Quick Question with Soren and Daniel - The Sneaky Wheel Gets The Tea | Ep. 335

Episode Date: June 9, 2026

The guys do a heat check on owning your own printer, then talk data-driven reunion tours for millennial bands, Bo Burnham vs. Mr. Beast, and the 70’s as the bleakest decade on film. Plus, what Google AI got wrong about the Tony Awards and why Soren stands by scattering hidden iced teas throughout a Whole Foods.  Thanks to ASPCA for sponsoring this episode. To explore coverage, visit ASPCApetinsurance.com/QUESTION. The ASPCA is not an insurer and is not engaged in the business of insurance.Follow the guys on Bluesky!https://bsky.app/profile/danielobrien.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/sorenbowie.bsky.socialBonus episodes 2x/month at patreon.com/quickquestion OR Apple Podcasts

Question for you all right. Question for you. I'm just glad that we can talk tonight. So what's your favorite? I think you'll have a great time, yeah. Hello again and welcome to another episode of Quick Question with Soren Daniel the podcast. We're two best friends in comedy writers ask each other questions and give each other answers. I am one half of that podcast, Senior Writer for last week tonight with John Oliver, author of How to Fight Presidents by Daniel O'Brien and owner of his very own.

combo printer scanner uh copy machine Daniel O'Brien joined us always by my co-host

Mr. Soren and say hello Get the fuck out of town you have a printer in your house I have a printer in my office Like it's 1998 That's amazing And uh

my my wife was like Let's get a printer And because women be shopping And I was like like, we don't need a printer. My brother has a printer.

Right. Staples has a printer. We both have jobs that we go to sometimes, and those jobs have printers. So if we really need something printed, those are the options. I'm putting my foot down. So we got the printer. And not only have I used it many times, and it's been very helpful in a pinch, my parents were staying with us for a couple of days

because they're moving houses right now and they were in between houses and they were fretting about needing to go somewhere to print some things for their house signing and we got to tell them that we had a printer and having printers is like that's a parent's thing.

Parents have printers and we were like mom and dad guess what? You can use our printer. And they were like, can we copy things too? And I was like, yeah, That's one of the three jobs it does that I know of. You can copy as many things as you want. Okay.

Yeah. I don't. We don't have a, we're not a printer family. We're not a copy family. But I have certainly run into situations where I fucking needed it quick and I can't do it. And I have to like walk half a mile to FedEx to get it done and then figure out their system. All that is to say, I've had a printer previously in my life. And every single time I've had a printer, it sucks.

It sucked. It sucks so bad. We had, so one of the things said on this podcast that really resonated with me, we had enemy of the show, Jason Pargeon on, because he had to hawk some book, I'm sure. And we were talking about pieces of technology that we are surprised are not better than they are. And I said toothbrush, which is a answer. And he said printers. And it blew my mind because I was like, yes, I don't. know that they've ever been good, but they've definitely gotten worse in my lifetime.

And it doesn't seem like anyone in the world is interested in making printers good. No. Printers are like, they are the perfect little canary in the coal mine for late stage capitalism. They are, no, there's no oversight over that entire industry. I think it's owned by like three companies and every single one of them is at a race to the bottom. They just want to see how much money they can steal from people before printers are obsolete. It's like, what can we still get from them? They're doing, we're not engaged in this, but they have like, because everything is subscriptions now, you can like subscribe to get ink because the ink dies or dries up so

quickly that they sign you up for their ink subscription services. It doesn't dry up. They just, at a certain point, you're no longer allowed to use your own ink cartridge. That's right. That's all. Well, now you can subscribe Because printers are like, Not enough people are buying printers. What if we can make people pay for the privilege to print For the rest of their lives? That seems like a more stable business model

Than finding a new buyer of printers. Guess again? Hewlett-Packard, I got it. I don't know who's doing these studies. I think it's just people who own printers that are getting fed up. But every once in a while, there's a study that will come out. They'll be like, hey, we figured out

how much of your ink cartridges, you're colored and your black and white ink cartridges the printer's actually using. Turns out it's like 40% of it. And then it tells you you need a new one. And it will refuse it to print until you get a new one. And people will get so mad about it. And they'll yell online about it.

I don't know a printer. I'm mad. And the rest of us, and I included myself in this camp until a few weeks ago, the rest of us, when they see someone getting mad about printers, just like, I don't have one. You know, you know why my life is better because I don't have one. What are you talking about? Go to your brothers.

Someone's got a printer. Go to my brothers. I'll give you his address. So my desk is so clean, obviously, without one. Printers are noisy and clunky and bad. Even today. I mean, the last printer I had was one where you could photocopy on it and everything, but it's still got a tangle of cords coming off of it.

If you want to use, if you want to try and connect your computer to it through other means, good fucking luck. That's going to drop off all the time. sometimes it's not going to connect to that printer. So it's just as stressful as not having a printer. When I need something quick, and I'm going to go down to the kinkos and try and, well, in this case, to FedEx, remember how their system works.

That's going to be less frustrating to me than owning my own printer. Here's what's crazy is that we didn't get a used printer. We didn't get top of the line printer. We just got like a standard good printer that does all the things that printers do. And I was a little bit jazzed to have it in the room. And I hooked it up with Wi-Fi. So I just, like, take something from my phone and make my phone talk to the printer. And, like, print this thing or email it to me, shortcut, Daniel.

