Wonderful! - Wonderful! Ep. 35: Jackbutt

Episode Date: May 23, 2018

Rachel's favorite article about self-compassion! Griffin's favorite round bread! Rachel's favorite upcoming album! Griffin's favorite music for chill vibes! Music: "Money Won't Pay" by bo en and Augustus - https://open.spotify.com/album/7n6zRzTrGPIHt0kRvmWoya Snail Mail: https://snailmailbaltimore.bandcamp.com/ Louie Zong: https://louiezong.bandcamp.com/ MaxFunDrive ends on March 29, 2024! Support our show now by becoming a member at maximumfun.org/join.

Hi, this is Rachel McElroy. Oh, hey, it's Griffin McElroy. And this is wonderful. Oh, a couple stinkers here. This is going to be a... What if this was our first prank episode? And I've been thinking about this for 11 seconds, but I think we could do a prank episode,

and it could be like the world's... Because people loved Jack Butt, which is what we talked about in youth group in church. We'd have to call it that. But people loved that, but nobody's doing it right now so especially in an audio medium right and so that would be a fun challenge that we could solve for a lot of like oh yeah so it'd be something like oh a lion is god lost in the room like jumanji and it's attacking rachel a lot of narration. But we could do sounds, too.

So do like a noise if a lion was hurting you. Ah! Yeah, and I'd be like, get off my wife, you prick! Just kidding. It wasn't a lion. It was just us, the two of us, doing a make-believe. You've been pranked. So that would be the first one one and then we could do one

of just like uh oh my butt and then we'd say something about my butt something bad that happened to it um you're shaking your head no it's like you don't like the pranks this is not what i signed up for yeah no it's what nobody signed up for but that's the greatest prank of all isn't it? Life. This is wonderful as a podcast where we talk about the things that we are very much in love with. Let's step it up, huh? We always talk about like, yeah, this is okay. This is pretty good.

I want to step it up to full-blown in love with one Marriott forever. Ooh. Yeah, big love. It's new terms. Yeah, so we're going to step it up this week and just really love the ever loving shit out of all this stuff that we talk about and do you have any little things and you don't have to love these as much but small wonder uh can i part the curtain a little um griffin just shook his head yes i did was doing a burp i I'm sorry. I kept it quiet. You didn't hear it, so you really can't be mad about it. Part of what is great about doing this show is that every week I do a little investigating.

Okay. To find new things to talk about. Rachel McElroy investigates. Yeah. What's wrong with the way the city's doing the power. We got to the bottom of why your bills are so crazy. And my small wonder is just that it's really great doing this show because it's gotten me back in touch with things I kind of fell off of following,

like music websites and news websites. Sure. Stuff like that. Yeah, you're back on your beat. Yeah. On that Murphy Brown shit. Uh-huh. Was she in the news? What was Murphy Brown about?

She was a broadcast journalist. Okay, see, got it. Yeah. And designing women. That was designing. Yes. So my small wonder is this hoodie. And I know that's cheap because it's technically our merch,

but they sent me a box and I've never gotten a box of merch from the merch people before, but I got this hoodie and it's an adventure zone hoodie. And regardless of what the brand is on it is on it. It is the most comfortable hoodie I've worn it for like eight days straight. Yes. Every time I see Griffin, he is now wearing this hoodie.

Yeah. I'm on that Zuckerberg shit. Just baking my stink right into my hoods. One time I was traveling for work and I was in a hotel elevator. And I may have told this story before, but these two middle aged couples got in the elevator with me and they were fancy folks. And they were joking about some friend of theirs who was wearing a hoodie and said who does he think he is mark zuckerberg and then they all had a good laugh about it and then looked behind them i was standing in the corner of the elevator wearing you know an eight-day hoodie and they waited until i got off the elevator and i heard them laugh as the doors shut oh griffin didn't feel good about

myself but then that elevator fell to the ground like a Mission Impossible. And I said, now who's laughing? I put the elevator shears away. I did four murders that night. Who goes first? I think it's me. There's a way to check this. You go first this week.

Yay. So my first thing this week is an article that came out in the New York Times today called Why You Should Stop Being So Hard on Yourself. Rachel. Hey, Rachel. You're doing a really good job. Thank you for commissioning this article. Yeah, it was me.

