Ologies with Alie Ward - Alieology (YOUR HOST): an Ask-Me-Anything Goofy Hang

Episode Date: December 27, 2023

It’s like a whole episode of secrets. And your questions. And your podmom, Jarrett, hanging out in a guest room answering all kinds of inquiries. This week between the holidays I thought I’d take it easy and dip into the mail bag to explain my free-range childhood,  the goth days, podcasting tips, favorite bugs, hair dye, yellow sweaters, episodes that have never aired, how I find my guests, how many hours each episode takes, and who our dog loves the most. Cozy up and let’s become goofy together. A donation went to Dogs Without BordersSmologies (short, classroom-safe) episodesOther episodes you may enjoy: Field Trip: How to Change Your Life Via the Natural History Museum, LIFE ADVICE Encore: For anyone who is tired & needs some hacks, Attention-Deficit Neuropsychology (ADHD), Scotohylolgy (DARK MATTER), Quasithanatology (NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCES), Quantum Ontology (WHAT IS REAL?)More about Jarrett Sleeper of Mind Jam MediaSponsors of OlogiesTranscripts and bleeped episodesBecome a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a monthOlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, hoodies, totes!Follow @Ologies on Twitter and InstagramFollow @AlieWard on Twitter and InstagramEditing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio ProductionsManaging Director: Susan HaleScheduling Producer: Noel Dilworth Transcripts by Emily White of The WordaryWebsite by Kelly R. DwyerTheme song by Nick Thorburn

Oh, hey, it's your sister-in-law who's staying in your guest bedroom recording a podcast because it's the day after Christmas. Hi, it's Ali Ward. This is a weird one of allergies. It's not a typical one of allergies. This is an AMA that I'm handing off to you on a platter of leftovers. It's not really a platter of leftovers, but you're like, oh, it's like when you make a sandwich with the leftovers. It's holidays and here's a little fun one, a little out of the ordinary, y'all on Patreon submitted a bunch of questions asking me anything. So we're going to run through as many as we can. If you're like, how do I do that? How do I become a patron?

It's a dollar a month, one big dollar a month, you can join at patreon.com-ologies and submit questions before we record. Also thank you to everyone who leaves reviews. I don't have one in front of me. I usually read one, but we're doing this to see if we can do no edits. And so there's gonna be stumbles. There's gonna be weird stuff in here.

But I'm enlisting the help of my former editor and current husband, Jared Sleeper, to ask me questions. We were going to have Mercedes-Mateland do it, but she's off for the holiday, and so we're pulling someone back into the fray who no longer edits allergies because it's more fun to just be married than to have to work together

on deadlines all the time. Anyway, I'm already letting this get away from me. We're going to answer some of your questions, some of them are weird, some of them are weird. Some of them are like how to do a podcast and others are like, why do you wear that sweater all the time? So let's go. Here we go. Welcome to the AMA of Alley Ward. In many senses, one could consider this alliology.

Oh boy. Okay. We're lying in the guest bedroom of Jared Sleeper, Samantha Sleeper, and Chris Berry. And we're laying in bed, lying in bed, the dogs between us. We're going to run through your questions. We have 39 pages of questions you submitted. We're going to get to every single one of them. I think this episode is going to be probably maybe 10 to 12 hours. Yeah, I'm going to do every single one of you. Perfect.

We've got laws and chees. We have, I'm hooked up to an IV for hydration. I'm wearing astronaut diapers. Let's go. Oh, hey, that's that's me because I'm the interviewer this time. Okay, cool. All right. This first question comes from Daniel Schmaniel. When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? I wish I had an audio clip. Maybe I can put one in there, but I wanted to be Porcupig or a star in the sky. My mom recorded me asking what I wanted to be, and I distinctly remembered wanting to be Porcupig. I didn't understand that that was not an option for him of being. I suppose I could still cosplay as that. No one's telling me I can't. In some sense, you know, you still get to,

you get to go, but that's all folks. Yeah. You know, which is kind of a porcupine quality. I'm pissed I didn't have that as my sign off all these years. A star in the sky, little did I know is a tiny top that we all started off as star dust, didn't we? You can see the cosmology episode for more on that. For more on that, it's linked to the mile.

All right, Josh Frye asked, when you were a kid, let's say 10 to 12-ish, what did you imagine about adult, what did you imagine about adult life that is one, closest to your life today and two, furthest from your life today? Wow, that's a complicated question. I imagined that when I was around the age of 24,

I pictured myself and I was around the age of 24, I pictured myself and I was wearing a lavender business suit with shoulder pads and an updo, and I was holding a child on my hip and there was another child that I thought as a 24-year-old, I would probably have two children and I'd wear lavender business suits. Well. I got a nailed that one.

I hit my 24th birthday and I was like, get the suit out of the bag and then I just, I don't know where those kids went. I liked them when I had them. I didn't have any kids or a lavender business suit at 24 or an updo. So that was wrong. One thing about being an adult, it's pretty tight. You can eat high for breakfast. If you have stable blood sugar and you can still have a job that's fun. I remember I like to look through the classified ads as a kid, which

we're still on newspaper. I'd be like, oh, I could do this job or this job. But then I found out that all the best jobs aren't in the classified ads in the back of a newspaper. You know what I mean? Yeah, I think so. Because those were all like trade jobs that I didn't know how to do at the time. But also,

a lot of ways those do sound like the best jobs for me now. They do, yeah. My little brother just finished working on a Christmas tree farm. That's how it's free. I know. I know. But at the time, I couldn't just slide into those. I needed way more skills. Okay. So that was closest to your closest to your life today, though. Um, I have a dog. Mm-hmm. You thought you were going to have a dog.

Great. Yeah. She's great. She's, when I thought about having a dog, I was like, what if it just, what if it's just, what if it's just like a frozen yogurt machine of poop and it hates me? Well, it kind of is one of those things. She does hate us sometimes. Yeah. She's pretty well trained in the bowel department though.

Less Johnson asks, when did you first expand your audience beyond your elementary classroom? You must have always wanted to share knowledge. I like how you're giving some spice to the assortment. Just trying to read them without stumbling to your heart. And I should have put glasses on because I'm squinting a lot at the screen. It gives the font size like zoomies. No, I like the challenge.

I forgot the question. Well, there wasn't really a, well, there was a question size like zoomies. I like the challenge. I forgot the question. Well, there wasn't really a question in the first half. I thought there was a commentary afterwards. When did you first expand your audience beyond your elementary classroom? You must have always wanted to share knowledge. My best friend growing up was named Aaron Campbell

and she lived across the street for me. And we met when we were four and she was six months older than me so I thought she knew absolutely everything in the world. She was also in a first grade and kindergarten grade mixed classroom so I was like she knows everything first graders do she's this marriage person in the world and I think once I told her something about acorns, she didn't know. And I was like, wow, wow, this is exciting to share things with people who I thought knew everything. Funny side note about Aaron Campbell, her name now, Aaron Talbert. She's Admin of theologist podcast Facebook group. We thank her at the end of every episode. Erin, I love you.

Do you like like is it, um, is it, is it the feeling that you, the feeling that you get that you told someone that thing they didn't know? Or is it the feeling that you believe you're witnessing someone else have as they learn something? No. I think I like learning stuff so much. It's nice to reciprocate. I got this Uncle Bob who at the family reunions would take us out on a canoe and be like, that's an auspireness, that's a turtle. And I was like, wow, if I hadn't hopped in this canoe with Uncle Bob, I would know anything.

I wouldn't know Jack shit about the ecology of this lake. So I think Uncle Bob also was one of those. But he was like in the forestry service and a bit of a naturalist, not a naturalist, like a nude, but I think that's a slightly different word. I think so. It was just like, oh, I suddenly appreciate things around me that I didn't before. I think I like giving people context for things that might make them appreciate their surroundings more, because I like that.

I remember going on like a hike with someone who was in a foraging and realizing, like just how that context, you can eat that, you can use this as a medicine, or you know, hiking as a kid, they were like at the bark of the aspen tree is something that turned into aspirin. I was like, oh, it really does change.

It's no longer just a pretty thing you're looking at. It's like a world you're involved with. It's involved with you. We have an ethno-botany episode coming up. I think it's a willow tree, but I don't know. I think you're right. But Aspen and Aspen, that'd be tight. The marketing is to get out of that.

It is something like that. It is something that the bark, the Aspen tree. Well, you're going to have to wait for the epilogue. I'm going to have to make an aside for this while I had it. Are we doing a side? Probably not. OK. This is a de-eer on a side's episode.

All right. It means Google it yourself. Yeah. So, yeah. Extensively Google and vet yourself. All right. Someone did ask this. This is not a highlighted one, but I'm gonna ask because I think this kind of stuff is,

I think is fun, potential. Rick Paralt asked, so after discovering you grew up in Sacramento and are almost the same age as me, I have to know which school did you go to? Oh, William Brooks Elementary, which better not be any question on any things to get into my passwords of stuff. Gosh, I hope not. It was in Eldorta Hills, which better not be any question on any things to get into my passwords of stuff. Gosh, I hope not.

It was in Eldora Hills, which was outside of Sacramento, and at the time, it was mostly cow pastures, and I don't think the high school was accredited. I think it was not seen in the eyes of our Lord, the US States of America that reminds me of that. I personally believe. Yeah. It's so far, you thought exactly everything. There's some people don't have maps. Such as for example.

Such as for such as. I believe, I think if I had to do an aside here, I think it was Miss Teen like North Carolina gave an answer about geography. I personally believe. Yeah, that's legendary in math communities. Good luck there. But yeah, it was not accredited.

And now that town has turned very shishy and there's like a Mercedes dealership. But yeah, at the time it was Calpasters and we would romp around and I would, my sister and I would get a stick and we'd go out and look for cow patties and one of us would poke the cow patty with a stick and the other would try to decide how old it was and write it down on a clipboard. Fieldwork from a young age.

Kind of on the heels of that, Mish the Fish asked, what was your favorite part of being a UCSB Goucho? Mine was the free massage chair at Caps. I don't know what any of that means. I went to US, you, UCSB? UCSB for my first year of college and so I was a Goucho, the mascot. I'm not exactly sure what a Goucho does. I think they wear, I think they wear some kind of pants with flair of friends. But my favorite part about going to UCSB, I'm kind of pants with flair of kinds of kind. That's like a caro. But my favorite part about going to UCSB, I'm sorry,

dear listener, was transferring because it was so fucking expensive that I went for one year and then I bounced to go to the community college because I could get all of those credits for like $12 a unit. And so I'm so sorry, if you are on the fence about college or whatever, JV's community college, you're best friend. I wanted two different ones, like one during the summers. And yeah, I got a bunch of credits and guess what?

No one in my life has ever asked me, hey, did you go to a junior college for some of this? Nope, nope, never happens. And it was a lot less expensive and I don't have student loans. Now I pay them off years ago. Okay. Well, I know Colby Evans asked, how did you do in school?

