Shiny Epi People

Yanica Faustin, PhD on choosing a teaching job and soap opera Sims

January 02, 2021 Lisa Bodnar Season 1 Episode 23
Shiny Epi People
Yanica Faustin, PhD on choosing a teaching job and soap opera Sims
Show Notes Transcript

Yanica Faustin, PhD, moved from an R1 institution to a mid-sized private university where her job is mostly teaching and mentoring undergraduates in epidemiology and public health. She tells me about that choice and why she feels supported and happy there. Yanica also shares stories of her unique birthing experience, her obsession with Sims (the video game), barely tolerating her wife's love of skiing, and more!

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Lisa Bodnar:

Welcome to Shiny Epi People. I'm Lisa Bodnar. And happy new year. I'm sure you are as happy as I am to get rid of 2020. This podcast, though, was by far the best thing to come out of 2020 for me. Most of us are pretty quantitative. And so I wanted to share some stats about the show. So, in the 23 episodes I put out in the last five months of 2020, the show has been downloaded 22,000 times. 79% of those come from North America. 72% come from the U.S. 14% from Europe, 3% from Oceana, and less than 1%, but there are still downloads from Asia, Africa and South America. If you don't know, the show is on Twitter and Instagram at Shiny Epi People. I post other content there.

Lisa Bodnar:

I also have a Patreon. If you want to financially support the show, even with a dollar or two a month, it would be helpful for this me, myself and I production. You can find us at patreon.com/shinyepipeople. Thank you so much to the 27 of you generous folks who have become patrons. I hopefully will get around to thanking you individually. Things are busy. Hope you understand.

Lisa Bodnar:

Lastly, some of you have asked, and so I want to share a bit about the process of choosing topics for the show. Most people I reach out to, first of all, they feel like they're not well known enough to be on the show. And I convince them that they are important. And I remind them that I'm really trying to highlight voices and stories from a wide range of public health folks, particularly voices that don't get a lot of attention. So then, after someone agrees to be on the show, I ask them to tell me what topics they would like to discuss. What parts of their personal or professional story they want to share. I'm always in awe of the willingness of guests to be vulnerable.

Lisa Bodnar:

Recently, I've been asking guests offline what motivated them to share these parts of themselves. And they say things like, "I want others to know that they're not alone”, “I want to build compassion,” “I want to normalize these experiences and feelings," or, "I want to share things that I've learned along the way that may help someone listening." All of these are so awesome. I edit the episode down and send them the draft, as I like to call it, and ask for their feedback to ensure a couple of things. One, is that through the editing process, I've maintained the integrity of our conversation. I have to cut these down sometimes from two hours to 25 minutes. And two, is that they're comfortable with my edits, and I ask whatever changes they would like, I will make them. I make these changes and then the show is published. So, that's how the sausage is made.

Lisa Bodnar:

Today, I'm speaking with Yanica Faustin. Yanica graduated with her PhD from UNC Chapel Hill just seven months ago. She earned her degree while raising two small kids, which is incredible. Yanica is now assistant professor of public health studies at Elon University. We discuss her choice of a position at a teaching university over the many wonderful research postdoc positions that were available to her. Yanica also wanted to share her unique birth experience she had with her son. And then we end up laughing a lot about Yanica's stress management interest, which is playing the video game Sims.

Lisa Bodnar:

While most of my past guests have been solidly extroverted, a handful, including Yanica, are introverts. I tell you this so that you know that not every epidemiologist is ready to grab the microphone and do a standup routine, or that talking about personal things comes easy to them. Almost everyone worries they won't be interesting, and almost everyone is nervous. I have a special appreciation for the introverts who often feel out of their comfort zone and choose to challenge themselves to open up to the public. Okay. Enough of my babbling. I hope you enjoy this chat with Yanica.

Lisa Bodnar:

I'm so excited that you're here with me.

Yanica Faustin:

Me too. This is crazy. You're not in your closet. Are you in your living room?

