The Morning Stream - TMS 2998: Sephora for Men

Episode Date: April 23, 2026

Chocolate Dong Booster. Veiny Snickers. The Weird Baby Mascot Era. Mugging For 3000. Can't See Idahigh. In New Jersey, Annoying Drivers Find you. Be All That You Can Be in the Nerd Army. Thiccers. Attempted Mooooorder. Shiny Angry People. Hey, Y'Got a Hundred Bucks? Chocolate Vein. This is About The Chimpanzee. Brian does simple math. Some Amygdala Work with Wendi and more on this episode of The Morning Stream. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We've all heard of the fifth element, but have you heard of the sixth? That's us. And what better way to celebrate the sixth element than by supporting us on patreon.com slash TMS today. Coming up on the morning stream, chocolate dung booster. Vainy Snickers. The weird baby mascot era. Mugging for 3,000.

Can't see Yardah. In New Jersey, annoying drivers find you. Be all that you can be in the nerd army. Thickers. Attempted murder. Shiny, angry, peasant. Hey, you got a hundred bucks? Chocolate vein.

This is about the chimpanzee. Brian does simple math. Some amygdala work with Wendy and more on this episode of the morning stream. Hey, where's your warrant? This is private property. Put a zipper on your mouth and shut up. Without a warrant, you ain't got zilts. I want to meet Mendoza.

The morning stream. The whole damn shelf is breaking off. Hello, everybody. Welcome to TMS. This is the morning stream for Thursday, April 23rd, 2026. You know, in three more days, we'll have a 26-26. Oh, we will, yes. What do you think of that?

We'll be four 26-26. I mean, we'll have 12 of those this year. That's true. We will. You know what? I can't celebrate it every month. That'd be dumb. Well, I mean, it don't know if it'd be dumb, but it, you know, we should have celebrated on 126, 26, but I don't think we did.

I don't think we've, we haven't celebrated it, and we probably won't this time because it'll take place on a Sunday. And the only thing we do that day is record film sacs. Yeah, and if we don't make reference to it then, it's lost to the ages. We're done. Lost to the ages, never to be heard from again. Well, that's Brian and I'm Scott. And you're all welcome here in front of the hot TMS fire today. That's right.

Exactly. Gather around. Room for all of you. Yep. Put your feet up. enjoy yourselves take a marshmallow and a stick that's right don't burn them or do some people like that some people like that you're crazy those people are insane why do you eat why would you want to eat charred food i don't understand it the ones that catch it on fire let it burn for a minute and then blow it out

and then they think that was a good idea yeah no isn't that carcinogenic it's got to have like it's just burnt material in your mouth yeah burnt sugar yeah it can't be really good no i mean And, you know, you're, you're racing through it. Smores take time. And we're here to help you. Yeah. Take that time for your smore. That's right.

This show now almost 3,000 episodes in. By the way, 2998 today. Oh, no, really? Yeah. We have nothing cool. Oh, wow. We have nothing cool plant, although I do. So for those who do the collection of the mugs where we hit a milestone and then we do a mug, we are doing a mug.

We're doing a mug. We'll do a 3,000 plus mug. That's happening. It's just going to take a little time. There's a lot going on right now. but the, but that seems like a, that's a significant number.

That is. I don't know how you celebrate that. I don't either. Do we, do we count TMS Fridays in the number? No, so we've already been well over 3,000

if you count those. So Tuesday will really be our 3,000th show if nothing happens to us over the weekend. Yeah. If we don't die over the weekend, as some would like to see happen. Oh, no. Nobody wants to see that.

I mean, I would hope not. I mean, I don't know how people think, but yeah, we're, we're, tomorrow's play date anyway. So it wouldn't matter, wouldn't matter. Yeah, even then it wouldn't matter. So, so Tuesday we should do something. I don't know. I don't know what to do. I could do like, you know what I could do. I could last minute. Yeah. I could Britt, last minute reach out to, I don't know, some old voices and say, hey, send a little clip in and oh, there we go. Well, I know, I know Jamie has something for us. Yes, he does have that. And I am saving that for.

excited about it. Yeah, I mean, I have no idea what he's even doing. It's some kind of audio thing. I know that. That's all I know. I have the file. I have to admit, there's a little temptation to preview, but I'm not going to do it. I'm going to wait until we are live on the show and you and I

hear the exact same time. No, the honest reactions are absolutely the best ones. So for sure. And we'll just deal with the legal fallout from whatever nightmare thing he put together. It's fine. No, I don't. I'm sure it's fine. Whatever he does. Yeah, celebrate with us next Tuesday. we hit 3,000 episodes, which...

In the episode, 3,000. If you average how long a show takes on average or playtime, because the problem is there's pre-show, there's other stuff. But if you just count the public show and you say, I don't know, let's say average over all these years, let's average 90 minutes. Yeah. You take 90 minutes, see if this math works. And you say times...

4,500 hours. You're going to probably get this dead on. I'm going to be annoyed of myself. Oh, wait. That's not right. So 90 minutes. Okay. So 90 minutes times 3,000.

That's 270,000 minutes. Divide that by 60. Wait. Right? Because we're doing 90 minutes. We're doing minutes. So that gives us just minutes. Oh, yeah.

I was doing hours. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So now we are 4,500 hours. Yes. How did you? I'm sorry, Rain Man.

Rain Man. Are we late? Are we late for freaking Jeopardy? or whatever, Wapner? How did you get that so quick? Because 90 minutes is 1.5 hours. Yeah? One times 3,000 is 3,000.

0.5 times 3,000 is 1,500. Oh, you're saying it's simple math. Is that what you're saying? Simple math. I'm saying that, that listen, I'm not, I won't ever claim to be the fastest at math, but a 1.5, I feel like I can get. You know what?

You're right. You got it. That's going in today's clips. I do like how it went into minutes, and then you turned it back in the hour. Well, I guess, yeah, it makes sense. It was always minutes, right? It was 90, because you did 90 minutes, not, yeah, not 1.5 hours.

Yeah, although I guess that would have been simpler. How many days is that? Oh, shit. 4,500 divided it by 24. This is like slash played on World of Warcraft. This is scary. Now, this one I can't get instantly, but. So this is 4,500 divided by, that's hours, so 24.

Okay, so 187.5. Oh, my gosh. That's straight days. That's more than half a year. Yeah. That's insane. That's a half a year at time. Oh, that's like exactly half a year, actually.

Is it? Oh, it is? Yeah. Yeah. 187.5 is half of 387.5 is half of 365, isn't it? And that's a contiguous number. That's as if you spent half a year 24-7, no sleep, no eating, no nothing, but recording for 187 days and a half day. And that rest of that half day is the funeral that you. you'd have for killing yourself because you did this for half a year.

I did the math poorly. It was, it's 375 days. So it's more than half a year. Oh, even more. Yeah, yeah. Well, I'm never doing a slash plate and wow. I can promise you that. I don't dare do it. Yeah. No, I haven't even looked at, I haven't looked at Pocopi in a while to see what I've been there. I did pick up so I can do the the Steam Deck, stream it, playing dispatch. and Platform 8 picked up this same model

same company is the one you had same brand I liked same brand I like the white and I like yours probably has this as well but it's got the switch on the back to go from Nintendo to PC it does have that but you have the bright button face for most games right like it's the A

at the bottom and that was the whole reason I got it was the 8th the bottom because I've got for Nintendo I've still got this the original pro controller no drift no problems so works but it won't wake right that thing won't wake the new one I don't think

no won't wake the new one and this one really will wake the new one yeah I just reach I just press a button like if I had this like plugged into an entertainment center yeah far away yeah that would be annoying to have to get up and do that but I just think the fact that Nintendo's own pro controller

not being able to wake it is a cheap way for them to get another hundred bucks for a new controller totally a way to do that and it was also a way to say oh all these other companies have figured out how to do that let's change the code on it so that not only will ours not work but theirs won't work either it's a real baby in the bathwater situation for uh well i think you're gonna like that thing you're gonna i've already played around with it and um i used to think they i used to think the eight bit do people were the only third party that i liked but these guys have been great you know priced well be my first Glorpin or whatever they called? What was it? It's a weird name. I want to call it Gulpin because it's like a Pokemon, but it's not.

