Wonderful! - Wonderful! Ep. 39: The Lovers Pose

Episode Date: June 20, 2018

Rachel's favorite comfortable lounge wear! Griffin's favorite mint! Rachel's favorite deal-hunting destination! Griffin's favorite radio station! Music: "Money Won't Pay" by bo en and Augustus - https://open.spotify.com/album/7n6zRzTrGPIHt0kRvmWoya MaxFunDrive ends on March 29, 2024! Support our show now by becoming a member at maximumfun.org/join.

Hi, this is Rachel McElroy. Hello, this is Griffin McElroy. And this is Wonderful. Reunited and it feels so good. That was beautiful. Yeah, you know, I felt moved to sing it because I was gone for a little bit last week. You were. And then I came home and we did our usual thing.

I come in the front door, I drop my keys, and then we hold hands and we sit down on the ground. More of a kneel uh sort of a respectful kneel for each other and then we mirror each other's actions for a little bit oh yeah and then we just you know reunited we put that we sing or well we turn that song on the radio we flip around the radio for a while till we find that song and then we sing that to each other in a lover's pose. And then when that is concluded, we just sort of stand up and I'm like, I didn't eat lunch. And you're like, oh, we already did. And I'm like, okay.

And so I leave the room and I go eat some ham. And we just sort of get back to life. Because you can't spend your whole day in a lover's pose singing a beautiful song to each other. I think I could spend a whole day in a lover's pose singing a beautiful song to each other um i think i could spend a whole day in the lover's pose i mean it would be ideal right but we got responsibilities yeah that's what we used to do when we first met yeah but now we got you know um children we got jobs what would you say our ratio of non-lover's pose to lover's pose is? I would say maybe 80-20. Does that feel right to you? No, that seems about right.

Yeah, so a lot of the time in the lover's pose. And it's not a sexual activity. It's more sexual. Do you have any small wonders for this week? You know, it's funny you say that. Yeah. Yeah, I'm curious what you're about to say right now, though. This is going to make you really uncomfortable.

Oh, no. I was going to say sex. Rachel. Just found it odd that we've been doing this show for a while now. We've never mentioned sex as a small wonder. Yeah, well, it feels a bit diminutive, doesn't it? Yeah it's okay it's uh you know pretty good well i don't want to do a whole segment on it well i know but it makes me uncomfortable because i was gonna say queso for my small wonder but it feels like we've made them with equivalent which can i tell you

something yeah i don't know i've had some queso that's pretty freaking good um what's the place that we that's here in austin it's kind of as torches has that queso with like you can get the spicy beef in it too and that yeah that might be it's a good one it might be right up there uh queer eye season two also we're only two episodes in so far but i mean seems good it still seems pretty good y'all yeah um whose turn is it even to start this week because i don't know the summer preview last week i don't think that one counts i think you went first though on the summer preview i don't know did i i think i did yes you're right i went first on the summer preview i think it is

your turn to go first okay uh so it's um it's been kind of a rough week in the world yes so when i sat down to think of my wonderful things. I would say it hasn't been our week, our month, our day, or even our year. Yeah, no, that's fair. I just wanted to do the Friends clap. I thought that you were going to edit that out. I was like, what was that? No, I know I do do that when it's editing time.

And it probably got very confusing for the editors of the TV show Friends. Not that there was much of that hit the cutting room floor because you know fucking ross and phoebe are just turning out gold every time can i ask you have you watched most of friends probably haven't haven't every person i feel like even if you don't watch tv you've somehow seen friends i mean i feel like there's a lot of younger folks today who are like friends pops up on netflix and they're like yeah so i'm watching friends right now and it's like what the fuck are you talking about you're watching i'm just now getting binging friends and it's like it's a decent show sure but it's like it's a terrible way to spend your time the

concept of binging it instead of watching it you know every other day over the course of nine years which is what the rest of america did just still seems so oh my god we have to mention we've talked about friends and we've talked about queer i'm sorry to derail your thing but the thing in episode two of queer is so essential to talk about where they are talking to a guy who's a who seems like a lovely chap if you haven't watched episode two i some spoilers, but it's can you spoil just like a moment of pure human brilliance where one of them asks him who his style icon is, who if he could dress like anybody who's a famous person you think dresses well. And he responds, well, I guess I'd have to say like, Frasier Crane. And then all five of them dissolve. They turn into bones right there

because it's hopeless at that point. It was the funniest fucking thing I've ever seen on a television show before. Sorry. That should be a small wonder too. Yes, that is definitely a small wonder. Okay. So all of this to say my topics this week

tend to be kind of comfort items for me when I was thinking of them. First one, pajamas. Jamma jamma jammas. How have we not talked about pajamas yet? I mean, we've talked about everything around pajamas. We've talked about sleep. We've talked about napping. Griffin and I have a pajama rule that involves basically after six.

that involves basically after six. After six before, I mean, for me, before 4.30 p.m. So really there's an hour and a half there. I was trying to come up with a rhyme. Like, after six, pajamas on these sticks. Your legs. My legs. Sure.

