A Problem Squared - 128 = AMA 2^7 Special

Episode Date: February 16, 2026

❓ Have you sent in a question for our AMA episode?❔ Have Matt and Bec answered it in this AMA episode?⁉️ Here are your AMA questions, answered!We’ll be back solving your problems as normal in Episode 129!If you’d like to see Bec at the Adelaide Fringe in March, you can get tickets here: https://adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix/bec-hill-creates-the-perfect-show-work-in-progress-af2026 And if you’d like to see Matt on tour, all the dates, venues and tickets can be found here: http://standupmaths.com/shows Join us on Patreon for early releases and our monthly bonus podcast I’m A Wizard!If you’re already on Patreon and have a creative Wizard offer to give Bec and Matt, please comment on our pinned post!  If you want to (we’re not forcing anyone) please do leave us a review, share the podcast with a friend, or give us a rating! Please do that. It really helps. Finally, if you want even more from A Problem Squared you can connect with us and other listeners on BlueSky, Twitter, Instagram, and on Discord.

Hey, what podcast is this? This is a problem squared. Who are you? Ha! I'm Matt Parker. And who do you think you are? I'm Beck Hill. What kind of episode is this? It is an Ask Me Anything episode.

And that's what we've been doing. And on this episode, we're going to answer some questions. That's it. That's it. That's the whole thing. Yep. We normally solve problems that our listeners send us, and indeed some of these might still be.

problems, but they are more personal. So if you are a new listener, strap in. This is not normal. A very special episode of a Problem Squared. Ask Me Anything Edition. So for the record, we're doing this because it's episode 1 to 8, which is a power of two.

Two to the seven. So we thought we'd celebrate power of two birthday. Yes. Someone else pointed that out when they suggested that we do and ask me anything episode. When they asked us to do the Ask Me Anything episode, we'd already done episode 100. So they couldn't, they couldn't peg it to that, but they could say, hey, two to the seven. What I'm trying to say is, I never would have said, let's make it 128.

That is true. That's true. So normally we'd ask each other how we are and do a little bit of chat. But I feel like that's for the listeners to ask. Only external questions from hearing. Yeah. So we heard from OSA. who came up with the idea of Ask Me Anything.

So that means that they get to get all their questions first. They get to go first. Yep. As is the AMA rule. Because they gave example questions in their original pitch, didn't they? Yes. Right. And then they sent a couple of additional...

More. They just love asking questions. So in their original message to us... The first pitch for the AMA. Yeah. They wanted to know how we came to create a podcast together and why we left Australia. Too good question.

Why did we do a podcast? Because we are friends, but we are also workaholics, and we knew we wouldn't hang out unless it was recolaged. That's pretty accurate. I know last episode we talked about doing an evening of a necessary detail. Yes. And that was fun in that we mentioned it on the podcast that people came to see the show and we handed out some stickers, all that jazz. But historically, the reverse was true because we probably first started doing collaborative stuff. at an evening of a necessary detail.

Yeah, yeah. And then from that we started doing a podcast. I think I met you through Helen Arnie. Yes. He's a festival spoken nerd because she and I were on the scene together. Yep, the old circuit. And then you stopped doing generic stand-up. Correct.

And then Helen booked me for an evening unnecessary detail in like 2017, I think. And you're like, oh, here he is. Yeah, and I was like, hey, I know you. Where did you go? Yeah. Over time, we ended up doing Edinburgh Fringe together. I think that was, I think it was the van drive there. We drove up and back together.

And then in the van drive back, so we sort of went there and I think it's sort of, we broached the subject and then on the way back thought a bit more hard about what it would be. And by the end of 2019 we started. Yeah. Traditionally, the joke is that you say that you realized that you were a... I woke up one day and realized I was a Caucasian male without a podcast. Yeah. And I did, I did say no for a while. while. Yeah, I had to convince you.

I was hosting several other podcasts at the time. And where are they now back? I know. I know. Well, that's the problem is that they were producer people that came to me and said, well, you host a podcast as opposed to a friend saying, we can hang out. How about we get a producer? Yeah, yeah.

And do a podcast. We did spend a long time. It wasn't like we started thinking, oh, we want to solve problems. We decided we wanted to do a podcast. And then we spent a long time. trying to work out what the heck the podcast would be. There was at least six months of R&D, which was mostly us meeting up and having some drinks and then forgetting to make any podcast-related decisions.

Yeah, yeah, that was very much it. And then I remember going to visit you and pitching the name a problem shed. And suggesting... I think of that a problem shed. And then suggesting we record in a shed. And people have to bring their problems to the problem shed. And you were like, I like the problems thing. I like what you're doing.