I hit up my contacts there. I said stop writing fucking articles about how well-dressed young Nazis are and instead write an article telling my wife that she's doing a very good job. So the article is all about something they call self-compassion, which is always interesting. Isn't it like stroking? I'll be stroking. All I want to do is talk about stroking, but we can't because we're talking about New York Times.

Well, that can be your wonderful thing. I don't know anything about stroking anyway. So it talks about how self-criticism can lead to just general, like, not just damaging mental health, but also kind of physical health problems. Like what? Well, things like chronic illness and they can accelerate aging because it's stimulating this inflammatory mechanism, which is something you hear about like children that are raised in really stressful environments.

like children that are raised in really stressful environments, like it, it heightens this like inflammatory response, uh, this kind of fear and, and adrenaline. And it permanently impacts the way that they process things as they get older. You always bring stuff that makes me think my body is like this sentient

organism that I am only vaguely in control of. Uh, so here's, So here's some interesting stuff. Okay. So our brains equip us with a mechanism to monitor our mind and behavior. And when we make mistakes, we are able to notice the mistakes. And in order to recover from what we identify as a mistake, we must first notice that a mistake has occurred. And so assigning this negative value can kind of catch us up into this cycle of unhelpful rumination, is what they say in the article.

If you start looking for mistakes and become convinced that everything is a mistake, then… Well, that and also you start assigning, like they said, assigning value. as a mistake. Well, that and also you start assigning, like they said, assigning value. Like this is a good behavior, this is a bad behavior, and then you become critical of your responses to things. Interesting. And this kind of self-criticism can lead to things like depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and decreased motivation and productivity.

So what they say in the article is that self-compassion is the practice of being kind and understanding to ourselves. And this I thought was interesting. So Dr. Kristen Neff, who is an associate professor of psychology at UT Austin, says that research shows that the number one barrier to self-compassion is fear of being complacent and losing your edge. And the research shows that's not true. Which I just thought, like, that's really profound.

Yeah, sure. Right? This idea of being kind to yourself is somehow just treading water or just accepting the status quo instead of pushing yourself to go farther. status quo instead of pushing yourself to go farther. And that if you really embrace who you are in the moment and accept your flaws, you're compromising this potential. Quality control. Yeah, I get in that loop real bad. Did you bring this because I get stuck in that loop real, real bad and may in fact be

in one right now? Is that why you're doing this it's because i i've been in a you know funk no i get in these creative funks i really do and this is and this is something that i know that you and i experience and i think a lot of people do is just this idea that there's some inherent value in being hard on yourself yeah because if i if i start if i'm not my critic then I'm not going to improve. Exactly. And the quality of my product is going to start slipping.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, for sure. There's a study from Berkeley that came out in 2016 that says that self-compassion led to greater personal improvement in part through heightened acceptance. And that focusing on self-compassion spurs positive adjustment in the face of regrets. So this idea that like, oh, if I accept my faults, then I am not going to be progressing is actually not true. The opposite. Yeah, the people that are more accepting of where they're at are more likely to achieve greater things. Now, I feel like I do have a second voice inside me that's like, you know, you did an

hour of work today. It was all right. Do you want to play Destiny 2 all day? And I'm like, fuck yeah, party voice. Let's go. And the other voice is like, you have to be critical of everything or else your work's going to slip. And it's like, I know, but there's new stuff in Destiny.

So I need a third voice that's like, no, you should do some work, but don't freak out about it. Well, yeah. And this is the thing that comes up for me a lot is this idea of black and white of like either or. Like in my intellectual life, I recognize there are shades of gray, but in my emotional life, I'm like, this is either good or bad and I have to choose. life, I'm like, this is either good or bad, and I have to choose. So here are some solutions that the article presents. One thing it says, just straightforward, is make the choice to treat yourself more kindly. And think of it as letting go of self judgment, going easier on yourself and practicing self compassion, or whatever resonates most. And so this can happen through things like meditation, of learning to kind of hear those moments of doubt, but to not assign, you know,

a great emphasis to them. And there's also some ideas of, in this article about how you could focus your energy on something external that you care about, which can help you establish perspective and a sense of meaning beyond yourself. So if you're volunteering or contributing to something larger that makes you feel good and makes you feel charitable, it will kind of help you break free of that self-criticism. Yeah, that makes sense. Because you have something that gives you value. Yeah, that makes sense.

