Speaker 1: Still get in touch with technology with text stuff from
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. Hey the everyone, and welcome
Speaker 1: to tech Stuff. I'm John and I'm Lauren Folk Obama.
Speaker 1: Happy six hundred episode that champagne which we don't have,
Speaker 1: we do not have at all. So Lauren and I
Speaker 1: we've really wrestled over, figuratively wrestled over what we were
Speaker 1: going to do with this episode. We really weren't sure
Speaker 1: how we wanted to commemorate six hundred episodes of Tech
Speaker 1: Stuff because that's a whole bunch And it means that
Speaker 1: I've been with the show for over a hundred episodes now,
Speaker 1: which is also pretty exciting. I've also been with the
Speaker 1: show for over a hundred episodes. You have You have
Speaker 1: been on the show for every single episode that has
Speaker 1: aired ever, haven't you. Yeah, this is six hundred for me,
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's it's a big deal for me. Really,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sounded like I'm being real dismissed every whatever.
Speaker 1: This really means a lot to me, And it means
Speaker 1: a lot to me that we have so many listeners
Speaker 1: who have stuck around for years and years and years
Speaker 1: who are very supportive and when we say hey, if
Speaker 1: you guys want to let us know what to talk about.
Speaker 1: You guys respond, and we've had some amazing episodes come
Speaker 1: out of suggestions from listeners. So we thought, hey, how
Speaker 1: about we do that thing? So we we took to
Speaker 1: the social media. Social media is yeah, as is the
Speaker 1: media already plural. We took we went to the medium
Speaker 1: social and then we're like, no, we're going total large
Speaker 1: with this social and we put out the word saying
Speaker 1: what should we talk about? And on our Facebook page
Speaker 1: we had a lot of different suggestions, but one of
Speaker 1: the suggestions was just do how tech stuff works. Give
Speaker 1: us the stuff behind tech stuff and it got a
Speaker 1: lot of of likes, a lot of votes essentially, and
Speaker 1: we decided, all right, we'll do that. Now we have
Speaker 1: talked about tech stuff before. We went a lot in
Speaker 1: of the history for episode five when Chris joined us
Speaker 1: in the studio again, by joined us, we mean that
Speaker 1: we kidnapped him. If you recall it, it opened with
Speaker 1: us ripping the tape off his face so he could talk,
Speaker 1: and then he immediately started making puns. So we put
Speaker 1: the tape back on and now here we are, so
Speaker 1: we'll give a quick overview of how this whole thing
Speaker 1: got started. So about six and a half years ago,
Speaker 1: this is two thousand and fourteen, when we're recording this UM,
Speaker 1: I was approached by who was then the head of
Speaker 1: how Stuff Works, and I was even more important. Connal
Speaker 1: came up to me. If you've ever listened to Stuff
Speaker 1: you Should Know, I'm sure you've heard about Connal. In fact,
Speaker 1: he's probably popped up in a couple of other episodes too.
Speaker 1: He he also showed up on video. He was the
Speaker 1: boss in that Trapped in a Meeting video series that
Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know did, and that that the boss
Speaker 1: who was just up there rambling about really bossy stuff.
Speaker 1: That's exactly what our meetings are like. Yeah, he also
Speaker 1: improvd that entire thing just just went twice through two takes,
Speaker 1: like forty five minutes each. As far as I can tell,
Speaker 1: he's made of magic anyway. So he came up to
Speaker 1: me and said, Hey, I was thinking about doing this
Speaker 1: podcast thing, and we're gonna start with stuff you should Know,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna start with stuff you missed in history class,
Speaker 1: which at the time was called Factor Fiction, had Josh
Speaker 1: Clark and Candice Senate Candice Keener. Yeah, in fact, Josh
Speaker 1: and Candice were the original host and that obviously that
Speaker 1: that show has undergone many changes and just continued to
Speaker 1: get even more awesome. Everyone's done a great job on that.
Speaker 1: But those two shows launched first, and then they wanted
Speaker 1: to launch a technology podcast, and so it was gonna
Speaker 1: be called tech Stuff because of course, how stuff works,
Speaker 1: we had to have stuff and everything. So Chris Pellette
Speaker 1: and I became the original hosts of Tech Stuff and uh, originally,
Speaker 1: if you listen to those early episodes, they were really short.
Speaker 1: They hadn't the cap, and that changed when they realized
Speaker 1: that Chris and I couldn't get through introducing ourselves within
Speaker 1: the five minute cap, and eventually we were able to
Speaker 1: go as long as we needed to. So that's the basic,
Speaker 1: the basic history for the beginning. Lauren of course joined
Speaker 1: us in all right. I think I began recording episodes
Speaker 1: at the end of and the first ones air the
Speaker 1: first week of ye and we threw you into the
Speaker 1: deep end. We immediately made you start making predictions. That's easy.
Speaker 1: I mean, saying stuff that I don't know about is
Speaker 1: it's totally fine. I mean, that's that's an allowable thing.
Speaker 1: In the predictions episode, when it gets to the point
Speaker 1: where we have to actually cover technology and actually know
Speaker 1: what we're talking about, that's when it gets tricky. So yeah,
Speaker 1: and and we've been going strong since. So we had
Speaker 1: some other thoughts about, you know, what are we going
Speaker 1: to talk about with the behind the scenes, because it's
Speaker 1: not like we can take you guys around with us
Speaker 1: and show you everything. This is an audio podcast. We could,
Speaker 1: but it would be a pretty boring audio show. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: So one of the things we thought about was talking
Speaker 1: about how we actually put together an episode. So Lauren
Speaker 1: and I we will communicate usually via email, sometimes smoke signal,
Speaker 1: sometimes interpretive dance at some point in the week before
Speaker 1: we record word and we'll pick our subjects, our topics.
Speaker 1: Often we will look at either what's trending in the
Speaker 1: news to see if there's anything that kind of sparks
Speaker 1: our imagination, or more frequently, we look at what listeners
Speaker 1: have suggested. We have a giant Google doc spreadsheet of
Speaker 1: all of these ideas that either we've come up with
Speaker 1: or that you guys have suggested, and uh, usually a
Speaker 1: few little notes about them, but sometimes just a single
Speaker 1: word and uh. And then we'll we'll take the suggestion
Speaker 1: from there, yep. And then we'll sit there and look,
Speaker 1: and we'll also look at what's on our plates because
Speaker 1: some of these subjects automatically we know are going to
Speaker 1: require way more research than others. And and multiple episodes two.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, when when we embarked upon Amazon,
Speaker 1: for example, we were like, this could potentially be seven episodes,
Speaker 1: so let's narrow it down to three. We wound up
Speaker 1: recording two and have the idea for a third kind
Speaker 1: of nebulously floating around. So so those are things that
Speaker 1: we take into consideration because we only have a two
Speaker 1: hour block of recording time every week. Uh sometimes in
Speaker 1: all is great us enough to let us go over that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because we are the last podcast to record on the
Speaker 1: day we record. Well, we'll talk more about that because
Speaker 1: we've got a specific listener question where we can chat
Speaker 1: about that. But uh, yeah, here's the thing. We don't
Speaker 1: have endless amounts of time to sit down and record.
Speaker 1: In fact, our recording sessions are not a whole lot
Speaker 1: longer than the two episodes we tend to record. Sometimes
Speaker 1: we record three. Today we're recording three, for example, So uh,
Speaker 1: episode six hundred one and six hundred two we'll be
Speaker 1: coming out. We'll we'll be recording those the same day
Speaker 1: we're recording episodes six hundred because we love you that
Speaker 1: much and also because I'm going to be on vacation.
Speaker 1: So um. That means that we have to be really
Speaker 1: cognizant of our time, especially since there are other podcasts
Speaker 1: that record, and we only have the one podcast studio.
Speaker 1: It's not like we have multiple studios here at Hell
Speaker 1: stuff works and we all just go into different rooms. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not a giant podcast farm. Yeah. We also only
Speaker 1: have two people who record podcasts. Noel is one of them.