And the printer knows to do those things. And when I had it print something, I... And I'm being rude here because I don't know how the technology works. I don't know what goes into it at all. But I hit print. and the printer starts making noise and I'm sitting right next to it and no cables are involved and I'm so excited. And then that excitement fades as I watch it print. Because even though I don't know anything about anything, part of me is like, it is still this slow to print a copy of my passport photo.

This is how slow it was 20 years ago. We haven't... What are you guys doing in the printer factory? If not making one of the... two things that your printer does better. The nice thing about working in a job like ours, where we write and frequently have scripts that need to be read out loud off of pieces of paper, is that my work has top-of-the-line printers to make sure that everything is as, as, as, it's as streamlined as possible.

So I get to see where the market is. I get to see, like, I get to do a heat check on printers every once in a while and see, like, oh, this is what they're capable of now. And the amount of times that these printers fail at my office, like, okay, things have not gotten better. I've checked in. There's no reason for me to try and get the very best printer that it all just sort of like shoots out, you know? There's no reason for me to ever try that even. I used to use our printer a lot at our old shared job at demand media when we worked at crack.com.

We would print out scripts for the shows that we were making. I stayed at the office one time and printed out a few copies of a full screenplay that I had written. That was just like 150 pages or so that I just abused the work printer. All of which is to say, I use that printer often, this big industrial office printer. And I remember at the time being so pumped because when it broke, the repair was so user-friendly and intuitive. They would like, the screen would pop up and be like, there is a problem with this printer on E3.

Here is a diagram of the printer digitally represented. E3 is this drawer, open this drawer. And I would open the drawer. And sometimes the screen would say, like, now try this. Or sometimes there would be like a little bit of instructions on the inside panel of the E3 door. And little tools that could like pop out. and I would look at the manual that was printed on the thing, and I would use the tool,

and I would find the jam successfully and get rid of the jam, and then the printer would work again, and I would think, man, this is great. I can't believe it's so good at teaching me how to fix. I don't know how to fix anything, but I could fix a printer because the instructions are so clear. My takeaway should have been, man, this thing must break a fucking lot.

Yeah, this thing is... They had the best minds at Euler-Packard working on how to, how to fix it for dummies. How to fix all the shit that's going to go wrong. And the shit that goes wrong is in every direction. Sometimes it doesn't connect. Sometimes it's just the paper itself is the problem. Paper itself is a weird cut on the edge.

And all of a sudden now it's jammed up inside. In a place, it's harder to reach than inside the motor of a car. Like you can't even get to it. Hey, pet owners. Let me know if this sounds familiar. I have a neighbor who got a new puppy. And the puppy started feeling pretty sick. They didn't know what it was.

And then the puppy started choking. vomiting and threw up a whole toy, a whole rubber squeaky toy. And they thought, oh, that's terrible that he swallowed the whole thing. But at least it's out. Well, the dog kept feeling sick and then threw up another one and then still felt sick. And so they had to take their dog in and found out that there were three more in its stomach. Because pets are crazy. If you've owned a pet, you know that they run on their own logic.

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It's a little treat for you while you're doing something great for your pet. And if you're thinking, yeah, but we don't go to the vet. that often. And when we do, it's okay spending that little bits more than, it's better than paying so much for pet insurance. Well, you can tailor your plan to fit your budget, your lifestyle, and your pet's particular quirks. To explore coverage, visit ASPCA pet insurance.com slash question. That's ASPCA pet insurance.com slash question. Eligibility restrictions apply. Visit ASPCA pet insurance.com slash Amazon terms for more info. This is a paid advertisement. insurance is underwritten by either

Independence American Insurance Company or United States Fire Insurance Company and produced by PTZ Insurance Agency Limited. The ASPCA is not an insurer and is not engaged in the business of insurance. Yeah, I don't have any interest in getting a printer. I had to deal with a printer for a very long time

when I was an actor here in Los Angeles and I had to print out headshots. No, actually, I wasn't printing out my own headshots. I had to print out the resumes for the backs of the headshots. Which also requires you to have a paper cutter because many people don't know this. Head shots, not the same size as an ordinary piece of paper. If you showed up with a headshot the size of your ordinary piece of paper,

it's fucking getting thrown out because it doesn't stack with the others. It's only 8 by 10 inch as opposed to 8.5 by 11 or whatever it is. So you've got to have a paper cutter too to make sure that you're trying to center your headshot with your resume. Anyway, I had to print all the time. I had to print resumes because I'd be like going to an audition. So you're already missing work. and then your printer's not working, and you're fucking freaking out,

and you're going to lose your job. And I just, it's all a printer's fault. So I will admit that I, my understanding of printers is pretty skewed. Yeah. I wish I had more things to print because I set it up and I like it.

And I am now, there's a category of things that, um, my wife says, let's get. And I say no. And then we get it. And then I use it way more than she does.

She knew. And, uh, because I just, I just, and, the latest one that I haven't cracked open yet, but I'm pretty pumped about it.

She was like, I think we should get a label maker. And I'm, because I'm awful, I'm like, give me five reasons that we should have a label maker. And so we got a label maker. And I don't know the reasons. But I don't even know what I would do with it.

But, but man, I want to get my own mitts on it. I want to start making labels for things. I'm trying to think of a single thing I would use. Label my bins in the basement. Come on now. What are we talking about?

A professional printed label. Oh, I'm sorry. Do you not own a Sharpie? But this is, this is, this is a label you could peel off later and it leaves all that tacky-pilly stickiness on it. Well, all right. I mean, I wish you luck with your label maker and your printer. Honestly, this is the best time to print. There's never been a better time than when that thing is brand new because that built-in obsolescence.

