004: baby animal comics / 500 days of crying
in this episode, arns ponders the simplicity of life through the lens of artist Anna Laura Sullivan and her watercolor animal comics. nins revisits cult classic romcom (500) Days of Summer and explores how we hurt others through our harmful delusions.
referenced in this episode:
artist Anna Laura's (@annalaura_art) comic about purpose - full Vulture interview
film (500) Days of Summer - Jesse Tribble video essay, Joseph Gordon-Levitt on Larry King Now
0:00 - intro
6:54 - arns: Anna Laura Sullivan
25:56 - nins: (500) Days of Summer
DISCLAIMER: as of this episode air date, (500) Days of Summer is no longer on Hulu :') but can still be purchased and watched via YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, or Apple TV.
episode summary
introduction
Welcome back to brb crying—a podcast where two women discuss what made them cry, which, as they admit, could be "a lot of stuff."
To open, Nins and Arns admit the peculiarity of saying "welcome back" when, at the time of recording, they hadn't actually released any episodes yet. This leads to reminiscing back to two episodes prior where Arns threatened to shut down the podcast if they don't receive any reviews (nevermind the fact that no one has even heard it yet).
They then transition into a discussion about their recent Mother's Day experiences. Arns shares that she went on a girls' trip with Nins and two other friends, which she considers a sort of ~ Mother's Day ~ gift to herself. Nins asks if 1-year-old Sana will be cooking dinner for Arns later in the week, which prompts a completely necessary aside about the show "Top Chef Kids" and how Arns once watched a 9-year-old stress tf out about cooking alligator.
Nins recounts her Mother's Day, which involved spending time with her husband's family and sending her own mother a heartfelt text message with old family photos from the '90s. This gesture brought her mother to tears, which in turn made Nins cry. (hi we are a crying podcast)
This exchange leads to a touching reflection on inherited emotionality. Nins shares a memory of her mother crying while driving to Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On," an incident she and her sister used to mock. Now, Nins finds herself similarly moved by small, touching moments, gaining a newfound appreciation for her mother's emotional sensitivity.
Arns relates to this experience, admitting that she, too, used to make fun of her mother and even her Pisces sister for crying easily. Both hosts now embrace this inherited trait, attributing it mostly to the fact that they are Cancer moons through and through.
Finally, they pose the question of the hour: “Have we bullshitted enough?” The answer is an unfortunate yes, so our dear hosts roll their eyes and huff a bit before getting into it.
Arns’ segment: Anna Laura art (3/10 tears)
Today Arns introduces us to Anna Laura Sullivan, a 26-year-old Brooklyn-based art artist (not musical artist!) who dabbles in heartwarming watercolor comics. With only 600k followers, Sullivan's work is clearly underwhelming, and absolutely no one cries when they encounter her tender art. Arns—who discovered her through one of her sisters (though she can't quite remember which one…….sorry don’t crucify her)—never cries at Anna Laura’s art, which is why we are gathered here today.
arns posing beneath the title, "childlike comics & the purpose of life".
Okay but fr—these aren't just silly little comics. Sullivan's art features animal characters in ordinary situations exchanging simple dialogue, but the emotionally charged undercurrent almost always leaves Arns in shambles. The choice of animals as protagonists is deliberate: they transcend race, age, and gender, allowing viewers to project various relationships onto them, be it friendship, romance, or a parent and child. As the recipient of her message, you get to choose what it means to you.
Sullivan's artistic philosophy is poignantly encapsulated in her quote: "I'm not trying to teach you; I'm just trying to give you a gentle nudge toward what you already know." In her infinite wisdom, Anna Laura offers a soft reminder of that which we already know to be true.
For our dear listeners today, Arns wants to highlight a comic about purpose that left her, to be frank, in pieces. (At this point, she passes Nins a physical copy of the comic that she printed. “In color. You’re worth it.”) It features a squirrel character so fixated on finding his why (“gotta figure out my purpose! what could it be?!”) that he overlooks the beauty of everyday moments, from the help he offers others to celebrating his own birthday. The comic concludes with the squirrel finally pausing to look up and notice: “What a nice day."
It evoked memories of late-night philosophical discussions with her husband, pondering life's big questions over some journals and a burning candle (they’re intellectuals, okay???). During these fireside chats, Arns’ husband often circles back to the most fundamental aspects of existence. Why are we here? What is our calling?
“then there are the people around us who don't need us to be anyone else, don't need us to be anything special, because we have so much worth as we are—we are perfect as we are.”
-arns, brb crying ep 004
So when she saw the comic, Arns immediately thought: “That’s my husband. He’s always so focused on his purpose that he doesn’t see how incredible and meaningful his life is in the moment.” And then she realized…wait—that’s me, too. That’s all of us.