It's, um... Gulket. Golket. Yeah, it's, um, I mean, I think these are just made... Or gullicot. Is it gullicot? Oh, there's an eye in there, you're right. Yeah. It's hard to read on the black.

It really is. I know. And the... Yeah. They're pretty cool. I'll say this too. I was it going to say I was going to say that

I don't remember what I was going to say Oh I know I was going to say they also sell replacement sticks using the Hall Effect technology I touted yesterday for your switch If they break. Oh really? So you can actually replace oh that's cool It comes with a little circuit board they're all based on you know you want to make sure you're matching up with the model that you got but stream

Steamback also if those ever drift on you can do that. So I noticed that the, that the, when we're looking for replacement meta controllers, that on Amazon you can actually, for 14 bucks, buy a, a kit that lets you replace the joysticks and buttons on your meta. Did you do it? I'm going to. Yeah.

Oh, that's a great idea. That's better than 70 bucks. Way better than 70 bucks. And really, it's like I just have to replace the joystick and I'm good. Yeah. That'd be a fun little DIY. I see how hard those are. would. Yeah, totally would. Probably not that hard. Probably pretty easy. Probably not. And 14 bucks

is an easy. As we found before with the 3D printer, 14 bucks is an easy amount to make a mistake with before you spend the 70 bucks and buy the thing you were going to buy in the first place. That's true. That's true. But, you know, what's 14 bucks in the larger scheme of learning? You know, it's learning. It's learning. That's all it is. It's learning. We got to learn. The other thing I bought, so under my desk, I had this really cool 3D printed box. This sits under my desk. The screws go the other way. And it holds this thing right here, which is a retractable USBC deal. So basically, you know, this sits under my desk. I just reach under there, pull this cord, plug it into what I need to charge, and then go yank a little bit and pull it back. Oh, it was like

the vacuum. My mom had when it was a kid. Yes, when it's built into the wall. It's like the most convenient damn thing. I love those. This stopped working. Oh, stopped retracting. Oh, no. And This is kind of, you know, a pain in the butt when it doesn't retract and just dangles on the floor where the cat eats it all the time. So I sprung another 20 bucks and got a belkin one. Also retractable? Also retractable. And I trust the belkin quality over just put. Just put.

Just put. Just put brand. Because the thing not only did the cords, the cord stop retracting. It stopped powering. things and it was it's well out of warranty so I couldn't get a replacement but this does mean this is a different shape so it doesn't mean I need to rebuild my 3D printed under counter under table deal but that's the beauty of it is you got the printer and you can just do it I got the printer I can just do it and like this zips out really nice and it stops so you can plug it into something

and then you retract it that's cool and it like cuts like check this out like when it retracts right it goes right back in I'm going to get a close up here it goes into that little little septical inside there. So is this what? And then you've got an additional USBC. Oh, okay, cool. Is this what women feel like when you go into a Sephora and you show your friend something? Do you know what I mean?

Yes. Because I love this stuff. Look at my new air maze bag. Yeah. Exactly. This is exactly what it is. Yes. Oh, man. I get so excited about that. And I'm just thinking, who else would get excited about this?

And I'm like, all my male friends would love that. Absolutely. All my lady friends. and associates and family would be like wouldn't care. A big deal. It's a freaking cord. And I'm like, no, but look at it. But it's under my desk. It's out of the way. The cord is only, the cord is only there when I need it,

when I need to charge a controller or a steam deck or this or that. I love it. That's awesome. Yeah. I had a weird. You want a cord free life is what I want. Yeah, cord free. I would love a cord free life. And the more cords, I actually kind of like cords in that, you don't have to futs around with bad wireless issues. But when they were tracked like that and they're out of the way when you're not using it.

I mean, that's the dream. Yes, that's the dream. Shit. Can you send me the link? Yeah. I just want to check one out. I've got a cable issue for my charging needs. Like around here where I have to just quickly plug stuff in because it needs to charge or my iPad's like over here.

Whatever. I would love to just yank something out of the wall and not have more cables. Absolutely. All right. Anyway. I'll get that to you. I got this thing that happened yesterday. It was really weird.

So off and on, I get, since the announcement of Nerdtacular, we'll get an email here and there from somebody. You'll say, hey, we're with the something, something group. And we'd love to exhibit at conventions, wondering if, you know, you guys are if we'd be a fit for you guys. And usually they're not because there's a community event. If anyone's going to be there and show stuff off, I'd rather it be community. but also they don't know what this is yet. They think it's a big Hall H deal and it's not. It's a small thing where, you know, they wouldn't really benefit from doing this

and don't really have the space for them for the kind of booth they set up and that sort of thing. So it's fine. These come, they go, whatever we talk to them and we say, oh, yeah, it sounds like not a fit. Yesterday, I get the biggest, longest email from an Army recruiter office. Okay. And they want a exhibit at Nerdtacular 2026. That's funny. You know what?

Now that you say that, like at any event I go to, like, a Christkindle market downtown where it's like the German Christmas market. Oh, wow. There was an army booth there too. It's like, yeah. They must have budget for just like put you everywhere, you know? I guess so. But, man, well, I mean, glad you said no.

And also, glad it wasn't ice. Hey, can we recruit some people? Oh, can you imagine? Here's your free gator, man. and you're free. Freaking bunch of quality duty wannabes. Look, I, if that would have been the case, I would have probably been,

because I was nice to this guy replied and said. Yeah, of course. I go, I don't think this is the kind of thing. It's nice if you're asking stuff. Yeah. And he seemed like a decent, they're local here at the local recruitment and, you know, whatever, it's fine.

But if this had been like anything tied to ice stuff, I'm trying to think of what I would do because it's an opportunity, you know? Exactly. Yes. What I do? I would like say, I don't know what I'd do. I'd probably get on a list.

I don't know. I mean, it feels like this would be an opportunity to kind of string them along for a while, right? And like really let them devote some time and attention and resources to this before, before you finally say, just kidding. Yeah. Turn it into a reverse email prank or something. Right. Right. Exactly.

Well, anyway, so you will not see an Army recruitment table at Nerdtacular 2026. Yeah. So everybody. Anybody who was looking to sign up for their Army service at this event, if that was your plan, I got bad news. You will have to enlist elsewhere. Yeah, which I think is two blocks away where this actual office is. You can go do that if you want, you know, whatever. Let's get to some news.

Okay. Been piling up a bit, so here it is. Today's news is brought to you by. Brought to you by Coverville. There will be a Coverville right after TMS today, and there will be two parts of to it. Part one will be a tribute to Dave Mason, who was a singer-songwriter and a member of the band Traffic before he went solo. So that song, Feeling All Right,

that Joe Cocker covered, that a bunch of people have covered, had big hits with, is one that he wrote. He also wrote the song that 70s classic called We Just Disagree. There's only you and me and we just disagree. Oh, I like that song. That's Dave Mason. It's a great one. It's a really good song. I actually thought when I was a kid, I actually thought there was a place called Idaho, because we can't see Idaho. It was your own private Idaho back then. Let's leave it alone because we can't see Idaho. Nice. Yeah. Miss heard lyrics. Seriously thought this. Yes, exactly. The second part of the show is going to be a dedication or not dedication, a cover story for

Paul Carrick, who is turning 75. You know him from hits like, how long, Has this been going on? Another song I like. And I bought a toothbrush, some toothpaste, a flannel for my face, Pajamas, a hairbrush. Tempted by the Fruit of Another, by Squeeze or Tempted is what it's really called. Plus, he's had a great solo career. He is an amazing, like, if you said, Brian, you know, we love your voice on FilmSack.

We think it's one of the best singing voices we've ever heard. But we'd like to replace it with any other singer. Who would you choose? It would 100% without question be Paul Carrick. Interesting. The guy has, in my opinion, the best voice in music. Wow. That's high praise.

