Mission To Zyxx - New Year's Mailbag!

Episode Date: January 2, 2026

Happy New Year from the Zyxx crew! We're taking a Derf break for holiday chaos, but we're releasing an out-of-character mailbag ep of questions submitted on our Discord. Enjoy!  Lovingly researched and sound-described transcripts are embedded in every episode page on missiontozyxx.space!

Hey, everyone, welcome. It's Alden with the cast of Mission is X and the Young Old Dirt Chronicles. Hello. Hello. Hi. Happy belated X-Mars to each and every one of you as well as happy New Year. We are all scattered to the winds on Zoom, but we came together for a special New Year release. We're giving Shane the week off to enjoy family time and, like all of us, traveling with a of screaming children. And instead, we're going to do a little bit of out-of-character mailbag.

We've done a few mailbag episodes as our characters before, but it's been a while since we've taken questions from you about our deeply personal secrets that we all hold. All these questions today are going to come from our Missiona Zix Discord. And as always, if you'd like to contribute to the next Mission Isix One Shot, you are welcome to support us on Maximum Fun. and that gives you access to the Discord where you can meet a bunch of cool people hang out with us and also submit ideas and questions

like the ones you're about to hear today. Keen-eared listeners may even notice throughout this mailbag that you'll hear two groups of the crew. One day we were recording with Seth, Shane, Winston, and Justin and today we're recording with Jeremy, Seth, Ali, Mujan, and me.

Is it the same Seth both times? Whoa. Two sets? Well, you do look a little bit different than you did yesterday. Yeah, are you the stunt, Seth? I don't know. Some of these questions I will be combining because I think they're good for both groups

and some questions will just be for one group and the other. So let's get right to the questions, shall we? Shane. All right. Shane O'Connell. From Where's the Befer, who I think is also known on the Discord as Powerline. Shane, what's your favorite part of sound designing for the Zix verse?

Is it the voices, the sound effects, the room tone, the music? Tell us, oh, wise one. Is it the time you spend doing it? Is it the exposure to the blue light from your monitor screen? Yes, the lower back pain. What about the crushing expectations of everyone? How's that? The panic.

My favorite part, well, I don't know. I like having a idea and then pulling it off. So like for episode two of DIRF, I really got fixated on this idea of him accidentally turning on his recorder and us hearing the real world through his pocket. I think that there's something, I mean, it's the least high-fi part of the show. But to me, it's interesting because it's like, in a way, the most real part of the show. You know what I mean? It's like the layers of like, we're hearing this device recording something that's in this world.

To me, in a funny way, is more real than like the high-fi. Yeah, exactly. So, like, I got really fixated on, like, how to do that pocket effect. And that was really fun. I, like, ended up just stuffing a microphone down my pants, pocket, part of the pants. Not, not, not, not judgment, but part of pants. Finally, you're doing that for a reason. Yeah, you can.

Finally, all that practice is really paid up. Yeah, it's funny how the world works that way. You conquered high-fi, and now you're conquering low-fi. This is a, below-the-belt lo-fi. Yeah, the ultimate low. The other favorite part of mixing, I haven't done it as much for DIRF because I'm in dad mode. But whenever I finished a show, I have to record it all in real time. Like, I have to start from the beginning and record the whole thing to make sure there are no mistakes.

So once I got to that point, it would usually be very late at night and I would... You mean like play it and have it mixed down to two tracks? Yeah, I literally open up like a new track in Pro Tools and press record on it and it like records everything. And yeah, I would usually have a drink, sometimes smoke some grass, and get to listen to the whole show for the first time, back to front, and just be like, all right, this one's good. It's funny. Audience member, numero uno. That's right. Shane.

I think one thing that people don't maybe immediately recognize, although I hope they feel it in their back hearts, is just how different this show is from Zix, like, fundamentally. One of the things I think Shane was really excited about was like, let's try a different approach to how we make the show so that we're not just doing more Zix episodes. But structurally, also, I think we all thought we would be fun to try something that wasn't a formulaic kind of mission structure and that we were exploring new stuff all the time. And, of course, as you may have already noticed by now, it makes the show way more complicated. I think it's been easier. I think it's been a lot easier to make. It only has taken us three years. I think it's been fine.