Love them. Yeah, they're're really they're pretty good and i'm not talking about the like t-shirt you got at a concert seven years ago i'm talking about real pajamas like sold as pajamas for pajama purpose i mean i still do have a t-shirt that i got at church camp in geez man i don't know 2002 or something like that. I'm not talking about that shirt. That was an XL that I still do have in my jammy drawer because it's been worn down to the most comfortable threadbare sort of tunic. I'm not talking about that. No, I'm talking about that. You're talking about proper jammy jams.

You can bring that next week if you want. Okay. So pajamas, interesting thing, haven't actually been around that long. Well, I mean, we had nightgowns. You want to pick a century? Oh, shit. I would say, I mean, 19th century? Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, you gave me a 100. There haven't been that many centuries. I would have thought, you know, like as soon as folks started wearing garments. Sure. I mean, but there were nightgowns for a fucking long time, right? Like Ebenezer Scrooge was dressed up in them shits. But that's not jammers though, is it? Oh, well see, I didn't even think about that.

I'm sorry, I just unspooled your whole shit. I know. So pajamas, so obviously this is not, you know, 100% sure. Where did you pull this data from? I mean, a couple places. Is it peer-reviewed? What I found says that pajamas were adopted by British colonies in India in the 18th and 19th centuries. Okay. Pajamas have been introduced to England as lounging attire as early as the 17th century.

But you didn't see them become fashion in Britain and the Western world until about 1870. Well, hold on. They have never been and will never be fashion. I don't. I do not. Oh, shit. That is so not true. Oh, no.

This is a new trend is like women wearing these like silky robes as garments. Interesting. Like out on the runways. Okay. And the red carpets. All right. What about my sweatpants? What about my big church shirt?

See, I don't think that's, that's why I'm talking about pajamas proper. Okay, okay. The term pajama has roots in Persia and stems from the Persian word pajama, which refers to a loose leg garment. Okay. Usually held up with a drawstring. Okay. Thank you, Persia. It's a very good word.

So here's my next part. This is kind of a two-part thing. Oh, okay. Here comes the turn before the prestige. The reason I thought of this is the little footed pajamas that Henry wears. They're the cutest thing ever. Yeah, you put pajamas on a baby and you're just made in the shade. Oh, God, so cute.

They're really, really very, very cute. Were you inspired because I mentioned a couple days ago how jealous I was that my son got to wear full body pajamas with footies? Yes. Because it looks so dope. It looks like a bed that's for got to wear full body pajamas with footies yes because it looks so dope it looks like a bed that's her do you walk around in and they sell that for adults but the proportions of an adult are not nearly as cute in a footed pajama as they are on a baby and there's a lot of stuff that's true for visa babies babies versus adults uh so these were actually originally called blanket sleepers okay uh a A really, sorry, bad name.

Really shitty name. Well, the idea was that a kid was likely to kick the blankets off in their sleep, and this was a way to ensure they were covered all night long. Sure, but when you frame it like that, now it feels like a sort of comfort prison, which I guess, I mean, babies don't know how zippers work. Just sort of like a really cozy Iron Maiden. I'm really not into it anymore. The first company to mass-produce blanket sleepers was Dr. Denton's Sleeping Mills,

which started using the term sleeping garment for their garments starting in 1865. Okay. The blanket sleeper first took something closely resembling its present form in the early 1950s, Its present form in the early 1950s, which included slip-resistant soles, toe caps, rib neck collars and cuffs, zipper closure, snap tab, etc. A lot of technological advancements very quickly. Here's another interesting thing. And I know this is probably not a topic that many people thought they would learn about, but here we are.

Okay. Uh, so the popularity of blanket sleepers soared in the 70s and 80s due to the energy crisis. So advertisements from this period emphasize that thermostats could be set low at night when children slept in blanket sleepers. A bummer of a fact, but an interesting one nonetheless. I just, man, I just love them. Yes, we do not wear onesie with footie pajamas mostly we wear just sort of um i i like a sleep short and you know this about me i like to have my calves exposed um just so griffin conveniently when we travel forgets his sleep shorts so that he can buy more

sleep shorts yes there is a um what is the place close to your parents house there's a cole's right next to rachel's parents house that i've frequented now i believe three times to go buy sleep shorts because i cannot be you know somewhere with my my calves covered up they get so lonely and scared of the dark uh yeah pajamas are always a great gift i feel like it's maybe a little insulting to always get somebody pajamas for a like a birthday or sure and we definitely have people in our lives but we've done that too it is a gift that i always appreciate yeah i i love a good pajama i love a good pajama more than i love like a good suit but that might just be because i've never had a good suit and i've had lots of great pajamas.

Do you want to know my first thing? Yes. Tic Tacs. All right. Yeah. Are you going to get specific on a flavor here? Because I know you have a preference. I mean, the fruit is sort of any of the fruit.