Yeah. All right. Well, and we'll roll right into it today, right? We're going to do it. We'll roll right into it. Everything's ready to go. Got songs picked out, lined up. Oh, yeah, one of the songs you're going to hear is by Neil.

Yes. From the young ones, the hippie. Oh. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, it's such a dream. Yeah, Neil put out an album, if you can believe it or not, and the album contained one cover,

and that cover is a sung by traffic, believe it or not. I don't even know what to do with this information. That's crazy. Vivian, Vivian, I mean, that dude is a, you know, he's all over the place. He was an alien earth. He was, he's a musician. He's singer. I mean, he's a great, great performer.

But Neil, the dude put out, you didn't he open out one album. I heard somebody the other day, and I think this is kind of true. The version, or the American Vivian is, what's his name from the office? The old guy that was in a band. Yes. Creed.

Creed. Creed. He's the Creed. Creed is the Vivian of America because the guy was in bands, still plays, and then acted, you know, and was good. It was funny. And, like, all that. Oh, that's really funny.

What a weird. What a weird. Parallel. I remember where I read that, but somebody said that and I went, you know what? It kind of works. That's really funny. Lassarge, yeah, this is your shirt. Do me a favor.

Let me know what color. This is just the sample that T. Public sent me. So if you have an idea for shirt color, I don't want white. I don't want white. I think white shirts belong under other shirts. But when you have a different colored shirt, then it's, then it really shows it off. I agree with that. Even like a nice gray would look good.

I like a white long sleeve, but you're right about T-shirts. Oh, yes. Correct. Yeah. I think you're right. That should be a rule. Just put them under your shirt. You wear a white t-shirt with the thing on it. It looks like you're just going to be sitting on the porch yelling at the kids going by. That's what you're going to be doing. Which I'm going to do anyway. Well, yeah. I may as well do it in style. It's way to wait until we're old enough to do it. Yeah, that's true. I'm not ready for that phase.

That's Coverville, Twitch, Todd TV, slash Coverville, or if you miss it, then the podcast. Very nice. Very nice indeed. We got a problem in California. Of course we do. Yeah, a Californian chocolate, so a chocolate made in California, got recalled because it was being spiked with Viagra ingredients. Oh, no. Yeah. If your chocolate lasts more than four hours, consults Hershey's or something. Right.

Chocolate products from California company have been recalled after they were found. Equal Snickers, these are thickers. Snickers! We put the vein in the stickers. I'm trying to think of other ones too, yeah. Isn't that a whole thing with the Snickers? They got a vein in them, and it's weird. They do have a vein, but it's, that's really funny.

I've never thought about that. That little, that weird little, uh, chocolate vein. Ridgeback hump that it's got, yeah. Yeah, there's a whole like, I think there's a whole Reddit page about this somewhere. Like people to take pictures of their vainy chocolate bars. That's really funny. Oh my God. Pretty disgusting.

They've turned my M&Ms into M and M and M and M and M. Hell yeah, baby. Yeah. Well, anyway, uh, this, this is what happened. They were spiked with potentially dangerous ingredients because some people shouldn't be taking these heart conditions, stuff like that. No. Viagra and Seattle, the San Francisco Bay Area Gear Isle recalled the products after they were found to contain these undeclared prescription drug ingredients used to treat erectile dysfunction.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced last week. Oh, they still have people working there. Cool. One or two. Two people. Like one guy. Yeah. One guy who eats raccoon penises or whatever they do there.

It was not a thing that's going on with him now. RFK Jr. got roadkill again and he cut the penis off. The penis of a raccoon. Yeah. What do we do? And like this is in his autobiography. It's not even like a, you know, a hearsay or like, I was there.

I saw the whole thing. No, he wrote it. Yeah. He embraces this shit. And he studied it. It took it home and was like poking around with it. Weird. I don't know what drugs he's on, but it was on.

Just weird. Yeah. Let's see. The product sold a. the U.S. We're found to have sildenophil and tadalphil

these are them their ingredients that cause life threatening drop and blood pressure when mixed with nitrates found in prescription drugs according to the FDA. I've been playing too much Pokemon because immediately I'm trying to figure out

what sildenafil and tadalophil are the evolutions of like what they, what's their third evolution. Yeah, because that's phase one too, right? We need a third. Exactly. Yes. I don't know what would be. Palinazarzard or something.

There you go. Charterphil. Very rare, but when you get one. Bulbaphyl probably is more important. Yeah, more appropriate. Oh, take a peeka at my. Bulbifil. Let's see.

They were two recalled products for Gold Lion, aphrodisiac chocolate male enhancement sachet. Well, hold on now. Yeah. So this was recalled. because it contained? Yeah. My angered.

See, Alice, this feels like, it feels like it kind of says what it is on the label. Yeah, it even says, this other one's called Illam Sex Chocolate

Male Sexual Enhancement Booster. Yeah. Not, they said, don't buy these, purchase the second item after confirming the product contained the stuff.

Well, I think this is the point. It feels like, exactly, if, I take it back. Nobody's working at the FDA right now. No,

clearly, clearly. this just in the chocolate Dung Booster product is shown to contain Dung Booster Wait, do some people

call it Dong Booster? I like that. No, I just came up with that name actually. Dong Booster. Dung booster. Put that in there, you guys. Put that chat. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, I can't guarantee that we're going to pick it. No. But you get creative enough. We might make it work. It might not be the show title, but we'll read it. How's that?

Yeah. How about that? How about them apples? Yeah. Let's see. I got a text. Let me just make sure this isn't Wendy telling me anything. Sometimes, you know, sometimes,

sometimes Wendy has things to say. And sometimes, oh, no, she's good. That's fine. I'll send her her link just in case she needs it. All right. Yeah, so Monica points out that if the gold lion, aphrodisiac chocolate mill enhancement sashet doesn't explicitly say that it contains Viagra.

or Cialis, then that's the problem. That it needs to, you know, that the chocolate mail enhancement sachet needs to declare. Yeah, and those things, I know that those particular drugs are still regulated to some degree. So you'd have to declare it. You'd also, I think, have to go through the FDA approval stuff

and maybe they didn't do that. The article doesn't get into that, which is weird. They just call them recalled because, like being spiked with Viagor ingredients sounds like it was a mistake, like some disgruntled employee through his bio. use your Kit Kat bar or something. Yeah.

Like, you know. Yeah. Don't eat the left ones. All the left ones are being recalled. All the left ones are being recalled. I love that idea. It really was the green M&Ms. Do you imagine if just the left ones got recalled?

They'd never do that. They'd recall all the package. Yeah, because you don't know which one's the left one. It depends on which side of the package you open. Yeah, people will be going, my left, your left. Right. The FDA's left. Yeah.

What if I'm looking at the back? Isn't that the left now? Right. Yeah. Or the bottom. Now they're not even in segments. It's flat. Wait, look at the back. Oh, yeah, it would flip.

Yeah, it would flip. Spatial reasoning. Anyway, that's a fun thing. Look for it. And your next bite of creamy chocolate, maybe you'll find an extra owner boost. Enjoy that next big hunk. Yeah, there you go.

Here's another one. An upstate New York man. You always have to say upstate New York, because if you say New York, you think city. You think city, obviously. Yeah, exactly. Could be, he's probably from Rochester. I wonder if that annoys people in New York that they have to distinguish that.

No, probably not. I feel like it's like how you feel saying, oh, yeah, they're from Park City or they're from Salt Lake City, right? It's like a differentiation of like, don't confuse us with the Park City people. Yeah, just don't say City. It's like Boulder. You know, we love Boulder. We love Boulder. They're the best.

They're what, named after rocks. We call them hippies. A lot of weed in Boulder. A lot of weed. A lot of weed. A lot of weed. Can I have some of that? I think he's having much of that right now.

Yeah. Let's see. Upstate man, upstate New York man in a cow costume accused of attempting to stab a family member. Wow, these chick-fil-aids are just getting worse and worse. He's got it up on one of the billboards. It says this guy is attempted or accused of attempting to stab a family member while he was dressed as a cow. I don't think that affects the actual charge that he was dressed as a cow. I don't think that makes a difference.

