I keep getting thanked by restaurant staff. Not for tipping well. For not screaming at them.

Hi, I'm Lauren Howard (you can call me L2) and this is my podcast Different, Not Broken - which is about exactly that.

This one covers a lot of ground: why service staff now brace for impact over an overcooked salmon, why I tipped extra for honesty, and — since the outrage economy makes no sense to me — why Taylor Swift's wedding has the internet in a chokehold while Donald Trump has made $2 billion he can hold in his disgusting sweaty fat hands and nobody seems to care.

What starts with an inedible salmon at Chili's, and a misplaced pizza descends into the Taylor Swift wedding outrage — the double standard around wealthy women being self-indulgent, and where I think our collective anger would be far better spent.

Plus, in Small Talk: Priya from Oregon has been the planner friend her whole life.

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This is what happens when your brain runs out of RAM.

Hi, I'm Lauren Howard (you can call me L2) and this is my podcast Different, Not Broken - which is about exactly that.

My mom is in the hospital. Again.

My kids are at camp for the first time ever.

My co-worker Vanessa's grandmother fell.

Kyle's eye is still a thing.

And I have exactly zero bandwidth left for anything — including, apparently, remembering that not everyone knows my mom's transplanted kidney's nickname.

The nephrologist found out the hard way. He's fine. Kidney Poitier is fine. I am questionable.

In this episode, I tell you about the nurse who pretended she needed help from my mom — a former phlebotomist — just to get her brain working and make her feel useful in that hospital bed.

I ugly-cried a little on the inside.

Then I talk about the moment my filter completely abandoned me mid-conversation with a medical professional.

And then Alison brings us a Small Talk question from Opal in Georgia, who's been close with her best friend for 26 years and is starting to feel like she gives more than she gets.

Brain full. Filter gone. Heart kind of full, too. Let's get into it.

New episodes every Wednesday. Find them all at differentnobrokenpodcast.com.

My oldest turns 10 this week, which is rude and kind of bullshit, and I will accept no part of it. She did not ask my permission.

Hi, I'm Lauren Howard. Some people call me L2. You can too if you want. This is my podcast "Different, Not Broken" which is about exactly that.

In this episode, I take you back to exactly 10 years ago — the Thursday night when a weird feeling turned into a labor story I was absolutely not ready for, including the shower incident. (You’ll know when you get there.)

Then we get into what I’m calling Furniture Fuckery: the story of why my home office carpet smelled like funky ass dog for a decade, how it took me 10 years to buy a desk I first saw when we bought this house, and how Manny — a furniture store salesperson on his very first day — accidentally became the emotional highlight of my weekend.

Alison joins for this week’s Small Talk to answer Kevin from Rhode Island, who is already spiraling about his upcoming high school reunion. We talk comparison culture, social media highlight reels, and why nobody — and I mean nobody — has their shit together. Not even the people who look like they do.

I have lots of excellent things available for you to buy in my Stan Store so you should probably go do that at https://stan.store/elletwo

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Want to leave a voicemail with a Small Talk question or even just to let us know you're enjoying a Fountain coke? Do that here - https://differentnotbrokenpodcast.com/voicemail

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