And I was really hoping for the shed part. You're like, and what else did you like about the idea? Yeah. Turns out not the shed. And why did you leave Australia? Partly because I was a comedian who mainly was making money from working in a bowling alley. And I didn't really know what I wanted to do. do with my life. There didn't seem to be a huge amount of sort of opportunities for comedy in

Australia at the time. And so, you know, that that was a bit of a drawcard in terms of, oh, you know, there's a lot of Aussies that had come over here and we're making a living from comedy over here. And I was like, oh, maybe if I'm lucky one day I could become the next Adam Hills and just travel between the two countries. And I made it as far as the UK. You can sort of forgot about me back home. It's hard to remind two countries constantly that you exist. But on a broader scale, I think it largely coincided with meeting a boy, who I then later married and was in a relationship with for 16 years.

So it was very much the right choice. But I think that sort of, yeah, both happened at the same time where I went, well, I like this person and maybe I'll have more of success over there. Move to Edinburgh first because he's Scottish. We both worked the Edinburgh Fringe front of house because I wanted to get a vibe for it. And then he and I after a year there were like, oh, so we moved down to London and became trapped. And here you are. And here I am today.

Yep. Yeah. How about you? Well, I did everything in like the opposite order to what you did because I wasn't doing comedy until I moved to the UK. So I didn't do any real performing of note in Australia. I wanted to go to the UK for a couple of years because Perth is lovely, you know, big fan. But I was like, you should never spend your whole life just living in Perth. It's my original plan.

I would say that. I've never lived in Perth. Exactly. So I was like, well, there's no way I'm settling down. Perth without having lived somewhere else for a while. Yeah. So I did the two-year working holiday visa to the UK. And actually, part of why I did teaching was so I could travel around Europe without

having to like work in a bar. I could do supply teaching and travel. I did that. But at the end of the two years, I was just starting to get into like education support work, public speaking work. Not comedy yet. That came a year or two later. but I was like, you know what?

I'm going to hang around. And I was offered a visa by a company that ran summer schools for gifts and talent to students. And so I was like, you know what? I'm going to keep giving her to go. And then I met Lucy the next year. And then I started doing stand-up two years after that. That wasn't at one of those camps, wasn't it? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, she was real cute. She was running the astrophysics strand, and I was running the programming for robotics strand. It's so cute. Yeah. It's real nerdy. Nerds. And for those of you who haven't heard the story, Lucy heard a rumor that one of the other people working on the summer school had a watch that told the time in binary numbers.

And I was that guy. So she came and found me on that fact alone. You really have hit a jackpot with her. Oh, my God, yeah. I don't know. Look, I'm as confused as anyone. I'm married way up. Yeah, and then I've hung around ever since.

So for me, it was only ever going to be a short-term thing. But then because I was here, I was able to have a career initially in stand-up for a bit. And now all these other ridiculous things. Yeah. Yeah, I was only meant to be here for two years. Yeah. And then it was like, oh, it's going to take me a lot longer to get known here. And then by the time I had any sort of, my name had any sort of sway here, it didn't disappear.

in Australia. Totally evaporated. That said, we both did leave Australia, but we both hold it very fondly and go back frequently. Yeah, yeah. It's a great place. Now, very quickly, when OSA found out we were taking up their suggestion of an AMA, they fired off three quick more questions for us to do. So they said, Matt, what are your first recollections of pie?

And what are your favourite memories of pie? I mean, it's like, what are your first recollections of breathing? It's just always been pie. My favorite memory of pie was the time we printed out the first one million digits on a continuous strip of paper and ran it down a mile long runway. Specifically the moment at the end of the day, we'd filmed all the way along it and everyone else was going back to put the kid away and do other things. And we had a car driving up and down. But I was like, no, no, I'll walk back. It's only a mile.

And so everyone else got in the car and went. And it was just kind of, you know, a very soft drizzle rain on a runway towards the end of the day. And it was basically an almost religious experience to walk by myself. One million tiny digits just stretching out to the horizon. And I spent the 20 minutes or whatever walking in solitude along a mile of pie. I walk alone, I walk alone. That's like the soundtrack of your life that I'm hearing. Correct.

And you know, you talk a lot about how many digits are on pie goes on forever and all the different numbers that are within the digits. There's something special about just seeing it literally stretched to the horizon in tiny, tiny digits than walking along it. That's really nice. Now, Ozzo had a question for you back. what are your first recollections of pie and what are your favorite memories of pie and for the listeners this is pie spelt with an e on the end

it was probably when I had a mile long on an airstrip stretching out into the horizon pie with the horizon I mean obviously my life is less about either pie than pie the number is to you I think my earliest recollection was probably a standard Aussie meat pie. Which if anyone has never had a standard Aussie meat pie, it's, how do you explain it?

It's sort of like a wet pastry filled with brown. Yeah, yeah. And it tastes good. Like, I like a meat pie. It's not dissimilar to a Greg steak bake. Yeah, that's pretty accurate. Less chunky. Yeah.

Like the meat is... At no point do you have to chew. No, exactly. You could drink a meat pie. I think it is technically a drink. That moist pastry. Slam it back. It's not like a soft coconut.

