

Original Music:

Song: I Think I'd Like It

Artist: Ian and The Deep Sheets

Album: Ball Simon

References in this episode:

All Fours by Miranda July

Ocean Edge

Bayzo's Pub

Send us a text

Don't miss the good stuff! Click here to get on the list for our monthly newsletter (or subscribe directly on Substack) which includes book reviews, date night ideas, and more juicy tidbits from the bed and beyond!

Work From Bed Friday is a podcast hosted by Amy Hoffmann and Tommy Borden, a committed couple of 30+ years. Funny, spicy, and insightful, they discuss marriage, sex, and connection through the lens of contemporary books and media. Every Friday. From bed.