You're incredibly bright and quick-witted and I love your use of language. Yeah. Well, I think that too, but that is what Colby Evans and other people who like to say, that's nice. Interested to hear if some of that developed later in life.

If I did okay in school? Yeah, during school or the brightness, your quick wet, your love, your use of language that we love. I did always love language. My family is a bit of punsters. That's true. And I did pretty well in school because I was always pretty interested in things I still remember,

field trips to tide pools and drawing pictures of animals and stuff. In terms of English and writing, a lot of people in my family are writers. So if you write a text on the family's writing of a typo, it's very shameful. There's a lot of editors in my family as well. Not that they shame you, but it's personally you feel ashamed. I get it. personally, you feel. Right, right, right. I get it. High standards. Yeah.

But what about grades and stuff like school? How do you, how are you in school? I did pretty well. I did all right. I gave the valedictory speech in my high school, but I was not the high, I did not have the highest GPA. I think they were just like, does anyone want to do a speech? And I was like, I've got some things to get off my chest.

So I talk about sexism. That's true. Anyway, moving on. Should we move on from my youth? No. I don't know. We have memories. We got goth days. This is AMA episode.

I think you should just, but there's so, wait, I think just scroll up. Come on, I can run it. When it's alliology, it's fun. I'm having fun. I care. I want to start a podcast where I interview my wife. I didn't know you did the Validictory speech. It was all about it. It was all about institute. I want to know this.

I want to know this too. Stephanie, Trabberman, did you ever get said to the principal's office? No. In fact, I only cut class one time and I asked my mom, can you just bright me a fucking note for this? I want to go to the museum and maybe the mall in San Francisco and eat some clam chowder out of a bread bowl. And she was like, how are you doing on your homework? And I'm like, I'm pretty much caught up and she was like, all right, but I didn't cut class a lot because I was just like, I'm gonna have to catch up later. So I just went, but then at the same time,

I was like 16 and wearing like fishnet shirts going to Goth clubs. So I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. So I was like a good. There's a whole section of questions called the Goth days. Oh, boy.

I was a good kid mostly because I felt like if I tried to cut corners, it'd just be like shooting myself in the deck. You know what I mean? I was just like, I'm here to learn. I'm just gonna get through it. But I so, and my sister, my older sister, had like a rebellious streak and I sometimes saw how that would turn around and

bite her in her own ass. So I was like, well, I'm just gonna take classes I like. So I think I felt like the rebellion really was like 100% straight-aids kit. No, no, I got bees here and there. Okay, here and there. Yeah, but I was, but here and there. Okay, here and there. Yeah, but I was, but I also had, I guess I had, I had friends whose parents were harder on them for grades. And so I just ask them, like, hey, how does this theorem work? And because their parents were so hard on them for grades, they'd usually be able to explain it to me. Smarter, not harder. Yeah. Okay. What's your funny as childhood memory asks Charlene? Once my family and I were watching Pee Wee's Spiggy Adventure and there's a scene where Paul Rubens, Rest in Peace, hops on top of the bar and dances to the song Tequila and my

family was concerned with how hard I was laughing. For some reason it was the funniest thing I'd ever seen in my life. And it was like, oh, I think that's funny. And then it got to be like, is she okay? Yeah. Like, I lost my mind. I believe I've seen that. I've seen it lose your mind over things that make no sense to me, but I love it.

Do you remember the time when I threw socks at you? Yeah, you just couldn't get enough. We're full of laundry. You threw sock at me, hit me in the face. You're losing your mind. It was so funny because it didn't get enough. We're folding laundry. You threw sock in me, hit me in the face. You're losing your mind. It was so funny because it didn't hurt you. And then you were like, do it to me, do it to me. I threw sock, I don't know if I want it.

And you hit you in the face, laughing so hard. This was like two months ago. I know. It's like if you're folding socks and they're in a ball and you throw them at someone, it's like if you were to throw an orange at someone or a softball, that would be really damaging. But if it's just socks and it bops them in the face and they're okay with it, you're not surprising them.

It was so, and I remember you saying you're like the toddler that like is can't understand like ripping paper. Yeah, like I'm like just jingling my key. Yeah, losing your mind. It was so hard. Because it should have been dangerous, but it wasn't. I totally, I totally get it. Simple things. All right.

Let's try. I hope people are enjoying this. I don't know. Hey, this is a nice holiday chat. Yeah, it's just taking it down a notch. We turn off the lights. Yeah. We're just hanging. I think this is an interesting one too. I'm sure we'll get off your

childhood soon, but I just whatever. I'm finding this interesting. Kevin Parrichan asks, what's one birthday present you want it as a kid, but your parents refuse to get you? I'm anticipation. You never asked for that. I did it in my hand. A lawyer, a family lawyer. Oh, I know. This is so sad. Is it? Yeah. I want to know. Okay, so I got my hand stuck in an escalator when I was like four, right?

Yeah. I was trying to figure out what happens to that, the rubber black band on the top of an escalator, where it goes. And I found out out it takes you to hell and back. Because my hand got stuck in there. This is before they had emergency stop buttons. And so there were a handful of us, kids on planet earth, who became accidentally ingested by an escalator. That was one of them.

So we sued. I know you've heard this story because the department store didn't know how to turn it off. So we sued. I had to go to a burn center every day for months. I had third degree friction burns on my hands. I could see my tendons when I pulled it out of the mess. And yeah, I had to undergo like a lot of like burn therapy for it. I almost had to be held back at grade and I had to learn how to write again with my hand. And so we sued and they settled. And we got $1,200.

Incredible. Which covered part of the emergency room. Yeah, wow. My family's not that litigious. We were just like, that's fine. Unfortunately. That's okay. That'll work. And I mean, it's better to be thatigious. We were just like that's fine. That's okay. That'll work and I mean, it's better to be that way if everyone was that way the world would probably be a better place

Yeah, but you could have got I guess we just wanted to recoup our costs on the On the vet bill for me, but I they told me that the sky I probably grew out of the scars by the time I was eight So I was like, okay tight got it for now. I can handle that three and a half years. And on my eighth birthday, I woke up to look at my hand. And I was like, God damn it. I still had like my hand is still scarred. Yeah, of course. And I'm almost 22 now.

That's part of me. And yeah. So eight years old, that was my most disappointing. That's unfair though. They couldn't give you not scars. They could have not given me lies earlier. Well, I don't, there was nothing that I guess I really wanted. Like, for a while, my birthday presents that I would mandate

had to be under $5 because I didn't want anyone spending money on me. And all I wanted was a pair of Halloween socks and or a photo from a photo booth of my loved ones. You still don't really ever vocally at least crave stuff. Yeah, I'm not a big stuff person because we moved a lot of kids so like the more things you have, the more you have to put in boxes and unpack later. Yeah. So I don't know. Yeah, so I don't know ghoul next door asks any favorite memories for your time as a goth teen I Was a goth teen

And into my 20s and I am still goth at heart. I feel like I'm most comfortable when I'm wearing all black unless it's a mustard sweater, but my favorite memories I had a boyfriend named Braun, who had a foe hawk, kind of a mohawk. He had a mohawk, and we'd drive around in his Caprice classic, which was a very giant car. It had bad shocks, and there'd be a lot of us crammed into it. I like the smell of other people smoking cloves. I didn't like smoking them. It's too harsh, but I'd like them from a distance, even though I know one should do that, because I think they give you, like, instant bleeding lungs, but I think driving around in the Caprice Classic, listening to like Fagazzy and stuff. Someone actually asked for that, uh, invy, which band was your favorite when you were gone?

I mean, the cure is just a very good staple. Sure. But I mean, I remember I would listen to like Throbbing Gristle to annoy my first college roommate. I don't know about house, probably about house. Okay, skinny puppy, sister's a mercy. Yeah, great stuff. Yeah. Got some Grammy questions here. Okay.

Colleen Sellewood asks, does Grammy see Jared as the spare human or as a second parent? I think she loves you more. You do? I think so, because there are times when you get up before me and you take her out. No. And I think she's like, I think I'm kind of like the, not a step mom, but. No. Yeah.

She looks to us for different things. That's true. She loves us both. She's snuggler with you. Should we ask science questions? Is anyone tuning in to this thing? It's an AMA. I know.

I just, it's. Is it ask you anything? Okay. I know. Does it look like? Once in a while, it's fun, you know. Yeah, good. I'm ready., you know, try to imagine of something you like listening to. And maybe you'd like to hear the host sometimes because you don't

really, you know, that's true. Okay. You always ask other people questions. Imagine if we weren't recording. Okay, we're recording. That's nice. Okay. All right. If not, what this is our warm up. Oh, actually, this is a cat, but Klar's brought up updates on the stray dog situation. Oh, I'm so glad to have you. Because that whole thing, I think you should answer. We should talk about this. I don't know if I talked about it on the podcast, but I posted about this on Instagram about how I was,

I've been trying to take yoga classes. I don't know if anyone's heard of them, but it's a lot of stretching and breathing. I've been trying to take it for stress relief, and I was on my way to a weekly yoga class, and a stray dog came barreling down the sidewalk. Some kind of maybe like a German shepherd mix, and in the middle of a crowded street running into an intersection and I was like somebody got that dog and so I got the dog It was friendly anyway. I was trying to find his owner not chipped not fixed anyway we had it at the house for a night or two it was such a sweet beast just like having a werewolf in the garage.

And looked everywhere, went to a bunch of different rescues. Everyone's like, we're full up here. We cannot take this dog. One woman member at the LA Animal Services was like, told us, It was a heavy day. Yeah, she was like, if you can't handle the weight of owning the dog, don't pick it up off the street.

People come in here with kittens, they find in a bush, and I say, go put them back in the bush. I was like, they're overwhelmed. They're so overwhelmed. I was like, if I can't handle it, you work at the animal services. Sounds like you guys can't handle it. They can't handle it.

That's the point, I think. So anyway, really, people gotta take care of their dogs and not let them breed and be turned dogs out on the street like this. It's terrible. And I'm fixed. Pay a neuter, Bob Barker. Bob Barker was right about that. Um, so...

And adopt don't shop for cuts. Don't shop. Um, anyway, TLDR, we found a toner. We had to turn it over to the pound because there's like a stray hold. You can't just give it to a rescue unless to the pound because there's like a stray hold. You can't just give it to a rescue unless it's been in the pound for a couple days. Anyway, luckily the owners came forward. And I don't know. Hopefully they were, they got it fixed. Yeah, that's tough. I was crying about that dog. Yeah, you called them Charlie.

Shouldn't have done that. I know. Let's first step. Fall in love. Because he looked like the dog from all dogs going to have it. Yeah. You're screwed. He hit Jared cried. Jared sat on a bench when we had to turn him over and cried. We didn't turn Jared over. We turned the dog over, but.

Maybe you didn't have it. And I was like, I get it. But unfortunately through paperwork, a rescue can't even take him. It all worked out for the best or whatever it could have been. Well, we found some people that would be happy to have adopted him if an owner didn't come forward, but legally we had to let an owner come forward and luckily they did. A beautiful creature. Okay, this is kind of related to the question before.

