Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Mattie Stout and welcome to Access Podcast, the
Speaker 1: podcast about podcast right here on iHeart Radio. I'm super
Speaker 1: excited about our guests this week. We've got Seth Land,
Speaker 1: you might know here from This American Life, and Mugan Zolfagari, actress,
Speaker 1: comedian and just overall awesome lady. They're in to talk
Speaker 1: about their new improvised comedy sci fi podcast, Mission to Zix.
Speaker 1: Here's the taste. Who's ready to go the ath end
Speaker 1: of space? Love me to introduce you to our security officer. Wow,
Speaker 1: you are in Orpoius Invessador. Wow. So I'm with Seth
Speaker 1: Land and Mujan Zolfagary. They are co creators of Mission
Speaker 1: to Zix, and both of them play characters I like,
Speaker 1: but I really like Mugans a whole whole lot. Her
Speaker 1: character is Bargie Jade, who's the actual ship. And as
Speaker 1: I'm saying this, You're gonna be like, what do you
Speaker 1: mean she plays a ship? I guess you have to
Speaker 1: understand what Mission to Zix is. I let me just
Speaker 1: start by saying, love it, love it, love it, love it.
Speaker 1: First one I was in and I was in for good.
Speaker 1: I'm this is definitely one every week. I'm looking forward
Speaker 1: to this morning. I couldn't wait for the new one
Speaker 1: to come out. But I've been trying to tell folks
Speaker 1: around work what you what it is exactly. So I'm
Speaker 1: gonna let you try to tell folks what it is exactly. Sure,
Speaker 1: I'll give it a shot. So Mission to Zix is
Speaker 1: an improvised science fiction sitcom for your ears and so
Speaker 1: it's It follows a crew of ambassadors who have been
Speaker 1: sent to a distant, horrible corner of the galaxy to
Speaker 1: attempt to establish diplomatic relations. Uh. I believe we refer
Speaker 1: to it as the ass end of space. Yes, they're
Speaker 1: sent to the ass end of space uh to to
Speaker 1: try to uh perform diplomacy with inhabitants of planets who
Speaker 1: who don't really want to meet them, and they repeatedly
Speaker 1: fail on those missions. Or do they or right right,
Speaker 1: they could succeed at any moment. I can't get over
Speaker 1: the quality of the production of I mean I should
Speaker 1: expect it. SETH is also operations directed for This American Life.
Speaker 1: This show, I would say, not really this American Life,
Speaker 1: except for in the quality of it. And that's what
Speaker 1: I'm fascinated by. Is how you guys actually do the show.
Speaker 1: And I don't want to get become like a production nerd,
Speaker 1: but I'm just I try to picture, like how are
Speaker 1: they doing this? Yeah, I mean we have a we're
Speaker 1: we're we're really lucky with our our sound engineer and
Speaker 1: um and sound designer Shane O'Connell who works at the
Speaker 1: studio where we record in green Point, green Point, Brooklyn,
Speaker 1: and he's just like he we had finished recordings and
Speaker 1: he said, hey, do you have someone designing this, I'd
Speaker 1: give a shot. And it turns out he's just like
Speaker 1: really really brilliant and he really gets the show. So
Speaker 1: he's adding a lot with his designs. Yeah, and for
Speaker 1: those like unfamiliar like these are elements that are added
Speaker 1: on later. So as an improviser when we're doing these episodes,
Speaker 1: when I listened to it like a final cut, that's
Speaker 1: I listened to the same thing everyone this is an
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh my god, this is awesome. I didn't
Speaker 1: know we'd have those sounds in right, And the reverse
Speaker 1: is true where you can say like and the wall
Speaker 1: falls down and we cut that out and then Shane
Speaker 1: just puts in like insane soundscapes. You sort of have
Speaker 1: this unlimited budget and so everything when you're doing a
Speaker 1: live improv show on stage where you're just like, you know,
Speaker 1: someone on the back line is making sound effects of
Speaker 1: their mouth, Like, we can put all that stuff in post.
Speaker 1: I tell people all the time I have a company
Speaker 1: where I do some podcasts for for companies, and they
Speaker 1: always come in and go, I wanted to be like
Speaker 1: this American life and I and I immediately go, okay, well,
Speaker 1: how what's your budget? Because you know these aren't easy
Speaker 1: to do with, you know, when you have so much
Speaker 1: sound going on? Um, are you how much of this is? Uh?
Speaker 1: How much? How much editing has to be done on
Speaker 1: this podcast? Or or are you just that funny you
Speaker 1: guys just go and I sit done? Um we uh.
Speaker 1: We record probably about an hour to ninety minutes to
Speaker 1: get a half hour episode, so it's a decent amount
Speaker 1: of editing. UM. I m intimidated by how funny the
Speaker 1: rest of the cast is, So I would. I would.
