Distractible - Edutainment!

Episode Date: November 8, 2024

Professor Mark gives students Bob and Wade the hefty assignment to find the most entertaining and educational content before dismissal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Good evening, gentle listener, and welcome to Distractable. This episode, Big Shift Mark invokes the Omnisciah, sets up Skynet, and tasks the lads to give him info with excitement. Plugman wizardly Wade goes three-gun monitor Mojo, and rocks the schoolhouse with Ted. Power Master Balletic Bob believes Fiber's mystical, screws up Box, loves retro training, and milking turtles with steam.

From tech issues to math blaster. Yes! It's time for edutainment. Now sit back and prepare to be distracted and enjoy the show. Hello and welcome to Distractable, the podcast where I'm the host and I judge the worthiness of both you, the audience and the competitors that are here today. Today is an audience versus competitors episode. No stop. That would be fun though, wouldn't it? We're not worthy!

I think we'd kick their ass. I'd be excited for that. The audience don't got nothing on me. So, the way it works is I'm gonna judge them and I'm gonna assign points based on what they have to offer. And then the winner will host the next episode. If there is a winner, wink. I thought you were gonna say, if there is a next episode. I was like, oh my God, the stakes have never been higher.

That's true, that's true, all right. Yeah, I could set a point threshold and if we don't get above that, the podcast is canceled. That's the end. I mean, that seems like the only reasonable thing to do really. Honestly, it might be the most reasonable thing we've ever done on the podcast.

So before we get into any of that though, we need to talk about our lives and what's going on in those lives. Or in the greater universe. Or local community. You guys won't believe this, but I, Wade, have a Wade's Tech Corner update. Whoa. Oh. Do I ever have technology updates? The answer won't surprise you, it's no. I'm gonna give you a point before, and I'm gonna take it away if it's not worthy of that point.

I don't want to stop and allow that to happen. I'm sure you'll earn it. I have been plagued by a mystery for a while. The weighty boy here bought some monitors back in like 2015, 2016, and I used those puppies all the way up until this year, and I decided, you know what, it's time. The universe said 60 Hertz isn't the cap. You can go beyond that now.

You've been using 60 Hertz monitors up till now? So what I did was I bought some new monitors. These bad boys, 4K, dual mode, don't even know what that means, up to 244, 240 Hertz, one of the two. Don't even know, the numbers are so much bigger than I'm used to. I slapped these bad boys on. I had display ports on the old ones,

and I was like, you know what? Display port seems to still be the thing after a decade. Let's keep display ports on these bad boys. Fired up the old PC, by old I mean less than a year old, cause we're all new here at Wade Studios. And all three monitors flickered on and I was like, oh baby we're in business. I launched up my first game ready to check out

my new sweet puppies. And one of my monitors was like, oh, oh dear, oh my, oh no, heaven, the bed went black. And I've talked to you boys about it, off camera a little bit, for almost a month, couple months, a month, something like that. Like a month and a half, I think. I have had three different people in the house.

I have had at least six hours of calls trying to get these monitors to work. They all work individually. Two of them work at a time. Couldn't get all three to work at the same time again. Until yesterday. If the solution is you got other monitors, I think you deserve three to work at the same time again. Until yesterday. If the solution is you got other monitors, I think you deserve to lose more points than he gave you. These are the same three monitors. These are even the same three cords and cables.

No new parts were added. The solution was not to download software. It wasn't to get a beta version of Nvidia's GeForce experience. The solution wasn't to go in and update all of my graphics settings. It wasn't to go in and update all of my graphics settings. It wasn't to go into the Nvidia control panel or the display control panel. It wasn't to change the hertz, though that might have helped. Hard to say. The solution wasn't even just to unplug them and plug them back in. But yes, it was actually. The solution was not just to unplug them. It was to unplug them from both ends of the computer, the monitor, the wall, the thing. Every cable had to come unplugged and sit

and then be plugged back in. And then it worked. You didn't try a new cable first? You didn't try that for a month and a half? I unplugged all of the cables, sure, but I was like, well, if I unplug them from one source, they're unplugged. I only had to unplug it from both ends. I had assumed that the first thing you would do

was try a different cable, which would necessitate you unplugging from both ends. I did try that, which is crazy. I tried switching from display ports to HDMI. But you didn't try another display port cable in the same? I did, so yes and no. I had a fourth cable and I did try that cable, but like I was, here's the thing, if I turned off one monitor, the other two would work.

If I turned off that one, one of those two and turn this one back on, these two would work. I didn't even suggest this to you because I assumed you would get here at no point in your troubleshooting. Did you unplug everything and start by plugging one single monitor in and then go from there and see what happened? I did. But that didn't solve your problem?

No. Oh, that's weird. All right, that's weird. That's weird. I could not tell you why. I think at all points there was at least one cable plugged in, whether it was a power cable or a display port or an HDMI. But this was literally unplug every cable from every monitor, leave it sit for a few

minutes and plug it back in. Pro tip, if you want to skip the wait time, if you unplug everything and then hold the power button on most devices, that it will be enough to discharge any capacitors that are holding on to any pesky juice in there on that circuitry. I don't know if it would because yours might have haptic buttons or God knows what, but fun. That's just a fun tech tip. They all worked before, just not at the same time. I'm confirming this tech point that seems weird enough and you solved it by whatever magic whatever machine god you prayed to The omnisciah blessed you I call him jp. That's a weird name for an omnisciah Hey, it's my omnisciah. I can call him. All right

Well, I you get that tech point How long has your fix been fixing? Cause I've definitely had things like this where I was like, it's fixed. And then like a week later, it was not in fact fixed. Yesterday. Oh, so you're still well within the window of it's not fixed.

So far it's survived four restarts, four different game launches, running OBS, YouTube video game at the same time. Have you updated anything? Update any drivers? Update any windows? That's probably not gonna cause all the same problems to happen all over again.