Easier things take longer, right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. But we've gone out of our way to come up with scenes that are weird and that are not, you know, that are not the kind of linear scenes that we would have made on the show or would have, I guess, I would have had to deprioritize on the show. So that leads to a related question from Dario.

How do you know how many scenes to have in a given sequence? Like the young old Durf looks in weird places for his murder. murder a sequence in episode one. Do scenes mostly end themselves or does someone have to call end? That actually, wait, that sequence is interesting because I remember that we had finished a cut of the episode and Alden, you were like, I think we need something here to show that like he's like looking around a little bit because originally it was just like cut straight to the bar and he meets Shea and Goody and it felt like.

And I kind of remember thinking like, really, we need you, we need a bunch of. more scenes, Alden Ford. And then, like, and then we recorded them, I was like, okay, those were fun. I still am not convinced we need them. And then, like, when they were cut in, I was like, damn it, these are really funny. And it totally works for what he says as what Alden thought they were going to do. And, of course, you know, they created what you never quite know what characters are going to jump out at the audience, like necessarily.

I did not peg the cool, cool, single. local twins, I was like sexy and I forgot about that and then I was just truly like laughing when I heard the episode and I was like oh right. Yeah, I love that scene but I remember texting you when I was

working on that being like where is this happening? What is this? Doesn't matter. It doesn't matter Shane. Yeah. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. All you're going to have to do is write some noir music, Shane. You're fine. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think that That's something that is a little bit of a double-edged sword because on one hand we are able to go do these sillier tangent scenes that we maybe wouldn't have had time or space for on the main show.

But it also creates these extra obligations that we have, like not to get two in the weeds, but like one of the reasons these first few episodes have been so much more work than any of the Zix episodes or any of them, at least the mainline kind of Zix, you know, standard Zix episodes, is that we've had to figure out not only who these characters. characters are, but like what makes them interesting to listen to? Like with the kind of the inherent pitch of Mission to Zix was it's like a workplace comedy. It's like everybody has their thing. They all have very recognizable analogs. You know, everybody knows Luke Skywalker, everybody knows C3PO. And so having those analog characters just make sense and there's episode structure is very Star Trek-y and like it's easy to figure out. With this it was totally different where it's like a memoir of a guy who's weird and his memories. are weird and the things he did were weird and we want to be weirder about how we make the show.

But then we're also like, but what makes Shea interesting and what makes goody interesting? Like what makes us want to listen to these guys for eight episodes, especially since they're not on a crew together. They're not doing the same kinds of missions every episode. So that's something that we've had to go back and plug in and that series of scenes with the twins and the weapons dealers and stuff. I think in terms of the actual scenes, it's sort of like, I mean, an improv scene, it's like you're not going to top that, right? Like, and so you, that's when you edit the scene. And so usually something will happen and we'll be like, yeah, I think we got it. Or, you know, I'll apologize and be like, I think I'm done. I don't think we can't go any

for it. The classic apology. More offensive as it's no. Yeah. I'm so sorry. Yeah, I'm sorry about that. But I do think that, right, it's more of just sort of a feel where it's like, yeah, I think we got it. Right. I think that's like kind way that all of us are like, let's move on. Like, I think we got. Well, I think it goes in two directions. It's either like, if everyone's laughing, that means no one's talking it's like well that's a cut point we certainly ended that there or it's the opposite it's like everyone sort of stops talking it's like okay we're done with that we've literally the go-car has ended it's a long run that reminds me and this is we're veering off of the questions but it does remind me of um you know one of the things that we that is was so hard