Sticker story in. Yep, you're away. Yeah, that's probably... I'm actually my first memory of pie. And then matching question for Laura. What are your first... Recollections of Matt and Beck? Oh.

Oh. What are your favorite memories of them? This puts me on the spot, doesn't it? Let's play the Don't Get Fired Dance. Off you go. So I think, well, I saw you both before I worked with you. Like, doing your thing. Otherwise, we actually met.

Otherwise, it does sound a little bit like through the bushes. I don't mean I was watching. You do your research. So I think, Beck, I will have seen. you at Distraction Club. Yes. Which was a musical comedy night. Yeah, Matt, you don't know this, but Laura and I on the train home from the last

record realized that we, well, basically one of Laura's best friends who introduced her and her partner to each other is also one of my friends. Of course. Because that's how this industry works. Yeah. Yep. So I saw you do sets at. that and probably other gigs.

I think, like, I've watched a lot of comedy. I've definitely seen you do stand up a lot. I think I remember when we first met via this medium, being a bit like, I feel like we've met. Yeah, and it would have been at like at a festival or Macfest or something. Yeah, yeah. Well, the first time I met you in person was the first time I recorded a Problem Squared. Oh, yes.

But we had done remote records for a podcast of unnecessary detail at the festival of the spoken nerd. So I took over the third series of that. Yeah. Because she were being produced by Lindsay Fenner. Correct, the wonderful Lindsay. Who's excellent and my friend and another producer. So Lindsay had produced one of our festival spoken nerd BBC Radio 4 programs. And so then we wanted to do a podcast, we asked if she could come and produce us, which she did.

But then she had other things to do, as producers who often do. And she's like, hey, I reckon my friend Laura could help out. So Lindsay and I were both producers at the BBC, both did comedy, but we first met when I was 14 and she was 16. Forgotten, Matt. So I know everyone and I've known them for a really long time. I think that's basically the first recollections of everything. How did you meet as teenagers? We were comedy nerds.

Go to comedy gigs. We met on a comedy forum. I was going to say, this is the internet in the 90s. Yeah, so we've known each other a really, really long time. And also then ended up working together. but obviously when we first met, neither of us knew that this was going to be our career. Yeah, yeah. So I did a series of a podcast of Unnecessary Detail.

Yep. And then during one of those records, you went, how do you feel about parachuting in? Yeah, because we originally had producer John Harvey. Yes. And then we had producer Lauren Armstrong Carter. Yes, old snake eyes. All snake eyes. The first time was just, I.

covered. Yeah, you were a substitute. Yes. So I sort of parachuted in and came to a record and then edited those two episodes. And that was like a one-off in May 24. Oh, okay. But at that recording, I got given a Lego mini figure of myself and I got chocolate

cakes. So I was like, this is a nice job. Oh, was that? That was from your neighbours. Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah, it was good. I hadn't remembered that was your first time on site.

Yeah. And then I sort of did some bits and pieces. sort of in the background for you, but then I took over properly recording and editing and producing and doing the whole thing on episode 106. Oh yeah, we were in the hundreds.

And you're award winning, that movie. Oh, yeah. Oh, I'm very good. Not for this. It's a lovely, lovely podcast to produce. We're pretty civil. Yeah.

We're not recording. Oh, yeah. If anything, it's, we take too long to record. Because we get on so well. Yeah. No one's complained. Because no one knows because I'm very good at editing. Use the air.

Real tight at the edit. We heard from Curious Bystander who said, can you give any stats on your most listened episodes, most requested episodes and other fun statistical facts about the pot? Laura's compiled a bunch of stats for us. We have 2.6 million listeners across all platforms. And we average around 14.5,000 listeners per. episode.

Just imagine everyone else when you're listening. Yes. Hello. Introduce yourselves to each other. Everyone shake hands. Yeah. Shake hands. Yeah.

Shake hands, whatever. So it probably doesn't surprise anyone that our most listened to episode is our first one. Yeah. Despite the amount of people who said that they started on the blue two. But I did think it was interesting that we go from, we've got one, two, three. One, two, three at the top one, two, three. That's just. People are starting from the beginning.

And then the fourth most listened episode is episode 84. What? What did we do in episode 84? Which is indicators and indicaquesers, which I can't remember. Well, I was talking about indicators coming in and out of phase. Yeah. Huh. But I don't think there's no standout episodes that are like weirdly more.

listen to other than like the first three because everyone starts at the beginning. Yeah. Producer Laura did also pull out the least listen to episodes. Thanks a lot. Keeping our egos and check. Now that includes like the most recent one because, you know, it's, there's a bias towards episodes have been around for a long time. But 068 is the least listened to episode, which interestingly is the episode we recorded

in the smallest tent yet. Oh, yeah. It's the big festival from the tent episode. Yes, I wonder if that's people who started listening and went, oh, this sound quality is awful. Tent audio? Because it's not... Maybe.

