Weirdly Helpful (formerly The Best Advice Show)

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Small rituals, strange advice, real relief.

The gist

Weirdly Helpful is a short advice-and-interview show built around odd little practices that people swear by. A hotline call, a personal habit, or a guest’s life lesson becomes a practical experiment: wiggle through stress, rethink a word, play the tape forward, or hug longer than usual.

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About Weirdly Helpful (formerly The Best Advice Show)

Weirdly Helpful is a compact, interview-driven advice show about the peculiar things people do to feel better, think clearer, and live with a little more ease. It does not treat usefulness as something that has to look polished. A bouncy ball, a howl, a wiggle, a drive-by hug, or a carefully chosen replacement word can all become serious material. The show often starts with a concrete habit and lets the conversation widen from there. That shape gives it a warm, collage-like feel: part hotline, part mini-lesson, part intimate interview. Zach is usually the recurring voice guiding those exchanges, asking gentle follow-ups and leaving space for the oddness to explain itself. The guests bring very different kinds of knowledge. Eric Zimmer talks about autopilot, prompts, and the gap between what night-guy wants and what morning-guy has to live with. Toogie Barcelo frames wiggling as a bodily way to move stress through the nervous system. Dessa Cosma turns a common word into a practical lesson in clearer, more inclusive speech. Ashley Alker brings emergency-room directness to everyday danger, including the kind of preventable injury people may be embarrassed to discuss. Other episodes stay closer to family, friendship, midlife, crying, sleep, and teen slang. The range is broad, but the method is steady. The show asks what a person can actually do next, especially when the answer is small, funny, physical, or a little awkward. Its best moments are not grand revelations. They are repeatable gestures. It suits listeners who like advice that comes through stories, voices, and experiments rather than polished certainty.

Made for: For listeners who like gentle self-improvement, intimate interviews, and practical ideas that begin in ordinary bodies and messy feelings. It especially suits people who want advice that feels human, funny, and usable without becoming glossy or preachy.

What sets it apart: The show makes odd practices feel testable instead of gimmicky. Its strength is turning tiny lived behaviors into usable experiments while keeping the conversation warm, curious, and grounded.

In their own words

Weirdly Helpful (formerly The Best Advice Show) is a short, weekly infusion of delightful, unexpected and strange ways to make life slightly and sometimes profoundly better. In each episode a different contributor offers an odd experiment, a silly ritual, a curious practice that you’ll find weirdly helpful. Stuff like howling when you're despondent, eating oranges in the shower and metaphorically flushing your adversary down the toilet!

As heard by us

Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026

Zach turns behavior change, emotional regulation and body-based practices into memorable experiments that listeners can understand and try.

Weirdly Helpful turns everyday self-management into a series of small, testable practices. Zach moves between conversations about habit change, emotional regulation and considerate language, usually asking guests to make an idea concrete enough to try.

Read our full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Wiggling gets a serious audition here, and your coping toolbox emerges less respectable but more useful.

Press play if you want

a reset you can test immediately, from 20-second hugs to interrupting an infinite-scroll fugue
language habits you can replace, not just regret after the wrong word escapes

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

small habit experimentsbody-based stress reliefinclusive languagemidlife and ambitionsleep and routinesteen slang and family lifehotline advicepreventable everyday dangers

Talks about

Health & Fitness Workplace Culture

Best episodes of Weirdly Helpful (formerly The Best Advice Show)

Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.

Play the Tape All the Way Through with Eric Zimmer + The Battle of Night Guy Vs Morning Guy with Jerry SeinfeldApr 1, 2026

A Seinfeld sleep joke opens into practical thinking about the choices that shape the next morning.

The episode uses the familiar night-self versus morning-self joke to open up a sharper point about how short-term wants pass their costs forward.

The Transcendental Power of Wiggling with Toogie BarceloMar 25, 2026

A hotline habit opens into a grounded look at shaking, stress, and the body's instinct to move.

A hotline call turns an urge to wiggle into a Health & Fitness conversation about stress, shaking, and the body's impulse to move. The host's curiosity gives Teresa Tugi Barcelo space to introduce her work as a choreographer, somatic coach, breathwork coach, and expert wiggler,…

Resolutions Smesolutions! Ta Ta 2025.Dec 31, 2025

A calm year-end reset that measures change against yesterday, then turns to a 20-second hug.

Weirdly Helpful closes the year by making a plain argument: stop sizing yourself up against other people and instead measure the gap between who you were yesterday and who you want to be tomorrow.

Inventing Play & Three Ideas to Curb Self-Mutilation with Laura Hawley

A candid, offbeat conversation that moves from howling and bouncy balls to a very specific foot habit.

Laura Hawley returns to Weirdly Helpful with the kind of easy back-and-forth that comes from regular check-ins, and the conversation makes good use of that comfort.

Why I'm Not Using the Word "Crazy" Anymore (and Why You Should Just Say What You Actually Mean) with Dessa Cosma

A practical word-swap exercise makes everyday speech feel more precise and considerate.

Weirdly Helpful takes a common verbal habit and turns it into a sharp, approachable discussion of disability, mental health, and the words people reach for without thinking.

Zak interviews his hero Jonathan Goldstein

Jonathan Goldstein explains how a painful old story may need uncertainty before it can become honest.

Jonathan Goldstein's account of making a story about Galit, his first girlfriend, turns a craft question into something more guarded and human.

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Political dread, processed sideways.
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Fast talk, hip-hop nerve, no polish.
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Seasonal anime takes, served hot and messy.
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Practical podcasting without gear worship.
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Manga readalong, detours fully preserved.