Speaker 1: I think they are all brilliant, but part of it
Speaker 1: is just too like we wanted to be kind of
Speaker 1: sitcom length. Um. But it is also a luxury to
Speaker 1: be able to cut out bits that just didn't quite
Speaker 1: land or tighten things up. So yeah, or if we
Speaker 1: have a guest who comes in and we have specific
Speaker 1: language that we use, like we say the word juck,
Speaker 1: and we say the word to Lurian to refer to
Speaker 1: a human, and like certain like words that we're keeping
Speaker 1: in every single episode. If they say something incorrectly, we
Speaker 1: go back and like do certain takes again. But every
Speaker 1: in there's no new information like pre written. It's all improvised.
Speaker 1: Speaking of that word juck. You play Bargie Jade, who
Speaker 1: is the ship that the folks live in, and she
Speaker 1: is a sil Oh, thank you so much. You know,
Speaker 1: she's got, she's got that. She might be an old ship,
Speaker 1: but she's a ship everybody wants to to fly. I
Speaker 1: think so soldier's ships. I'd like to jump. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: not safe for work, as you know for the show.
Speaker 1: And and Bargie, I think that she's across from me,
Speaker 1: across between when Dana Carvey used to play Mickey Rooney
Speaker 1: and he would talk about like I've done it all
Speaker 1: and and Joan Rivers, So who are you pulling from
Speaker 1: when you do it? Oh boy, it's just like I think,
Speaker 1: you know, living in New York City. You just come
Speaker 1: across people were kind of like that, like just like
Speaker 1: old Haggard, people who just like had enough. You cross
Speaker 1: the street and they're like you going the wrong way,
Speaker 1: Like I just I think for me, just living in
Speaker 1: New York for eight years, that to me is the
Speaker 1: epitome of living here. That voice. Yeah, if you're like out,
Speaker 1: if you go out onto like Long Beach to take
Speaker 1: the Long Island rail right out to Long Beach or
Speaker 1: something and you like bump into somebody that's you might
Speaker 1: you might run into a human version of Bargie out there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: But they don't have the back story, the film career,
Speaker 1: the storied film career. No, I mean they might. If
Speaker 1: you sit with them for a while, they'll tell you everything.
Speaker 1: So I think Bargie is that type. But if you
Speaker 1: doc next to Bargie, she'll tell you everything about her life,
Speaker 1: even if you don't want to know anything about her life.
Speaker 1: The thing I love about Bargie. I love Bargie and
Speaker 1: like the scenes is that, like Bargie is this element
Speaker 1: of chaos where even even though the comedy is always
Speaker 1: going to come from surprise and things going wrong, like
Speaker 1: Bargie will burst in with just like anything, and then
Speaker 1: we just have to deal with it. And she's constantly
Speaker 1: creating problems that are so funny and so it's just
Speaker 1: like she's the wild card. So, like I said, I
Speaker 1: sit like as I'm listening, I'm like, what are they
Speaker 1: doing while they're doing this? And I just I picture
Speaker 1: you sitting in the corner and like thinking, thinking, thinking,
Speaker 1: and then going bam and then dropping a bargie rock
Speaker 1: on everybody. I like to think it's that way. Sometimes
Speaker 1: it's just like I need something, I just say something weird. Well,
Speaker 1: And the nice thing is like the best stuff comes
Speaker 1: when you don't have time to think. Often I think
Speaker 1: like it and then we just have to figure out
Speaker 1: how to deal with it. And Jeremy Bend, who plays
Speaker 1: C fifty three the Droid, is he sort of has
Speaker 1: he's in this like explainer role, so like when something
Speaker 1: crazy happens, he always can act like it's totally normal
Speaker 1: and come up with like a wild explanation for why
Speaker 1: something is true. We can justify anything, right, And the
Speaker 1: other thing that's that's great about the show for me,
Speaker 1: I've listened to the first three episodes two times each,
Speaker 1: and it's just that I get. The first time I listened,
Speaker 1: I was like, I thought I knew what everybody looked like,
Speaker 1: and then I listen again, like, no, I don't think
Speaker 1: they look like that at all, And I like that
Speaker 1: element of like you kind of don't really know, you know,
Speaker 1: you get a kind of an idea but not really. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think I don't know, Like we haven't all really
Speaker 1: talked to each other, the performers, but I think what
Speaker 1: I might envision, like a nerm it to look like
Speaker 1: who who seth place is perhaps different from everybody else believes.
Speaker 1: I'm like excited. Maybe one day if we have like
Speaker 1: fans of people will send us like drawings of like
Speaker 1: what they actually think that we look like. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it's all in your imagination. It's a podcast because there's
Speaker 1: like an image of Bargie on the the art of
Speaker 1: the podcast Bargie Bargie. We sort of know what she
Speaker 1: looks like, but at the same time, I still feel
Speaker 1: like we could come up with a reason why that's
Speaker 1: not even really the picture of her. Yeah, one time,
Speaker 1: I think I referenced that she wears tiny skirt, but
Speaker 1: I still don't know where those tiny skirts come right right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was your head That was your head shot from
Speaker 1: when you were you know, first on a on a
Speaker 1: you you were on a sitcom back in the day.