It's a ticking clock. Yeah. You don't get long with that printer. Is it last? Yeah. That's so awesome. It's loud enough that like when I'm, I will be downstairs and I'll print something via my phone

and I end in love with that wireless technology. And then also in love with the fact that like, I can hear that it's working because even though it's on the next floor up, I can hear that the printer is working. Yeah. Through the walls of the house. Do you think that you could print something while you were on vacation? Like can you go to another state?

and then print. I'm going to Italy soon. Oh, my God. Another country. If I could print something while I'm in Italy and add that to my list of, the list of weird things I'm making my cousin do whose house sitting for us while we're gone. Check this.

Can you also, see if there's anything in my printer right now, and she'll say, yes, it says, hello, Audrey. Thank you for looking at this. On a, great. I'm a narox from a napkin. Where did you even go to do this? Oh, it was actually a lot of trouble from my end. I had to go to a Xerox shop.

That's, okay, so that's interesting. I find now that my son is at an age where he has a lot more book reports and stuff, that printing is becoming an issue again. Yeah, I bet kids print shit out all the time. Yeah. I'm getting to the point where I'm going to have to start printing a lot more, I think. So maybe I'll be in the same boat as you.

Maybe I'll hit you up for recommendations on printers. And you can tell me the one you have and yet you don't recommend it anymore because you've discovered all the issues with it. Sorry, I got a quick question for you. Hell yeah, the show. The show. We're going to do the show. I'm going to tell you a story. And you've got to tell me if it's interesting.

So far, I want to get ahead of this. So far, I'm batting zero. Hold on one second. you get into it, I want to just tease that there is some culmination to the Ice Tea saga that I would get to at the end of the show. Okay.

There is a finality to it that... That was real or that was Patreon? That was real. That was a real show. Yeah, we talked all about Ice Tea and the real show. Can you believe it? I didn't mean to suggest that Patreon is not... The people who give us money are more real than any of the ones who just

listen. I got to be clear about that. Okay, but go on. Go on. Go on. So, there's this band I like called The Format. There was a band. They were a band years ago. They were a bigish band,

not huge, but like they were on the radio and stuff, saw them a few times live, saw them with a band that I really loved called Steel Train. And then the format and Steel Train broke up. Some of their members formed a new band called Fun. Fun was the huge band that did that We Are Young song. they were everywhere for a while

and Jack Antonoff who was steel train then fun now bleachers and also like a super producer of all this music they've just like they've both gone on and done like much bigger things than their original bands

and and rest in peace format this was many years ago I tell you again a few days ago for no reason based on nothing I'm changing my son's diaper and I want to put on our diaper changing music. And I'm getting a little tired of our diaper changing music.

So I was like, what's a fun like, like a kitty adjacent thing I could put on right now? There's a song in the format covers called Ape Man. So I put Ape Man on. I'm an ape man. I'm an ape man. Oh, I'm an ape man. It's perfect for changing diapers. Kid loves it.

I love it. It's a fun dork little song. Day after that, I'm still thinking about format. I get in my car. I have to go to the city for work. It's a long drive. I think. Let me put on the format. I hadn't thought about them

in well over a decade, and I just listened to one song. Let me put them on. In fact, let me put on dog problems, my favorite album of theirs, and listen to its start to bottom. What a treat of an album. Haven't listened in years. Put it on.

Loved it. Enjoyed my trip. Disassociated the whole drive. Didn't look at anything. Just listen to my music and had a great time. Because I put it in Spotify to listen to that song. Spotify now knows that I like it. And they send you recommendations when you like things and they have like some relevant things for you.

The format is back together. I'm looking at. And in fact, they are doing a 20th anniversary performance of Dog Problems, the album, in October. Yeah. In New York. Radio City musical. Radio City. I thought this was going to be a scoop for you.

I was like, Dan, you'd go see them. No, this is in fact the whole story. Which is I arrived to. I stopped listening to you and immediately started my own research and was like, I can't wait until he's done talking so I can tell him that I can go see them in September and Santa Barbara and he can go see them in October. The story is impossibly. There's a 30 rock joke with the... DeFuan character where he is telling someone something else that happened and he said,

you will never guess who saw Dorinda cheating on her husband. Me, Defuan. Like he's, because he has centered himself in everything, he doesn't realize that the more important part of the story was the thing that happened. Who I saw cheating. You're never going to guess who saw this. I think this thing with the format, it's very, I can't, I can't, I can't devour. the fact that format is

reuniting and playing a concert from the fact that I was listening to them and no one told me to. I did it. I came up with it at nowhere. I was like, let's listen to the format today. And then as far as I can tell, the rest of the world agreed with me. And I told this to a lot, of course my wife

and of course my friend Joe. and and and no one no one seems to think it's anything Joe was like yes I saw that they were playing I was thinking of going should we go and I'm like that's not the point how did we go is not the important part of the story wait yeah you have to be like wait

how did you know I was playing that for my son so I think about this a lot with Spotify when I get a little notification when I'm listening to the DJX or whatever they've got is their AI and it's like, hey, I want to let you know that you're in the top 0.5% of listeners for Dan Deakin. And I'm like, oh, shit. Like, there's no way he's not paying attention to that, right?