Everything is fine. Has it survived this? Break now, break, break, break, break, break, break now, break now, it'll never break. It's not gonna break. I will say just one second ago, I don't know if you saw me shift my focus one monitor did go black, but it was just fell asleep But I was like, oh no, did I just ruin my own tech point

Well, you've got it so far, but if your monitor dies at any point in the episode I will take that one away I think at any point in the future if the if the monitor if the fix breaks he loses a point as soon as that Happens, are you okay with that, Wade? I would prefer not. There's like a zero percent chance we're gonna remember that, so it's really low stakes. Don't worry about it, but.

But you gotta confess it. Well, I guess you don't have to. You could be a liar. I'm gonna look at your irises and I'm gonna zoom in and see which monitors are active. I'm gonna zoom in. Did the bit work? Yes.

Okay, good. Yeah, it work? Yes. Okay, good. Yeah, it worked. Well, that's good. All right, Wade, good tech update. Very proud of you for figuring that out. And honestly, I've been dealing with a similar thing with networking. Networking is one of the weaknesses in technology that I don't fully understand and I'm only just starting to.

It's so complicated. It's so complicated. It's so complicated. Unnecessarily so. You still have to know a little bit of programming to even get your network up and running or access anything remotely without like a convenient software for it. But if you need to do like command line level stuff, you need to know a little bit. Nothing makes me feel more like a chump than downloading third party software to manage networking stuff. But boy, is that the only way I've ever gotten it to work.

What kind of networking stuff do you need third? I don't think I've ever had to deal networking stuff. But boy, is that the only way I've ever gotten it to work. What kind of networking stuff do you need? I don't think I've ever had to deal with this. So what I'm doing is I'm building out like a... So I have my main house network and it has its own server, act like a small one. And then I have a remote one for the server, the render farm that I'm building. But networking in between them is really complicated.

So I have fiber optic internet, but I also have fiber optic cable going there. And to get that to work requires a very specific coupler at the end of it that goes with the wavelength of light that it's using, with whether it's LC or LS, like, and you have to have a specific receiver that can take it and understand it and then they communicate with each other and you got to get the order right because it's two prongs and it's not just a goes in a and B goes in B on the other side B has to go in a and a because it's got to be the out to the in and the into the out has to go to each one it's not just one plug so it gets complicated really fast and if you get

the wrong connector well you're waiting two days for the next one to come in, buddy. Like it's, yeah, so. Fiber optic is like magic. Like I understand well enough how it works in principle. But the actual, if you have it like in your house or if you have to deal with it, it's crazy shit. It's not just an ethernet cable that you plug in. It's those things and I don't know them and it's scary.

You know what's fun about it though? It brings back the old days of blowing into a cartridge because you got to keep the end of it clean. You shouldn't blow into it probably but if it's dusty you go whoo. No, probably like compressed air or something would be preferable or... Just like you shouldn't have blown into the cartridges but we all did it, yeah. Yeah. But uh, yeah, it's complicated complicated. So Bob better be technology related. I have a electronics story that's very similar to Wade's, but I'm outside the window of it refailing probably maybe both of our cars now are plug ins. I keep referencing that I'm selling Subaru.

The new car I have is a plug in hybrid. So it has a gas engine, but also it has a plug in battery bank. And so I charge we charge them in the garage. Are there cars at Tesla? so that was just batteries we charge them both in the garage and I we don't even have level two chargers we literally just plug them into the wall and charge them at like 10 amps or whatever because charcoal charging is good enough for our use case but the plug that the new car was going to plug into was on the other side of the garage

and somehow it got smashed I don't know what happened but it was a GFCI plug and it got smashed so it was no longer functional. Replacing an outlet is pretty trivial. As long as you're smart and understand the idea of making sure you're checking to see if the wires are live, making sure you turn the breaker off so that there's no danger of you electrocuting yourself or doing something else, stupid. It's really like you undo three screws, you take the wires off, you put the wires in the exact same spot on the new thing and tighten the screws. It's very trivial. So it's not impressive that I did that. But I did that and I also put like a, like you know how the outside plugs have a box

over them to keep the water out? I put one of those over it so that it can't get smashed. Because I think like the trash can lid opened and hit it or something and so I put a protective box on it so I did that too. Also pretty trivial. It worked perfectly. I replaced it, it functioned, and we plugged the car in and it was great. And then I think it was when the hurricane helene blew through our area. It was real windy, real wet, and the day after that, the outlet that I replaced stopped working. Nothing else was wrong in the house. That circuit was fine because there are other things on that circuit. But that outlet, just mysteriously, it's a GFCI outlet and it wouldn't reset. Every time you push the reset button, it would just pop

instantly. And I did some research and it was hard to tell exactly what the problem was. But I was like, maybe the outlet the outlets bad I don't know there's no reason it should be like this and so I was gonna like replace it and as I was going out to the car to go to the store to replace it I was like I'll just push the button again this was like a week later after it broke I pushed it and it popped in and reset and worked perfectly literally all I had done was turn the power off to it take it out of the wall, make sure everything was still attached, put it back in. That fixed it. I didn't even unplug all the wires at once. I just checked them one at a time

and that was a month ago now. But using the same power that Wade used to fix his monitors, I fixed electricity, which is some pretty serious shit. That's why I'm giving you a point calling you Power Master. Yes. We must all refer to Bob as the power master. Please do. Uh, wait, I'll call you plug man. Oh, okay. Can I at least be plug master? No. No. Power master just sounds a lot cooler than plug man. You relied on others, someone else's knowledge and expertise to fix your problem. You're just the man who did the plug in And Plugman's cool, like Mega Man, Spider Man, Superman. I feel like I'm gonna be put into a bunch of like butt memes. What?

Why would that happen? It's not like there was an episode previously where we talked about you being a butt plug for an extended period. I have the same amount of points though, right? Yeah, you do. Yeah, yeah, no need to worry about it. It's fine.

