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This is the podcast for women who find themselves in the middle— be that midlife, mid-mess, or just that midday grind. It’s like a quick phone call to catch up with your internet bestie, Indiana Adams. Together, we’ll share recommendations, laugh at the ridiculous things we see online, & cheer each other on. Whether we're talking about the best finds, the best pop-culture news, or what made our week a little brighter, My Internet Besties is your go-to spot for camaraderie & joy. Frank, fun, & fast— this podcast just became your new best friend.
// My Internet Besties is the name of the community that formed around the podcast Today By The Way. Consider My Internet Besties a continuation of TBTW, which ran for 96 episodes.
In like a lion, out like a lamb—it’s March, y’all! It’s a month when anything can happen, from wild weather to big sports upsets and celebrations. Here’s what’s coming up this month:
The Oscars were last night, March 2nd! The stars were shining, the dresses were something, and hopefully next year’s slate of award-winning movies will be more exciting. What did you think about Ariana's dress and Timothée Chalamet’s butter yellow tuxedo? I want to know.
Mardi Gras is tomorrow, March 4th! Time for beads, king cake, and all the festive fun.
International Women’s Day is March 8th—let’s take a moment to honor and celebrate the amazing women in our lives and around the world.
Daylight Saving Time is this Sunday, March 10th, so get ready to lose an hour of sleep. But hey, we’re gaining more daylight—hello, sunshine! And apologies if your baby doesn’t understand the time change.
St. Patrick’s Day is coming up on March 17th. Get ready to rock your green and maybe indulge in a shamrock shake or two.
And, of course, March Madness kicks off soon, and that means basketball chaos, buzzer-beaters, and plenty of surprises in both men’s and women’s college basketball.
Today, by the way, is Monday, March 3rd, and hopefully, your March is off to a great start already.
Hi and hello! You’ve found the podcast for women in the middle of it. Whether you're navigating midlife or you simply need a midday break, this is a community made for you. I’m Indiana Adams, and you can think of me as your Internet bestie as we share recommendations, laugh about the ridiculous things we see online, and cheer each other on. I am so glad you’re here.
I have this place in my brain that still stores obsolete phone numbers from my youth.
522.8373 was my home phone growing up.
523.6846 was my friend Donald’s phone number.
522.9979 was my friend Amanda’s phone number.
522.4372 was the phone number of Todd, my longtime middle school and high school crush (that I incidentally memorized, but I think I only had the guts to call ONCE in 9th grade, and when his mom answered, I panicked and hung up).
But here’s the kicker—today I only remember two phone numbers. Mine and my husband’s. That’s it. We don’t need to memorize numbers anymore, right? We just tap on our phones, or say, “Hey Siri, call so-and-so,” and poof, we’re connected.
Now imagine what Alexander Graham Bell would say about that.
I bring this up because on March 7th, 1876, just a few days after Bell’s birthday, he was granted the U.S. patent for the thing that made modern communication possible: the telephone. It’s wild to think how much life has changed since then. Bell’s invention made it possible for people to talk across distances, and now we carry mini computers in our pockets that allow us to do so much more—text, FaceTime, email, check social media—all of it powered by the very invention that Bell created more than 140 years ago. Forget the fact that I rarely use my phone to call anyone.
But here’s something really fascinating: While Alexander Graham Bell is synonymous with the telephone, his story goes much deeper. And there were other people—like Lewis Howard Latimer, who played crucial roles in making the telephone a reality—but their stories are often overlooked.
I want to take a moment to introduce you to Lewis Latimer, if you haven’t heard of him yet. He was a brilliant inventor whose work was just as important to the telephone’s success as Bell’s own. Latimer was the one who helped Bell with the technical drawings for the patent and was vital in making sure that the invention was represented properly when it went to the patent office. Bell’s success wasn’t solely his own. It was a culmination of many minds working together toward the same goal. And Latimer didn’t stop at the telephone. He played a huge role in improving electric lighting. He helped Edison develop a method to make lightbulb filaments stronger, longer-lasting, and more affordable. Some wonder—with good reason—if Latimer was actually the true inventor of the telephone and the light bulb but did not receive credit because he was Black.
What we do know is that Latimer’s contributions to the phone and electric lighting made it possible for everyday people to have access to these—not just the wealthy. He truly believed in using technology to make life better for everyone, and his legacy reflects that spirit. I wish Lewis Howard Latimer were as celebrated as Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison.
But let’s circle back to Bell, because his journey to inventing the telephone was as much about passion and persistence as it was about innovation. Here’s the thing: you might think Bell’s focus was always on the telephone, but his first passion was actually helping the deaf.
