Dear Hank & John - 197: It's All About Empowerment! (w/ Jenny Owen Youngs!)

Episode Date: July 8, 2019

How do I promote myself? Are museums better explored individually or as a group? What should I do with memorabilia I don't intend to display? What do I do when someone's in my seat? How should Sincere sign off emails? Why do bugs die on their backs? How do we put less value in personality tests? Do mascots smile inside the suit when posing for pictures? Hank and Jenny from Buffering the Vampire Slayer answer your questions and remind you that you rock! If you're in need of dubious advice, email us at [e-mail]. Join us for monthly livestreams and an exclusive weekly podcast at patreon.com/dearhankandjohn. Follow us on Twitter! twitter.com/dearhankandjohn

Hello and welcome to Dear Hank and John. Oh, is life before I think of it? Dear Jenny and John? Oh my god. No, not Hank. I'm just totally cutting you off the podcast. Off to an incredible start. It's a podcast where two friends and sometimes two brothers, but sometimes two friends

answer your questions, give you a advice and bring you all the week's news from both Mars and AFC Wimbledon. Jenny, I have a cold right now. I got a sinus headache, but did you know that ants ants don't get sick? And do you know why? I do not know why. Because they have tiny little antibodies.

Oh, maybe they would get sick if you told them that joke. I don't think that they'd get it, because they don't have a super detailed understanding of how the immune system works. Sure, sure, sure. But they do actually get sick just for clarity. I just wanted to correct the incorrect thing, but I had previously said as part of the joke,

I didn't want anyone walking away, thinking that ants held the cure to all disease or anything. Thank you for being honest about science. Yes, that is one of my main goals. Everybody, this is Jenny Owen Youngs. Hello. What is your biography?

Tell people about you. Well, I am Sagittarius with Leo Rising and a Libre Moon. And you know, I just make music and podcasts and talk to my friend Hank, whose name I totally know. It's not, I mean, my mom does that all the time, so I'm not gonna hold that against you. Well, what are moms for if not to mess up your name with your siblings? If not to first call you the dog's name followed by your brothers. Yeah.

Well, is the dog the cutest out of the three of you? I mean, depending on the era of life, yes. There's been a number of dogs. I have an old man now. Well, you've outlived them all but and yet so you are you have a you have a famous podcast tell me about what you podcast. Oh my gosh Well, I have a podcast called buffering the vampire slayer which you might be able to extrapolate is about Buffy the vampire slayer and me and my co-host Kristen talk about one episode at a time and then we write a song recapping the episode we're discussing and that's that's a vibe. It's amazing. I love

creativity constraints where you're like you know what I'm gonna do it's gonna write one song about every episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer there is. That's a lot it's a lot it's seven seasons of 26 episodes, but we're going to do it. And I will have written a lot of freaking songs by the end of this. Yeah, I think when we get to the end and I can look back on my sprawling kingdom

of 144 Buffy-specific songs, plus Jingles, plus non-episotic songs that get thrown in, as bonuses probably around 160 songs by the time we're done. I'll feel very powerful. I feel powerful already. I hope everybody at home feels powerful too. That's really what Dear Hank and John is all about. It's about empowering you to be able to handle

the various minutia and just annoying BS that life is gonna throw at you every day until it's all over. I have to say like like, listening to some episodes prior to talking to you today, I felt pretty powerful, and I also felt the transference of power happening from you and John to people.

Yeah, I mean, I don't wanna exaggerate here, have an abundance of belief in our own self-worth. I was just trying to say that in the nicest way possible. Yeah, well, no. I mean, like, you have to start with that in order to convince other people of your self-worth. Maybe there has to be a seed that other people can externally access.

Right. Well, hey, if you can't love yourself, how in the hell are you gonna love somebody else? Is my dear friend RuPaul has said a thousand times to me while watching a TV show about Drag Race. Do you want to give some empowering advice to Anna? I really, really, really, really, really do. Okay, let's see if we can do it.

Anna asks, dear Hank and Jenny, I recently quit my retail job to start my own music studio. I've been teaching music, voice piano guitar, and ukulele for about 10 years now, and I have plenty of knowledge and everything needed to be successful at this. My BA is in music. However, how do I gain clientele?

I'm bad at self-promotion. How do I get over that in order to gain students? Since you guys self-promote, at least on a weekly basis, is true. Maybe you could give me some advice on how to get over my shyness, not a banana anna. Wow. Boy, well, one, this can't just be about shyness.