Lisa Bodnar:

There's like enough carpeting and furniture that it absorbs the sound. And then I listened to the audio back and I was like, "Wow, I can literally tell the difference."

Yanica Faustin:

Oh, right.

Lisa Bodnar:

And it's way more fun to be out in my family room than it is to be in my closet. When my kids are here, I definitely record in the closet.

Yanica Faustin:

I couldn't imagine having to do this with kids in the house.

Lisa Bodnar:

How old are your kids? They're little, right?

Yanica Faustin:

They're four and two. Do you miss that age?

Lisa Bodnar:

Well, if I'm going to be honest, no.

Yanica Faustin:

That's the right answer.

Lisa Bodnar:

Yeah. How have you been handling parenting and COVID?

Yanica Faustin:

So, we're fortunate in that my wife works at Duke. Duke's daycare is pretty much never closed because they need their providers to come in. There was one point where they were offering your tuition back if you take them out for some months. And I was like, "Yeah, I want that money back." So, we took them out for two months, but those were the hardest two months ever.

Lisa Bodnar:

Yes.

Yanica Faustin:

I mean, towards the end I was near tears on a daily basis. These kids are killing me. They watched so much TV. I mean, I tried. But, in the beginning I was like Mary Poppins. I had crafts, homemade muffin, then I was trying to teach them French. I was doing the most.

Lisa Bodnar:

What?

Yanica Faustin:

Yes. And after this two weeks, I was like, "I'm exhausted. I don't know how you teachers do this every day. And you need to go back to school." When that school opened up, we were the first people there. I was knocking on the door like, "Hello? Hello? Is anybody here?"

Lisa Bodnar:

It's 6:59.

Yanica Faustin:

I know, exactly. You open at 7! We’ve been waiting here.

Lisa Bodnar:

Come on.

Lisa Bodnar:

So I guess like the academic thing that I wanted to talk about was being trained at UNC Chapel Hill in a very research, heavy training program and department. And then, moving to Elon, to a department that's really different. Can you first tell me how you made that decision, and if you grappled with it?

Yanica Faustin:

Oh man. Boy, did I grapple. I spoke to so many people before making this decision. Something to preface it with is I was at Elon for a year in their pre-doctoral fellow program, while I was finishing my PhD.

Lisa Bodnar:

Okay.

Yanica Faustin:

So I was teaching one course in the fall, one course in their winter term, they have like an in-between session. And then, of course, in the spring, while I was in the last year of analyzing and writing my dissertation.

Lisa Bodnar:

Wow.

Yanica Faustin:

Very stressful.

Lisa Bodnar:

You had nothing to do.

Yanica Faustin:

Yeah.

Lisa Bodnar:

You decided to add more to your plate.

Yanica Faustin:

Exactly, yeah. I was breastfeeding, had two kids, you know, no biggie. So I think being able to do that while finishing my dissertation really showed me how much I do love teaching, but also showed me how much I really love research, because both were fun for me and both were enjoyable. And it wasn't as if one was a break clip of the other. I really do love both. And I don't think making that switch would have worked if I didn't, clearly, because Elon is a very teaching heavy university.

Yanica Faustin:

I spoke to a lot of people. I spoke to people who were biased towards teaching and people who were biased towards research, and pooled all of what they were telling me to make my decision. And I was really fortunate that everybody I spoke to was supportive. I did have potential postdoc opportunities at a research university. And so that made it more difficult for me, right down to the wire of like, "Okay, I have this research university post-doc opportunity. And I also have this tenure track assistant professor, which do I go with?" And I was really lucky to have a lot of wonderful mentors who helped me make that decision.

Lisa Bodnar:

So what tipped you over to going to Elon instead of this other academic post-doc?

Yanica Faustin:

So I think there was also the situation of, I graduated in May 2020. So, we're in lockdown.

Lisa Bodnar:

Oh, you just graduated?

Yanica Faustin:

Yes, I just graduated in May.

Lisa Bodnar:

Okay.

