Senses Working Overtime with David Cross - Aparna Nancherla

Episode Date: March 28, 2024

Catch all new episodes every Thursday. Watch video episodes here.Guest: Aparna NancherlaSubscribe and Rate Senses Working Overtime on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and leave us a review to read on a future episode!Follow David on Instagram and Twitter.Follow the show:Instagram: @sensesworkingovertimepodTikTok: @swopodEditor: Kati SkeltonEngineers: Anya Kanevskaya and Casey DonahueExecutive Producer: Emma FoleyAdvertise on Senses Working Overtime via Gumball.fm.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This is a HeadGum Podcast. I'm late so I'm bringing, I'm bringing frantic Okay. Let's, we'll deal. No, it's fine. It's fine. I'm late, so I'm bringing frantic energy with me. Well, calm down. Now, somebody's gonna be coming in here shortly with a cappuccino that I ordered simply because I was bored. One of those is your water. Thank you so much. bored. One of those is your water. Thank you so much. So don't pay her any mind. Pasadena, so you live in Pasadena? I live in Pasadena. How are you liking it? It's good.

It's very pleasant. It's very residential. There's like an old town where you can walk around and look at furniture samples. The old towns you could walk around and stuff. Now you can't do it in the modern age. Now you just got to scroll through them on your phone. Yeah, these fancy things. How long have you been out here? Oh my gosh. Well, this is funny because it's exactly a year and a day since I moved here. So if I had asked you yesterday, it would have been a cleaner answer.

It would have been a year, but I'm not a liar, David. I know there's a Gotcha podcast, but- Right. You don't want to exaggerate. It's a year and a day. A year and a day. And you're liking it? I'm liking it. I was a little burnt out on New York when I left. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not built for the hustle or the bustle. Where are you from originally?

I'm from the suburbs of Washington DC. Okay. Northern Virginia. But I feel like when I say Northern Virginia, people are like, oh, Virginia, Charlottesville. And I'm like, no, no, Northern Virginia, we seceded. Yeah, I know what you mean. Just because I'm down there a bunch for work and stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's quite different. Yes. You know, there are a handful of states where, California is one of them, where the,

you know, the top part is vastly different than the bottom part. Yeah, yeah. I would say that most people too. The top part of some people are different than the bottom parts? Yeah. It's different than the bottom part. Well, what with all these trans people, sure. Oh, no, David. We can't.

It's on my right or we can't. There are certain words you can't say. I can't say trans, transitioning? No, no, you can't. It's on my writer, we can't. There's certain words you can't say. I can't say transitioning? No, no, you can't say people. Oh, okay. Yeah. Well, what should I use instead? What should we use instead?

I guess grape. Grape? Yeah. And then what do I call a grape? A long bean. A long bean. That seems a little clunky. A short bean, a long bean? A long bean. That seems a little clunky. A short, round bean?

Um, well you know, you have allowed me to segue seamlessly into this. I had to. So this is an issue. I had a direct eye line. This is an issue. Grape. So nobody, here are the grapes

that I've mentioned numerous times. Okay. What camera should I go to? Yeah, right there. Why were they down there though? Oh, thank you, Afarna. Thank you. That is the question that I have raised each time because I saw them initially and I was

like, why don't you have them where you can see them? They're like, oh, it's on the wide shot of one of the cameras. And it's like hidden. They've hidden in this dumb, loose sight, 70s furniture thing. So this is it. It's purely. When I first saw them, I thought they were on time out.

Yes. I'm going to put them back on time out. So these are the grapes. Guess what? I didn't bring it up. I did not bring it up. I thought maybe that- Not even into the podcast,

and a partner brought it up. Do you want me to even promote them? Thank you very much. I thought they were on timeout for stealing focus. Cause it's hard to compete. I mean, that's a juicy set of grapes. To catch you guys up, or Casey was here, but to catch you up, Anya, we can't say the word people.

If we're going to say people, we need to say grape. And if we want to reference a grape, we have to say long bean, as per Aparna's writer. Oh, that's perfect. Thank you. Thank you very much. Aparna, do you have anything to plug? Anything that you want to talk about? Oh. Not talk about, but mention for the folks at home. This will air in 2025. Should I plug that? I'm planning to take time off in 2025. Oh, for sure. So people don't get worried.

Okay. So I would say maybe don't look out for me in 2025. Okay. Yeah. Where will you not be appearing? I'm going to take my website down. I think I'm going to start and stop a TikTok on Jan one. And then I assume there will be a new platform by then.

And you will not be able to find me on it. What are you gonna do? I think, what do most people do when they take time off? I think I'm gonna be with my family Think about my mistakes. Mm-hmm Maybe I don't know. I don't know if I want to have kids, but maybe if someone will let me Raise their kids for like a year Well, that seems

That seems like a lot of work for not much payoff Mmm raising kids part. Are you saying that in general? Yes. Not you specifically. I imagine you'd be a good... But everyone keeps telling me there's nothing else like it. So it feels like something you should try, like skydiving. That's not true. I'd say raising kids is exactly like skydiving

Okay And also if you're strapped to another person. Yeah, and you're plummeting You're always going down and you're not sure if you're gonna live Yeah, I mean It depends on how you pack your chute and that is a euphemism Now I Think I mean, it depends on how you pack your chute, and that is a euphemism. Now, I think, you know, I have a daughter, and I would say, yes, there's nothing like it, exactly, but I'll tell you what is a close approximation is if you have fish, if you have a fish tank.

It's very much like raising a child. But, so would you say you've had fish and then you had a daughter and you're like, wow, literally identical experiences? Reverse, I had a daughter and then when she was about four or five, I, to tell, like five years old I think, to, because she had said she wanted some fish and to help teach her, you know, responsibility, we got fish.

And, and I, it's, it's been so successful that every five days I change the water in the fish tank and I add some bio stuff to let the tap water be free of its chemicals. And then every three weeks do a filter change and clean the fish tank and recycle the water and the filters and really good. Wait, you're doing all this? Yes, that's how I've taught my daughter responsibility. Okay. Well, I think you've been-

She doesn't do a thing with the fish. This is an industry term, hosed. Yeah, I think maybe she got the better of me in that one I always think that when pure parents are like, are you are you gonna walk the dog? I'm like the kid is not gonna walk the dog. I Well, I say that I mean, it's interesting to bring that up because for her birthday, which is I mean by the time this comes out She will have had it but but it's next week.

