How To Do Everything - Motivation, Secret Messages, and Stealing Your Thunder

Episode Date: October 29, 2025

This week: Filmmaker Alice Wu shares a clever trick to help you finally finish that thing you’ve been working on, why teenagers are taking over the comments sections of old podcast episodes, and the origins of the phrase “steal your thunder”. Plus we continue in our quest to be your out of office emergency contact.You can email your burning questions to [e-mail] To Do Everything is available without sponsor messages for supporters of Wait Wait…Don't Tell Me+, who also get bonus episodes of Wait Wait Don't…Tell Me! featuring show outtakes, extended guest interviews, and a chance to play an exclusive WW+ quiz game with Peter! Sign up and support NPR at plus.npr.org.How To Do Everything is hosted by Mike Danforth and Ian Chillag. It is produced by Heena Srivastava and Schuyler Swenson. Technical direction from Lorna White.******(Once again) after listening:“I am OOO from (INSERT DATES HERE). For any urgent concerns, please email Mike and Ian at [e-mail]. Please bear in mind that Mike and Ian don’t know anything about anything and their help may in fact make your urgent concern worse, but they did promise to answer any email they get from this out of office message.”Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

America's global role is shifting fast. On sources and methods, we explain how and why. I'm Mary Louise Kelly. I've talked to spies. I've reported from war zones I've interviewed ambassadors, generals, presidents. Want to understand what is happening around the world and how it affects us? Join me and my fellow reporters as we break it down for you. Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Who doesn't have problems with motivation?

Not us. Not me. Nobody. Nobody doesn't have problems with motivation. Alice Wu, the filmmaker behind the movie's saving face and the half of it, was really stuck when she was trying to write a script. And she came up with a way to finally make herself do it. I thought, you know, I should write my second film. I then proceeded to spend, like, six months, like, lying on the floor of my office,

staring at the ceiling, being like, why am I so terrible? Why is everything so terrible? I'd, like, write a sentence. I'd delete it. I knew I had to get over that hump. And so I then thought, I need to find a consequence that is so terrible that I can't possibly live with myself. And I thought, you know what, I'm going to write a check to the NRA for $1,000. And I'm going to give it to, I want my best friend is the one person I know who because she gave me her word would do it.

And I was like, I'm giving you this check. I'm giving myself five weeks to write this first draft on August 8th. If this thing is not written, I'll have two people read it and confirm. It can be terrible, but it has to be a fully formed first draft. And if it's not, you're sending that check in. And then I proceed to tell everyone in my life because I would constantly get text from friends, like, you better not be a donor to the anime. Like, I think at one time I sent a friend an Otter video, and she was like, why aren't you writing?

So it worked. I got it written. And that's how I did that. Yeah, and that script became my second film. Do you think your friend would have actually sent it in? A thousand percent. Really? Yeah, she's my best friend.

Like, yes, absolutely she would have sent it in. CJ, she's a butch firefighter. She would have sent it in. If she were here, I'm sure she would tell you that all the horribly shameful things she would then do to me as she sent it in. A thousand dollars, that's a lot of money. That's like a, there's a, that's a certain tier that is not entry level. Yes. Right?

That's like, we know this from our public radio experience. That's a leadership level amount. You'll probably get a t-shirt. You might even get a free gun with that. You know what? Yes, I had not thought of the perks. No, I, I, that I'd become a social pariah amongst all Asian lesbians as I wore my NRA lobby. Like, basically, I would die alone, but I would have a free shirt is what you're telling me.

A free shirt at least. And probably once a year a birthday announcement, I would think. Yeah. This is How to Do Everything. I'm Mike. And I'm Ian. Coming up, we're going to get to more of your out-of-office messages. But first, there's a little mystery here at NPR.

A few podcasts have been noticing something strange. Fio Gehrin works on TED Radio Hour. Fio, can you tell us about this? Yeah, so one of my responsibilities on my team is to monitor our Spotify comments. And for the most part, we mostly get really, like, nice comments or people engaging with our content, giving constructive feedback or saying how much I liked it. But about three weeks ago, I noticed kind of a different floodgate situation. The first instance was only about 20 comments. 20 comments on one episode.

20 comments on one episode that came out three years ago. Yeah. And all the comments kind of had the same, like, no, you're so pretty. You're so pretty. And I was really trying to rack my brain about the content of this episode three years ago to be like, is there a discussion about beauty standards that they are trying to engage with? Yeah. And then about a week later, they struck again. but this time hitting the comments hit into the 90s.

And then I kind of felt like, okay, this really needs to be something. We're flagging. And when I brought it up, it seemed like other teams had also been privately sitting on this very odd situation. Other shows at NPR. Yeah, other shows at NPR. Well, so what's your theory? So I guess we're all kind of still figuring out what's happening here. But what's your theory on who's doing this and why they're doing it?