Reflecting on her own journey, Arns recalls the carefree nature of childhood, when simply being was enough. She contrasts this with the pressure that begins in adolescence to define one's purpose and change the world. This shift, she notes, often leads to guilt when we're not actively working towards our perceived purpose.
The comic serves as a gentle reminder that perhaps the point of life is a lot fucking simpler than we make it out to be. Maybe it's just about existing, loving and being loved, and savoring the present moment. While striving for achievement is commendable, Arns muses, it shouldn't come at the cost of missing the beauty in our immediate surroundings.
As Arns’ segment comes to a close, she and Nins appreciate how Sullivan's art style evokes a sense of childhood innocence. It's reminiscent of beloved children's book illustrations, adding a layer of nostalgia and comfort to the already simple yet profound messages. (Do we think Anna Laura realized this when she chose her medium?? Prob not, huh???)
In essence, Sullivan's work prompts us to question our existence—and not in a way that breeds anxiety (hello we have an abundance of that already), but in a manner that encourages us to embrace the simple joys of being alive. It's a poignant reminder to occasionally set aside our lil black screens and delve into our own lives. What joy, what beauty.
Nins’ segment: 500 Days of Summer (2/10 tears)
Nins introduces us to the 2009 film 500 Days of Summer, directed by Mark Webb and starring the ever-quirky, ever-youthful Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. This movie, she explains, was a defining part of her and Arns' teenage years—one of those DVDs worn out from repeated viewings, lines memorized and quoted ad nauseam. (For those of you unfamiliar with DVDs, those were physical discs we had to load into a player in order to watch a movie. Can you believe????)
nins pictured below the title, "harmful delusions in (500) days of summer".
The film follows Tom Hansen (Gordon-Levitt) and Summer Finn (Deschanel) through 500 non-chronological days of their relationship. Tom, our super hawt hopeless romantic, believes in true love and is convinced the striking Summer is "the one." Summer, on the other hand, is a free spirit who doesn't believe in love or commitment (lol what red flags?).
Nins confesses that her perspective on the film has evolved significantly since her teenage viewings. Initially interpreted as a quirky love story, she now recognizes it as a cautionary tale about the dangers of projection and idealization in relationships. The film's opening line—"This is a story about love, but it is not a love story"—especially came through during this rewatch.
She highlights how the movie, told entirely from Tom's perspective, led many viewers to villainize Summer. However, Nins now sees that Summer was actually…..consistently honest about her desires and boundaries. It was Tom who ignored these, choosing instead to project his fantasies onto her.
The scene that particularly struck Nins during her recent rewatch involves Tom's younger sister, Rachel (played by a "baby Chloe Grace Moretz"). Rachel advises Tom to look back on his memories of Summer more critically. This leads to a montage where we see extended versions of earlier scenes, revealing Summer's discomfort and disinterest that Tom (and we, as viewers) had previously overlooked.
DELUSIONAL LOVE: when you “love” someone, you're so blind to something as simple as compatibility. in your mind, you've built up this person that doesn't exist—so of course you're compatible.
-nins, brb crying ep 004
This revelation hit Nins hard. She realized that, like Tom, she too had been blind to the reality of the situation, caught up in wishing for a happy ending that was never meant to be. It dawned on her how often we project our own desires onto others, potentially hurting them and ourselves in the process. (At this point, Nins whips out the iPad and shares the movie clip with Arns. “You thought you were cool because you printed in color? Babe, I brought the whole goddamn movie.”)
Per a video essay that Nins watched while conducting painstaking research for this segment, the film is often interpreted from the lens of either Tom’s harmful projections onto Summer or Summer’s coldheartedness in breaking it off—but it could really just be about compatibility. Maybe less about the shortcomings of these characters, and more so about the problems that they have together.
Nins concludes with a quote from Joseph Gordon-Levitt about the film's message: "You have to listen... when you hear something that doesn't fit into what you wanted to hear, you still have to update your thinking." She reflects on how this film—which once seemed like an impossibly cool, gorgeously shot, indie love story with an instantly classic soundtrack—now serves as a poignant reminder of the importance of truly seeing and hearing others.
In essence, 500 Days of Summer isn't just a movie about love and accepting that sometimes two people just aren’t meant for each other; it's a movie about growing up, about learning to see people as they are rather than as we wish them to be.
Conclusion
Thank god, they’re finally done. As a final note, our hosts remind listeners to follow Anna Laura (“she’s gonna get, like, 20k followers from this podcast episode”), re-watch 500 Days of Summer, and share any sob stories with them at hello@brbcryingpodcast.com or their website. Nins ask readers to send in suggestions for cry material, and Arns misinterprets that as asking readers to let them know what they can improve upon. (Nins: “Constructive criticism?….Nah, we don’t need that.” Arns: “If you have criticism keep it to yourself.”)
Until next time…brb crying :’)