Speaker 1: I think you know. Jad Apple rom I had a
Speaker 1: description once for a good podcast and he said that,
Speaker 1: you know, when I'm doing a good podcast, I'm painting
Speaker 1: a picture and you're holding the paintbrush. And I think
Speaker 1: about with this podcast is You're painting a picture, but
Speaker 1: I've got like colored pencils and I'm doing it, but
Speaker 1: I can erase and I'm redrawing it again. And that's
Speaker 1: one of the reasons I really really love the podcast
Speaker 1: so much. How is the you know set up for
Speaker 1: for one of these episodes, like how much you always
Speaker 1: wanted the same thing about like Larry David, you know,
Speaker 1: how much of it is is laid out and then
Speaker 1: how much of it is just it goes off on
Speaker 1: a tangent you didn't expect. I think, uh, it's kind
Speaker 1: of shifted as we've done more episodes. Like in the
Speaker 1: early episodes, one of the only single things that information
Speaker 1: that we have is that we asked the guests like
Speaker 1: what sort of character do you want to be and
Speaker 1: where in the world are we going? So we have
Speaker 1: that and to play. But now that we're thinking we
Speaker 1: were gonna we're actually having like a season arc. There's
Speaker 1: certain elements that we know we want to have in
Speaker 1: the show, but we don't. We still don't know as
Speaker 1: we're recording and how we get there. So yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean I think that like from what I've read about
Speaker 1: Curb Your Enthusiasm, I think they have a pretty structured outline.
Speaker 1: I don't and and occasionally actual lines. We never have lines,
Speaker 1: and like Lujan said in the beginning, it would really
Speaker 1: just be some the guests saying I want to play
Speaker 1: I want to play a bounty hunter, but he's really
Speaker 1: lonely and so he's like glomming onto you because he
Speaker 1: wants friends. And so that's all we know going in.
Speaker 1: And then we might spend a few minutes at the
Speaker 1: top just kind of like talking, and Winston, who plays Um,
Speaker 1: like a lot of walk on characters, might say like, oh,
Speaker 1: you need someone, Well if someone introduced that guy, so
Speaker 1: like you will meet someone before him, and then and
Speaker 1: then we jump in and just and just record. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think the only real structure that we've had we
Speaker 1: have so far. Who knows, but is the top of
Speaker 1: the show we're all in the ship, and then middle
Speaker 1: of the show we're at the mission, and the end
Speaker 1: of the show we're back on the ship. So that's
Speaker 1: like the if we were to put like an act
Speaker 1: break or something, that's what it would be, right, and
Speaker 1: we do we we do record pickups a little bit
Speaker 1: for if because once we've edited, we need little transitions
Speaker 1: and we realized we've contradicted something in a previous episode
Speaker 1: or just um, just we think like a little a
Speaker 1: little tiny thing isn't working. And that's really mostly just
Speaker 1: in the intro and outro parts. Because we don't have
Speaker 1: the guest anymore. We have to get we get everything
Speaker 1: from them in that you know, in that one hour.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about the guests that you have
Speaker 1: on the show. Some really awesome folks have lined up
Speaker 1: to be on the program. I can't wait for the
Speaker 1: once coming, but talk to us about some of the
Speaker 1: folks that will be dropping into on the mission to ZIX.
Speaker 1: We've had Sashirza made up from Sara Live and we
Speaker 1: Today's we had Connor Ratliffe who's from UC being all
Speaker 1: sorts of amazing things, and we have Jordan Carlos coming up.
Speaker 1: John Gabriek coming up. Oh boy, it's like all of
Speaker 1: our friends who are also part of the uprises Bred Theater. Yeah. Laura,
Speaker 1: Laura Adams from Unbreakable Kimi Schmidt. Um, she's on an
Speaker 1: episode coming up where I guess we can spoil a
Speaker 1: little bit, but she she plays a She plays a
Speaker 1: waitress at a space diner who has never left the diner.
Speaker 1: John Gabriel plays a fun character that we could spoil.
Speaker 1: If you want to think sith you probably explained better.
Speaker 1: Maybe the name of it. John Gabriel plays a droid
Speaker 1: named b s Um and he is presented to us
Speaker 1: as a loader droid who will be useful to us,
Speaker 1: but he's actually just a roast droid. Um. So uh.