I like the orange, but I also like the fruit adventure, which is sort of a mix of them. And then, you know, I'll go silly with like the apple blend or a grape from time to time. Part of it, I eat Tic Tacs every day, straight up. You might not know this about me. I have them in my car literally all times and I eat them constantly. Part of me wishes that more food was as profoundly utilitarian as a Tic Tac is. Does it really improve your breath oh no no no no so what

the mint ones probably the fruit ones is it's wild to call them a mint because nobody walks out to me afterwards it's like your mouth has a great citrus sort of aroma what is especially utilitarian about the because if i want my mouth to taste like orange candy for like 11 seconds, there is a little and I want to keep that experience in a special small resealable container. I just take one out, put one of these little guys in my mouth, and then that

orange flavor payload is delivered. No other food I can think of is like this. I see a steak and I'm like, I'm going to eat this for dinner, turn it into energy for the big run I have tomorrow. And I'm going to get the steak flavor and I'll have to chew it up for a while. And then I'll have some other food too.

If I'm ever just like in my car and I'm like, my mouth doesn't taste very much like orange candy right now. Pop, 11 seconds, ride the wave, done. Do you remember when you first started on your Tic Tac adventure? It's recent. It's been while I've lived here. There, I don't know, I just get so bored in the car, I guess. So you have bathroom candy, you have car candy.

There are very few places in this house I've got sort of dead drops all over Austin. There are no frills to a Tic-tac there are no bonus features that you have to work through they are little flavor delivery machines and i just i just like having the option available to me i guess um a little bit of history they were first made by an italian candy company called ferrero in 1969 i don't know if this is the same as ferrero rocher or not i didn't google that uh they first came out in 1969 big year for us you know went to the moon i think woodstock probably um they came out in 1969 from ferrero they were originally called refreshing mints hey great freaking job ferrero that's wild that's like nabisco is like here's our new cookie two cookies

and cream in the middle like what um in one year later in 1970 they changed the name to tic-tacs do you know why they're called that no it's onomatopoetic it is that god that word is so fucking it's a sumptuous feast every time it's it's the sound that the mints make in the box whenever you shake the box. Tick-tack. Tick-tick-a-tack. Tick-tick-a-tack. Why couldn't they be tack-tack? Or tick-tick? Or shake-shake. I mean, you could call them really anything. Shake-shake is actually pretty good.

So there have been a lot of flavors throughout history. There's the original orange and fresh mint flavors. Those are the first two out the gate. Then they had cinnamon or winter warmer is what they called them, which is my favorite Marvel movie. There was an orange and lime mix. Aniseed, which is like an herbal spice, which is okay.

Don't remember that one. They've also appeared in over like 100 countries, so a lot of these probably did not come to the States in any form. Spearmint, peppermint, power mint. Oh, they made up just a new sort of plant, I guess, for this one. Sour apple, mandarin, tangerine, berry, fresh orange. Fresh orange, huh? Strawberry, wintergreen, pink grapefruit, orange and lime together. Again, I guess.

Cherry, passion fruit, pomegranate, mango, lime, and in 2014, popcorn. Go to jail, Ferrero. Can I ask you a question? Please. In your head, what is the difference between keeping a small container of Tic Tacs in the car and keeping a box of Nerds? Nerds, the box isn't the same it doesn't really seal up and so i'd be hesitant to sort of eat those again the little plastic magnet uh also a nerd just doesn't and oh god i'm thinking about eating a nerd and with a nerd

like it stays hard pretty much the whole time and you gotta like grind them down in your teeth and it's just like a lot of work a tic tac you just sort of keep in there you get your 11 seconds of orange flavor and by that point the candy has become fairly soft you've gotten to the sort of soft taffy core of it and you just sort of chew it down and then you're done okay don't like a nerd you used to get nerds blizzards from uh dairy queen and that is just sort of like eating a lot of cold grit uh after while. You're enjoying your ice cream. You're like, oh, I got a lot of nugs. And then you spend about 10 minutes on those nugs.

One week we should do just a whole episode on sugar because I feel like your history with sugar is rich. It's weird how I have like 15 cavities. But anyway, there was a grape flavor. It's back and better than ever. Was it grape flavor? It's back and better than ever. And I say better than ever because it was destroyed in 1976 because it used the red dye amaranth, which was a carcinogen. Yeah, that's a big thing.

So some other fun facts. They earned kosher certification for certain flavors of Tic Tacs just last year. So you can find those with like the special label on them. This is not, I don't believe, a reflection in any way of Tic Tacs being healthful. They're like one and a half calories a mint is like their big catchphrase. But that one and a half calories is nothing but sugar and maltodextrin and artificial flavors. And what's the, carnauba wax? That's what they use to make all candy shiny.