Because you have something that gives you value. And then this is something that I've been trying to do lately that they said is important, is make a deliberate conscious effort to recognize the difference between how you feel when you're caught up in self-criticism and how you feel when you can let go of it. And so there's a doctor in this article that says that's where you start to hack the reward-based learning system. What does that mean, dog? So a part of our brains called the orbitofrontal cortex compares X versus Y. And if Y is more pleasurable or less painful, our brains will learn to go with Y. painful, our brains will learn to go with why. So if you start recognizing, I feel better when I don't do this to myself, your brain will start to learn that that is the better behavior.

Again, real uncomfortable with my brain making that decision. You know what I mean? Like, brain, come on. I don't need that. I'll tell you what I need, brain. I mean, ultimately, and this is something that's really common sense when you think about it, is practice what it feels like to treat yourself as you might treat a friend. Yeah. You know, which is something that helps me a lot when I feel like I need to be doing more. Yeah. If I were talking to a friend in the same circumstance.

I'm laughing because, like, I am so so bad about like, if my friend makes something and shows it to me, I am never the guy to be like, I don't know, man. It was pretty bad. And let me give you some constructive criticism because like, I really, I am a hundred percent like,

it was the best thing I've ever seen in my whole life. Well, don't tell me that because now now I'm going to be doubtful. Well, no, you only make good shit. That's true. You're only cranking out bangers. I think one thing I've noticed about you is that you are very good at giving advice. And I'm not just plugging your podcast.

I'm saying that you— Well, that's not a good example of that at all. You as a person are a very sensitive, thoughtful listener. That's fair. And so I think it's good to think about, you know, if I were to talk to myself in that same voice, what would I say? Just don't ask me to, like, give you some tips on your mixtape or something, because it'll just be like, it's the greatest thing I've ever heard ever. Do you want to know my first thing yes it's a bagel we should really talk beforehand how we uh match up our topics bagel gonna do gonna do bagel i love this little toad man. Who's a bit...

A particular kind of bagel? Yeah, bagel. The round kind? Bagel. Do you know him? No specific flavor? All of them. Yeah, bagel.

Like a savory or a sweet? Yeah, bagel. You know it then. I'm familiar with bagel, yes. You know it's chimeric nature. I enjoy bagel also. This is the other round bread that we like to eat for breakfast. And you may know about donut.

This is his sort of chewier, firmer, shinier friend. The bagel? It sounds like you know about the bagel. I know the bagel. The exact history of the bagel? A little bit vague. Ashkenazi Jewish communities were enjoying them in the 1600s. The first mentions of the bagel, a little bit vague. Ashkenazi Jewish communities were enjoying them in the 1600s. The first mentions of the bagel were in Poland.

Thank you, Poland. Thank you, Ashkenazi Jewish communities for this bagel because you ate them in 1600s and I eat them today. And I have for a very long time. I'm weird about bread because I either want that shit light and soft and fluffy and almost intangible cotton candy melt in your mouth. Or I want that shit to be a crossword puzzle for my teeth. Do you know what I mean? Yes.

I want to be able to work on it. Yes. And I love, yes. Toasted or not toasted? Almost always a little toasted. Okay. Not crispity, crunchity, yes,

peanut buttery sometimes, but not like burnt to a cinder and not, you know, raw dog. I'm a big fan

of how chewy these guys are. They taste good. You have to work hard to eat them more so than other breads. I think I just enjoy food that you have

to work at, like a peanut or a, I downed a whole bag of peanuts at that baseball game i went to last or i guess a couple weeks ago now just destroyed them and it took me the whole baseball game and i finished i was like oh game's done you like a crab leg too i love a crab leg because that makes me feel like crawl the conqueror um i also like how shiny they are it activates this caveman part of my brain that's like, ooh, it's shiny, like a precious coin.

I have to eat that. They're pretty to look at, aren't they? Because the shine, or maybe it's baked in egotism, or you can like, oh, if I get close enough to that bread, I'll see myself. I want to eat that right now. That's the story of Narcissus, isn't it? That he stared too long into the bagel and then he ate his own arm off. That effect, if you know about bagels, maybe you don't, that effect, the shininess, the chewiness,

the way that it gets that effect other than it makes it different from other bread is because of how they're cooked. You make the dough, you make it into a ring shape you proof it for like four days you prove it for a very long time and you boil it in water usually with some sort of additive like lye or baking soda and you you get that shit very soggy and then you bake it it's like a soft pretzel uh it's very much like a soft pretzel which i've made many times a soft pretzel, which I've made many times before. I've never made a bagel, but I'm thinking... You could definitely make a bagel.