But they're sure making it seem like it does. Yeah. It's other than it becomes utter attempted murder. This happened on a road called Jubilee Road, which I think is great. Yeah. Fireworks and kind of lame powers. And sunglasses that never over your eyes just on the top of your head. Yeah.

She gets along with Wolverine pretty good. She does. They're pals. She is wearing the yellow slicker. Yeah. She is wearing the Morton's girl slicker. It says that, Oh my God. Somebody needs to do the Morton's girl as Jubilee.

Oh, I'd watch that. That'd be great. Well, I mean like a t-shirt or logo or like a, you know. Oh, I see what you mean. Yeah. Yeah, like like, uh, like have that the Morton's ad be Jubilee. I like it. We were talking about Morton's, the Morton girl. pre-show today. Oh, that's right. I guess that was pre-show, yes. But how we both remembered the Morton's

girl wearing a slicker, a yellow slicker. Yeah. And we can use this as an opportunity to remind people that we're at patreon.com slash TMS where we put pre-show, where we talk about the Morton Salt Girl. So if you didn't know, that thing went all the way back to 19, what was it, 1919, 19-19- 17 was the original with the hockey hockey stick umbrella arm. Where else are you going to get that kind of coverage? Yeah, no. Sign up today. Nowhere else. Patreon.com slash TMS.

That's where you go. And don't shoot people in cow costumes. All right. Jeez. Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, get ready for this. Something wrong, Batman. Has anybody seen Wendy?

Well, I have more recently than you'd think. She was here a lot this last eight months or so. But she's still far away right now. Hi, Wendy. Not for great reasons either. No. It's not fun to have you here for those reasons. But Wendy, you're here now.

How are you? I am here, huh? I'm good. doing all right hanging in there keeping you know i don't know there's still a lot of ice shit going down over there and just nobody's covering it or what's the deal oh that for sure happened uh i don't at this point i don't know i mean i think they did draw down they're kind of everywhere still doing their thing yeah wendy's in minnesota for anyone who's confused about what i'm asking what i'm saying yeah yeah not yeah not ice the actual water that's frozen

yeah how's your water how's your frozen water is that's possible more importantly Wendy more importantly Wendy how do you feel about being on a trivia team with the three core guys oh yeah did you know that you're I guess you know have you been contacted about this yet okay officially no I've been very busy and having had a chance to reach out to you but you're going to be on our team so okay good because I am going to answer none of them great great well and and as long as all the questions are about video games they're not they're not oh they better not Brian puts him like amygdala work in there. Some things that I know about. Please, because I'm going to bomb it otherwise. Finish this phrase, weaponized, blank. A megdile.

Yeah. Yeah, no, we're, we're, I feel strong about that. That means one of us will have, one of us on the team will be an actual, like, accredited professional. Yeah, there is. The rest of us won't be. So there is somebody with, like, you know, I tried to do, when I did the seating test, I like spread the academia around.

So, you know, having Bobby and Amy and Wendy all on one team would be bad. I agree. There's a lot more than just, and Dr. Tolbert and that sort of thing. Yeah, that's jamming too much brain matter in the one table. Exactly. Spread the academia around, spread the video game knowledge around. So more or less, listen, Boe never did the seating test. I'm just going to out him right now.

Oh, he never did the test? Never did the test. So when I came up with you and Wendy and John on the team, I just said, all right, let's give him the other core guy. Let's just, why split the set? Maybe he'll surprise everybody and blow our minds with his, with his knowledge. He might. He totally might. He's always smart on core when I've seen it. He's pretty smart, but I don't know. I'm not going to hold my breath. We'll see. We'll see. So there's different kinds of smarts.

You're supposed to tub the other T's. I know. I know. I don't know why I'm doing that. I don't either, but there's also different kinds of smarts. Like there's physical smart. Do you have us doing any kind of? No, this is not Taskmaster. This is, yeah. Remember All-Stars? You were on All-Stars before last time, right? Yeah. And it's all trivia and questions and visual stuff. Slaping a buzzer when you think you know the answer and watching Denise Crosby play with action figures on a big screen.

Yeah. Yeah, I think you were there for all that. So you'll- All I'm saying is super fast recall in a stressed-out situation, maybe not where I'm going to show. It's not your favorite. It's not your main skill in life. I'm going to hear a weird word. I'm just warning you now, Scott.

Fair enough. All right. Look, we're not, we're going into this. What's the word? We're going into this for the fun if we lose. Exactly. With no expectations of success. Yeah.

Just got to make that crowd, you know, you got to make them laugh a little. If we do that, we've done our job. Wendy, it's good to have you here. Wendy is an accredited professional in the mental health industry. It's an industry. Would you call it an industry? What would you call it?

I don't know. What a weird intro. It is the weirdest intro I've ever given you. No question about it. There's about how I had to tell you something funny. I was going through old. I'm trying to convert all our old family videotapes from the 80s so that they're preserved because they're all starting. They're going to die if I don't.

And I came across this clip of Wendy, who is for some reason you're dressed in like a big overcoat, like dad's some kind of raincoat. I don't know what it was. big thick overcoat and you're walking through the living room with a sleeve or a like a round container of really long matches we used to use to light fires in the fireplace and you're talking all serious about something I couldn't tell you what you were talking about and you're swinging that thing around and at one point the lid flies off and you send about a hundred of these matches across the room and then just kind of look at it and then the tape ends it's an amazing clip.

Oh, that's awesome. And you're maybe 10, I don't know. So what you're saying is nothing has changed. Yeah, basically you're the same. I like to wear weird codes and throw things. I actually drop stuff a lot. So that makes some sense. Makes a little bit of sense.

It made me laugh and giggle. And once I get all that converted, I'll send you a copy. Okay. Let's get into today's question. We got an email from someone we're going to call D in Ottawa. That's up in Canada for those unaware. He says this. It's so popular.

They should make it the capital or something. Yeah. I could I'm speaking of Bo. That's where Bo lives. All right. Here is what this person in Ottawa says. I happen to know this is, he's male. So if that's helpful, Wendy, I don't know. Always. Says, want to do this one?

Hey, Scott, Brian and Wendy. Wasn't sure where to send this question to. So I hope this is an okay option. I am a 59-year-old white male with a question that would probably hit close to home for a lot of other folks. in this day and age certainly or sorry certainty and security is in short order. The world is always changing

and the news is just a continuing cycle of badness and confusion. In my personal life I was recently forced out of a career of over 30 years and I've had to settle for something to get by. What are some things we can do or tools to use in an attempt to put some stability in our lives

in a world that is changing by the second with less and less certainties? Thanks in advance for your words of wisdom D in Ottawa, Ontario, California. Sorry, Canada. You said to me, I want to tell you what Wendy said to me and reply when I sent her this text. She said, the unusual thing here is that she hears this constantly all the time, but mostly from people in their 30s. Oh, really?

And this is, you know, this is a near 60-year-old. Yeah. This is, you know. This dude's a little older. We're getting that way ourselves. Yeah, we're pushing into that territory. So, you know, this advice may be helpful for all of our futures. We're all going to get there.

I always tell the young people to go, that guy's old, or something like that. Yeah. I always say, okay, well, which way do you want it? You're going there, or you're going to die early. Which one do you want? Oh, geez. I mean, honestly, when people, like, I want to go back and smack my 16, 17-year-old self-use

to say things like this. I'd see somebody who probably, honestly, were in their 40s, but to me, they were 80, and I go, look at that old guy. And I'm thinking, now I think, what did you think you were heading toward? Yeah. Yeah. Did you think you were going to forever be 17? I mean, give me a break. Anyway, that's a side issue that there's nothing to do with this question.

Get off, Scott's long. I'm going to get off my own lawn. And I'm going to pass the mic to Wendy, who's now going to help D. So what do you want to do? Yeah. Okay. First of all, the reason I responded with that, you know, so many people in their 30s is that something that was sort of reserved for this exact demographic, like 59-year-old, you know, had our career, was always moving up.