Speaker 1: And you know Gabriel does he's from most everyone is
Speaker 1: somehow involved with UCB, but he also does comedy. Bang
Speaker 1: Bang a lot is on TV and stuff. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: that was interesting recording because everyone else that we've had
Speaker 1: so far has been in our studio in green Point,
Speaker 1: but we actually, I guess we'd be skyped or something
Speaker 1: in John Gabriel. He was doing it from his own
Speaker 1: studio in Los Angeles, and so we didn't even get
Speaker 1: to we saw him, but he wasn't in the room,
Speaker 1: but somehow hopefully it all worked out. And actually that's
Speaker 1: sort of added a thing we didn't realize because we
Speaker 1: realized that he had his like computer up with our
Speaker 1: character names on it. So he was actually like really
Speaker 1: fast with like calling us out individually on things, and
Speaker 1: like he had he like had our little backstories. I
Speaker 1: think he like sort of like cheated in this way.
Speaker 1: That was totally useful for the episode. So she Shar's
Speaker 1: character in the second episode. I can't imagine having done
Speaker 1: that and not having her the voice high pitched, because
Speaker 1: it's so perfect. We did. Actually, we're really we're lucky
Speaker 1: with our studio set up because we get to have
Speaker 1: versions of the voice filters live in our headphones, so
Speaker 1: they get replaced um with like nicer versions, but we
Speaker 1: have Bargie C fifty three, and then guests, if they
Speaker 1: have filters, we get to hear all those live and
Speaker 1: it really is super fun. Now, Seth, you were you know,
Speaker 1: from This American Life director of operations, and I want
Speaker 1: to talk a little bit just about the podcasting world
Speaker 1: and how it's expanded This American Life. You're it's royalty baby,
Speaker 1: you're royalty. It's a it's the crown jewl of of
Speaker 1: the podcast world. You can't see but Seth right now
Speaker 1: was wearing so much gold. I'm sure he is. But
Speaker 1: so I was one of the guys that started Stitcher
Speaker 1: and and in general I thought NPR was you know,
Speaker 1: they were the first company that there was a radio
Speaker 1: company that said, you know what, we see something in podcasting,
Speaker 1: and we we know that it's not it doesn't it's
Speaker 1: a different audience. We're not gonna lose radio listeners. What
Speaker 1: has been that environment watching that, you know, go from
Speaker 1: you know, the radio show being you know, the radio
Speaker 1: show to being the podcast. You know, the podcast is
Speaker 1: like all about it now. Yeah, it's been fascinating. I've
Speaker 1: worked there for eleven years, and that was before we
Speaker 1: had a podcast at all. I started there at two
Speaker 1: thousand and six and so um And I think one
Speaker 1: of the reasons that public radio got into podcasting so
Speaker 1: early and has done so well, as they were always
Speaker 1: used to giving away their programs for free. I think
Speaker 1: that commercial radio, like they felt way more nervous about
Speaker 1: losing revenue to this. You know, we're not just going
Speaker 1: to put a file on the internet. Um. And so
Speaker 1: you know, public radio shows were willing to distribute that
Speaker 1: way before there was any kind of revenue model or
Speaker 1: before there were numbers, and before there was advertising or anything.
Speaker 1: So um, so I think those shows really took off.
Speaker 1: And then um and then this American Life in particular
Speaker 1: and shows that kind of have taken on that tone.
Speaker 1: I think just like kind of had the they already
Speaker 1: had this sort of like one on one personal internet
Speaker 1: tone that came out through like YouTube and blogs, so
Speaker 1: it really fit as like a thing that to consume
Speaker 1: on the internet. Um. And and yeah, it's just been
Speaker 1: amazing to see how it's like it grew steadily and
Speaker 1: then just kind of blew up in two thousand, starting
Speaker 1: two thou fourteen when Cereal really brought awareness and Apple
Speaker 1: put their podcast app, they baked it into the phone
Speaker 1: um for everyone. So so it's, um, it's changed a lot.
Speaker 1: You know here I heard it. It is my heart
Speaker 1: is really expanding and jumping head first into podcasting, and uh,
Speaker 1: I'm really excited about that. And you know, I have
Speaker 1: always wont of what it's like working with Ira Glass
Speaker 1: because I have a quick Ira Glass story and and
Speaker 1: it was when we started Stitcher. I was the director
Speaker 1: of content, so I'm I'm trying to get folks to
Speaker 1: come onto our platform and this, and you know, we
Speaker 1: had a deal with NPR, but it I had to
Speaker 1: call uh this American Life and I ended up getting
Speaker 1: to talk to Ira and I'm trying to explain to
Speaker 1: him the the app at what it does and why
Speaker 1: it's good, and I'm really not doing a good job
Speaker 1: of it. I had been a radio guy my whole life.
Speaker 1: I did mornings, and then I decided to go over
Speaker 1: and do this thing. And and then right in the
Speaker 1: middle of it, I were just start kind of quietly
Speaker 1: goes It's hard starting a business, isn't it? And I
Speaker 1: just like it is. And then it just it was
Speaker 1: like it turned from me pitching into like this therapy thing.