Like, at some point, they've got to know, your music has spiked. And somebody's listening to you. Did they tell the artist that? That'd be cool. Surely they have access to that kind of information, right? Because they're getting residuals on everything. So all of a sudden, they're just getting a bigger residual than they're used to. Yeah, they're just cleaning up.

What I mean is for when you get, when your residuals jump from 20 cents to $5, you're like, what the fuck happened? And I think that they probably acknowledged that, oh, somebody, my music showed up in a movie or something like that. Or, well, I guess they'd already know that. My music showed up in a TikTok is more, more likely. And suddenly people have found me again. So when I discover an artist, I'm obsessive. I spend a lot of time listening to that artist over and over and over. again. And I'm sure that that has some, I have to assume, has some effect on them, that they

find that out and they're like, oh, somebody found us. Or it's that more likely they're thinking a whole city found us because of how often I'm listening to it. I wonder if that kind of data, like all data, that has, that everyone thought more data would make things better and now everything's worse. I wonder if that will remove some magic and kismet from ban. too. Like, do bands reunite because they think it's been, it was fun playing. Let's play again and have a good time. Or does an executive from Spotify say like Ben Folds 5, if you reunited right now, we can pretty conclusively say, because Spotify shakes hands with Ticketmaster, we could pretty conclusively say that you will sell out in these cities if you went on tour right now based on our data. And then Ben Folds 5 is like, sure. Ben is like, I'll do it. I need money since I stepped down from my gig as creative director of the Kennedy Center when they wanted to put Trump's name on it.

And drummer Darren Jesse will be like, of course, I don't play with anyone anymore since hotel lights dissolve. And bassist Robert Sledge will be like, well, I play with some local guys in North Carolina. But that's not my main thing. I would love to reunite with the band and make some more money, according to your Spotify data. I wonder if that's true. I'm looking at the format here. and seeing like where the heart of their shows are and they are very popular, I would guess, in the Midwest.

Because they've got, that's where, they do a couple of bookend shows on each coast, but they got a ton of shows in the Midwest. I wonder if they found that out. I wonder if they found out. Here's what I want to know. Who in the Midwest told them that you were listening to it with your son? It's got to be, you've heard of baby telemathy.

No. It's like a network of twilight bark babies. Yeah, okay. Sending music vibes throughout the neighborhoods, and it travels very far. That's what I think. Yeah, I mean, that tracks. I was in a Habit Burger the other day, Daniel. Do you have those out there?

I don't think we have them out there, but I lived in Los Angeles for a decade. Yeah. We get a truck at our work sometimes for that. Yeah. Love that place. Best chicken sandwich. My relationship with fast food is avoid the fast food. fast food.

I always forget it. Get something fucking weird on the menu. And that's all I know the menu for. I couldn't tell you what a whopper tastes like. I can't tell you

what their burgers like. You tell someone which hamburger place has the best chicken sandwich, information that nobody wants. No one's asking for it. Get a terriaki chicken sandwich at the Habit burger.

I don't know what their fries are like either, but the edamame beans, get those. I'm not the edamame the tempore fried beans. They still have Mr. Pib in the fountain. Okay.

Okay, well, I can't trust your advice on anything. Where was I? Oh, I was in there and we were listening to the radio, obviously, because that's the only time I listen to terrestrial radio is in businesses. And that cranberry song came on. Days go by. What is that song? What is that fucking song called?

Sorry. Pol plays cranberries have a song that is not zombie. Dreams. Cranberries have a song called Dreams, which if you listen to it right now, you'd be like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know this song. This is a song that when it was out,

I did not give a shit about. I was pretty young, but it was so ubiquitous and everything, that it was just one of those songs that just happened to be on in the background. I now think that that's one of those songs, just like, give me shelter, where it's like,

it's so perfectly exemplifies the era from which it's from that I'd like, I think you could just qualify this song as like, oh, that is, representative of 1996 or whatever when it came out

that and I went back and read Jack's column about that, about songs that do that. Like, Gimme Shelter was not a popular song when it came out. You know the Rolling Stone song, right?

Yeah. Not even that popular. It barely made a blip on the billboards. But now, 1968, 1969, that's the anthem of that era. Because of movies? I think so.

Or just. Just because that, I don't, I guess it probably is pop culture in general, but movies are a big part of that. You get, it just feels right. It's just like, you drop in and it's like that feels exactly right for that particular era. And I think the song Dreams is just right for the mid-90s. Man, I got to take your word for it. The song is not jumping to my brain now. And also this column from Jack that you're talking about is not.

Not jumping to your brain? I'll see if I can find that too. I've used my powers to summon the format from the dead. And so I'm just, I'm like Gene Gray in the X-Men cartoon. I'm just so weak now from using my power. I just need some time to get full strength back. That was a big thing for him. He always thought about, and I think this is really smart.

Let me preface it by saying that, that these bands aren't necessarily aware of even what they're doing at the time. but their brains aren't necessarily plugged in, but their hearts are. They're attuned to that particular era. And so, like, they're building something that will pay off much, much later. And they don't even know it. Like, they weren't making Jimmy Shelter, their Rolling Stones, and thinking, this is what's going on in the streets. Like, this is, this is the vibe of the entire era.

Yeah. They just are plugged in in a way that nobody else is where they're, that's sort of ancillary. They're just making a song they think is really good. And then much, much later, everyone's like, yeah, that is, that, that's exactly the color of 1990s. Like in the cranberries, 1992 or whatever. Yeah. And he, he talks about that with like all artistic creation. And so when you make something, I think it was probably in relationship to people being like, my column is not doing well.