I think I can make a bagel. I found an article on website. I did not write down what website. It was a good one, though. Bagel.com? It may have have been the times bagel.bagel it was the times or the dispatch or the herald one of those uh that's that explained about the boiling process about the chemistry of it it uh boiling it or poaching it rather uh pre-gelatinizes the starch in the dough locking the liquid inside of it

and expanding the interior. It's like flash-frying a steak before grilling it to seal in the juices. The boiling also thickens the crust. Coppedge, which I guess is a quote from it, who works for the Culinary Institute of America, says that it is essential to produce a more chewy bagel. And I'm sure that person has a first name, but I'll be danged.

You were so excited about bagel. So there's some interesting chemistry in here. You poach it and it basically is like when I made that pot roast, I had to like sear it before I put it in the crock pot for six hours because otherwise it would get all dry. You got to seal that shit in. And that's what that does. It expands the inside while hardening the outside god i love a bagel yeah i know they're good right um so this is this whole process of making a bagel is really wild and i wish i could go back to the first person who looked at their round dough and was like no you, you know what?

I know everyone's baking these things. I'm going to put it in this boiling water for a little bit. And then they did that for a few minutes and they took it out and they're like, oh, I fucked up. This is nothing. It got all soggy and weird. I don't want to waste the dough though. So I am still going to try to bake this bad boy.

And then they did and they're like, oh, dunk, nevermind. This is good. It's a bagel. It's just weird to think about, you know? Well, maybe it was like a sanitation thing of like if we boil it, we know that we killed off the bagel gremlins and-

Yeah, Jerry dropped his shoe in the dough. Damn it, Jerry, you dropped your shoe in the dough, you got your foot stink all over it. I better boil this dough before I bake it. Oh no, I made a bagel. Cool. I'm gonna be rich. Griffin, you would know. Are there bagels in the Bible?

Are there bagels in the Bible? No, I don't believe so. There is stuff about... There's bread. There's bread and leavened and the unleavened variety and manna from heaven which that might have been bagels that might have been bagels i don't know that's that gives me sort of a cloudy with a chance of meatballs vibe which i don't think the bible or that movie we're necessarily going for uh but that could have been the case

bagels you have so many flavor options for the bagel itself all of them are wonderful i've never eaten a bagel and been like this flavor of the bagel bread was no good everything poppy seed salt blueberry cinnamon raisin whatever i'm i'm i'm down with it and then the toppings world's your oyster i do some peanut butter on there i do some cream cheese or you do what i used to do when I lived in Chicago. And what I have for breakfast for an entire fucking calendar year was cream cheese with banana slices on it every day. Oh, that'll put you down for the count. Rachel did not like that.

Banana on top of cream cheese. I feel like we've talked about this before. Oh, it's perfect. It is sweet, creamy, delicious treat. Or if you want to go the savory route, lox, cap you can do an open face you can do a sandwich sandwich you do a sandwich you can do whatever it transitions day to night tasty creamy treat to savory snack it can be what you need when you need it i could eat a bagel anytime any day i'm not gonna do the bagel bites theme song but if I dress

it up correctly, I can have this bad boy whenever I want it, however I want it. And I have, I did today. I had a little elevated PB and J with bagel bread. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. Now you, I've let you into my house. This is my crib. So this is where the shoes go. And over here, I've just made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for myself out of bagel bread. I'm 31 years old and I have a child. Can I tell you this is a little insight into marriage for those of you that are not married. That'll leave the peanut butter out? Aw, nuts. I came home and there was a knife in the sink with some peanut butter on it.

Okay, so there was something I did bad. Well, no, it wasn't that you did it bad. It was just I saw that knife with the peanut butter on it. Okay, so there was something I did bad. Well, no, it wasn't that you did it bad. It was just I saw that knife with the peanut butter on it, and I knew. Griffin had a bagel today. Yeah, sorry for all the gulping noises. I'm drinking water. I drink a lot of water for health, and I eat a lot of bagels for health, too. So I guess you could say I'm a real fitness nut.

So can I steal you away, please? I think you did that last week. No, last week I did like a chicken noise or like a... Oh, yeah, you're right. Here's an idea. Okay. And you let me know if you like it or not. Let's just kiss each other from the mic

and we'll make descending tones. What if we just like kiss our hands? I don't, that'd be embarrassed and also my hand still smells like pizza from the other day yeah i know rachel i swear to god i've taken like six showers since then and i wash my hands you know several times a day every time i go to the b room or i touch something gross this i't, it's like I got a stink tattoo. I swear to God, it will not come off. All right, I'm going to kiss my hand then. Okay. Okay.

