Ep. 6: Cooling down and pressing on

By all accounts, 2021 is coming in hot! We like it toasty here in The Warming House, but not like this, we'll admit. To that end, if you tuned into this show, you probably noticed our effort to bring some cool: spinning Waxahatchee's album "St. Cloud," for example. It was this week's vinyl pick, by co-host Sean McPherson.

Singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield's offering has been a balm to many — as we heard from you on Twitter — during this pandemic. Sean said about the album, "There’s no haze in this record. It’s the songs, it’s the band, and most importantly it’s Crutchfield’s clarity. It's the difficulties of romantic love, the impossibilities of unconditional self-love. It’s unflinching and it’s beautiful."

In honor of Crutchfield's title, "St. Cloud," we thought for a moment it would be fun to have only guests from St. Cloud on the show. But that would have precluded us from getting our Sanni Brown fix! Our "advice-ologist" from The Current and Purple Current, Sanni talked about how hard homeschooling the kiddos is. And, believe us, we know it's hard! Getting excited about eight hours of Zoom calls is likely something only the CEO of Zoom can get behind.

In our latest installment of Go Big & Go Home: Co-host Nina Moini talked carry-out and take-home eats with Chef Yia Vang of Union Hmong Kitchen and about his pop-up location on Selby in St. Paul. Bucking the pandemic trend, he's also planning on opening a new restaurant in the spring! In the meantime, you can check out his current offerings here.

In Silver Linings, Nina caught up with the executive director of The Warming House music venue in Minneapolis, Brianna Lane. Brianna also played (LIVE!) their song "Birds" for us. We didn't know how much we missed live music until we heard their first strum on the guitar! Tony Cuneo, executive director of Zeitgeist in Duluth, joined Brianna for a lighthearted game of Twins Trivia. Collaboration Nation! (No really, we at TWH want to foster some real working together-type energy here in 2021.)

Sean brought back Smarter Than Your Teen, in which dad Bill Childs showcased his intellectual prowess against his offspring. *Dusts off shoulder.* And, last but certainly not least, Dr. Antonio Lombeida from The Uptown Veterinarian stopped by to talk about grieving cats, piddling puppies and surly hamsters. We covered a lot of ground!

Guest List: 

• Brianna Lane, executive director The Warming House music venue in Minneapolis

• Tony Cuneo, executive director of Zeitgeist in Duluth

• Sanni Brown, The Current and Purple Current and TWH "advice-ologist"

• Dr. Antonio Lombeida, The Uptown Veterinarian

• Bill and Liam Childs, father and son trivia participants for Smarter Than Your Teen

• Chef Yia Vang, Union Hmong Kitchen

• Ep. 16: Gone fishing!
• The Warming House co-hosts reflect on winter of isolation and spring of new possibility
• Ep. 15: Friends, not food!