Welcome to It’s Bananas

We want to welcome one of our Patreon members—Becky—who has a new podcast…It’s Bananas now out anywhere you listen! It was fun to interview her and get a taste of the fun to come :)

Tell us about the It’s Bananas origin story—and your alter ego The Fruit Maven?

I find it’s easier to be human when I just admit things don’t necessarily make a whole lot of sense. For a long time I believed that happiness would magically appear once life got easier and I hit some of life’s goals. But when that moment arrived, it turned out I didn't really know how to suddenly "be happy". Shouldn’t that just naturally happen? Really enjoying my life turned out to be a set of skills I had to experiment with and learn, and I probably wasted a lot of time where I could have been enjoying my life but was waiting for...something.

I was talking with a friend a few months ago about how happy kdramas and BTS now make me feel, and she mentioned that she wished she could find something that made her that happy. I realized I'd been slowly working on loving what I love and really being able to feel it for about 15 years and it all started in a completely bananas way --> with tasting and reviewing fruit as the Fruit Maven on a fruit review blog I wrote back in 2009. I wondered if fruit opened things up for me…could it help for anyone else? And the idea for the It’s Bananas podcast was born.

What is your podcast promise aka what can listeners expect you to deliver?

I want to tell the truth about how complex and absurd it is to be a human in this world. I give my honest thoughts and tell my kooky stories about all the personal and societal reasons that I think joy and pleasure seems to be so elusive, and how fruit played a key role in my journey. Every episode you’ll hear about a different unique fruit, where it came from, my thoughts on the appearance, aroma, texture, and taste, plus my favorite category: lickability. Does licking fruit make sense? Um..no. Is it extremely fun and prone to go sideways? Yesssss. It's a good time that's easy to consume and hopefully will nourish you at the same time.

(Plus I can’t seem to stop talking about kdramas and BTS, so there’s a bit of that sprinkled in pretty regularly too.)

If a Patreon member wanted to experiment with fruit, what are a few easily accessible but interesting items to try?

It’s stone fruit season here in the US, so I’d keep your eyes peeled for stone fruit hybrids like pluots and cherry plums. There are lots of variations with different flavor profiles aiming to pull the best qualities from the parent fruits. You could consider them the labradoodles of the current fruit world.

Your podcast isn’t K-drama related BUT what is a fun fruit moment you like in a drama?

The word for apple in Korean is the same as the word for apology (사과 ) so you'll regularly see apples offered during apologies as a symbol. One fun example is in Boys Over Flowers when Jan-di wants to apologize to Jun-pyo but she can’t seem to do it sincerely so she says, “I want to give you an apple/apology” and shoves an actual apple at him. He’s amused but sassy so he acts like he’s unimpressed and tosses the apple to his friends. Jan-di and Jun-pyo have a little exchange and he demands a real apology, which she won’t do and she runs away. One of his friends then starts to eat the apple after she’s gone and he freaks out and wants it back because it’s important to him. It’s pretty cute, and I completely missed the play on words the first time I saw it.

Your podcast isn’t K-pop related BUT please assign each BTS member to their representative fruit.

RM / Banana – A versatile fruit with a strong presence and comforting flavor; fun play on words; associated with clumsiness but also with…<wink wink=""></wink>

J-Hope / Grape – A luxurious but humble fruit; happy and sexy with a lot of energy particularly when in a bunch; unexpected complexity.

Jin / Cherry – A cheerful fruit that’s easy to consume; worldwide sex symbol.

V / Star fruit – Eye-catching and unique fruit that is intriguing, but does anyone know what it actually tastes like? Not really.

Jungkook / Blueberry – Adorable shnookums with big eyes and an unexpected muskiness.

Suga / Lemon – Do you at first think it might be too sour to eat? Do you then find you want to have it on absolutely everything? Is it the symbol for turning pain into something lovely? YES.

Jimin / Peach – Come on. Does this one really need an explanation?