And him being finding some sort of way to tell you. you, oh, well, that doesn't matter. That doesn't matter right now. What you're making is a zeitgeist. It's like perfect for right now, probably. And you'll know that later. If the site still existed and people still found it, maybe they would do that.

Hard to be the voice of a generation when you can't search Sorin Bui voice. I don't know why I got on that. I don't either. It made me think of a different thing, which was, there's this documentary about movies in the 70s, and they were talking about just what a fucking bangor a couple of years

like 1974 into 75 was when it was like there was Chinatown and there was Taxi Driver and there was Godfather Part 2 and all this stuff and I was talking to my parents about these bleak-ass movies and my mom was just like

everyone was pretty depressed back then. Like oh man, yeah, it like shows in literally all of the art Except fucking lasing saddles. Yeah. Like dog day afternoon. Yeah.

Some really rough stuff that they were making back then. And the city, a lot of it takes place in New York or Chicago. The city looks like shit. It looks, and that's the best it's ever looked because they're putting it on camera. Like, they're trying to do a good job, and it looks like shit. Why was everyone so upset? Oil embargoes? What was going on then?

When was Nixon? sad at the end of the 60s. I think there was a lot of distrust in the United States that was sort of still bubbling up. War. Everyone back from Vietnam and they're pretty upset about it. Right. A terrible reunion.

Oh, we're a terrible welcome home. But I think that's also, I learned from licorice pizza. That's the oil embargo time too. That's when all of a sudden tires and gas were crazy expensive. I don't know. I don't know. I'm hard to get track of anything before I was bull.

I'm sure it's not I'm sure it's not actually this way in the way that like people at the time didn't really fuck with Gimmie's shelter too much I'm sure in 74 and 75 there were a million movies and shows and

songs and books and things and the ones that like rose to the surface are the ones that in retrospect captured this what we what we now have thrust onto this period of time basically um

but I like to pretend that everyone who was making stuff all kind of felt the same way that things were bad and they all like, it was all just reflected in their art. Not like today where I feel kind of bad all the time about the world. And then I will see like what's big in culture right now. And it's like Mr. Beast is, you know,

doing a real-life squid game or driving a mountain bike off a cliff to see if it crashes into a Lamborghini in a cinematically interesting way. I was like, I wonder, between my work at last week tonight and Mr. Beast driving cars into other cars to see what kind of explosion they make, which in 20 years will be more reflective

of this snapshot of time, which of us is more accurately capturing when it feels like to be alive? right now. It might be him. I got bad news for you. I think a person is super plugged into that as Bo Burtum. Bo Bermen seems to have like a really good

understanding in what I've seen of his stuff of like in a given moment what's going to matter in the future and how we will look at it with an objective eye. He's got a song from his from

what's that series called? Locked inside. Inside. It's just inside. Inside. Inside. That funny feeling. That song, I think, is called That Funny Feeling, which is like very, has like some incisive pinpoint accuracy on what it feels like to be alive right at this moment.

And I'm like, oh, yeah, I do get that. And it's not great. I wonder, as you're saying, he's pretty tapped into what's going on and what penetrates and what it's all about. I wonder if it's a bad sign that he hasn't really done anything in a while. Because I'm just sort of hoping he's locked away somewhere, doing it again.

He's not someone who is going to make something that completely misses the mark. And, you know, he's not going to make something so incredibly niche that is like, this wasn't meant to be important. This was just supposed, like, it's okay if this kind of fails. So he might, with all of his intuition, look at the market and realize, well, the only thing that really does well these days is Subway takes and Prank videos. And I'm not going to do that. So I will just stop and just live a healthy life, I guess.

I mean, it might, you say a healthy life. That might be the case because he's genuinely an unhealthy person every time he's creating. Every time that he's performing, every time that he's doing anything, it sounds like he is, that makes him unhealthy. He's got like this tire-fire creativity that's just poisoning him. But when he doesn't do it, it sounds like that's when he gets healthy. So that might be what he's actually doing, is just trying. to work on his own mental health while the world falls apart. Let's hope so.

I like him a lot. Yeah. I think he's very talented. I think so too. I hope he surprises us with something that he is working on, and then he's doing it in a healthy way. And he comes out with some, like, really cool project that in the norm. I don't know. I don't know that I want that.

Okay, well, Daniel, on to the meat. On to the meat of this podcast. We don't think that it's interesting. We don't think it says anything about anything that I thought about the format and suddenly they're back. No one was talking about. No, I don't care much. But it is, that's a nice synchronicity.

I mean, you've got to feel like you're at least plugged in when that kind of thing happens. I don't, though. I thought, what kind of music is good for cleaning up my son's shit? Ape man. Maybe everyone in your age is having, who loved the format, is having babies right now. and the same thing is happening to them. I rediscovered a band the other day that just completely fell off my radar, and I was shocked that it had fallen out of my head like that.

There's a band called Mates of State that I really used to love. And all of a sudden, one of their songs came on somewhere, and I was like, what the, I know this song. I know every word to this song, and I have no idea who this is. And so I was like, Architectural Sinky, who is this? And so I finally looked up, and I was like, Mates of State. What is Mates of State? And as I'm listening to more and more of their songs, I'm like, I loved this band.