Yanica Faustin:

There was that, too, where it was like, this is very real, "We're in a pandemic, I don't know what the market's going to look like." And then the real life of, to be honest, finances, as well. I have two kids.

Lisa Bodnar:

Sure.

Yanica Faustin:

And then, also I really, everyone at Elon was really nice. It was a very supportive environment. And that mattered to me a lot. I know that I can do research while at Elon. And I know that I can teach while at a research university. So it wasn't necessarily like I was afraid of, "Will I be able to do enough research? Will I be able to do enough teaching?" But it was like, "Will I be an environment that's supportive?"

Yanica Faustin:

You know, you hear all of these stories, there's the Black and the ivory hashtag. And you know, you hear all these stories of people being in toxic environments in academia. Not that I think that's completely avoidable, but for me it really matters that I'm happy. And I think I can be happy doing research and teaching at either university, as long as I'm in a supportive place where the people believe in my ideas. They support what I want to do my research on, which is Black women and our outcomes when it comes to maternal child health, and the effects of racial stress. That can be hard to find in some places. So I felt like I had that support. Yeah. Everybody at Elon is super kind. It's like kinda creepy-kind sometimes. I'm from Brooklyn, originally, so I suppose I'm like, "Why are these people so nice? What is going on? What do they want?" So far, they're just genuinely nice and kind and willing to talk to you and mentor you.

Yanica Faustin:

Because I literally find people at Elon that are doing really well. And I email them and I'm like, "Hey, I just started, and I'd like to talk to you. Cause you look like you're doing really well." And then, they're like, "Yeah, I'd love to. Let's meet, let's chat." And they talk to me for hours sometimes. It's so nice.

Lisa Bodnar:

What's it like teaching undergrads?

Yanica Faustin:

What I like about the undergrads is they know so little, but they get so excited about things when they learn them. And they think of all the things that they think are possible.

Lisa Bodnar:

Cool.

Yanica Faustin:

You get to see them learning something for the first time, their reactions to it and how outraged they might be and how solutions that they're thinking of. And you're like, "Oh, this is so nice." It gives you hope. And when they go out and do amazing things, you'll know that they've sat in this launch pad in your classroom.

Lisa Bodnar:

Did you have family that was supporting you?

Yanica Faustin:

Yeah. You know how when you're filling out things, it's like, "What's your greatest fear?" Mine was always not living up to my potential, because people were like, "snakes, the dark." And I was thinking "Not living up to my potential." Because my parents always, I mean, they made me feel like I was a genius, which I totally was not. I was not, but they made me feel like I could do anything and be anything. So, extremely supportive parents, definitely. School was my thing. My brother played soccer. My sister got in trouble a lot. And I was really good at school. My sister is also great at soccer and she now goes to NYU. So I don't want her to listen to this and be like, "Really? Really? That's what you said about me?

Lisa Bodnar:

"Is that what you've limited me to?"

Yanica Faustin:

Right. "I get in trouble?"

Lisa Bodnar:

"I get in trouble and I kick a ball."

Yanica Faustin:

Yeah. So, yeah, always just extremely supportive. I mean, my mom is one of my best friends.

Yanica Faustin:

I couldn't finish my dissertation. She came here. She came to North Carolina from Brooklyn for six weeks total.

Lisa Bodnar:

Wow.

Yanica Faustin:

To take care of my kids, to feed us. And that was when I analyzed my qualitative data. She would just watch them, and tell me to get out of the house and go get work done. And I mean, it couldn't have gotten done without her. So, I was really .... I'm, again, really lucky, just fortunate.

Yanica Faustin:

I think it's important to find those people. It takes a village to raise a dissertation, you really can't get it done if you don't have that support and those people. And I think finding those people is so important. So, reaching out, even when you feel like you don't want to talk to anybody, you don't want to do anything. Because, I mean, I felt that way plenty of times. And I didn't feel confident. There are plenty of times where I wasn't even sure if it was going to get done, and that's when the reaching out happened. And that's how I got the help I got, when I needed it the most,

Lisa Bodnar:

You had a really interesting birth experience. I guess, you and your wife both gave birth to either of your kids.