about the 19s that we may have mentioned at some point in one of our many behind the scenes things and the 20s also the finale's was always about like taking everything from that whole season and being like what are the loose ends in this what are the unanswered questions and so there was way more sort of quote unquote writing in those episodes we didn't write anything down but it was all these stuff where we kind of like Winston said kind of got on the same page about like what's the real what's the real relationship between C53 and the captain and like yeah wouldn't it be funny if this happened let's do a scene where this happens like that kind of stuff where it's a little more prescriptive because it's in service of like making this satisfying season ender and the thing

that's kind of been tough not only Shane spoke to it a little bit about the sound design that's happened not only in every episode but almost in every scene so we're like okay what is Shay doing why is she agreeing to do this or like how do we justify because it's it's only going to be eight episodes so with mission to Zix like literally 16 of the 20 episodes could kind of be like as long as they're mentioning the overall goal like this can just be whatever the guest comedian pitched and like it could they're all sort of bodily to a bottle like bottlish bottle bottle bottle yeah so that's been more of a challenge with durf which is like is sort of like the premises it's kind of like a loosey-goosey like this is a jam band like season but there's also sort of more narrative onus on it to be like

wrapping itself up we only have eight episodes to tell the whole thing yeah and i feel like um sort of what you guys been saying is like there is a lot more like direction and going back to like tweak things to make everything make sense. But I will say the first pass at everything is almost purely improvised to the point where it's like in that that, that we, I think we just got to make sure that's clear because that's a wild way to make something so specific to start. And that's where we get these wilder moments that are then folded and sort of massage so it becomes one cohesive nice piece about the end.

Yeah. And I would say we've done that more aggressively in this than we did in the original show. Was we were like, okay, the premise is prison. We're just doing a bunch of scenes in a prison. And we'll figure it out like you know, there's no, there wasn't even any expectation that we'd end up back on

the ship or, you know, doing a recap or even having a mission really. Like we knew we were going to meet Twinkle, but because that was established in the second scene and that was pretty much it. And so everything else we kind of had to back into. Yeah. we have an interesting question here from point nemo what did the ship design for the bargerian jade involve from the mission to zix credits i've always been curious about that that's a great question

i think before we even started working on the show i was randomly trolling the internet for star wars stuff and there was a star wars original art design contest and one of those i thought was really particularly great and it was by eric goyce who we all know now as the designer of Bargeria jade. A.k.A. Space goose. Space goose. Space goose on Discord. So I reached out to him, just cold emailed him and was like, hey, I thought you're designing that Star Wars contest was really awesome. We're designing a ship, and the aesthetic for it is right up our alley. Would you be interested in? He, lo and behold, he wrote me back

and gave me something like 30 amazing sketches. We all weighed in, chose the one we liked the best, and kind of refined it from there. He also does a cool thing where he kind of bases his spaces the spaceships off of an object sometimes. Yeah, he's got lots of great. Yeah, like this garlic press is now a space station. Yeah, he did one for like Saracha. He has one.

Yeah, he's got a bunch. If you check out his Instagram, there's tons of them. Well, I remember Alden looking over a few of the sketches and we were kind of like, this one, like these are all great, but some of them look too kind of cool. And the bargy shape was so awkward that it felt like it inherently fit with a comedy show. I do think since its conception, people have noticed that it does look like Bargey's, in fact,

dabbing. But I don't think that Bargy is. It's not intentional. That was never the intention of Bargey to be dabbing. Oh, that's so true. Dargy is dabbing. I feel like baked into this question is like, wait, what does it mean to do the visual design for an audio show?

Like, is there something about the ship design that actually affects the, a But I love that. It's in the credits. Yeah. And I do think it was deliberate for all of us to say going in, like, we don't want to design everybody. In fact, we want to design as little, you know, we want to establish a visual for as little as possible. But I think we all decided, like, if they're all on Bargy, pretty much every episode, having some sort of frame of reference, not only for, you know, what she looks like, but also, you know, just so we can get our heads around kind of what the world looks like. And I think that was kind of what I had initially told Eric when I emailed him was like if there's one design from Star Wars that I think is like truly iconic, besides maybe like Darth Vader's helmet or something, it's the Millennium Falcon.