Speaker 1: By by record, we mean the actual physical button pushing
Speaker 1: and editing together and production. We'll be bringing Nol onto
Speaker 1: this episode shortly to talk about his side of this, uh,
Speaker 1: this whole wacky thing we call podcasting. And we also,
Speaker 1: of course have Jerry, the Mysterious Jerry, which we will
Speaker 1: say nothing more about because that's kind of what what
Speaker 1: we do. We don't talk about Jerry. Jerry is awesome,
Speaker 1: by the way. So then we have this in our
Speaker 1: next bit of notes, the actual equipment and software used
Speaker 1: in the recording process. So here's the deal. Lauren and
Speaker 1: I one of the greatest joys I have at doing
Speaker 1: this is the fact that I'm really just responsible for
Speaker 1: making sure that I have the content to talk about
Speaker 1: and that I have the voice to actually express that
Speaker 1: that stuff while we sit down and record. I don't
Speaker 1: have to worry about any of the equipment. I don't
Speaker 1: have to worry about any of the software. I don't
Speaker 1: have to worry about editing. I don't have to worry
Speaker 1: about publishing. I know a lot of people out there,
Speaker 1: people who listen to this show probably work on their
Speaker 1: own podcasts. And you guys are wearing multiple hats. You know,
Speaker 1: you might be you might be on air talent, you
Speaker 1: might be a producer, you might be an editor, you
Speaker 1: could be a publisher. You're probably doing sound design in
Speaker 1: your own studio. Yeah, this is a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: that you guys have to do, and Lauren and I
Speaker 1: don't have to do it. Yeah. We we are very
Speaker 1: fortunate to UM have always worked with incredibly talented and
Speaker 1: dedicated people who make us sound so good. UM. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, there's a whole lot of little blips and
Speaker 1: blobs and mess ups and coughs and oops. I need
Speaker 1: to go eat granola bars and etcetera. That happened in
Speaker 1: the middle of our episode. We've also had a this
Speaker 1: room has gotten so hot that there is no way
Speaker 1: my brain can function. We have to do this later. Uh.
Speaker 1: Fortunately this room is no longer that hot. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: we we worked out that situation. There was a thermostat issue.
Speaker 1: I can cover that when we get into the describe
Speaker 1: the podcast room as the question we have definite. But
Speaker 1: now I would like to bringing our producer and editor
Speaker 1: extraordinaire Noel onto the show. Alright, everyone, we are joined
Speaker 1: by our producer slash editor slash publisher extraordinaire Noel. Noel.
Speaker 1: Say hello, Hi Johnathan, Hi Noel. You're just a bundle
Speaker 1: of energy today, aren't you. So those of you who
Speaker 1: are really astute may think, hey, that that voice sounds familiar,
Speaker 1: And if you listen to a lot of the podcasts
Speaker 1: from How Stuff Works, you may recognize his voice because Noel,
Speaker 1: you've done some at reads, right, sister, I'm usually much
Speaker 1: more a brilliant in those reads. That's true. Yea. We
Speaker 1: we forced him back around from behind his desk that's
Speaker 1: also located within our podcast studio to to join us here.
Speaker 1: Although we do have a foam barrier set up for
Speaker 1: our own protection. Yes, it's really just to make sure
Speaker 1: we don't make eye contact with Noel while he's recording.
Speaker 1: It enrages him. It also makes me really uncomfortable to
Speaker 1: be on this side of the barrier, just so you know. Okay, well,
Speaker 1: well we'll keep this nice and short. So no A
Speaker 1: lot of people want to know about the technology behind
Speaker 1: tech stuff, and we thought who better to talk about
Speaker 1: that than Matt Frederick, but he was busy, so we
Speaker 1: came to you, Burn Burn. Um No, yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: ultimately it's a pretty low tech affair. We have some
Speaker 1: really nice microphones that we use their dynamic vocal mix
Speaker 1: and actually a funny little tidbit, the same microphone that
Speaker 1: was used to record the vocals of Michael Jackson's thriller,
Speaker 1: So the Shure SM seven B than only the SM seven,
Speaker 1: but now they added a little lowercase B. But they
Speaker 1: work really well for recording the voice. Um, you can
Speaker 1: get really close to them, as opposed to it's called
Speaker 1: a condenser mike, which kind of picks up everything and
Speaker 1: all things around them. So this way we reduced the
Speaker 1: you know, noise, and we get a lot of that
Speaker 1: around here because our office is right on the edge
Speaker 1: of the building overlooking a Marta station, which is the
Speaker 1: public transit we have here, so we can hear that
Speaker 1: switching ound every now and then. That's the march. Also
Speaker 1: lots of sirens that we have to stop for, and
Speaker 1: construction going on both above and below us. Yeah, we said,
Speaker 1: the only thing we're missing right now is a marching
Speaker 1: band walking through the office, which should be here any
Speaker 1: minute now. So these microphones they're picking up sound, they
Speaker 1: are sending that sound. Where does the sound go, NOL.
Speaker 1: The sound goes to a computer we have. It's a
Speaker 1: Mac Pro. I think it's about four years old, but
Speaker 1: it does the job really well. We use this program
Speaker 1: that's part of the Final Cut seven suite of software,
Speaker 1: which a lot of video editors actually still like to use.
Speaker 1: But this is the audio editor that comes with that suite,
Speaker 1: and it mainly is just a basic audio recording program.
Speaker 1: There's nothing fancy about it. So once I'm done recording
Speaker 1: the episode, I export the audio files to a dropbox
Speaker 1: folder that I access from home, which is where I
Speaker 1: do most of my editing. Is actually only come into
Speaker 1: the office here a couple of days a week to
Speaker 1: record everyone, um, and then I use a different program
Speaker 1: called Adobe Audition, which actually allows me to use audio
Speaker 1: plug ins that kind of sweeten the sound of the
Speaker 1: You know, your voices are already very sweet, but sometimes
Speaker 1: require a little bit of extra life. I need all
Speaker 1: the sweetener I can get, And then I just add
Speaker 1: some sound design and published them to the RSS feed,
Speaker 1: which then goes out to iTunes and beyond excellent. So
Speaker 1: about how long does it take you to edit a
Speaker 1: typical episode of tech stuff? Well, I added everything at
Speaker 1: double speed is to maximize the time because I do
Speaker 1: quite a few shows and I have a limited amount
Speaker 1: of time that I can work on stuff. Um, So
Speaker 1: it takes about a half an hour to edit an
Speaker 1: hour show. But we all sound like chipmunks the entire
Speaker 1: time that you're doing it, which is true. And you
Speaker 1: occasionally probably hear a little bleed from me editing while
Speaker 1: you're recording over there. So that's the sound of really comforting.
Speaker 1: I thought that was just in my head. Good clear up? Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: that my therapist is going to be so happy. So
Speaker 1: another question then, because you listen to so many different
Speaker 1: house stuff work shows and you have to edit so
Speaker 1: many different shows, whose shows. Do you like to addit
Speaker 1: the most? Well, I mean, I think with with tech stuff,
Speaker 1: the majority of the time I spend is actually cutting
Speaker 1: out puns. What. Yeah, it's true. I make those for
Speaker 1: a reason, nol. He still leaves in. I mean, like
Speaker 1: like you know, a good so or thirty puns per episode.
Speaker 1: There's such a thing as pun overload. I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: put out there right Well, Chris Pallette has not been
Speaker 1: on the show for a really long time, so I
Speaker 1: would like to maintain that. I think. Okay, it's fair
Speaker 1: you've edited them all out that that does make more sense. Okay, well,
Speaker 1: that's that's fair. Noel, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 1: Um we we're glad that people could hear your voice
Speaker 1: and hear you be you and and also just to
Speaker 1: give some more insight onto the kind of stuff we
Speaker 1: use here in the office. Uh. And now we're going
Speaker 1: to banish you to the other side of the room,
Speaker 1: back at your desk behind the safety phone barrier. I've
Speaker 1: never seen someone take off their headphones so angry before. Alright,
Speaker 1: one more thing that we can talk about before we
Speaker 1: take a quick break is to talk about what it's
Speaker 1: like to work here at how stuff works and not
Speaker 1: necessarily go through what our routine is because we have
Speaker 1: a question a little bit later that I think will
Speaker 1: lead into that. But just what's the atmosphere, like, what's
Speaker 1: it like interacting with the other hosts of how stuff works?
Speaker 1: Because believe it or not, we do all have a
Speaker 1: centralized office that we work out of. So yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and I think that we we mentioned when we first
Speaker 1: moved into the current office space that we are in
Speaker 1: that that's a little bit like a call center. It's
Speaker 1: it's very open um and you can kind of reach
Speaker 1: out and poke your your neighbors, and so so we're
Speaker 1: all in pretty close quarters. Yeah, I've got I've got
Speaker 1: Robert Lamb of Stuff to blow your mind on my
Speaker 1: left and Scott Benjamin of car stuff on my right.
Speaker 1: So I've got the two rowdiest loudest people. I'm absolutely joking.