Yeah, I mean, we definitely can't say exactly, like, who these people are or why they're doing this. But my sense is that they're kids. One of the theories that some other folks have put forward is that maybe this is just a way to get around a classroom phone-free situation. Like maybe they can have their laptops out, but they can't have. of Instagram open or they, Spotify is the only thing they're allowed to have. I don't actually know. I mean, it seems like a way of a work around for sure. It's brilliant because like what could be less worrying to a teacher or a parent who might be catching, you know, a look at one of these kids' phones that they're listening to NPR's TED Radio Hour with their friends. Oh, my gosh.

Yeah. What is the episode, what's the episode, an episode where you've noticed this? I just want to bring it up and see if I can find it. Yeah. And to your point, it is definitely the kind of episode that I'm sure a teacher would not bat an eye at. But one of the episodes was, was called What Leadership Looks Like. I think my sense from digging into it a little bit and following the usernames, was effectively they make a playlist that has just one podcast. And that podcast becomes kind of the graffiti space, I guess, of this, I don't know, it feels like a pop-up conversation. It's like a, I mean, it's kind of like a dead drop, you know? Like a classic spy thing where there's this trash can, which nobody's thinking about. And since nobody's thinking about it,

You can hide your messages for other spies there as long as they know it's, they know the trash can to look for. I love that. I didn't think about this in spy terms, but. So basically, kids are using the comment sections of old episodes of NPR podcasts as little private social media chat rooms. Yeah, they figured out that this is a space where they can speak freely and no one, no one will find them. There's an episode of TED Radio Hour where they're just talking about somebody's cat. They just got a cat. Another thing that could be happening here, if your parents take your phone away,

this is a way you could still talk to your friends. Yeah. Yeah, like you, it's a prearranged thing. You say, if you don't hear from me, check my Spotify. I'll create a playlist. It'll have one episode in it. Go to those comments. That's where I'll be.

God bless these children. It's brilliant. If any of you out there listening need a place to post secret messages or, you know, want to communicate with somebody, feel free to use our comment sections. And, you know, if you're not a Spotify person, you can do it in reviews. So we'll keep an eye out. And anything we see that seems to have nothing to do with us. We'll just assume it's a secret message for someone else. Hey, if you have a question for us, no matter how big, how small you can send it to us at how to at npr.org, and we will do our best to get it answered for you. We will not stop until we find an answer for whatever question you have. This message comes from Wise, the app for using money around the globe. When you manage your money with Wise, you'll always get the mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees.

Join millions of customers and visit Wise.com. T's and C's Apply. Support for this podcast comes from Dignity Memorial. For many families, remembering loved ones means honoring the details that made them unique. Dignity Memorial is dedicated to professionalism and compassion in every detail of a life celebration. Find a provider near you at DignityMemorial.com. Support for NPR and the following message come from the Kresgey Foundation with Pathbreakers, a podcast about transforming communities through innovation, from revolutionizing higher education to supporting artists who are driving change. Pathbreakers is available on podcast platforms.

We all know the phrase, steal your thunder. Our producer Hina, her sister, would use the phrase. and for much of her life, Hina thought her sister had invented it. I just idolized her. I thought that everything that came out of her mouth was amazing because she was my older sister. And I thought she invented the phrase stealing my thunder as well.

And then I would use it. And she would yell at me for stealing her thunder. She would yell at you for saying the phrase stealing my thunder. Yeah, she'd be like, you got that from me. Oh. So in order to save Hina, relationship with her sister. We're going to find out where the phrase really came from.

Lexicographer Susie Dent knows the answer. Susie, what can you tell us? I'm so happy that you asked me this one because for lexicographers, it's pretty rare to find the exact moment than a word or phrase was born. So we usually have some idea of the chronology, a decade, probably a year, if we're lucky. But the exact moment is really rare. But we do know with this one. And it, we have to go back to the 5th of February 1709. And we're talking about a playwright, stroke critic called John Dennis, who had written a rather boring, apparently, a pretty turgid play called Apius and Virginia, didn't have much going for it, except he had perfected for his drama a machine that reproduced the sound of thunder. It was pretty

impressive, but even with this sound effect, the play closed after a really short run. And the play that succeeded his was the Scottish play, which so we say, by she was. Okay. Okay. And John Dennis went along to see the opening night, which was pretty decent of him, given his play closed. Anyway, he was all ready for a lovely night until the witcher scene arrived and he heard booming out from the stage, the sound of his very own machine. And contemporaries of the time wrote up the council afterwards and said, he

stood up and shouted something like damn them, they will not let my play run, but they steal my thunder. Wow. So it's almost pretty literal. We're not quite, but yeah, born in the theater. It's just such a good story. Do you know, do you know, Susie,

then when it was picked up and used again? Because it's one thing to say something. It's another thing for someone to be like, well, as John Dennis said the other night we're stealing, someone's going to steal his thunder. That is a really, really good point and believe it or not, not

until 1900, according to the OED, so we know that it came from that utterance of John Dennis and it must have been quoted and re-quoted but then had to become really embedded in the language before it was used freely without any reference to that event.