Yanica Faustin:

So our kids, they had the same donor. We did IUI for both of us. And so, my wife birthed our son and I birthed our daughter.

Lisa Bodnar:

How cool.

Yanica Faustin:

And we're really happy that they share a donor. So one day, if they decide to go down that route of meeting that person, they can do that together.

Lisa Bodnar:

Cool.

Yanica Faustin:

A lot of thought went into that, as well, because my wife is white and I'm Black. And so, we thought a lot about what our kids are going to look like and what their experience in the world will be. So we did choose a donor who was Black.

Yanica Faustin:

My birthing experience was that I chose to not have a hospital birth, and that really was because of my research, honestly. My research was on preterm birth outcomes for Black mothers, but while I was a Black, pregnant woman, I was reading all of these articles on Black women's outcomes. And it was just so depressing.

Yanica Faustin:

A lot of fear came up for me, as I started just doing a lot of reading and looking into things, and I was like, "I'm not giving birth in a hospital. I'm just not doing that." And so, I found a birthing center that I really liked.

Yanica Faustin:

And so, we had a midwife at Baby and Co in Cary, and it was the most magical experience. And so, I also wanted a Black midwife, which was surprisingly ... I mean, I guess I shouldn't say surprisingly, now that I know this, but it was really hard to find. There are some birthing centers that were closer to me, but they did not have Black midwives. And so, Baby and Co had two Black midwives, and I didn't have an appointment with any of them until I was five centimeters dilated.

Yanica Faustin:

Just the way it worked out, I could never get them. And so I was like, "Oh no, it's not working out." But I was happy because I liked the place, you know? And I was like, "It's so gorgeous. This is going to be wonderful." My first appointment was an hour, and every appointment after that was 45 minutes, where we just talk, they'd ask me all these questions, talk about my lifestyle, my stress levels. Every single concern I had, they took it so serious, so seriously.

Lisa Bodnar:

They listened to you.

Yanica Faustin:

They listened a lot. But, right before, like two days before I ended up giving birth to Uri, the Black midwife that I wanted came up to me and she was like, "You are ready to go pretty soon here. And I was hoping you would do me the honor of letting me deliver your baby." And I was like, "What?" And she was like, "I really want to deliver your baby." And in that moment I realized that for me, I'm seeking a Black midwife as a Black client, but she is like, "Mostly the women who come here are white women. And I would love to be able to deliver your child." And she's looking for a Black client. And so I was like, "Oh my gosh, this is beautiful." And so we hugged and she was like, "So you definitely should call the on-call nurse, but then text me right after."

Lisa Bodnar:

Oh, amazing.

Yanica Faustin:

And so, she wasn't even on call.

Lisa Bodnar:

Did she come in just to deliver you?

Yanica Faustin:

Yeah. She wasn't even on call. But, yeah, and I was fortunate to have her as my main midwife, and actually had three other midwives. So I had four midwives there in the room. You know when you're giving birth, you're in and out? At one point she was there. I opened up my eyes, there were three other midwives there, and I was like, "What's this? Where'd you guys come from?"

Lisa Bodnar:

"Am I seeing things?"

Yanica Faustin:

Yes. "Why are there so many?" But they were just all super helpful, like fanning me, supporting me. Yeah. My wife was like, "I feel like there's nothing for me to do."

Lisa Bodnar:

Totally. You're like, "Exactly, stand over there."

Yanica Faustin:

"There are four midwives."

Lisa Bodnar:

So, this is now becoming my favorite question to ask people. What's something you're embarrassed to admit that you like?

Yanica Faustin:

It's going to be Sims.

Lisa Bodnar:

Sims?

Yanica Faustin:

So, Sims is, you know, this simulation game where you make people and they have lives. So I've been playing Sims forever, since high school. Whenever I'm really stressed, I just play some Sims.