Speaker 1: They are both incredibly focused and so then and quiet
Speaker 1: and into everything that they are doing. Makes me feel
Speaker 1: re really self conscious because I'm an extrovert and I
Speaker 1: like talking to people and it helps me get excited
Speaker 1: about what I'm doing. But they're both introverts and they
Speaker 1: like really focusing on stuff, So I keep thinking going
Speaker 1: through my mind of we did that personality test like
Speaker 1: five years ago. Who was an extrovert on that test? Josh,
Speaker 1: But he's recording, so that's no good and so but
Speaker 1: it is, it's it's a lot of fun. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's one of the best things about working here is
Speaker 1: that the people who work here have great personalities. They're
Speaker 1: wicked smart. Oh yeah, and they just they they they're
Speaker 1: so well read on such a wide variety of subjects,
Speaker 1: mainly because we all have been writing or editing articles
Speaker 1: on these subjects for years or even just that you know,
Speaker 1: for for newer people who are here. Yeah, just I mean,
Speaker 1: there's no one in this office who I am not
Speaker 1: intellectually intimidated by in one way or another because they're
Speaker 1: they're all just amazing, funny, brilliant, terrific people. I sit
Speaker 1: by the way between Um Christian Conger of stuff Mom
Speaker 1: Never Told You and Joe McCormick are our third co
Speaker 1: host on Forward Thinking. Yeah, so we've got lots of
Speaker 1: really smart, funny folks here and that's always a pleasure. Also,
Speaker 1: if you guys aren't familiar, I mean, we we do,
Speaker 1: like Lauren said, we do the show Forward Thinking which
Speaker 1: is an optimistic view of the future and talking about
Speaker 1: all sorts of stuff, not just technology, but science and
Speaker 1: culture and usually optimistic. We tend to be more optimistic
Speaker 1: than not. We We also don't shy away from talking
Speaker 1: about challenges, real challenge of course, that's that's always part
Speaker 1: of it. I do tend on that show to be
Speaker 1: depressing numbers. Girl. That's usually my my job for every
Speaker 1: show is to look into all the statistics that are
Speaker 1: going to make me cry in the shower the next morning.
Speaker 1: But I sweep in and I say, remember that human
Speaker 1: beings are pretty amazing and overcoming obstacles. So that's my job. Also,
Speaker 1: you know, we do a show. We're both hosts on
Speaker 1: a show called brain Stuff series right right Um that
Speaker 1: is being headed by Christian Sager and Um written by
Speaker 1: him and Ben Bolan, produced by Mr Paul den chant
Speaker 1: Um and other hosts on that show include Kristin Conger.
Speaker 1: Josh Clark is also host. Ben Bolan pulls double duty.
Speaker 1: He's also a host, and we tend to pick just uh,
Speaker 1: whatever topics we really like at this point. We kind
Speaker 1: of pick interesting stuff that we can explain in a
Speaker 1: few minutes in an entertaining way. It's usually basic science
Speaker 1: kind of stuff, and we have a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: It's the first time I've done video, and it's a
Speaker 1: huge trip for me getting to to learn this new,
Speaker 1: terrifying skill set. Yeah. So if you've ever wanted to
Speaker 1: see what Lauren looks like when she's enacting a nineteen
Speaker 1: eighties power ballad, you need to watch the episode we
Speaker 1: did about how fast his hair Grow? Yeah. That the
Speaker 1: very first episode that we did. Uh. We we brought
Speaker 1: in a floor fan and I flipped my hair and
Speaker 1: I didn't really understand what my life was anymore. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The only thing was we didn't have any actual soundtrack
Speaker 1: to go along while you were physically flipping your hair
Speaker 1: or else we could have really had you lived the moment. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was really just just you and a Resci Recivic,
Speaker 1: our original producer on that show, giggling, giggling a lot
Speaker 1: about it. It was very difficult not to know. That's
Speaker 1: that's I agree. It was mostly out of envy, Lauren.
Speaker 1: I my hair flipping days are long behind me. But
Speaker 1: you know, no, working it has stuff works in general. Um, Honestly,
Speaker 1: it's the first job I've ever had where I felt
Speaker 1: like I belonged, like where I felt like I was
Speaker 1: part of a team that cared that I was there,
Speaker 1: um and and that was really working towards something awesome. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I mean, it's it's the most rewarding. I keep
Speaker 1: telling people, it's the most challenging job I've ever had,
Speaker 1: and it's the best job I've ever had. Absolutely. We
Speaker 1: probably both work way too much, but but it's it's
Speaker 1: all because we we love learning stuff and sharing what
Speaker 1: we learned with you guys. Yeah. Absolutely, I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's not like, you know, a lot of people said, hey,
Speaker 1: you guys get paid for podcasting. That's actually that wasn't
Speaker 1: true for a very long time, in the sense that
Speaker 1: podcasting was something on top of everything else we did. Uh,
Speaker 1: these days, it's a little bit different. We'll talk about
Speaker 1: that more in the second half. But you know, the
Speaker 1: reason why people would stick with it is because they
Speaker 1: loved it so much. They were really enjoying the experience
Speaker 1: of having these conversations and sharing it with other people
Speaker 1: and then getting the feedback and uh, you know, sometimes
Speaker 1: feedback can be rough, but you know, most of you
Speaker 1: guys out there are pretty awesome. Oh oh yeah, and
Speaker 1: we I mean, we don't always have time to respond
Speaker 1: to every email that we get and every Facebook message
Speaker 1: that we get, but I want you all to know
Speaker 1: that we read every single one of them and appreciate
Speaker 1: so much that you guys take time out of your
Speaker 1: day to to write into us and and share your
Speaker 1: thoughts or give us corrections or any other assorted stuff
Speaker 1: that comes our way. Absolutely, yeah, whether it's a photoshopped,
Speaker 1: uh poster of a popular science fiction film that's been
Speaker 1: retouched to have different people on it, or it's a
Speaker 1: handmade youkalile, I mean, we've we've received some pretty cool
Speaker 1: stuff from folks. You guys are all awesome, So to
Speaker 1: prove how awesome all of you are. And the second
Speaker 1: half what we're going to do is we're going to
Speaker 1: respond to specific questions from our listeners. Plus I think
Speaker 1: we might hear from some fellow how stuff works folks
Speaker 1: as we go along. All right, well, let's take a
Speaker 1: quick break. Okay, we're back, and our first question comes
Speaker 1: from JP on Twitter, and JP asks how much time
Speaker 1: is spent researching prior to recording an episode? Gosh, Jp,
Speaker 1: I don't know that we have an easy answer for this.
Speaker 1: It varies widely depending on the topic and how much
Speaker 1: else is going on in a given Weekum, I would
Speaker 1: I would say that my bare minimum in an emergency
Speaker 1: situation has been an hour and a half, which is
Speaker 1: probably terrible. No, no, Lauren, let me let me put
Speaker 1: your mind at ease. There used to be a time
Speaker 1: when I would record this show at nine am on
Speaker 1: a Friday, and I would get into the office at
Speaker 1: six thirty in the morning and start researching for two
Speaker 1: episodes that we'd started nine and we wouldn't be done
Speaker 1: till eleven. Now, that was an incredibly intense period of research.
Speaker 1: These days, I spread it out a lot more. I
Speaker 1: look at a lot of other sources. I try and
Speaker 1: pull in more information so that it's not just a
Speaker 1: list of facts. I don't want it to be boring.
Speaker 1: So I mean, I would say, on average, I probably
Speaker 1: spend about four hours of research per hour of podcast
Speaker 1: The Child. Yeah, I was I was gonna say three
Speaker 1: to six. It's my it's my average, so probably probably
Speaker 1: right around that. So, yeah, it's it's a lot of
Speaker 1: research for for just a simple conversation, but it's really
Speaker 1: so that we can make it as interesting as we
Speaker 1: can and as accurate as we can, and knowing that
Speaker 1: we do occasionally make mistakes and I make puns. Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, you take that into account as well. But
Speaker 1: we really do try very hard to make sure that
Speaker 1: our episodes are entertaining and informative. And there's some topics
Speaker 1: out there that when we decide we're gonna do it,
Speaker 1: we think, oh, this is gonna be a breeze, We're
Speaker 1: gonna be done in half an hour. Usually the more
Speaker 1: sure we are that it's going to be a short
Speaker 1: and sweet episode, the longer the episode winds up being,
Speaker 1: and the harder it is to research. Yeah. Absolutely, Um,
Speaker 1: although you know that there are we are benefited by
Speaker 1: the fact that Jonathan, you have been working for How
Speaker 1: Stuff Works for so long and you have literally written
Speaker 1: the book, the article on a lot of the topics
Speaker 1: that we talk about. Yeah, sometimes I forget that I
Speaker 1: wrote them. I certainly have forgotten that I've recorded podcasts
Speaker 1: where I tell Lauren, hey, we should do this, and
Speaker 1: you tell me, hey, you did that already. That's happened
Speaker 1: more than once. All right, Well, our next question comes
Speaker 1: from the Pencil to Be on Twitter, who asks what
Speaker 1: is the average time of day that you guys record
Speaker 1: and it's not usually an average because we have a
Speaker 1: studio schedule because there are enough people coming in of
Speaker 1: vying again not not literally, but but vying for a
Speaker 1: studio time and space. I will loom. Uh, this is
Speaker 1: totally true. I will loom if the podcast that records
Speaker 1: immediately before us, which by the way, in case you're wondering,
Speaker 1: is car Stuff with with Ben Bolan and Scott Benjamin,
Speaker 1: they will they record immediately before us. Their recording schedule
Speaker 1: is from one pm to three pm on Thursdays. We
Speaker 1: begin at three pm on Thursdays and technically we're supposed
Speaker 1: to end at five right right now, it's about five. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we go over. That is being really nice. Nol Noel
Speaker 1: has been a saint and has sat in for long
Speaker 1: episodes on multiple occasions, and very occasionally will tell us
Speaker 1: how to stop the recording when we're done and leave early. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because we don't want to keep him here longer than
Speaker 1: he absolutely has to be. So yeah, three pm on
Speaker 1: Thursdays is typically when we record, which, by the way,
Speaker 1: is prime time to be on fire or committing a
Speaker 1: crime in Atlanta. We we know this because as as
Speaker 1: we may or may not have said earlier. Our our
Speaker 1: podcast studio is has one for one wall, a window
Speaker 1: that looks out over a busy roadway and a trainway. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're we're near for those in Atlanta or who are
Speaker 1: familiar with Atlanta, we overlook Peach Tree. There's also Highway
Speaker 1: four hundred that's just under our building and UM and
Speaker 1: also one of the market tracks, so we get we
Speaker 1: get some traffic noise occasionally. So yeah, but anyway, that's
Speaker 1: UM that's when we record. So next from Aaron on Twitter.