And for an early birthday present, we got her a dog because the dog that I had for 15 years, before I even met my wife, you know, we had to put her down. And my daughter took it much harder than we expected her to. Like significantly, we didn't, it was a big deal for her. And we didn't really think that through. Not that it would have changed anything, but.

And then we've been talking about getting a dog. And I've felt, I'm very much a dog person and my wife's a cat person. So, and she's also allergic to- To dogs. To, yeah, a lot of different things, but also, yeah, dogs and dander and she went and got tested. So we had to get a bread, hypoallergenic dog. I imagined bread when you said bread. Yeah.

It's a, yeah, it's a, you know, it's called, her name is Toastie, and she's heated up bread in the shape of a dog. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I put a little voice box in there. Which is sort of the same feeling as a dog, it's comforting, warm. Yeah, and I mean, little voice box in there. As a dog is comforting warm. Yeah, and I mean, it's, we probably shouldn't

have used brioche bread, because it's a little crummy, you know, like it's, and then if it gets wet, it gets mealy, so. And I've never, I've never understood, and it angers me when people, it's kind of going away, it was a bit of a fad for a while, but people have hamburgers on brioche buns, and it's stupid.

Why would they do that? They do, a lot of people do, and I'll say, do you have any other kind of bun? No, we have brioche buns. Well, I'm not interested. You're right, brioche has really taken over in a way that it's like, when did we say yes to this? I never said yes.

I never said yes. And I will, a hamburger should be on either a potato bun, potato bun is never wrong. And then perhaps a kind of like seated roll. Yeah, yeah, like a classic, like if you see a drawing of a hamburger, seated roll. Yeah. Brioche, isn't brioche sort of like just like a couch,

if it was bread, like it's very lumpy and sort of like soft. Am I being given the right bread? I don't know about lumpy. It's usually, you know what it's kind of like? It's kind of like challah bread, a little bit. Yes, yes, okay. So that it doesn't stand up if there's like,

if you have a little bit. Yes, yes, okay. So that it doesn't stand up if there's like if you have a juicy hamburger. Yes. The bun side that's on the hamburger gets all mealy. Right. It's just it's I don't know it's some I don't know. There's a lot of food experiences right now that if you don't eat it within two minutes of it being served the entire premise falls apart. Give me an example. Like a brioche sandwich.

Immediately mealy. But I mean, the second half of your hamburger is going to be mealy. If you've got a good, proper, juicy hamburger. Yeah. I was thinking of brioche French toast. I feel like brunch restaurants. It works for French toast. It's greatche French toast. I feel like brunch restaurants. It works for French toast.

It's great for French toast. That works, because you have to, with French toast, you have to, you know, sop up, not sop up, but you let it sit in the milk for a good five minutes in the egg, milk and egg mixture, so that it gets through, you know, ideally it gets through the whole piece of bread and then you fry it up or toast it up or whatever, not toast it, you know, brittle it up. I knew we would get to a point in the podcast where there's just something we're not going to

see eye to eye on. And I think this is it. Should we start the podcast? Yeah. Okay. Um. Uh, Brioche French Toast, I feel like restaurants are always pushing it like this cool thing they thought of and it's fine. It's fine. It is, I agree. It's, I like, I'm not a big fan of like multi-grain seeded bread,

but when you have French toast and it's multigrain seeded, that's pretty good. That is pretty good. It's a little chewy, I like it. Yeah. I like the texture. I like a chewier bread as well. I guess we're back on the same page. Okay, good. But I would trade all of that in for a good biscuit. Like I'm a biscuit guy. Hey, Virginia, you must have biscuits grown up. Yeah, I love a good biscuit. Like I'm a biscuit guy.

Hey Virginia, you must have biscuits growing up. Yeah, I love a good biscuit. Yeah, biscuit. Biscuits are so dense that it feels like when you start it, you're in one phase of your life. And then when you end it, you're in a different phase of your life. What are those two phases?

Like before you're like, okay, maybe I'll go to the store today, maybe I'll go to the bank,, maybe I'll go to the bank, and then you're done with the biscuit and you say, I'm done. It's time for a nap. It's time. I'm done. If you've had a good biscuit. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And what do you put when you have a biscuit? Ooh. Sometimes butter. Yeah. I mean, you shouldn't have to have much more than butter. No, you shouldn't, but. I will take a sausage cheese biscuit. I also prefer or enjoy just a big piece of bacon on there.

Just don't need anything else. No, don't have to mess with bacon is fine. You don't have to mess with it. It's just bacon biscuit. I don't eat bacon. And I have to say that the vegan or vegetarian options for bacon, they're getting there, but I don't know if they're there yet. Yeah.

I wouldn't know because I eat bacon. A lot of them are too soft to be bacon. You need a crisp. Yeah. You need a crunch. Do you not eat bacon for health reasons, for religious reasons, for? I've been a vegetarian since I was 13.

Is that a teen? That's a teen or is that a preteen? I guess that's a teen. Well, the latter half of the word kinda clues you into what. Don't mansplain this to me. Clues you into what? Don't mansplain this to me. Yeah, I think I did a report on factory farming

and that kind of got me off. That'll do it. Got me off the stuff. Do you notice a difference in your health? I'm often iron deficient. Oh. Yeah. Well, there you go. And so is that, you're vegetarian, so that's all meat.

Are you pescatarian? Do you eat fish? I don't eat fish. I eat eggs. And I still eat dairy. OK. All right. So a lot of the biscuits still you're able to have.

I'm still in on biscuits, yeah. Though now there's so many vegan restaurants really pushing their vegan biscuits. Would you eat a vegan biscuit? No, why would I? I don't know. I mean, I'm not a vegan or vegetarian. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But now the whole thing with vegans is like, you won't even be able to tell. But you can tell. You, a parna, you can tell. I can tell. Yeah, not the royal we, but we can all tell. I don't know though, a vegan biscuit? I don't know if I could tell.

Well, what would that, I mean, it just wouldn't have butter, right? Yeah, it would have vegan butter. And milk, it wouldn't have milk, so it would have what, almond milk or some bullshit? Almond milk, I guess? Ugh, almond milk biscuit some bullshit? Almond milk biscuits? Almond milk biscuits. Why even bother?

