Packing List Answers

Travel

There were lots of questions on the packing list post, so I thought I’d supply some quick answers:

How do you fit ALL THAT STUFF into your backpack??

crumpler

My backpack is like the TARDIS. It’s a Crumpler Barge, made to carry camera equipment and a laptop plus some extras. It’s big for a daypack, but I use it for work everyday as well as traveling.

I was wondering if you would share what brand of sunless tanner you use?

After much cross consultation with beauty magazines and very pale friends, I use Clarins Self Tanning Gel, which looks like this:

clarins

A tube lasts forever, and after a couple of applications, people always ask if I’ve lost weight, which is American for “you look hot.”

I am curious — do you actually follow your toiletries list separately each trip? Or do you a keep an always-packed toiletries kit (with its own toothbrush, lotion, etc) and just throw the whole thing in your bag?

The latter. Though I do double-check against the list because I am anal. Also, I find it very satisfying to refill the little toiletry containers.

Why hand sanitizer only for foreign countries? The airplane is filthy enough, no matter where you go, no?

Before I had a kid, I only traveled with sanitizer in countries where I thought it would be tough to find public sinks, places where there’s a thriving street food culture for example. Now I carry a 20-gallon container with fire hose attachment, which I use to spray down the entire interior of the plane before I let Hank touch anything. On the advice of our pediatrician.

Is there a reason that the cuticle scissors aren’t grouped with the nail kit?

I don’t use them for my cuticles, I use them as scissors. Cutting tags off clothes, cutting out things to paste in my journal, makeshift weaponry should someone try to hijack the plane or use more than his alloted half of our shared armrest. That kind of thing.

Would you ever consider a make-up post?

My main thing is that I use Clinique’s City Block tinted sunscreen instead of foundation. It looks like this:

clinique

It evens out my skin tone. Plus, I’m 1000 percent more likely to apply foundation daily than sunscreen, so it saves me from burning when I’m unexpectedly in the sun for thirty seconds or more. Or when I spend too much time in the glare of our refrigerator light.

What podcasts do you download?

This American Life. What podcasts do you download? I want to know more about good podcasts.

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77 thoughts on “Packing List Answers”

  5. Fresh Air and All Songs Considered! More than once have I discovered a new band from ASC while on a trip, thus cementing the association between some awesome new music and wherever I’m going at the time.

    I’ll be interested to see what non-NPR podcasts get recommended.

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  6. At the top of my good podcasts list is KCRW’s “Good Food” with Evan Kleiman. While there is some L.A./California-specific content (farmers’ market reports), Evan’s mix of topics never fails to include segments of more general interest. Accessible via kcrw.com and iTunes.

    There’s a separate feed for occasional and related videos with Evan… what are we calling these? Vidcasts? Video podcasts? Whatever they’re called, they have great tips: how to sex a fennel! what do to with those gorgeous squash in the autumn market! composting tips!

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  7. Coverville — I’m a sucker for cover songs.
    Decoder Ring Theater — original episodic old-time-style radio plays
    Short Cummings Audio — Little 6-minute family life essays. Kind of a cross between Dave Barry and Garrison Keillor

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  8. The Moth from NPR – 15 minute true stories, told before a live audience. Amazing, gritty, funny and even I can focus for 15 minutes.

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  14. The Sound of Young America – Jesse is the pioneer of the New Sincerity movement.

    Fresh Air – Terry Gross is amazing.

    On the Media – Great media criticism, if you’re into that.

    You Look Nice today – Good for chuckles.

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  17. NPR: Most Emailed Stories of the Day podcast. All of the days most popular stories in one little podcast = the only podcast you need. Though listening to stories that are months old can be not-so-fun, so requires a little organization ahead of time.

    Food Podcasts (but make you dangerously hungry on plane): APM The Splendid Table, KCRW’s Good Food with Evan Kleinman, NPR Food Podcast.

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  18. The Bugle (timesonline.co.uk) by John Oliver of the Daily Show and Andy Zaltzman. Even though the show focuses on the news, the podcasts in the archives age well because they are so damn funny.

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  19. Jawbone Radio is one of the best independantly produced podcasts out there. Also, I wish Len and Nora were my mom and dad. Just sayin’.