Growing up, his family was steeped in the world of elocution and speech. His grandfather was an elocutionist (a person who specializes in clear and expressive speech), and his father, Melville Bell, developed a system called Visible Speech, which was designed to help the deaf communicate. Both Bell’s mother and wife were deaf, and they were both inspirations in his work.
By the time Bell was 25, he had already opened his School of Vocal Physiology and Mechanics of Speech in Boston, where he worked with deaf students, helping them communicate using speech rather than only sign language. That was Bell’s first love—helping others communicate.
But here’s where things get interesting. Bell’s work wasn’t just driven by his passion for helping the deaf; it was also deeply personal. Bell’s wife, Mabel, was a key influence on his life and work. They met when Mabel, who was deaf, was a student at Bell’s school. Despite Mabel’s father, Gardiner Greene Hubbard (who was the founder of the National Geographic Society—yes, that same organization that later came up with National Geographic Magazine), being initially opposed to their marriage due to Bell’s financial situation, Bell’s love for Mabel overcame these obstacles. A few days after Bell founded the Bell Telephone Company, securing his fortune, he married Mabel, and as a wedding gift, he gave her all but ten of his 1,507 shares in the company. On his desk, Bell kept a photograph of Mabel with the inscription: “The girl for whom the telephone was invented.”
So it was love that was at the heart of Bell’s work, especially with the telephone. But while the telephone was a symbol of love and connection for Bell, his views on other social issues were far less noble. Big sigh.
Bell was a proponent of eugenics, a controversial belief in improving the genetic quality of the human population. Bell believed that by encouraging the reproduction of “desirable” individuals and preventing those with disabilities from having children, society would improve. It’s a troubling aspect of his legacy, especially given his deep involvement with the deaf community. And what makes it even more complex is that Helen Keller—yes, that Helen Keller, the iconic deaf-blind activist—shared similar beliefs.
Y’all, they knew each other!
Keller, who worked with Bell as a young girl and who later became a global advocate for people with disabilities, was also involved in the eugenics movement. In fact, Keller, like Bell, was a member of the American Eugenics Society and expressed support for eugenic ideas, believing that certain disabilities, including deafness, should be prevented. It’s a difficult reality to reckon with, given Keller’s groundbreaking work in advocating for the rights and education of people with disabilities. But Keller, like Bell, was swept up in the prevailing eugenic ideas of the time.
Their connection to eugenics shows how even those who made monumental contributions to society often held views that we today find deeply problematic. This intersection of progress, ethics, and humanity can be super complicated, and we must understand these figures with nuance. We can appreciate their achievements while also grappling with the negative aspects of their legacies.
Bell’s connections didn’t end with Keller. Both Bell and Keller knew Thomas Edison. Edison, the inventor of the light bulb and a fierce competitor to Bell in the world of inventions, had his own connection to Bell’s telephone work. Bell and Edison had mutual respect for each other’s innovations, but they also had some professional rivalries, particularly when it came to patents and the development of electronic technologies.
By 1876, Bell was living in Washington, D.C., still inventing things and patenting other ideas. After the telephone, he went on to invent a metal detector, which he famously used in an attempt to save the life of President James Garfield, who was shot in 1881. Bell was called in to help locate the bullet lodged in the president’s body, but his metal detector failed due to interference from metal springs in Garfield’s bed. Garfield died of the wound, but Bell’s work laid the groundwork for future medical technologies.
At this time in his life, he found himself embroiled in endless lawsuits over patents related to the telephone. And in the middle of all this chaos, he came across a book by Charles Dudley Warner called Baddeck and That Sort of Thing, which described a small fishing village in Nova Scotia called Baddeck as “the most beautiful saltwater lake I have ever seen … its embracing hills, casting a shadow from its wooded islands.” After reading this description, Bell decided to relocate there with his wife, Mabel, and their two children, leaving behind the stress of legal battles and public life.
For nearly 40 years, Bell called Baddeck home, living in peace and focusing on his research. The move was life-changing, not just for his family, but for Bell’s creativity. Sometimes innovators need to escape the noise to truly think clearly.
And while most of us can't just pack up and move to the Canadian countryside, I do think it goes to show that a change in scenery can do wonders for your creativity and productivity. Sometimes you need that quiet space, away from the noise, to truly think clearly. Whether it's about moving to Nova Scotia or my own retreat to get this podcast back on track, a little change in perspective can spark the best ideas.
So, hey, if you're feeling stuck in a creative rut, maybe it's time to take your trip to your version of Baddeck. And if you can’t actually get away, maybe it’s just a quick walk around the block or maybe it’s just sitting in your car a little while longer after running an errand. Or maybe it’s just stepping out for a coffee run solo. If nothing else, at least you’ll get some fresh air and a much-needed break from staring at your phone. After all, Alexander Graham Bell invented that thing. But we still need a break from it sometimes.