Like if you think of most of somebody's work life, if they had kind of a good situation, is just growth, maybe more money and then a higher position, you know, kind of doing the same thing. And then there's this sort of risky period. I'm sure someone has studied this, but like your 50s and up of you start to be very expensive and they can find someone who can do your job who's younger and pay them less. And that this is how corporate Canada works as well, apparently. And that is the, and often a time where what seem very stable for a lot of people can kind of fall apart, right? And so the reason I'm responding with, I hear this all the time from people in their 30s is that same structure that people in their 50s and 60s and 70s and every freaking boomer have benefited from was based on this sort of like a steady growth model that often can just work in most careers.

We've had a major interruption, right? So these 30-year-olds I'm talking about in their 30-30s, most of them are software engineers. Most of them are working with AI and essentially building their job to put themselves out of a job. That is happening from Microsoft. I have some insight into Microsoft. I don't know how I've finished out if I told you. Yes. All the way to just your whatever regular sort of software engineer.

There's a lot of that happening. And so the people I'm talking to, what I'm hearing from them, is they're like building their own graveyard. And that is really daunting. But it actually relates to what this guy is talking about because they're just experiencing it much younger. Yeah. Which is this thing they thought was going to get them somewhere.

And has paid them really well, right? That's another piece. Yeah. It's paid them really well. Has sort of, they're stopped now in this place of they definitely have the ick. I'm sure some people are very excited about, you know, monitoring, coding now instead of coding themselves or whatever. But a lot of them just feel like they are, it's just lost meaning, it's lost value.

They feel like any second the rug's going to be ripped out from one of them. And I would say that's happening across most industries with how AI can do things that we have needed people to do. You know? So there's that factor. I don't know. He didn't mention that specifically, but he was forced out of a career of 30 years had to, I'm going to just make this assumption that it was somebody was cheaper to pay or your job was no longer needed because there's some other functionality that now does it for you. Sounds right.

I mean, the vibe I'm getting out of this is even if it isn't in something in the IT industry, it certainly mirrors that time frame that people are running into now. That's about a 30 year career. You graduated and got schooling and a thing that looked like the eternal career that everybody would benefit from. it was going to always be in your favor because computers are here to stay. So people that know how to program them, use them, maintain them permanence, right? And then suddenly less so. Absolutely less so. Yeah.

And one person can now manage whatever. And most of these companies can probably let go a huge swaths of their workforce, but are doing it slowly. In fact, that's often what, let's just say, a drawing. drunk director at a company party said the quiet parts out loud. And my client happened to be there. Oh, this is what you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that truly it's like we could get rid of everybody this second, but we're going to do it slowly.

And this slowly is so we don't wreck the entire economy. But, you know, so you hear these things and you're living these things. And, you know, that's not my world, but I am listening to everyone going through it. and it just freaks you out, right? It's the nature of hearing potentially devastating news. Like, there will be a hurricane, right? We can find a couple of examples of, you know, for people who live in Florida and have gotten used to this,

they're going to have a different response than anyone else who suddenly is in Florida and is told, you have three days to get out or you will die. You know, like we're hearing the warnings, we're hearing the terrible stories. most people aren't walking around saying, you know what, my job's so secure. Let's talk about it. And so it can really, really cause a lot of distress.

And, okay, so I want to go back to it because maybe that's not this guy's story specifically, but there is this thing that happens, especially 30 years anywhere. So everyone think about, however old you are, if you are 30, think of every moment of your life. That is a long time. It's a really long time. A really long time. And what work and employment are for many people, especially if it's 30 years, is identity, right? It's like who I am.

And there is suddenly a massive shift in who I am. We have that combined at the same time. The world light feels like it's on fire and nothing is going to be, you know, we're at the whim of whatever forces there are. And how much we're ingesting can vary how we're feeling about it. but also like your personal life, if it ever mimics some of the bigger trends, it feels extra difficult because you feel even more powerless.

Sometimes you can find some comfort and like it's not my fault, right? Because look at the world, the tariffs created my this or that, you know, like that can help a little bit. But often this loss is not really recognized socially. So here's kind of what I want to get at. This is difficult. It's probably about some identity pieces. It's like, what do I do now? Who am I?

And maybe there's some other actual financial instability or some other things. Maybe the plans you've always had get messed up. It can be pretty tricky. But when we get to overarching stuff like this, we actually think of it. There's a term. And it's ambiguous loss. So you might say, I lost my job. That seems so concrete. I know exactly. what that is, but you're also actually losing some identity. You're losing connection. You're losing a ritual. I go to the same place every day. My retirement party is now lost, right? If I start somewhere else, I got six years and now I'm going to have a retirement party with people who hardly know me. I mean, you're not thinking all of those things, but that larger cloud over all of this can be some ambiguous loss. And so often when we miss meaning, like meaningful things, meaningful things kind of go away. It's not really recognized socially. We're not actually having a funeral for his 30-year career. What we're doing is sort of leaving him alone with his time and trying to

figure stuff out on his own is what I'm guessing most people are doing. Unless there's some group of people who are really good at this. I have yet to meet them or hear about it. Yeah. I think they're unicorns. They don't exist. No. No. And so when you think about what to do, okay? So first of all, valid. I think a of people are feeling this in their own lives for a million different ways. But it rocks some of our core stuff, which is how do I just like live when it feels so uncertain? We're built to need some certainty. This is what anxiety is. Anxiety is trying to find certainty when there isn't any.

And it does it by thinking and trying and, you know, trying to manipulate the world so it feels safer. And it just can't do it. And the more we do that, the less secure we actually feel. So I would ask him a couple questions. One is, you know, what has made him feel grounded in the past? You know, what are the things that used to make you feel, you know, pretty stable? And you might say, oh, well, when the world wasn't on fire, okay, well, yeah, it's always been a little bit on fire. But were you paying less attention or were you talking it through with somebody or like,

why did it used to not bother you as much as it is bothering you now from a personal perspective? And I, you know, also don't meet anyone who hasn't increased, you know, is having a rough relationship with doom scrolling and spending a lot of time being whipped around by the winds of things. I was going to ask you that. How much how much, well, I guess you just said it. It's, it's, I always assume this is like a big factor, but how many people that are feeling all these feelings are also super tied into it because they're checking. their phone and socials and stuff all the time. Right.

Like are those directly correlated? Diged to the scroll. Yeah. Guaranteed. And if you think about, okay, so if this guy went to his local, you know, regional government office and spent time finding out the drama there, right? Like, okay, well, we need more sidewalks and this neighborhood's fighting with this neighborhood.

Like, there's enough drama everywhere. Yeah. Right? But most people are not looking in the spot. are in the places that they have influence over. So you could say something, you could write a petition, you could go talk to somebody. Like you would have power to make any difference there.

Maybe it's not a huge amount of power, but because it's so local, right? Right. And none of us are really doing that. And what we are doing, though, is getting deep into some beef online between two celebrities. Or we're getting deep into the policy debate about this or that or gotcha questions and moments and embarrassing this or that.

Like we, we are flooded with ways to be both engaged in some kind of disturbing, distressing, or dramatic human deal and then have zero power. But it is 100% affecting our nervous system. And what it does with our nervous system is it is very much disrupting just any regular rhythm. So that's why the job loss is like such a great concrete example. We can all kind of imagine it or we maybe have been through it. But it just messes up a lot of your life's rhythm, right? You just don't have the predictability anymore.

And when we spend so much time in the drama of human endeavors on such a global scale, never ending, we just cannot stabilize our body's physiology. It just doesn't work. So if you guys ever tried this, where you go, you go looking for something to make you mad until you're mad. Yeah. Yeah. I've done that.

I've done the thing where, you almost like seek your look for it a little bit. Oh, I hate that when I do that. Yeah. It's always, I think I tend to do this on the road. Like if I'm driving, not like, you know, I drive angry, but I always look for something that the driver in front of me is doing to piss me off. Yeah. Dang it's like an excuse to let to blow that off. To hate him and think that he doesn't belong on the road.