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  20. I am a food person so I also download KCRW’s “Good Food” with Evan Kleiman and Splendid Table from American Public Media.
    My husband will also do keyword searches on anything he is interested in on npr.org, and download various podcasts from the NPR archives. This is awesome! Though I did tire of the ones generated by the “california prisons” search.
    I have listened to various financial podcasts, but haven’t found one that stuck with me. Also, my husband and I were loveline junkies, so we sometimes listen to the Adam Corrolla podcast via itunes.
    I am starting my own business, and listen to scape from Cubicle Nation podcasts as well.

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  23. My regular downloads include WNYC’s Radio Lab, and The Moth Podcast. I also throw a Car Talk on my iPod every once in a while, sometimes I need a laugh on a long journey.

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  27. I’m also a TAL podcast geek and I listen to it constantly.

    I also listen to the New Yorker fiction podcast – current authors pick old stories from the New Yorker archives, read them aloud, then talk about why they love them.

    NPR’s Selected Shorts is good… LearnItalianPod for language lessons… Poetry Foundation’s podcast…

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  32. Selected Shorts is a must! There is nothing having a short story to fill the time, and SS does it so well. The quality of the literature and the wonderful actors who read. It’s a real treat.

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  33. Podcasts:

    Radio Lab
    Mark Kermode’s film reviews
    Adam and Joe
    Bafta Archive
    Filmspotting
    Horror Etc
    New Yorker Fiction
    TEDTalks
    Museum of the Moving Image’s Pinewood Dialogues
    Best of YouTube
    Daniel Kitson
    Jamie’s Ministry of Food

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  37. I absolutely have to mention Radio Lab again. It’s amazing. One of the hosts has his own show as well, called “hmmm Krulwich on Science.”

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  38. I need a cell phone or MP3 player that can actually handle podcasts. My MP3 player is a) Dell and b) pretty much dead, and my cell phone is at least 400 years old. Sigh. I miss TAL, I used to love that show when I actually was in the car at the right time to hear it!

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  41. Love that you answered the questions! As for podcasts, I listen to:

    – Sticks and String (I’m a knitter, and this is a fantastic knitting podcast by an Australian man named David Reidy.)Although oriented to knitting, it goes into knitting/yarn history, Australian culture and events, etc.

    – Cooks Illustrated Video Podcast (Excellent!)

    – Learn to Speak German with German-Podcast.de

    Having read all the recommendations for The Moth, I just added it to my list. I’ve also been thinking about listening to “The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd” with my niece and nephew. It’s supposed to be a family-friendly radio drama where Dr. Floyd (a scientist) goes up against the evil Dr. Steve and along the way teaches kids about the people and history of the world.

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  42. Ditto on TAL and the Slate podcasts. I also love love love TBTL (Too Beautiful to Live). Until September, this was a nightly show on KIRO in Seattle. Since being unceremoniously canceled by KIRO, Luke, Jen, and Sean have been doing their imaginary radio show as a daily podcast from Luke’s house. They three of them are so genuine and lovely that I (and what they lovingly call their “tens of listeners”) listen to the podcast religiously. Download it from iTunes or stream from http://tbtl.net

    RAWR!

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  43. My always-first-to-download podcasts: Never Not Funny hosted by my favorite comedian of all time, Jimmy Pardo. And, from the man who brought us The Sound of Young America – Jordan, Jesse, Go!.

    Also, I never knew I needed a tinted moisturizer but now I MUST HAVE IT. Such a good idea.

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  44. Ditto on the NPR ones mentioned already plus PRI’s Speaking of Faith.

    Also, zencast, available at zencast.org.

    Love this series of dharma talks mostly given by Gil Fronsdale. Occasionally they include Thich Nhat Hanh, Jack Kornfield and Andrea Fella.

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  45. Some real winners at the CBC:
    Q
    WireTap (with Jonathan Goldstein who is also part of American Life I believe)
    Definitely Not the Opera (or DNTO)

    And if you’re feeling really science nerdy:
    Quirks and Quarks

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  46. NPR Most E-Mailed Stories – great NPR sampler when you don’t have time to listen to everything… and it makes house cleaning no sweat.

    I would love This American Life, but it crashes my ipod, so I don’t love it so much.

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  47. Hee hee, I like your answer to my question about the sanitizer.

    Podcasts:
    I love TAL, agree with others here that The Moth is awesome, and I’m also a big fan of Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me.

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  49. I love This American Life, The Moth, and the New Yorker Fiction podcast, which is only once a month so it’s a treat. The one from January is amazing. I think it’s called The Living Dead but it’s not scary. I keep it on my ipod permanently. You should hear it!

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