What happened? They just fell out of my brain. But all that is to say, the iced tea situation, Daniel. Okay, yeah, now we can get into it. If anyone remembers, connoisseurs and DOB devotees of the show, we'll remember that we did an entire episode about iced tea. Now, to the average listener, that might sound boring. But not when we talk about it because I'm a lunatic and I did something crazy at my whole foods. Daniel let me know it was crazy.

I was hiding iced teas in the store. Biggest fight we've ever had in our lives. Apparently, apparently you're not supposed to do that. I was doing it because I wanted, they defied me. They took away my iced tea from the fridge section. I had to go get a lukewarm iced tea and drink that with my lunch and my day was ruined. And so I was hiding iced teas in all of their freezer sections. You're putting a lot of clothes on a corpse here.

You did it because you wanted to. Yeah. The rules say don't do it. The rules say don't. And you did it because you wanted it. And that's it. There's no, they defied me. There's no.

All right. Anyone's out to get me. It only became a fight between us when they started moving the ASTs that I was hiding. Then I, then they had. wronged me again for the second time. And it was, now it was, we were in a fight. And so I was adding more and more STs all over in these refrigerated sections, trying to just find one.

So let one get purchased where I can just go and grab it the next day and replace it. It wasn't happening. But it got to the point where I was hiding like six. Daniel said, please stop. So later that week, Daniel, they cleared out an entirely different refrigerator section. You know, up near the front, near the cashiers, they have those individual little fridges. They started stocking my ISTs right there.

I think, I think because I won. Because they went through and they saw all those iced teas and they were like, what is going on? Maybe somebody's trying to cool their iced teas again because they used to love this. And we should provide a special spot for just them. I fear for you. I fear for them. I fear for the surrounding area.

Is this the wrong lesson for me to Lillow learning? When the supply chain takes a different turn again and that freezer becomes filled with Celsius or monster or something like that, when you go again one day and you were expecting a thing to be there for you and it's different, I fear for everyone. Because of the lesson I've just now learned, which is the squeaky wheel gets the oil. Yeah, well, you're not a squeaky wheel. You didn't talk to anyone. No, that's true. The sneaky wheel gets the oil.

Yes. I think they didn't like that I was doing that probably. I know. But it's easier for them to change. That you are projecting so much onto their actions that I worry about the future. I worry about what you think they are trying to say to you if they ever take the iced tea out of that fridge. God forbid. The first time that I confront someone in that store, in my mom,

mind the fight will have gone on for there would be a back and forth of about six or seven times which means that the first time that I approached somebody I will say I thought we had a fucking deal me again I thought we had a fucking deal I thought we already knew we were gonna

do it look we've been through all this this song and dance put my eyes tees back don't look at me like I'm crazy we have an understanding I stopped to fight at this whole food You know that. I'm the hero here.

And give me a salad for free. Somebody pay for my salad. I am happy for you. I am genuinely happy for you. It's good to get. It is a bad lesson to have learned. Yes, because there's not a lesson. Nothing happened.

No, there's a lesson there. That sometimes they, rather than want to deal with you, they will just solve the problem. Okay. So that's the lesson I'm taking from this. Anyway, I'm drinking cold iced teas I've never been happier. Just Ice Tea, I think that's what it's called. If anybody wants to try it,

the mango and the peach are the best flavors. Apparently, I've heard tell of a watermelon lime, but I haven't had that one yet. This feels like an opportunity for Just Ice Tea to send you some free iced tea for shouting out on the podcast, get some publicity for the iced tea company,

and then they send you ice tea. If you can put it in your own fridge, you don't have to terrorize anyone. The people at Whole Foods can go to sleep knowing the weird iced tea situation has magically resolved. And just iced tea, they get some priceless viral marketing. Give it to them. And our listeners don't have to hear about it anymore. As you're saying all this, I'm reminded of the fact that I did talk about them on the show once before. Which is, yeah.

They used to be called honest tea, and then they got bought by Coca-Cola or something like that, and then discontinued. Immediately, like, they bought a competitor, shut them down. And at that time, I was also really angry. And I was thinking of, like, what is my, I don't want to feel helpless in this situation. What can I do to solve this problem? And so started just not drinking Coca-Cola products. And then when just iced tea came out, my first thought was, I'm at least partially responsible for this, I'm sure.

Sure. Hey man, I got the format to play Radio City Music Hall. So we can, the two of us can do anything. Anything is possible. You know what? Something, something is occurring to me is mentioning products on this show is, we have our business guy who's alive and thriving. Out in the sun.

He has seen the sun. Yes. He's not locked away. Yeah. He's fine. He's totally fine. You wouldn't call I'm not locked away, right? Oh, no.

You see my hands? Okay, everyone's fine. He is in much the same way that I am not locked away. An argument could be made that he's not locked away. Yeah. Regardless. There have been a few times in the run of our show. Coming up on 10 years, I don't know.

I have no idea how long we've been doing this. Don't say Jesus. don't know if that's true. 20 years ago when we started this podcast, I a few times have reached out to him to say, hey, I would like to get free installments of a product, and I will talk about my genuine love for them on the show and do ads. How ads should work, by the way?

Do you think that can happen? And he'll say, totally, yeah, I'll look into it. And one of two things is happening. happening. He is not looking into it. Or every single one of these has considered it and said, oh, thank you so much, pass. Do not mention our vegan popcorn snack on your podcast. We will not, I mean, you can mention it. We will not send you anything free. One of these things is happening. Either they don't care, or he's not doing it. I think it's got to be the letter. I don't think either is great.

