Episode 01: Who Are These Two? Meet The Colorado Springs Duo Behind The Pod
Welcome to the first-ever episode of Springs and Things, the show where two friends take you on a wild ride through the heart of Colorado Springs!
In this debut episode, we get real about what made us want to start a podcast together, a little background on who we are, and, of course, how this friendship blossomed.
Stick around to hear about our “Picks of the Week” — where we each choose our favorite thing happening around town right now. Trust us, you’re going to want to mark these on your calendar!
So, settle in, grab a cup of coffee, and get to know us! We're so excited for this new adventure!
AWESOME SPONSOR ALERT
We are thrilled to have Core Collective as our very first sponsor!! Pilates is a great way to improve your physical and mental health. Their classes are designed to help you build strength and flexibility, improve your posture and mental health, and reduce stress. On top of that, they're offering one heck of a deal!
If you use the code SPRINGSANDTHINGS, you can get 3 classes for $30 now through the end of 2024! Head to corecollectiveCOS.com to get this offer!
PICKS OF THE WEEK
Carly: Pub Trivia, including:
Geeks Who Drink - Colorado Springs (locations include Tony's, CO.A.T.I, Mother Muff’s and more)
Lauren's Pick: The City Dog and The Prairie Dog at the Fine Arts Center
Episode Transcript:
Carly Ries: Lauren. Kylie. I'm gonna say it for the very first time. Say it. Welcome to Springs and Things, the podcast where two close friends spill the tea on all things Colorado Springs from culture and community to hidden gems and neighborhood lore.
We've got it covered. I am Carly Reiss.
Lauren Ferrara: And I'm Lauren Ferrara. We'll sip our coffee and dive into the stories and secrets that make this city so unique. So whether you're a local or you're just passing through, we hope our fun, lighthearted, and entertaining take will keep you coming back for more. Carly, we have a podcast now. This is cool.
Carly Ries: I I pressed the record button. At least, I think I pressed the record button.
Lauren Ferrara: I hope
Carly Ries: you did. I pressed the record button.
Lauren Ferrara: Good work.
Carly Ries: So, that's great. Already one step ahead of the game on that one. And listeners, thank you so much for tuning in. We love the community of Colorado Springs and there's so much good happening here that we wanna share with all of you. I used to be a stand up comedian.
Lauren is coming from the newsroom. We just wanna bring some fun and lightheartedness to the lightheartedness, excuse me, to the city we love, for the people that live here as well as people that are visiting. And there are just so many unique things to share that I don't think you can get other places that we want to bring to the table.
Lauren Ferrara: I like to think that we're kind of the the hype girls for Colorado Springs because we both are so obsessed with this city, and we both do and we spend our time doing very different things. So I feel like our forces combined, we can share a lot of cool things that are happening and and really connect with people.
Carly Ries: Yeah. That is our intent. And we actually came up with this podcast idea because I wanted to start an itinerary, a custom itinerary business for people that were visiting. I, a lot of friends asked me for different activities and things to do when they're here, and I was like, oh my gosh. I should turn this into a business idea.
And I was running it by you, and you're kinda like, well, I wanna share things.
Lauren Ferrara: Well, yeah. You're giving me too much credit. You, the podcast was your idea. We were talking about it over it was the last day at the Little Dipper over the summer, the Little Dipper pool, which is my favorite place in the world. And you were like, what about would you be interested in doing a podcast about the cool things about Colorado Springs?
I was like, yes, before you finish your sentence.
Carly Ries: Yes. I you were just so involved in the community and you have the the, the experience of being a news anchor in this city. So you just, I feel like there's just so much, you know, that you could share. I'm also a native, but I wanna hold that because, like, who are we Lauren? We've given a brief intro to, to our lives.
But I feel like they should know a little bit more.
Lauren Ferrara: And I feel like we should start with you because you are almost a native. You came here as a baby. So how did how did your family wind up in the Springs?
Carly Ries: Yes. They, my mom actually went to Colorado Women's College that, used to be in Denver. It no longer exists. I was gonna
Lauren Ferrara: say, I've never heard of it.
Carly Ries: You did graduate. And they they my parents honeymooned here and then they had good friends here and they were just like, let's move from LA to Colorado and here we are.
Lauren Ferrara: All you Californians come in to Colorado.
Carly Ries: I know. I know. And I it was just such a good place to grow up. I know people always wanna leave and get out of where they came from and never move back. That's like a teenager thing.
Lauren Ferrara: I feel like so many people when they're young, they're like, oh my like our teenage babysitters.
Carly Ries: They're all like, oh, I wanna go out
Lauren Ferrara: of state. And I'm like, good for you. Go out of state. I'll see you in a couple years. You'll be back.