Like it's truly one of the perfect pieces of prop design I think I can come up with. It's just absolutely amazing. And I was like, if we could come up with something like that where it's like we don't have to know what PLEC looks like exactly, but if you know what Bargy looks like, it really, it sets the tone for the whole rest of the show and if it's super legit looking then it will it'll make the rest of the show feel legit and so that was kind of the philosophy we had going in um here's a related question and this is um this came much later came six years later who came up with the floor plan for the bargy blueprint poster which as most of you know was a limited release blueprint that we made and that

was much more collaborative because at that point we had all been working on the show for a long time and we had a lot more ideas of what stuff was and where things were. I reached out, again, to somebody who I had found, some artist I'd found online who'd done a bunch of speculative schematics for like Star Trek ships or something. There's this really great artist named Rob Turpin. And I think I said, Mujan Similist of like whatever you think would be funny, not only what we've established on the show,

but like what are other rooms? Because, you know, once you look at the size of Barji, there's like a several dozen rooms that we've never talked about that have to be, you know, we'd have to figure out what they were. And so Mujan sent me a bunch of really funny ideas for rooms as well as funny names for the stuff that we knew existed. Like you had big wing, medium wing, and then little bitty tiny baby boop boop wing or something like that, which is so funny. And so that was a really cool process because the guy who designed the blueprint was not Eric Goyce. That was a different person who looked at Eric's drawings and came up with a blueprint for it, a floor plan.

and then drew in a lot of this stuff that Mujan and I and the rest of us had sent along. And then another person, a 12th person at this point, a longtime friend, Steve Uncles, who has a really great architect's handwriting. I gave him that list and said to draw that in his handwriting, so it looked like an actual architectural drawing. Because the architect handwriting is such a specific skill that people have. And it's all very similar from architect to architect. Like it's a font.

You learn when you... It's like cue cards. My dad has that because he took drafting classes in college. And so his block capitals are like super precise. Jeremy, I feel like every time we do one of these out of characters, I learn something about your father. Ken Ben Ben's a really fascinating.

Ken Ben's an interesting guy is what I'll say. Yeah, it just doubles down on like what a great dad you have. Just spend a week with him. Terrific. No complaints. my favorite thing on the blueprint is there's escape pod which just like obviously the show that's never established that that exists

otherwise it would have made lots of lots of shenanigans not necessary if they could have just escaped at any point that's true it also makes the question if bargy is sentient is the escape point it's possible I mean the fridge is you got George Wait, Allie, what do you think Dar's in the inside of Dar's room looks like? It's full of mattresses.

It's full of mattresses, right, right. Mattresses and sexes. And, oh, I imagine also like a lot of built-in bookshelves for all the bottom. Oh, yeah, you've got to have a built-in. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tasteful.

Let's move on. This is a very important Zix question from Enigma Fisseltoe. So the scenario is similar to Freaky Friday, but instead of parent and child, you wake up to find that you and your main Zix character have swapped bodies. How's that working out for both of you?

Nothing's changed. Wow. Next question. Okay. I guess it depends on which season C you're talking about. Oh, true. Oh, wow. I would definitely be much, much worse off if PLEC was me.

PLEC would be better off with me in his position. Midnight Shadow, Country Gentleman. I think I'm okay. Yumbasseter frame Latter droid Loder droid I don't know Loder droid is rough for my apartment It's got a lot of narrow always

Jeremy frame lateral move Arguably Worse off in some ways better off in others I feel like somehow Nermit It's me switching with Nermit We'd be like better suited Both of us Because Nermit like wants to be bigger

And I think I think of myself As just like a scurrying little little tiny guy you definitely have a big upgrade in your musical you know outlets I feel like I feel like you want to make

the kind of music Nermit makes but you just don't have the time and Nermit certainly does I have too much shame all right here's a question from Osito Surf Shirt who are you the biggest fan of right now

that's a great question who in of any discipline I think like in pop culture. Don't say your wife or something. Weird, Justin. I love my wife. Is that what you wanted to hear? I like to think I'm her biggest fan.