Find your next episode

About Weirdly Helpful (formerly The Best Advice Show)

In their own words

As heard by us

Why you'd press play

Talks about

Best episodes of Weirdly Helpful (formerly The Best Advice Show)

Podcasts like Weirdly Helpful (formerly The Best Advice Show)

Episodes

How To Question Your Assumptions and Live a Fuller Life with Dr. Susie Wise

99 Ways to Die (and how to avoid them⁠) with Dr. Ashley Alker

This is How to Aura Farm Without Being Overly Cringe

Become a Receiving Station for Overwhelming Transmissions with Dr. Ramzi Fawaz

Stop Feeling Guilty About Your Guilty Pleasures with Fabiola Lara

This Insight WILL CHANGE YOUR RELATIONSHIP FOREVER! (For real for real).

Young Butt Cut Zak Confronts His Childhood Creative Monster with ⁠Lauren LoGrasso

Is Whistling Protected By First Amendment Rights? + An Incantation for Restoring Democracy

How Much Capacity Do You Have Today? with Bridget Thoreson

Step Into the Slipstream of History and Get Jacked with Dr. Conor Heffernan

"Hey Buddy!" Let's Talk About Why You Feel Doomed with Andy J. Pizza

Resolutions Smesolutions! Ta Ta 2025.

How to Take Control of your News Diet with Rekha Murthy (PLUS: How much does Zak earn from Weirdly Helpful?)

Friendship Conflict, Grief Practices, Family Cookbooks, Guilt-Free Gift Giving and more with Zak on Michigan Public!

A Fun Alternative for Surviving Our Disastrous Times with Austin Kleon

Let's Meet at the Corner of Mindfulness and Playfulness

The Weirdly Helpful Gratitude Hour

Make a List of Your Enemies to Articulate Who You're Not! with Emma Martin

What's the Deal with Handshaking in 2025?

A weirdly helpful way to deal with the negative voice in your head with Dr. Ellen Hendriksen

The Best Advice Show is Dead. This is Weirdly Helpful!

This is WEIRDLY HELPFUL!

If Ambition Is Making You Unhappy with Courtney Daniels

The True Meaning of Discipline with John Cage and Mason Currey

Dogs and Berries Are Miracles. Why Not Combine Them?

You Don't Need To Remember Everything with Susannah Goodman

This Experiment Will Help You Move From Procrastinating to Creating with Malaka Gharib

Don't Wish Your Life Away with Lilly Turmelle

Tweenage Advice on Fear, Boredom, Crushes, Stress, Grief and Soup Dumplings

This Maneuver Will Get You To Drink More Water with Karen A. Chase

It's About How You Listen, How You Interpret, How You Care with Jay Allison and Erica Heilman

When There Might Not Be a Solution with Dr. Chioke I'Anson⁠

How To Plant a Garden with Limited Space and Time with Alice Bagley

Begin Your Day with Discomfort

Two Strategies to Look at Your Phone Less and the World Around You More with Daphne Silbiger

Never Change Your Clothes with Anne Kadet

Become the Animal You Are with Morrison Gong

Do the Show YOU Want to Do with Phil Rosenthal

Put Your Energy Into What Makes the Fire, Not What Puts it Out with Malissa O'Donnell

To Respond or React, That is the Question with Peter Putnam

How To Bring the House Down at Karaoke with Zak Rosen

Talking Through Your Grief with Shira Heisler and Sam Woll

God is in the Details or Why Listening to Strangers on the Train is Fantastic Raw Material for your Storytelling with Craig Finn from The Hold Steady

Curb Your Catastrophizing with Dr. Emily Anhalt

A Mind Palace for Your Ideas & The Nine O'Clock Rule with Paulien Cornelisse

Create an Oasis in Your New Home with Erica Reisman

This is How to Hold Two Opposing Views at Once with Vent Diagrams

Deflating Rage, Making Beds and Remembering Your Gifts with Kelly Childers

The Profound Benefits of Solo Travel with Michael Venutolo-Mantovani

Laurie Anderson and Lou Reed's 3 Rules to Live By

Pleasure Should Be Taken Very Seriously with Danielle Bezalel

This Is How To Stop Apologizing So Much with Ilana BZ

Say Kind Things About People Behind Their Backs with Kristen Meinzer

Literally Touch Grass with Adam Milgrom

Host A Friendship Awards Ceremony with Anna Goldfarb

Assume There's Something Interesting to Learn with Ahri Golden

Viscerally Remember Your Past Vacations with Tad Davis

Try These Witchy, Water-based Maneuvers to Improve Your Life with Dr. MLE

Next Time You're Bored Try This with Noa Rosen

Crush Your Ego and Open Your Eyes to the Benefits of Feedback with Jason Silver

Leave a Margin with Mary Austin (or How to Stop Being Late to Everything)

Pack Your Go Bag with adrienne maree brown and Autumn Brown

Compare Yourself to Yourself with Billie Lunt

How To Fall Asleep

You Need to Get Rejected A LOT MORE with Alice Draper

Manifesting Someone To Watch Over You with Cassandra Jenkins

Be More Ridiculous (or Why a Squirrel Census is a Guide for Life) with Rob Walker

Finding Grace Inside Political Chaos with Sarah-Marie Hopf

Turn An Annoying Experience Into One That Can Bring You a Little Bit of Joy with Matteo Treviño

The Vote is Precious with John Lewis, Susan B. Anthony, Barack Obama, Alan Moore and My Daughter

Why Asking For Advice Can Be a Gift To Remember with Shreya Sharma