Other thing about networking that's really cool is once you discover the potential of power over ethernet, it is fucking magical. You don't need to run electricity to it. You just power it from your network. That's really cool. So security cameras, stuff like that. And also lights. You can have lights out in random places and so you can do some pretty cool stuff. I need to discover the magic of this because our house that we live in had a built-in security system when we moved in that was just like inoperable and it has power over ethernet cameras and I have no idea how the fuck what to do with that about that. But they exist and I should figure that out because it's cool but also I don't know anything

about it. It's surprisingly simple, a lot simpler than what it's what it seems like that part of networking is not that bad. Do I cut the Ethernet cable strip it back make it into two prongs and then stick it into a plug? Sure do. Okay I'll go do that right now. Editors please put No I actually got my own RJ25 stripper and like crimper. And crimper? Oh, dude, those are so fun. It's so satisfying to click.

I haven't done it yet, but I realized- Oh, you got to make some terminations, bud. I will, I will. I'm going to make tons of terminations because it's got a guide in there and everything so you can see exactly what wires- Yeah, you just got to get the wires in the right order and then you click. Ah, that's the best. So you're going to make your own networks?

You don't need like spectrum, big network? You're going to make your own? He's building his own internet, Wade. Everyone go plug into Mark's house. He'll have the new internet. You can. You can. Wait, actually, future business idea. Forget the movie theater. Forget all that. Web 4.0? Are that. Web 4.0?

Are we making Web 4.0? Oh, you know it. Or maybe it's 3.1. I don't know how the versioning works for that stuff. I was a 4.0 student, so I'm qualified to be a part of this endeavor. For going on GPA, I'm afraid we're gonna have to be a Web 3.2.

I'll elevate us. Yeah, I got you. Yeah, I can't say that my GPA probably dipped below three, but I want to show you something. Get on my back boys, we're going 4.0. So here's the thing, right? We can start our own internet provider business because if you look at this, so this is a, this is one of the networking companies that sells parts, and you can get home networking stuff. You made this? It's 4,000, right? That seems like a lot, until you realize this could serve 2,000 subscribers.

Oh, hell yeah. 2048 client capacity, if all of them are paying a moderate price of $299 a month, think of how much money that is. Which is a deal in today's economy. Yeah, it's a deal. $299 a month. Think of how much money that is. Which is a deal in today's economy. Yeah, it's a deal. $299 a month? Hold on, that seems... For fiber internet, I assume. Fiber. Yeah, look at this. Fiber. So we can deliver 10 gigabits per second? Two over 2,000? That's only $2 million a month to us.

I mean, really, we'll be breaking even. It doesn't seem like there's enough plugs on that thing to serve 2000. I'm not gonna lie. Splitters you get splitters. You do get splitters. I know what those are. You got 16 plugs. You just need a what is that couple hundred splitters. And and technically we have to provide the clients with one of these random things which you know they cost. They buy their own equipment that's actually rolled into the price. The monthly. We upload that to them.

They buy the equipment and then they lease it from us and then it's, oh, they have to return it to us when they cancel their service. But they can't cancel their service until 24 months. So there's not really any danger of that happening. I'm glad that's all just hypothetical and doesn't exactly represent how it actually works in the business. I still get emails and phone calls from the last two companies that I got internet from, one of which is in California and the other of which is in North Carolina, a state I haven't lived in since 2018.

And they still will just be like, Hey, did you ever return that router? I'm like, gag took it to your store and handed it to some teenager at the counter let me guess they didn't type it in correctly Jesus Christ your $45 router that never worked isn't worth all of this phone call shit not like you gave us good hardware dumb son of a anyway I'm not mad about it it's fine anyone at home you can buy your own modem you can buy your own router you should you should get one of them Motorola surfboard modems and get one of them, any kind of router other than what they give you, it's probably better. The companies will scare you though.

They'll give you jargon. That's like if you have issues and you use your own equipment, we can't service it. My favorite is in the last service we had set up in California, the company required a technician to come out, which they required you to also pay the fee for, for having a technician. But they wouldn't let me just plug my stuff in and then turn it on on their end because they could do that, but they would not allow that. So a guy came out to the house and he's like, where's the stuff? And I took him in and he's like, oh, this is all, oh, yeah, this looks right.

And he got a little iPad out and hit three buttons on his iPad and turned our internet on. And I paid $80 for the privilege of talking to Darryl for eight minutes. Fucking scam. I had somebody come to the house that literally just opened something up with a key. Then they had me do all of the work and interface with it.

And they closed it, sealed it up. And they're like, I think we're just gonna charge you as a usual service charge today. that'll be 79.99. And I was like, you were here for 20 minutes. I did all the work, and I owe you $80? 80? It's a bad sign when somehow cable technicians still feel like less of a scam than like scam roofing guys

who will come to your house, inspect your roof in air quotes, and tell you you need a whole new roof roof even though the roof on your house is three years old. Somehow I trust them more than I trust the cable company. What if your roof is like 30 years old? That's pretty old. You know what? I bet I know a guy who could give you a new roof, give you a real good deal on it. How old is good roof bad? 30 is about the maximum age for a roof. Most roofs are are rated to last like 20 to 30 years depending on like the type of material and everything But that's it sounds like you might be due for another fun expense on your house soon. Yay houses. Yay

I don't want any more updates. Can we move on? Yeah. All right, we can move on. I'm sad now We'll put the fiber optic internet business that we're gonna start and take over the country. I'm sad now. We'll put the fiber optic internet business that we're gonna start and take over the country with. I'm gonna be thinking about that while we do this. That's in the back. Cause today is about learning. Oh, you all boo. I mean, yay! I love learning. Except I'm gonna learn you this.

Okay, hold on. Okay, hold on. Wait, wait, hold on. Uh, hold on. Tell me if you can hear this. Three, two... What? What? I hear it. Yeah, you hear it. You fucking liar. That's a minus for you.