I got jealous. Damn it. I have a jumbotron. Okay, let her rip. This mess. Blast off. This message is for Joe Roland. It is from Kelly Roland. Hell yeah.

I am so glad that I get to spend the rest of my life goofing and laughing with you. Thank you for taking me from American Idol to Destiny's Child. I love you. Wait, was her last name Clarkson before? That has to be what it is, right? No, Kelly Roland is a member of Destiny's Child. Right, but she said, thank you for taking me from American Idol to Destiny's Child. I think that her last name used to be Clarkson, right? Kelly Clarkson.

Yes, thank you, yes. Now we're in the same bit together. Interesting. Yes. What if his name was Justin Guarini? Then the joke wouldn't make sense, huh? Yeah, yours was better. I tried to punch up your shit, listener, but you did a better job than I did. So there.

This next message is for Jade Charrington. It is from Parker Thompson. Jade, you are the love of my life. You are the most wonderful, kind, beautiful girl I've ever met, and you make me feel like the luckiest guy in the whole world. Thank you so much for all the ways you have changed my life. I'm so glad I met you, thanks to the brothers in Smooch Island, the McElroy dating group. Island magic is real. Did I know this existed?

I'm guessing it's a Facebook spinoff group. For dating? I have my own christian mingle called smooch island fuck yes this changes everything for me well i don't know that you get a say in who pairs up on smooch island griffin i want to though i want to do my own little tomodachi life sort of situation where i'm like, you know, this week it's just farmers. That's originally what that was going to be called.

Yeah, this week it's just farmers. This week, just Christians here on Christian Mingle. Hey, quick note about the Jumbotrons. They are about to go on sale again for our our podcast but we're doing them in kind of a new way for a few of our shows uh jumbotrons if you've ever tried to buy one before they sell out extremely quickly which is not us bragging as much as sort of explaining a serious programming issue we've run into in the past so uh because of high demand which actually crashed the max fun servers last time uh this time we are actually raffling off Jumbotron slots.

Starting May 24th, listeners can head to MaximumFun.org slash Jumbotron Raffle to enter raffles to purchase one of the limited Jumbotron spots on both Wonderful and the Adventure Zone. They are estimated to run in the latter half of the year, and the raffle closes on June 14th. Again, it is MaximumFun.org slash Jumbotron Raffle. I know that it sounds weird into a raffle to buy a Jumbotron, but we have tried a lot of different ways to, you know, make sure that people get the Jumbotron spots that they want. But the demand has far outstripped the supply because we only do a couple of these per episode of the show. So we're going to try doing it this way and see if it keeps the website from exploding. Yeah, and it keeps you from having to be at your computer

at a specific time competing with a bunch of online traffic, hopefully. Yes, and losing because your freaking dad picked up the phone to call his football friends oh my gosh damn it are you too young to remember okay am i too young to be playing everquest like about to take down the boss of of you know crush bone and like killing it with all my best friends online. And then my frickin' dad picks up the phone to call his football friends and the game is destroyed. No, Rachel, I'm not too young.

Oh, my gosh. Am I too young to be playing The Sims online? And I'm about to buy a parcel of— all of them are sort of MMO-based now that I think about it. The Dead Pilot Society podcast brings you hilarious comedy pilots that were never made featuring actors like Aubrey Plaza, Andy Richter, Paul F. Tompkins, John Hodgman, Adam Scott, Molly Shannon, Busy Phillips, Tom Lennon, Anna Camp, Laurie Metcalf, Alicia Day, Michael Ian Black, Adam Savage, Paul Scheer, Ben Schwartz, Skylar Astin, May Whitman, Josh Molina, Ben Feldman, Nicole Byer, Jason Ritter, Sarah Chalk, Steve Agee, Jane Levy, Alison Tolman, Danielle Nicolette, Casey Wilson, Anna Ortiz, Lorraine Newman, June Diane Raphael, Kiernan Shipka, Ed Weeks, Zach Knighton, Carrie Kenny Silver, John Ross Bowie, Jamie Denbo, Janet Varney, Alexander Torson, Emily Morales, Matt Gourley, Heather O'Reilly, Ellen Gale, Ellen Gale, and many more. Listen at MaximumFun.org, iTunes, or wherever you download podcasts. Hey, what's your second thing?