Speaker 1: Do you guys still write articles or mostly focused on
Speaker 1: the podcasts? Which do you prefer to do? This is
Speaker 1: a great question because when I started podcasting, I was
Speaker 1: writing an article a week plus a short piece. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there was an article of a week and I kind
Speaker 1: of question of the day style article, which are our
Speaker 1: shorter pieces on how stuff Works dot com right, and
Speaker 1: then doing two podcasts. I was never a writer for
Speaker 1: How Stuff Works. Actually, I was an editor when I
Speaker 1: first joined up UM and then didn't start podcasting until
Speaker 1: about a year and a half or two years into
Speaker 1: my tenure here. So uh, eventually I got to the
Speaker 1: point where I was writing two full articles a week
Speaker 1: plus recording two podcasts. Uh, then I got to the
Speaker 1: point where I was shooting video and right two articles
Speaker 1: a week and doing two podcasts. These days, I don't
Speaker 1: really write articles anymore. I haven't written a brand new
Speaker 1: article from start to finish since two thousand twelve. Okay,
Speaker 1: we just did an update on the how Google Glass
Speaker 1: works article just earlier this month, which Jonathan had originally written,
Speaker 1: and he did a revision on it, and I was
Speaker 1: his editor, standing in for Mr Chris Pollette, who was
Speaker 1: always previously your editor. Right right, You did an excellent
Speaker 1: job Because I've had I've had lots of editors here
Speaker 1: at Hell Stuff Works. I go through them pretty regularly.
Speaker 1: But uh, yeah, it's it's it's interesting because everyone has
Speaker 1: a different way of working with people. But this was seamless.
Speaker 1: For one thing, I think it helped that we had
Speaker 1: been sitting down at the same table and talking every Thursday.
Speaker 1: We also do I mean, we technically edit each other's
Speaker 1: work all the time because of the way that we
Speaker 1: that we do. Yeah. So, anyway, um to ask about
Speaker 1: do you prefer to podcast over writing articles? I miss
Speaker 1: writing articles, to be perfectly honest, I really do miss
Speaker 1: the the art of researching putting together an article and
Speaker 1: writing it. However, uh, from the day when I really
Speaker 1: felt like I had a handle on podcasting. Moving forward,
Speaker 1: I've always enjoyed podcasting a little more. I like both,
Speaker 1: but podcasting for one thing. Anyone who's talked to me knows,
Speaker 1: I'm a you know, I'm a chatterbox. You're you're fond,
Speaker 1: You're fond of speaking aloud. I do. I do well,
Speaker 1: because if I don't speak aloud, all of this happens
Speaker 1: in my head. Lauren, I have to let it out.
Speaker 1: You're right, that's terrifying. Yeah. So anyway, what about you,
Speaker 1: I mean you, you You did not come from a
Speaker 1: podcasting background, and I would think that you're a little
Speaker 1: more introverted than I am a tiny bit. Um And
Speaker 1: then again, I think like Liberacci is a little bit
Speaker 1: more introverted than you are. Technically, Um no, no, well
Speaker 1: you know, I um, I do miss editing. Editing is
Speaker 1: honestly my passion in life. If that is not the
Speaker 1: geekiest thing you've ever heard. I really love working with
Speaker 1: an author to figure out, um, not not only what
Speaker 1: they've said, but what they were trying to say, and
Speaker 1: try to, you know, merge the two into a completely
Speaker 1: perfect universe of of just the best way for them
Speaker 1: to express what they were trying to express. I love
Speaker 1: that process and and I especially love working with it
Speaker 1: with weird technical articles about strange things that I've never
Speaker 1: gotten to to learn about before. So uh so I
Speaker 1: missed that, but I do. I do also love this,
Speaker 1: this crazy thing, this and and and It's been a
Speaker 1: terrific opportunity for me to to expand myself. I never
Speaker 1: thought that I could do this kind of performance, and
Speaker 1: I'm enjoying it very much. That's great. That's great because
Speaker 1: if you were to say, like I despise every moment
Speaker 1: that I come into this room and I don't want
Speaker 1: to talk to you again, I do feel like I
Speaker 1: need to, like like head boop a kitten or eat
Speaker 1: large quantities of chocolate every time that I leave. But
Speaker 1: I've been told that that's an adrenaline saying yeah, you
Speaker 1: get you can you can feel little tired afterward if
Speaker 1: you're on performance mode for too long. So next from
Speaker 1: Emial on Twitter, does Jonathan use puns off the air
Speaker 1: as often as he does on the show, Emil No,
Speaker 1: I do not use puns as often off the air
Speaker 1: as I do on the show. I use them way more. Actually,
Speaker 1: I would say that you you reserve your best puns
Speaker 1: for the show. Well, what's best is that they're concentrated.
Speaker 1: Will actually put in for a lot of them. I'll
Speaker 1: put in the pause and then the pun, which is
Speaker 1: like it's really just the warning here it comes and
Speaker 1: then boom. Just really because I want to I want
Speaker 1: to pause and remind myself. You need to look at
Speaker 1: Lauren now to watch her reaction. So, uh yeah, because
Speaker 1: my my reactions. Hey look, look our next question from
Speaker 1: Dawn on Twitter. How often does Lauren roll her eyes
Speaker 1: at Jonathan at least twice an episode? I'd say that's
Speaker 1: probably a pretty good average. I've been keeping track and
Speaker 1: so far it's three. I'll um, I'll update you guys
Speaker 1: at the end of this episode. Yeah. Uh So, before
Speaker 1: we go on, I want to take a quick moment
Speaker 1: to allow one of our fellow podcast groups to say something.
Speaker 1: I believe Car Stuff has something they wanted to say.
Speaker 1: Hey Jonathan, Hey Lauren, it's a car Stuff. I'm Ben Scott,
Speaker 1: and we just wanted to tell you and all of
Speaker 1: your fans that we're huge Tech stuff fans. We have
Speaker 1: an argument sometimes about what the most important thing that
Speaker 1: happened on a June tenth ever was right, Yeah, that's right,
Speaker 1: And I think we've got it pretty well narrowed down,
Speaker 1: don't we. Yeah, Like it was between the Spirit Rover,
Speaker 1: which launched on June tenth, Equal Pay Act signed in
Speaker 1: the law. First, the one of the first female Saints
Speaker 1: of Lebanon canonized on June tenth. But then there was
Speaker 1: something else. Yeah, something that happened on June tenth, two
Speaker 1: thousand eight, and it was a big, big deal. It
Speaker 1: was the very first episode of tech Stuff and the
Speaker 1: world has never been the same. Congratulations on your six
Speaker 1: hundredth episode, guy, it's a big milestone. Congratulations. Wow. I
Speaker 1: haven't heard what they said yet, but I assumed that
Speaker 1: it was amazing and that when I listened back to
Speaker 1: this podcast, my heart is going to grow three sizes.
Speaker 1: That's that's the effect that Scott Benjamin has on me
Speaker 1: every day. And to be fair, we haven't heard. We
Speaker 1: know that they recorded something. In fact, that's the case
Speaker 1: for all of the ones, with one exception, so we'll
Speaker 1: find out now. I want to know how you would
Speaker 1: say the next name, because I keep dividing it up
Speaker 1: in different ways, and I'm not sure that any of
Speaker 1: them are right. I actually asked, and I don't think
Speaker 1: that the human person in question had a chance to
Speaker 1: get back to me. Um, this is a question from
Speaker 1: tumbler um, and I'm going to assume it's the mathist tree. Okay,
Speaker 1: that makes sense more since than them apes tree, which
Speaker 1: is what I was thinking. Yes, but the tumbler being
Speaker 1: what it is, UM, I didn't have immediate access to
Speaker 1: the person's name, so the mapistry on tumbler um asked
Speaker 1: do you to name the office equipment? And to do
Speaker 1: either of you have your own microphone cover? I've heard
Speaker 1: that they can get nasty. I have not named any
Speaker 1: office equipment. I'm not one to actually give names to
Speaker 1: um inanimate objects in general. I find it amusing when
Speaker 1: other people do. I do understand that lots of folks
Speaker 1: name their cars. I don't do that either. So well,
Speaker 1: you don't have a car, to be fair, Well, no,
Speaker 1: but technically I have a car, I just don't drive it. Uh,
Speaker 1: but do you name any of the office equipment? I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't think I have, but now that you mentioned it,
Speaker 1: I feel like we should. Usually I reserved names for
Speaker 1: things that like for inanimate objects, I'll reserve a name
Speaker 1: for something that that tasks me wrath of con style.