Lisa Bodnar:

And when you say play it, what does that mean?

Yanica Faustin:

This is so nerdy.

Lisa Bodnar:

I don't think you're playing it, right? You're making people go to their jobs. Is that what it is?

Yanica Faustin:

Yes, but it's more than that, You know, you can create a whole backstory about their lives.

Lisa Bodnar:

Oh really?

Yanica Faustin:

I don't know how much would get into it, is because I could talk about this for a long time. But, in Sims 4 you make personalities, so you can choose personality traits for them. I mean, I highly recommend it. I mean, they have really improved the different shades. It's very diverse now. So you can have all sorts of people. And then, you can make families. So, grandfather, mother, you can play with their genetics, make them have twins and ...

Lisa Bodnar:

Play with their genetics.

Yanica Faustin:

There's a little button that, it's shaped like DNA, you know?

Lisa Bodnar:

They have fake DNA.

Yanica Faustin:

Yeah.

Lisa Bodnar:

But, it sounds like a lovely escape.

Yanica Faustin:

Oh yeah. Oh my gosh. I could, I can actually play it for longer than I like to admit. It's definitely an escape. And it's one, that's why I play it when I'm stressed because I'm just like, "I'm going to go to this world. And now everything makes sense. And I'm in charge all the time."

Lisa Bodnar:

Does life go on in this world without your being on the program

Yanica Faustin:

Now, in Sims 4, it does. They can now do their own thing, and you'll come back and people are dead.

Lisa Bodnar:

What?

Yanica Faustin:

If you left too long, yeah. Yeah. I have lost people like that, where I'm like, "Whoa, where's Andrew? What? What happened?" And there's like a tombstone in the yard and they're all crying. And I'm like, "Oh crap. We lost Andrew." And there's no way you can bring them back. But, usually I just make one that looked just like him and call him Andrew.

Lisa Bodnar:

It sounds like now you're cloning.

Yanica Faustin:

Exactly.

Lisa Bodnar:

So you're doing stuff with DNA. You're cloning.

Yanica Faustin:

This is why I say it's really nerdy because you could play this game, and just be normal. You could just not kill people and let them eat their breakfast and go to work, and talk to somebody. But, I'm not, I don't play it that way. I want them to experience trauma, and then survive it, you know? So, if you have someone die, then they're really sad. Everybody in the family is really sad for a while, and then you have to have them get over that. But, if you have a Sim that has a musical career track, and you know that their personality trait is a musical genius, they can play some really cool songs and they'll boost their skill level at a faster rate, if they're playing with emotion. And I'm like, "Oh, this will help them get higher and their music career track. And then, they'll be able to license songs and make more money."

Lisa Bodnar:

Gosh, I have 1000 questions now. But, what if people have bad coping mechanisms?

Yanica Faustin:

Oh, okay. I do have a Sim who's gluttonous. And so, when he's sad, he will go to the fridge and I cannot stop him. I would tell him to do other things and he'll stop what I told him to do. If he's in a certain mood, he'll go back to the fridge or make a whole cake and eat the cake and stuff like that. Yeah.

Lisa Bodnar:

Does then he die of heart disease?

Yanica Faustin:

No, they don't get heart disease. No. He'd probably die of like old age or drowning, or in a fire, which I have not done that one in a while. I used to do that more in high school.

Lisa Bodnar:

Arson is part of Sims.

Yanica Faustin:

Yeah, that's pretty. So I play like I'm making a soap opera. I used to have a friend who played in college and sometimes we'd play next to each other, and then switch laptops. She'd come over to me and be like, "Whoa, this is not the family." I'm like, "Oh yeah, no, he has a new dad now, because the mom decided she didn't want to be with him anymore. So she got with this other person. And they has three other kids." And she was like, "Who? Wait, who are these two?" I'm like, "Oh yeah, they had a toddler. Oh yeah. He has two mistresses now."