People even interested in this. Somebody, Felicia Stelsel, asked, do fans frequently recognize you in public and how do you feel about having fans coming to say hi? I don't think it happens frequently. It happens enough to where it's really happening. It just happens on the airplane. That's true. Actually, that was funny because.

It was cute. We're in a mat, they didn't, she didn't recognize you. That's true. Until like at the end of the flight, we're talking about something. Yeah, we were masked up because hello COVID season holiday travel. Yeah, sure. I had a little bit of a sniffles. I was going negative. COVID negative, but still don't like freak people out.

Yeah, but I don't know what precipitated it, but somehow they were like, what do you do? I mean, I make a podcast about the and they go, you're Allison Ward. It was really so neat. It was so sweet. We took pictures with her family. So yeah, it does happen. It happens every couple of weeks, maybe, you know. Yeah, so how do you feel about it?

What do you think about it? I think it's really sweet. I mean, I feel like it's like, if you happen to look over and you'd see someone wearing the same shirt as you, you'd be like, oh, we're wearing the same shirt. Like immediately, you're like, hey, look at us. We have something in common. They must like whoever I interview.

I like whoever I interview. So I think it's very sweet. Sometimes I get a little bashful about it because either I feel like I'm a mess or I compliment sometimes are difficult to take. But I always like to take a picture with someone if they've said hello, But I always like to take a picture with someone if they've said hello, or I always like to offer

because sometimes if you run into someone that you're like, oh my gosh, my girlfriend loves you or whatever you're like, let's take a picture for her. Let's make a video for her. Because then if I ran into let's say Bob Barker, let's say we're a Bob Barker fan, I ran into him. And he was like, you wanna, my mom loves you. If you wanna take a picture of her mom, it'd be like, that's tight. You know? Yeah, that happened at the, that's off a couple weeks ago. Yeah, I think it's,

I guess it kind of happens. I'd sweet. It's so sweet. I think it's nice when I, you know, winnestant stuff and the once in a blue moon, it's happened to me because it's like, and the once simple moon, it's happened to me. Because it's like you work in your house or in an office like so far away with the internet, not like a live show all the time, and it's really nice to see it in the real world. It's so easy to get caught up and you just record these things. You work in your office, you put it online,

all kind of alone, but isn't it nice when it comes into the real world and it goes, hi, oh my gosh. Yeah, it's easy to forget that people actually listen. I think I just make it and I go, that's nice. And then I forget that other people listen to it. By the way, if anyone's ever seen the YouTube series, my music, you may recognize Jared Sleeper as. That's a weird one. That's so long to go. But I feel like that people had like a history of that Amanda Shontel Bacon videos. So many things. So many little viral things. All right, I'm

going to move on to a question actually dent. So this one had to do this is inspired by actually a bit from 100 humans. Oh, no, getting people to talk about how they wipe their bumps, wipe their bumps to use the... First of all, my question is, how do you dry off after a shower? Do you bring the towel in the shower or step out soaking wet? Do you dab yourself or scrub yourself? Do you follow the same pattern each time,

or is it always chaos? From the odd and intrigued, I thank you. I think this is a great question. This is stemming from Netflix show I did called 100 Humans, where as researchers in lab coats, air quotes are on that part, we did ask people their toilet behaviors and they volunteered a lot of information. I did not accept them too.

In terms of a shower, Joe, I think you know this. What I do is I get a big, like a salad bowl and I fill it with volcanic ash. And then I just roll around in it. Right. It's this chinchilla method is what they call it. Yep. And it just keeps you from drying out.

Do I also slough off all the dead skin? Yeah. It's great. It's essentially powdered pumice stones. Yeah. And I shake it out of my hair. It's like a dry shampoo But just volcanic ash. So yeah, look it up. It's the chinchilla method. Mm-hmm You don't want to reveal the secrets. Is it too intimate to talk about how you dry yourself?

I don't think I don't think it's a interest. I think you're crazy. You don't think it's of interest It's because these are the secret private things everybody does you don don't think about that. And they think I would do alone. I'll tell you one thing. I'll tell you one thing, I stay in the shower to try. Because my grandpa yelled at me one time. That was like, start trying off in the shower, you're getting water all over when I went to stay with my grandparents.

And I was like, that's a good point. That's correct. Also, the thing that makes you cold after you step out of the shower is all that water evaporating. And so if you stay within the humid confines, I feel like maybe less water evaporates a little bit less quickly and you don't get cold as quickly.

This is why this is interesting to me because everything, there's a technique. There's a technique. There's a technique to everything. If you were to ask me, if you were to say, here's $10. Will you put a shirt on without drying your back? I'd say you take that $10, you get the fuck out of here.

Do you know what I mean? Yes. Because putting on clothes while your skin is still wet is disgusting. It's fine for other people. I can't do it. No way. There's a hierarchy as well.

I can do it more with my pants than I can with a shirt for sure. And I got to put socks on like an hour after my shower to make sure that there's nothing going on between those tutsis. Absolutely. No, right? Sure.

Hey, actually, I've never asked you this either. RJ Dorya just, what first made you decide on red hair? It's stunning, but curious on the origin story. Oh, shocks. Yeah. Do you not know this? I don't think I do. Maybe like 15, 20 years ago or something,

I had black hair, blue black hair for the longest time. I dyed my hair black. It's naturally like dark brown. And I went to get a stripped of color and they stripped it and it turned orange. And they were like, don't worry, we'll get it back to brown. And I was like, I kind of like this. And they were like, we could just stay at this stage.

And I was like, let's just keep the orange for a while. And I had big blotches in the back, but I didn't care. I did not see them for $1,200. Perhaps I showed up, but I was like, it's fine. And then when I would go in subsequently to go to salons, I would show them a picture of like a baby orangutan. Because orangutan. Yeah, because they have the best color hair. Subsequently, to go to salons, I would show them a picture of a baby or rangatang. Because rangatang. Yeah, because they have the best color hair.

But I just do it pretty much in a box by myself. I've got it dyed pretty much. That was just an accident. You were like, oh, red seems like the right one. I kind of was like, this is a good move for me now. Because black hair was feeling a little too harsh. I had done it for too long. But brown hair felt like too tied to my youth.

And so red hair is also helpful because then when you're looking to point someone out, you go, it's the red head over there. But when people give me the look like, hey, red head, I feel like an imposter because I am an imposter. Well, you know, I stand on that. I think self-selecting red heads are perhaps the red headiest of all. That's very nice of you. Well we didn't have to endure like any childhood trauma and so I feel like a little bit of a

whole redhead's mic it upset about that but I feel like the understand what I mean. I guess being a elective ginger is one of those like it's like guys that wear flashy suits kind of. Am I keep talking? I don't think so. I think you just found something that feels true to you. It feels true to me. Do you want to give Sire Mann's asked any dyed hair maintenance tips? Do you have any of those?

No, but I was going to say I neglected to say what color I use, which is I think a claryll 6RR with a 20 developer for anyone that needs the tech specs on that. All right. Yep. A couple people. Jen Squirrel Alvarez and Atomson, both we're asking about your yellow sweater. Oh, that thing, I love it. Do you only have one?

Do you have multiples? No, the yellow sweater, if for anyone that doesn't know this, I accidentally am pictured in this yellow sweater all the time, I think because I wear it all the time. And it's just the right amount of stretchy, it's thick, but it's not suffocating, it's a nice mustard color, it's got a stain, I gotta get rid of somehow, but I wear it often and I almost packed it on this trip to see your family. I just wear it too often. And there's simply one and I have looked on Poshmark, which is a resale site where you can

buy use clothes. And I have found duplicates in case something happens if I'm trapped in a fire, and I have found duplicates in case something happens if I'm trapped in a fire, if someone throws accidentally a beaker of hydrochloric acid on me, I'm ready. Wonderful. I'm ready. What about some hot cats? What about some hot cats?

Someone said, is it weird? Yes, Jen, they said, but I don't think so, Jen. That you remind me of a very delicate, beautiful mantis. That's sweet. I think it's very interesting, because I get that. You know what I feel like a mantis has is a nice jawline. You do it from a great jawline. So I'll take that as a compliment.

I also have bonkers, thorny forearms. I have so many claws on my forearms. That's why I wear so many long sleeves. And you constantly try to murder me. Yeah, I try to eat your face. Alli Cat. What hobby or hobbies? Are you finding yourself engaged in when you're not working in the podcast? Cross stitch bitch. I do a cross stitch these days and I'm loving it. I love it. Well, I guess that's, I'm in the heels of that is Naomi asked any current hyper fixations.ations example podcast shows subjects

It kind of is one for you a little bit cross stitch bitch Same cross stitch sometimes. I'll just be doing something else thinking can't wait to make some X's on some fabric I'm not good at it. I've only done I've only completed one very small one But that doesn't mean I'm not working for lots of hours on my second one. Anyway. All right. A lot of people want to know the answer to this question. You know, Wilson, my eight-year-old daughter has been a fan since brainchild.

And now, an average small-a-g's listener would like to know what your favorite cryptid is. My favorite cryptid. Oh, I mean, I'm going to have to say the frogman, which I mentioned this in an episode, gosh, I can't remember what episode, but it was somewhat recent. There's this thing called the frogman, people around town, started seeing this frog man walking around, terrifying, large, turned out to be a taleless iguana that had gotten out and was wild and I think maybe police shot it, which is not the way you want any story to turn out. But yeah, I think that that might be, I think it was called Frog Man. If I'm incorrect, do your own aside about it.

And I'm just really sorry. Okay. That wasn't the greatest answer. No, that's fine, that's fine. But that's like that I've never heard of Frog Man. I just love the idea that there's a guana with no tail. Yeah. Just trying to get out there looking for a snack,

looking for one worm to hold them over. But none of the other ones capture your, imagine it no big foot, no wind to go out. I just like that one because it's, there was an explanation. And I think I identify with, and I'm emotionally bonded to that iguana because that iguana caused such a stir without knowing. Number one, that iguana was on its own journey. That iguana had some kind of Joseph Campbell stranger and a stranger land. I don't know where he was going. I don't know what he, I don't know if he was eating watermelon rinds out of compost bins. I don't know what he was up to. I think it was he. And I like that he caused a stir.

I don't like his tragic demise. But I love a cryptid with an explanation, I guess. And I love a frogman. How can you not? But I also would say a close second. I love when they, I love a siren maybe, like a sea siren that calls to you from the water. Well, I think that's a good one. We both know that underneath the sea, there's all kinds of shit we don't know about.

So the idea that one of them is a sea. Lost treasure for one, lots of lost treasure. So much treasure. Microbes, according to Discovery, the Megalodon, which is an extinct shark. They did a whole documentary that hoodwinked people into thinking that the Megalodon shark was still alive. And they interviewed all these shark scientists who spoke about it on camera thinking it was going to be like a real documentary.