It's probably our worst audio recording quality episode. Yeah, because the next one after that is Central Parks and Baseball Larks, which we recorded in a very, I believe, echoy room in New York. That wasn't the studio one. No, the studio was the first time we went to New York. This is the second time. We went to New York. Then we didn't bother getting a studio.

And it was very echoy room. And everyone noped out. So it turns out 14.5,000 people on average care about audio quality. Funny that. And that's why we now have an award-winning producer. And again, the third least listen to episode is many ways to replace lights. Which again was a live episode. That was at Blue Dot Festival.

Now, I know a lot of people don't like live episodes of podcasts. And I totally get it. And this was early days. We were trying out different things. We did try a live one, which I enjoyed doing. Also, I think I've listened to it again since then. From memory, it's a good episode. It's fine.

It's just different. It's just if you're here for this and you don't want that. And the same person, Curious Bystander also asked how many questions have we received? What is the file size of the Google sheet at time of recording? Well, I can confirm. If you filter for just things labeled as problems on the problem posing page at a problemsquare.com, there are 2,474 of them, two and a half kilo problems. We also have 1,879 solutions and a grand total of 5,689 submissions. If you download it, it's a mere 31 kilobytes.

Yeah. Doesn't sound big. It's text. But the weight. the weight of the problems it contains. We heard from Brett, who said, what is something you've each learned about each other over all these episodes? Whoa.

Well, I originally thought you might be my conduit, my access to keeping up with modern pop culture. Yeah, I don't know where you got that from. It turns out. It turns out, no, no. At what point did you realize you were stuck with me? Oh, so early on. Turns out you're as big a dork as I am.

Great. Like, I'm sure there's loads of stuff that I've learnt. I've learned that you are just as optimistic with how much can be done as I am. But you're just slightly more capable. Like, we'll both aim for the stars. Like there are moments where I'm like... Wildly. Why did you think we...

Detached from reality. Because I keep thinking, well, Matt, he's responsible. He'll know. Are you going to try and do it? Yeah. Okay. So we both discovered the other person's also useless. Yeah.

Which makes me feel better about myself. Thanks a lot. I don't know. I feel like it's brought us closer together as friends. Definitely that. And enemies. Oh, yeah. We heard from Chaldrick, who asked on which episode did you realize you will never be able to solve all the problems coming in.

Oh, Chaudrick, and what we do with the remaining problems? Like immediately. See, you responded immediately. I got really stressed out about, like, trying to keep track of where we were up to and what needed to be done. I think you'd very much been like, yeah, we're not going to get through all of them and very zen about it. Whereas I was like, oh, God, there's so many. And until I realized like, oh, no, this isn't about solving all the problems. It's what is most interesting to talk about and have people listen to.

And what's fascinating, and I guess going back to one of the earlier questions about what we learn about each other, is that quite often, Matt, you will choose problems that I don't find. But when I read, I was like, oh, God, that would be boring. Yeah. And I find myself really enjoying those episodes. And I listen back to them. And I find that they really like sit with me in a way that I couldn't imagine that they would. So I think that's been really nice is realizing that, A, we don't have to solve all of them, nor should we.

Correct. And B, quite often the ones that I personally wouldn't go for are the most interesting ones and probably vice versa. Oh yeah. You have 100% picked ones I wouldn't have touched. or considered worthy of doing something with. Like renaming pantry items. No, that one, I can see the value there. No, one where you forget how blinkered your view of what people will find interesting is.

Because my entire business model has always been do things I find interesting and enough other people do as well. But it does mean there's a world of things that just don't cross my mind as being interesting and I'm wrong. wrong. Yes. And this has been an excellent exercise in reminding myself of that. Yeah. Childrick also wanted to know what we do with the remaining problems when the inevitable occurs. We can be buried with them. Yeah. Print them all out. Print them out. Mammify us and like wrap them like bandages. I want them in a stack of that old school green and white striped printer paper with the dots down the edges. Yeah. Dot matrix. Stump next to me. Yeah. Okay. So this has got to be an agreement. This is legally binding now. That's my definition of the afterlife.

Because if we haven't finished by the time one of us dies. Yeah. Are we allowed to be recast or is that yet? No. Just checking. Well, firstly, I have no idea how I would recast you. Auditions. Who would be the replacement mat?

Steve Mould. I'll get Steve Mold. There we go, Sard. Steve Mold. Good luck. You guys have fun. I don't know. to say, I don't know who I'd swap you out for.

Steve Mould. Yeah, great. But I want to shake hands with you on this. Whoever dies first. Finish that sentence before I reach my hand. The other person has to print out the remaining problems on dot matrix paper. Okay, fine. Reach over here.

Khan says amazingly, and they've put AMA in a couple of letters. Well done. There's been an episode of a problem's great about Perth, but not about Adelaide. They want to know would we consider doing an episode about Adelaide? Adelaide. We've never been in Adelaide simultaneously. No, we haven't. That's a crime.