It has to be, because you're not shy in the studio, you're teaching people, you're comfortable doing that, which sounds stressful to me. But I think it's about talking yourself up, which is a different thing from being timid or anxious about social connection. about talking yourself up, which is a different thing from being timid or anxious about social connection. Yeah, what about, hey, I'm having,

I'm gonna just throw this group sing along, little hang in the park, everybody come and bring your instruments and then you've got people who are interested in music, all coming together, meeting each other, meeting you. And then at the end, you drop the, oh by the way, I teach lessons. You all suck at this. Come learn how to be better. That's how I let go. Okay, I see. I mean, the deeper, the deeper error is like, would anyone do that?

I'm shocked at the idea that you think that people would just like see a newspaper at and be like, I will go meet strangers and play music in the park. You know what, maybe they will. Maybe I've seen too much Hank, because this is something that like we've done with the podcast and I've done on my own as like my individual music thing where I've just like done park hangs and had people bring instruments.

But I already I guess had a certain amount of sway and power convincing people to do my bidding. Well, Anna, if there's one thing I've learned from listening to Dear Hank and power, convincing people to do my bidding. Well, Anna, if there's one thing I've learned from listening to Dear Hank and John, it's the turtles all the way down is now available in paperback. And self-promotion is that easy. Very well done.

So here's a trick. Make it not like the Anna Banana Studio here. Make it like, you don't have to be, but just as if you are one of the many people who operates out of your studio Mm-hmm, and then it's like this is the studio that you're promoting. It's not you Yes, you're the only person who works at the studio You're the only person who gives lessons, but you don't have to say that you say like just like depersonalize it a little bit Be like this is a thing that is available

It's legit and make it look legit and people will just believe it. Because what else do they know? That is a great point and I think like a place that I can draw, that I definitely draw power from in day to day life. Anytime I can like talk about something that I am a part of versus something that's like just my thing, it's so much easier.

Like we are just like just the ability to say we or like a bunch of people worked on this thing Yeah, really really helps to to smooth over the like sort of cactus-iness of Trying to tell people you rock ultimately. I think sometimes the reason we feel weird about that is because we know that if we saw An ad that was like some rando person wants to teach me ukulele Like why do I trust that person? And so, depersonalizing it is one way to start that up. And then also, of course, you're going to want to look at all kinds of ways to get recommendations from other people and to add music stores, people who are going to be looking for places,

like putting your fires up in places, having conversations with those people and letting them know that your wares are available. But I think it's great. I think that if you have the opportunity and if it's something that you have ever dreamed of, like doing a little bit of small business, I think you should do that. Because it's wild and you learn a lot

and you never know how it's gonna go, but always keep learning. Doing a little bit of small business, just a little. Just a little. Just to take. Start out small. Yeah, this first one's free.

So we, you and I, Hank, of course, received a missive from Cameron, who writes Dear Hank and Jenny, on a recent high school trip to the American Museum of Natural History. Our teacher made our tour groups split into subgroups, and I feel like I got scammed. I mistakenly joined the other freshman

with a rather impulsive junior who raced, how dare they, through five dinosaur galleries to take a selfie with the T-Rex, ran through the Hall of Viadiversity to take a photo with the giant whale, and then decided that the group spent the rest of their time in the gift shop in cafeteria where we all awkwardly watch her eat a plate

of macaroni and cheese. In the four hours we were there, I felt like I had seen absolutely nothing, even though four hours doesn't let you see much of any museum. My question is, do you think that museums are better explored as a group or individually, artifacts and animals, Cameron? Cameron! Cameron, you're paying!

It's rough. Can you not split off? Like was there rules? Like once you've gone with this person, it's over. You just got to hide. But I guess you don't want to get lost. Hey, can you ever been to the American Museum of Natural History? I have.

I mean, then I certainly hope you can agree that it is one of the most magical places in all of the land. And the, I, my heart, when I read this question, my heart, like, just started bleeding for Cameron, and it has not stopped. Cameron, you must go back, A. Ha! Drag this disinterested junior along with you and tell them all of the beautiful things

that they are missing out of in life by not having their eyes open to the wonder and majesty of the universe. Yeah, truly, or leave that junior alone. And go back by yourself. I mean, I think cultural things and entertainment-y things are sort of like understood by us as a group outing like people go to the movies on a date or with their friends. People go to museums and

groups on field trips, people do stuff together all the time, but I think there's something to be said for going to museums by yourself if you're comfortable doing stuff by yourself, especially a museum like that one. Oh, yeah. Sprolley and there are so many different kinds of things that you can experience and like having to and macaroni and cheese is probably just now one of them, you know, so having somebody else that's gonna dictate

what you do and do not get to see is just a bummer. I never have been to a museum by myself because I don't go to places where museums are when less I'm on vacation and then I'm like with people because I go on vacation with my family. But once you're in the museum, you just break apart sometimes. Like you end up in different places or like there's nothing wrong with that.