Speaker 1: Um is that you know? Is that is that typical
Speaker 1: iron glass? I mean, I would think of that almost
Speaker 1: as an interview technique, you know, because I think like
Speaker 1: if he sensed that, like you were feeling like it
Speaker 1: wasn't going well or something. And sometimes if you're interviewing
Speaker 1: someone and they they're like clambing up or they're not
Speaker 1: not like they you would say something sort of encouraging.
Speaker 1: That's like yeah, yeah, yeah, Like um, one time I
Speaker 1: was like normally in behind the scenes or voicing ads,
Speaker 1: but a couple of times surfaced and but on the show.
Speaker 1: And one time I was telling this like personal story
Speaker 1: about seeing the movie The Shining when I was four
Speaker 1: I think for seven anyway too young to see The Shining,
Speaker 1: and uh and and I was being interviewed in and
Speaker 1: I was talking and he wasn't asking a question, but
Speaker 1: he's just sitting across from me, and he was doing
Speaker 1: that like yeah, yeah, yeah, thing with your hand, like
Speaker 1: sort of like more and more, Yeah, yeah, that's good, more,
Speaker 1: more and more, And I was kind of like, I
Speaker 1: was kind of like, Okay, I don't know what I'm doing,
Speaker 1: but I guess I'm gonna trying to do more of
Speaker 1: it because he wants it. So I felt like more
Speaker 1: gave me more. So but it was it was like validating,
Speaker 1: and I think led to kind of like a deeper
Speaker 1: telling of that part of the story. So I feel
Speaker 1: like that in a way is sort of like that
Speaker 1: he like paused to acknowledge what he imagined when was
Speaker 1: maybe your experience And then I don't know, maybe the
Speaker 1: pitch was easier after that, he's like a therapist. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it was because and I was like, oh, that's that's nice.
Speaker 1: And then I got off the phone, I'm like he's nice.
Speaker 1: And and anyway, right now, I'm really excited about podcasting,
Speaker 1: and I think, you know, I've always been excited about podcasting,
Speaker 1: but you know, ten years ago, we thought, Okay, this
Speaker 1: is it, It's gonna make it. And then in Serial
Speaker 1: Broke it's like, this is you know, really gonna go
Speaker 1: and it started to pick up. But it really feels
Speaker 1: like this last year it's really caught a lot of traction.
Speaker 1: And I think this podcast that you guys are doing
Speaker 1: is the kind of stuff that is going to start happening.
Speaker 1: I feel like the kind of content that is being
Speaker 1: offered in podcasting is going to to really change. And
Speaker 1: I'm you know, the production level of stuff is going
Speaker 1: up and this is a great example of that. You know,
Speaker 1: how do you feel, just in general about about the
Speaker 1: future right now of podcasting. I mean, my one of
Speaker 1: my favorite podcasts recently has been like Homecoming, like the
Speaker 1: season one of Homecoming and when I don't know and
Speaker 1: I even though I really I didn't realize, I was
Speaker 1: also doing something not similar to Homecoming, but also high
Speaker 1: production value storytelling. Ours is fiction, but improvised fiction, and
Speaker 1: it's just exciting. It's in a way it's a it
Speaker 1: is futuristic, but it's an homage to back in the
Speaker 1: day when none of us that televisions and hearing these
Speaker 1: amazing stories. So I'm hoping for more of that, more Homecoming,
Speaker 1: more Mission to six is oh yeah. I mean I
Speaker 1: think even before like working on this show with the
Speaker 1: whole team, um, including I think the only person of
Speaker 1: the six we haven't mentioned yet is Alden Ford, who's
Speaker 1: kind of the ringleader and of the to the degree
Speaker 1: that there is one. He plays plect deck center. But
Speaker 1: like in the in the show, but to the even
Speaker 1: before collaborating with all these people on this show, I
Speaker 1: felt like fiction is the next frontier of of podcasts
Speaker 1: that point. And I think one of the reasons why
Speaker 1: I also feel like Homecoming was a big step forward
Speaker 1: just because of the quality of the performance. Um you
Speaker 1: know it. As improvisers, we have it a little easier
Speaker 1: because it's always easier to give a convincing improvised performance
Speaker 1: than than when you're reading a script um. And so
Speaker 1: we can we Um, you know, we have it. We
Speaker 1: have a little easier than Katherine Keener and Oscar Isaac
Speaker 1: you know Holp they do okay with their careers. Um,
Speaker 1: but yeah, it does just to say I agree that
Speaker 1: fiction I think that you know that it's totally plausible
Speaker 1: that Hollywood studios will put um the energy that they
Speaker 1: would put behind a movie into into a podcast that
Speaker 1: would be so much more affordable and then and can
Speaker 1: actually get heard more widely than a lot of movies
Speaker 1: will be seen. You know what's funny if we're talking
Speaker 1: about how fiction is the future podcasting and and if
Speaker 1: you look though with the history of radio, I mean
Speaker 1: that was the beginning of radio. And I love it.