I was 22 years old when I got my first actual cell phone. But let me back up for a second. When I was 16 or 17, I had a bag phone in my car—for emergencies. You see, I was the token driver in my high school friend group, and since I skipped a lot of school and wasn’t the greatest driver, my folks decided I needed a car phone. There was no GPS back then. It was 1997, and this was the most high-tech thing I had.
But here’s the thing: my parents would try to ring me on that phone to check in and see where I was. And most of the time, I didn’t answer. Why? Because I was inside—at the mall, at a movie, or inside Fazoli’s, and my phone was in the car. When I’d get home, they’d say, “Why didn’t you answer the phone?” and I’d have to be like, “I wasn’t in the car! I went inside!” This is also when I got a pager so they could beep me to nudge me to call home to check in. I tried to explain a pager to my kids last week and they couldn’t understand it at all.
I don’t count that bag phone as my first actual cell phone because it couldn’t leave the car. I think I only used it once to report a drunk driver. I didn’t even call Todd on it, despite having his home phone number memorized. In fact, my friend Kimm used it more than I did, to call her long-distance boyfriend during lunch breaks. So, while it was a phone, technically, it wasn’t like a true cell phone experience. It was always tethered to the car.
My first true cell phone experience didn’t come until I was in college. My first phone was a pink Nokia that I meticulously programmed to play a rudimentary chiptune version of Clocks by Coldplay as the ringtone. There was no internet browsing. There was no camera. And texting? That was basically impossible. But my relationship with Cap was built on that thing. He was at Georgia Tech here in Atlanta, and I was at Olivet Nazarene University in Kankakee, Illinois. That’s how we would talk to each other—long distance. I was as connected as I needed to be.
Come to think of it, this is exactly the kind of phone I wish were still around. Simple. Functional. Nostalgic. That’s the kind of phone I’d give my teenager. Coldplay ringtone and all.
Speaking of Old Sounds...
I thought it could be fun to play a game that I’m making up on the spot called “WHAT’S THAT OLD SOUND?” Here’s how it works: I’m going to play an old sound, and you (or your kids) have five seconds to guess what the sound is. Ready? Let’s go!
[insert off-hook alarm]
[insert busy signal]
[insert dial-up modem]
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
How old were you when you got your first REAL cell phone?
Do you still remember your best friend’s home phone number? If so, what is it?
What’s the longest you could go without your cell phone?
This week's Group Project is one that my friend Tara Bremer over at House Peace would be proud of. To honor her for her birthday this week, we’re going to organize our phones. It’s time to declutter our digital lives and get organized—because let’s be real, our phones are often where the clutter hides!
For the next 3 days, we’ve got one task to do to help streamline our devices. Today, we’re starting with cleaning out old photos—those blurry ones, the duplicates, or the screenshots that serve no purpose anymore. If you have 13,000 photos and videos like I do, this may be too much to tackle in one day, so may I suggest simply typing in today’s date in your photo search bar and then deleting any photo or screenshot you don’t need that comes up? This could become part of your new daily habit and in a year, your phone will be clean.
Tomorrow, we’ll be tackling your contacts—deleting or archiving those numbers you haven’t called in years.
And for our final day, we’ll reset those notifications—say bye-bye to all the app pings that never stop.
I know you’ll feel lighter and more focused by the end of this.
And speaking of phone organization—Tara and I will both be at the Mom 2.0 Summit in Orlando this April 3-5! Tara is actually teaching a workshop called iPhone Peace to help us get a handle on phone organization. I’ll be there too, as the event emcee, and I’m also hosting a solo travelers / newbie meet-up for anyone who’s new to the conference or coming alone. If you’re coming, I’d love to see you there!
If you're interested in attending, use the code INDIANA150 to get $150 off your registration. The conference is for any woman who’s a content creator, marketer, business owner, or who wants to be one of those things, or who wants to connect with any of those groups. It’s my favorite conference all year. If you’re looking to connect, learn, and be inspired, this conference is for you!
So, join us in Orlando next month! I’d love to meet you in real life.
Okay, my internet besties, that’s it for today.
We covered a lot today, from Alexander Graham Bell’s legacy to how phones have evolved, and our weekly challenge is to declutter our phones over the next three days.
If you enjoyed this episode, I’d love it if you’d leave a five-star review in whatever podcast app you’re using. Your reviews help get this show into more ears, and it means the world to me! Not only does it give me the chance to connect with even more amazing women, but it also helps me know what’s resonating with you. And hey, if you're feeling extra generous, share this episode with a cool friend.
Thank you so much for listening. And hey, I know you’re in the middle of all the things, but, friend, I am cheering you on.