Can I choose Justin's wife? Or is it you can't choose? Raises some questions. Raises a couple questions. I've been listening to the Lonely Island podcast with Seth Myers. Really? Is it good? Yeah, I think it's pretty good.

It's just interesting because like Lazy Sunday came out like 20 years ago. It's just a bit a while this December. And you're like, whoa. And I just remember listening to their process and how they've kind of, you know, how they worked and how incredible like the demands were and all that kind of stuff. It's, it is pretty impressive. And I don't know. It's just a, it's a fun podcast to listen to too because they're all friends.

And so it's known each other for a long time. So it's kind of a good hang podcast. I don't know. I always respect somebody with an interesting big body of work. So, anyway, that's something I've been listening to that I've enjoyed. I mean, this is a basic answer, but I did just watch Marty Supreme, and Chalemay absolutely destroys that movie. Whoa, I was certain you were going to say Safty. No, well, the movies, I mean, I put them both together because the movie's excellent.

It's incredibly well made. Oh, great. Yeah, I've watched it twice, and it's only, it's new. so that's my like external pop culture thing more closer to home there's a guy an actor named Tim Bolts I don't know if you guys know him I saw he was in an episode or two episodes of I Love L.A and I didn't know he was in it until I was watching it and when he popped up that's the most like pure joy of like seeing someone who I know and love doing something awesome and being very funny was yeah it was such a hit right there he's gem in gemstones right

gemstones yes i'm i worked with them at the opposition with jordan clepper right i wrote with him a lot and he was a correspondent um and we've been bud since and uh man he's just so good speaking of jeff hiller oh yeah what a year yeah talk about it couldn't happen to a nicer guy that's yeah truly if you want to know listener like jeff is the that is who you see on screen and who you see in interviews is jeff yeah like he is not putting on any sort of persona. That is how sweet and funny and nice he is. And to be clear, yeah, what we're saying is Jeff Hiller won the Emmy for his performance in somebody somewhere and was like an absolute dark horse candidate won against Harrison Ford. He also wrote a great book, actress of a certain age, which is really fun, his memoir.

So anyway, big, and was, I think in his list of credits, he does list first live episode of Zix. Famously. Really? Yeah. The Emmys really wanted to celebrate that. You know who I like? There's a New York comedian named Cassie Wilson who does very funny videos, specifically one about AI really made me chuckle,

where it's like, hey, are you using AI? And it's like, well, doesn't it do this bad thing? Uh-huh. Doesn't it do this bad thing? Uh-huh. Doesn't it do this bad thing? Uh-huh. And it's like this very long sequence of those.

And it's like, well, no, I don't think I'm going to use it. It's, well, you should probably get used to the new technology. And it really made me laugh. And so I follow her and she posts lots of funny stuff. That's great. I found the person on TikTok whom I love, I think makes content that is just truly cozy. It's David Larby or David Larby, but it's L-A-R-B-I. And he's like a poet and an author, and all of his posts are...

Like they all rhyme, it's all poetry. It's just like, I like that. It's just like really lovely. I was thinking about him too because I think he just posted that it was his birthday. Oh, happy birthday, David Larby. Bam.

Good Rex. I'm not a big S&L person, but I have noticed the stuff I've seen of new featured player Ashley Padilla. Oh, yeah. She's so good. That haircut. That sketch is so funny.

Yeah. That's a really, really good sketch. Like, she's a great actor. Like, she's subtle. I don't know. It feels like she's, like, 80s rom-com energy, sort of, somehow, in these sketches and in, like, the best way possible. And, yeah, I feel like she came out swinging, but it's, like, pretty impressive.

Here's a good one from Kaj Seltius. Topical for the date. what did you accomplish this year that you're most proud of oh wow gosh these are i was hoping we'd be like what's bargy's favorite food like these are deep and hard uh well you don't have to think too hard about it i mean i this is an easy this is an easy one uh but uh this show was a very uh heavy lift and it was several years in the making yeah and in a lot of ways feels much like a much a much more of an uphill, a good one, but an uphill battle than the first show on pretty much every level. So getting it out and like having such great feedback from our listeners and like at Tribeca and everything was such a big,

such a big accomplishment, I think for all of us. I think I have an answer for this. Yes, great. Well, there you go. Now you say you didn't like that question. Oh, she's flipping through a stack of cash. She's proud of that. Now, I like, so I'm a vocationally.