He totally put me off my meal. When I was a kid, I grew up in Georgia. When I was a kid and I was a swim, you know, with swim teams and stuff. And after practice, there used to be a place called, I don't know if you had any in Virginia, but called the Hickory House or the Old Hickory House or Ye Olde Hickory House, something like that. Oh, it was like a chain, I don't think we had.

A small chain. Yeah. There were a handful of them, but it was all Southern stuff. And I would get after practice, which is pretty grueling, like they, we had a really good team and, you know, we were like number three in the state or something like that and, and our, our coach like worked us really hard. And after practice, my reward would be going to get a

bacon biscuit from old Hickory house. And it was the best, like those thick slices of bacon. Crispy, but also chewy. And it was just it, the bacon and the biscuit, in the middle of the biscuit. It was great. And no spread? No spread.

You don't need it. I mean, some of the bacon grease kind of gets in there. Oh yeah, yeah, I guess that's a natural. It's good. I miss that That can you not have it anymore? I don't think the hickory houses are around anymore Oh, I mean I go back to Atlanta all the time, but to because my family's still there, but um I've never I haven't seen one Yeah

That's like when a restaurant I mean this is you're saying the whole restaurant is gone, but even when restaurants take stuff off the menu, it feels illegal. It's a, you take it personally? It's a slight? Yeah. I mean, I'm like, we had an agreement that I could come here and order this thing. Why would you just take it away? And not notify you first.

Yeah. It should be a warning you get on your phone like flood watch. Yeah. An amber alert. Yeah. Yeah. For when the dish is off of the menu. Yeah. Yeah.

Can you like give an example? Even just like a type of sandwich. Now I can't think of anything of course because there's too much grief around those memories, but I would say even like an ice cream flavor, you know, like a place might have like some kind of special flavor they invented and they're like, oh, it's gone. Yeah. Seasonal maybe. Well, seasonal, they're telling you it's temporary, but I'm saying like they had it and people loved it. And then they were like, They had it and people loved it and then they were like, hmm, that's enough.

This is for real. There is on Myrtle Avenue in Fort Greene, there is a, let's call it Putnam's pub. Putnam's pub, they would have trivia night and a bunch of us would go on every Wednesday and play trivia and the whole bar. And they have food and they have this thing, cheeseburger rolls, which were like an egg roll

with cheeseburger in them. So it was like almost like a, you know, just chopped, like a chopped cheese, but it was inside of a- Like an egg roll, right? Like an egg roll, yeah. And they, you know, we'd always get them and then, cause they're really good.

Yeah, yeah. And then, well how would you know? Well, I like cheese and I like an egg roll wrapper. But what about the meat? I blanked out the meat. And they were, we'd always get them. And then they, we showed up one week and they were off the menu and we were, we'd always get them. And then they, we showed up one week and they were off the menu and we were, yeah.

And not just us, like all the tables were like, hey, where are the cheeseburger spring rolls? I think they called them. And they're like, oh, they took them off the menu because the chef said they were, you know, a pain in the ass to make or something like that. And enough people, myself included, bitched constantly that finally after like six weeks,

they put it back on the menu. So that is all to say you should start bitching at these places. I feel like that's the time we live in now, is like people power. Great power. There you go. We'll cut that out.

We'll cut out. We'll cut that. Great power. That was power. There you go. We'll cut that out. We'll cut that out. We'll cut that. Grape power. That was close. That was close. That's your own rule. That was my own rule. Yeah.

That was like when it got Betty White to host SNL. Is that cause people wrote in? Grapes. Is that cause Grapes wrote in? Grapes, yeah. They started a Facebook group. Huh. Is that for realrapes wrote in? Grapes, yeah, they started a Facebook group. Huh, is that for real? Yeah.

Oh, that's cool. Well, that makes sense because I would assume she was a good host. Yeah, I think she was great, but it was all because Grapes wanted it. Grapes power, man. Yeah, grape power. I'm enjoying the thought that some people are coming into this late and just hearing us talk about grapes, being able to having a write-in campaign to get Betty White to host.

And you know how that works, and there's a comment, I don't know what the hell this podcast is. Yeah. Wait, I had a thought and then, oh, what was it? Cause, oh, trivia. I was gonna ask, cause I've always wanted to do trivia, but I don't feel like I'm good at it. Do you know what your role was on the team? Cause I feel like each team has like different people

playing different roles. Yeah, I have a, I know, I can tell you what I wasn't. And we have, there were two people that were exceptionally good at hip hop from 90s up. Oh wow, okay. Like really good at knowing, because there would be musical clues. Yeah. So they'd have the question and then they would play two songs,

the first of which would be a clue. But they also had red, and they told you at some point in the contest, the quiz, whatever, there'll be a red herring song that has nothing, doesn't have anything to do with it. Okay. So it kind of fucks with you and you don't know where it's going to come and they don't reveal it either. Yes. and you don't know where it's gonna come and they don't reveal it either. But so we had two people that were really good at that. One of them was also very good at basketball stuff,

like knew all kinds of basketball stuff. I'm pretty good with most sports, I'd say baseball by far. Okay. And literature and geography. I wasn't that great at science questions, but literature and geography I'm pretty good at and also kind of some historical stuff. Oh, that's good. That's a wide range of experiences. We had a good team because we had different people for different things.

See, I just can't figure out what my thing would be because it wouldn't be sports, it wouldn't be history. What about meat substitutes? It wouldn't be hip hop. I don't even know if I'm well versed. I can say a couple. Well, partner, think of something. What do you bring to the table? That's what I'm trying to figure out. I think random facts. Well, they're all random facts.

I mean, then you'd be the queen of trivia. I don't have an area. I just know one random fact from different areas. I bet you do have an area, and you just need to. I want to say science, but I don't think that's true. I think I'm just being racist to myself. But, okay. What about pop culture?

No. Okay, what about awards? Whether it's Emmy or Pulitzer or... Definitely not. Okay, what about... I know Bob Dylan won a Pulitzer. See, that's one fact. There you go. Yeah.