That's a minus, Wade Point. Worth it! You should lose the point for being tricked. Trick me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, then it's shame on me. Then I lose a point if you trick me again. If you trick me again, you get your point back in the rest of the episode, okay? Trick me a third time, but don't- won't get fooled again. There, here we go. Oh Oh

Is I have two blades, one low kiss your heart, the other whispers your soul This is a chase play, you know, you know All right, yeah, there's a bonus bonus there for you All right. Okay, so I love that so much not because I really love chess but because it is so goddamn impressive the amount of stuff that's to teach a single chess move and sensationalize it in a way that's just so... Psst! Stafford Gambit! Is that the same speaker that fell? Yeah, it's cause it's a long ass cord and I crossed my leg, ah, one second.

All right, hold on. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. We're in cross episode bits now. That is edutainment. That's edutainment. We're in cross episode bits now that that is Edutainment that's edutainment. It's educational entertainment You learn something from that you learn about the Stafford Gambit so evil was white or black doing the Stafford Gambit? I was unclear. I guess black was from our perspective. So we were the ones. Yeah. Yeah, I see I see

I watched that like ten times in a row I probably wouldn't be able to execute the Stafford Gambit But I'd be able to get pretty close and also probably no one would fall for it or if it's a trick at all I don't even know but I know what the Stafford Gambit is So I want you guys to present me with your favorite piece of edutainment Edutainment Edutainment is Edutainment. Is there a time limit how old it can be? No, no, not at all. It could be anything. Anything from any time. This just happens to be a TikTok that I saw. So there's a channel I watch. I don't have to pull up a

specific video, but there is a channel I watch sometimes. I don't know if it's the titles, the thumbnails, or just the puzzles themselves that get me, but the channel is Mind Your Decisions. And I don't know how entertaining it actually is, but there's something like fulfilling, because the problems are presented to you, and they're usually like logic puzzles or different kinds of puzzles, and they're things like, here are some matchsticks,

move one matchstick to make this equation true or something. And I'm like, how do I move the matchstick? I need to move two, How do I move just one? And sometimes I'll think of the solutions. I'll feel really smart. And other times I'll watch the solutions play out. I'm like, I wish I'd thought of that. It's, it's less on the entertainment scale as far as like funny or like

rock out or whatever else, but it's more so just like, I enjoy the brain teasers and I like feeling smart occasionally. And at the very least I walk away and I'm like, you know what, next time I'll know what to do. So for those who have never seen Mind Your Decisions, it's a YouTube channel and also a website. And if you go through it, it doesn't seem super entertaining off the bat,

but I can understand what he's saying. It's like videos like only 1% can solve this and then solve for the magical angle. It's like kind of like, you know, online IQ tests type dilemmas that present a question and probably solve it. So, okay, I see that. All right. Okay. That is edutainment. Whether it's it's entertainment value is to be determined, but it's educational for sure. And I'm entertained watching it. That's great.

That's great. Bob, what you got? Uh this is sort of a genre. I really, really like and miss, even though it's not a thing I'm likely to have to deal with anymore. But I like the way that companies decided to do employee trainings in the 80s and 90s. There are any number of very unhinged videos that you can find, but I found this one and I can share this if you want to see it. I can share this one. Oh yeah. Anyway, this is a Wendy's training video? Are you with me now? Get ready, we're gonna lay them down. Next, you gotta soften me from the back to the front to make the taste complete. Not too little, not too much.

You'll get the touch. Just the fucking dumping, that was great. What's coming up next is our key to success. We'll turn the meat and do a four corner press. Don't wait too long, I emphasize, or the meat won't wait. I like how concerned the trainee looks. You're ready to go. Gently turn the meat, but don't be slow.

Just turn them over easily. We don't wanna be. Also, he's got the gold plated spatula. Like, God damn. Anyway, that's the, it could go on forever. And there are tons and tons and tons of these. Yeah, I haven't seen that one. I saw like the coffee one or the

serving drinks or cash register one. They're all good. It's not a thing I've ever had to learn from, which is unfortunate. Like, I feel like people would respond very positively to this. If you were starting your job at wherever Target, some restaurant, whatever, and they were like, all right, we're going to watch the training videos now. And then something like this started. I feel like people would be into that. I feel like that's a little, I feel like that's a bright spot in the workday. I'm sure at that time when that came out, they rolled their eyes. But right now,

whatever they have in current day training videos, it was not superior to that. That's the truest form of edutainment. And for companies like that is a big thing. It's just like, how do you get your new employees to retain the information? And it has to be entertaining in some way to capture their attention because no one likes watching training videos, but you know, it is what it is. They're usually pretty terrible.

My training videos at the engineering job I had were just... Oh, my heart. I remember watching driving school and whenever I worked at United Dairy Farmers, I remember like the ice cream videos and worked at United Dairy Farmers I remember like the ice cream videos and dude they were old, not funny, and just so boring. Dude, the videos were rough but the guy who taught my driver's ed class was a legend. I remember still sitting in that room, he had a bunch of like stuffed animals and each

one was for a different purpose and every time we would talk and the one I remember the most was if you're at a four-way stop, what you have to do is you stop at the line and then you stick your head out and you become a turtle and he had a little stuffed animal turtle and he would just be like, turtle, look left, turtle, look right, turtle and he had like literally he had a whole cast of characters, each one was a different action in a different thing. It was very effective. Also, everyone thought he was completely insane because he was like a really old dude. He was like like a retired age guy who was like doing this because he enjoyed it clearly. And all the kids who were in there learning were always just like, oh God, I thought it was fucking great. Absolute legend.

I don't remember his name. I remember it was a little not very well ventilated musty room Oh in a little thing in downtown Dublin and That dude would just have his stuffed animals up at the front and we would go through Scenarios and he would go through and he would turtle and there was a bunny and there was a cow for some reason I don't remember what the cow did something about the udders Don't recall my classic udders driving dilemma If you keep your hands at ten and two and then milk it Milk the wheel is he is he think he's teaching six-year-olds to drive is I don't know

I it worked man. It worked on me every time I stop at a four-way stop. I still go turtle stop at a four way stop, I still go turtle. Turtle. And now Bob can both drive and milk a cow. That's true. Yeah. Multiple learnings. That's very edutainable. I have a classic example, if I may. Hopefully I'm allowed to share this. If not, I guess we can mute some audio,

but I think I'm good. You guys remember this? Oh, we're going to get claimed immediately. Don't mute it. And we'll just sing it. Oh, just a little bill, just a little bill, sitting on Capitol Hill. All right.