I'm a television writer or a writer. Vocationally. Okay. Your day job is writing. My day job is writer TV if that's possible. I'd like to also act, but, you know, things are hard. But this summer, because nothing was happening, I basically went inside for many months, became a hermit and forced myself to be creative and make stuff.

and I wrote a feature film. Hey. It's great. Well, you guys know, why are you surprised? And then I... We're allowed to congratulate you. Thank you. I've never congratulate me.

It's called Avatar 3. Maybe you saw it over the holidays. It's being produced and maybe in 20 years you will see it. That's awesome. That is awesome. I didn't know. I don't know it got produced. Well, there, you know, it's early stages so any...

It's possible this may never happen and you could delete my entire thing that I just said. But the fact that I wrote the script, I think, is my biggest hurdle. And so I did it. That's huge. That's amazing. Yeah, that's a big deal. One of the things, I don't want to blow up their spot, but there is a very lovely discord person who we've all met several times in person who is really great, Alice. And they have a yearly tradition, which is now, this will be my third year doing, and I'm always very excited about it.

It's the following year bingo card. I do that in a five-by-five grid. Yeah, it's a great idea. You do a five-by-five grid, and you try to make it a mix of stuff that you is attainable, but also the stuff that you might luck into. Like, every year I have new directing work, new voiceover work. You know, like, I may not get it. I may get it.

If I get it, it's great. But it's like, it feels like an accomplishment. And they're not resolutions. They're not like, I'm going to get into shape or whatever. It's all stuff like. Here's a great example of the bingo card is I, like, I run normally a 5K distance. a couple times a week. I wish I was more consistent with it.

But I put on my bingo card run a 10K, which is a distance I have never run in my life. And I meant to spend like a month working up to that and then attempt it. And then right before Christmas, the Sunday before Christmas, I just said, I have not trained this. But what if I just tried anyway? And I did and I did. Yes.

And I really did not do great. on that last mile but I did it but you did it yeah I did it and my feet hurt a bunch the next day but like I was okay and now that's like another thing I got checked off on the um how did both of you do on your bingo cards are we talking like full full board or first year no no no the first year I think I probably got half of them I was more ambitious this year there was a bunch of stuff that I was like this like one of the things that's that has been and will be on the next year's one as well is submit a crossword to the New York Times, which I've been working on for a while. But it's the kind of thing like I have to have, not only I have to be good at it, which I'm not

yet, but also I have to have like the free time to really sit down, which I haven't had. But it's that kind of stuff where I'm like, I could do it. You could submit a blank piece of paper. Honestly, submitting. Did you ever think about that? I like that it's like a really chill version of the secret, like manifesting. Yeah, you're not really manifesting. Yeah. Yeah. Next question. Shred till DIRF asks, what would you say is the thing that kept the project moving forward in the early days and prevented it from becoming either that one idea a few of us had once and never ended up making to never ended up continuing to make after a few episodes.

I'm not sure if this is about DIRF or about Zick. I think that's about Zicks. Yeah. That's a good question. I feel like for me personally, it just worked way better than I. dared to hope. Like I think after we made a couple episodes, I remember listening to the edits and really going, whoa, this is work. This is working in a way that like things don't, like the, it felt like the thing we envisioned we actually were able to make. And it felt replicable. And then I think the next thing was getting a distribution deal where they put a little bit of real money toward marketing. Because the two hardest things are making something

that's worth making. And then two getting people to know about it. and so they were like audio boom actually bought ads on other shows we and i feel like we just came up with something that we were all excited enough about and like and just worked was fun and a lot of projects all of us have done have been good ideas that didn't work and i would say for durp i do think the presence of justin has propelled their forward in a great way yeah just because justin is like one of the crew but it's It really changes the flavor of the whole thing. Yeah, and it's interesting to have one.