This is so great.
Carly Ries: You'll be back. Just gonna start singing Hamilton.
Lauren Ferrara: So you but even as a teenager, you were, like, obsessed with Colorado Springs. Didn't you give a presentation about how great it was in a speech class?
Carly Ries: You know, Lauren, I, we were given any prompt we wanted to in a speech class. And looking back, I was quite the teacher's pet and my speech comes out why my high school was the best high school in the world, basically. So, yes. Thank you for reminding me of that story and putting it out into the public. I did.
I loved it here. The only reason I moved away is because I wanted to be a talent agent. We have a good friend who's a talent agent out in Los Angeles. And from the time I was a little kid, she was just so inspiring to me, and I was like, that is what I want. I moved back to LA after school, and realized that that wasn't the life for me.
And, so I moved back.
Lauren Ferrara: And then and I think this is super cool, and I think this is what we bonded over because I aspire to do things like this. But you and your husband went on this life changing RV trip and traveled the country, right, for a couple years?
Carly Ries: Yes. So we actually had 2 stints of it. So back in 2014 before it was the cool thing to do, before digital nomadism was even a thing, we both worked worked remotely. We cleared it with our bosses, and we were just dating at the time. So it was like, well, if we can survive each other in an RV
Lauren Ferrara: Yeah. We should
Carly Ries: probably get married, type of thing.
Lauren Ferrara: Nobody else would do this
Carly Ries: with me. And luckily that came true. And we traveled the country. It was wonderful. Then we're like, okay.
Well, let's do this whole marriage house kid thing. And when our first daughter was, 4 months old, we were like, oh, we really missed the RV. And we hit the road again and sold our house and and it was wonderful. We had such a great time, but what was so funny is we would be in places all over the country and be like, oh, we could live here. Oh, we could live here.
And we were kinda trying to figure out a place to really put down our roots. And just to quote Dorothy, there is no place like home. We no matter where we went, we were just like, gosh, but the Springs is so beautiful. Gosh. The our families are in Colorado Springs.
It just it it was cool because we got such a good taste of the country, and there are wonderful places in this country. But at the end of the day, we we were like, let's go home. And, COVID is ultimately what brought us home, but we it was already in the plans Yeah. Just to to come back. So here we are.
Lauren Ferrara: COVID sort of made you hone in on what's important. I have an important question to ask you. Yeah. So how well does a diaper genie or something like that hold up in an RV in a very small space? It
Carly Ries: can fit. It it strictly I know
Lauren Ferrara: it fits, but, like, how does it,
Carly Ries: me? I don't know, but we did there was never an odor issue. Oh. I you know how, like, you kind of forget those early phases, but It's like
Lauren Ferrara: yeah. Amnesia.
Carly Ries: I, I never remember the smell of of that. I remember smell of pine trees and orange trees. So Nice.
Lauren Ferrara: Yeah. I'm glad you came back because I wouldn't have known you if you hadn't.
Carly Ries: Well, likewise. And speaking of knowing you, you are not a native. Although you have been here native. No. But you have been here for a decade.
Yes. So you are from Texas. It's funny.
Lauren Ferrara: I know.
Carly Ries: We are the Texas and Californians that moved to Colorado Springs. Well, it's funny.
Lauren Ferrara: I get so for, like, a friend of mine who also grew up here, she she was like, you're from Texas? She's like, Texans have a bad reputation here. She's like, I thought you were from here. And I was like, that is the nicest thing anybody has ever said to me. You thought I was from here?
Because, my my Texan comes out a lot. Well, Phil, when I say y'all.
Carly Ries: You moved here because of the job, because you were for the for the newsroom.
Lauren Ferrara: I was a news anchor. What were your first impressions? You know, it's funny. I so before I moved here, my husband and I, I think we were engaged at the time, kind of bounced back between Las Vegas and Nashville, and awesome places to live in your twenties. And when I I just I've always loved Colorado.
We used to come up here skiing when I was a kid, and I had a talent agent because some people do that in news. And there were 7 cities that my husband could work in, and Denver and Colorado Springs were on that list. So I only told my agent about Denver and Colorado Springs. I didn't even I couldn't even tell you now what the other 5 cities were, because I wanted to be here. And I came to Colorado Springs for an interview, flew in to this darling little airport.
I thought the downtown was so charming, but I didn't expect to stay here. I thought, okay, we'll do a couple of years here and move to Denver, and and that'll be it. And then it just has, like, grown on me little by little, more and more every year. So we actually initially, we thought, oh, should we live in Denver and commute to Colorado Springs? And then we found a place that we loved and, that we wanted to buy and live in.