Speaker 1: So you see, this would be even better than I
Speaker 1: mean if we if we named stuff around the office,
Speaker 1: especially like after our co workers, just to sow discord. Okay,
Speaker 1: but yeah, things like if the copier we're being particularly difficult,
Speaker 1: I might name it to therefore direct my ire in
Speaker 1: a more focused way. But everything here works pretty well,
Speaker 1: with one notable exception until recently, the air conditioning in
Speaker 1: this podcast studio, which I have referred to at least
Speaker 1: one other time in this Yes, but no I do not.
Speaker 1: And as for the the own microphone cover, I use
Speaker 1: the one that's already in here. I do as well. Um,
Speaker 1: I believe I could be wrong about this that Chuck
Speaker 1: is the only person who brings in his own microphone cover.
Speaker 1: Nol Is is nodding to us from behind his safety wall. Chuck.
Speaker 1: Chuck will remove the microphone cover and often leave it off.
Speaker 1: So sometimes when we come into record, not not this show,
Speaker 1: but when we record Forward Thinking, which follows stuff you
Speaker 1: should know on Tuesdays. Yes, then often we will come
Speaker 1: in and Lauren's microphone will be sans cover and we
Speaker 1: have to check it down. So if you want to
Speaker 1: write to Chuck and ask him to be more more thoughtful,
Speaker 1: it's not a big deal. No, I mean, Lauren, it's
Speaker 1: usually like right there. It usually takes Yeah, she pointed,
Speaker 1: by the way, in case you were wondering what that was,
Speaker 1: I think they figured it out. Yeah. Well, here's a
Speaker 1: neat surprise. We've got our friends from Stuff to Blow
Speaker 1: your mind, Robert and Julie, who wanted to say something
Speaker 1: to us. So here we go, Lauren and Jonathan, we
Speaker 1: have a message for you. We've really enjoyed your episodes
Speaker 1: about technologies impact on our lives, and we really like
Speaker 1: your jokes and puns. They've never once given us hives.
Speaker 1: And by the way, from the podcast Factor, bow your mind. Wow,
Speaker 1: I hear there was singing involved. I honestly don't know
Speaker 1: yet because I haven't listened to it, but I am
Speaker 1: sure that it was amazing because both Robert and Julie
Speaker 1: are amazing podcasters and amazing singers. They mostly communicate around
Speaker 1: the office through chanting they do. In fact, it's eldritch chanting,
Speaker 1: which is what really makes me jibber. So thanks guys.
Speaker 1: So next for Prosaic Paradise on Tumblr. What's up with
Speaker 1: the app not showing the current hosts? Excellent question. We
Speaker 1: want to know the same thing, or actually we do
Speaker 1: know the same thing and uh and basically the the
Speaker 1: answer is that UM that the company that developed the
Speaker 1: app for how Stuff Works UM is no longer under
Speaker 1: contract with with How Stuff Works. Yeah, that means that
Speaker 1: changing it it's outside of our area, right. We don't
Speaker 1: have anyone in How Stuff Works who does app developments,
Speaker 1: so we can't We can't do it well. And and furthermore,
Speaker 1: we don't own the code for it, and they own
Speaker 1: the code for it, so we can't really go in
Speaker 1: and change it ourselves from a legal standpoint. So that
Speaker 1: is why the even though I've been with the show
Speaker 1: for over a year, my picture is not on there
Speaker 1: and my name is not on there. That This is
Speaker 1: a frustration shared by several of the podcast teams. UM
Speaker 1: stuff you missed in history class has gone through changes,
Speaker 1: forward thinking isn't even on there. So so we're trying
Speaker 1: very hard. I know that we have top men working
Speaker 1: on it. We do not have a timeline for when
Speaker 1: that will be addressed, but trust us, it frustrates us
Speaker 1: as well. We would much prefer it to reflect um
Speaker 1: the current state. So next we've got a five part questions.
Speaker 1: So before we go into the five part question, I
Speaker 1: wanted to take another quick moment. I hear that there's
Speaker 1: this conspiratorial podcast that wanted to say something. Yeah, they
Speaker 1: kind of creeped me out, but let's go ahead. Could
Speaker 1: it be trueban have the prophecy has been fulfilled? The
Speaker 1: signs are there, Matthew six, it's the mark. We've waited
Speaker 1: so long. Now it's here. The time has come. I
Speaker 1: would say congratulations to Lauren and Jonathan if you know
Speaker 1: what happens next. I'm going to assume that that was
Speaker 1: a cheerful hello and congratulations for six D episodes. I
Speaker 1: have not listened to that one either. I'm going to
Speaker 1: assume that it wasn't full of nothing but audible spiders. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: here's hoping it wasn't just a number station right, just
Speaker 1: twenty seven sevent three? Yeah, you never know with those guys.
Speaker 1: So next we have our old friend on Tricks who
Speaker 1: from Facebook, and I do apologize if I've mispronounced your name.
Speaker 1: He had five different questions for us. So the first
Speaker 1: one is which studio slash recording room has been the
Speaker 1: best so far. I know you guys and gals have moved,
Speaker 1: boy have we? Um? So, I have been in three
Speaker 1: different podcast studios in the year that I've been here, Jonathan,
Speaker 1: Were there others besides that? Or was it there was
Speaker 1: one more? Okay, oh, that's right, because they stuck you
Speaker 1: guys in the really creepy little booth first. Didn't think well, first,
Speaker 1: there was a room. It was similar to the one
Speaker 1: that we ended up in. You remember, the one that
Speaker 1: had the alcove was the audio recording studio that had
Speaker 1: an alcove and a little curtain that blocked the alcove
Speaker 1: off from the rest of the studio, right and the
Speaker 1: larger part of the studio being used for for video video. Now,
Speaker 1: originally we weren't doing videos, so the audio room was
Speaker 1: just one giant room. So with all that acoustics bouncing
Speaker 1: around him. Yep, you had the producers sitting there in
Speaker 1: full view, kind of sort of the way we do
Speaker 1: now if the phone barrier were taken down, Um and
Speaker 1: joke about that. No, we we don't. We're turning into
Speaker 1: Welcome to night Vale. Uh So, the yeah, we we
Speaker 1: had a one big room there. Then we moved into
Speaker 1: the model where we are. Well, first we were in
Speaker 1: a corner office, the same no, not the same corner office,
Speaker 1: a different corner office than we were in the last time,
Speaker 1: which of course was not ideal because we had a
Speaker 1: lot of outside noise that came in. We did that
Speaker 1: for a while while they did construction and added the
Speaker 1: alcove into our production studio. So then we went moved
Speaker 1: back into that room, except now it was a different
Speaker 1: kind of style room. It had been laid out in
Speaker 1: a different way, and it had the specific outcode that
Speaker 1: was just big enough to have one of these small
Speaker 1: round tables that we set across, and it was about
Speaker 1: the size of a of a kitchenette. Yeah, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: pretty much it. And then we have that little curtain
Speaker 1: that would divide off. So once we closed the curtain,
Speaker 1: we could never really be sure that our producer was
Speaker 1: still sitting at the computer or had and just wandered
Speaker 1: off somewhere. I generally assumed that Tyler was our was
Speaker 1: our producer, editor or or predator as I really prefer
Speaker 1: to use for him specifically, because he was also doing
Speaker 1: some work and and um in one of those anti
Speaker 1: suits as an invisible character. If you've ever seen any
Speaker 1: of the Invisible Man videos, usually Tyler, Yeah almost so,
Speaker 1: I mean really he's I mean, he's a predator, he
Speaker 1: can turn invisible. Yeah. He also uh, he also does
Speaker 1: that weird laugh thing. Uh. Then we moved over into
Speaker 1: an office that was not meant to be a podcast
Speaker 1: studio either, but we needed to do that for a while.
Speaker 1: And that was again again a corner office overlooking highways. Yep.
Speaker 1: And then uh, and that was because we had gotten
Speaker 1: into video production quite a bit, and then so that
Speaker 1: we could not afford to shut down video every time
Speaker 1: we needed to record audio and vice versa. Yeah, there
Speaker 1: were too many conflicts, right, You'd have some people in
Speaker 1: shooting video while other people needed to record podcasts, and
Speaker 1: we only had one space to do both. So that's
Speaker 1: why we had to convert an office into a podcast studio.