No, it's got to be the letter. Because you think about any time. There was a time when I got a bag of veggie straws that sucked bad. It was like stale and all the, some went wrong. All the flavoring had been clumped up into these little pilled balls at the bottom. It was very strange. So I wrote it. And I was like, hey, your veggie straws suck. Look at this.

And they were, they, that is the perfect opportunity for them to make a customer for life. And these businesses have realized it. I worked at Paddy's going. and it was the same way. They're like, this is where our bread and butter is. Like, you get these people who like you a lot and you'll keep them for life. And so they were like, hey, really sorry about that. Here's some free veggie straws.

Here's a bunch of gift certificates for veggie straws wherever you want to use them. Like, it costs them nothing to do that for individual people. Now, here's a situation where not only would it cost them nothing, it's going to benefit them because we're reaching over 26 people with this podcast. We got so, oh, 25. my dad dropped off. He's not interested anymore. Too much rehearsing. We used to...

We got so spoils is what happened. Because I talked at length about Lulu Lemon for nothing but love of the game. Yeah. And then some amount of time later, someone from Lulu reached out to us and sent you and I a whole bunch of wonderful free shit from Lulu. And we were so pumped about it.

and it didn't hurt anyone. It was a victimless crime. It wasn't even a crime. It feels like a crime because it makes me feel good. But it turns out it's no crime at all. It's a business transaction. Everybody was just liking each other and being good to one another. Surely this must be illegal.

That was a really good situation. Bacon did not orchestrate that, by the way. That just happened outside of him. But then he got to be the one who'd be like, Hey, guess what happened? Yeah. We got it. We got Lulu Levin for one night only.

Yeah. Beggy just be like, hey, did you guys happen to mention Lulu on this show? And we're like, Megan, great to hear from a fan. Yeah. Did a whole episode about it. It would be nice. I assume that... I assume someone has to hear it.

Someone from Honest T. has to hear it. Oh, we've tried this before with other stuff, too. think you've talked about yeah vegan shit lesser evil popcorn or lesser good or or better evil I don't know if you send it to me I'll know the name and I'll say it right I don't know if you remember this

my son when he was really young was very into garbage trucks and there was a point on when I was still on X then Twitter I was looking for a very specific garbage truck model this die cast Republic garbage truck front loader that was his favorite truck we would follow them around Los Angeles. He loved them so much. And I was, I'd seen that there was a picture of one that existed, but you couldn't just go buy them anywhere. And I was like losing my mind trying to get in

this one for his birthday. And this is his fourth birthday. And so I just put it out there as just kind of a story of like, hey, my son loves garbage trucks. Every kid loves garbage trucks. Here's what he's what I love is about it. This is the one I'm trying to get. And I know that there are a lot of other ones. Please don't, please don't send me pictures of ones that are similar. Please, people do your best, do your absolute best. Not to send me other options of like, hey, what about this matchbox corvette? Like, no, it's not exactly what I'm looking for. And I want to just keep the world magic for him a little bit longer that he could have this thing.

So just put it out there. And then somebody from Republic reached out to me. And they're like, that exact truck is sitting on my CEO's desk right now. Do you want it? And I was like, you can. Got to be kidding. Are you serious? Yeah, absolutely. And I'm like, these things, I know that this thing was probably like a $90 or $100. And I was like, can I pay you? And she was like, no, I'll just give it to you. And it was the best, it was like, it was the best use of Twitter I'd ever experienced. I guess outside of Spring Awakening. No, wait, that's a play. Spring. The fuck happened. What was that? No, no, no, no. When Twitter finally got very, very big, it was for our.

The, oh boy, Soren. There was a war, I want to say, that was happening. Arab Spring? There we go. Briefly, I was like, does Soren snagg tickets to Spring Awakening? From Twitter? Anyway, I finally got it, got the truck. I got the right truck for him and everything.

And I got to post about it. And it was a very, very big deal for me. And it turned out to be a big deal online. Like, people were excited for me because it's always fun when, you get something for a kid that they really want. So that had passed. My son has since grown out of those trucks, but he found that truck. And he was like, a lot of it's broken and stuff.

And he was like, I wish that I didn't do so much damage to this thing. And I was like, oh, it's fine. I have all the pieces. I've saved them all so that at some point you and I can just build it, build the, like add the lights back on, add the extra wheels back on. Like, it's a model. And he got very excited about that. And then he started asking me the providence of it. And in those words.

Yeah, of course. And so I explained to him. And then I showed him the thread. And he started crying. And I was like, oh, buddy, this wasn't for you. This was for my fans. This was to see just how far daddy's arms can reach. Turns out all the way to the desk of the CEO, son.

All the way to the top. That's how high they go. Yeah, but he was really touched by it in a way that I was not expecting for a 10-year-old. That's very sweet. I had such a good Twitter relationship with Chili's that spanned years. In a way that, like, I feel like must have spanned different social media managers. Like, it was too long for one person to be in that job. But I would talk about Chili's a lot.

positively on Twitter and in videos, and they took notice and would send me free stuff, like free like, here's, give us stuff like to chilies, but also like, we have Chili's themed Christmas pajamas that we want to send to you matching tops and bottoms are like a Chili's Christmas sweater, things that I don't think you could get at stores or probably, probably you can at like a Chili's store, but they would send me like very specific weird things and it was towards, it'd been going on for years and that it was towards the end of my time at Cracked and I didn't realize it was at the end, but I was trying to save the video department or the site or do whatever we could and was talking to the Chili's person. I was like, I know we've had a lot of, like, we've done a lot of back and forth

on Twitter publicly and you've sent me some nice things and I posted about it and it's been great. I don't know if this is your department, but if we could talk about some kind of sponsorship, I have this hit show obsessive pop culture disorder that you can get sponsorship for. And like you see me on that show. I'll be very shameless about Chili's. It'll be fun for everybody.