Yeah. We had no idea what's down there. I know, but not a megalot on them. I'm pretty sure that's well extinct. Spencer James Park, Spencer James Parks, excuse me. Holidays, which are great and which need to go. Oh my gosh. Well, I have a show that we've been wanting

to launch about holidays. Holidays observe. Yeah, we might, it's been such a busy year. Which one? Yeah, maybe one year, maybe one day. Which holidays need to go? Yeah, which do you think are great? Which need to go? Let's just let's even get simple. Just pick. Okay. Two great ones and one, maybe two, that could go. Oh, man.

Actually, need to go as tough, but I'm not going to answer for you. I'm going to say I like Valentine's Day, not from a romantic sense, but I think Valentine's Day is a really good time to send everyone you love in your life a card saying, hey, I really appreciate you, your wonderful, send it to your aunt. If they mean a lot to you, send one to your friends. And because I think that a lot of times you get like holiday cards in the mail and it's got bless you all, but it's just a picture of you and your kids.

No note. And you're like, thanks for this picture of you and your kids. I like what they look like. I'm glad to have it. But I think in the hustle and bustle culture of the holidays, people feel very pressure to like sensing out.

Wait a minute, wait till it's the dreary February's, people say, am I even going to get a Valentine this year? Shka Bamsk, they open their mailbox, real, two-dimensional, three-dimensional card. This is, hey, remember the time that you bailed me out of prison? You're a real one. I like that. You know, what would you say? Gotta go. Gotta go? I mean, Columbus Day. Oh, good answer. Good answer. Good answer. Obviously, yes, good answer. Yeah. I'm an Italian, y'all, and we use, I spoke with my sister and my mom

have been in a Columbus Day parade. I just think I'm happy to see it turn over to Indigenous Peoples Day. And I'm also like, one day, really? Oh, you know what? International Women's Day can absolutely take a hike. Oh yeah? One day? Really? International Women's Day can absolutely take a hike. Oh, yeah. One day, really? One day, half of the earth. Yeah.

Women responsible for shoving human nice that they just recognize. No, it is, it is nice. All those Instagram posts that are like, hey, hey, good job. Good job, kid. It does feel really good. Do you want to feel good to you? They're like, sorry for the sexist, but hey, you're all right. Hey, women, we see you. And if you don't do some labor, tagging every single woman in your life that you really like, some labor tagging every single woman in your life that you really like. You're not a good woman. And also, hey, I like the ones from men that are like, hey, I've got daughters. So obviously, every woman out there is someone's daughter. Hey, I used to say I have a lot of ideas about girls, women, whatever you want to call them. Now I've got this child here. This fuzzy stinky little female. Yeah. 10 years old. I get it. It's our dog. I get it now. Yeah, I get it.

Fair people too. Turns out, once you've got one, you realize they're human beings. That's so crazy. And I think International Women's Day has a lot to do with that. I have just really quick, I would actually, those are good, you've pegged really good pecs. Thank you. Most holidays I would not get rid of. Yeah. But I have controversial I would get rid of new years. Don't need it. Don't care, don't care, always let them. And say Patrick's Day. Same Patrick's Day is really... That's a card because it's such a fun notion. No, but St. Patrick's Day is really just a date, a day for imbibing.

Can't we get hammered any time? You can pretend to be Irish. Look at me with my red hair. She wanted every day, I'm sorry, Ireland. But yeah. It's not, I like Irish. It's a weird thing as a pirate. I like Irish. I just don't think not, I like Irish. I like Irish. I just don't think you need to be St. Patrick's Day.

You know why I just associate it with like really cheap, like fold up, you know, graphics that they put in bars that like Guinness sends out. Just feels like it's lost to whatever it might have been cool. When I think of St. Patrick's Day, my immediate vision is of a very, very thin plastic green hat. Yeah. You know what I mean? That's going to be in the gutter two hours later.

Yeah, I'm not even going to just get hung over. Ugh, just... Anyway. All right. And this is the first time question I was here. Penny Loader. Okay. What's your favorite flower and why?

And also, is Victorian flower language on the list? Please thanks, peace, and love. I don't know what that means. I guess it is now, because I didn't know that Victorian flower language existed before this moment of time. Me neither. Oh, to have an aside here, I hope that this makes people appreciate when I do put it aside. Because then here I'd be like, so I side note, okay, so I looked into this. But I didn't do it.

It's fine. It was chill vibes at the holidays. Favorite flower? You know what else? We're in the middle zone between the big holidays and new years where you're just like, what is this? We're in the liminal space between like other people's champagne. A nowhere zone.

We're all just, yep, all right, continue. Favorite farm? I think of tuberose or a tiger lily, because they smell great. Beautiful. That was penny loader. I don't know if I have other names. I just need to make sure I say it.

I feel like people must have, like, how do you make a podcast questions? Useful information. Not to say that these aren't fun and wonderful. I feel like people must have like, how do you make a podcast questions? Useful information. Not to say that these aren't fun and wonderful. I feel like I need to, as a person who dispenses information, I feel like I need to provide more useful information. This is useful information. The point of it is to learn things about you.

I know, okay. A function of function of all things. Or maybe it's, maybe I'm, I'm saying, I have this tone of like, what are you talking about? I mean, it's because I am literally in love with you. So I'm like, you are interesting. Well, I know, but that's the thing is,

I think a lot of people tune in toologies, just for turtle facts. Yeah, but I think they do it for turtle facts through the lens of alley ward. Well, thank you. You know, I can go to Google otherwise, you know. Nobody go to Google. Claire Netto asks, what have your favorite or most memorable interactions with insects been

over the years? Oh Definitely my favorite insect now we're talking about Good facts. Okay, so my favorite insect is the Cotton is moutabillus. I think is the species in genus. It's a figgy terbiddle. It's native to Los Angeles. It looks Like a green Japanese beetle, but it's not. It's got these two golden stripes and a beautiful emerald metallic tone to it. It's big. It's like the size of bigger than your thumb and it buzzes around very clumsily. It just makes these really loud noises. People are terrified of it because I think it's a gigantic bee. It's just a big bumbling beetle

that eats figs and fruit and it's if it'll find like an old orange and be like, my day's been made and the grubs are like the size of your pinky and they crawl on their back, backwards, like they'll do in the worm, but backwards and they have little fuzzy bellies like a puppy and I love them and once we were in the garden of the Natural History Museum,

we were getting our engagement photos done. Oh my God. Figured your beetles mean a lot to me. Figs come out in July, it's a very important month to me. July, I have a lot of nostalgia. We met in July. I'm here in July. Just in general. It's very lovely. And so we were getting our engagement photos done in this big Figgy debuts. It's just buzzed and landed right in my finger. And when I see a figure beetle, it's very exciting. My friends Suzanne and Nina, they gave me two figure beetles

that had died whilst doing the nasty. And they're frozen in my freezer. One day perhaps, will texture me them? At that moment you're talking about in the garden. Yeah. It's not only do I remember it very clearly, there's a beautiful photograph of it. There is.

There is. There is the Robin Wandswing. There is. Robin Wandswing was our photographer. It's one of the best photos I've ever seen of you. Oh, I was so happy. It's amazing because your face is the most childlike. Oh, I wonder.

It's so essentially you. Good. That's a good one. I and my company's named after a structure in the gardens of the NHM and I have to do an off-shoot company for just podcasting because I do other stuff and I think I'm going to call it Fig Eater Media because I eat figs, those beetles eat figs, but in fact, one of my next embroidery projects, it's a fun, big eater beetle. Perfect.

It's so, it's exciting. Also, Mere Bell. Oh, well Mere Bell is my other favorite. Super memorable. Not to be saying that Jared gave me as a gift, and Mere Bell lived, I think, like, six months. She could have lived longer, but I fed her too many maggots. She loved eating full eye eggs. And I was, and then I gave her a fly again, then I gave her a worm. And I think she overrated and died. But Mirabelle, I had an open casket

funeral for her. If you'd like to see some pictures, you can look on Instagram at hashtag RIPRayingMantis. and we had an open casket. It was very goth funeral and we listened to Bauhaus, everyone came in black. Beautiful. I was not 12. I was into my 30s and that was a beautiful gift, Jared. You're so welcome. What memories?

What memories? Good memes. We're going to take a quick break, but first we're going to donate to a charity of the ologist choosing and I guess that's me So I am having a go to dogs without borders, which is the Rescue organization that we got our dog Grammy from if you're like what does Grammy look like you can check out on Instagram insta underscore Grammy G-R-E-M-M-I-E

She's a tiny little werewolf fluke. We love her so much, but Doctor of the Borders is where we adopted her from and right now since there's so many animals and shelters, animal rescue organizations need all the help they can get. A lot of people caught animals during the quarantine in 2020 and now they have decided that they don't want to be animal owners. So I get it. things happen in people's lives. Anyway, talk to that borders. We will link them in the show notes and that donation was made possible by sponsors at the show. Okay, back to editor slash husband slash wonderful dude,

Jared Sleeper asking me questions from patrons. Here we go. More answers. Sierra asks, do you have a new favorite spot at the LA Natural History Museum? Oh, well the Willow Hut that they had they did take it down recently and they gave me a branch from it. They knew that I loved it and they're like, all you have to take the Willow Hut down for structural reasons. And I was like, Ali, we have to take the will to hunt down for structural reasons. And I was like, can you save me a branch? And that branch is on my wall in my office.

My new favorite spot that's there, I was just there recently. And I'm going to tell you, it's the crab stacks. Maybe I saw some absolutely bonkers crabs down in the cavernous storage areas in the basement. And that episode of Crab Vax is coming out soon, but it's stunning. I saw some very, very large Arthur Plads down there. So I say that I will say that that's my new favorite spot. But anywhere in the National History Museum of Los Angeles County is lovely. Go in the Ritanda stand under the Ritanda. I think that they have so many so many bonkers artifacts.

I think Walt Disney's desk is there. So many beautiful things. Okay, a lot of questions about books from people who read Scorsese? Well, actually let's do that one. A lot of people are asking you, okay. Okay, I'll just name some names. Laura Kinney, Lindsay Mayer, JD Murray, Jordan Irons, Kappa Klaars, Jennifer Dunn. They'll ask a lot of questions about favorite books.

I'm gonna boil them down. Laura Kinney asked, what is a book that you've read over and over, or a book with a special place in your heart? Do you have a book you've read over and over or a book with a special place in your heart? Do you have a book you've read over and over? My side of the mountain is one of my faves. It's something I read when I was a kid and my friend Dr. Tegan Wal, who I've mentioned many times in the podcast, she was also in the WGA episode, the strike episode that I put out in May. She got me a signed copy. This is a book about a kid who in the 60s, it's fiction. Just tells his parents like,

hey, I'm gonna go live in the woods. I'm gonna fuck off to the woods. And they're like, all right, have a good time. Like no one calls CPS, no one sends out a search party. He just goes and lives in the woods and then he does a bunch of algae experiments and I'd love to this book as a kid and I don't know what would happen these days if you let your child do that But it is the idea of like living in a hollowed-out tree where you've made your own Adobe fireplace

Amazing. He raises a falcon anyway But Teagan got a signed copy. The author is now deceased. So that is very difficult. And then she made a book jacket cover where she put blurbs on the back from our friends about me for my birthday. And it was the night I cried when she gave it to me. But that book is one that I always look back upon with fondness. But the book that I've read the most is is an insect guide that I got when I was 12 and I, the number of times I've opened that book, I can't even, in the thousands and thousands. I would just sit and read about like Mayflies,

be like, what is this, too? But yeah, if that's helpful, I don't know. Do you know what one I would remember? You've made you supposed to do something. You've made an Autobahn guide, which, uh, Do you remember it? You maybe should post it or something. You said that. It may have been an Audubon guide, which Audubon, maybe not the greatest guy in the world, but I think it was that. It was an insect guide. Yeah, it's a little black paperback, very goth also, just reading about spiders.