Yeah, we should do that. I think you're right, Kahn. I mean, more to the point, it's just incredible that we both happen to be in Perth. The question is not why haven't we been in Adelaide? It's what the heck happened that caused you to both be in Perth? I went, I got the direct flight to Perth. The answer is, I'll stop for a bit. It's in the way when you're going from London to Adelaide.

It's true. Adelaide is not really as much on the way. But you're doing the Adelaide fringe? Yes. Yeah, I think one time I'll just come out when you're fringing it. Done. Deal. 2027.

Get there, one day. Kevin says, what do you like to collect? What is your favorite item in that collection? Look, now we all know what mine is. Your teeth. I think that is pretty clear. You can't choose a favorite? Yes, I can.

Oh, it's my mesiodons. We have an episode where we worked out how much of a pack. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So that's my, what's yours, Matt? What's... I like a lot of things. My favourite is probably rocks.

I pick up rocks from when I'm in places. And I've got a lot of great rocks. What's your favorite rock? It's probably the one I got in Cornwall. Is that the triangle one? The triangle one, yeah. Yeah, you know the rock. I know the rock.

It's a really good rock. Now, the triangle one up here... Can we call it Dwayne the Rock Johnson? That's a different triangle, the rock. Johnson. Oh. That's the Amazon triangle. Yeah, the sandwich one.

And there's the Cube one. Where's Cubie? Oh, over there. Cubey. Look that. Where was Cube from? Amazon. It's currently holding a door open at home.

As all our favorite kids do. Because some rocks I pick up and I keep them in the garden, a little rock collection. Some rocks, I try to put them into service around the house. And so often there's door stops. And so I pick up a rock in Cornwall. It was from the discarded waste of a tin mine that closed a while back. And what I liked about it is, I had to carry it a long way to get at home because I was on a walking holiday. I like to earn a rock.

It came from a long way below the ground, and it was geologically very interesting. And so the fact that this rock lived, I forget how far down, kilometers below the surface. Lived. Yeah, it was there for millions of years. some jerks dug it up, brought it to the service. I was like, that's a cool rock, having that. I take a photo of every rock before I pick it up. So I have a photo of it in situ originally.

It has natural habitat. It's natural habitat before it was adopted. And it's then, I've also got the GPS location of every rock in my collection. Every now and then, you're like, look how cushy you've got it now. Yeah, look at you now, living the life. Yeah. Holden that door open. Yeah.

Well, I found you. Going nowhere Rasmus or Rasmus asks what tools Digital or Analog and or techniques do you use to keep your life and work moving in the right direction This is a good question Because I tend to need new systems a lot

But I've recently gone back to an old system That was working for me during lockdown What is it? It's basically a checklist of little things where if I can do those things for myself each day, I feel a lot better about myself and life. So at the moment, I've put a grid on a whiteboard, you know, Monday to Sunday, and then down the left-hand side I've got all of the different things. So I do morning pages, which I've mentioned before. It's three stream consciousness writing pages in the morning where you're

just kind of like bleh onto a page. It's much cheaper than therapy, although I do recommend doing both. I have got push-ups on there because I've been doing my push-ups. Yep. I recently just had leafy green. I try and eat one leafy green thing a day. Wow. And it's funny, but just having that as like, just one does mean more often than not I will choose a salad over something else. Not because it's like, oh, I better eat healthy.

But it's like, oh, now I can get my one leafy green thing in. I can take that off the list. So yeah, it's just a bunch of like quite small. things. So at the moment, I've got to gamify everything because of my brain. So during lockdown, I used to tick them all off. And then I sort of felt out of the habit of that. So this time, I colour it all in at the start of the week and then I like rub off that square like a scratch card. Like bingo. Right, right. I thought you were going to say air horn. No.

Bo bo bobobo, boo. Another one done. But what I'm trying to be nicer to myself. because it's hard to get everything done at once. Like at the moment, I'm trying to, you know, deal with, make sure that all of my emails from the day before are sorted or dealt with or whatever. And some days, that's very easy for me to do. And other days, like today I just didn't have time because I needed to come here and doing this. Yep. And so I'm trying to be nicer to myself about not always ticking everything off the list.

So at the moment, I'm trying something where I'm like, we're just trying to get as many bingo lines as possible. So like at the end of each week, I can count out like, oh, how many horizontals did I get? How many diagonals did I get? And so I can sort of keep tabs of like, oh, look at that. I managed to do this many. But like, that's it. It's just like, can I get as many that done?

And it's interesting. Once I've made it a lot less stressful, it makes it so much easier to like keep doing those things. and just doing little things to look after myself. It sounds really counterintuitive, but whenever I try and actively do big things that will move me in the right direction, I'm going to change this and do all this, and it's a really big move,

I might do really well for a couple of days, and then I'll fail, and then I find it really hard to get back into it. And then I sort of spiral, and I'm like, oh, this isn't working. And as soon as I started setting my sights way smaller and doing little tiny things and then being like, it's okay. If I didn't do it yesterday, we'll do it today.