Speaker 1: Then we moved office locations, moving within the same building
Speaker 1: but down a couple of floors, and now we have
Speaker 1: a really pretty nice set up. It's a larger room. Uh,
Speaker 1: it's got plenty of space for for the predator to
Speaker 1: sit at. Uh. Then we've got our tiny little table
Speaker 1: with our our three microphones set up. The table is
Speaker 1: actually way smaller than what this room could could have
Speaker 1: in it, So we do plan on replacing the table
Speaker 1: at some point so that three people can sit around
Speaker 1: it and not feel like they're sitting in each other's laps.
Speaker 1: We have one window that faces into the office. That
Speaker 1: that's the window that I like to stand at and
Speaker 1: stare through when a car stuff is going too long?
Speaker 1: He creep, he creeps on it. I do. And then
Speaker 1: of course all the walls are pretty much covered in foam.
Speaker 1: Uh that that solid film we were talking about earlier.
Speaker 1: And um, yeah, there was a while where this podcast
Speaker 1: was our least favorite podcast studio because of the heat problem.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, for for a while we thought it was
Speaker 1: broken and there was a duck tissue. Um. It turned
Speaker 1: out the entire time that the thermostat was on a
Speaker 1: different side of the office and that the people there
Speaker 1: would would get really cold, and so crank the thermstat
Speaker 1: up to high. Uh, and the thermstat was controlling our room,
Speaker 1: not their room. So they were like, why is this
Speaker 1: still cold? Turn it up a little more. Meanwhile, Lauren
Speaker 1: and I are in here thinking we're turning into puddles. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that there was definitely some some sweating. I actually wants
Speaker 1: um in complete earnesty said to Jonathan and all, I
Speaker 1: can't work like this. Yeah, and I meant it so much,
Speaker 1: and I still are you guys cookies for that thing? Oh?
Speaker 1: You know, ultimately, if you had sat through it and
Speaker 1: tried to do a podcast in that mood, it would
Speaker 1: have been the either the greatest podcast ever recorded but
Speaker 1: for the wrong reasons, or the worst podcast ever recorded.
Speaker 1: So I'm glad that we we cut it at that point.
Speaker 1: So then the next part of the question is do
Speaker 1: the podcasters face each other or sit side by side?
Speaker 1: And where does the producer sit. I feel Jonathan can
Speaker 1: illustrate all this with his voice very well. All right,
Speaker 1: journey with me, folks. So if you were to walk
Speaker 1: into the door, that would hurt. But if you open
Speaker 1: the door and walked into the room, you would see first,
Speaker 1: you'd be staring at the back of Lauren's head. She's
Speaker 1: she's keeping a tally. Uh. So you would see the
Speaker 1: back of Lauren's head because she's facing with her back
Speaker 1: to the door. I, as the paranoid person who's always
Speaker 1: aware of my situation, refused to have my back to
Speaker 1: the door. He doesn't in restaurants too, he won't sit
Speaker 1: with his back facing any door. This is actually true.
Speaker 1: So anyway, I'm sitting towards the corner of the room,
Speaker 1: and we've got this little round table in the middle,
Speaker 1: and we are facing in one another, so I'm looking
Speaker 1: directly at Lauren. I can see the door behind her.
Speaker 1: The little window into the office is behind her. To
Speaker 1: my left. To Lauren's right is the desk and the
Speaker 1: protective foam barrier where we have the computer where you know,
Speaker 1: the mac that all this audio is flowing into. On
Speaker 1: the other side that mac is Noel. I assume he's
Speaker 1: still there. I'm seeing a glare. I made eye contact,
Speaker 1: all right. Well, anyway, behind Nol is the window. We
Speaker 1: talk about the window that faces out toward the street
Speaker 1: a right, not the small window, the inter office window.
Speaker 1: It is coated with foam and a large heavy curtain
Speaker 1: that's meant to muffle sound, which it does pretty well.
Speaker 1: The average traffic sounds we don't really hear. It's when
Speaker 1: sirens or a very heavy truck or someone who wants
Speaker 1: to be a drag racer is going up and down
Speaker 1: the street, or you know, it's a marta train. Those
Speaker 1: are the times when we can actually hear it right.
Speaker 1: Next question was the studio and the stuff you should
Speaker 1: know TV show your actual studio. The answer is not
Speaker 1: at all, Um, that was that was a set um
Speaker 1: that was not on location here at the office. It
Speaker 1: was elsewhere. Um. Although briefly some staffers got to come
Speaker 1: in and uh and and create desks for the fictional
Speaker 1: staffers that we're going to to be on the show.
Speaker 1: And I believe in the original pilot, Um, you had
Speaker 1: a cameo, I have a walk by, Yeah, see me
Speaker 1: walking by and one of the shots. Yeah that And
Speaker 1: in fact, the pilot episode was shot in a different
Speaker 1: set than the rest of the episodes were. But yeah,
Speaker 1: that's set dressing and everything that was all created for
Speaker 1: the show. None of that is really what. Some of
Speaker 1: it came from our office. They actually took some pieces
Speaker 1: from our office. But our office is not quite as
Speaker 1: eclectic as that, not not quite and and not quite
Speaker 1: as open an airy and capable of putting large camera
Speaker 1: rigs through, although we do still have some of the
Speaker 1: red foam um forming our protective phone barriers barrier exactly. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, Next, we have what gadgets do both of
Speaker 1: you use in your daily lives? Um, I personally, I
Speaker 1: mean I mean daily. I've got an iPhone for fitbit
Speaker 1: Force and a MacBook Pro that I I'm looking at
Speaker 1: one of these screens basically any time that I'm off
Speaker 1: of work. Yeah, I've got Nexus four smartphone, my Pebble
Speaker 1: smart watch, which everyone who knows me knows I've talked
Speaker 1: about a billion times. I've got I pretty much used
Speaker 1: my Xbox at least once every single day, whether it's
Speaker 1: to play a game or to watch video on I
Speaker 1: use it as a media player as well. Um. I've
Speaker 1: got a Nexus seven tablet, which I occasionally used, mostly
Speaker 1: to play goofy games that I don't want on my phone.
Speaker 1: Um And then on top of that, then I've got
Speaker 1: you know, some other random things. I used to be
Speaker 1: the person who carried uh an iPod with me wherever
Speaker 1: I went because I didn't really want to use up
Speaker 1: my phone battery for for playing m P three's as
Speaker 1: I used to use an HTC G one, which was
Speaker 1: great except the battery life was terrible. But the next
Speaker 1: is four battery life is actually quite good. And now
Speaker 1: I've gotten to the point where it took a while
Speaker 1: to wean me off of it. But I've gotten to
Speaker 1: the point now where I just rely on that. I
Speaker 1: used that to listen to podcasts, I used it to
Speaker 1: listen to streaming audio, and I use it as my phone.
Speaker 1: So um oh and I and I really rely on
Speaker 1: a gift that was given to all of us here
Speaker 1: at how Stuff Works, that battery charger that as well.
Speaker 1: That's a big one that was not given to all
Speaker 1: of us. That was that was that was a major award.
Speaker 1: Thank you. No I was thinking of the Beats Audio
Speaker 1: head guns, which this is not obviously this episode not
Speaker 1: sponsored by them, but that was a gift because we
Speaker 1: were moving to an open office environment and there was
Speaker 1: a concern that would be too much noise, so they
Speaker 1: gave all of us Beats Audio headphones. But they have
Speaker 1: like a little microphone on them. They're that kind of headphones.
Speaker 1: So I used them with my phone so that way
Speaker 1: when I get calls, I can take the calls and
Speaker 1: still have the headphones on and I actually hear the
Speaker 1: call better because my hearing is not great, guys, and
Speaker 1: my hearing has been I've been losing my hearing slowly
Speaker 1: over the last few years, so uh, yeah, and I
Speaker 1: guess I also do use that kindle pretty frequently. There
Speaker 1: we go. Cool, So what's next? This is the last
Speaker 1: question from him. What online service slash app? Can you
Speaker 1: not live without? Uh? Dash Lane, which is my password manager. Oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right, that's right. You talked about that one all
Speaker 1: the time. Yeah, that one. Uh, I use that that.
Speaker 1: It has a desktop app, it has a smartphone app,
Speaker 1: but it also has a web interface. So if I
Speaker 1: were to use someone else's computer, I can navigate to
Speaker 1: the dash Lane website, use my master password to log
Speaker 1: into my dash Lane account, and then from there I
Speaker 1: could log into whatever account I needed to And I
Speaker 1: don't even need to know what the password is. So
Speaker 1: I used d ash Lane to generate strong passwords that
Speaker 1: I could never remember on my own, because I'm not
Speaker 1: someone who's gonna be like lower case X seven uppercase
Speaker 1: G like I'm not going to remember that. But because
Speaker 1: I can use this one master password to access everything,
Speaker 1: I don't have to. Sure, UM, I I am going
Speaker 1: to say Space Team. Um. This is this is a game. Um.