Well, that's so funny. It was a one present in Capricars. That's what's the goth of the science book media you've consumed. Someone also asked I was going to Jennifer Downey and's Rosie, best book you've read this year. I read Little Fires everywhere and enjoyed that. Celeste and he's a great writer. Really enjoyed that and then read her follow-up. Oh my gosh, I'm blanking on it. Everything I never told you. So I've been really enjoying her work a lot this year. And also Hank Green's book, A Truly Remarkable Thing,

and the follow-up book read both of those recently. And I keep thinking about them in terms of whether or not there are aliens and timelines. Both great books. There's a bunch of questions about movies and TV stuff. I'm gonna skip to this autumn list and what movie traumatized you as a child? Oh, we watched The Shining a Lot as a child.

What? We watched everything. We want, like we, I think cable was new and you could just turn on whatever and my parents would be, I don't know, outside a lot, both my parents worked and we watched so many wholly inappropriate things. No, I mean, no offense to my parents.

They just weren't very helicoptery and I remember the shining and there's a distinct part where you see a deceased, a woman. And that one really got me. Look at how I say. I was afraid to shower without someone walking me into the bathroom for months. I was like, can you just peel out the curtain and just tell me that there's not a deceased elderly woman in the bathtub.

My sisters had to be like, there's one in there a lot. That's scared me and I didn't like it. I know. I know. I know. Okay, okay, okay. Um, boo, what's your, no one's

children's house. What's your go to type of music if you're looking for an energy boost? Straight death metal. Just to see just you do not listen to that. No, I know. Oh my gosh. I would be so surprised if I didn't know your list Although my brother isn't a band called the exodus. Of course. Of course. He's a thrash metal guitarist I'm named Lee Altas. He's my brother. We'll be seeing him tomorrow Not in concert, but just in concert. True, true, true. IRL.

We'll get a video with him. My favorite music to listen to. Sometimes I like listening to instrumental music from soundtracks because instead of thinking that I'm like a beleaguered podcast researcher and host, I think I'm just a charming woman on a journey. Maybe I'm in a foreign cafe and I'm having a biscotti and I'm just, mmm, this soundtrack makes me think I'm just on a writing journey here with my laptop and I feel instantly more adventurous. So sometimes I'll do that.

Philip Sarty, I think, is a composer that all of a sudden did sometimes. He did this soundtrack for a movie called Lord of the Flies that I really liked the soundtrack a million years ago. Beautiful. So sometimes I'll do that. Lofi Beats. Of course. Yes, I really like Alison Pontier,

who is a singer-songwriter from Texas, who lives in New York, a redhead, but I think she's natural redhead. She's lovely, Alison Pontier look her up. She's saying on the track, I lied by Lord Huron, and she has like an angelic voice. She's made, I wasn't laughing at Alison Pontier look her up. She's saying on the track, I lied by Lord Huron, and she has like an angelic voice. She's made, I wasn't laughing at Alison,

but I was laughing at a question. I read Walk Fearlessly wrote what song is stuck in your head right now. Oh, no. I mean, we could get loud about it. Let's get loud. Let's get loud. Jared Knight, at least four times a day.

We'll be like, hey, what do you want to, later on do you want to get loud? Let's get loud. Let's get loud. I don't know what you're saying, dude. It's a double song. No, it's Jennifer Lopez. Is it? Yes. I didn't even know.

I had to Google it because I couldn't remember her. I just, it comes up. Is it? Yes. I didn't even know. I had to Google it because I couldn't remember her. I just, it comes up so often. So often. And the singing is bad when it happens. Excuse you. It's bad. Excuse you.

I go out in a way that I'm not willing to go out here because it's too intimate. But let's get loud. Lies down loud. Beautiful. Kate Gannes, what would your baseball slash, et cetera, wrestling perhaps, walk out song B? Like I'm leaving walking out or I'm coming out to it.

You're coming out to it. Oh, I think it would be that one where they go, I'm coming out. No, really? That's so obvious. Well, that's what I'm saying, just because it would at least be explain, it would be explanatory. People would know That's so obvious. Well, that's what I'm saying, just because it would at least be an explanation. It would be explanatory.

People would know what's going on. They'd be like, oh, she must be coming out. What's happening right now? Oh, oh, oh. Oh, she's emerging. But you were saying that the one you were seeing was, coming out, so we better get this party started. Yeah, I just meant that for the next planetary.

Like, this is what happened. Not coming out so we better get this party started. Yeah, I just meant that for an explanatory like this is what I happen to be doing at the moment. I'm coming out, not that one. I don't want to those would work. Okay, fine. Just for letting people know what I'm up to. Okay. Or here I am, baby. Come and take me, here I am, baby.

I think that's a you be 40. I don't know the answer to the question. You be 40, son. I don't know who sings it. Can you be 40 sing red, red, wine? I don't know. Jennifer Lopez sang all of them. I I don't know who sings it. Can you be 40 sing red, red, wine? I don't know. Jennifer Lopez sang all of them. I really don't know.

I don't have a good answer for this and I'm sorry. Maybe it would be a really, really. These were crazy answers. A you be 40 song. I really don't. Tremendous. These are bad. I do remember when I was like, oh, the song.

God Valley says, a you be 40 song is what I'm talking to. I'm trying to make them the worst. Things that just explain what I'm doing. But do you remember when I wanted to walk down the aisle to that Phil Collins song? Which one? Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. Can you feel it coming in the air tonight?

Yeah. The song about killing is what? Well, that I didn't know that it was about killing is what. And I was like, wouldn't it be great if then like the beat drops and then we like walk out? And you were like, you know that's something about it that it was about killing his wife. And I was like, wouldn't it be great if then like the beat drops and then we like walk out and you were like, you know, that's something about it. So I'm killing the spouse and I didn't know that. So he obviously we went with that and it was amazing.

We did. It was really good. And it was like, this will probably not be a weird like weird terrible marriage. No, we did not walk down the alley. No, we like that to shoday. That's true. I love shoday. I love her.

Okay. Holly, Georgia, O'Dunden, what's the weirdest food combination you secretly or not so secretly enjoy? Cancer deans. I mean, not sardines. Candoysters. Can't smoke doisters. Can't smoke doisters. If you've ever been on a Patreon livestream, canned oysters, canned smoked oysters. Can smoked oysters? If you've ever been on a Patreon livestream, I think I've eaten canned smoked oysters. They look exactly like an animal turd, and they taste like cigarette smoke, and they're covered in like, linseed oil or something, or turpentine, and I love them, and I'll eat them with cream cheese sometimes. Sometimes I'll wrap them in a seaweed

piece of seaweed and I'll pretend like it's sushi like a apocalypse sushi like I found some old seaweed and then also some tinfish and now do you remember the days when we could take fish out of the oceans because the oceans weren't she enjoys umami. I love umami. That's the most umami. That's the most umami. Oh, you're so crazy. It's a delish.

I love it. All right, we gotta, we gotta, we gotta tell people how to podcasting since I know people are tuning in for the. How do what? I'm sure people had like, how do you make a science podcast? I don't know. We're just, we're just having some fun. I know.

We're in an hour here. Are you serious? Yes We got 11 hours ago. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. We do have 11 hours to go then maybe we should hold on that we'll just continue We'll just I'll scroll down. I have too much fun doing it having too much fun with all these basic questions You know, okay, do you know the feeling when someone brings out a birthday cake and you're like, oh, this is so nice and then like halfway into the song You're like too much looking at me too much looking at me. Yeah, I understand. I understand. No, I understand. We're right. And now we're in, you're right. It's not that I don't like people asking me these questions. I think they're amazing. But I just feel like a lot of aweshocks you all shouldn't have. That's very cute. You don't even mean like,

sure. Okay. I feel like the fact that I haven't asked you questions. This is not what I was about. Well, I know, but it, anyway. Courtney Peterson asks, what is your favorite national park and why? With an interrebang, which I appreciate. I'm glad they asked this glacier. Is it really? I would say it's glacier. Beautiful.

Because I went there as a child, and I saw a mountain goat in real life. We did a mountain goat's episode in case anyone needs it. And also, yeah, so nostalgia, I like that it's so close to the land of Canada also. So I would say that, I don't think I've ever been to Yellowstone. That was supposed to shock you. I was thinking if we, I was like, I don't think

I have any Yellowstone. Yeah, we gotta go to Yellowstone. I was thinking if we, I was like, I don't think I have any yellowstone. Yeah, we're gonna go to Yellowstone. I've watched Yellowstone. Yeah, which doesn't take place in Yellowstone. Right. That always gets me. As someone who's families from Montana, I'm like, come on. But yeah, I would say I have Roots to Montana, so I'd say Glacier.

Also, I think that I don't know where we stand on Pendleton. I think maybe... The blankets? Yeah, I don't know where we stand on Pendleton. I think maybe the blankets. Yeah, I don't know if they're good guys or bad guys, but they do make a glacier blanket that's one of my favorites. We had one growing up and it was moth eaten and stuff, but we had it forever. So I'm trying to get better about all or nothing thinking.

Yeah, okay. So much more dialectic for me. She's days. Who gets bad guys? Who knows, I don't know. Well, I feel like maybe they may have stolen patterns from indigenous tribes. But I absolutely, this deserves an aside. And Pendleton, if I'm mischaracterizing your relationship.

I think they're really nice blankets. I think that's until now. I know, but I think I need to look it up as I'm saying. Well, I'm just trying to give you another side to it. Right, right. But I just, I want to make sure to give credit where credit's to. Absolutely.

And again, Pendleton, if I've got it wrong, then I'll correct it in a future episode. Wonderful. For one free blanket. There we go. Derek Allen asked, what would be your perfect day? This is too big. This is too long a question. I'll make it quick. Okay. Is it a regular day? Yeah, let's say like, whatever you think it is. What's the perfect day? I'm waking up early. It's dawn. I'm in a cabin. It smells like pine outside. You're there, Grammy's there.