Not great for you, but the flavor gets in there. It gets you to Flavortown, and then you're on your way back home. Do you think this is why our son now wants to eat in the car all the time? He learned it from watching you, Dad. Yeah, for sure. Let me do a fun game on you. Okay.

Imagine a box of Tic Tacs, and not the big, big boys that I get. I'm talking about the original rectangular box. Yes. How many mints are inside each regular box of Tic Tacs? I've always been bad at these little contests. Yeah. I'm going to say 40. 38. Wow. Rachel. 40 38 wow rachel i would have won the whole jar well you went over but you would have come really close to winning the whole jar that's incredible i thought for sure you were gonna like go way high

like i thought about it i was toying with 60 i mean i was expecting like 114 like oh come on i mean the big box i get has over 100 and i couldn't see you know 38 i would destroy in one drive home i do sometimes eat them like five or six at a time um i just i like i like the idea of mints and i like the idea of gum but i really don't like gum that much these days. I really, really don't. I used to be really into gum and chewing it all the time, but I almost never do these days because the flavor just disappears and then you're just working and you're just chewing your cud. Can I tell you the first mint memory I have of Griffin? Please.

And when I say Griffin, I mean you. Oh, good. I was speaking to our listeners. The first time we played Scrabble before we were dating. Oh, did I have a presumptuous kiss meant, Ann? That's what it felt like. Yeah. So here's how it went down.

So we were sitting, Griffin was sitting in a chair. I was sitting on the couch. We were sitting at a coffee table. We're playing Scrabble. Griffin puts a mint in his mouth and then comes and sits next to me on the couch. Oh, nice, dude. And I just instantly started sweating. Yeah.

Because I was just like, oh, God. And you said I didn't make any moves. You said you made all the moves. Well, we talked about this later and you act like that wasn't like a conscious play. That was just like I wanted to get a better look at the Scrabble board. No, it was definitely a play. I don't think it was a kiss mint as much as it was. I'm pretty self-conscious about my breath most of the time.

Oh, you're moving closer to me. Yeah, I didn't want you to get any of my stink on you. But most mints are just way too powerful for me. Like an Altoid, oh my God, I have never enjoyed. Oh, were you never an Altoid fan? I have never liked Altoids at all, unless I have a sinus infection, and then I take them to kind of clear up my stuff.

But then I'm talking about mints in the medicinal sense it is not a pleasurable experience cinnamon altoid no way are you freaking kidding oh man okay all right um but a tic tac it's just like that's my ideal it's the the aesthetic ideal of what a mint should be i just want the flavor in my mouth are there generic tic tacs and what would they be called, I wonder? Those are Shake Shakes. And I've been working on them for a long time. My own recipe. I found this YouTube series.

I've been wasting so much time on YouTube since I quit Polygon. I have no idea why I go down these rabbit holes. But I found this series where this test kitchen tries to recreate different candies i watched one where they tried to recreate skittles it was very very interesting and boy i wish i could quote you on what the name of that was so this information

could be even remotely relevant to our audience but uh instead can i steal you away? Yes. It's like the Weird Al remix of the Home Improvement song. Weird Al just phoned it in. Can I share a Jumbotron with you? I wish you would. Oh, and by the way, the Jumbotron raffle has closed and all winners have been contacted. Oh, congratulations. so if you have an email you are a winner and if you don't you didn't win i'm so sorry we did our best uh so this message

is for nick it is from sharon happy fourth anniversary thanks for being the practical mathematician to my emotional english grad student. I love you for always being down to smash Taco Bell and warning me when there are frogs on the porch. I wanted to give public recognition to the man who told me he would move anywhere I wanted as long as there was Wi-Fi. Love you, Pickle. I thought for sure that sentence was just going to stop at the man who's always down to smash i was like whoa do you know when people started sort of using that lingo i thought for sure they were talking about um playing super smash brothers see all i think of is smash williams on friday night lights yeah i'm always down to watch smash williams on seasons one and two on friday night lights yes

uh this message is for matth. It is from Brianna. Happy birthday. You've been my best friend for eight years and I couldn't think of anything to get you that would make you happier than to hear one of the brother's wives. That doesn't say that. It says one of the brothers.

Wish you a happy birthday. It would have also been a really cool surprise if you hadn't seen the calendar reminder reminding me to buy this for you. Hope this finds you well and in January. it would have also been a really cool surprise if you hadn't seen the calendar reminder reminding me to buy this for you hope this finds you well and in january hey happy birthday oh man we fucked that up about as bad as you possibly could so i don't want to also say happy birthday again yeah i'll do happy birthday for 2017 and happy birthday for 2018. This way we've kind of split the uprights instead of being nearly half a year late. Well, January, so 2019.

Yeah, we'll give you a go ahead and happy birthday for 2019. That's three years. So really, you've just tripled your Jumbotron investment. Congratulations. You never know who you'll run into in Fairhaven, the city under the bubble. Alison Becker. Eliza Skinner. Keith Powell.