But that'll be it. Okay. Well- So I know one fact per category. Is that helpful? What about, did you go to college or university? I did. I went to Amherst College, liberal arts school. Sure. That's a bunch of hippie, hippie chicks up there. No. Well, Amherst is the one that used to be all male and then they made it coed. But

you're right. It is near Hampshire, which I think Eugene Merman went to where they don't have majors and Smith and that's all. That hole. That's like the Berkshires, right? Around there, yeah. I think I've done some shows there. Yeah. And Roger Williams, that's another one that's over there, right? Oh, I don't know that one.

Is that right, Roger Williams? I think Mount Holyoke, Smith, UMass, Hampshire, Amherst, those are the five. Okay, maybe I'm thinking of further, if you go further west in Massachusetts, like Berkshire region, there's a bunch of- Roger Williams. Is that a college?

I immediately thought of the paint, Sherwin Williams. And then I was like, is that his brother? Yeah, Roger and Sherwin. And Sherwin was always jealous of Roger's name. Like you got the much better first name. Because everybody would shorten Sherwin's name to Sure. So he'd say something and they would say Sure sarcastically and he would take it as an affirmative and then have gotten all kinds of trouble. That's rough. No wonder he went into paint.

Yeah. And he was colorblind. A lot of people don't know that. What? Yeah. Just a roll of the dice. Lucky. How did he, how did he like help choose the different colors? He just went with his intuition? Well, no, he would blindfold himself, spin around three times, and then point. Okay. And every, initially all the colors, like now they have a million colors with a million different kind of ethereal type of names.

Right. But he would just go like, green, greenish, dark greenish, light greenish. So everything was ish. He only had three paints to begin with. If you, wait. He had Bronzeberry Frost. Do you think you could be a color-namer? Because I think, you know how sometimes people are like,

if you weren't a comedian, what would you do? And now I think I would be a color-namer. I usually say a librarian, but now I'm gonna say color-namer. Hit me with some. Okay, I'm looking at this couch. Yeah. And I'm gonna say it's a Greedy Green.

Greedy Green. Greedy Green. And, but you shouldn't be a furniture neighbor because that's a chair. No, no, I meant the color of it. Yeah, I know. You refer to it as a couch. That's clearly a chair.

So don't name furniture. What is a couch? At least two cushions? At least two. Minimum two. You're starting bare minimum with two. What about 48 cushions? Is that a couch? Pit group. That's a pit group. What would you name that pillow color?

This right here? Yeah. Stinky pink. Oh, God. This right here. Yeah Stinky pink NSFW well, that's where your mind is No, it's just it's stinky because I don't know what you're thinking of but it's stinky because people put their asses on it Is that what you're thinking of? but it's stinky because people put their asses on it. Oh, okay. Is that what you're thinking of? Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. Shoot, you've mentioned something. Oh, I wanted to ask, what did you major in when you were at? Oh, psychology. Okay. So, psychology is a subject that never comes up in trivia, so maybe you'd be good at that. Yeah.

Jung. Does Jung come up in trivia, so maybe you'd be good at that. Yeah. Uh, Jung. Does Jung come up in trivia? All the time. Yeah, where I go, yeah. Wow. It's called, uh, you know, Jungian pub quiz. And everybody, this is just a coincidence, but we all have to get in the Skinner box.

Oh. Yeah. Wait, yeah. Wait, now I'm forgetting what that was. He's a behaviorist. Yes. But what was the he put Schrodinger's? Oh, that was the cat. He put the Schrodinger. You're you're mixing genres.

No, no. He put Schrodinger's cat in his box. Yeah, I thought the Skinner box had rats in it. Cats. The cats were there to eat the rats, to catch the rats. How do you not know this? Schrodinger's rats? What school? Amherst?

And they didn't teach you that B.F. Skinner box had Schrodinger's cat, which was there to eat the rats, catch the rats? Well, what if the cow was dead, how did he eat the rats? Well, that's for Schrodinger to answer. I don't even know if I'm saying his name right. I'm actually listening to an audio book right now that's about quantum-

Oh, that's rude. We're in the middle of a fucking podcast, Aparna. I paused it for like the last two minutes, but it's about quantum physics and he did, they did just mention Schrodinger's cat. Yeah. So. How does it come into, how does that play into physics?

Because it's, I guess it's the, The idea that something is- Both realities exist, yeah. Oh, interesting, okay, yeah. Yeah. Well, there's another thing you could, quantum physics physics string theory Do you know can you explain string theory to me? Yeah, it's basically that we're the the universe is made of

waves, okay, and You want to catch a tasty wave and then you have a good life That's pretty much. I'm that's in a nutshell You're saying surfers are really the only ones who are doing it, right? They are the they are the physical manifestation of what we should be doing, how we should be applying ourselves. So when you say cat, we need to catch a good wave. Is that like, is that sort of that self-help?

I think I said a tasty wave, is that like, is that sort of that self-help? I think I said a tasty wave. A tasty wave, is that that sort of self-help, American dream talk, like, if you're on the wrong frequency, that's your fault, you can't afford your house. Uh, kind of, that's a bit, um, uh, it is in the sense that it's a very simplistic way to look at reality, which is what those people do. They take something and distill it to its most inane kind of life teaching thing, moment.

Do you have advice for catching a tasty wave? Literally or figuratively? I guess in the sense you're saying of like... Figuratively? Yeah. Yeah, I'd say, you know, you want to stop, you want to wake up, you want to make sure that when you wake up, when you regain consciousness... Why are you not conscious?

You're sleeping. Why are you not conscious? Oh, okay. Okay. So in order to wake up, you have to be sleeping first. Right, right, right, right. So you go to sleep. Okay.

And then when...so you know how...do you have a bed? Let me think. Yeah. Not on you. I have a bed. Okay. So you know how when you lie down, usually kind of towards the end of the day, night? Yeah, yeah. And then-

I don't know. For me, it doesn't have to be. Okay. No, not at all. I'm not saying it does. Some people, you know, work odd jobs. And you lay down and then kind of the next thing you know, you wake up and the light is different. And okay, so that's, so the thing that's happened in between lying down and then getting back up is sleeping. Okay. And that's when, and when you open your eyes

and you see your room, the way you left it, there's a mess over there, what's that doing there? You know, I didn't know I had a dog or, you know, whatever the thing is that you wake up to and you're like, oh, that while, so those things changed while you were sleeping, you were unconscious. What if every time you woke up, you said, I'm not dead?