I don't know why that is, but I totally do. Yeah. Well, if you walk around in normal life, you're going to see a lot of angry faces or behaviors or, you know, something goes wrong in a store and you watch people's, you know, blood pressure is already ready to, they're ready to rumble. It's because there's so many ways. now that we can get mad and be mad and then project that mad somewhere else.

Yeah. Yeah. Right? Because anger is an energy. And that energy has to go to. Public Image Limited told us that. That's true. Exactly.

Yeah. It has to go somewhere. And so Brian's like, I got a feeling and I'm going to find a place to put that. Right. I need a place to vent it. It's going to be that driver right there. I will wait until they do something wrong. Yeah.

And so I think we're activating that a lot with these things. So you have the anger, which anger, let's all remind ourselves, is really secondary. We're feeling something else typically. And it could be sad, afraid, bored. It could be a bunch of other things. And then anger is like, it's like tasty. Our outlet or, yeah, the top of the iceberg level that we can see. Yeah, because it feels like power.

It feels like gaining control or it can feel like, you know, certain other things. But as we all know, if you're actually really sad and then all you get to do is feel and act out the anger, we really are going to have a rough life. Right? We're missing the stuff that we really need. So I would really encourage this listener to pay attention. He's like, I don't.

I didn't say I had an anger problem, guys. I could be so angry. We just. Why are you? Yeah. Canadian. No, but to think of the actual physiology. of your circumstance.

You have, we have an important developmental stage around 59, and that is, are we, you know, sort of building a legacy or not, right? And that's why this can cut so deep at this stage of life is what you thought you were creating suddenly has been interrupted. And that is loss, and there should be some sadness and grief and probably fear. And then we take all of those feelings, we don't quite know how to metabolize them, what to do with them. And so maybe we then spend time watching the world burn and go, you know, nothing is okay. And for anyone else, and that's what my 30-year-old clients are all

doing in spades. Like, and so I'm probably projecting on him what 30 pluses are doing. And he's probably like, no, I don't even watch the news. I'm like, good for you. But they really find. And so when I, when we work to pull them away from this brink of this is all, I'm being used, I'm useless, the system, you know, I will never own a house, all of the ways that like the rage comes out or the loss, the grief. We have to move it into your, you know, processing the grief and loss, as well as physiologically trying to get you more stable. So I have one client who, her job every single day, she lived kind of close, like 15 minute walk from a lake or river, I can't remember, somewhere where there was water.

And so her rule in sort of recovery was to touch water every day. And so what we did was she was outside, fresh air, some sunshine, walked, touched water, no technology just like breathed, right? We should replace touch. We should get rid of the touch grass and do touch grass. Touch water. And then touch grass for someone else or touch mountain air or whatever the thing is that is maybe missing because that is regulating of our nervous system. our tendency is to hunch like trolls and hold our phones five inches from us and then get darker. And like we go into the feeling.

It's kind of like a horror movie, right? Like you actually want to be scared. Yeah. it's a little bit of that. But the best part about horror movies is they end and you had an exhilarating ride. small senses of control. So it might be that like work in your garden, like that can be, of course, it's touching earth, but is also trying to control something that is also magical, right? Like that's a combination of it's slow.

It's the opposite of what like our phone does to us. Right. So some things that you can control that are small and then really putting boundaries around how much you're letting the impact. of the uncertainty in the world affect you. Because we're all just trying to be prepared, right? So here's my question. Is anyone more prepared because of your doom scrolling experience?

No. No. No. No, it doesn't even prepare you for the next horrible thing, right? You think that it would like, like after a while, you think it would start to desensitize you for, oh, oh, no. Exactly. That new horrible thing comes along. It's like, well, that was unexpected.

Yeah. even after all the other horrible things that I'd seen. Yeah. Yeah, 100%. It does not prepare us. And that's the illusion and the lie. It's kind of like every, I don't know, when you're sold something and you're like, yes, this is exactly the thing I need.

And then you do it and you're like, that is not, it didn't help and move on, find someone else promising that they're going to give me this thing I need. So this is where my sort of final bit of advice here is to really tune inwards to your own needs. I'm going to assume after a 30-year career. You gave a lot. You gave a lot to that organization. You identified as an important part of things. And, you know, it was a little bit more outward.

Maybe it served you in lots of ways, but it also was outward. And then the response of all of that was giving you a sense of purpose and some stability. Yeah. Now you're having to do that yourself. So maybe there's a little grief session you need to do about. actually losing the job and feeling all the fields that come from that. And then I would say secondarily is to start to wonder how you feel stable. Like what does it a steady day look like for you now?

Not what did it used to? You can maybe say that from before. But what time do you get up? What do you do in that first hour? Is there even just one small thing you can do like touch water or, you know, maybe write your bike or laugh? laugh at a video. I'm allowing you to laugh at a video, right? Like, is there something like that can that just ground you and help you feel a little more sturdy?

Sure. So I would also say go through all of what you consume online and make it only positive stuff for a while. Like that has been really help. I wonder if this would help him or anyone listening to this tiny little anecdote I would add to that. I recently, this is just very, very recently had a real coming to a Jesus moment. with social stuff from a professional standpoint, meaning using these channels to inform listeners and let people know what we're doing and these sorts of things. And just being honest about the realization that what was true in 2008 and 9 for these things and for that stage of the web is

literally just no longer the case. So me telling everybody on Twitter now X or wherever, hey, the show went up or, hey, we're live or whatever, is actually, it's doing nothing. The algorithms bury that stuff. And so having a honest look at what is working today or what these services actually do for you or to you is disheartening at first because you're like, well, this used to be a real tool in my tool chest. And now you're like, it doesn't serve me at all now. And I need to admit that and not just have this feeling every day of like, well, should I put it on Facebook? is how will the Facebook people not know? It's like, it turns out nobody cares.

I mean, they care, but if they already care, they're already getting you. They're already finding you. They already know about you. They already have the channels to get you. Like, we're good in those ways. And you don't need to constantly worry that you haven't mastered the social web as a creator. So it's a little bit different than just your average person, I guess,

because you're using these more for work than you are just as distractions. But even that's been cathartic for me to go, I'm going to just start using one place to spout out my nonsense and I'm going to know that that's that is for nonsense and that's all it's for and the algorithm actually serves nonsense pretty well. Yeah. And they don't care about your business. They care about retention and getting people fired up and staying on their platform and complaining and replying.

That's what they care about. So you just have to come to this moment of like like what is how does something like I don't know, we'll just say Instagram. Where do they make their money? They make their money on ads. How do they get ad dollars? Eyeballs. How do they get eyeballs? By tracking data from people who are constantly on their app. So they are driven to do things on that app to make you stay there. Now, whether that's for some old guy who's a bit of a purve and he gets nothing but hot girls in his feed or another guy who just loves political arguing, arguing, that's all he's going to get in his feed. They're going to give you those things, none of them particularly positive because they retain you.

And once you realize that's the model and that you're just the product and the model that isn't being paid by the way, you're not getting anything for your role in this model. No, you're just being fed the dopamine. Yeah, you suddenly go, oh, so the social web of 07 when we were all just barely trying to figure this stuff out, those high-minded ideals that did work for a few years, that doesn't exist anymore. So stop playing the game with it. it's been like a big lift off of me. It just mentally, like there's one little switch

in the way my brain thinks. And then part of that is just getting out of old habits and doing new things. So this may not apply to him at all. I just think that, you know, you can have, there's a version of this for everybody, I think. Yeah, yeah. I know.

I really like it. I think it applies to everybody. And I think that's what AI has done to the whole world has had everyone recalibrate like, a whole lot of things. And a lot of people still don't know what to do. And a lot of AI is garbage. And, you know, like, it's, it's really tricky.