Schoolhouse Rock, I'm gonna call that all just like under the umbrella. It is Schoolhouse Rock, but man, what a thing that we actually look forward to watching and learning when we were in school. I think I always had a good time. I never heard anyone complain about the school house rock days.

Yeah, absolutely. And that's how I know how our government should work. And immediately both of you knew exactly, like you saw just the Capitol building and you guys were like, I know this. It was just, it's so effective. It's older. I don't know what year this even came out,

but man watching this elementary school, it was like, dude, schoolhouse rock day. Yes Alright, that's down there Specifically school just a bill, but I'm gonna call that all schoolhouse rock. So all schoolhouse rock is off-limits now Okay, that's a lot of stuff. I have another one if you need a moment Bob. I'm still looking go ahead He's racking it up bill bill bill bill. No, I the science. Why, you just gonna claim all of Bill Nye? I was looking for specific Bill Nye bits. I'll let it be a showdown for Bill Nye bits

because since I've already let him have all of Schoolhouse Rock, let's say. If you both can come up with a bit, I'll put both bits on the board. It won't even be a competition. Let me start with what the first thing I think of with Bill Nye, which is kind of a weird one, is the brought to you by, which was always a gag. It was like, Bill Nye is brought to you

by H2O. Water. Stuff like that. I don't know why, but I was always like, dude, I love the Brought to You By because it's not actually just some stupid company. It's something fun and interesting. And then obviously the episodes always would be too, but man, the Brought to You Bys, always looked forward to those. All right. That's Fett's's Wade's claim to Bill Nye. Bob, what's your claim if you have one? I was trying to find a specific bit that he does. It's kind of a whole episode and it's kind of a segment in the episode, but there's an episode on static electricity. And specifically, there's a segment where he has a balloon and then he has like a Piece of like aluminum foil suspended inside a glass jar

So it's like there's no wind or anything and then he like rubs the balloon to get a little static charge in it And then uses that to like move the foil in the jar I remember at the age that I watched that I understood like that if you rub, you know, you could static electricity You could static shock. I sort of but I remember seeing that specifically and just being like wait a minute wait Electricity wait field. Oh, hang on and there was something like that specific demonstration I generally enjoyed Bill Nye videos in school and stuff, but that specific demonstration, I remember I saw it

and something in my brain was like, ooh, wait. It was like the perfect, like something clicked in place, edutainment moment. But there's a lot, I feel like there's a lot of that with Bill Nye, but I was just struggling to find the perfect one. I don't know if that's, that's not the most exciting thing they ever did, but that one really got me.

That's good, it's on the board. Wade, you got anything? Chris Hadfield's Ted Talk. Now if you guys enjoy Ted Talks, I enjoy Ted Talks. Chris Hadfield was the astronaut who also performed David Bowie's Space Oddity, but his Ted Talk I found really fun. People that do stuff that you know

you'll probably never do in your life, like going to space and then like talking about it, talking about a moment, like there was a moment he was talking about where like he just could not see. He lost all of his vision, he was outside and he had to rely on his training to get through a moment. And he's like, yeah, but whatever's scaring you

to stop you from pursuing your dreams is probably also pretty bad. Like, you know, funny. But it was funny, it was really informational learning about like what he'd experienced and gone through. And i don't know hearing him perform space oddity is just really fun and he kind of changes the lyrics to make it less like ominous and either sad or whatever and more upbeat and just i don't know enjoyed his ted talk quite a bit in ted talks in general but i want to claim all ted talks in case bob has one yeah i don't think he's going to

bring up another ted talk as far as entertainment value goes, TED Talks in general, probably not the most edutainment, because edutainment is specifically... I'm putting it on. It's here. It's here. Don't worry. But I'd say edutainment is more specifically entertainment more than just educational. I guess that's fair. Because TED Talks are just educational.

Pretty much. They can have like entertaining moments, but, you know. Some people do a pretty entertaining job. I would agree though, that not all Ted Talks are super entertaining. Glad I picked a specific one then. I think Ted Talks are a decent category for that, but I see what you're saying.

Also, Ted Talks to me, this is a joke from a kids movie, but it really is the perfect summary to me. It's in the Wreck-It Ralph 2, Ralph Breaks the Internet or whatever it's called. There's a at one point and there's a guy who's like I saw this TED talk and I don't remember Anything the guy said but it made me feel good and I think the point was something like I Respect your journey and like that's how I feel about most TED talks that I watch But you I'll watch it and while I'm watching it, I'm like, Oh, oh, interesting.

And then it gets to the end, and I'm like, What the fuck was that about? I don't know. I enjoyed it, though, I think. I respect your journey, man. You know, I'm sorry to interject here, but there's a- Coincidentally, educational things, more by education, as in, don't ever do what you're seeing here. There was a video of someone, it was some TV show I think, or maybe a YouTube channel, uh, where they were trying a whole bunch of different things.

Whether it was for therapeutic purposes, but either way they were smoking some kind of frog venom. Have you ever seen this? No. No. That doesn't sound like a good idea at all It was not a good idea Cuz the the people said like it's it's goes 50-50 either you have a really beautiful journey where you feel nothing but love or you're

Flung headfirst into hell and you stay there for a long long time And the first guy to go got flung into hell so hard he just started like freaking out throwing up he he started spasming he slid into a river where he was like facedown in the water spasming while the guy guiding them through this is like it's okay relax while he's in the water like face down, just inhaling water. Jesus. Horrible experience, and the guy who's gonna go second is watching this, and the camera cuts him, he's just like

uh, uh, uh, uh. But that guy does it still, and he has the all-love beautiful journey. So it really was 50-50, I learned to never ever ever do that ever we here at distractible support coin flips oh god we will let the frog venom decide who is truly right let us know if you want a frog venom episode because yeah i don't know if i want that experience i have i have one that's really more of a person. I have a positive and a negative and they're two different people.