My second thing is actually an artist that you mentioned last week. Okay, so Rachel messaged me and was like, hey, if you want to listen to this artist, I don't know if you know about them or not, but you can educate yourself about their music before I talk about it on this episode. And I was like, oh, yeah, thank you. Let me see. Oh, okay. So go ahead.

Well, you talked about several artists last week. I did. And to be fair, I hadn't heard of most of them. Sure. But then it burrowed into my brain. Yes. And I rediscovered snail mail. Let me also say, I was inches away from bringing the roaches this week, which I also talked

about during that segment. So it would have been fun to do like a little spinoff episode just about that one segment that I did on the show the roaches are fucking fantastic by the way i'm obsessed with them now anyway snail mail though is also extremely good so snail mail's first full-length album is coming out june 8th on matador records it's going to be called lush what did they have before just a little ep interesting yeah uh the lead singer lindsey jordan is only 18 holy shit yeah did you know that we have a listener who played bass on that ep

oh no yeah they tweeted at us uh the the week that we talked about it and uh i don't think they're they're no longer with the band i believe but they played bass on that album they're like yeah a band fucking shreds so i'm sorry that I didn't get your name, but that's very cool that you listen. And hey, great fucking slapping, bro. Great slaps, bro. You don't shred a bass, right?

You fucking pound it. Playing bass has gotta be violent, you know? I brutalized that fourth string. I don't like that. Snail Mail, though, is a great band. Yes. So the lead singer has been playing guitar since she was five years old.

Jesus. Her EP came out when she was like a sophomore, junior in high school. The one that I talked about a song from last? Yeah. Holy shit. Yeah. Yeah, she used to have to get, like, notes from her principal to perform at things like South by Southwest.

And, like, bars are, like, out of the question. Yeah. And so the songs off of the new album that have already been released are Heat Wave, Pristine, and Let's Find Out. And I wanted to play a little bit from Pristine. Yeah, let's play a little bit right now. Don't be the light before me Is there any better feeling than coming clean? So she did an interview in Fader recently about the song pristine. And she said,

pristine is really pathetic. I was kind of making fun of myself in a way because I was getting so enveloped in this one love interest and it was almost ridiculous. The chorus is obnoxiously melodramatic. I tried to put that extreme. Oh my God, if you don't love me back, I'm going to die feeling that you have, but you don't want to outwardly express because it's embarrassing.

So some of the lyrics from this song are, don't you like me for me? Is there any better feeling than coming clean? And I know myself and i'll never love anyone else that is very yeah i i love it like this may surprise you to know that i was kind of a moody teen no and then i continued to be kind of a moody 20 something yeah uh and i would say i'm a less moody 30 something yeah i still have moody inclinations oh for sure um but i mean that's like that's why we work but her her songs kind of remind me a little bit of like rilo kiley

and best coast best coast is what that yes i think i like it even better than i i again like i discovered this band because that's spotify and you can like chart it and then you sent this to me like hey i'm going to talk about this and i listened to more of their music today and i was like fuck me this is so good this is very good and it's not like anything else i listen to but like i love i i just think it's so very very like well made and very good music uh she said in a New York Times interview recently, she was talking about how, you know, that she's still kind of a dramatic teen. And she says, I have a lot of self-awareness

and not a lot of shame, which I think is kind of the best combination for an artist. Yeah, for sure. So yeah, so I was just really excited to kind of discover this band um obviously griffin discovered them first it's fine it doesn't matter who discovered them but i'm excited about the new full-length album yeah for sure that is coming out very soon and she's doing uh with her band she's doing a big old tour uh over the next few months i can't believe she was a like middle high schooler like a not even like a senior high schooler but like a you know a a junior varsity

high schooler when she put that when they when they put that ep out that's wild to me yeah she started playing in bands i think right when she was like 15 years old. Playing a guitar at five is like some America's Got Talent shit. That's like, to me, that's the pinnacle, I guess, of prodigy. Is if you get on the... America's Got Talent. Yeah. Do you want to know my second thing? Yes.