I'll wear the fucking sweaters and like, we'll get some money for the site. It's like a branded, I know we can be competitive for what we would charge for this. and the conversation was moving in a very positive direction for a while that like beyond just like whomever was monitoring their social media and then we got laid off and then they removed our entire video department but they were still people at the site so I talked to the person and I was like I

just in case those conversations are still going you should know that I no longer work for crack.com but I'm in good company with the people who still work there so if you'd like me to pass something along they could do some other arrangement with you and the Chili's person whose name I never got I've just been calling Chili's

said we want to work with you or nobody I was like Ah ha ha ha ha Chili's Whoa Oh what a win that is No no it felt really good I mean I remember doing brandy content And I'm realizing now

why they probably are so hesitant to do this kind of thing And why it takes so much effort Because when we talk about Lulu Lemon on the show Or we talk about this just iced tea It's so scary We sometimes dip into the Arab Spring Well yeah exactly It's so scary for them

Because they're like They want to touch it right They want to have set some boundaries For what you're allowed to talk about In and around the content The branding And they don't want you to just be like Hey now I'm going to take a little break

To just say Chili's is great Chili's is the best Now let's get back to How we are in a current Nazi state in the country. So I guess I understand that. They're just a bunch of chickens.

Yeah. Bok, bach, bach, bach, bach. Well, everybody, that'll do it for us. Thank you for listening to our show today. You look like you got something you want to say. I did. Okay, go ahead. I did have more, and it won't be timely if we do, if I hold it for anything else.

Let's do it. Soren. Tony Awards were last night. shit. Renders, losers, highs, lows and woes. I think pink's a star. What do you think? The only thing that I wanted to say about the Tonys.

Okay. Is that there's this, there's this actually I like whose name I struggle with. Alton Aaron Wright, perhaps. Okay. He was in Hail Caesar, Cohen Brothers movie. That was not very good, but he was the best part of it. He was Han Solo in the Solo movie. a pretty bad movie

and he was fine in it it had nothing to do with him he was in the Marvel Ironheart show he was just in weapons as a cop in weapons and he's someone that since the first time I saw him many years ago I was like

I like this guy I think this guy's good I think this guy should be a star then I think the solo movie did really poorly and he just wasn't having the career that other people thought

that he was supposed to have people like me. And it's a real bummer because I still thought he was very good. And then he was doing this show, the revival of Becky Shaw, this play on Broadway. Okay. And he was getting great reviews. It's him and Patrick Ball from Pitt and other people are in the show too. But those are the names that I kind of know.

And he'd be getting really great reviews. And it was very exciting. And I thought finally Alden Aaron Reich is going to get. He's going to get his due. And people like me who love him are going to put some respect on his name. If they could say it. I was watching the Tonys, and it was getting late. And they were doing some, like, heavy hitter categories.

And I couldn't remember if I missed this, because his was the category that I was looking out for. And as we're getting into, like, actors in musical and stuff, I was like, man, did I, surely they wouldn't save supporting actors. in a play for this late in the thing. Perhaps I missed it or perhaps sometimes they do like some of the awards streaming before the actual show. And so I went to Google, which is AI now. And I said, Google, 2006 Best Supporting Actor in a Play, Tony.

And it got back to me and said, in 2006, Best Supporting Actor for a Play, went to Christopher Abbott for his role in Death of a Salesman. And then the show came back from commercial break and they announced the category and our boy Alden won. So here's what we know about Google AI is that it's wrong,

it's confidently wrong, and it's wrong in two ways. He didn't win, and the category hadn't been announced yet. And I would say he's wrong in three ways because all the betting markets were saying Alden, Aaron Reich, was going to win this thing.

Was death the salesman even on the table? It was on the table and that guy was nominated that like no one was predicting him to win. It was somebody nominated. And like if you were Chris Abbott's family and you Googled because you're not watching the Tony's, you're just thinking like, what was on tonight? Oh, I Googled.

Hey, according to the first thing that pops up on Google, Chris, you won. I wonder if people were taking screenshots and sending it to him to say congratulations, as he was sitting in the theater before the awards were called. And then he's like, oh, I guess I won. I still have to act surprised. Oh, this is to say that. AI is bad. Google AI is a bad thing.

Google announced they're going to start replacing search wholesale with just AI, just an AI chatbot that you talk to all the time. And I just wanted to point this out as a very specific and local example of AI being confidently wrong in a couple of different directions. Think about that next time you Google whatever you search. Thanks for joining us. Thank you for joining us. As always, we are a quick question with Sorin and Daniel.

If you liked our theme song, that's by me, Rex. If you like this podcast in a video format, you can watch that on YouTube. If you're interested in getting more of this podcast, then you're currently listening to, and you're exhausted our entire library. You can go to our Patreon. You can become a Patreon subscriber and listen to more of it. Hidden stuff behind a wall. And also, Gabe Harder.

Goodbye. for you all right the answer's not important I'm just glad that we can talk tonight so what's your favorite how did you get if there's an answer they're gonna find it

I think you'll have a great time here I think you'll have a great time here