Mucus-drenched imp monsters. Rob Corddry. Christelle Alonzo. Judy Greer. Grotesquely possessive carnivorous plants. Justin McElroy. Travis McElroy. Griffin McElroy.

Terrifying, malevolent, sentient beards. John Hodgman. Paul F. Tompkins. Lisa Loeb. Bubble, the sci-fi comedy from MaximumFun.org. Just open your podcast app and search for Bubble. What's that number two? Who does number two work for?

Your second topic. Listener, picture the look I'm giving. Oh, it's wilting. You're probably exactly right. It's quite, quite difficult for me to process. So for my second thing, I actually learned a little jargon I was not familiar with. Okay. Off-price retail stores.

Okay. What do you think that means?all's yeah okay it's marshall's tj maxx ross what is okay but i i kind of knew what that was but i don't know anything about these stores or why they are special enough that you've highlighted them well you've come to the right place. Okay. So off-price retailers are retailers who provide high-quality goods at cheap prices. They usually sell secondhand goods, off-season items, et cetera. Retailers often offer inconsistent assortment

of brand name and fashion-oriented goods at low prices. They buy manufacturer-irregular seconds, closeouts, canceled orders, overruns, goods returned by other retailers, and end-of-season closeout merchandise. Okay. Their model is essentially as follows. When the designer labels produce more clothes than normal shops will sell at full price. Stores like TJ Maxx and Ross will buy them at a deep discount and then resell them.

Interesting. I did not know this was the Marshall's business model. I knew that you could go there and get like an affordable shoe or something, but I didn't know it's because the shoe place fucked up, made too many shoes. Yeah. So the sales of a lot of like department store or like, you know, name brands are down like significantly. In 2014, TJ Maxx sales overtook those of Macy's.

Whoa. Then wait a minute. How could they have overtaken them if it's their inventory exists because Macy's, I guess that answers the question, right? Yeah. People aren't buying it at Macy's and it sits there and then it makes its way to TJ Maxx and people buy it for cheaper. Interesting.

Uh, so this is from CNBC. there and then it makes its way to TJ Maxx and people buy it for cheaper. So this is from CNBC. Since 2011, department stores have lost roughly $25 billion in sales and are on pace to lose another $22 billion over the next five years. Off-price retailers, though, have gained $14 billion since 2011. We've never had a business section on this show, and I'm very deeply excited about it. So TJ Maxx and Marshalls have been a big part of my life since I was, well, really ever able to go shopping. Really? Yes.

My family believes strongly in the discounted or clearance item. Sure. And add to that kind of the thrill of of of finding something oh getting a deal is always so choice well and specifically the way those stores are set up like you're not going to have something in every size yeah you may not have more than one of something uh you never really know what you're going to find and so there's there's some thrill in that yeah for sure um but yeah getting something on sale and then kind of discovering it.

Because I don't care about seasons, you know? I've never understood that. If something is from spring 2017, I will wear it in spring 2018. And no judgment on those for whom fashion is a hobby. And so this idea of seasons is an interest of theirs.

But aside from you don't wear a sweater in the summer because it's too hot and you'll die like that's about as far as my understanding of seasonal clothes goes yeah so a lot of a lot of what i found on this is from the economist um but it talks about how this is uh this is a model that appeals to the shopper who loves to rummage hoping to stumble across the perfect item at an irresistible price. I'll tell you what I like about Marshalls, too, is you can get like a nice pair of slacks and a new belt. And then at the front, like weird bulk candy. And then at the back of the store, there's some candlesticks.

And it's like, OK, I came here for the belt, but I got the pants. I got the bulk candy and I bought like nine candlesticks and some new linens. So this is a weird store. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's kind of, you know, it's kind of like a Target. Yeah. But what you're getting is like a Calvin Klein shirt, and it'll say on the tag, like, suggested retail, you know, $49.99. But because the tag says Balvin Blind, they fucked that one up.

It's yours for $4. And they're selling it. Have I ever told you about the Grandview Weekend Outlet? This was a shop. Is this where you got all your furniture from? Yeah, this is a shop, I believe in Cerrito Canova, which is outside of Huntington, that sold almost exclusively open box stuff from your Targets and your Walmart's uh discounted to uh such like preposterous degree like really very much discount on a lot of things like a nice lamp for like 75 cents very very deeply discounted and

so we use this to buy all of our furniture for the rec room that we i talked about like a few episodes ago um but the store was essentially a big warehouse and every weekend that you went it was only open on saturday and sunday mornings every weekend that you went it was a completely different store because all of the inventory was sold by the end of the weekend yeah and it was run as such it was like if you told me today on wednesday that i had to open up a retail store by Saturday. That's how it felt every fucking time. Yeah.