So it took a while, but for him it's quite sad that this is his enduring legacy, I suppose. Yeah, kind of his lowest moment when he had stood up and had a battery through a tantrum, basically, and everybody wrote it down, and that's forever more what we think of with him.

Yes, exactly. I don't know. I mean, who knows if we would remember his name? You know, this is the way he has persisted, at least most broadly, through history, you know? Well, yeah. We know this work of his more than any other. It's actually... I'm not read at his in Virginia,

but it actually makes you think maybe being generous isn't such a good thing, right? Because if he had stood up and said, well, please, yeah, thank you. Well, good use of my thunder. That's not a phrase people are going to repeat. Yeah, that is actually very true. Lexicographer Susie Dent's adult fiction debut, guilty by definition, is out now. As most of you know, we have offered to be your out-of-office email emergency contact during any breaks that you might be taking. And to our great surprise, a lot of you are still doing it. Yeah, you're actually doing it.

We just got an email here from a shipping company about a problem with some freight. And this seems, I'm going to say, dangerously outside of our... ability to help. So let's see what we can do. Thank you for calling for the Center. This is Courtney. Help me our Institute Center. Hello, Courtney. My name is Mike. I'm calling about an email I got. Should I give you the reference number? Yes, sir, please. 1-028774. And do you have a bill of lading number starting with a one-two? I'm afraid I don't have anything. We just got an email from you. And I'm wondering if it came from an out-of-office message from somebody

named Corey. So I guess my question is, do you still need information from Corey and how can we help? All right. So this was for discrepancies on his shipment. Yeah. Did he leave a phone number? 801.

Corey, are you there? I'm here. Hey, it's Mike and Ian calling. Hey, good to talk to you guys. So tell us what's going on. What happened? Yeah, so I run three bricks and mini-sigs. It's like a buy-sell trade Lego store, and part of it we do custom builds for people. So we build this amazing four-foot-by-four-foot custom build of a factory in California. We're located in Utah, so I had to ship it to them. And I confirmed that they

were not going to use a liftgate delivery because that costs extra, and we didn't need it. But they used it anyway and charged me for it. Yeah. So we got an email from a customer service representative. In order to dispute this charge, we will need a photo of the forklift or dock used at the delivery location to unload the freight. Do you have a photo? No, because they didn't have a forklift or a dock, and it wasn't needed because the crate that we shipped was small enough just to hand offload. So I'm kind of up a creek here. You guys have a picture of a dock or a forklift you could send them?

I'm sure we could get one. I definitely get sent them a picture of a forklift. When you say you do custom build, so like, tell us more about that. I don't know about this. Okay. So, I mean, you know, Lego? Lego puts out kits. Well, sometimes a customer wants or a company wants a custom designed kit. We design those things, make instructions, kit them up, and then get into companies for gifts or employee awards or things like that. Wow. How did you get into this? Were you just a big Lego fan and then you made it your career? Yeah, sort of. Lego was like my thing as a kid, as a young kid, and I gave it all away when I was a teenager

because I was too cool for it. And then I grew up and went to therapy and realized that I had, you know, besides giving away my Lego had put my inner child, my younger self, blocked away in a closet, and that was affecting my life, so I got to know my inner child again, and all he wanted to do was play with Lego. So I kind of got back into it, bringing lots of joy to lots of people. that's phenomenal wow

well we talked to Courtney she told us that the bill had been paid but I guess we didn't do Ian I don't think we did enough due diligence

and we didn't follow up on the photo dispute part of it could you build them a Lego forklift so that they could do this properly next time that's a great idea

you know maybe I'll do that I'll send them a picture of a Lego forklift and just say hey here's your forklift Now, give me my $700. If for whatever reason you want us to be your out-of-office email contact, just copy and paste the text in today's show notes into your out-of-office email, and we will do our best to at least help you as much as we helped Corey. We did not help at all.

Well, that does it for this week's show. What we learned today, Mike? I learned that our old podcast episodes, even though they're old, and we don't think they have any use anymore, are actually providing a service to today's young people. Here's an episode of Wild Card, Empire Podcast, which is an interview with Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love. One of the comments is, last Friday I broke up with my girlfriend. I think one piece of advice that might be helpful is... As Elizabeth Gilbert, author of... V. Pray Love said, having a broken heart is a good sign because it means you tried for something.

How to Do Everything is produced by Skyler Swenson and Hina Shravastava, technical direction from Lorna White. Some of the music you heard in this episode was from Moby Grattis. You can get us your questions at how-to at npr.org. I'm Ian. And I'm Mike. Thanks. Thank you.