A lot of people I love are in other cabins in the surrounding area, but there's one meeting hall in the middle. This is a lot like family meetings when I was a child. You walk around, maybe you have some coffee with some delicious, very bad for you, coffee creamer in it, and then you walk around, maybe solo in the morning and just get in cold air in your lungs and then later that day

you're making food with all your loved ones that are in cabins. You're going on a canoe ride. Essentially I'm just describing my family reunion. But also there's a lot of fuzzy blankets. There's a lot of dogs available. There's maybe a movie on a blown up screen projector at night. I've got a burlap sack full of jewels that I sell to a trader for gold coins. I use those gold coins to purchase a ship. I take the ship and I sail it to one of the polls. And I never speak to anyone else again. That's wild. Okay. I just felt like it was too ordinary.

I tried to spice it up. It's a perfect day, I love that. Mercedes-Mailand. I love her. Me too. She's a lead editor of this podcast. She was supposed to be conducting this, but we couldn't get her in

your sister in my sister-in-law's bed. We just, what I'm saying is we didn't do this in time because we were getting ready. I was trying to get ahead on episode. Absolutely. If you were to make your own personal crest and motto, what image in which three Latin words would you choose? Latin words. I want to just make clear that I wouldn't actually sell a burlap sack of jewels or buy a ship. I really don't like boats. You actually really don't like boats, which is really fun. You talk all the time about how much you don't want to have a boat. I never want to own a boat. Too much maintenance.

I couldn't do it. I would use it maybe one day a year. I mean, you've got a tow truck. It's just not my thing. You're having fun with it. You're having fun with it. You're having fun with it. You're having fun my thing. You're having fun with it. You're having fun with the question, Celia. I'm stalling to figure out the Latin. All right, let's do a little bit of the time.

What image do you think would be on it, your personal crest and mom? Figure your beetle. Oh yeah, okay. And it would be... I'm not sure if I can get a bike is fego ego I think that I think I'm mixed in some Greek it means I eat

figs that will be it I'm put on the spot here that's not much of a what does that mean to you I eat figs because it'd be the figure beetle I understand a what does that mean to you? I eat figs Because it'd be the figure beetle. I understand. What's that motto? Would mean that I'm gonna mean to your life taking the juices of life, okay, and I'm contained wasps I Like that. I'll take that really just couldn't think of enough Latin because I did take I did take four years of Latin

And I and I think that fego might be Or fego is a soda that juggalos like to drink. Oh, it's the with a pH. Okay. If I if I if I knew more Latin, I think that the crest would have a juggal on it though, for sure. Dave Brewer, a friend in college said, you'll regret the things you didn't do more than the things you did. He wasn't right about a lot of things, but in my experience, he was right about that. What's something you regret not doing? I had the opportunity to go in a fighter jet and I had too much diarrhea.

I was too scared. I thought we were going to pull like 12 Gs and I thought I would throw up and I thought it would be very bad I was able to pull 5.6 Gs Gravitational forces in a centrifuge in training for it very impressive, but you know with with a flight suit that expanded and filled up It was inflated to help keep your blood in the lower half of your body So you didn't have G-lock which is G induced loss of consciousness

I had the opportunity to go in a fighter jet and I was too scared and It's a good answer. I should have but I we do have a cut my cousin Joe Salva meany. Oh, yeah Nothing's taken yeah, how odd is that that you just I just have a cousin that flies I from what I understand very expensive that fuel not but you know what. Hey they're gonna use it anyway. You know what though my carbon footprint a little smaller because I'm chickened out. Yeah that's true I guess. So good on me. I guess. All right. Um. Someone's got to know Matthew Walter. Wait, was someone going to know what? I was, someone is going to want to know how to make a product.

I can't think it sounds like, what recording equipment do you use? Zoom H4N, a couple of S-M58s. There you go. You're off to the races. That's very true. Question answer. Yeah, but make sure that you get your cards for this particular Zoom recorder. Yeah, like I would be 32 gigs or less. Yeah, 32 gigs or less. you get your cards for this particular Zoom recorder.

Yeah, I get a 32 gigs or less. Yeah, 32 gigs or less. Chargable batteries or a good idea. Get a lot of them. Yeah, and I... Change every time. Yeah, and I edit my stuff on ProLogic, which I think is $109 a dollar.

Logic Pro. Logic Pro, thank you. But you can use Garage Band or Audacity. Mm-hmm. And the Adobe suite myself, I use most of the other suite. Each of your universities can help you a lot. Oh, all about it. Or you can hire Mercedes-Mateland of Maitland Audio or someone from Mind Jam Media.

That's right. Both of those companies. Yeah, listen to season three of Avatar. Yep. Braving the elements. Season three would have the Avatar podcast for Nickelodeon. Jared is the post production supervisor. That's right. On a new Nickelodeon season coming out.

Let's throw it. Throw it. Starts very soon. Matthew Walter asked, what do you think is your most justified paranoia? How do you justify it? What do you think is your most justified paranoia? How do you justify it? Oh. Suddenly no one listening to allergies anymore.

Oh, that's a justified paranoia. Well, you never know. I'm so lucky, this is the best job in the world. I'm so lucky, people suddenly not liking it. And actually, Apple did an update recently on their podcast software. And. Oh, I'm the one who's going to get into this.

And a bunch of podcasts. Their downloads have dramatically dropped because of this Apple update. And if you don't listen to the last five episodes or check it once in two weeks, then it stops downloading the episodes. And I think sending you notifications. So anyway, it's terrifying. It's all happening. I've had so much bile in my throat over it in anxiety

because it's like suddenly, because of nothing that you did wrong, you suddenly are like swimming against this terrible current. So if you listen on Apple, go listen on Spotify or go listen on, I think Google podcast is phasing out. There's overcasts, there's pocketcass, there's podbay, just whatever. Who knows, or just listen a lot. Yeah, just check it. Because podcasters, your favorite podcasters are freaking out a little bit about it. Okay, that's all, that's all I'll say. And also, if you feel

like you're hearing more ads in podcasts, it's because a lot of people don't have a lot of the downloads that they had a few months ago. So then they have to double up their ad breaks because their download suddenly went down and they promised a certain number of ad impressions. So that's what's going on.

Now you know, the T from the podcast world, aren't you glad? I could sit here and talk about podcast business forever. I had to learn so much from knowing nothing. So there you go. Kylacy, what is a dream scientific experiment or historical investigation you want to pursue or have someone else pursue? I want to figure out what dark matter is. Yes.

I need to know what dark matter is. Is it ghosts? Listen to them a dark matter episode or the recent quasi-thanatology about what a dark matter expert says about is dark matter ghosts. I like the idea that dark matter is all ghosts. I realize that it's not. I like the idea that it's invisible glitter filled with ghosts. And it allows you to send some sort of ESP type of text messages to people.

Yes. I'm going to search this rap in these with you. Okay. So I feel like we got tomorrow. And then we got a rap. I guess Kai Kishimoto, if you could go in a wildly safari to any period of Earth's history, what would you like to see?

The future. Really? a safari to any period of Earth's history. What would you like to see? The future. Really? Yeah, I want to see where we're at in 2000 years. I want to see it. 2000 years. I want to see if there's any buildings left. Just today I was thinking about, at what point will the Earth recover everything and buildings will only be pieces of metal that are buried in dirt and some shreds of plastic? Totally. You know? Bonnie, debt will error. If you could permanently bring back your life, any extinct animal, which lucky animal or species would you pick? Grammy after she dies. Good answer.

I think it has many in tiger, real bummer. But there's a charismatic kind of megafauna. Oh, you know what? Giant ground sloth. Oh, cool. They had him in California. I know. You can go see the big statues of a little bright carpet. Giant ground sloth. All of those things.

Hondo pee. Cassaya sword. If you were a mythical creature, what would you be? I am. I'm gonna use that. I'd be a siren just kidding, I don't like boats. I am a mythical creature. Yeah, yeah.

I would love to be something that had herbivore legs, but an omnivore top. I would love to have analope legs, like a centaur. Oh, yeah, that's a good one. You know what I mean? I want to run and gallop, but I also love to have analoblegs, like a centaur. Oh yeah, that's a good one. You know what I mean? I want to run and gallop, but I also wanted to have thumbs. Well, centaur is it then? Yeah. It'd be a great centaur.

Do you know how satisfying your poops would be? But could you eat enough fiber to get those kind of horse poops? Wow. Would you have to eat as much like Timothy Hay to sustain your ungulate? I think they're under. These are very good questions. You know what I mean? Like, how many stomachs does a center have?

Do they have one normal, like, one elementary, can all a gastric, everything, like a human? I think the physical creatures are, this is how I think they work. I think that they have magical qualities about them that allow them to do things that defy standard physics. Like a dragon or a hippo-grip would just fall out of the sky like they're not made to actually do that. But because they're magical mythical creatures, they go and just zoom around a problem. I bet if you poked a centaur in the belly, a dark matter would just come streaming out glittery ghosts. Yeah. I just wonder how big their intestines are.

Marina, if you could magically be turned into a Corvette, what species would you choose to be? Oh, Ravens. I'm very, very good friends with some Ravens. They don't know that, but I do. I go and put out a pan of things I think they'd like to eat. And then I do this. Come on, come on, come on, come on. Into the sky and then a couple minutes later they start circling. And sometimes I give

them peanuts, sometimes I give them some leftover biscuits, sometimes I give them scraps of chicken. I found out they don't like bananas. They're like, what is this? I thought maybe they think they were slugs or something. They don't like them. So we're pals, we're friends. So yes, them because I would want to know, I don't want to be one of them and I want to go back to the nest and I want to be like, what do you guys really like to eat? And that way I could figure it out and then I'd get go back to the nest and I want to be like, what do you guys really like to eat? And that way I could figure it out and then I'd get turned back into myself

and I'd buy that stuff at Costco, whatever they said. Julia Shock, would you rather be a bear-sized chipmunk or a chipmunk-sized bear? Chipmunk-sized bear all the way. 100%. Do you know how much food you would have to get to sustain your metabolism? As a bear-sized chipmunk, you'd all day long

you'd be working. You'd be such a work so burnt out, you'd be like, I hit all these nuts in an order to hide the nuts, I have to go like three miles in between nuts. And then you'd do, you know, but if you're a chipmunk size bear, you'd need one worm in the last year a week. A worm? Forget that, you could eat anything you're not going to for to for you're a bear and you'd have so much fun. Yeah, and you can one don't want to be like, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh And when you bit people, they'd be like, it gave me a little nibble. I was thinking that, that if you were a bear-sized chipmunk,

they would eat you, you know? They'd come to take you away. You'd get put in a bunker. Or they'd shoot you with something. For sure. And it'd just be terrible. People would be like, wow, have you ever seen a chipmunk that big? We've ever put it in a box.