But it's also, if you find somebody who has similar interests to you, it is often also very fun to be able to share that with people and be like, what is your take on this? You know, what are you experiencing now? I like, I thought that this was fascinating and stared at it for 15 minutes because of X reason and like you didn't look at it at all and I'm curious about why I liked it and you didn't purify Spursa because I think that it's great to be able to experience something through multiple people's eyes. But yeah, like definitely no reason to be stuck unless there is a policy of your school to be stuck, which it sounds like maybe that was the situation you had.

Yeah, it sounds like you didn't get a square deal, Cameron. Yeah. But you must return, you must take your fate into your own hands and get the natural history experience. You so very much deserve. All people, go to museums, folks. It's amazing. This next question comes from Liz, who asks, dear Hank and Jenny, when I moved into an apartment after college,

I hung up my graduation tassel and two honor cords. Now I'm moving and packing up and feeling not much attachment to those items after five years. I don't plan to hang them up in my new place. So what should I do with them? Just let them sit in the box forever or throw them away. That seems so heartless and unsentimental trying not to be heartless. Ah, heartless, got it. Great, great landing. Yeah, I did my best on the performance there. I don't know that I could have done better.

And I think that it is important to have stuff that documents the things that are important moments in your life, and for a while, I did not think that. I had this sort of like, and it's all just trash perspective and now I regret that. But what I do is I do not collect boxes full of stuff. I decide that if something is important to me, I'm going to do something with it.

I'm going to make something with it. I'm going to put it in a frame. I'm going to put it somewhere on a shelf where it's going to be a part of the thing that I'm doing. And I got this from John, actually, because I was visiting his house one time, and he has this sort of like area on his staircase, that's just like a bunch of framed photos,

but then also a lot of like framed things that aren't photos. And I was like, that's really smart. Like just stick it on the wall. And then like you look at it, and it's like a note from his professor when he published his first book, like his English professor from high school sent him a note

that he put on the wall, and like stuff from wall and stuff from Sarah's art curatorial career. And in that vein, I framed the first badge that I got from the first VidCon. It was in a box somewhere, and I was like, I'm gonna put that in a frame, and I'm gonna put it on the wall. And that will be a thing that I will look at and think, this was a thing that I was a part of. And then I made with my brother and my friends, and it it's really cool and I'm glad that it's a thing. So I don't know if that's applicable to this particular situation, but I do think that it's important to have ways for me anyway to celebrate those moments. of developmental place than you. And we might totally swap places in a year or five.

Who knows? Who can say for sure? But I just rode the whole Marie Kondo train. Yeah. All the way to... To naked apartment vote. Naked apartment vote. Well, something like that.

Or it just sort of like gave me a different perspective, I guess, on things. And we all grow up, like, seeing the way that our parents and our grandparents take care of their stuff and hold on to things or don't, and like, we all have, like, I think, a different way that we come to think about stuff that we get from them and from other external influences around us. So, like, who can say, where Liz is coming from. But what I wish to impress upon Liz since the spirit of this podcast is all about power

and giving it to people or just reminding it that they totally have it. It was there, it was the friends we made along the way. It was there all along inside you, Liz, you don't have to hold on to your tassel and honor cords. You can, but you don't have to. And like it's ultimately up to you. And like, hang what you were talking about

with like finding different ways to like display or save things that aren't just like keeping them in a box is really sick, like such a cool way. And then you're kind of like, you catch it out of the corner of your eye and you're like, oh yeah, I have like this very fun memory, but that is sort of like the other side of the, you don't have to hold onto something coin

just because like you feel a sense of obligation, there is also the fact that like it is nice. It is like warming and empowering to like have those sort of like touchstones that remind you that you are real and you have an impact on the world around you or you had a goal and you accomplished it because I feel like the world is so fast. We're all just like little bullets speeding through the atmosphere and it's so easy to forget that we rock. Yeah, that like any of the cool things

that have happened to us have happened to us. Yeah, speaking of like speeding through the air. I like like the Marie condo train is. Yes, exactly. It's a flying train like from back to the future, too. Precisely. Precisely. Yeah, I think three is the train.