And instead of saying it to myself, normally I'd be like, oh, I missed my push-ups yesterday, so now I have to do all of yesterday's push-ups and today's. I'm like, no, we'll just do today's. That's like, because then I'm not like putting it off because it's an even bigger job. And it becomes more about building the habit rather than the overall thing. And then it's way more achievable. So, yeah, I've been. that's where I'm at trying to move in the right direction.

And the more I do the little things, then, what do you know? Suddenly, it's easier for me to sit down and write a brand new 15-minute set for an evening under the very detail, or it's suddenly easier for me to do my tax, whereas before I couldn't because I wasn't sleeping properly or, you know, eating properly. You should do those things. Yeah, yeah, trying to treat myself like a little precious baby. That's how I describe you to other people. No, I like your bingo lines because you're like, you celebrate what you have done, not lament what you haven't done.

Yeah. Yeah. And at least then when there's stuff that's filled in for the stuff I haven't done, I don't feel like a loser. I'm like, ooh, look at the colors. Look at it. I use brightly colored pens. Yeah. Yeah.

This is the beckest conversation we've ever had. I declare seasons of things. The yoy, the year of YouTube. This is my year of writing a book. last year was my year of doing a live show. I just mentally allocate a year to a theme or a section of... This is partly having a multifaceted career, but I'll just normal... Like I still do everything else, but I'll nominally declare a year I'm doing this.

It just helps me... gives me permission to do less on the other things. Yeah. And helps me focus the mind to do things I want to do. And I would highly recommend... I mean, a lot of stuff I do, I'm a bit of a lone wolf, but collaborating with other talented people both elevates what you're doing and helps make sure you keep doing it because you're accountable to other people.

Since we met and started working together. You've really been coasting on my coattails. No. No, you, as you have progressed, rather than taking on the excessive work all for yourself, you have done a really, you seem to be doing a good job of delegating and just make, broadening your team a bit more. And that seems to be helping with the growth and also making it slightly more manageable for yourself.

Yeah. I mean, delegating and getting other people to do stuff for you is always difficult because no one does it the way you do it or to your high standards. But thankfully, I work with great people who do, obviously. I both like to get other people involved because I enjoy working with people. I think more and diverse voices and thoughts mean about. output as such in very crude content creation terms. You've got more people with ideas and suggestions and viewpoints, which is always handy. And it's kind of nice to share the spoils. Like if I can,

instead of just me having a career, there's now a bunch of people who make a living of my dumb, content creation stuff. And that's kind of fun. I like that. So yeah, it's great. Please don't die. You've got a lot of printing to do. I'm going to have to find a dot matrix printer. Alex wants to know why Beck doesn't do more voice acting in video games. Ask my voice agent. Oh yeah. I am going to be a voice in an animation soon.

Really? Yeah. For a show called Maybe, which I actually got to write on. I maybe created a character in the Australian accent and then suggested strongly that I voice it. And then I got to audition for it and then I got the role. Great, great. So maybe I need to write a video game. Right, anybody out there.

in a video game castback. Yeah, yeah. Hit me up. We heard from Clint, who says, why doesn't Matt like chicken? Did a chicken beat him up and take his lunch money when he was a kid? They know what they did. No, no, it's because I have a philosophy of something isn't nothing. And a lot of people don't eat meat at all for climate reasons or for ethical reasons.

And this is a ethical reason. reason. I think the standard to which most chickens live is inhumane or in chicken or whatever the chicken version is. I think we're jerks to chickens to a point that I've opted out. And it's a trivial impact on demand, but I've decided that something isn't nothing. So I think we're so bad to chickens that I don't want to eat them. I occasionally who will eat chicken if like I'd buy one from a farm and they're like this chicken was named Henry. You'll only eat it if it had a real personality.

Has to have a name and a job and aspirations. That we're all cut short. I do like the something isn't nothing. It's why it's a very similar thing to the bingo, right? Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. Yeah.

Don't let perfection be the enemy of the good. Yeah. And so I also, I don't, I drink very. little dairy milk. So everything is oat milk. Yeah. But I do eat cheese. Yes. Something isn't nothing, you know. And I also I think dairy cattle we're not particularly nice to. So, you know, it's a, it's a harm minimisation thing. Something isn't nothing. Somebody like cross-stitched that and sends a photo. Yeah. Crazy Reddit person pointed out a while ago my Christmas tree got into Harvard. True fact. There was going to be a follow-up video.

What happened to that Matt? Great question. I haven't done it. I do overpromise because I get very excited about projects and I take on more than I can complete and that's one of them. I have been messing around with the tree and the live show but I just haven't had a chance to do a follow-on video. I'm very sorry. One day I will.