Speaker 1: I loved it. This this idea of like the radio
Speaker 1: drama and uh, you know is all coming back. It
Speaker 1: just it for me as a radio nerd Uh, it
Speaker 1: makes me really happy. Yeah, and anybody, you don't have
Speaker 1: to look a certain way as long as you have
Speaker 1: that voice that could convince people too. I'm just trying
Speaker 1: to say that both Seth and I are just huge monsters. Honestly,
Speaker 1: this is embarrassing, but I've like thought repeatedly in the studio,
Speaker 1: I was like nobody has to know the amount I'm sweating.
Speaker 1: It's such a crazy large amount of sweat coming out
Speaker 1: of my body and no one will know it's not
Speaker 1: And yeah, that one time it's splashed on the mic audibly,
Speaker 1: that was terrible. But and editing is like to like
Speaker 1: the Alden Alden Ford and I edit the episodes and
Speaker 1: just the you know, we also both do video editing,
Speaker 1: and I think he would agree that, just like at
Speaker 1: a audio editing is such a joy because you you know,
Speaker 1: with video you have such a thing as a jump cut,
Speaker 1: and with audio you can just like splice out you know,
Speaker 1: little bits and it and it, and it flows completely
Speaker 1: naturally and you never have to know that I sweat
Speaker 1: all over the mic. My students, you know, they usually
Speaker 1: have a video editing class first and then to get
Speaker 1: into audio. And it's that same kind of like I
Speaker 1: had no idea how much fun audio editing is, and
Speaker 1: it is. It's a lot of fun. Yeah, Like I mean,
Speaker 1: for instance, at the beginning of the show, I was
Speaker 1: a train wreck of an opening and and we just
Speaker 1: started over again. Isn't that great? And we didn't have
Speaker 1: to waste you know, four rolls of thirty five millimeter film.
Speaker 1: Be worried about daylight. Right, we're losing white, We're losing
Speaker 1: what listen. I want to wrap up with three questions,
Speaker 1: three killer questions, I call them. The first one is
Speaker 1: a question I asked everybody if you were a sandwich personified.
Speaker 1: I'm not your favorite sandwich, but like, if you were sandwich,
Speaker 1: which sandwich would you be? Settling? Let's start with you.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm. I think not my favorite. But what would
Speaker 1: I be? I think I would be like a slider,
Speaker 1: like a small hamburger to the I know I'm going
Speaker 1: I'm no, I'm entering very dangerous territory about calling a
Speaker 1: hamburger a sandwich. I know that I just alienated a
Speaker 1: lot of people, a lot of a lot of a
Speaker 1: lot of sandwich definition boundary enthusiasts now hate the podcast.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I think a slider just because it's like
Speaker 1: it's kind of it's like small, like I'm a pretty
Speaker 1: small person, and uh and it's um, I don't know,
Speaker 1: like I guess it's a little bit. Yeah, that's what
Speaker 1: came to mind, Like a slider nice. Uh. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think I would be a sandwich that my mom used
Speaker 1: to make me in high school. Which is take the
Speaker 1: Persian stew that she made for dinner and put it
Speaker 1: in between two slices of bread. That's just how I
Speaker 1: feel sometimes. I'm just You're just this Persian stew out
Speaker 1: of place between these breads, trying to pretend to be
Speaker 1: a sandwich. But I'm not a sandwich. I'm just stew.
Speaker 1: I think that's my favorite answer to that. God you
Speaker 1: she's your favorite character, your favorite answer. It's like, you know,
Speaker 1: and she was on my favorite show, Kimmy Schmidt. You're
Speaker 1: You're just the best. Thank you. What a great podcast. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know what I'm gonna tweet about. I'm starting my
Speaker 1: Twitter today. Second question, First piece of technology that you
Speaker 1: said this changes my life. For example, mine was a
Speaker 1: Sony Walkman. I remember getting it from my brother and
Speaker 1: being like, oh my gosh, tapes, this is great. I
Speaker 1: can listen to, uh, you know, my Asia tape now
Speaker 1: all over the place. I would think it's because I
Speaker 1: come from a huge techy family. Like my brothers are techys.
Speaker 1: My dad did all. They are all in Silicon Valley.
Speaker 1: I just remember my brother, the middle brother, getting h
Speaker 1: like an early Apple like computer and like early nineties
Speaker 1: and just for me just my relationship with my brother
Speaker 1: was just sitting down and watching him play things, and
Speaker 1: then for the rest of my life sitting down and
Speaker 1: watching him play video games. And so I was never
Speaker 1: the player. I was always the observer. So perhaps that's
Speaker 1: that's why I got into storytelling. Nope, that's not a link. Okay,
Speaker 1: I tried so hard. Also, an iPhone. iPhones are pretty
Speaker 1: pretty changed my life. Um, this is not first, but
Speaker 1: I do I feel like I for Um, I'm thirty
Speaker 1: eight years old and I just got my first car
Speaker 1: last year. Um, and I'd never owned a car before,
Speaker 1: and it's amazing, especially living in Brooklyn, to be able
Speaker 1: to leave and go to a place where you can
Speaker 1: hike or just go to the grocery store that's not
Speaker 1: near the subway. That is yeah, like cheaper and better.