And you're kind of describing something I think can be powerful, which is, okay, I'm going to take a breath and I'm going to say, what is real? Like a actual reality test for, you can look at data to help you come to that. You can look at, you know, and some of us are better at reading T-Ly. leaves in others, honestly, right? Like, oh, I've predicted this trend or, you know, whatever. But this is why I like this idea of like, sit with yourself and see what you need. I mean, half of my job is to get people to articulate what they want and what they need because, A, they've been trained never to say that or even think that and or that's super scary to admit

it. But there is so much power and like, what do I really want? So something I've noticed lately, and you can say if you've also noticed this. But so Zach Galafanakis has a new show about gardening. Have you seen any ads for them? Yeah, I saw an ad on, I forgot what channel's streaming on it. It looked interesting. At first I thought it was a joke like it was just him doing the between two ferns thing or something. Totally.

That's what I thought too. And then also it's the other example I've thought of recently is Nick Offerman's like he travels around the country and does woodworking with kids. And it's a little bit of this like. Like, you know, not that we're going to follow what a celebrity does, but the shift in a little bit of, like, touching grass, you know what I mean? Of, like, caring about something outside of what we are told will make us rich. I mean, how much of Internet life is, you know, do this and you'll make a million dollars in five minutes. Like, it is, we are never not going to fall for that as a species. It's wild.

but sort of maybe moving, and I don't know, maybe I'm just hopeful that I see some shifting towards like a gentle backlash to some of the over, I mean, we're just getting, you guys, I'm all over the place, but we're getting studies in about kids and like how much time their parents are on phones and how much like the kids' development. And it is so not good. You know, people, it's a thing I thought of a few years ago. people are so worried about kids and their time on phones. And I was more like,

I'm more worried of parents on their phones who aren't paying attention or just missing parenting. Yeah, and how easy that would be because parenting is boring as all get out. Sure can be. You know, and just the reality, like, saw this teacher,

it just broke my heart. She had her students all ask for, you know, a fake holiday. Let's make up a fake holiday. What could we, what would it be? what would, you know, let's paint a picture, you know, some creative activity. And she had more than one

student come up with no cell phone day. So that, and like, what would you do that day? Well, I would play, my parents would play with me and we would have food. Like a normal day, a kid thinks is a holiday because mom and dad would pay attention. And this is not to bash parents. I freaking get it on one hand, but on the other, the numbers are adding up and it's really frightening. And it's an example of how we're just hijacked. Our dopamine is hijacked. Guys, I'm sorry, we're meat sacks. I know I say this every other time.

We're meat sacks driven by hormones and dopamine. But truly, like, finding calm and centering ourselves and really, like, finding some meaning in our lives matter. And so let me just sum up with this for this guy. To take some time, you know, you might have been that 30 years of working, wish you had a break, right? Now you have it. And most people are panic when they actually have a break, especially if it wasn't their choice, right? But reframing your mind, kind of like Scott did with this thing, like just reframing as this is a gift that's happening now. This is real. This is real and

this is now. And I want to make the most of it. So I am going to, maybe it's garden, maybe it's woodworking. Maybe it's some kind of way to proverbably touch grass. It's also what relationship stuff have you may be neglected that could have a little extra effort. Really protect your physiological response. Make sure you're sleeping. Make sure you're moving. Try to eat decent food. Limit your alcohol. All the boring crap. Right. And that allows you to be a little more psychologically flexible. So you can see different ways of understanding this. You can feel worried and then still live your life, right? You can feel the feelings. And feelings, by the way, everyone write this down if you have pen of paper. Feelings typically, at least what we sort of know so far, last about 90 seconds.

That's crazy short. Really? Wow, that is. And think of it as a cresting wave. It doesn't mean you're not sad for like a whole day, you can be. But if you fully felt a feeling, it will come and go, that's kind of a baseline, is at least 90 seconds. Most of us are so afraid stuff we've learned never to feel that it just leaks out for seven years. Like it has to power to stick around forever, which is why no one thinks, no one believes the 90 seconds. They're like, well, that got me right. Because your experience is years and years of feeling something slowly, you know, rotting and inside of you. And so maybe there's some personal work on feeling my feelings, right? Or, you know, and there's a couple of ways to do that. You know, send me an email. I'll give you some

more ideas. But how to sort of create more psychological flexibility with the world on fire and maybe your personal circumstance is being difficult is you have to take care of yourself physiologically and then give your brain a chance and your emotions. chance to like do what they're meant to be doing. We are not processing it. I know I'm going to use a gross digestion example and I'm going to stop myself, but we're not digesting what we need to. And we keep piling in traumatic images, terrible, horrible stories. People are awful. And then you wonder why Brian, the nicest guy we know, drives around trying to find a fight. Right. Exactly. Just looking for it. Yeah. Yeah.

Stay up the roads in Colorado. That's right. Please do. For your own safety. For your own good. I bet there are sessions like this where someone has a name. It's like, Wendy goes. It's not waxing eloquent.

It's the opposite of that. What is it? Rages at the machine. Right. Yels at clouds. Yels at the clouds. Tilt at windmills, whatever it is. There you go.

Something like that. Well, I think this would be helpful to anybody who's maybe looking at the lens that we're all kind of looking through right now. Yeah. And I just, I'll just, one other thing. None, and I mean this all the way down to like your local newspaper, all the way up to the biggest corporation who controls information. None of them are your partner in this and none of them are your friend in this.

They just aren't. Like, they want us to think that. They want us to think they're invaluable, that they're the town square. It's where news happens. They're doing something for you as opposed to you doing something for them. You're 100% on. their payroll without getting paid. Yeah, yeah.

You are, you are an object they need to generate revenue and to become, you know, big mega billionaire companies. And this is not a conspiracy theory. It is the way of the business. And so long gone are the days where we had an altruistic attempt to say, the social web will really help people rise to the top with their cool ideas. It used to be true, you know, we got to, Brian and I got to ride a lot of that early wave in the world we inhabit.

It actually existed for a little bit. We were there. Yeah. And it doesn't anymore. It's just not what it evolved into because it couldn't maintain. You can't, it turns out in a very capitalistic society and culture, you cannot maintain those levels of altruism when it comes to companies, especially publicly traded ones, it will turn because to generate infinite revenue, they have to do things that are not in

your best interest. And the same thing goes for just somebody trying to read it. They want to go online and get the latest news and they fire up CNN or Fox News or any other number of sources. And you go, eh, yuck, gross. Well, there's a reason. They want you, they want you. That's how they want you. I sound like it all.

Now I'm on the lawn again. I got off my lawn. The one big exception of this is nerdtacular. Come to neretacular. Scott just wants to break even. He's not looking to make money. He's looking to put on a great time. I would love to break even.

That would be amazing. Oh, my gosh. is to break even. My goal is to break even in life, in vertacular, all of it. But I won the lottery with having such a smart sister. Wendy, thanks for hanging out with us this week. Is there anything going on in the No Better You world that we should tell people at home? No.

I know you're working on a little, I wouldn't call it secret. You're working on a little project. Yeah, I got so many little projects. Turns out my brain is a little weird. But yes, there will be things coming up. So head on over to the website, put your email, and you will hear about them when they are ready. But yeah, I do have some scheming. It's the time of year, though.

It's like the twins are losing. It's always the same time of year. And everything gets crazy. I mean, Abe graduates from college in a month and I panicked because I forgot. I mean, I didn't forget, but it's like so much is happening. Coming up fast, yeah. Busy, busy. Also, how did that happen?

so freaking fast. Yeah. He did it pretty quick. He did. He's a smart kid, but my gosh, that three years is a, it's a blip. I don't even remember. I thought he was just leaving, honestly. Yeah. Yeah. He's fast, but he's also headed to grad school in July. And so I, he's going to Pittsburgh and I need some Pittsburgh advice. I've never been there. Hey, Travis, you got a job for you, Travis. Travis is in, he's in Minnesota, Michigan. but I don't know.

And so I can't speak to his Pittsburgh knowledge, but I'll bet it's better than any of us. There's got to be someone in Pittsburgh than we are. I was like, Scott, do you know that that's not the same place? A whole different state. The Westerners and their knowledge of Midwest and Eastern geography is so embarrassing, all of you.

Oh, no. It's actually true. The West has terrible East knowledge. We just do. We got big open sky. Look at us out here with cactus. Anyone in Pittsburgh. can give me some tips.