And that's something when I was researching these stores is done kind of deliberately. Sure. And also, I think the example they gave was like a Ross dress for less. It said their inventory changes like three to six times a week just because they're getting shipments regularly. It must be rough to work in one of these stores is what I'll say. To manage all of that must be difficult. Well, and they keep their staff really low, too. What I was reading said that since customers come in with the expectation that everything is out on the floor, there's nothing in the back, and also what you find is what you find, so they don't need as many staff on the floor because people don't really need assistance hunting anything down.

They know what they're in for when they walk in. I hope they are treated well. I don't know if that was part of your research or not. So that was perhaps an oversight of ours. But I do enjoy a, what's it called? Low price. Off price. Shop town.

Off price retailer. Yeah. Super rewarding and fun. How about my second thing? Yes. My second thing is campus radio or college radio. Oh, what a good one. I know.

I was very excited when I thought of this. So a little bit of backstory. I grew up in Huntington, West Virginia. I went to college there. So I spent my first 22 years of my life there. And there weren't a ton of radio station options for me the entire time I was there. There was Country Radio TCR, which is where my dad worked. There was a Top 40 station, WKEE.

There was 101.5 The River, which was like the classic rock station. That one was all right. I got into that one a little bit when I was like in college and got a little bit older. But there was like a, you know, a butt rock station. There was a Christian contemporary music station. What do you mean when you say butt rock? You know, like, look at this photo. Like Nickelback would probably fit in there as sort of passe as it is to drag Nickelback in 2018. But we had like an NPR affiliate, which...

But we had like an NPR affiliate, which, no, when I was in fucking high school, like it, when I was in high school, it was not my jam. There were some talk show stations and so on. None of them really had like the kind of music that I thought was cool when I was younger. And I am happy to say that despite the fact that my dad worked at one of these radio stations for like 30 years. happy to say that despite the fact that my dad worked at one of these radio stations for like 30 years. And I imagine that my story is not too like uncommon for a lot of folks growing up in certain parts of the country, where you don't have that many, you know, radio stations to choose from. And a lot of them are sort of big box radio station conglomerates who are playing, you know,

just the same sort of top 40 hits. I imagine also that the relief I found is the same as those folks throughout the country who ran into the same problem, which was my local college radio station. For me, it was 88.1 WMUL, the Marshall University radio station. And I was spoiled because MUL was an extremely good, like nationally recognized campus radio station. It had programming pretty much all day with, you know, sports coverage, local sports coverage, news, talk shows about college affairs. It won hundreds of national and regional awards from the National Broadcasting Society and the Associated Press. It was very, very legit.

Did you listen to it before you were in college? So, yes. And then the reason I did that was not all that other bullshit I just said. It was the fact that it was the only place I could listen to the kind of music that I actually enjoyed. I'm not trying to make myself sound like a hipster or anything like that. But there was no other place to listen to Ben Folds Five and, and They Might Be Giants, and Soul Coughing, and Built to Spill. And, you know, these bands that I liked when I was younger, just because, you know, it was radio, and radio has a very structured way and a very sort of set way of playing their music. And we didn't have, you know, an indie rock station. And so I found that on

WMUL. But then when I got older, it continued to be like this place of discovery, where I found that on WMUL. But then when I got older, it continued to be like this place of discovery where I found like broken social scene and clap your hands, say yeah, and the shins. I remember growing up listening to a lot of Dr. Demento, which was this radio show that played just a lot of very strange stuff. It's where like Weird Al had his big break. It was the Spotify Discover playlist before Spotify Discover playlist. And there's our one mention of Spotify, so the checks will continue to come um the the other thing that made emuel cool is that it didn't just play one type of music and this is true of pretty much all college radio stations and it's what makes it stand apart from other you know themed like that we play country music here we play contemporary christian music here. And on MUL, it was everything, depending on what the volunteer DJ working at any given time was into and wanted to play. I guaranteed that every time you tune in, you would get to hear something different.

at a very late night show that was mostly based around Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. There was a guy who came on also pretty late at night who just played like video game soundtrack music. And there was another show like that here on the College Station in Austin that I remember listening to a few times whenever I first moved here. And there was a bluegrass show. There was a classic hip hop show. It was just all over the map. And there was a bluegrass show.

There was a classic hip hop show. It was just all over the map. And again, that variety is because WMUL, like most college stations, is almost entirely staffed by students, which I think is a really invaluable service that college radio can provide this big, actual, real world experience and responsibility. The folks I knew who really embedded themselves in our radio station at our journalism school during my time at college i think anecdotally they all found work uh more easily than the folks who were more in the print and the tv news side of things because they actually had this radio like a real ass radio station uh that a

lot of people were listening to and had this responsibility kind of drilled into them i had a college radio show and i was i was also a producer for a lot like three years i did uh news broadcasts i think like two days a week i was on the on the board and i produced packages and stuff and you know i won a few awards i think i have some up on the up on the on the board and i produced packages and stuff and you know i won a few awards i think i have some up on the up on the bookshelf there i don't mean to brag but uh and it was really drilled into you like hey this is a real ass radio station yeah if you cuss you are going to pay the fines uh and and all of this very very scary stuff which is to say like there's nothing separating our radio station from the other sort of uh by huge corporation radio stations. And so like, let that weigh heavy