So I wanna cover this. I feel like this is good. All right. Legend of edutainment, legend of conservation and ecological advocacy. Steve Irwin, the crocodile hunter. I think there are still debates about if what he did was too disruptive and whatever. I feel like his heart was in exactly the right

place and I don't know enough about the ecology or the whatever, the animals to know if he was really fucking them up or if it was fine. But like his show in terms of awareness of creatures and teaching but being very entertaining. Top notch. Love Crocodile Hunter. Very good combo of edutainment. Can I just say there's sort of a modern riff on that that's embodied in large part by a guy who's named Coyote Peterson, who on a YouTube channel, I've seen him on the channel Brave Wilderness where it's like a similar vibe. He's like the outdoorsy guy.

He loves all creatures. But one of the things that he seems to do a lot is just get really fucked up by animals. Like there's the videos where it's like, I get stung by the world's most poisonous, painful, venomous thing or I've bitten by by a snake or whatever I don't like that I don't think that's a good version of the crocodile hunter school of edutainment I hate those videos they make me squirm and I hate it and it makes me not interested in the creatures of the wilderness very much as opposed to Steve Irwin who made me feel like I wanted to explore and meet you know see all these beautiful creatures it's a bad it's a bad version but yeah Steve Irwin who made me feel like I wanted to explore and meet some, you know, see all these beautiful creatures.

It's a bad, it's a bad version. But uh, yeah, Steve Irwin, that's a good one. I think that's- Steve Irwin, absolute legend. Wade, what you got? I've shouted this one out before, I think, for a different context, but Urban Rescue Ranch is a YouTube channel. It started off with a guy who just had like, uh, oh god, an emu, I think, named Kevin, I think it's an emu. I could be wrong with them species, but emu named Kevin. And he got a kangaroo and named it the baby.

And like some of the early episodes, he had like some chickens, he had this kangaroo and he had this like angry running giant bird over the years. It's actually developed into a lot more where now he has like a nonprofit. He does rescues. So like people will drop off or he'll pick up like, you know, injured rabbits or birds or hawks or possum squirrel you name it He's kind of been learning along the way so you kind of learn some lessons with him He'll be like, oh man, I need to do the pins this way. I did it this way

I thought this would work, but I need to do it this way But some of the stuff is just like as a kid I found an injured squirrel one time and we my friend and I were like, I don't know what to do about this Let's take it home and try getting it some milk or something. And we probably didn't do the thing any favors, but like he goes through, he shows like, Hey, we got this injured animal. You might find one of these. You can call these numbers. These places are everywhere and they can help you or at the least you can give

them this kind of food, but make sure you don't do this. So it's, it's really, they're entertaining fun videos, but also like there are a few things where I'm like, I didn't know that kind of place existed till now. This, uh, I now know who you're talking about because it sounds like, oh what a lovely channel, and then you go to their channel and he's got a video that's like, how to bottle feed a baby beaver, and the next video is how to raise beavers for meat. Yeah, it's all memes, but yes. I found- I fed a groundhog to my prairie dog big ounce dies how to catch and cook baby owls

Emotional hundred percent clickbaity memes. He's always been that way, but I think there is some learning to be had there So I'm putting it on as urban rescue ranch there actually is to believe it or not There actually is but it is very entertaining But like every now and you're just like, if I'd known that years ago, I might've been able to save that bird that flew into a window. I could've saved that chipmunk. You might've been able to, yeah.

Actually, people said on the subreddit that like there really wasn't anything more I could do, which I guess makes sense. There's no nice thing to lie to you like that. General PSA, at least if you live in America, what you wanna do is call your local animal control if you have an animal that you feel like really needs help. I'm not saying this to you, Mark, because I think that poor chipmunk was fairly well on the way out the door and I doubt animal control would have gotten it. But if you have

an animal that's like not on death's door that you feel like will survive, but you have no idea what to do for it, animal control will totally get you back. They will come help you out and they generally know how to deal with lots of stuff. It's kind of their thing. Fair enough. Somehow didn't know they existed till I was older in life. Like as a teenager, had no idea animal control was a thing. I mean, I would not have guessed that as a kid either. I knew that there was some company you could call

that wasn't the garbage company to pick up animal corpses. Did not know there was a company you could call for animals that weren't dead yet. Alright, next up, any last ones? We're getting down to the wire, so if you want to shout out. I have a video game, actually I have a couple video games, but Edutainment Games were big business when we were kids. And I have one from my childhood, but also possibly Mandy's favorite game that's ever

existed that I feel like I have to throw in here. Mine would be, well, one, Storybook Weaver. Did you guys ever play with Storybook Weaver? Storybook Weaver, I don't know. It's almost like just like a mod on like MS Paint, but the whole thing is it has like a bunch of like backgrounds and clip art and you can make a storybook. You can design the scene and you can have pages,

so you can design a whole story and then you just write like the, you write the story underneath it. I played with that just for hours just to be like, well, what can I make? And then what's the story with this? Interesting. But it's not a game. There's no like objective. It's just a creative sandbox of write your own book. Wait, I've got, I've got one image of this I want to share because I've like, I think this really puts forward exactly what this is about. Jesus.

It's a clown on a unicycle behind an explosion with fire all around a courtyard. And it says Larry was expelled into the Wicker courtyard for his misdeeds. I really like it. That's, I've never heard of that game. Ah, dude, Storybook Weaver was what's up. Also, my next favorite childhood game,

very edutainment, Math Blaster. Of course. Oh my god. Love that shit. Can't get enough. And then Mandy's game, which is sort of like a logic and puzzle game that had a lot of like cryptography games and sort of logic based stuff is called the logical journey

of the zoom beanies. I was just calling zoom beanies. It's like a little kids puzzle game, but it has very cute characters. Amy talks about zoom meetings. Yeah, she's she's mentioned that before. I did not play this when I was a kid, but I have played it as an adult because Mandy showed it to me and we play. It's a great game. It's super fun.