Gwen has also been flying through the air recently and writes, dear Hank and Jenny, when I travel overseas on my own, I book an aisle seat as I don't like having to climb over people if I need to get out. My issue arises when I get to my allocated aisle seat and find someone else sitting in it. How do I deal with this?

I specifically booked the seat for me and now someone else has settled themselves into my seat. I don't like confrontation and a window seat isn't really that bad, but that is my seat. It's stuck in a metal cylinder at 35,000 feet. Gwen, Gwen, Gwen, Gwen, Gwen, Gwen, Gwen, Gwen, I feel you. Confrontation is tough.

And even when it's as simple as like, that is the thing that I picked out and paid for. May I please have it, it can be so hard. But Gwen, you deserve the aisle seat. Think of how your veins and muscles will thank you when you get off your flight. When you were able to get up and walk around without bothering anybody, which is also confrontation, like think of the confrontation that would arise. If you took the window seat and then you got up to pee, you know, five times in your cross-country flight as I would, that's all, that's five times the confrontation.

We have to create ways to imbue our power onto Gwen. What is the source of my power? You know, a six foot one white guy in America. I'm sorry. I guess I figured out what the source of my power is. I just look at the ticket and I say, that's my seat. And then I'm like, that's my seat. And they're like, oh, that's your seat. And I'm like, that's my seat. And then that's how it goes for me. Gwen, if you're not a six foot tall white guy, here's something you could try. I like to just frame it as like giving them the opportunity to be like, oh gosh, of course, let me get out of your way. So like, I like to roll up and say like, oh, well, I'm really sorry. I probably shouldn't be endorsing people apologizing when there's

nothing to be apologizing for, but this is my way. I'm sorry. I think that you might be in my seat, or I think I might be meant to sit there. That's the script for sure. Yeah, I'm sorry. I think, well, to be fair, sometimes you're wrong. I've been wrong too. Oh, so embarrassing. And then you're like, wait, oh, oh, oh, yes, I see, I'm behind you. The numbers are confused. Yes, yes, yes. But the important thing to remember is that like you deserve to sit in your seat. It's almost always an accident. It's confusing. They got the A and the B and it's like they put the little picture of the window next to the A.

And you're like, but is that? And some people like I have, you know, a little bit of sensory processing issues. I always mess that up. So I need you to tell me. I need to know if I've done the wrong thing, because I probably don't. Yes, yes. And as someone, I mean, personally, I love rules.

And if I was in somebody's seat and they were like, you're in my seat, I would be so thankful that they just talked to me about it so that I could correct the issue and restore justice. And instead of getting off the plane and tweeting, like, Hank Green was such a tool, he sat in my seat the whole flight. Ha, ha, ha.

Wow, have you ever received a post flight negative review? Ha, ha, ha, no. But I do sometimes receive post flight, like just like, let him, you know. Ha, ha, ha, ha. Yeah. Yeah, it, like, just like, let him, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. That's like the wildest choice of the three. I did that to someone else actually once. I was sitting like two seats away from Bianca Del Rio of RuPaul's Drag Race fame. And tweeted after word that I was pretty sure I was on the same plane as Bianca Del Rio. And Bianca tweeted at me and was like, why didn't you say hi? And I was like, I mean, to be completely honest, you looked very sleepy. Like, I so yeah, I guess I've done it to people.

Feel free if you see me on a plane to say hi or tweet at me afterward, letting me know that it happened. Yes, also, I mean, I know we've only just met listeners, but feel free to do the same to me. I prefer the hello because if you get the post tweet, that's like they were looking, they saw you. I'm like, what did I do? What embarrassing thing did I do? What?

I literally, thing was I watching on my back of the C TV. Yeah, you saw the bad TV I watched. Yeah. I went to a thing at the university, like a showcase of the performing arts department. And I saw a tweet afterward from someone who said, saw Hank Green at this performance at the university, he dug out a big, old booker. No. That really humanized him for me.

And I was like, are you for real right now? Why? I mean, probably. Probably I did. Let me think you were looking at me. Look, these things happen, but like why put that image in everyone else's head? Yeah.