Speaker 1: So having a car, big, big thumbs up to all
Speaker 1: you people entering middle age you haven't given it a shot. Lastly,
Speaker 1: what was the last podcast that you you binged? Probably Homecoming?
Speaker 1: I think I listened to all of season when I
Speaker 1: haven't listened to season two. And oh, although this is
Speaker 1: I guess it's more of like a news binge. But
Speaker 1: one of my favorite podcast just in the morning is
Speaker 1: The Daily with Michael Barberro from New York Times. And
Speaker 1: I think I was gone, I want to like vacation
Speaker 1: for like two weeks, and I came back and I
Speaker 1: listened to all the news. That's not a good binge.
Speaker 1: That's more like, oh God, what happened? Oh got all
Speaker 1: the worst things? I missed all these things? Uh yeah,
Speaker 1: what about um. I've been getting really into song exploder Um,
Speaker 1: which is, uh, it's a it's a short podcast that
Speaker 1: just deconstructs songs. It's like a it's an interview that's
Speaker 1: not narrated, so it's just the answers from the musician
Speaker 1: and then the different instrumental parts and vocal parts of
Speaker 1: the song all separated out, and them talking about the
Speaker 1: history of the song, and then you just at the
Speaker 1: end here the completes song and it's just this like
Speaker 1: perfect structure. And they're like fifteen minutes. So they're really
Speaker 1: good for like I can listen to two of them
Speaker 1: on the way and and even and and even like
Speaker 1: artists with things like the Mark Marin Show, like I
Speaker 1: typically don't I'm not that interested if I'm not interested
Speaker 1: in the person, But with this, like It's made me
Speaker 1: appreciate songs I don't think I would like at all
Speaker 1: if I hadn't just heard the musician tell the story
Speaker 1: of it, and here like the the bits all separate. Well, guys,
Speaker 1: thanks for being my first guest on my new podcast.
Speaker 1: I hope it wasn't too painful. I had a great time.
Speaker 1: I got so many compliments. Thank you for having us
Speaker 1: and the new show mission to Zix. You can follow
Speaker 1: it on Twitter on Facebook, but don't bother looking for
Speaker 1: set Land because he doesn't tweet anything interesting and muson
Speaker 1: Maybe you'll start tweeting. Yeah maybe, And we definitely want
Speaker 1: you to follow the show's Twitter. Don't. You don't have
Speaker 1: to listen to it. We're putting all the good stuff
Speaker 1: on Twitter. Barjari and Jade does have a Twitter account,
Speaker 1: So does Nermott Bundalow. He's he's tweeted twice once. No,
Speaker 1: but I have an Instagram too, which is at mujan z.
Speaker 1: All right, I shall commence stalking. I mean, I mean
Speaker 1: I will friend you. Do you want to give Do
Speaker 1: you want to give him a little bargie on the
Speaker 1: way out here? I would love some bargie. Yes, Okay,
Speaker 1: apparently this is my catchphrase. Do do do Honestly, that's
Speaker 1: a bad thing. Don't even let's not even try. See
Speaker 1: you later. Alright, my favorite time of the show is
Speaker 1: this is the first time we've done it, so maybe
Speaker 1: it won't be my favorite time of the show. But
Speaker 1: my producer z Z who I've known for three years
Speaker 1: and still pronounce your name wrong every time, every single time, Zionya. Yes,
Speaker 1: there we go. Yeah, I don't also always sound like
Speaker 1: a man, just letting people know, don't worry about it,
Speaker 1: you know what. Guys like that little She's very popular,
Speaker 1: so she is kind of new checking out new podcasts,
Speaker 1: and she's going to tell me about ones that maybe
Speaker 1: I've missed because I don't get to hear all podcast
Speaker 1: I want to listen to it. It's tough to keep
Speaker 1: up on them. And by the way, all of these
Speaker 1: podcasts can be heard on I Heart Radio. So I
Speaker 1: need you to tell me about three that I should
Speaker 1: be listening to. Z all right. Well, I actually Mission
Speaker 1: to Zix was like that first science fiction one I've
Speaker 1: ever listened to, and it was so good that I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, there's got to be a lot more.