I think I probably would have been too stupid for it as a kid because I was not good at this sort of puzzling problem solving stuff. But it's a great game. And it's got some very like it has lines that Mandy and I still just like say to each other. One of which being there's a game where you're trying to build you have three trees and they each want pizza, but each of them wants different toppings and won't eat certain toppings. You have to like find the right combo and one of them every time you give them something they don't want they go, there's something on there I don't like. And just like the the most memorable delivery like burns into your brain.

Is that where the guy goes, make me a pizza. Make me a pizza. Yes. And he says that all the time. Maybe whenever we order pizza, pretty much, maybe I say that to each other. So I got three down, the Chory Book Weaver, Math Blaster and Zoomies. I would say Math Blaster of those is the more specific edutainment, but I've got them all on the list.

Wait, last chance. I'll go with video game, cause Bob opened my mind up to one that I think again, I've mentioned on here before, but in case I haven't, in case you guys don't remember it. Operation Neptune, the predecessor of We Need to Go Deeper. You have talked about that before, but I don't. The further down you go,

the more complex math equations you have to solve. So it teaches you, well, but the further down you go, the more complex math equations you have to solve. So it teaches you. Well, I don't remember if it teaches. It's been so long as I played it. Oh, operation Neptune is part of D day. Oh no. Well, not this video game. I got a submarine, a very colorful scape landscape, but it starts off. You have like basic simple like addition, subtract subtraction and then like you'll work your way you'll fight some sea monsters whatever and you'll work your way to the next zone and the next zone you have to like send up some kind of like research or something the further down you go but like eventually you'll get to like multiplication then like division and

it like as a kid I couldn't I couldn't do those things I was too young I didn't understand how to do them so I never got super far into the game but I loved playing it and like trying to figure out the math equations and making sure I was sitting the research up Like I actually really enjoyed it even though ultimately it was like a math game But it had like the mechanics of I think firing your torpedo and swimming around and dodging things It was very much like a mathematical kids version of we need to go deeper. That's Great. I think you have mentioned it, but I did not know of it specifically. That's good. That goes head to head with Math Blaster. It's going to be a fun matchup. Kind of want to play it. Any last ones? Wade, Bob, anything?

Shout out to Oregon Trail and Amazon Trail. I learned stuff from those, even though I don't know that they're necessarily supposed to be educational games, but man, I learned a lot of animals and Amazon Trail and I don't know, other things about traveling and stuff. I have one I was curious for your verdict on if it counts or not, the Darwin Awards. My dad thought those were very funny and so I've, we like, I read some and listened to they had like audiobook versions where they told the stories and stuff. It's not really educational, but I think the point of the Darwin Awards is like, for anyone who doesn't know, it's awards that are given out to people who essentially killed themselves in

hilariously like stupid ways or like outrageous ways. Adam- I didn't know it was an actual show. Adam- Yeah, it was a big hit in like the 2000s and so I feel like I learned a lot of things of like, oh that never would have occurred to me either. Like there was a story I remember of a guy who like drove his truck out onto a frozen lake to go ice fishing but didn't like check the thickness of the ice and his truck like fell through the ice because it was it wasn't very thick. Things of that nature.

People dying in... It's sad because people did die, but like, in ways that are a little ridiculous or comedic or otherwise outrageous. And so you learn, you learn things not to do or things you should do to avoid, you know, dying. Fair enough. All right, Wade, last chance. I'd love to shout out Distractable Podcast. We're very informational, but God, are we one of the most entertaining things out there I learn new things from me every week

all right putting it on the list all right and that's it judgment is closed uh you know just some honorable mentions that weren't brought up bob you made me remember dumb ways to die with the darwin awards oh yeah and i feel like if that specific piece of media was mentioned, that's pretty up there for edutainment. That was about rail safety in Australia. Something like that. Specifically, all of those deaths were leading up to don't stand in front of the yellow line in train stations. That was the whole purpose of that cartoon. I didn't actually know that. I thought it was just for fun. No, it was, That's how entertaining it was and educational, even though the education that it was trying to put across wasn't really

remembered as much because all the other ones don't don't do the dumb things. It's still a meme. Like I'll still come across like TikToks and things where that that song is used. And then Kurtzgesagt, which was not mentioned, but is a great channel with tons of informational and educational things. Honestly, Amy sometimes think it's too existential because they often talk about crises

of the universe exploding and things like that. And it's, for some people, it can be stressful. But those were honorable mentions that I wanted to bring up. So here's how it's gonna work. I'm looking at your list. And the reason I put down everything is because I have a ranking one to five,

and I'm gonna rank who gave the most edutainable, given that Stafford Gambit was like the bar I set is like this is crazy entertaining, and still it actually teaches you a chess move. Very educational, so I put that like, I'm gonna rank number one has to be close to that-h and that's how I'm going to order these. So give me two minutes to narrow down this list and then I'm going to doodledoo. Feeling pretty good about my list. How about you, Bob?

I feel like I was struggling to remember. I think there are some still sort of deep in the recesses of my mind that I've- Neither one of us, I kept wanting to bring up, neither one of us brought up like Magic School Bus. I feel like that's pretty. Oh, I did enjoy Magic School Bus. That was good. Yeah, some of those types of shows and stuff.

There's tons and tons and tons of good stuff like that. I've narrowed down to five. It's hard for me to judge between the two Bill Nye suggestions. Oh, you got to pick one. Bob's was specific, but also I do remember a lot of the Broadway buys were funny and they did sometimes teach a little bite-sized thing, but I don't know. It's tough to call pick one. Bob's was specific, but also I do remember a lot of the Brought to You Bys were funny, and they did sometimes teach a little bite-sized thing, but I don't know. It's tough to call that one.

Wait, I could change my Bill My bit, so it's bit for bit. I know a bit that's even better than the Brought to You By. Okay. Like we changed last minute, what the fuck? Did you know that? Now you know. Those bits were always really good. Those were really good.