Why not especially yours? Especially now I know. Well, but honestly, maybe I do need to be told that it's enough with the nose picking. Because if I'm doing it and people are noticing, I wanna know, I wanna know. Let me know. The other day I picked my nose in front of my two

and a half year old son and he said, big, huge, big, big booger. And I was like, I mean, I don't wanna brag. Sure, sure, sure. All right, you've got another question. This one's from anonymous who asks, dear Hank and Jenny, I have a student who's named Sincier. We're currently learning how to write professional emails and I face a dilemma. How does Sincier conclude professional

letters? Sincerally, best regards. So, Jenny, are you aware and have you noticed that we do a thing here at Dear Hank and John, name specific sign-offs? I sure have noticed that. And I love our name specific sign-offs, and I just couldn't pass this question up because Sincere has the best of all, and the easiest of all, name specific sign-offs, which is of course sincerely sincere. And I think you gotta go with that.

Yeah, I gotta say when I first read this, I was like, oh no, you must avoid Sincerely, but hearing you say it, it just sounded so convincing and satisfying. Right, and like, brave, you're like saying, yes, my name is sincere, that's a perfectly fine name, and people say sincerely, and I'm gonna say sincerely sincere, because it sounds cool and I'm cool

and I'm comfortable, and this podcast is all about empowerment. I think my like one caveat would be, if you're writing an email to somebody who you've never met, I feel like it might be worth finding a different sign off just for that because I feel like it might feel like you just accidentally wrote like sincerely and then kept writing that word again,

but forgot the last two letters. You know what I mean? Yeah, I guess I would, maybe I'm a coward, I don't know. Yeah. This is, you're doing terrible job of empowerment. I think 90% of the time, people aren't gonna misread it and are gonna understand that your name is sincere

or they'll look at it and be like, oh, what? And then look and be like, oh, this person's name is sincere. Especially if your email is like sincere at gmail.com or like sincere smith or something. Like if there's one piece of evidence to back it up, just to avoid confusion, then I think you are all you golden. Yeah, you have to start.

You got to lead with your name. If you're meeting someone in email for the first time, you always say hi. This is sincere. I'm emailing because I saw your profile on LinkedIn. I've got LinkedIn premium and I saw you snoop it on my stuff. And I wanted you to let you know that I am interested in working at your company. Well, whatever.

Wow. I'm just learning a lot about LinkedIn right now, I think. That's how it works. I'm pretty sure I haven't done a job search in a while for being honest. Okay, okay. That's mostly podcasting for me these days. I just really like it when people lean into,

like, and own something that is a little bit unusual about themselves. But, but I also understand that sometimes there are certain folks out there who don't like it unusual. Anything unusual, they're like, I don't know, I'm not sure what that means. Maybe not. Maybe just put that one on the back burner

and take somebody named Susan. And I like that's a real thing. That's just real America and I understand that. So I definitely play a case by case, but if you're applying for a job with me, definitely go sincerely, sincere. Yes, and if you're applying for a job with me, maybe like the first time you email,

your send-off could be like, I would sign this off sincerely, however my parents named me sincere. I mean, yeah, that's pretty good. That's pretty good. I wouldn't leave that behind by that opportunity. Could I introduce a question that has not to do with empowerment, but maybe like the opposite?

There are. Okay. Go. Meg writes, dear Hank and Jenny, why do bugs often die on their backs? How do they even flip over? I am scared to Google this because I don't want to see pictures. Thank you. Meg is going to be lots of pictures.

This is such a great question. Do you know the answer to this question? Don't know the answer, but I'm dying to know the answer, but I'm not going to flip over on my back or anything. Well, you don't really want to know. I'm worried now that you think that if you lie down on your back, you will die. Yeah, what actually comes first is really the question. So that's the thing.

I think oftentimes, ultimately, the flipping wasn't caused by the death. The death was caused by the flipping wasn't caused by the death. The death was caused by the flipping. And not entirely, but if you are a sort of like waning insect for whatever reason, if you're in your last days and you get stuck on your back, you are not able to flip yourself back over and that will be the cause of your death. Now, ultimately, you are going to die soon anyway. You're on the way out, but you couldn't

continue with all your bugly duties because you got stuck on your back and you weren't strong enough to flip yourself back over as you once were in your youth. So that's one piece of it. The other piece is that oftentimes when we see bugs that are flipped over on their backs, they have been poisoned. So the way that insecticide works, it's like usually some kind of motor-nerved disruptor that is active in insects, but not in humans. So, like, theoretically, like, don't eat it or anything. But, like, it wouldn't kill a person the way it will kill a bug. And so, they have this, like, nervous system disruption, which makes them spasm and do all kinds of weird things. And, like, that tends to lead to them being on their backs

