So, in last week's episode, during a break in the wonderful conversation between Sonia Manzano and Sonia Sotomayor, I told you about all the accumulated coconut milk in my pantry. I needed some inspiration for what to do with it, so I asked if would add some ideas to our collective Pandemic Tool Kit. 

And you did! Some of you also emailed recipes. It was very nice. 

And you know what? I did not make anything with the coconut milk. Last weekend was a long one here in the Bay Area. Because of hazardous wildfire smoke, we stayed inside the whole time. I didn't take the kids out to play and the puppy did not get walked. By Sunday night, I realized that I hadn't left the house since Wednesday afternoon. 

And while I was not going outside, I was making a meal, then cleaning up the kitchen, then cutting up veggies for a snack, then making a meal, then unloading the dishwasher, then putting little crackers in a bowl, then making another meal, and starting the dishwasher again. At least, that's what it felt like. Sometimes my husband cooked and we ordered pizza one night. But, the point is, feeding two kids and two dogs and two parents felt like an endless chore, and a chore so chore-y that I couldn't even bring myself to try to bring a little flash to it by doing something fab with that coconut milk. 

So, on a team conference call on Monday morning, when all the great coconut milk suggestions came up, I admitted that despite so much help and encouragement from others, all of it was still sitting in the pantry. Because in California, I really wanted to say, there is nothing fun happening right now and everything is hard! 

...and then, by the end of the workday, the wind picked up just a little here in Berkeley, and for the moment, the smoke started to clear. We wrapped up our episode this week with Maria Hinojosa, which I really love and feel fed by so much of what she says. Then, I started thinking about what my family should have for dinner, and I reached into the pantry. I asked my four-year-old to stir while we mixed up a fresh blend of curry spices, and we put our coconut milk to use! 

For many years, journalist Maria Hinojosa was often the first and the only Latina in the newsrooms where she worked. She felt undermined and underestimated by many of her white colleagues, something she worked hard at to overcome—because, as she told me, to survive in the world of media, "you have to have a huge f***ing ego."

But that same ego also led to problems in her marriage. Maria told me about the times she chose her career over her family, about the breaking point that led her to reevaluate her priorities, and how, these days, she is learning how to practice listening and self-love. Listen in your podcast feeds now.

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Radio producer Bianca Giaever was feeling lonely. So she decided to find someone else—a complete stranger—who was also lonely, to record them and connect with them. Enter Sophia, a religious New York City crossing guard on the way out of her marriage. Don't miss this very special story about being present and finding purpose from the series "Constellation Prize" from The Believer. 

In the latest episode of the BBC's program Short Cuts, there are three stories about the future, including a robot doing standup comedy, and poems about an empathetic tomorrow. But the second story is particularly delightful. Writer Ciarra Jones' mom set high expectations for her while she was growing up. But Ciarra learned to let go of her own perfectionist tendencies through gardening with her mom, specifically with some special zucchini plants.