It's also a music thing. This one is for an artist who you might know of, listener and Rachel, named Louis Zong. Yeah, that's our cover art. Louis Zong made the cover art for our show. And he did not say you can use the art if you talk about my music on the show. In fact, I DMed him and I was like, are you cool? Is it going to be weird if I talk about your music? Because I genuinely do listen to it a whole, whole lot because it gives me vibes that I now actively seek out. I listen to other music and I'm like, I need some good vibes. And I go look at Louis Zong's music. an animator he uh he made our cover art he has made so many beautiful beautiful pieces of of

art that you can find online across his various social media presences he has this very unique kind of like dreamy style um he has done uh he's done art for uh posters for us before he has made a bunch of my bim bam animations which like never failed to oh my god those are so good uh he also works on we bear bears as uh like a storyboard writer i love that show so much it is a fucking phenomenal show uh that i adore um and he's he's sort of a renaissance man because he does all of this you know visual art that is all very very uh just like incredible but what i've really been listening to a lot lately is his music, because I don't really know how to like describe my aesthetic, but Louis music kind of fits into it. Exactly. A lot of it is a lot of his like albums, which you can all find on his band camp are

themed around like various ideas. There's one called levels, which is a soundtrack to an imaginary video game that doesn't exist. There's one called the atom, which is a soundtrack to an imaginary video game that doesn't exist. There's one called The Atom, which is the soundtrack to an imaginary physics education film. There's one called Dogs, D-A-W-G-Z, which is all about dogs. There's albums dedicated to different environments and moods like road, meadow, land, and space. I listened to some of Levels and Dogs today, and it's just like these little short, upbeat songs that are just delightful to listen to. I think I like how soundtrack-y they are. I enjoy music that sounds like soundtracks to things that aren't actually extant, which I know I'm saying specifically the thing that Louis has done here,

but when I listen to the Jurassic Park soundtrack, I listen to it and I'm like, oh, this is Jurassic Park. If I hear music that sounds like it could be the soundtrack to something but isn't already, then my mind starts trying to develop what that thing is and what the scenes would look like that that music underscores. That must be really good for you creatively. Yeah, I i like it's how i write my own music for like adventure zone is i think of the scene that i want and then i like try to create a soundtrack for it which i jesus christ that was the most like obvious thing ever but that's that's the

kind of music that i also really like enjoying listening to and that describes a lot of louie's body of work he's just so fucking talented that it's wild uh the number of instruments that he plays and the variety of genres that he dabbles in um the stuff that i really love are his songs that are just chill as fuck and these are the vibes that i was talking about earlier and i want to play a few uh clips he has an album called water that is just in his words a concept album about H2O atmospheres. And the whole album is just so pretty. It sounds like background music of a water level in a very good modern video game with these really, really pretty piano runs.

This is a song called Waterfall Music. It's got these blissful, transportive arpeggios and this dainty little slide guitar in the background. This is waterfall music. I just hear that and I just start thinking like, what that waterfall looks like. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, no, that is very chill and very atmospheric. Atmospheric was the word I was trying to think of when I said soundtrack-y. That's a shame.

There's an album called Acoustic, and I want to play a song off that called Hey There. And a lot of his music is electronic, but this album is obviously all acoustic instruments. And it really showcases his talents, not just that he can play all of these different instruments. This one has like, it's got like guitars in it. Obviously it's got, uh, like pretty accordion or some sort of accordion like reed instrument in there. There's a kalimba, like thumb piano situation happening in there. Uh, this is a little bit of, Hey there. and then he has a song called voice that is just this nice electric piano and drum loop under these really, really gentle audio samples.

It's so peaceful and cool. And it just like it chills me right out. what i really like about that last song is I found it because he just tweeted out like a video of the project as he was working on it in his like music software he was working on, which is something he does a lot just tweets out videos of him noodling around with music. And it's it's it's very impressive, like how much stuff like this he puts out. Well, what's great is like it pops up in my timeline. And I never use Twitter hardly at all anymore. But when I do, and I see something pop up from Louie that's like, here's a nice little chill little tune. It just feels like I found a little flower in a parking lot or something.

You know what I mean? It's because the parking lot is a bunch of bad shitty tweets.. You know what I mean? It's because the parking lot is a bunch of bad, shitty tweets. Do you know what I mean? The parking lot is hot because the sun's been shining down on it. I do. And there's glass all over and bad things everywhere. But then there's like a little chill little flyer like, Hey, bud, here's some strumming.

It sounds better than that, though. Do you want to hear some submissions? Yes. Here's one from Allison who says, one thing that I find wonderful is cottonwood season, where the air is constantly filled with fluffy white seed pods. It looks like snow and makes everything feel like a fairy tale. Is this what we've seen?