and then they're not able to flip themselves back over. This is so much more like Macabre than I thought I was going to be at like death. It's all like there's no good way to die when you're a bug. How callous of me to devalue insect death. So yeah, you thought it was gonna be all fun and games. Well, you did say bugly duties all fun and games. Yeah, well you did say bugly duties. So I wouldn't trade that for much and also waning insect

is like so close to waning. I'm really hung up on waning insect because like that's definitely like a band. Good. I'm glad you I'm glad you liked it. My son is super super into the moon. So we talk a lot about waning and waxing. It's pretty great to hear my son say I'm like, what kind of moon is that? And he goes waxing gibbous and I'm like, yeah, you said waxing gibbous. Yo, that's my boy. Rocks. That's the kind of kid I want to have. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, that is cool. I don't think that he actually understands waxing and waning, but he does understand Gibbos, which is baller.

Yeah, that's pretty cool. I, having a son who's super obsessed with the moon, am hyper aware of the moon now, which is wonderful. I just, like, I always know where the moon's at. It's very close as we're recording. It's very nearly a new moon. I know exactly where it is in the sky. You can close as we're recording. It's very nearly a new moon. I know exactly where it is in the sky. You can't see it because it's so close to being a new moon.

It's very close to the sun. And I like get it more than I ever have in my life. That's great. That's so awesome. Yeah, I just needed a moon-obsessed boy. Yeah, you just needed a reason. Yeah. I've been doing some moon research recently too.

Did you know that it's like 262 degrees Fahrenheit on the light side of the moon and negative 260 degrees Fahrenheit on the dark? Yeah, it's no good. You were already, you're prepared with that. Yeah, it's deeply uninhabitable. Yeah, I mean, it depends on how you count. Like, there's no air there,

so it's hard for the heat to get into you. So it's just like direct radiation from the sun, that's heating you up. Yeah. Which probably worse, probably worse than just a very, very, very, very hot day. Probably, in terms of the heat transfer, be better. So a very hot day would probably kill you faster if it were that temperature than just the direct radiation of the sun. But what is going to get you faster than either of those things

is the complete lack of- Outer lack of oxygen or atmosphere. Yeah, that's just gonna boil you. It'll get you. Oh yeah. Every time. Which reminds me that this podcast is brought to you by dying on the moon.

Dying on the moon so far. Thank God no one's done it. This podcast is also brought to you by dying on your back. Is that cool? Is that a good ad? Yeah, sure. Tell me about what's dying on your back's tagline. Disrupt your own motor nerve. Continue on. What were the good science words you used? Bugly duties, I think. And this podcast is also brought to you by the back to the future Marie Kondo train.

It flies, it's made of light powered by fusion and gets rid of all of your excess stuff of which I have, let's be honest too much. Wow. Does anybody want this DVD that is on my floor of my office for some reason? Why don't I have a DVD? This podcast is also and finally brought to you by your plane ticket that definitely

allows you to sit in the seat that you paid for and bought seat 13D. It's yours. It's yours. All right, we got another question. It's from anonymous because maybe anonymous is roommate. Listen to the podcast. It says dear Hank and Jenny, my roommate puts a lot of stock into a person's Myers-Briggs personality type. Myers-Briggs, I think is how I that said. How do I tell her that while those tests are fun and can provide a framework for understanding they're not the end all and be all of someone's soul? they're not the end all and be all of someone's soul. Sincerely, I S F J or I N F J, depending on my mood. I mean, you're sign off. Even your sign off indicates that you are highly connected

to the malleability of a person's given state of being. Oh, God, what a great sponsor. I wish we'd gotten that one in. This blackout is definitely brought to by the malleability of a person's different states of B. Oh yeah. I feel this way about generations. I feel this way about astrology. I feel this way about personality types. We, of course, we want to put ourselves into like like boxes to understand ourselves with. And I think that they can lead to some better understanding. I think that questioning ourselves

and lenses through which to examine ourselves are super important. But ultimately, it's all gonna be imperfect and also always remember that you are not one person and that you're gonna change and you're gonna be different and life is gonna surprise you when you look back and say, I was like that once if you decide that you are one type of person and gonna be different, and life is gonna surprise you when you look back and say, I was like, that once, if you decide that you are one type of person and will be forever,

you might be, and that probably won't be that great. It's good to be able to wiggle around some. I like wiggle them. Yeah, I'm worried about your roommate now that maybe your roommate's gonna stay the same kind of person forever and always because they put so much stock in the Myers-Bersinality type system. I think like you said,

like astrology, Myers-Brigged stuff, religion, if you please, they're all different filters that you have the option of looking at your life through and whatever you project onto yourself because of something that you read is the thing that you need to learn or think about or consider. And I also, I don't want to begrudge people for those lenses. Obviously, I find personally astrology to be a focus.