on your heart every time that you are in charge of the radio station for any given period. See, I used to, so my college radio station in Columbia, Missouri, I thought was also really good. Although one morning, because I set my alarm clock to the college radio station, which was kind of risky because one morning nobody was on the air. Oh, no. And I slept right through my alarm. That would not fly at Marshall. So I hosted a show with my friend Patrick and Justin, our friend here in Austin. Justin sort of became an unofficial co-host by the

third year that we did it called The Mixtape Fantastic. I wish you could still listen. Is there any way to still listen? There is not. I was looking in my car to see if I could find any of the old CDs because what we would do is burn a mix CD and bring it in, which we were not supposed to do. You were just supposed to play music that was cleared by the radio station. But it was from 1 to 3 a.m. every Thursday.

So nobody really gave a shit. And they've all broken. I mean, I've had them for so many years and jammed them in my glove compartment enough times that none have survived, so unfortunately. The show we did was fucking wild. Like I said, we had different mixtapes, and me and Patrick had pretty different flavors.

There was a lot. Even then? Even then. Not like wildly different, but like I would bring corn moe or something like that. And he would bring like, you know, Lucero or some more sort of traditional rock jams or something like that.

Did a lot of sort of sitting in the car up to that build up to 1 a.m. listening to the CD. Like, oh no, they say fuck a lot in this song so let's go ahead and remember to skip track 6 we did dumb skits this is the stuff that I miss I remember we did a review of the B movie

done by an actual B who went to see the B movie we did an interview wait wait wait can I speak to the B? Patrick was the B I was the interviewer Uh, we did an interview. Wait, wait, wait. Can I speak to the bee? Uh, Patrick was the bee. I was the interviewer.

Oh. That's a lie, probably. I just don't remember anything about the bit except that we did a review of the bee movie done by bees. Uh, it was so dumb. We did an interview with one of us pretending to be John Stamos, which I think is a crime. You can't do that. Like, the FCC wouldn't allow that. That sounds like morning radio DJ uh sure me and my friend

Terry uh did a joint interview of John Flansburg from They Might Be Giants which we got to play clips from on our respective shows that was like one of the coolest things I ever did while I was in college um one time we just played rock band into the mic for two hours because rock band had just come out we really wanted to play it with our friends. So we had them go to the radio station and just put the microphone up to the TV and played Rock Band for two hours. And I performed Sabotage by the Beastie Boys. And I definitely said, I got this fucking thorn in my side. And then I realized what I'd done and like stopped the song and the radio probably went silent for a minute or so. And then I just kind of waited for the teacher who was in charge of

siren to go yeah uh didn't got away scott free on that one so thank you to the nine people who were you did not this has been oh my god rachel's wearing a wire i'm here to arrest you um so like nobody listened right nobody listened i think we got five calls over the three years that we did this show but it felt really empowering to be in charge of this thing that anybody in the city could could be listening to, even though they almost certainly won't. That was, you know, transmitted in the same way as these other radio stations that are, you know, were big, big deals. And there's an enormous amount of trust sort of placed on you when you're doing that. And so that experience was very, very important to me, as silly as the show we were doing was.

And I imagine it's the same for everybody who ever got to do anything like this. And so I think that's just like, I think college radio is cool from an artistic standpoint for people who don't do it, who just like listen to it, because it's a really cool way to get a lot of diverse voices out there and has been like a source of discovery for so many great bands throughout, you know, the decades. But for the people who are actually involved in it, I also think it's just like a really, really valuable, very, very cool, unique experience. For sure. Yeah. No, I have always thought it's super cool. Any city you live in, it's definitely worth checking out. So sadly, though, these days, college radio stations are actually dwindling a bit. When they were first sort of established, they were given permission to run these like really low, I think it was like 10 watt, you know, antennas to put out this very, very low frequency signal that wouldn't go very far.

to put out this very, very low frequency signal that wouldn't go very far. But they got to be on FM, which was kind of a big deal. And then in the 70s, FM radio became super popular, and it was really competitive to try to get a channel. And so a lot of campus stations were either forced to pay to upgrade to a higher power signal so that they could be more like any other radio station, or shut down because they weren't really supposed to be doing the really, really low signal towers anymore. So a lot of them did shut down, unfortunately. Marshall was luckily one of those who gathered up the money to upgrade their antenna and play with the big dogs.