Lisa Bodnar:

Yeah. I need to ask you an inappropriate question. Can you make them have sex?

Yanica Faustin:

Oh yeah. They woo-hoo. It's called woo-hoo. They woo-hoo all the time. Yeah.

Lisa Bodnar:

So you just say like, "I want that lady and that lady to woo-hoo."

Yanica Faustin:

Yeah.

Lisa Bodnar:

And then, "I want that lady to woo-hoo with another guy, right after." Can you do that?

Yanica Faustin:

Yes, you can. You have to have a high enough relationship meter. You can't just woo-hoo with anybody.

Lisa Bodnar:

Excuse me.

Yanica Faustin:

You have to be attracted to them.

Lisa Bodnar:

Why can't there just be casual woo-hooing?

Yanica Faustin:

You cannot just walk up to somebody and woo-hoo.

Lisa Bodnar:

That seems really judgmental, Sims creators.

Yanica Faustin:

So, if you were woo-hooing, you made 2 Sims woo-hoo, and then some Sim comes in, Ashley comes in, and it's like, "Whoa, What? I just woo-hoo'd with you." Then, she gets mad at the person and they have a fight, and you're like, "Awe, man."

Lisa Bodnar:

You're like, "You know what? Sometimes people are okay with that."

Yanica Faustin:

Right.

Lisa Bodnar:

Right?

Yanica Faustin:

And, again, the Sims caters.

Lisa Bodnar:

Yeah.

Yanica Faustin:

Totally.

Lisa Bodnar:

I'm sorry. Sometimes it's like, "Well, let's just have a conversation about what happened, and what you want. And maybe we can accommodate some things." Right? Do they get STI's?

Yanica Faustin:

No. Oh my goodness. No, they don't go to any medical providers. They can go to the park and they go to dinner. Everything else in life they do.

Lisa Bodnar:

So no wonder you needed to like jazz things up. And people are just going to work and the park?

Yanica Faustin:

I know, that's the thing.

Lisa Bodnar:

Come on.

Yanica Faustin:

I'm like, "Who's playing this game the normal way?" Otherwise, they're just living life. Like, no.

Lisa Bodnar:

Do they have a pandemic going on?

Yanica Faustin:

No, they don't.

Lisa Bodnar:

You could have people going against the quarantine, and not wearing masks.

Yanica Faustin:

Oh my Gosh. Imagine if they come up with a pandemic expansion pack. They could totally do that, and make people make choices about what they're going to do, if they're going to dine out with a mask or without,

Lisa Bodnar:

You know, these houses are in a pod. They could do it all.

Yanica Faustin:

Oh my gosh. And then, people get insulted because you didn't invite them to the pod. Yeah.

Lisa Bodnar:

Yeah. Virtual school, the parents get all frazzled and they're like, "I can't work from home."

Yanica Faustin:

Oh my gosh. I think I've just now come to the realization that [inaudible 00:21:27] dream job

Lisa Bodnar:

Plan B: Sims content creator.

Yanica Faustin:

Ooh, that sounds nice. I could definitely do that.

Lisa Bodnar:

You're like, "I'm a super experienced user and I have expertise in public health."

Yanica Faustin:

Yeah. That could be helpful for the pandemic expansion pack.

Lisa Bodnar:

Right?

Yanica Faustin:

Yeah.

Lisa Bodnar:

And you're like, "If I want to be sex positive. Get with it!"

Yanica Faustin:

Let's talk about the woo-hooing. Oh my gosh.

Lisa Bodnar:

Well, I'm glad that they allow same sex relationships.

Yanica Faustin:

They do. They do, yeah.

Lisa Bodnar:

Do they have anyone who's trans or non-binary?

Yanica Faustin:

You actually can.

Lisa Bodnar:

Oh, good.

Yanica Faustin:

Yeah. It came out with Sims 4. I was like, "Whoa, this is revolutionary." I mean, they don't call it that, but that's what it is.

Lisa Bodnar:

Okay.