Oh, are you a Virgo Hank? No, keep guessing, girl. Is that the sign that doesn't believe in astrology? At least likely to, generally speaking. It's amazing. I love that so much. But I don't like get up in people's business about it. When it comes up, it's like, I don't feel like this is doing harm to people.

I think it's a lens through which to look at stuff. I think that if you're seeing an astrologer in their charge and you $200 a session, that like, you probably be better off talking to a therapist that's not going to try to predict the future because it's a little weird. But I think that it's the same thing with personality types. And, you know, I think, honestly, you're going to get a little bit more accuracy out of a personality type because at least you're like, testing what you're like right now. What I don't want people to think is that like, these are something that was defined upon birth and that you're stuck with forever. Oh, boy. I don't want people to think is that like these are something that was defined

upon birth and that you're stuck with forever. Oh boy, I don't know, I don't know man. Personality tests are a whole thing and they're also like, I feel like they're super controversial and they create a ton of opportunity for building a yell at each other and I also don't want to condone that. So don't like, I feel like don't rag on your roommate just because they found something that they're interested in right now. Well, the world is long and six months from now, they might have found a new interest. Oh, yeah. And you don't need to fix your roommate. I got the impression, and maybe this is just me projecting or something, but I got the impression from this email that like your roommate is like putting a lot on you with regards to Myers-Briggs and that it's like suffocating you emotionally in

some way, maybe. And if that's the case, like, you deserve better, you deserve fresh air. But make a safe space for yourself away from that conversation if it is oppressing you. But also, like, if they're just in a tailspin about it, like, you can step away and like, you don't have to get involved in their salvation. Absolutely. All right.

Well, we're going to do before the news from Mars and AFC Wimbledon one piece of an update from Liz, who asks, dear, mostly Hank, but also Jenny. Hank mentioned in a recent episode that he was a mascot in high school. I've always wondered when people want to take a picture with the mascot, do you smile from inside the suit, even though no one can see? Curiously, Liz. I guess probably this question is mostly for me. Have you ever been on the inside of a mascot suit?

Not yet. I guess it would be my official answer. That's good. I'm glad that you've left the door open. Yeah, so yes. Yes, I don't, like, I can't speak for all my mascots, but like, I was completely incapable of projecting an emotion with my body without projecting it with my face.

And it would be wild to me to think that someone out there couldn't do that and be like, happy go lucky, will be the wild cat, doing all the things to make the kids happy, but at the same time, just like completely dead faced. Cause you could be like, no, like there's nothing saying you can't be, but it was not a skill that I had. Yeah, I don't even know how people can just be

in a picture without automatically having the reflex of like, all right. Yeah. Here we go. And do you feel a little bit dumb when you got your big ol' smile on and you're taking a picture even though you're behind a gigantic wood cardboard and foam contraption?

Yeah, you do feel a little silly, but that's okay, you gotta own it because the whole, it's all about little silly, but that's okay. You gotta own it because the whole, that's, it's all about empowerment and just doing what feels right. Feel like we've done more good in this episode of Dear Hank and John than all of them, rest of them combined.

Ah, then my mission here is complete, that rocks. It's not complete. It's not quite complete, but, you know. Because you haven't given us the news from AFC Wimbledon. Well, there's never been anyone in the history of your podcast more qualified to bring the news of AFC Wimbledon to the people.

So listen up. In AFC Wimbledon news, there is a lot of hubbub about Joe, the pig, Piggot. Piggot, is that right? Do you know? Piggot, but that's okay. Joe, the pig, Piggot. What an unfortunate nickname.

Who scored possibly most of AFC Wimbledon's goals last year? AFC Wimbledon has pig it in a contract, but that hasn't prevented a lot of clubs from expressing interest, including Redding, who has maybe offered Wimbledon $250,000. Is that US dollars to buy out pig its contract? I don't know, actually. Oh, that's your ask me about sure. He might be pound.