And and and then now I I still go to Denver a lot for, like, you know, a restaurant, a night out, things like that. We'll get a hotel for the night. Things, but I just feel so lucky to live here.
Carly Ries: Yes. What so what do you think keeps you here?
Lauren Ferrara: You know, it's just and it's so cliche because just the access to the mountains is so cool. But there was this one time, and this was I think I had been here 5 years, and I sort of reevaluate life, it seems like every 5 years. So I was on a doing the quarry hike in Red Rocks Open Space. And I had my little at the time, they were my kids were pretty young. I had a toddler and then a baby in the little little pouch.
And we're going for for a hike, and then I see a bear. It was the first time I had seen a bear. And it was a mama bear with her 2 little cubs walking around the quarry. And I just it was one of those moments where I'm like, I'm where I'm supposed to be. So, yeah.
Now 5 years after that, I'm like, still where I'm supposed to be. This is so great.
Carly Ries: Yeah. You, you then turned into a mama bear in Colorado Springs.
Lauren Ferrara: I did turn into a mama bear.
Carly Ries: So here you are. Well, Lauren, I said earlier that you get super involved, but there's one particular community in town that you are very involved in, and I am just gonna tee up our sponsorship.
Lauren Ferrara: It up. I am so grateful to this sponsor, Core Collective, our very first sponsor. It's a reformer Pilates studio downtown, and I've been doing Pilates forever. I actually teach mat Pilates, and it's just the best workout. You can do it when you're a teenager and you can do it through your nineties.
Like, it is just an amazing way to improve physical and mental health, and their classes are designed to help build strength and flexibility, improve your posture, mental health, reduce stress. It does all the good things. And don't we all need a little stress reducing right now, a little joy? And you came with me as a guest. Tell me what your thoughts were of Core Collective.
Carly Ries: Lauren, I was terrified. I have the Pilates I had always done was, like, the videos that you can do at home. Never one with the reformers, and those are really intimidating. And, honestly, why I I had never done one of those classes before any Pilates any Pilates studio. But you took me, and, oh my gosh, it was so fun.
It was a great workout, but it was also it felt like a community. Like, I really felt welcomed the second I walked in. And I'm not just saying that because they're our sponsor. I I genuinely felt that way, and people were cheering me on. And here's the thing.
I'm kinda one of those people where would be like, you can do this. I'm like, Gabby, no. Stop talking. I and I don't always love it, which is weird, and it just I didn't feel that way.
Lauren Ferrara: It was It's real. It's authentic. Like, they're it's it it it is a community. It is a family. Like, all a lot of the recommendations that we'll be sprinkling in on, in future episodes of Springs and Things are a friend from Pilates telling me about her new favorite appetizer, things like that.
So, it's just a great, great place. It's an insane workout. I think I think my husband probably still thinks when I say I'm going to Pilates, he's like, okay, have fun stretching. And I'm like, oh, no, no, no. I will be sore for 3 days.
But they have such a variety of classes like strength building classes. They have a core reset, which is kind of a chiller one. And, core balance, like it does so many great things, and it really is for everybody. And they gave our listeners an insane deal. They haven't done a deal like this since they opened in December of 2023.
If you use the code springs and things, you can get 3 classes for $30. So $10 a class for hardcore reformer Pilates, and that deal goes to the end of 2024. You can head to corecollective cos.com. And big, huge thank you to Core Collective for being our sponsor.
Carly Ries: Yeah. Woo. Love it. So, Lauren, people are probably like, okay. So we have a native and a new gal from Texas.
Really different world. How did you guys meet? We met in the preschool drop offline.
Lauren Ferrara: As one does for women of a certain age. Right?
Carly Ries: Oh, yes. So true. But what's funny is we didn't talk the entire year.
Lauren Ferrara: I was like the one because this was my 2nd kid. So I, like, felt like I made all my friends with my first kid, my mom friends, and then second kid comes around. I'm like earbuds back at the line, sitting, hanging out by myself. And you, my friend, were so delightful. You were pregnant with your second.
You're super friendly. You're holding court, chatting with absolutely everybody except me because I was being
Carly Ries: And then I'm like, oh, there's that standoffish mom in the corner. Like, get her. And then we finally, the a kid had a birthday party around Memorial Day, so literally the end of the school year. And we sat next to each other. I I actually think somebody just got up, and I was like, oh, I'll go I guess I'll go talk to the quiet girl.
And then
Lauren Ferrara: And we're glad we did.