Describe that flavor. It's like bacon and cotton candy, but like. Yeah, like, putrid, but no, but, no, I do think, like, having, like, not to, like, embarrass you, Justin, but having, like, Justin is such a pro, so great, and, like, we all really like him a lot. And I think, like, also so funny and so, like, structuring it around one person has been sort of interesting. And I wonder if it had been one of, like, somebody who was initially not, like, technically part of the, like, one of us, like one of the seven people at first.

It might have been a little easier for things to sort of have dissolved and be like, yeah, maybe we just don't. Yeah. You know, like, I don't think we could have, I don't think we could have made, like, a Nermit or a Dar stuff. Yeah, I think it, like, I think it would be too, we would be comparing it to the original show too much. It would be too hard to come up with different ideas and stuff. And I think the fact that we brought someone else in who is very, very familiar with the show and, like, the idea of how we made the show, but also was going to immediately inject, like, a different kind of chemistry into the group, I think was a really important aspect. When you said it was important for this to feel different, and there's nothing more different than making it different the way that we did here. And I think it helped to still be similar enough that it felt good.

And I think that's a good way to keep something going to have it be new and old. So it feels comfortable, but with an edge to it. Yeah, yeah. You might say young and old. Right. Right. You know, the ultimate dichonics. Yeah.

I will admit, I was skeptical that Justin records nude always, like, and, like, it felt like. It's called getting into character, set. Yeah, yeah. Right. But also when he yells at us, I am like, okay, I get what you're saying. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's, like, screaming. Yeah.

like his temper his temper sort of justifies it. Yeah, the temper sort of does spur us along which is good. I thought it's easier to be mad when you're nude. Yeah. Yeah. And I feel like I've only cried like once or twice which is a lot less than I did over the course of Mission to Vicks.

So I think that's good. That's great. Save your tears. Yeah. Yeah. I want to leave you with one final little question from CB Vol as we launch into the new year. Given the dumpster fire that is the world. Sure. What a premise. does the cast do that brings them joy

like maybe things could get better or people aren't innately horrible joy that's a great question I think the show is one for me yeah do you guys have anything when you're feeling down that lifts you up

anything you're planning to do more of in the coming year that's gonna keep your joy I add things to a cart no I do do that though I'll truly do think I have a spending problem so I'm gonna do like a no-by

January. At least surrounded by Labuboos right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I love them as if they were my children. I do think, oh my gosh, I know how cringe this will sound.

Improv is so the thing. I feel like I went back to doing improv regularly at the UCB when I was like especially down. I think like I, you know, I'd like struggled with infertility for two years

and I was so sad and I I was also just like so tired of like my identity feeling like oh I'm the woman who cannot get pregnant and is desperately trying and so I went back to doing improv at the UCB and that

was such a solve like I feel like it was so nice to just return to something like this is how we all met this is how we met all of our best friends like you know I feel like it was so nice to just do zip zap zap with a bunch of

like other adults and just be so stupid and have like and like just really kind of be so present in that instead of like casting forward for like what am I going to do if I don't get pregnant? What am I going to do if, you know, like, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And it was so nice to like rediscover this thing. And I think, you know, still doing it because the world continues to hurt. Yeah. I mean, I think it's funny how it's become such a cliche to like separate the world into like pre and post-COVID stuff. But like we were all at the theater at least once a week and a lot of us several times a week.

And the fact that that just stopped and then actually didn't seem like that big a, I mean, you know, relatively didn't seem like that big a deal because everything went crazy for a couple years. And now that things are evening out a little bit. I'm like, that was such a huge part of my life and we don't do any of that anymore, you know. So good for you for getting back into it. That's really, that's really awesome. One of my lives that I lived before Zix was I was a roller derby referee in New York City. Hell yeah. For three years and then I announced for a few years after that.