That's what that shit is. Yes. We have an area, like an intersection near our house, that is always full of these. I thought it was bad pollen. But I guess it always full of these. I thought it was bad pollen. But I guess it's friendly cottonwood. I thought it was like dandelion, like whatever those things are called. I thought it was just snow, but hot snow that happens when it's 100 degrees outside.

So I called the science people, and I was like, hey, hey, hey, you got to get down here. It's the wildest thing it's the hot snow and uh they did and that explains all the ice you put in our microwave trying to make hot snow yeah i thought i could recreate it but i couldn't and i wasted all the science people's time and government money uh ally says my wonderful thing recently is the peacocks that live on a farm across from where i work. Sometimes I get to see them in their yard singing the song of their people, which makes it hard for me to be mad at them when they're walking across the road and making me late for work. I've seen the friendly peacock at a few farms before, back when I lived in a place that was pretty close to farms. I hate to bang this drum week after week but what service

are they providing to the farm is the peacock doing something there that i don't and i hate to bang this drum but it's like what's the function here there's so much about farms we don't know griffin yeah yeah for sure for for sure. But are we eating these things, eggs or meat, or do their feathers produce some sort of healing property if mixed with a particular herb? Maybe they eat small pests. Yes, now that

I believe. I'm not saying they have to have a function. They can just be little farm eye candy. A little treat for the taste, for the visual taste buds. You know, you're looking around a farm, you're like, poop, poop, mud, corn. Hello, big beautiful bird. Nothing wrong with that.

Just doesn't seem very practical. Do you want to do that again so people can use it as their ringtone? Yeah, sure. Well, hello, you big beautiful bird here we go david you have a text message i can just do one of those for everybody real quick if you want no no let's move on paula your dad's calling let's move on uh here's one from emily who says something i found wonderful today is riding the plane train between concourses at the airport due to various shenanigans i've been stuck in the atlanta georgia airport for the last eight or so hours uh this cute rhyme and listening to wonderful thank

you are the only things keeping me sane right now uh the plane train i enjoy i've been stuck in many in airports and felt that urge to get on the plane train and uh you know see what the airport has to offer hey let me hit you with this though train plane so if you know, see what the airport has to offer. Let me hit you with this, though. Train plane. So if you're taking trains across the country. Oh, man. You could get on a small plane. And what's the deal with those little bags of peanuts?

They're so hard to open. They would be so small on the train plane, though. Like, you don't understand how small these peanut bags would be. You're so disappointed in me. Anyway, that's a good joke about the train plane. And this is the last bit of the episode, so thanks for listening. Thank you to Bowen and Augustus for the use of our theme song,

Money Won't Pay. You can find a link to that in the episode description. Thank you to Max Fun. Hey! Yeah! Max Fun! Max Fun! Thank you, MaximumFun.org, for hosting our show. MaximumFun.org. They've got all my favorite podcasts. And many other podcasts.

Davy Jones's Squawker. Like, Can I Pet Your Dog? Can I Pet Your Parrot? And Oh No Ross and Carrie. Oh no, Ross and Carrie. That's nice. Yeah, this is all on MaximumFun.org is the joke. I could do one for pretty much all the shows on the network.

Bullseye, I hit you with my cannon. You know? Bullseye, I hit him with a direct cannon blast. It would be that one. If you want to listen to other McElroy podcasts, you can find them at McElroyShows.com Yeah. Not ARG. No, no, we're not an organization. We're a commercial

business for money. And I think that's it. So, do you want to keep doing my really good pirate podcast joke, or do you want to do something else for outro? Why don't you give me what you would call jordan jesse go captain jesse's gold i think jordan gets the short end of the stick in that arrangement but he'd get a share of the booty if you know what i'm saying

no i'm talking about actual pirate gold anyway bye MaximumFun.org Comedy and culture. Artist owned. Listener supported. Podcasts. Podcasts. Podcasts. They're audio programs that tell smart stories in innovative ways using editing techniques like this.

Like this. Like this. But let's face it, all that smart stuff can be exhausting. That's where Stop Podcasting Yourself comes in. It's so stupid. It's just two stupid dinguses. Being dumb idiot jerks for 90 minutes. Stop Podcasting Yourself.

The stupid show that smart people love. Find it on iTunes. Or MaximumFun.org.