Speaker 1: And the first one is called The Message by General Electric,
Speaker 1: which I thought they only made Washington of not Washington
Speaker 1: um washing machines and stuff. But they have a whole
Speaker 1: theater podcast and they have a really good one called
Speaker 1: The Message, and it's about a cryptographer and she's trying
Speaker 1: to decode an alien message and it has a really
Speaker 1: good like group of people trying to help her. And
Speaker 1: so if you're really into space and aliens and stuff
Speaker 1: like that, that's a really good one. Well let's take
Speaker 1: a listen to a clip from that colonel you Banks,
Speaker 1: it turns out is an old colleague of Robin and
Speaker 1: Ties from their N s A days. And just to clarify, Nikki,
Speaker 1: your recording equipment is live right now. Yeah, yes, so Perry,
Speaker 1: if you really meant what you said about this being declassified,
Speaker 1: you won't mind saying it right now. Can we sit
Speaker 1: down first or right after you repeat the thing on
Speaker 1: the record, The n s A would like to hire
Speaker 1: cipher to Dakota message we have reason to believe was
Speaker 1: transmitted by an extraterrestrial crazy town Right now, z, I'm
Speaker 1: going to educate you. That's actually a branded content podcast.
Speaker 1: General Electric put that podcast out as a kind of
Speaker 1: a brand awareness sort of podcast. There are a lot
Speaker 1: of branded content podcasts out there that folks don't know about,
Speaker 1: but that's a really good example of one. And it's
Speaker 1: also a really good podcast. Yeah, and so we'll i'll
Speaker 1: not know. My second one is also from them because
Speaker 1: they're just killing it right now, and it's called Yeah
Speaker 1: sorry guy. Um. The second one, it's called Life After
Speaker 1: and it's super Eeriet's about a man who's trying to
Speaker 1: cope with his wife's recent death and like he's getting
Speaker 1: haunted by her and stuff like that. If you're in
Speaker 1: the mysteries and it's a really good one. Just if
Speaker 1: you're like on a drive and you want to binge
Speaker 1: on something, that's the one Life After. Let's check it out.
Speaker 1: And then what's the news, Rosy? And I know that's wrong. Hey,
Speaker 1: I'm talking talk talking to you because I know her
Speaker 1: posts cold and this isn't one of them. I'll repeat
Speaker 1: for the back row. What's the news, Rothie? All right?
Speaker 1: Creepy stuff there? Do you have one? It's not brought
Speaker 1: to us by ge Come on, surprisingly, Um, I got
Speaker 1: one from Gimlet Media. Gimlets, who you're a fan of.
Speaker 1: I'm not just a fan, I'm a fanatic about Gimblet Media.
Speaker 1: I love all of all the podcasts they put out
Speaker 1: and my my branded content podcast company that I owned,
Speaker 1: Matty Media plug there. I started it because of the
Speaker 1: show startup. They're incredible. And this one's called Homecoming. It
Speaker 1: has an all star cast with Cast and Keener. She's
Speaker 1: the mom from Get Out, Oscar Isaac who is po
Speaker 1: Dameron in the new Star Wars, and David Swimmer, who
Speaker 1: is Ross from Friends. So their series regulars um it's
Speaker 1: about a woman helping to oversee a government like medical
Speaker 1: experience experiments. Sorry, and if you like things like Shutter
Speaker 1: Island and like creepy government stuff like that, it's a
Speaker 1: good one. I love that it's a female lead, super mysterious,
Speaker 1: and I like podcasts that have like familiar voices. So yeah, Homecoming,
Speaker 1: let's check it out. Where are you here? What's going on?
Speaker 1: As I said, miss Bergman, I am asking you about
Speaker 1: your work at the Homecoming Initiative, But I have to
Speaker 1: say you seem to be refusing anything. I just don't
Speaker 1: remember what about the name Walter Cruz? Does that ring them? Bill?
Speaker 1: Not that I can recall. And during the interview, seth
Speaker 1: And moves on both were raving about homecoming and I
Speaker 1: feel really dumb that I have not listened to it yet,
Speaker 1: so I'm definitely check that out. Z. Thanks for coming
Speaker 1: in with your horse voice this week. I'll be better
Speaker 1: next time, all right, and next time, let's let's let's
Speaker 1: get something that G does. Impreh, I'm gonna try. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna work my heart ge. You can make the checkout
Speaker 1: to Access Podcasts. Just sent it and care of Mattie
Speaker 1: San Francisco. All Right, we did it. Thanks for listening
Speaker 1: to our first show. Access Podcast is produced by za
Speaker 1: Yanna Dale Ovies No It's got it wrong. Access Podcast
Speaker 1: is produced by Z Engineers, David Williams and Horse Wong.
Speaker 1: Artwork by Dalton Runberg. Special thanks to Chris Peterson, Don
Speaker 1: Parker and Katie Wilcox and iHeart Radio. You can follow
Speaker 1: us on Facebook and see what we look like. Just
Speaker 1: look for Access Podcast and don't forget to download the
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio app and go to podcast, listen to them,
Speaker 1: share them and tell your friends about them. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1: Bye bye,