Speaker 1: It was developed by Henry Smith, formerly of bio Ware,
Speaker 1: and UH, basically it turns it's a it's a team game,
Speaker 1: and so you hook a bunch of phones into this
Speaker 1: game all at the same time. It's it's for two
Speaker 1: to four players, or with an expansion, four to eight
Speaker 1: and uh, it's it turns your phone into into like
Speaker 1: the bridge of the Star Trek Enterprise. And so you've
Speaker 1: got these weird little nonsense buttons, and everyone else has
Speaker 1: different nonsense buttons. So you have to shout at your
Speaker 1: friends to do different stuff in order to make the
Speaker 1: ship fly. So it'll be all like, toggle the shock crane,
Speaker 1: set the alpha fluid to zero, test the hypothesis, boil
Speaker 1: the kettle, and it's it's the best fund that I've
Speaker 1: ever had in my entire life. I might have to
Speaker 1: try that now. I wasn't familiar with that. It's great,
Speaker 1: all right, Well, before we move on to our next question,
Speaker 1: we do have quite a few more. Let's take a
Speaker 1: quick break. I think stuff Mom Never Told You wanted
Speaker 1: to say something. Oh, hey Jonathan, and hey Lauren, happy
Speaker 1: six hundred Tech Stuff episode. This is Kristen and this
Speaker 1: is Caroline from Stuff Mom Never Told You. And hey,
Speaker 1: even though we don't have six hundred episodes yet, we'll
Speaker 1: get there, right Caroline, I'm getting there. We're working on
Speaker 1: it every week, every week. So thanks for you know,
Speaker 1: showing us up. Yeah always, thanks ladies. That was awesome.
Speaker 1: I still haven't listened to it yet, so I'm I'm
Speaker 1: making assumptions. It's pretty safe when it comes to Kristen
Speaker 1: and Caroline though they're they're awesome people. They are their
Speaker 1: stand up humans. Yeah. And by the way, every single
Speaker 1: one of these shows, if you're not familiar with them,
Speaker 1: go check out a few episodes, because honestly, our co
Speaker 1: workers are incredible people. We talked about that earlier. We
Speaker 1: really mean it. Their shows are amazing and they really are.
Speaker 1: And in the coming days and weeks, I'm going to
Speaker 1: try to share some specifically tech relevant episodes because we
Speaker 1: all have a little bit of overlap here and there
Speaker 1: in our show content, um and and trying to recommend
Speaker 1: a few things that you guys would really like soly so.
Speaker 1: Next is from Cody on Facebook, who said, if you
Speaker 1: have children, how adept are they with current technology? My
Speaker 1: three year old daughter thought she could swipe to the
Speaker 1: next picture in her book L O L made me
Speaker 1: feel old. Well, neither of us have kids. We've had
Speaker 1: limited interaction with children because they frightened us. But some
Speaker 1: of our friends have children, and we do have pets,
Speaker 1: not saying that pets are exactly like having children, because
Speaker 1: that's terrible. Also, my dog is terrible at any technology.
Speaker 1: Yeah that my my dog also not And it's not
Speaker 1: even fun having a dog because you don't even have
Speaker 1: good like iPad games for dogs because the dog is
Speaker 1: kind of like, I just want to chew that thing.
Speaker 1: There was a time where my dog was fascinated by
Speaker 1: any dog that appeared on the television, but he has
Speaker 1: since stopped caring. So the the only time that my
Speaker 1: dog has ever reacted to anything going on on a
Speaker 1: screen was, Um, do you remember that that squeaky frog video?
Speaker 1: There was this really cute, kind of like inflatable looking frog.
Speaker 1: It's called the Namaqua rain frog. It's from South Africa.
Speaker 1: It has this squeaky distress call like defense mechanism. Um,
Speaker 1: if you guys, if you guys, just google squeaky frog,
Speaker 1: you'll you'll find it. But um, but it's this very
Speaker 1: high pitched like upset kitten or puppy dog kind of
Speaker 1: noise that this frog makes in order to discourage things
Speaker 1: from eating it. And upon playing this video, my dog
Speaker 1: freaked out, And this is like a thirteen year old dog,
Speaker 1: like she doesn't really freak out about stuff unless it's
Speaker 1: absolutely necessary. Right, this is this is clearly freak out
Speaker 1: Defcon one. But yeah, I will be having a niece soon,
Speaker 1: so I will experiment on my niece and find out
Speaker 1: what kind of technology I can get her addicted to
Speaker 1: and then laugh at my sister and brother in law.
Speaker 1: So we'll we'll see next. We have from Kyle on
Speaker 1: Facebook several questions, So, what is the technology that you
Speaker 1: covered that you still struggle to fully understand. This is
Speaker 1: a great question because there are times when we go
Speaker 1: into the podcast studio and you know, most of the
Speaker 1: time you'll hear me say like, I have to be honest,
Speaker 1: there's parts here that are beyond me. But this is
Speaker 1: my understanding of it. Um large Hadron collider, I think
Speaker 1: leaps to mind. I think the thing with particle physics
Speaker 1: is that no one really understand I mean, any particle
Speaker 1: physicist and we talked to is probably going to say
Speaker 1: that they're like, there comes a point where you're just like, well,
Speaker 1: this is what happens. I don't understand it. Yeah, for me, honestly,
Speaker 1: energy systems get really difficult to understand, Like, like like anything
Speaker 1: having to do with electron flow intrinsically confuses me. Um.
Speaker 1: I mean, because it's like I totally get that it works,
Speaker 1: but I really can't convince my brain that it should work. Well.
Speaker 1: It doesn't help that the earliest descriptions of electricity we're
Speaker 1: talking about positively charged elements moving along a current or
Speaker 1: moving along a circuit rather and therefore, uh, everything that
Speaker 1: followed is intrinsically backwards because it turns out it's negatively
Speaker 1: charged particles. However, I mean, like like photon behavior and
Speaker 1: the quantum mechanics tend to make perfect sense to me
Speaker 1: that I follow along perfectly. My brain has no problems
Speaker 1: mincing that kind of stuff. So to be fair, Lauren
Speaker 1: often finds herself entangled and in super position, so I
Speaker 1: that cannot be more true. Next, Kyle asks, are there
Speaker 1: any shows that you have recorded but not aired or
Speaker 1: shows you rerecorded because the first take was not up
Speaker 1: to snuff? Okay, yeah, so we recorded. We sat down
Speaker 1: and did a full recording. Full episode had to be
Speaker 1: an hour long. Easy about the Ultima series, the video
Speaker 1: game series. Yeah, the computer game series that started with
Speaker 1: Richard Garriott, starting with al Calabeth technically and then moving
Speaker 1: all the way through Ultima. Uh. Once we were done,
Speaker 1: I didn't feel great about it as soon as we
Speaker 1: left the studio, and that that feeling stuck with me,
Speaker 1: and I felt that we really that this really falls
Speaker 1: on my shoulders, that I really didn't do a very
Speaker 1: good job with it, that that it didn't feel like
Speaker 1: it was much more than what you would have gotten
Speaker 1: if you had stood at a store shelf and all
Speaker 1: of the games were in front of you and you
Speaker 1: just read the backs of the games. Was like that.
Speaker 1: It was. It was very early in my podcast days here,
Speaker 1: and um, and I was having an off week. I
Speaker 1: think that honestly, you were having an off week and
Speaker 1: and it just turned out to yeata to not be
Speaker 1: It could have used some editing going in. I could
Speaker 1: have stood to have added some more notes, and I
Speaker 1: wasn't being extremely talkative in the studio that day, so
Speaker 1: so overall, um, it turned into not a great episode
Speaker 1: that we wound up scrapping, and we we haven't recorded. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we we haven't gone back. I mean, one of these
Speaker 1: days we should really face our fears and tackle it again. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: we'll go back. I mean, I love that series, so
Speaker 1: I do want to do it justice. But yeah, that
Speaker 1: particular episode. Now, if you go back further, Uh, there
Speaker 1: was an episode that I re warded with Chris Palette
Speaker 1: ages ago about who Invented the Radio? And Chris and
Speaker 1: I sat down and we had a forty five minute
Speaker 1: discussion and as soon as we finished, we just stared
Speaker 1: at each other for a good probably fifteen seconds, and
Speaker 1: then I said, yeah, that was awful and and and
Speaker 1: he said, you know that was terrible. I said, do
Speaker 1: you want to do it again? And he looked at
Speaker 1: me and he's like, I don't want to do it again,
Speaker 1: but we need to do it again. And we re
Speaker 1: recorded it at that time, like we as soon as
Speaker 1: we had finished, because there was no one coming into
Speaker 1: the studio after us on that day, and this was
Speaker 1: eleven in the morning. We had been around the studio
Speaker 1: for two hours, and so we started it up again.