Carly Ries: And here we are. And and it's just been such a fun ride, and we can't wait to share things we experienced, things other people experienced, some great interviews with you. Right now, we want to give you an example of what to expect in every episode. We're gonna have a segment called pick of the week. Mhmm.
You guys may see things online, in the paper, the news of so much that's happening, and so we figured we'd just share our one with you that might help whittle down what you might want to do. Yeah.
Lauren Ferrara: So what is your pick of the week, Carly?
Carly Ries: Yes. So mine is so funny, because it's not a necessarily specific to Colorado Springs thing, but we have such great locations for this year this year, and mine is bar trivia. If you
Lauren Ferrara: I hear you're a legend in bar trivia.
Carly Ries: Well, I'm so glad you talked to my husband because he's the only one spreading that rumor. But if you ever see braining champs on a a pub trivia card, watch out because we are coming for you, and we will beat you. But there are so many great places that hold bar trivia in town. Some that start as early as 6 PM if you wanna make it an early night, others that start at 8:30. There's this thing called geeks who drink where a lot of, a lot of restaurants host these types of trivia events.
There's Tony's, karate, mother muffs, so many others. You just go to geeks who drink, or Google that and type in our zip code and you'll find them. And then also, places like Pubdog, if you wanna bring your little puppy with you Oh, I do. Trivia. Yes.
Bristol Brewery, the Ivy Wild School is just so cool. There are so many places. I'm just naming a few, but check out pub trivia Colorado Springs. Just Google it, and you will have such a fun night with your friends, loved ones, eating, drinking, and testing your knowledge.
Lauren Ferrara: Showing off how smart you are. Exactly. Random knowledge I've actually never done bar trivia before. Thank you. So I'll have to tag along sometime.
Carly Ries: I need to talk to the rest of my branding champs because we're kind of the tight knit group, but maybe we can invite
Lauren Ferrara: you. If it's unanimous.
Carly Ries: Yes. Exactly.
Lauren Ferrara: I I don't know that I I'll bring enough to the team, but maybe maybe I'll surprise you.
Carly Ries: Perfect. Well, then what is your pick of the week?
Lauren Ferrara: So my pick of the week is actually a kids show, and it's the city dog and the prairie dog. It's at the Fine Arts Center at Colorado College. And the storyline is there's Paloma, who's a prairie dog pup in a prairie dog town and then heads to the big old city. And what I think is super cool is it's bilingual. And I've been trying to get my kit, like, we went to Mexico for this world schooling adventure over the summer.
So I just love that it's bilingual. And there's actually a deal on it right now. So if you put in the promo code dog, d o g, BOGOB0, b o g o. It's buy 1, get 1 free. So it goes on till 24th, and then again, it's at the 2nd stage at the Fine Arts Center.
Carly Ries: So so cool. So we are gonna have our picks every week, but in terms of what's coming up and what you can expect, Lauren and I are gonna have yes days where we pick things to do for each other and we have to say yes to everything.
Lauren Ferrara: Meant for kids, but I thought that would be fun for us.
Carly Ries: Yes. Yes. Exactly. And then we're we also we interviewed the owner of Story Coffee, and we're really excited to share some fun tidbits. It's not your normal interview.
Trust me. We don't just talk about how to make a latte and things like that. It is such a fun episode. I'm obsessed with it. I I think I actually said I had a girl crush in that interview, with the owner, Krista.
Reason. She is amazing. Yes. So amazing. That's coming up.
We'll have an interview about holiday traditions in the spring. It's different than what you would typically get. These are our own personal traditions as well as that you can borrow as well as others.
Lauren Ferrara: I'm so taking yours. It's a good one.
Carly Ries: Yeah. I'm I'm very excited to share it. We're we'll have interviews with local brewers, historians. Oh, my gosh. We I I don't wanna share too much.
We have an awesome interview next week to kinda debug some of the myths around
Lauren Ferrara: Colorado history. Yes. And learn some really cool things that you didn't know as a local and I didn't know because I never studied Colorado history. I'm just now catching up.
Carly Ries: Yes. So we will have we will just cover it all, like, what's happening now, what happened back in the day that you guys said back then. We're just really, really excited. We really appreciate you tuning in, and we are so happy to have you along for the ride.
Lauren Ferrara: For sure. So if you like this podcast, share it with a friend. Do that right now. Text it to somebody. Also, writing a review helps us tremendously get this to more listeners.
So please do that if you like. And if you don't, don't say anything. Yeah.
Carly Ries: And when she says review, she means 5 star.
Lauren Ferrara: 5 star review.
Carly Ries: Yes. Yeah. Exactly. Anyway, listeners, thank you so so much for tuning in to our very first episode, and we will see you next week.