They'd study you for days. Can you imagine though, if every single nut that you ate was like eating a pine nut for you, tiny? Yes. Frustrating. Simone Gomez, what makes a person smart in your opinion? Curiosity and being willing to learn things because no baby comes into the world being like, let me tell you about quantum physics and engineering and everything about this plant, everyone had to learn. So as long as you're interested in it off to learn and retain the information, you could do so many things. You can know

so many things. Sarah Nyland, hi, Ellie. Hi. I'm going to say my question is,, they said first of all you're so cool And I can't say enough how much I respect the lobeology so I agree. My question is you do you have an opinion? Very specific on what consciousness is or how it evolved I'm a layperson neuroscience hopeful interested in it and I think that every animal being in the universe Can have a sense of what it is since after all our identities are made out of it

And I thought if I could one day get your opinion on this, I'd positively swoon. I'm only laughing because one and a half minutes ago, I was like, do you think they have horse-sized poops? And now I'm supposed to explain consciousness. That's why we come to this show. It's your opinion, it's your opinion. My opinion. I think that consciousness is a type of energy or matter that we don't understand yet. And I think that we are going to be horrified to realize how many creatures have much more complicated types of consciousness. Like, we talked about this in the Neematology, the bentopoolagic nemetology about deep sea

worms episode, about just how complicated a sea elegance nematode worm is. And I think that will become more and more horrified as we see how many other creatures that we've exploited have types of consciousness similar to us, even if they don't have like maybe cognitive ability on par with humans, but as we center ourselves so much. But I think that we will figure out that it's some sort of energy or some sort of matter that goes somewhere to explain why we're like a live one minute and dead the next. I don't know what that is. I don't know if it evaporates. I don't

know if it becomes photons. I don't know if grandpa becomes a butterfly that you think of every time you see it. I don't know. But I do think that if you like we just figured out so like indoor plumbing didn't exist in most US households until like the 1930s or it was it was still common to not have done without computers or the internet. So the idea that we have it all figured out, especially consciousness and neurobiology and neuroscience, baby brains. We don't even completely know, like we talked about in Krasnietan and Chalaju, what neurotransmitters are working where and when. So there's a lot of medications that are really helping people with different mental challenges,

myself included, mental illnesses and depression and anxiety. We don't know exactly how they work, they just sometimes do work a little bit better than placebo. So I don't know, I don't know, but I think the idea that we know everything is the saddest and most hilarious notion because we very much don't. Yeah. And dark matter is going to happen. No. Grammy, we got to take Grammy's soul and we got to put it in something else so that she lives forever. Well, yeah, even though she doesn't like us very much She needs to be around forever. I think she likes it. She already is around forever personally. That's because it's a

failing of our limited capacity to perceive that we think time only goes in one direction Okay, I think every moment is kind of infinite. I got to know about multiverse's. That's another thing. Alyssa Berg. Yeah. Any new ADHD tricks and tips you found that worked for you since your last life advice in ADHD episodes? Jared Sleeper.

ADHD. I'll tell you one thing. Hmm. Stimulants don't work for me. They do not work for you. No. Stimulants don't mix well with other things you've got going on. No, that's fine. My anxiety is like, get out of here with that.

Yeah. Um, just sleep or any ADHD hacks that you want to. Um, even if I'm not doing them. Sure. Because I've had a little bit of a rough go for a bit here, but I know without a doubt, intense physical activity regularly, super, duper important to regulating my ADHD at all. When you're talking intense physical activity,

you wanna give us some exams? I think you need to have something that says you breaking a hard sweat and huffing and puffing. Like hard. I don't think it has to be long. I think Tabata's are great. That could be open in a pickle jar for me. No, I mean, yes, but I mean, you gotta get your heart rate up high, like over, I don't know, 150. I don't want to put a number on that. It's different for everybody, depending where you're at, you know?

I'm sure you can go online and find people who'll give you a number and probably be around like over 140 BPM or something like that. But like, you gotta do something that is difficult that makes you have some major metabolic response. You know, something like that just makes you go like, I worked out, I worked, holy smokes. I think resistance training is really important too. You know what, I'll tell you like, there was this dog show a long time ago and they always said like, every dog,

before you approach anything about its behavioral stuff, and I saw this and I was like, hey, that works for me. I was like, you gotta run them. You gotta make sure they're eating food and water normal and stuff, and then sometimes they need to have a job. And for me, I was like, yeah, that works for me.

You gotta get tired to get your brain to settle it all. You got to feed it the right. So that's the only thing I know works for sure is doing a lot of exercise or something like that. For you. No, I think for I think this is pretty, I'm just saying I think anybody with ADHD should give it a shot. If they can, mileage may vary, but because we can't dispense medical advice here. It's not medical advice. Okay. It's a little bit medical advice, but it's, this is not a scientific... There's a lot of style of life. Right. It's not intended to cure or treat. No, there's no curing or treating, obviously, I mean, every day.

I know, I just, just, just, just, disclaimer. We got to wrap this up. Okay, you asked. Word, hour 22. Um... 22 hours? Yeah, we're at almost 26 hours. I don't know.

I don't know what to do. We can cut stuff out of this too. Yeah, we're just posted. This is the most chill episode ever of allergies. I just got really anxious. No, no, no, no, no, I just meant, again, happy birthday to me. I mean, I could do tons on each end like a number. I'm just going to stop.

Oh, okay. Mmm. What else? I'm just trying stop. Okay. What else? I'm just trying to look through because there's so much. Pick when it random. Or scroll to the end. Lindsay Howes, hi, Allie.

I so appreciate the way you cultivate such an inclusive online community with your curiosity and willingness to authentically show up and learn in public. I feel like you could do a whole episode on this or teach a class, but I would love to know more about how you build an inclusive community and what the challenges have been in creating it. You seem to do it so gracefully, but I'm sure there have been struggles or backlash or

nasty comments at times. How do you cope with those things and maintain your own apologetic and compassionate attitude for those who give you shit? Oh, that's really nice. I think that it's very much golden rule stuff. I don't like for people to feel excluded from anything. I don't like for people to feel othered because I felt that in so many ways in my life

and the idea that anyone would feel unwelcome somewhere makes me want to cry. So I like to make sure people feel seen and included. And that also people are able to look at other people in a way that's much more dimensional because I feel like a lot of times people forget that there are whole human beings behind a person's eyes. And so I think I should do that with allergies have different allergies on with different

perspectives and different histories and stuff. And hopefully what comes out of this show is not only our scientists, real people, but everyone has an interesting backstory and everyone has context to what they love and what they hate. And everyone has these experiences what they love and what they hate and everyone has these experiences in this knowledge that you would never know unless you tapped it with some sort of curiosity and empathy. So that's really important to me. The biggest backlash I think I've ever gotten is the almost of my like one-star reviews are people who are like, love the show, great show, love everything about it. Ask pronouns, I'm out.

And so the asking of pronouns is something that weeds out listeners who don't really like that inclusion, but that started, I've had a lot of trans guests on, and also someone whose, you know, their partner was not binary. They're like, if you ask pronouns, it helps normalize that for all of us. And I was like, that's a good point. And so I think then I started doing that,

but also I did a gynecology episode. And I thought I was being inclusive, I'm calling it women's health. And I talked a lot about trans women in it, but I completely failed to include trans men who have operating parts that a gynecologist can work on. And so I got some feedback on that like hours after I posted. And I was like, I didn't consider that.

I didn't approach that in the most inclusive way. And I just take that as a helpful tip from people because I don't think anyone wants to admonish me or make me feel bad. I think people are just like, hey, just so you know, this was an oversight. And so I corrected it as soon as I could and I learned a lot in the process

and I learned a lot about just, this was years ago, but I think this came out in like 2018, but about non-binary identities and anyway, so So I think that I trust y'all that if you are giving me feedback on something it's something that you Want me to know for the betterment of myself in the show and for other listeners because I have the opportunity like pass it on to other people So sometimes I got to learn publicly that way. I can help teach other people why that context matters. But yeah, pronouns are a sticking point for some people.

They don't like hearing about that. And I say, fine, that's fine. You can listen to things elsewhere. But that's how we do things in my house. But I also get some backlash just calling me, you know, like ugly and stupid and stuff. Yeah, that's weird. Yeah. Sometimes, yeah. Yeah, sometimes. But that's like, but that's usually from like accounts that are like, it's like a nothing. It's like a Patriot 49964, you know On Twitter or something. Yeah, you know, you're like, oh, yeah, okay, you know

Right, that's like such a nut that's like It's like so childish and strange that you're just like, huh? This is kind of like a nothing. Yeah, right? Pauline a tar. Mm-hmm. This is kind of on this. You seem like a person who knows themselves so well You have such a special voice and sense of self. How did you find that asking as an early 20s person trying to find that for myself? That's sweet. I think I know myself too well sometimes because I'm too introspective and I'm always trying to tinker under the hood to be like, how does this thing run? And all, but then again, I wouldn't say I'm wholly self-aware. But I think that at one point, I think I've realized that you can be a little bit weirder than you think it's okay because we tend to put on like this facade, like a harder shell than we need to to like polish ourselves. And I think that that just

results in a lot of homogeneity. And so I think that you can be a little weirder than you think is okay and you're much safer than you think you are. And also that's what makes people interesting. So I always try to just default to the truth in whatever I'm saying or thinking or writing what's the most true statement, because usually that's what is the most gratifying to put out and also it tends to be more relatable. So I think that if you feel weird, then you should be weird.

Don't hurt anyone else, but if you feel weird, you should be weird. 100%. I have a post-it note on my desk that says, be weirder than you think is okay. And when I'm writing, I try to remember if I'm writing in a side or if I'm researching something or dead or dead.

Then I think, am I planning to save you? Are you in the skin a little gross or weird or dead. Then I think, am I playing a safe here? Are king the skin a little grosser, weird or more professional? You know what I'm saying? Sure. Yeah. I'm gonna, we're gonna do a few like kind of show, show making.

Oh my gosh. We're almost done. Okay. We're gonna get near the end. But I want to hit someone's that a lot of people wanted. Okay. Okay. A lot of people ask something along these lines,

but there's he heavy an halt. How many hours a week? Yes. Do you put into allergies? Is it your main gig? Would you make it your primary full-time thing? Or do you have a primal need to always be involved in multiple projects simultaneously? Everything everywhere.

Once high, yes, I have ADHD too, probably. I love this person. It is my full-time gig now, but I do have a lot of projects usually in the works like other TV shows or I was consulting on a lot of shows. And this past year, I think I've really said no to more things because Alla Jesus is my main full-time job. And it's more reliable and more gratifying work than a lot of the work I do. I love a lot of my jobs, but this is the most true to me. In terms of hours, it takes

all of them, I think. I mean, it's right now, it's the day after Christmas and when your sister's guest bedroom will recording this, but that's because I took a lot of time off this week to just chill and eat like panna-tale and stuff. As one should. As one should. But I would say the number of hours I put in used to be like 80 hours a week and I think I've shaved it down to like 50, 60 maybe.

I've shaved it down to like 50, 60 maybe. But it's, yeah. But I mean, a lot of it is I just go down research rabbit holes because I think they're really fascinating too. But we all, and then we also have Susan Hale, managing director who does so much on the show and she does all of our financial, she does a ton of social media, she's managed this whole thing, we have Noel who does all of our financial, she does a ton of social media, she's managed the whole thing.