Why not? Put it on a poster, it should be the first thing you see. That is partly how you can catch a tasty wave in life. You wake up, you see, I'm not dead. And for some people, that'd be a bummer. They would hope to, no, they do. People who are despondent and very depressed and- No, it's true.

And it's ironic too because a lot of times they have trouble sleeping. And then they finally fall asleep and- And then they wake up and like, damn it. Yeah. I gotta do this shit again? Yeah. They're not catching tasty waves. They're not catching tasty waves. They always have it within them. They just need to follow the teachings of Mary Ann Williamson and do what she says. Don always confuse- Donate, donate, donate, donate. There's an author I think named,

you should know this because literature, Mary Lynn Robinson. Is that how you pronounce her name? Yeah, yeah, it has a question mark at the end. Mary Lynn Robinson. That'd be a fun thing to do is just legally add a question mark to your name. So when people say it. Okay, and coming up we've got Aparna Nancharla?

That is how most people say my name. That makes sense because you have a little am I saying it right? You should just add a question mark at the end. You're right. Mary Lynn Robinson. And what does she do? I think she's an author, but I'm just saying I always confuse her

with Mary Ann Williams. Oh, so what does the Robinson lady write? I might be saying the wrong, I think she writes like novels, like she wrote something like Gilead or something. I don't know, she's like a well-regarded author. I got you. Yeah.

I haven't heard of her, so. But Marianne Williamson is the person who tried to run for president. Well, she did run for president. Yes. Yeah, she was successful at running for president. But not. She was not successful in becoming president.

Right. But she's all about vibes and. She's a big vibe lady, yeah. Okay. And doesn't, you't – she's got some interesting, reasonable ideas, but also some that are not reasonable or practical. Most of us? Yeah, but most of us don't run for president.

You should have firmer, better – Yeah. You should have firmer, better, you know, like your Bernie Sanders or your Elizabeth Warrens. Yeah. I always think of president as like, like if you want to run for president, there's already something wrong with you. I agree, I agree.

But also, I remember having mixed feelings about, there was a knock when Bill Clinton was running, they would say he, like his whole motivation was he knew early on he wanted to be president. He was striving from an early age to be president. He was ambitious. And they used it as a knock.

And I kind of understand what that means, meaning you'll do whatever you can. Oh, right, right, right. But also it's not that bad of a, you know, unlike George W. Bush, who clearly didn't want to be president. Right. I remember, I distinctly remember

watching one of the debates, it was one of the last Republican debates before the primaries, George Bush, clearly, you watch it and clearly did not have any interest, didn't want to be president, was reluctant, and you could tell, he was just, they all said to him, you have to be president. Was he wearing a little hat with a propeller on it? He was in the corner, he had a very tall conical hat

with the word dunce on it. If I'm pronouncing that correctly. So I think to be president, the grapes should want you to be president, but you should not wanna be president. I think that's the ideal Venn diagram. I'm not sure I agree with that. I think you should want to be president.

And you know the famous saying that Lincoln said, you can fool some of the grapes all the time, and you can fool all of the grapes some of the time, but you can't fool all of the grapes all of the time. That's true. That's true. You know. That's true. And that's why Lincoln is still my favorite. Stinking Lincoln, that's what we called him.

Yeah. That guy stunk. Yeah. Like, wash your ass. Right, right, right, right, right. But it's hard because he was a good president. He was a good president. But he smelled.

But he, yeah, he smelled bad. He looks like he smelled bad. When you see pictures of Lincoln, I look at him, I go, I bet that guy doesn't smell very good. But don't you think everyone like before 19, I don't know, 65 smelled bad? I think that's the exact date, yeah. I want to say it was mid-March, somewhere like March 14th, 1965.

I don't know when deodorant was invented. You know what, there's a famous quote, and you can use this next time you're playing trivia, from the guy who invented, or I don't know if you invented, but Listerine, the first mouthwash. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. He said, we didn't invent, he said, I didn't invent mouthwash, I invented bad breath. Meaning he made people self-conscious of their breath. About their breath. And so, and I feel like that was kind of a similar

thing with deodorant. No, it's true, because we just smell like, you know, animals. There's nothing wrong with it. Yeah. But. But now if you're raised to go, that's a, and some people like it. Some people like a funky smell. Right.

But we were like. Marianne Williamson, I bet, would smell funky. Like a good funk. Yeah. She and Lincoln would have hit it off. Yes. Yeah. They're very, they're both statuesque. Yeah. She and Lincoln would have hit it off. Yes. Yeah.

They're very, there's both statuesque. And, but Lincoln was not the, Lincoln was, a lot of people don't know this, and I'm not, I'm not making a joke here. He was very much, the reason he, you know, he had the Emancipation Proclamation was it was not altruism, it was practicality. Oh, yes. So, he wasn't like this wonderful, generous, selfless man who did it. He did it for reasons that had nothing to do with giving people their freedom. Right.

Yeah. They probably taught that at Amherst. Did? Well, Boney, you've done it again. That is perfect timing. That was perfect timing. It was. I have purposely left this on for the last four or five podcasts because my notification-

It goes out randomly? No, no, I got a text. So yeah, I keep it over here. We'll punch that up in the audio. Yeah. And then it chimes in and phony comes in sometimes with just the perfect timing. and phony comes in sometimes with just the perfect timing. Amherst, what do we had? I think when I was there, our mascot was the Lord Jeff, which is literally a guy. Are you serious? Yes. Lord Jeffrey Amherst. Oh, he was the benefactor?

He was the guy, yeah, I guess he maybe founded the town. I don't know. Lord Jeff. But he, yeah. Jeff doesn't seem like a royal name. No. I guess Jeffrey would. Nor a mascot.

Were you guys the fighting Lord Jeffs? Yeah. Okay. And did you win anything? I don't know if we won anything, but they did change the mascot because he was also not good. He handed out smallpox blankets. Oh God. Why is he a mascot?

So what did the mascot get changed to? I actually don't even- Please be a Native American Indian. I don't even know. What smallpox? I don't even know. Maybe the grapes. Something like that. You mean long beans or grapes?

Long beans. OK. Yeah. Fighting Amherst, long beans. I guess they are kind of like a long bean. Or just a bean, not necessarily that long. That's true. You know.