Because we developed a format gift, graphical interface for trees where people could send in files that would display things on my ridiculous Christmas tree lights. And I never did a follow-up video about it. I'm very sorry, everyone. So that's your explanation. That's it.

The answer is no. Keep waiting. Emmy wrote, possibly a bit too personal. I'd love to hear more about Beck's faith and where she's at with it. I hope she's been met with love since splitting from a partner. I know a lot of amazing Christians who have not experienced that when going through a divorce, sending love either way. And Emmy was saying, I hope it's not too personal.

It's not. I'm more always happy to talk about it. I could talk for a whole episode about stuff like that. I won't. You could. So I'll try and give a little where I'm out with my face. Your big chance. I'm quite open-minded with faith.

I think that's probably the best way to approach things. I don't think any of us are in a position to say what definitely is and isn't when it comes to spirituality. I'm sort of, I guess, leaning more towards the Christian side because I think on a personal level, I think Jesus was an amazing political activist. Where that links with the spirituality side, who knows? But that's just sort of where I kind of lean towards more. on an ethical way. But I think it's really important to make sure that your values, your personal values line up with stuff. I think problems occur when there's a mix between the values and the behaviours of a community. There's a church that I really enjoy that I go to when I can. It's very

progressive. For me, that works very well. They're very environmentally conscious, which is a big thing for me as well. I don't have to feel like I'm something I'm not. Like when I show up, I can just talk very openly about my life. In fact, there was a man there who had just started going to those services and he said that he wasn't sure if it would be the right church for him. And it's not a huge congregation. And so it has like a bit of more of a traditional kind of Church of England vibe. But there was a guy there who was like, I'd heard that they're really nice, but I wasn't sure. So he said the first time he went, he rocked up in a dress. and no one said anything, like no one treated in any.

Not like, didn't say it, but like just nobody treated him differently. They're just, it's very, and it's very much like you can go along and everybody, everybody looks and behaves and acts in very different ways unique to them and everyone's very welcomed. And I, I think that that's very important in a, in a community. So I think there's crossover between faith and community and both of those things can also serve as very independently from each other as well. I hope that makes sense. In conclusion, met with love. Okay, good. Whereas I think we're all artifacts in a computer simulation and alien accidentally left running and forgot about. There's space for that. I didn't say God wasn't that.

Good point, valid. Actually, have I told you, my God theory? That God is like algebra. God is like algebra. God is the Graham number. I think I agree with you. Because when we can't explain something, when something's unknown, as a human species, we've used either the term God or gods to fill in the blank because we don't know what causes it. Yeah. And so we're like, oh, it's God. And then when we learn a little bit more, we're like, oh. Turns out it was high pressure systems.

Yeah. And then God fills in a different gap. And I think God is a really fascinating concept of a safe unknown. Like an unknown is scary. But if the unknown is God and you think of God as being something that's more positive or love or whatever, then it's a lot less scary. So you're not sure what something is, but if you fill it with this idea of like whether it's God or the universe or everyone's connected in some way through this energy or whatever, that means then you can handle much bigger questions and get to the answers that you need by using that as a placeholder. and I think that doesn't mean that the placeholder doesn't exist. It means that it's something that needs to change consistently and throughout life.

And thus concludes thought for the day. Chris, for the AMA has written blah-de-blah. This June they're going to be visiting England from Florida with their wife and kids. And they happen to be around for an evening of unnecessary detail on the 15th of June. The next one's a 16th of March and then 15th of June. However, it is in a licensed venue. So it's 18 plus, I'm afraid. Also, it's adults doing comedy.

So it's not a kid-friendly show. So they've now got two kids who are 17 and 9. So their partner is going to look after the kids and they're going to come to detail and they want recommendations for what they should do in London on a Monday night. in June. It's tricky if you're coming from Florida because I can't exactly be like Yeah, yeah, go

there's a terrible World of Adventures on the wait. Theme parks are not. Yeah. I mean, it's London. There's plenty of things to do. The show itself will be in Greenwich and it'll be sort of

much lighter night, but yeah, there's a lot of stuff that'll be closing. I mean, Greenwich Observatory is great but the hours won't overlap. You can do that with the kids first and then come to the show. I do recommend getting the water bus, bus, water, whatever it's called. There's a bunch of ferries that work along the Thames, which you can use on an oyster cart or contact list. And it's a bit more expensive than getting the tube or the district light rail or something.

Although the DLR, I do recommend sitting at the front of that and pretending you're driving. Oh, that's so much fun. Very fun. But also, I have once gotten the boat from Cutty Sark, I believe the stop was. at like sunset getting that through it takes ages. You're not doing it for time, but it is a lovely little trip down the Thames.

Everything I think of, it's probably not what, a nine-year-old and a 17-year-old I want to do. I'm like, the pedestrian tunnel under the river is a lot of fun. Oh, probably not for anyone who's not me. Everyone who would enjoy that will be at the show.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've recommended camp, like, on park in Camden many times. Right. But it's an arcade with a tiny little roll coaster inside. Ah, right. Which has gone well with kids of that age. Oh, okay.