That is true, but, mean now I don't want to I don't want to know I want to claim that one. I'm just gonna flip a thing. All right, I claim brought to you by then Would you flip a pen? A little it's not a coin, but well, it's never gonna show it It's got two sides a little little like screwdriver thing. So I did two sides Why don't you just get a dice man odds and evens? What is that for your ultra rolls when you're playing D&D?

We don't use real dice but I wanted to have one because whenever I roll bad I want to roll dice again but I can't because we're like I've or whatever so I just roll this to get my frustrations out. Okay, all right, you ready? In number five, I put Urban Rescue. The reason I put it in number five is because I have not personally watched it except for the videos that

Have come across my feed and I didn't learn anything from them But I believe in the educational entertainment value of those videos so it's on the ranking. I'll take it. I'm on the list That's more than I expected. So in number four, we have Math Blaster I ranked Math Blaster versus Operation Neptune as head-to-head on Amazon reviews, because it's the only place that sold both of them. So we had Math Blaster in Search of Spot, which is the one I played,

and I believe that's the one Bob was talking about, versus Super Solvers Operation Neptune, which had a 3.5 out of five stars stars and Math Blaster had a 3.6. So just barely, Math Blasters eked out the rating of that. However, if it was Math Blaster's Adventure Math, that has a 3.4. But I don't believe that was the one that people actually played. I played in search of spot. So it's like, depending on which version

might be above or below, but given my experience with Math Blasters in search of spot, that puts it at the four for Bob. And then at number three, I did a toss up. I did a coin. We have two Bill Nye things. Wade said Bill Nye first, Bob said specifics, and then he claimed another one.

I'm not really counting that. It was heads for Bob, for Wade it landed tails Wade gets number three spot still never won a coin toss in my entire life what a streak I'm on boys look I don't know what to tell you that's just the way it turned up number two and I find myself shocked that I put this above Bill Nye because I I cherish Bill Nye but I can't deny I remember every single Schoolhouse Rock thing I've ever been shown. Schoolhouse Rock lands in at number two.

And at number one, the one that is closest to what I presented with the Stafford Gambit in terms of that specific genre is the Wendy's training video because it just it had a song so much education I learned so much I felt so much number five Wendy's tops the list I've been humming it in my head this whole time the press down yeah it's right there so Wendy's gets Bob plus five points all right Bob gets plus five schoolhouse rock gets Wade plus five points. Alright. So Bob gets plus five. Schoolhouse Rock gets Wade plus four points. Bill Nye gets Wade plus three points. Uh oh. Math Blaster gets Bob plus two points.

So just by those rankings it's tied. Urban Rescue gives Wade... Urban Rescue was mine. One point. Here's the thing. I just see what's happening here happening here Bob you scored one point in the pre-talk Wade you scored one point in the pre-talk and lost one point for tricking me The score is a perfect tie. Oh god because you tricked me That's right, baby. It was a trick from the start. I knew I'd put you in position to have to do a solo show. I'm saying it's time for your wheel

We're tied. Wait, you just said the whole thing was a trick to trick me. You tricked me twice Yes. No, I'm just kidding. I'm not gonna play that. Of course I'm not. Damn it. I could get out of the wheel by claiming that but I'm not gonna because fuck me then I guess Bob we're having a really easy job. He's gonna write him an episode. This guy's got to do a whole one by himself What are the odds? You gotta do a better job of assigning points away that can't end in a tie, dude. I made a ranking He did make a ranking. I talked it all through I could have said math blaster went the other way which would make a decisive winner

But I go with the version I played and that's what the score is on Amazon What are we up to 99% chance that mark has to do solo episodes? All right, you Know it. No, it's 10% chance. So I don't think I've had more than a time a long time. Hooray You sure you're not Trixie. Are you sure you're not really tricky? Oh, this is looking pretty good. I don't know. Wade, why are you such a lying sack? Come on. Well, you don't want him to have to host his own episode? We have to write it for him. Yeah, there's no, there's no like how much we have to write.

I could be as lazy as I want on the writing process. I'm not looking. Oh, no. Oh, it's fine. Oh, god. What do you don't scare me like that? So close was that a trick were you tricking me? Yeah, whatever I was but it's too little too late Alright Wade. Congratulations. You won. It was a very close game between the two of you. We learned a lot We were very educated and now the one man show goes up to 12% Yay Whoo can't wait for the next time that gave me heartburn for some reason. I don't feel good All right, Bob loser speech first. I

Enjoyed this very much. I love edutainment in general I do feel like these sort of I'm'm going to call them anthology episodes are really tilted against me because I have the memory of a man twice my age. I'm sure I had some real diamonds in my rough. If I could just remember what was in the rough, there were definitely some diamonds in it. And so I could have won. I would have won if I wasn't so old. Thanks for the win. I appreciate it. All right. Well, okay. Wade, your winner's speech. Loser's speech. Well tied, Bob. Well tied. So I guess technically we did both win for a minute there until the

wheel. It's nice doing episodes like these as well because I do have an awful memory, but I feel like my nostalgia memory is pretty good. Like a lot of things prior to like making content, we have discussions and I'm like,, oh my god that game or that show or that episode but man Oh, man, when people talk about games we played like four or five years ago I have to go back and look and I'll even watch it and I'll be like I have zero recollection of this ever existing I cannot believe my face is on this with hair no bald and playing it I don't know what's changed in the last like 10 15 years but man is my memory gotten a lot worse I'm gonna try to just live in the moment or live in the way back past play some operation

Neptune like the old days and forget all of the modern games that clearly aren't as good I don't remember them as well okay well somehow I'm depressed we also didn't mess and mention Mythbusters which I just remembered is a- Ooh, that's a great one, yeah. Too bad, they're not there. So if you guys have any edutainable things, post them to the subreddit, the Distractable subreddit. Thank you, Bob and Wade, for participating. Look forward to Wade hosting in the next episode.

DistractableStore.com for merch. While it's there, it's limited time, or something like that. Poor Jackass taught me what not to do. Fair enough, fair enough, but it's not on the list. Thank you for listening and or watching Podcast Now.