It really is. I found it very uplifting, and I was very excited when you pointed that out right from the get-go, because it's been an issue since I've been here doing this. And specifically, why are you hiding that? If they're meant to be decorative and make people have just one tiny aspect to catch in a tasty wave in their life. I thought it was maybe a thought experiment. You know how they're like, if you're in an elevator and everyone is facing one way and one person faces the other way, it like upsets everyone else. It like breaks some sort of social order So I thought maybe this was like is does this create a sense of unease and the guests that yeah in there

I'm with you now up. Can I? Say that maybe people would get upset at a person standing the opposite way in an elevator because then you'd be you are forcing people to look at you in the eye. Yeah, I think there's many reasons why they're upset. But- That seems like the biggest one. Like, why are you staring at me in this tiny box? Well, let's say they're just kind of like listening to music, but they are facing the wrong way.

I think people still are like, what's going on? I don't like this. I don't like even imagining it. I know, it's stressful. But I'm the kind of person that will now start doing that just to mess with people. And then be indignant when they say something like, why? What am I supposed to look this way

because everybody else is looking this way? Hey, bud, get off my tasty wave. Right? I'm sure if you started talking about tasty waves, they would leave you alone. Well, if they're well versed in strength theory. Yeah. Yeah. I think the more important the meeting, like the reason you're in the building, the more

likely you should stand the wrong way. Say that again? Like if you're at a big, like the more important, whatever reason you're in the elevator, the more important the reason is. Oh, I see. Then you should really ride that wave, stand the wrong way.

And now I, perhaps I'm remiss in, and this is just lazy thinking, assuming that you mean a 180 degree difference in how you're standing. So you could, if you went 45 degrees and stood, Oh. You know, or 90 degrees, instead of facing one of the walls, left or right.

Yeah, I think that still counts. Would that be as upsetting? I think so. I mean, you're the psych student. Yeah, I think that people would still be like, what? And would it be distressing because people are like, why don't you just complete the half a turn and look this way?

Yeah, I think there's sort of like, why are you- Why are you not looking at me? Yes, or why are you not following the rules of the group? Right. Yeah. The social construct that we all- We have very low tolerance for- Individualism? Unpredictability. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. But that's why you do this podcast. Yeah, no, I'm doing this to spread the word. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're beyond hope. Well, that was not necessarily the message I'm trying to get out there, but if that's, you know, I'm the host, you're the guest, so if that's what you want to put out there, we're beyond hope.

Yeah, I guess I want to plug I'm not around in 2025 and we're beyond hope. Okay, and you want to raise kids? I want to raise kids, yeah, if everyone's okay with those two things, yeah. Yeah, and you wanted just to raise kids for one year. Just for one year. I feel like that would be great for me. Maybe not as great for them, but. Well, great for the parents.

Take a little break. Great for the parents, but I don't know, I was thinking about it and I was like, if your parents sent you away for a year with no real explanation and they- Oh, I thought you were moving into the home and raising them. Oh, I see, they're coming to home and raising them. Oh, I see. They're coming to you.

Yeah. In Pasadena. Yeah. Well, Pasadena's got good schools, right? That's true. Yeah. But they wouldn't really be given like explanation of what's happening.

Oh, is that part of the deal? I just feel like how would they understand that? How would I explain it to them? Well, it's not, I don't think it's on you to explain it. I would imagine the parents would- I guess they can't be too little because I don't know what I'm doing. Let's say nine and 11. Okay, nine and 11, the brother and sister, are they related or are they just two different

kids from two different families? I'd say related in some way. Okay. Boy and girl, two boys, two girls? Open. I'm open. Okay. And nine and 11 is, yeah, the 11 can pretty, I mean, the 11 year old can get lunch

and dinner ready for their kid. And, you know, as long as they're not like deep frying something, they should be able to make a sandwich or, okay. And so you get to the point really where you don't even have to be there. You can take off for a week. Yeah. Right. And maybe hang with the parents. Like go to St. Martin or somewhere like that, you know, a nice little vacation tropical.

Yeah. Yeah. Or go see the Northern Lights, do the opposite. My parents just went to see the Northern Lights. Really, where? Yeah, Norway. Norway? Is that one of those countries with a question mark at the end?

Yeah. Okay. Norway? Norway is a very good place to see them. Were they successful? Cause they're not always guaranteed to see them. I think so, but they sort of gave a bad review. Really?

Of the northern lights. Boy, what? Sound like sticklers. What were they looking for, and what did they end up getting? They said, I guess, that certain light spectrums are actually not visible to the naked eye. So it's like a lot of the photos we see of them is because of the way the photo was taken or like the

filter. No, come on. Really? Yeah. No. Like you can only see the greens and blues. I think I'm getting the colors right, but apparently the like the reds and purples are just from like-

Manipulation of the- Yeah. Yeah. Like we can't see them with our- And so they saw, what were the colors? Green and blue? Green and blue, I think. Green and blue, and they're like, this is bullshit. Where's the purple? I came all this way. Fuck this. There's no purple.

That's such a, I mean, I guess that is a true American dream. That's on my bucket list, for lack of a better phrase. I definitely, and I've been talking about this for a long time, wanna, cause I saw a kind of version, a slight version of the Northern Lights when I was with a girlfriend in Door County, Wisconsin, which is pretty far north in Wisconsin.

It's in the top of the glove. And we were on a little by a lake on a beach and they were just, they were like white and they were flying overhead, wispy. And it was just magical and moving and affected me more than I would have imagined. It was just this cool, stunning, you know, we're so small and significant,

and this is beautiful and all this stuff. And I used to get high a lot back then. And- Were you high when you saw them? Maybe, I don't know. I was with their parents on like a vacation, to get high a lot back then. Were you high when you saw them? Maybe. I don't know. I was with their parents on a vacation, so probably not. And their kids were somewhere else?

Yeah, I think with you. And then I read about the Northern Lights in one of the Bill Bryson books, if you've ever read any Bill Bryson. I think it's neither here nor there, I wanna say. Okay, I've read A Walk in the Woods. Oh, that's great. We should, he's got, his books are amazing. Yeah, yeah, he's great.

And they're all, I mean, some are kind of travelogues and some are just. I think I've only read the travelogues. His book about the history of the home, house, home, is great. Anyway, yeah, I'm a big fan of his and I'm pretty sure it's neither here nor there. He goes to Hammersfest, Norway, which back then when he wrote it was... It's actually Norway?