I've heard that the Pirates Stadium is like the best stadium in the end. Why am I talking about baseball? But whatever. Also, it's beautiful. There's these rivers. I mean, people, everyone I talk to love it that have been there. But I just, anyway, so we're going to. We'll have out of adventure.

The Post Gazette was a great paper to visit. I've been there, but couldn't, could not give you any advice on it. But Chris Brown is from, from Philly. But that's quite a distance from Pittsburgh. And very different there. They at least shared the same state. Yes. Yeah.

There's a couple of peas in them. Yeah. Exactly. Okay. So, yeah, no, that's great. Please, anybody out there who has any thoughts, just reach out all forward stuff to Wendy. Yeah, I'd love to hear your hot takes. You can contact her on the side as well.

Know Better You.com. Yes. Thank you. All right, Wendy. Have a fantastic time and eat all your vegetables. Bye now. All right. We did it.

We did it. Sure. Come to NerdTacular and see Wendy. She's going to be fantastic there. She always is. She's going to be great. That whole like Dr. Nicky, Dr. Tolbert, Dr. Dr. Not a Dr. Frankenberger thing is going to be amazing.

Yeah, that panel is going to be awesome. They're not only smart and it will be informational, but it'll also be funny because they're all pretty funny. Exactly. And Dr. Tolbert's handing out free Viagra is my understanding. Oh, good. Is it going to be in the form of chocolate mail enhancement pills? Oh, you know, now that you say it.

We should put it in the left Kit Kat stick. There we go. Perfect. We'll give out Nertacular branded KitKats. Just look for the side of the KitKat that has a slightly blue tin to it. Yeah. Or they're so waxy. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to go ahead and say this.

When I was a kid, Kit Kats are pretty good. Yeah. Something changed. Sounds like a hot take coming up. The Curran Chocolate sucks. Something changed. I don't know what changed, but they are a waxy little stick of nothing now. I just don't think they're very good.

terrible. Yeah. I don't know what happened. Even the ones you get as far as included in the Halloween minis, the fun size, still not good. Still not good. Yeah. I'll take the Japanese kid cats. And I'm fine with just the regular chocolate, you know.

But it's better chocolate, the ones from Japan and the UK than the ones we get here. It's just, it's disappointing. I don't know why it is. I still to this day. Well, I do know why it is. You cut corners and make more money. It's cheaper. Yeah, exactly.

But why wouldn't you want to be, if you would lead all. chocolate manufacturing in the states if you just made better chocolate. Or maybe they don't because like Giridaldi. Girideli. Girideli. I never say it right.

They're based here and I think their chocolate's pretty good, but they're not still really good. They're not dominating. So maybe I'm wrong. They're not cheap is the problem. It's like you can get you know, oh, I could go for that high quality Girideli chocolate or I could get five crap kit cats.

or whatever. Yeah. Good point. Or cheap. Yeah. I wonder if the UK Snickers are vainy. I think they're short and stubby. That's what I think.

They're only like this big. Oh, geez. Little tiny, little tiny UK weaners. Or that's what I get cats or candy brides. Kind of kills the subtlety of the joke. Yeah. Yeah.

Accidentally. Oops. Anyway. Hey. Clip that. Yeah. Clip that. Oh, actually, I can.

There it is. I would make it today. All right. We got one quick thing to get through and then we'll get out of here. This is an email from Jeff Seier. Speaking of Canada, always good to hear from him. This is about the jugs of pee.

Haven't heard from Jeff in a while. He writes in and says on April 21st while discussing the, actually did it in the Canadian way of saying it. He said, on 21st April. That's right. I love that. This is about the chimpanzee. Oh, man.

Somebody put that in that thing. He says on April 21st while discussing the chimpanzee Civil War, Scott said that chimpanzee, these are our ancestors. I'd like to state really quick, insert this, that I said that in jest. I know that they're not direct ancestors. We have a shared ancestry.

I know this. But anyway, he goes on and says, this is not true. We share a common ancestor with chimps. We are not descended from them. They are more like cousins. To our eyes,

the common ancestor would be more likely resembly chimpanzee, but likely to chimps, they would think the common ancestor more resembles us. Asked Dr. Nicky or Bobby, you explain more. It says Jeff Sire. No, I knew this. When I go,

I think it was like, in passing. It's like, ah, monkeys, man. Oh, no, that it was because they were having a civil war. Yeah. I was like, oh, man, this is a little too close to home for our ancestors or some shit like that. I know it's a passing comment. I hope I did not de-educate anybody out there listening. Somebody, somebody went right from TMS to their biology final and failed it because they said, well, Scott Johnson said that they were our ancestors. And so I got this question wrong. They do throw their poo. I'll never make it into doctor school. Exactly.

Doctor's school. If you call it doctor school, you may not. You may not. You may not. You may not make it. You already, you already might be failing. But what's it going to say? I was going to say, oh, I do know this about chimpanzees.

And Jeff can write in about this if he finds any air with it. All they do is throw poo and masturbate. There you go. Yeah. That's it. Yeah. And I have sex in front of kids at zoos. I've seen that.

I've seen two chimpanzees just go out at a zoo while 100 kids are there from school for a day. day trip. Yeah. Well, you know, they're getting twice the education they planned on. That's right. Quit calling it, the birds and the bees. Call it the birds and the chimpanzees. There you go.

Look, it even rhymes. You can keep the songs the same even. Take the bees out because we don't like bees. Right? If this show has taught me anything, it's we don't like bees. We don't like bees. Just sent that to our email address, which is the morning stream at gmail.com. You can also use other various methods of contact over on the website, frogpants.com,

talking about dot com slash tms forget all that middle bit it's just frogpants dot com slash tms today one p m core lives right here happening uh me yeah bow and john i'm gonna tease john at bow a little bit about missing the test about not doing the seating test please do rip on them please give them a little heat uh oh and i got to remind i forgot to do it last night i got to remind carter right and no she did the test she did the test yeah she just needs to jump in a discord and join her team that's right uh What she needs to do is accept my invitation as a friend in Discord so that I can add her to that team group. Excellent. I wonder if she maybe she hasn't been in Discord.

Normally she's pretty quick on this. She probably hasn't. Yeah. Yeah. I'll get it worked out today. Oh, look at that. I think she actually did. There we go. Oh, she's in.

She's in. So never mind. She accepted my friend request. I'm going to go and add her to her team. Who the hell is her team? Oh, there it is right there. They have a name yet in that team? They do not.

They are, no, they were more ripping on me because there's two Miss Carter's in our world. And I added the wrong one to their team. Oh. The one without a period. Oh, okay. And, and. What's that other one going to be? I wonder what that is.

Another Miss Carter? I don't know, but she's Miss Carter in her handle, but Miss Montgomery as a, as a full name. And, uh, is her husband, Dick York or Dick's heart? Exactly. But I've added Miss Montgomery to the reserves list. Oh. If anyone drops out of the team, then Miss Montgomery immediately steps into play. Great. For whoever's missing.

Elizabeth Montgomery in. That's right. Bewitched. Exactly. So, yeah, let Carter know that she's now in the Discord group of her team. I shall do so. Y'all. That is it for everything I've got. Brian, you got anything else?

Otherwise, let's play a song. What do you got? Yeah, just got Coverville coming up right after this show. If you're already listening to this show live, guess what? You're going to be pooped right into the Coverville stream where after a very short bathroom break, you will hear the stylings of Dave Mason and Paul Carrick. And if you don't know those names, don't worry. You know those songs. So get ready to enjoy all of that. Today, it's not a request. It is, what's a request for me? I requested playing this song because it's so damn good.

our very own Tanner, aka Straven, has recorded a new song, and it's called I Found You with the letter U. If you want to check this out, he's pre-saving it for going up on the the social or the streaming services. Just go to bit.ly slash save I Found You, all one word, all lowercase. This is great. It's such a great song, and congratulations to Tanner on recording another Amazing tune.

Here is, I Found You. This has been a Frogpants production. Find all our shows at Frogpants.com. Um, grab him out, as they say in the murder mysteries.