If you really want to know what's going on in this country heading into the 2024 election,

you have to get away from the extremes and listen to the middle.

Hi, Jan here in Kansas City, Missouri.

On the podcast The Middle with Jeremy Hobson, I'll take calls live every week,

elevating the voices of Americans who are so important when it comes to

whos in power and what gets done.

My name is Venkat, I'm calling you from Atlanta, Georgia.

Listen to The Middle with Jeremy Hobson on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.

Good morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

Today's tip is to be a good gift recipient.

By making yourself very easy to shop for, you can allow others to have fun giving you gifts,

and give them the gift of making this far less stressful.

One of the upsides of adulthood is having your own money and being able to buy yourself what

you want within reason, of course, that jaguar or yacht might not happen.

But if you want a sweater or a juice maker or a book, you generally buy it.

And this is quite efficient, but when it comes to gift giving occasions,

people can be stumped. If you wanted a sweater, a juice maker, or a book, you would have already

gotten it. So people tend to throw up their hands and funnel more money to Amazon in the form of

gift cards. Or you wind up with a sweater that the person feels stressed about, saying, oh,

I don't need anything isn't helpful even if it is true. The social pressure to give gifts

...