Right, it's Hammersfest, Norway. Yeah. And then you answer yes. Yes. Yeah. And it had at the time more bars per capita than any other place in Europe. Whoa. And it was, it's very far north.

Yeah. I think it's in the Arctic Circle. Yeah. And, you know, they're known for their display of the Northern Lights. But it's not a guarantee. And he takes this really arduous trek there. It takes days. And he has to go by, like, bus to, or train to a bus to, like, Reindeer Sled.

And it takes days. Whoa. And he got up there and he was lucky because they occurred, but there's no guarantee. Right, right, right. So do you know where your folks went? I want to say it was near there. It was like near the Arctic Circle or whatever.

It could be the same place, Hammer's, I know it from the book and I've read the book, I don't know, 30 years ago at this point, but. I just can't imagine getting up there and then just ripping on them. Yeah. You have to be a certain kind of sour person. Because it's, even with the modern amenities and the ability to travel being much easier than it is and than it was 30, 40 years ago. Still, it's still a trek. You still have to go quite out of your way. It's like going to Florida.

Why the fuck would you go to Florida unless there was a specific reason to go and to go all that way? And it would be like getting to Florida and being disappointed because Florida sucks when you're like, well, yeah, it sucks. I know that going into it. So did they find out about the no purples there or before? Yeah, there I think. I see. So that could be a little disappointing. I just imagine my dad being like, is anyone else not getting the purples? Yeah, well, what would Sherwin Williams say?

Oh, dang. Yeah. Sherwin Williams would be like, you're not looking hard enough. Oh, yeah. Well, I think that's a pretty good way to look at it. Maybe the purple is within you. Right, because he's colorblind. All the colors are in him.

Right, right. Yeah. I keep forgetting about that little fact. I don't think he wants it out there, because it's like, why would you trust a color guy who's colorblind? Well, his, you know, he knows that other people know it, because his famous phrase that everybody attributes as Sherwin Williams was, I'm colorblind, god damn it. You know, that was him who said that, he started that.

I thought he started, I don't see color. And then that has not had a good. You know, I had a joke and it never really hit. So I dropped it, but it was a thing about, it came as a tag to something about race, racism or whatever, and it was like, I don't, when it comes to race, I'm color blind. No, wait, what was it? When it comes to race. Oh, when it comes to race, I don't see color. I only see black and white. I think it's a really good, clever joke, but it just didn't hit.

I did it like 10, 11, 12 times. It's just not. It sounds kind of shoehorned in there and it just, I like it. But that's so funny. And then I would say like, folks, that has been sitting there waiting to be told as a joke for decades. How has nobody else made that joke? And well, I blew it. I just put it on the podcast. Have you ever had someone quote or tell you about a joke of yours that they like and you can't even remember the joke? Oh, quite often. That happens to me all the time and then I'm like, what does that mean about me?

I saw the, so, Babo and Kirk and I are going to climb Machu Picchu. You are? Yeah, later in the spring. And that came first and then afterwards, but also almost immediately afterwards, they're like, oh, we should film this, we should shoot it. Yeah, yeah. So we've been working with this production company and they put together this little teaser thing to show people. Sizzle reel.

Sizzle reel, thank you. You know, to remind people who we are and what we've done. And they have a clip, it's from, it's clearly Mr. Show. And I have no idea. It's a quick clip where it looks like something exploded and Bob's all like almost cartoonishly, like his hair is up and like a floating cigar thing when you see the animated, like half of my face

is all bloody and stuff and our clothes are ripped and we have this like little, it's brief, it's five seconds long and I could not, I have zero idea what that is, none, zero. But did, like, was your memory jogged and then you remembered or you still? No, I still don't know, I still don't know. I'll have to ask where that came from and they had access to it, they obviously got it

off of YouTube or something. Right. Does that make you feel unsettled that you don't remember? A little bit. Yeah. I mean, the joke thing is easier to understand because that's what we do constantly is write jokes. Whether we tell them or not, it's in our head. It's how we've, for better or worse,

trained ourselves to look at things and that's part of our job. And at this point, we've done so much of it. If I don't remember a joke, it's like that's, and a joke is what? Anywhere from like five seconds to a minute. And at this point, you've created a million seconds worth a minute. That's true, yeah, yeah. And at this point, you've created, you know, a million seconds worth of jokes.

So if you don't remember something, you know, and I'm glad and thrilled that it hit and resonated and somebody remembers it from whatever, 20 years ago, but I don't remember, you know. Yeah, I mean, I don't, well,'ve had multiple, you know, specials and albums. I've had one album and I don't remember anything. Well, maybe, maybe you should be eating more fish. You know, it's a brain food, fish oil, omega threes.

Parna, get yourself some omega threes. Is that what helps you remember stuff? Brain food, fish. Is that what you put in your fish tank for your- I feed them, yeah, they're cannibals. I feed them other fish. Cannibalism is having a moment, don't you think? Definitely is.

Well, the army hammer, thanks to him. The yellow jacket? I don't. Okay, it's a show. Spoiler alert. Spoiler alert. Well, yeah, I don't know. It seems like they make it pretty obvious that that's-

Do they? I have not seen it. I've heard of good things. It's like one of those stranded, you know, soccer teams stranded in the wilderness. Based on the Andes? I think it's based on nothing. That's heavy. (*laughing*)

Based on imagination. Okay, so, okay, I see if it's not based on the real thing, but what is? But maybe yeah, loosely. And it's all chicks, right? All chicks. Yeah, that's why I'm not gonna watch it. I think there is, there's like two.

Wah wah wah, my period this, my period that. Hmm, periods, that's what it is. That's the whole show. I'm iron deficient. You're a weirdo. All right. Serious, that's what it is. That's the whole show. I'm iron deficient. Well, you know what? All right. All female reboots. How do you feel about the female reboots

of things that were, you know, intellectually, intellectual property of men? Well, I'm not, I guess I'm not so proper intellectual property of men Well, I'm not I guess I'm not so mad. I can't speak. Oh, I I'm that feels like a lot of people's reaction When I read about the Ghostbusters being remade with Women I was furious I Oh fuck man. I was so angry I had to check myself in rehab.

