Analog-ish: Seeking low-tech ideas in a high-tech world

About Analog-ish: Seeking low-tech ideas in a high-tech world

Analog-ish is a weekly interview podcast for people who are tired of being optimized. Hosted by feminist coach Becky Mollenkamp, who believes slowing down is a radical act, each episode features conversations with thinkers, makers, and everyday radicals who are finding their way back to something slower, more intentional, and more human. We're not here to tell you to smash your phone or go off the grid. We're here to ask better questions about the role technology plays in your life — and to explore practical low-tech ideas that give you more agency over the answer. From reclaiming rest to building real-life community, from protecting your attention to finding unmonetized joy, these conversations are honest, curious, and refreshingly free of hustle culture. If you're burned out from being constantly online and hungry for a different way forward, this show is for you.

Publisher

Becky Mollenkamp

Category

health & fitness · leisure

Language

en

Explicit

Yes

First episode

22 Apr 2026

Latest episode

16 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

21 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   16 Sept 2026

   What Gave a Nurse the Audacity to Build a Tech Startup?

   Psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner and Silicon Valley clinician Nana Adabie joins Becky to talk about the paradox she lives inside every day: building a tech tool to help people recover from tech overload. Nana shares the patient moment that sparked the idea for Loretta, a grounding app named after the tree in her front yard, and walks through why traditional meditation apps fail people with ADHD, how dopamine-seeking and parasocial relationships online affect mental health, and what "grounding" actually means in the body. They talk candidly about audacity, immigrant identity, burnout, and Nana leads a live guided grounding exercise listeners can do right along with her. Topics Covered (with timestamps): • (02:17) Nana's background as a Silicon Valley psych nurse practitioner and the burnout epidemic she saw firsthand • (03:35) The patient moment that sparked Loretta: "I wish I had a Nana in my pocket" • (05:51) Why Loretta is built differently for neurodivergent users, short, narrative, not traditional meditation • (06:54) Nana's own relationship with technology, burnout, and the parasocial trap of online validation • (09:42) Is dopamine addiction real? How the ADHD brain seeks novelty and stimulation • (11:37) Living with "two identities" and how Nana rebuilt her own offline creativity through piano, painting, and nature • (15:21) What grounding actually means, in Nana's own words • (17:24) The story behind Loretta's name, the tree in front of Nana's house • (17:56) A live guided grounding exercise listeners can follow along with • (22:58) The audacity conversation: "there's so many mediocre men building so much dumb stuff, why not me?" • (27:54) How the Loretta app actually works, step by step • (33:36) Nana's closing advice: go sit in the sun, barefoot, for ten minutes Resources Mentioned: • Loretta app: helloloretta.com • Nana's Substack: https://nanaefua.substack.com/?utm_campaign=profile_chips • "The Creative Act" by Rick Rubin: https://amzn.to/4xtruBN • "Liberate Your Business" by Becky Mollenkamp: beckymollenkamp.com/book 🎤 JOIN US IN THE FEMINIST PODCASTERS COLLECTIVE: http://feministpodcastcollective.com/

2. 

   9 Sept 2026

   Food Makes You Feel Like You Belong Somewhere with celebrity chef Aarthi Sampath

   Chef Aarthi Sampath of Beat Bobby Flay, Chopped, and her new East Village restaurant Dravida joins Becky to talk about food as identity, technology's real role in a professional kitchen, and why she thinks restaurants matter more than ever in an AI-saturated world. Aarthi traces her path from swapping lunchboxes as a kid in India to running a restaurant built around a cuisine scattered by colonialism and migration across South Asia and its diaspora. They dig into how tech has actually changed restaurant work (POS systems, AI-standardized recipes, automated payroll), why she isn't nervous about AI taking chefs' jobs, the real villain behind food delivery apps, and what it means to train a staff to bring genuine hospitality ("your inner auntie") to every table. Topics Covered (with timestamps): (00:59) Aarthi's origin story: trading lunchboxes as a kid and discovering food as connection (04:21) How TV and shows like Chopped changed the cultural status of the chef profession (05:43) The real ways technology shows up in a restaurant — POS systems, inventory apps, AI-standardized recipes, automated payroll (07:34) Why Aarthi isn't nervous about AI in the kitchen, and where she thinks it can't replace people (10:17) The "alter ego" of being on camera, and why some chefs thrive on TV and others don't (13:40) The "duck on water" metaphor, the chaos of the kitchen versus the calm experience in the dining room (16:36) Why she thinks people are craving in-person dining again after years of delivery-first eating (19:01) The real problem with delivery apps: the 30–35% cut they take from small restaurants (19:43) The origin and meaning behind Dravida, tracing a cuisine across colonialism, migration, and the South Asian diaspora (22:39) The throughlines across cultures: hospitality, tropical produce, and spice as historical connector (24:06) How she trains her staff to bring authentic hospitality — "bring in your inner auntie" (27:16) Aarthi's version of self-care as a chef and entrepreneur, and why business growth feels like self-care to her (29:57) Her closing message: come sit at a restaurant with a wood-fired oven and no technology, and reclaim a real third space DRAVIDA RESTAURANT: 211 First Avenue, East Village, NYC 🎤 JOIN US IN THE FEMINIST PODCASTERS COLLECTIVE: http://feministpodcastcollective.com/ (http://feministpodcastcollective.com/)

3. 

   2 Sept 2026

   Believe Women. That's the Whole Policy.

   Sociologist and founder Dr. Moriah Brewer joins Becky to ask a question most of us were taught never to ask out loud: why is something that happens to roughly half the population still treated as shameful, private, and inconvenient? Moriah unpacks why periods get hidden (hint: it's about usefulness, not modesty), shares her own years-long journey through undiagnosed PCOS, fibroids, and infertility, and explains the difference between equity and equality using periods as the clearest possible example. They dig into period leave policy, period poverty, medical racism in healthcare, and why "care" might be the one truly AI-resistant human skill left. Moriah also introduces Like Home, the period care platform and doula network she's building from the ground up. Topics Covered: (01:33) Why periods stay hidden: Moriah's theory that it comes down to usefulness, not modesty (04:27) Why this conversation includes trans men and all menstruating bodies, not just women (05:54) Moriah's own period history — fevers, vomiting, being told she was "dramatic" — and the diagnoses (PCOS, fibroids, a uterine polyp) that came only after a fertility struggle (10:11) The vision behind Like Home: a period care home, app, and in-home doula network built on service, not just products (13:23) "Believe women" — Moriah's own experience with medical racism, including underrating her pain to an EMT at 19 (15:51) Period leave policy today: 2% of US companies now offer it (up from zero seven years ago), plus what Italy and Japan are doing (16:44) Moriah's ideal world: self-determination during your period, free period products, and addressing period poverty (2 in 5 Michigan women affected) (20:26) Equity vs. equality, explained through the lens of periods and privilege (23:12) Why fighting for period leave benefits everyone — disability leave, paternity leave, and mental health leave all ride on the same fight (29:34) Why "care" might be the one thing that's AI-resistant, and the return to community-based care (35:41) The barber story: six weeks of guaranteed vacation in Switzerland vs. one week in the US, and why tiered maternity leave at Moriah's former university never sat right with her LIKE HOME: joinlikehome.com (https://joinlikehome.com/) 🎤 JOIN US IN THE FEMINIST PODCASTERS COLLECTIVE: http://feministpodcastcollective.com/

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

3 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

4 ratings

Contact Analog-ish: Seeking low-tech ideas in a high-tech world

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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