But also thecc stopped distributing new licenses i think they're called class d licenses for for college radio stations to even get started so the ones that exist now are with probably a few exceptions mostly grandfathered in yeah um which is a bummer but there are some stations that have like started up or seen a resurgence just through streaming uh internet media which is gonna say if the signal for your college radio station isn't great they probably have a website where yeah most of most of them do but there's a lot who just distribute exclusively through those because those antenna are very very expensive and you know difficult to upkeep and then you know

there's a lot of stuff that goes along with that but yeah college radio rules and i'm i'm uh i'm i'm glad that we live in a place that also has a very, very good college radio station. So that's going to do it for our topics. Do you want to talk about what our friends at home have to say? Yes, please. Mackenzie says, something I find very wonderful is the feeling of a cool breeze on your head right after a fresh haircut. To me, that's a thousand times better than just looking good. Oh.

I'm getting me one of these tomorrow. Oh, good. One of these haircuts. We may be, um, cause it's the summertime months. I get the heat on my head. My hair traps it like a little nest.

Don't like it. Gonna get shorn. Samantha says, I love the smell of hot cement being cooled by rain in the summer. It reminds me of getting to play with the hose on the driveway as a kid and the promise of slightly cooler weather for a little while after the rain stops. It never fails of getting to play with the hose on the driveway as a kid and the promise of slightly cooler weather for a little while after the rain stops. It never fails to relax me. Can I tell you, this happened

while you were gone over the weekend and there was steam coming up off the pavement. It was so hot out. Texas, you are freaking out of control, dude. I know. It's only June. Jen says my small wonder is McDonald's Monopoly. What an adrenaline rush.

I love that. Am I going to win a free medium fry or get the final piece to score a new car? Who knows? Probably neither of those. Best case scenario. Did you guys ever get into this? Holy shit, yes. I was going to say, this seems like a McElroy thing for sure.

I mean, what you have to understand is we went to church uh every wednesday night for like youth group stuff uh and the reward for going to church for the third time in any given week was to get fast food on the way and so when donald's was doing monopoly we got to pick where we go it's like well we're gonna go to the place where i could ostensibly win a nintendo 64 oh my gosh never guys ever get anything oh no which is why i harvest such ill will towards monopoly because if anybody should have won and did not it was us we collected so many of these i was really confused our randall's grocery store was doing monopoly for a while and i didn't really know how that played into the yeah i don't know i mean once you realize that each like section

has one piece that's like impossible to get right like you get a million dollars if you get park place and broadway is that the other one i forget but you find broadway easy like your first box of nugs you're like oh shit i'm halfway to winning a million dollars and it's like nope park place is like a one in 400 trillion chance that you'll ever actually find it how do you store all these monopoly pieces oh in the silverware drawer this has been the episode thank you so much for listening thank you to maximum fun for having us on the network they have so many good shows that you're just gonna love uh they got um stop podcasting yourself they got uh bubble bubble you gotta go listen to bubble

it's uh it's a great show me and justin and travis did a guest spot on it i don't know if that episode is is out yet but um yeah a ton of great shows on max fun 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 what else uh thanks to those of you that do sweet reviews in iTunes. Yeah, thank you for the sweet views. It means a lot. And what else? Oh, if you're looking to join our Facebook group and having trouble finding it,

it's actually still under Rosebuddiescast if you're looking. I don't know how to change it. Yeah, I'm going to have to get Zuck on that one. I'm going to call up the Zuck right now. Hold on. He's got a British phone, so it makes that noise. It's Zuck. Hey, dude.

This is Zuck, right? You sound a lot like me, but sort of talking in the cupped hands. Yeah, I know. What do you need? Our Facebook group. Can you change the name of it up? I already work it out, dude. Thanks, man.

How are things? Pretty bad. Pretty bad. Yeah, we sort of fucked everything up. Yeah, you fucked a lot of stuff up. Yeah, like all of it. But we're trying to fix it. Have you seen the commercials?

Can I talk to the bee now? Yeah, hold on. Hey, this is the bee. What are you doing? I thought I'd be more buzzy. Hey, it's the bee. What can I buzz for you? It's good.

So is that the end? Can we go home? Yes, please. Bye. MaximumFun.org Comedy and culture. Artist owned. Listener supported. Hey everybody, Hal Lublin and Mark Gagliardi from We Got This here to talk about our upcoming live shows. Why don't you tell everybody the details about our show in Philadelphia?

Sure. Here's what we're going to do. You're going to go down to Philadelphia Improv Theater, okay? We're going to do it on Saturday, June 23rd, okay? There are two shows. One is a 5 o'clock show. There's an 8 o'clock show. At an 8 o'clock show, you can get a VIP ticket and hang out with us at 7 p.m. for like a whole hour. We'll sign something for you. You can hang out. You can talk to us. And then come see a show. Both shows are going to be completely different, though.

Both shows? Both shows are going to be different. I sounded like a British actor trying to do a Philadelphia accent. You can look up Philadelphia Podcast Festival. You can look that up and get tickets there. Or you can go to Philadelphia Improv Theater to the Phit Theater, P-H-I-T, and you can get tickets there. Or you can just go direct at bit.ly forward slash WeGotPhilly2018. That's W-E-G-O-T-P-H-I-L-L-Y 2018