And yeah, I was livid. I ended up... Is that when all the rehab centers were overbooked? Yes, that's exactly right. I'm not the only guy who went through this. And, you know, because I checked myself in rehab, but they, as you mentioned, they were full up. And so I did the next best thing.

I was so angry and I was like, I have to deal with this. How do I deal with my anger and just despondency? And there's no hope for the future. You know, and people were going, yeah, but they're really talented women. They're, I mean, these are great comedic actresses. This should be good, but fuck that, just the idea of it. And so I dug a hole, 127 feet deep,

lined it with concrete and faux fur, and then covered it. I was gonna say, faux, Vietnamese soup. Like Vietnamese soup with noodles, and the bean pole sprouts. Yeah, yeah, those are great. The crunchy guys. Mostly, it was mostly the crunchy guys.

It was some lime and a little bit of cilantro. Not a lot. I don't want to overdo it. But again, it was 127 feet deep, so it's a lot of pho and pho. So it's pho. pho and pho. So it's pho, pho pho, which is a Vietnamese soup that is very delicious broth in the shaved beef. I'm so sorry you can't enjoy it. And then a lot of veggies and then pho.

And so I just filled it with that and took a dip as it were, covered it and, you know, didn't emerge much like the cicadas for 17 years. 17 years since you heard the news? Wow. That's like, don't tell David Blaine. Okay. Isn't he always trying to do those sorts of things? He's like, I'm in a box for a year, tell your friends.

I'm in a box for a year, tell your friends. David Blaine's latest. Oh, phony, you said it. I'm in a box for a year. Tell your friends. David Blaine. Oh, man. 17 years, though. I met David Blaine at a party. You did? Yeah. I didn't know he was going to be there. I went to this party in New York, party in New York, and it was at a brownstone in the village.

And, you know, not like the double wide big ones, but kind of tighter, but it was like four or five floors, but, you know, like tight. So they had this, there was a stairwell, you know, that was, just to say that it was kind of tight on the stairwell, it wasn't a big, and it, you know, that was just to say that was kind of tight on the stairwell. It wasn't a big, and it, you know, turned, it was curvy. And I was either going up or coming down the stairs and he was there. And, uh, and I like, I don't know if somebody introduced me or whatever he introduced. I don't remember, but I do remember him without any.

It was just like, this is what he does when he meets somebody, pulled out a deck of cards. Oh. Just pulled out a deck of cards, was like da da da, and did an amazing. Trick. You know, slide hand trick. It was amazing, but it was just weird.

Like we weren't even like, hi David, this is David da da da. And it was just like. He just, that was his language. That was his language. Whoa. I remember that really, it was just odd. It wasn't bad or anything. It was just kind of like, oh, okay.

Well, that's how I first remember knowing about him is he did sleight of hand and card tricks. And then I was like, when did he pivot so hard? Yeah, to like a performance art type of. And you think his agent was like, David, no. Well, I remember the London London he was in a box in a cube a see-through cube like that And then he there wasn't there a thing where he was on some ice in Times Square. Yeah, it's all stuff like I'm gonna be in a box for a year. Tell your friends. Hey, do you guys want to check out?

You guys want to go down and wave to David? We can't hear you, but he's in the box. All right. Well, let's get the calendar out maybe a week from Tuesday. He's there all year. So, we can do it in end of summer around August-ish. My thing is, if you're doing something like that, what are you, like how are you occupying your mind? Yeah, good question. What do you think he thinks about? Is this a mistake?

What am I doing? What am I saying? Is there a way to monetize this? That would be so funny if he was in a box for a year and it was just him putting out nonstop TikToks. David, I'm in the box again. Or he just forgot. Everybody forgot, you know?

And there's nobody there. But the box is underground and we've gone through Armageddon. Oh, God. And then he emerges like, what the heck? And then he's like, oh, my God. And then he's like, oh, my God. And then he's like, oh, my God. And then he's like, oh, my God.

And then he's like, oh, my God. And then he's like, oh, my God. And then he's like, oh, my God. And then he's like, oh, my God. And then he's like, oh, my God. And then he's like, oh, my God. And then he's like, but the box is underground and we've gone through Armageddon. And then he emerges like, what the, what did I miss? All right, Aparna, so I end every episode by asking you a question from my daughter. Okay. This is a legit question.

Okay. I ask her to come up with questions, from my daughter. Okay. This is a legit question. Okay. I asked to come up with questions and ask my guests. All right. So why does it always itch when you have a new boo boo? Oh. Why does it always itch when you have a new boo boo? I think because it does, the cell, new cell growth. Don't tell me, tell her. Okay, Marlo, so when you hurt yourself, your skin gets damaged and it needs to rebuild itself, and when it's rebuilding itself, it's sort of in a growth phase, and sometimes when you're in a growth phase, you get a little itchy because there's a lot of new things happening, and so that's why that's why okay do you have anything to plug that you want to oh for reals yeah I mean why not I don't know plugs plugs what can I plug? I want to plug something that's non industry related. Okay.

I'm going to plug when somebody, I'm going to plug when somebody at a party ends the conversation for you guys, for both of you. They say, well, that's about it. And then they go away instead of letting it die. I like that. Yeah. Do you do that?

Do you practice that? No, I wanna be one of those people cause I'm the one who lingers. I can't even leave a party without tagging onto someone else. Right. Yeah. You won't leave by yourself.

No. You leave with a group. I'll just kind of tail a group that's already leaving. Do you go like, hey, wait up, and then pretend like you know them and then? Not even. I just pretend to be part of their group. Do you insert yourself in the conversation?

No, no, I just use them as a ticket out. Okay. Yeah. Well, you should try the, well, wait, what did you just say? Well, that's about it. That's about it. I'm gonna have to start doing that.

Just talking to people and leaving with, maybe leave as you say it. Well, that's about it and trail off. All right, Aparna, thank you so much for coming down. Thank you for having me. Yeah, absolutely. Sense is Working Over Time is a HeadGum podcast created and hosted by me, David Cross. The show is edited by Katie Skelton and engineered by Nicole Lyons with supervising producer Emma Foley. Thanks to Demi Druchin for our show art and Mark Rivers for our theme song. For more podcasts

by Headgum, visit Headgum.com or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and maybe we'll read it on a future episode. I'm not gonna do that. Thanks for listening. That was a hate gum podcast.