Apr 28, 2025
Did you know that ancient Roman statues used to smell like roses?
Or that ancient temples and palaces used to be painted with bright colors?
What other things from the deep, dark past are vastly different from how we imagine them today?
We discuss on this fun, eye-opening episode.
***Katy's sister Dana has recently been...
Apr 25, 2025
In this very special episode from our archives, we are joined by the award-winning, best-selling writer, Anthony Doerr, author of All the Light We Cannot See, Cloud Cuckoo Land, and Four Seasons in Rome, among others.
Anthony shares his writing journey with Katy, from his earliest beginnings as an amateur writer to the...
Apr 23, 2025
On this bonus episode, available exclusively to our Patreon supporters, Katy gives an update on her sister Dana's stage 4 agressive brain cancer.
This is just an excerpt, and if you want to hear more, become part of the Bittersweet Life community by supporting just on Patreon! For as little as $5 per month—less than...
Apr 21, 2025
Are romance languages sexist? On this episode, we discuss the puzzling and seemingly discriminatory aspects of languages like Italian and French.
For example:
Why do inanimate objects have a gender?
Why, in Italian, must you refer to a group of people as entirely male even if there is only one man and 99 women?
Why, in...
Apr 18, 2025
When you come back after several years to a city where you used to live, what do you notice? What has change? What has stayed the same? What have you forgotten about in your time away?
In this episode from our archives, Katy arrives in Rome after four years away, and immediately notices something that—once ubiquitous...