We have Noel who does all the scheduling, who I don't know how I would get places without her reminding me and Mercedes who does all the editing. So I started this without any of that. And so I'm so lucky because I couldn't do this job without him. I promise we're wrapping up. I'm sorry I have this info. I'm asking with a K. Ten, a bunch of people wanted to get,

how do you discern who would make a goodologist to interview before you commit to interviewing them? How often do you have to throw out interviews, ask me as someone who is very bad trust issues? Haha. I like listening. I love, okay, first the work comes first. I look at their work and I think, oh, this is cool that they study this. They've maybe written some papers or they do their own sci-com on it. Typically passion is a big leader in terms of whether or not I want to pick

them to be on the show if they're passionate about something. I will maybe watch YouTube videos that they've done and think, oh great, they seem excited. And I love reaching out to them being like, hi, you mean, you probably don't know me, but I would love to talk about your life for a while. And hearing back from them. And I will also see what are the things they posted to see if they are, have said anything wildly offensive or racist, misogynistic, which happens every once in a while and I say, no, I don't really want this person on the show. They can have whatever platform they want, just perhaps not mine at that moment because I am

very protective of my listeners in terms of what I expose them to and I Have shit canned two episodes one of them I was about an animal, but we ended up really talking much more about the harvesting of this animal and factory farming And I felt a little weird about it and so I that's kind of on the back ended up really talking much more about the harvesting of this animal and factory farming, and I felt a little weird about it. And so I, that's kind of on the back, it's in a folder called Backburner. And then another was, oh gosh, I don't know if I should say that.

People got really mad at me about the witchology episode because I talked to someone who was practicing witch and some people were saying, why couldn't you get someone who was a scholar in this? Number one, it's like this person has a ton of lives. Experienced, they've written several books about it. They have their own spiritual beliefs and I was interested to hear what those were. But I did interview someone about a topic adjacent to this who was very scholarly and ended up saying some things that were

misogynistic and racist during the interview I found and I'm not gonna name any names, when I felt like they had a very good platform to denounce some forms of racism and they didn't. So I said, I think I'm gonna put this one in the notebook. And so what I got when people were upset about the, which a couple people were upset about,

the witchology episode not being academic enough. And I was like, oh, you have no idea what I've spared you. So that is why I went the direction. I did with it is I wanted to talk to someone who had a really, had a wide breadth of experience and knowledge from a lot of different angles both European and Indigenous and happened. They were non-binary, which is helpful because talking about generals, anyway. So if you disliked the Witchology episode, if you've listened to this much of this AMA episode I uh and you just liked it just just know that there was a reason why I um selected that

guest I thought they were perfect for it continue. Okay, I wanted you like two more. Okay, I'll show them it. We can do so many. I know, I know, I know, I know. This is a take-you-take-one. You get decide if you want to give the secret away. Aaron asked, I've always wondered how you find the audio snippets for movies. Do you usually have a specific phrase or scene in mind? Do you have to Google them or is there a database somewhere? There's a secret database. I'm not willing to give up our source for that. I'm sorry. I'm just not going to do it. I'm just not going to do it. I prefer to keep a secret. And I usually, when I'm listening to the episode, I will put a note there of what I would want someone

to say in response, and then I'll go look for that in a clip, or part of the conversation will remind me of something pop cultural that I'll want to put in there. But sometimes, a lot of times to the clips are there to kind of break up moments or as a transition from one thought to the next if I have to do an edit or as just something to kind of approximate for what the audience might be thinking or what might be some subtext of what we're talking about.

And so I'll usually, we'll think of something that I would want to hear there, and then I'll search for a quote that would match that. But I'm not willing to give up my secrets. You're going to have to tickle them out of me. Oh my goodness. All right, all right, all right. That can't believe you're keeping that one.

I know. That's for leave. Wow. That's for future AMA. There's a lot more for future AMA, and it's for sure. OK's for a future AMA. That's for a future AMA. There's a lot more for a future AMA, for sure. Okay, there was one final one. I want to find it because they phrased it so well. Thank you for interviewing with me.

Thank you for doing this, Chair. It's been so great. I'm going to be an artist right now, if anyone's listening this long. This is a very vulnerable thing for me to do because it feels, I'm trying to be a Ernest right now if anyone's listening this long. This is a very vulnerable thing for me to do because it's, it feels, I'm trying not to feel like too self-indulgent about it by being like, yes, let's talk about me, me, me, me, me, me, and also, I'm conscious of the fact that I say, um, and such, I typically like to cut those out if I'm being sloppy. I wouldn't describe you as sloppy at all. Be honest.

Thank you. All right. Yes. Boreal Becca says, is this an alliology episode? Well, well, well. We must know what's the best and worst parts of your job. And a lot of people, a lot of this. It just so you know, we will

Dave DeBairmaker, Peggy Sassy Seeker, Scientist, you know, Peggy, Kate sometimes, Mova, etc. What do you got? Best, worst, invest, worst part of the job is trying to social media because a lot of just the thing where you're writing something in an Instagram post and then you press one button and you go back and you lose your whole caption. So I try to write them in another program or notes app. I'm always thinking I need a social media more, but I'm also like I have to work on the next episode. So I can't spend a whole day social media in this and then be late on the next episode. So that's very difficult. Someone's a social media expert and wants to throw their hat in a ring.

LA-based, do holler. You'll find our contacts at alleywear.com. That would be fantastic. Must be TikTok literate and willing to tell me what to post. Sometimes. Maybe even come over, say, Ali, we're gonna, I'm gonna film me for this for TikToks, okay? And then she just does it and then you put it on there.

And then you say, Ali, we're gonna spend six hours learning a dance so we can put a 10 second clip up. Well, that'll be great as well. Right. So, do Holler. That's the worst worst is it's social media. That's the hardest part because I always feel like I could be doing more but I also as soon as I hop on social media also before I know it, you know, I'm I'm dick deep in something I don't want to be looking at. I hear you. You know, I'm on

someone's cousins in laws yogurt making page. I don't know what am, I'm on someone's cousins in law's yogurt making page. I don't know, what am I, I gotta say to you. So social media is a difficult for me. Best part about my job. I love finding theologist and I love when they write me back. There's a certain kind of message you get, like if you were to say texture crush and you were to see a notification from them. When you have an email in your inbox that you've been waiting for, there's a certain dopamine spike that happens like loose slots, coins coming out of the sky.

And it's a great feeling. And I say, whoa, I may have a new friend. And as I've gotten busier, Noel will, as a scheduling producer, will reach out as first contact because I got very busy and I got very, very sick. And I had to have over the summer. You all know that. And I had to shirk some of my responsibilities onto my very capable team. And I do so now the last month or so. I've been reaching out to people more again myself because

the last six months or so I was not feeling so great. But we also did a ton of episodes that we have banked from before I got pneumonia, et cetera, and those are still coming out. So someone the other day, Conor, they then on Patreon asked me, what happened to those episodes that you recorded in early summer? I'm still putting them out, and I like to interspersed them with like maybe an animal on here. Here's a medical one. Here's one about something sociological. So I like to mix them up. So I'm spreading them out. Great. Thank you for that question. My second favorite thing about the job, hanging out in a bed, talking about myself. Clearly not because this was unbelievably painful for you.

Sorry! I thought it'd be much easier but... No, this is great. I appreciate this. I love you so much. I love you. I love you so much. Thanks for listening to just a podcast host and a dog and a husband asking questions.

Mercedes-Mateland, we are sorry that you did not give these questions out. You do it more regularly. Just do more regularly. See, perhaps a patron only perk because I am, I would like to get back to doing some live streams I haven't done some. A little bit and I like doing them once a month. So we'll do more weird stuff on Patreon.com, social, all the ways. I just keep hearing themes on my head, because I know I'm going to put it in here somewhere.

So I'm going to, you know, Thank you for doing this in your sister's guest house. Oh, it's so nice. It's lovely. Any advice for people who want to start a podcast? To do it, man podcast to do it man Just do it. No, I mean kind of but also you have better advice make it a show that would be my that would be my advice Yeah, I was like if you're gonna start a podcast make sure it's a show

You know have a have think about the structure in the format think about Why people listen and like people listen to a podcast or whatever they they watch a video to get something from it, to put it in their pocket and say, my life is a little bit different and perhaps a little bit better now. And so think about why you consume the media, you consume and what you're getting from it, what you're taking away from it. And so think when you're starting a podcast or when you're doing something like that, like, what are people coming to me for? Right.

And what do I have to offer? What do you want to disseminate? And one thing that I hope that all of these does is not just facts about things, but also like a kind of inspiring, like some curiosity and some wonder and things like that. And so, and also this notion that like people are are much more human and complex and and perfect and perfect in that way. And so what are people coming to your thing for? So think about that. Yeah, don't leave your audience out. Yeah, I was just saying, but also on a very baseline level, because yes, you're showed those all those things. But a baseline level, your show has a simple

promise that is fulfilled every week. Which is? You're going to speak to anologist from someology. That's the hook. But I'm just saying that is very important. That makes it a show. Right, right, right. As opposed to my roommate are really funny.

We're always just having these funny conversations. I think we just record our funny conversations. Right. You're going to be so into that. Right, which this is the most that of any episode I've ever done. So, yeah, but you earned it. You earned it. You've done a lot of the other kind.

And it's the holidays. But we're not even trying to be funny. I mean, if we were trying to be funny, we're so, we're so funny. I'm going to hit myself in the head with a mic. All right, let's wrap this thing up. I'm just saying, yeah, think of segments. Think of what your show has to have.

I was trying to figure out a little hook. If someone had to describe it in one sentence, how would they describe it? You know, if people say, oh, you make a podcast, they say, yeah, and they go, what is it about? And say, it's called, the oligis, we talk to a different oligis every week. You know, like geology, thermophysiology,

and then any neemicapologies. And they go, oh, I get it. Oh, wow, that sounds interesting. I'll tune in. All right love you so much have a great day of holiday. Do we have a secret that we want to tell the end of this? Do you have a secret you want to tell the end of this? The secret that I want to tell at the end of this is that I'm wearing, I'm recording this in pajamas, and I have been wearing, it's currently close to midnight, Eastern time, and I've been wearing these pajamas all day, and I haven't changed out of them all day.

That's not even that crazy secret. I feel like I've been working with a lot of other people listening and going to be like, hey, that's me. I'm just saying, because I'm sweaty right now, and so I felt like. I'm not a guest host, they're just like us, hey, that's me. I'm just saying, because I'm sweaty right now. And so I felt like. They're just like us. That's true, they are. They sweat in their pajamas for days at a time

at their in-laws house. And they play guests my fart with their family members. Oh no. Oh no. I just lingering because this is like real life. I know, I know, I know. I know, I know, I know. I'm trying to think of a better, one other secret is I don't, I don't have COVID

but I do have a little bit of a runny nose. And so during the recording of this, I have been shoving a paper towel periodically at my nose. Bye bye. Bye bye. Yeah. What you've been saying has talking to you. Well, it's been so nice talking to you.