Technically one of the first people to announce roller derby on television in New York since the eight years. Wow, no big deal. Yeah. But I love to roller skate. I don't do derby anymore because I think my body would be very angry with me. but I love to roller skate. I especially love to roller skate in the street, which I used to do in Prospect Park in New York.

And then they would do an event a few times over the summer called Summer Streets where they would close down Park Avenue. You could skate basically from like almost from the corner of Central Park all the way down to like City Hall. Oh, wow. And you would go through Grand Central Terminal. It was very cool. Oh, well, Jeremy, this year they made it even longer.

It goes all the way to Inwood. It goes from Brooklyn Bridge Park to Inwood. But that's really fun. And I really like doing that, but I also want to make some time to, like, I also love skating at rinks. And there's a couple of very good rinks in L.A. So I'm going to make more time to do that in 2026. That's awesome. For me, something that's helped, but I'm trying to be better at it, too, is to just be around people and be around community.

And, like, we briefly mentioned it in another podcast episode, but I'll go into it for real. Yeah, I am in an underground secret domino's society. And I'm not going to say more than that. but it's been fun and I do have a keychain that has my tile number which is one six thank you so much everybody um yeah uh it was just like special times of just like forcing yourself to be around kind of forcing but like having an appointment having an appointment to see people we're gonna come yeah yeah yeah till not just like be in your head and focus on how terrible things are sometimes I've been getting back into playing guitar

like trying to have a very mindful real guitar practice something I haven't done for a long time but yeah when I was a kid when I was learning to play like I used to be at school and just couldn't wait to get home to like practice guitar you know what I mean and I wanted to have that feeling again so like

I've got a real you know set aside time every day and have like some stuff I work through and it's been great. It doesn't make me feel better about the world but makes me feel good. Makes you feel better about some sick licks. Yeah. I would say like occasional

just small and promptu dance parties with the children are a good a good sort of dopamine boost because it's both very joyous and really funny how little kids dance. Deaths. It's great. entertainment and great activity.

A six-year-old does a lot of hands on the floor. Like, I don't know to name it. You may be at a gymnastics class. This is called a hip out. Yeah. It's, it's, um, yeah. Folks, thanks so much for joining us for this question and answer forum. Um, thanks for sending in your questions.

If you'd like to be involved in the next mission is next one shot, you can by supporting the show on maximum fun.org. And thank you so much to everybody who submitted questions. questions. Thank you to the crew for joining us for this. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. We'll see you all in Times Square. We'll see you in 20206 for more DIRF. More DIRF. Yeah, we're all headed. Yeah, we're all going to Times Square. Don't worry about it. Put on our diapers and ride the ball. Yeah, exactly. Uh, have a night. Happy New Year. Bye. Happy New Year. fun. It's midnight here on host to coast, and we've got Sarah from Michigan on line one. Hi, I'm calling him for some help. I used to love reading, but between grad school, having kids

and the general state of the world, I can't seem to pick up a book and stick with it anymore. Sarah, this is an easy one. Just listen to Reading Glasses, a podcast designed to help you read better. Brea and Mallory will get all the pressure, shame, and guilt out of your reading life. You'll be finishing books you love in no time. Great. That sounds amazing. Also, I do think my husband is cheating on with Mothman. Can you help me with that one? Ooh, I don't think they cover that. Reading glasses every Thursday on Maximum Fun. Hey, do you have a favorite episode of Star Trek? If you do, you should also have a favorite Star Trek podcast. Greatest Trek is about all the new streaming Star Trek shows, and it's a great

companion to The Greatest Generation, our hit show about Back Catalog Star Trek that you grew up with. It's a comedy podcast by two folks who used to be video producers, so it's a serious mix of comedy and insight that fits right into the Maximum Fun network of shows. And Greatest Trek is one of the most popular Star Trek podcasts in the world. So if you're following Lower Decks, Prodigy, or Strange New Worlds, come hang out with us every Friday as we roast and review our favorite Star Trek shows. It's on Maximumfund.org, YouTube or your podcatching app. Maximumfund.org. Comedy and culture. Artists owned. Audience. Audience supported.