There you go. But again, there might be more interesting things where you're from in Florida. Yeah, and you've got loads of shows happening as well. Oh, yeah. Go see Matilda. Okay. They will be doing this around June, I imagine. I'm not sure how late into the night they do them. But in Canary Wharf, which is not far from Greenwich.

I had a friend visiting and you can book a hot tub tour of Canary Wharf and you sit in a little adapted hot tub and it floats around the little watery bit around Canary Wharf So it's an interesting thing to do

And finally Matt wrote in for our AMA episode First of all to say they're confused While we're doing an episode about the American Medical Association more importantly they have a question they want to ask you do understand the premise mat they want to know why all my eBay props profit goes to water aid in particular so what they're referring to here is if I have left over props or things from my YouTube videos where look there's no point me keeping them but I think other people would

value them I put them on eBay and all the money goes to charity and actually this closes an ethical loop for me because I'll buy a bunch of of single-use props from large online retailers. And I feel bad about just churning through single-use things. But I then, because they've been in a stand-up mass video, can sell them for charity for more money than I originally paid for them. And now they've got an end-of-life destination. So I'm not just buying stuff and throwing it out or whatever.

You're adding value to you. I'm adding value and money goes to charity. So for me, it's solved a whole problem for me, which is great. And I'm raising money for charity. But they've noticed it always goes to water aid. Now, I know you've done a bunch of stuff for water aid as well. You've got the toilet on your wall. Yes, I won the nation's favorite toilet joke award in 2014.

You go. I do water aid because I once was hiking in Australia and we had to slow down because someone injured their ankle and a bunch of other reasons and we didn't have enough water. and having had to navigate the Aussie desert in summer without water, I was like, you know what? Water is really good. And not having it is dull worst. So I hate to be the guy who's like, oh, I only think things are important if they've impacted me. And I can't possibly imagine other people suffering if it hasn't directly impacted me. But that was what led me to end up supporting. a bunch of water charities. Well, I didn't know that. Like, I used support of water aid, but I didn't know that that was why.

So that answers another question from earlier about what I've learned about me. Oh, that. That fact. Yeah, I've also done water aid. I think more because they reached out to me to do stuff early on. And then I just had a good, I just liked working with them. Yeah, yeah. And it seemed like a good, a good cause.

I've also done stuff raising money for scope. which work a lot with people with cerebral palsy and things like that. And my sister-in-law, yeah, was a Paralympian. She does not still compete. But Scope had been very helpful to her and her family at various points in her life. So that felt like a good reason to support it. And I've also done some stuff with the UK Craft Council. They do a lot of craft outreach, making sure that kids,

have access to craft supplies because those things are expensive. And it's really important that kids and people of all ages have access to being able to express themselves through making things and playing. And that's quite important as well. Good answer. When you said, finally, this doesn't mean it was the last question we received. We received many, ask me anything questions. So apologies if we didn't get around to your question.

Wait until episode 256. That's it. There you go. Either we didn't get a chance or was very. very similar to one of the other ones we answered, or we just didn't like it. You're mean. You get mean at the end of a record, Beck. That's what I learned about you.

The mask starts to slip. We want to thank everybody who sent us questions, whether we got round to answering them or not. But I especially want to thank our Patreon supporters who make this show possible. And we like to thank those Patreon supporters by choosing three at random and mispronouncing their names at the end of the episode. And oh, oh, okay, yeah. So one of them is the same.

Yeah, one's the same as last time. Occasionally it happened. But two in a row. I think it's the first two in a row. Yeah. What an episode this is. Amazing. Okay, well, in this episode, those people are. Oh, live, are,

Scanby, Rugg, Typen. A nasal, a knack. They're back. Step hand. Wee. Lemer off. Thank you Matt Parker. Thank you, me, Beckhill.

Thank you, producer, Laura Grimshaw. It's after the credits, Beck. Yeah, normally we'd play Connect 4. Why are we still recording? The episode's over. Go home. When did we start doing this? Is This Your Card was the first running.

Yeah. And post-credit thing we did. And then we played battleships. No, we'll play Connect 4. I can't believe we played battleships for over a year. Connect 4 is going to take so long if we carry on the way we're currently playing. Longer than battleships? Longer than battleships.

No. You reckon? Yeah. All right. Well, how many spaces are there enough? Well, what is it? One, two, three. Six.

by seven, so 42. Mm-hmm. So I guess worst case, 42. Yeah. Which is 21 months. But it's going to be under that, isn't it? Yeah.

Give a take. Okay, maybe it'd be at the same. Okay, I'll take it back. I'll take it back. And people are enjoying it so much. But not today. Not today. No moves today.

We're taking one off. Jokes on you guys. See you next time.