Yanica Faustin:

I can make someone present masculine, but be able to have a baby.

Lisa Bodnar:

Nice.

Yanica Faustin:

Yeah. They can be a birthing person, but they present more masculine. And you can choose whether they like masculine clothes or more feminine clothes. And then, you choose what their gender identity is. No matter how you choose for them to present.

Lisa Bodnar:

Oh, nice.

Yanica Faustin:

Yeah. It's pretty ... That's really cool.

Lisa Bodnar:

Okay. Okay, Sims.

Yanica Faustin:

Yeah.

Lisa Bodnar:

You're getting on it. I didn't mean to rag you that badly. Okay. I love that.

Yanica Faustin:

Yeah.

Lisa Bodnar:

That's great to hear. That's really good news.

Lisa Bodnar:

Okay. Yanica what's your COVID comfort food?

Yanica Faustin:

Okay. So you know those Trader Joe's, they're called sublime?

Lisa Bodnar:

I just need to say that on every one of these episodes, someone talks about Trader Joe's food.

Yanica Faustin:

Because Trader Joe's food is bomb.

Lisa Bodnar:

I know it is. Go on.

Yanica Faustin:

I think they're called Sublime Chocolate Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches or something like that. They're chocolate cookie ice cream sandwiches. So, they're two chocolate cookies, and then I then vanilla ice cream, and then little tiny, mini chocolate chips all the way around.

Lisa Bodnar:

Chocolate chips on the outside.

Yanica Faustin:

Yes. Man, I can eat like two of those in one night, easy. Yeah, no, they're delicious.

Lisa Bodnar:

If animals could talk, which would be the rudest?

Yanica Faustin:

My cats, My cats are so rude. Man, they'd probably be cursing all the time. I can't even say it because they would just be, I feel like they curse. Maya is so talkative, and she'll just be like, "Meow, meow, meow, meow." They always want to be taken care of.

Lisa Bodnar:

Just like the kids.

Yanica Faustin:

Yeah. And, I'm like, "I have two kids. I can't. Go get your own food, cat." We always forget to feed them because we have the two kids.

Lisa Bodnar:

Of course.

Yanica Faustin:

These poor cats. We've had them for like 11 years now. So, obviously, way before the kids. We got them when they were babies, and they used to be our babies. It's embarrassing, but we had them leash trained, so they could take these cats out.

Lisa Bodnar:

Okay. Why didn't you mention that? When I said, “What’s something embarrassing to admit?"

Yanica Faustin:

Hey, that took a lot of work. I'm not embarrassed by that, we had to train them. They can sit, if you say sit.

Lisa Bodnar:

No, you are kidding me.

Yanica Faustin:

Yes, I'm not.

Lisa Bodnar:

Why didn't you just get a dog?

Yanica Faustin:

Because we're not dog people, we're cat people.

Lisa Bodnar:

We just treat our cats like a dog. Okay.

Yanica Faustin:

They can sit and come up and give you paw. They'll do it for, it's only for a treat.

Lisa Bodnar:

Okay. Well, that seems very cat-ish.

Yanica Faustin:

Yes. But, Maya will have an attitude about it the whole time. She knows what you want, but she's like, "Oh, meow." But she's like, "I'll play a little game."

Lisa Bodnar:

Would you rather get stuck in an elevator or get stuck on a broken ski lift?

Yanica Faustin:

An elevator. Getting stuck on a broken ski lift would be so scary.

Lisa Bodnar:

So scary.

Yanica Faustin:

Oh my gosh, no. I don't even go on those things. My wife, she grew up skiing and stuff. And the first time, I don't remember how long have you been dating, but she had planned a surprise trip, right? Yeah. I'm thinking we're going to Cabo or. We went to, was it Utah? One of those States where there's lots of snow and no mountains and stuff. And so, we went to those places and she was like, "We're going skiing." And she said it in a really excited voice. And I was like, "What?" And, we got all the gear and all this stuff. And she wanted me to go on the ski lift. And I was like, "Now, I'm going to stay on this bunny hill the whole time."

