Try This
The Washington Post
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Top 10 Try This Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Try This episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Try This for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Try This episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
10/17/24 • 11 min
The electoral college has served as the system to elect U.S. presidents since the earliest days of the country. And while it has evolved over the years, Americans still use this complex representative system to choose their country’s leaders. The system, however, is not without its flaws — and many have pushed for alternatives over the years.
In the third class about how the electoral college works, host Cristina Quinn talks with historian Alex Keyssar about potential alternatives to the way the United States elects presidents. The class explores the merits and flaws of the current system, and lays out the challenges to putting a different one in place.
Here are resources to help you learn more about attempts to overhaul the electoral college:
- National Popular Vote plan challenges undemocratic electoral college
- One almost-successful attempt to reform the electoral college
And don’t forget to vote! You can check the status of your 2024 voter registration here.
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4 Listeners
04/09/24 • 11 min
In Class 2 of our course on friendship, you’ll learn how to get out of your comfort zone when it comes to fostering new friendships and resuscitating old ones. Cristina talks to Washington Post advice columnist Carolyn Hax about doable ways to make real-life connections at a time when technology makes that seem hard. Friendship expert Danielle Bayard Jackson makes the case that spending time with friends can be as simple as some shared errands. And Bob Waldinger is back to explain how we don’t always know what we actually want from interactions with other people. It turns out, we might surprise ourselves.
For more advice on how to navigate all sorts of relationships, read columns by The Post’s Carolyn Hax.
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3 Listeners
Are you socially fit?
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04/02/24 • 13 min
In the first class of our course on making the most of your friendships, host Cristina Quinn learns what it means to be socially fit — and why it’s never too late to start getting those reps in. Cristina talks to Bob Waldinger, director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development — the longest longitudinal study on human happiness — about why friendships matter for our health and what we can do to assess our connections. He gives practical advice for how to take stock of, reinvest in or rethink our relationships, with exercises that can work as an ongoing social fitness regimen.
You can learn more about the Harvard Study of Adult Development here. Waldinger and his colleague wrote a book, “The Good Life,” that includes more tips for finding satisfaction in human relationships.
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3 Listeners
10/17/24 • 12 min
In the second class in our series about how the electoral college works, host Cristina Quinn talks to historian Alex Keyssar of the Harvard Kennedy School about the compromises that drove the Founding Fathers to land on a complex, winner-takes-all system rather than a straightforward popular vote.
Keyssar walks listeners through the evolution of our voting system in the years following the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, and how things like electoral vote ties, the introduction of political parties and the end of slavery eventually led to the version of the voting system we have today.
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2 Listeners
How the electoral college works
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10/17/24 • 13 min
Remembering all the complex details of how the electoral college works is not exactly easy. And just when you’ve mastered how it all adds up, you probably won’t need to think about it again for another four years — hardly a formula for cementing something in your brain. “Try This” host Cristina Quinn is here to help.
The first class in our three-part series on the electoral college explains how the system works, the complicated way electoral votes are assigned and awarded, and what happens between Election Day and Inauguration Day. Washington Post politics reporters Aaron Blake and Amy Gardner join Cristina to make the whole thing so accessible that your high school civics teacher would be proud.
Here are some resources if you’d like to dive deeper into the electoral college:
- An explainer on how the electoral college votes
- How the electoral college works, in visuals
- How fair is the electoral college?
- Mapping paths to victory in 2024
Subscribe to The Washington Post or connect your subscription in Apple Podcasts.
1 Listener
06/27/24 • 12 min
In the first class in our course on how to enjoy cooking more, host Cristina Quinn teams up with the Washington Post food team to uncover tips for identifying your kitchen personality. Food and dining editor Joe Yonan, food writer and recipe developer Aaron Hutcherson and recipes editor Becky Krystal identify how to apply personality characteristics — like a tendency to tinker or an adherence to rules — to your cooking experience. The process can make preparing a meal more personalized and therefore more pleasurable.
Find more than 10,000 recipes – sortable by cuisine, course and time it takes to cook – in The Post’s recipe finder. Try one of Cristina’s favorites, Simple Butter Chicken.
Subscribe to The Washington Post for just 50 cents per week for your first year. (Sale ends July 10). Connect your subscription in Apple Podcasts.
1 Listener
Stop trying to fall asleep
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12/05/23 • 8 min
In this first class of our course on how to get better sleep, host Cristina Quinn outlines why trying to get yourself to sleep can sometimes be a barrier to getting rest. But if we shouldn't will ourselves to sleep, what should we do instead? Cristina talks to an expert with a clear plan for how to tackle anxiety at bedtime by taking some tangible steps during the day.
If you’d like additional resources, here are some columns from sleep expert Lisa Strauss who is featured in this episode:
- Overthinking at night? 6 strategies for better sleep.
- Three ways to fix sleep issues when nothing else works
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The melatonin factor
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12/26/23 • 13 min
In the fifth and final class of our course on how to get better sleep, we focus on melatonin. Researchers found that melatonin use in the United States more than quintupled between 1999 and 2018. You might know someone who swears by melatonin or maybe you yourself do. But does it work? What do we know about how effective melatonin supplements are, and what does it mean for helping you get better sleep? Cristina unpacks the research and helps you determine if melatonin is the right choice for your sleep needs.
Here are some organizations and labels to look for when purchasing melatonin supplements:
Read more from The Washington Post about how and when to take melatonin.
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Nourishing your inner cook
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07/11/24 • 9 min
In the third class in our course on how to enjoy cooking more, we focus on reframing the way we think about the task. Food writer and finalist on “Food Network Star,” Mary Beth Albright, offers advice on how to understand cooking as less of an item on your to-do list and more of an act for you that can nourish your well-being in ways that are worth recognizing. Mary Beth lays out ways that the process of cooking has benefits for our mental and emotional health through meditative tasks, appreciating rituals, and having a little fun by naming the things you cook.
For more on the relationship between food, cooking and mental health, read Mary Beth’s book, “Eat and Flourish.”
Find more than 10,000 recipes – sortable by cuisine, course and time it takes to cook – in The Washington Post’s recipe finder. Try one of Cristina’s favorite recipes, Smothered Chicken.
Subscribe to The Washington Post and connect your subscription in Apple Podcasts..
When to call it quits
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04/16/24 • 13 min
In the third and final class of our course on how to make the most of your friendships, we offer guidance for what to do when things go wrong. Making friendships work requires adjusting expectations, having difficult conversations and sometimes deciding when parting ways is for the best. This class unpacks practical tips for doing each of these things, with guidance from Washington Post advice columnist Carolyn Hax and friendship expert Danielle Bayard Jackson.
For more advice on how to navigate all sorts of relationships, read columns by The Post’s Carolyn Hax. Find Danielle Bayard Jackson’s podcast, Friend Forward, here.
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FAQ
How many episodes does Try This have?
Try This currently has 19 episodes available.
What topics does Try This cover?
The podcast is about Courses, Podcasts, Self-Improvement and Education.
What is the most popular episode on Try This?
The episode title 'Should we change the way we elect presidents? Can we?' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Try This?
The average episode length on Try This is 12 minutes.
How often are episodes of Try This released?
Episodes of Try This are typically released every 7 days.
When was the first episode of Try This?
The first episode of Try This was released on Nov 16, 2023.
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