Just 250,000 of something. So, Wimbledon manager, Wally Downs. Oh, my God. This is a card. Yeah, that's it. Real day, I know. I'll look at your. Wally Downs says that they have at this point

received no bids for Joe. So where did that $250,000 number come from? Who would get that money? How does any of this work? Look, I don't have any idea. It's all very confusing, but the important thing is Joe's future is up in the air and he played so well that he is probably leaving Wimbledon behind which is bad news. Can I ask a question? Yeah, please are Liverpool and Wimbledon the same thing? What I feel like the last a ifs like the last soccer related update I heard you guys doing, there was like a lot of talk about Liverpool doing a lot of good. Yeah, that's, you are,

yeah, you're correct. There was a lot of talk about Liverpool. That was unrelated, separate soccer news that has been introduced into the podcast without my permission. I am so, I've made a terrible mess of things. I was just seeking to understand, but now am I? No, I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at John for producing new soccer news, and then just pooping all over my idea to have a smash mouth-related segment that no one wants me to do.

I was just in a studio that used to be the domain of smash mouth, and they covered the walls in this jewel tone, Lisa Frank-esque-colored like multicolored yarn. Yeah. So now here, that's your Smash Mouth segment. Ta-da. Balance is restored.

Thank you. Thank you. That's wonderful. I love it. Any amount of Smash Mouth trivia I can receive I will take. Every time I watch the music video, I have new questions. And it's not dozens of times that I've seen it. It's hundreds.

Wow. What if you wrote a song about every single shot? Oh my God. Oh, the music video, first marshmallow sauce. Okay, as you are proposing this to me, I am desperately trying to remember what the music video for All Star looks like. Can you describe it to me?

Can you paint me a picture? Oh, yes, I can. I could probably, yes. So music videos is s***. So that's the music video and sort of rough form. Okay. Wow.

They made an entire Cheetah print house. Oh my God. Just for that one shot that no one noticed. But I noticed it, so it was all worthwhile. Hmm. Hmm. What does it mean? This is a great podcast. I feel good about it. I love it. This week in Mars News, Mars got hacked. So that's my Mars

News this week. JPL, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, had a security breach and about 500 megabytes of data was stolen. So some restricted information, some of the stolen files related to the curiosity rover. Oh my God. It happened last April and it went undetected for 10 months. Oh my God. They had a hole in their security for 10 months. You might think that hacking NASA would require some pretty advanced, like mission impossible-type technology,

but the actual source of the hack, or the security hole, not the hack, was a small, cheap computer called a Raspberry Pi. Do you know what Raspberry Pi's are? Can you please tell me? They are super cheap computers that are often used in, like, DIY fun things, like, you know, make a wippy cushion that's remote control-operated stuff, and they're, like, 35 bucks for a computer.

Wow. But they're basically a credit card sized, like motherboard computer built in logic chip. So somebody had plugged one of those in that had, like to the JPL network that had access out of the building, and somebody was able to use that Raspberry Pi as a backdoor into JPL.

And Raspberry Pi's are very well understood by the hacker community because they use them all the time. And somebody found one and was able to get into the JPL network through it. Now, what this means ultimately, there isn't a lot of super confidential stuff JPL in the Mars program are all public information, but a lot of that information isn't meant to be shared until it undergoes some scientific processing and etc. And also like what can you do once you're in there, what can you control? It's closed down now, they've closed the security hold, doesn't look like anybody was actually able to go in and like move curiosity on Mars or anything.

But yeah, Mars got hacked, so that's bound to happen one way or another. I remember when I was in high school, it was like, that was the big get if you could hack NASA, then you were like a legend. But it's still possible and people do it all the time just because it sounds really good. Yeah, that sounds like the kind of thing that is only useful in being able to then later say

I did this thing. Yeah, I did hack NASA, that was me. So it's still in our investigation and we'll see if anybody gets caught, which would be bad for that person. Wow, yeah. Just to be clear, it wasn't you, right? No.

Okay. Definitely not. As far as I know, I've been fairly busy to busy to hack NASA. Sure, sure, sure, sure. It's exactly what somebody who Hack NASA would say. Yeah, look, I've been really busy looking at every single frame of smash-mouth salsa. So no way I could have had time to hack NASA.

Jenny Owen Young, thank you for podcasting with me. Thank you for podcasting with me. Yeah, it's been really fun. This podcast is edited by Joseph Tunehmetish. It's produced by Rosiana Halstrow, Hassan Sheridan, Gibson. Our head of community and communications is Victoria von Jornow. The music that you're hearing now

and at the beginning of the podcast is by the great Gunnarola. And as they say in our hometown, don't forget to be awesome. you