Lisa Bodnar:

And she just like went and swooshed?

Yanica Faustin:

No, she actually stayed with me the whole time.

Lisa Bodnar:

Awe, that's cute.

Yanica Faustin:

She just stared, longingly, at the ski lift a couple of times. It's like, "You can go." She's like, "No, no, this is fun. We'll stay together."

Lisa Bodnar:

"This is fun. I went to these giant mountains with someone I love, so that I could stay on the bunny slope, which we could do in the mountains of North Carolina."

Yanica Faustin:

Yes. Yes, it was crazy because it really was a really nice ... They had a really complex, and apparently she had done these before, taking these vacations with her family, going to all these super complicated ones. I was like, "You can go, just go. I can see that you want to." She's like, "No, I'll stay with you."

Lisa Bodnar:

Awe.

Yanica Faustin:

Yeah, it was really sweet. It was really sweet.

Lisa Bodnar:

That's very sweet. That was before you had kids.

Yanica Faustin:

Yes. Way, way before the kids.

Lisa Bodnar:

And it was early in your marriage where she was like, "No, honey."

Yanica Faustin:

I don't even think you're married yet, actually.

Lisa Bodnar:

Oh, okay. Well, then that's why, right?

Yanica Faustin:

Yeah.

Lisa Bodnar:

If you went now, she'd be like, "Yeah, got to go."

Yanica Faustin:

Yes, she did. She did do that, last Christmas. We went with her family on one of these ski things, which was just like, "Oh my God." And she got our son on there, and I was kind of, it was really cute, but I was also super proud because he was totally not into it, but he was like, "It's cold."

Lisa Bodnar:

What's your second favorite podcast?

Yanica Faustin:

I love the way you asked that question. Okay. So, my second favorite podcasts, I really like, oh, The Read.

Lisa Bodnar:

The Read, R-E-A-D?

Yanica Faustin:

Yeah. The Read, Kid Fury and Crissle. I think that's how you see their name. Crissle West. It's like a pop culture podcast.

Lisa Bodnar:

Okay.

Yanica Faustin:

Yeah. And so it kind of goes through things that have happened, but they cover the news, too, sometimes. That's my second favorite.

Lisa Bodnar:

Yeah. Obviously.

Yanica Faustin:

Yeah, clearly.

Lisa Bodnar:

Obviously. It was just an assumption I was making. Do you have a great childhood memory that you want to share?

Yanica Faustin:

My sister and I are really close. She's six years younger than me. So, in a lot of ways, sometimes I was like a mom, but also we have all these, I have a ton of, most of my great memories are with her. And so we used to, every time it would rain, we would go out in the rain and get ice cream, and then eat it by the window and watch the rain while we eat our ice cream, and we'd talk.

Lisa Bodnar:

Oh my gosh, that's so lovely.

Yanica Faustin:

Yeah. And we were like 12 and six, chatting about life. That's some of my favorite memories. And my parents would let us do that, too, so it was really sweet.

Lisa Bodnar:

This was really fun. I'm really glad to get to know you.

Yanica Faustin:

Thank you for doing this, and thank you for inviting me. I feel so honored, honestly. And I think this podcast is so beautiful.

Lisa Bodnar:

Oh, this is my pleasure. It's absolutely my pleasure.

Yanica Faustin:

Oh my gosh. I cannot believe I talked, but oh my gosh. You're going to have to cut back the Sims parts. We talked about it for way longer, 20 minutes.

Lisa Bodnar:

It was, and that was the best part.

Yanica Faustin:

I was like, "Yanica, shut up. Stop talking about Sims."

Lisa Bodnar:

No, no, no. Well then, I was egging you on with all that woo-woo stuff.

Yanica Faustin:

Then you asking me questions.

Lisa Bodnar:

And then, I was like, "I can't stop. Now, I've got so many questions to ask."