Speaker 1: So if you go back and listen to that who
Speaker 1: Invented the Radio podcast, which still is out there, that's
Speaker 1: the re recorded one. And it was amazing. It was
Speaker 1: easily one of the best episodes we did that year.
Speaker 1: But we had to go through some terrible, terrible times
Speaker 1: to get there. So can we hear some outtakes or
Speaker 1: unfiltered pre post recording BA, No, you cannot. You cannot, Uh,
Speaker 1: you cannot. We we do have some, but it's almost
Speaker 1: all either uninteresting. Yeah I can. I mean basically, what happens,
Speaker 1: UM that you don't hear is us mispronouncing words or names,
Speaker 1: sometimes our own names, coughing, making weird mouth noises, UM,
Speaker 1: drinking tea. I laugh a lot, you guys. There's also UM.
Speaker 1: There's also occasionally some swearing that happens. Yeah, it's not comic.
Speaker 1: It's just when something really frustrating happens. Uh. You know,
Speaker 1: we're not um, we're not always the you know, both
Speaker 1: of us have dropped some some interesting colorful metaphors, as
Speaker 1: they would say in Star Trek. That that is, that
Speaker 1: is correct, but not at each other, by the way, No,
Speaker 1: I don't mean that we yell at each other. Whether
Speaker 1: it's more because there's something that's gone wrong that has
Speaker 1: you know, we thought we were ready to go and
Speaker 1: something has gone wrong and it and it makes everything
Speaker 1: go pear shaped. Yes, also depending on how punchy I am,
Speaker 1: I'll just kind of pepper anytime. Anytime I mess up
Speaker 1: a line, I'll toss a few interesting words in their
Speaker 1: footnell to cut out and black Man material takes aren't
Speaker 1: really terribly interesting. It's usually like it's something where we've
Speaker 1: stumbled over a sentence and we've gone back and to
Speaker 1: try to say the sense again. Like that little stumble
Speaker 1: I just had. That could be an example. It's not
Speaker 1: entertaining really. Next, what kind of technology does Jonathan used
Speaker 1: to shave his head. It's called a razor. I like
Speaker 1: a straight razor. I mean, like like a straight razor.
Speaker 1: He's a safety razor. I'm not insane. I'm not Sweeney Todd.
Speaker 1: Are you are? You know I can't talk about that,
Speaker 1: not without the chorus. Uh, they have to back me up. No,
Speaker 1: I use I use a safety razor. I'm actually part
Speaker 1: of they don't sponsor the show, but I'm probably Men's
Speaker 1: Shave Club. Men's Shave Club, I remember, I remember a
Speaker 1: lot of about that. I'm a member of that. I
Speaker 1: love it because I just subscribe and then I get
Speaker 1: razors sent to me and I'm it's fantastic. So I
Speaker 1: use that al right. Next, what technological brand best sums
Speaker 1: up your co host and why do we really want
Speaker 1: to go here? All right, so we have to decide
Speaker 1: what what what brand. I'm gonna have Lauren go first,
Speaker 1: because that will determine how how I answer, whether whether
Speaker 1: I'm nice or snarky. All right, Um, well, I was
Speaker 1: I was gonna say. I was gonna say Android because
Speaker 1: because you've got a sense of humor, um, perhaps a
Speaker 1: fixation on dessert. And uh and you do a lot
Speaker 1: of cross branding. That's fair. Okay, that's good. That was
Speaker 1: very sweet. Crap as I got to back off alright
Speaker 1: because I was gonna say Ferbie. Um oh, okay. Really
Speaker 1: is just that that, you know, you speak gibberish and
Speaker 1: I can't understand anything you say. No, that's I'm totally kidding.
Speaker 1: I'm totally kidding. Uh. You know it's interesting. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: and this is gonna sound weird, and it's not because
Speaker 1: this is the gaming console you have. But I'm gonna
Speaker 1: say Xbox the reason. And I'm talking about like Xbox
Speaker 1: three sixty to be specific. All right, I'm being really
Speaker 1: specific because Xbox three sixty because one, you're awesome, you know,
Speaker 1: I love the Xbox three sixty. Uh. Two, when you
Speaker 1: make a mistake. You own up to it, because that's
Speaker 1: what Microsoft did with Xbox three sixty quite a few times.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it take took them a while, is never taken Lauren, Well,
Speaker 1: she's in fact, she's way too hard on herself most
Speaker 1: of the time. And uh, also, UM, I can't tell
Speaker 1: you say Lauren, turn off and you turn off. It
Speaker 1: doesn't work because you're not Xbox one, You're an Xbox
Speaker 1: three sixty. So that's also true. That's very true. All right.
Speaker 1: Well then now that's all of Kyle's questions. You know,
Speaker 1: we got another got another notification here. Uh turns out that, um,
Speaker 1: this is the show called Forward Thinking wants to say something. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: let's let's hear from Let's hear from them. Hey, there,
Speaker 1: tech Stuff, this is Forward Thinking, the podcast that looks
Speaker 1: at the future and says, I am the madron man
Speaker 1: in I'm Jonathan Strickland, I'm Lauren Vogelba, and I'm Joe McCormick,
Speaker 1: and I am the only member of Forward Thinking who
Speaker 1: is not also a member of tech Stuff. So here
Speaker 1: we are saying a great shout out to tech Stuff.
Speaker 1: Congratulations on your six hundred episodes. Thank you so many.
Speaker 1: Congratulations Yeah, we're so happy. Yeah, we're great. Joe, did
Speaker 1: you you said that you had like a listener suggestion
Speaker 1: for us. I have a suggestion, as just coming as
Speaker 1: a fan of tech stuff. I think you should do
Speaker 1: a year of Event Horizon, which is just one solid
Speaker 1: year of episodes that are only about Event Horizon. The
Speaker 1: technology of Event Horizon. Um, well, it's tech stuff, so
Speaker 1: would basically just be the technology, I guess. So. So, Joe,
Speaker 1: were you aware that we we did an episode about
Speaker 1: event Horizon? One is not enough? Oh I see, I see,
Speaker 1: that's the whole point. We will We will definitely take
Speaker 1: that under advisement and put that in our good idea pile,
Speaker 1: won't we? Lauren h that was all I had in
Speaker 1: my good idea pile to begin with. So I'm not
Speaker 1: sure are we working off of different piles. I'm so lone.
Speaker 1: You know, two out of those three hosts sounded really awesome.
Speaker 1: The third host sounded even better. Joe, You're amazing. So
Speaker 1: that was that was a lot of fun for us
Speaker 1: to do. That was the one of these these little
Speaker 1: shout outs that we've actually heard before. So, um, next
Speaker 1: we have from Ricardo on Facebook. Why is your research process.
Speaker 1: On every podcast, we've kind of covered that, but we'll
Speaker 1: talk a little bit more. Is your research limited to
Speaker 1: surfing the internet, or do you guys do some investigative
Speaker 1: or journalism work to become knowledgeable or maybe you guys
Speaker 1: are just walking encyclopedias. We are not walking encyclopedias, Jonathan
Speaker 1: is a tiny tiny bit um more like a walking
Speaker 1: like really old farmer's almanac. That's about as close as
Speaker 1: I can get. That's fair. Most of our research is online.
Speaker 1: Very occasionally we will consult a book, but it is
Speaker 1: usually a book that has been scanned into Google ducts. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's really rare that we ever go outside that.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's we've done on tech stuff in the past,
Speaker 1: Ages and Ages Ago, a couple of interview episodes, but
Speaker 1: mostly it's online. We don't tend to do any investigative
Speaker 1: oral journalism work in that sense and the traditional journalism work,
Speaker 1: because that's not our training. We're not trained as as
Speaker 1: investigative journalists. I technically am a little bit, but um,
Speaker 1: I got out of that field because I really dislike it.
Speaker 1: Um but uh but but but yeah, no, I mean
Speaker 1: also that's not yeah, that's not really what we're going
Speaker 1: for with this show. UM, I would love it if
Speaker 1: we could um do more interviews in the future and
Speaker 1: have have people join us on the show. I know
Speaker 1: a bunch of our our sister podcasts do that, and
Speaker 1: I think it's pretty awesome. Yeah. Well, well certainly, And
Speaker 1: if you guys have a wish list of folks that
Speaker 1: you think we should interview, definitely send them in because
Speaker 1: we'll be happy to at least put out feelers out there.
Speaker 1: And especially if any of you guys know anyone who
Speaker 1: is awesome who you think we should talk to, then
Speaker 1: you know, give us a hook up. And next, Ricardo says,
Speaker 1: and do you guys sell a tire like shirts and sweatshirts?
Speaker 1: Thanks for the show, I'm your biggest fan. We do not. Um.
Speaker 1: There is how Stuff Works merchandise that you can find
Speaker 1: by going to store dot Discovery dot com and searching
Speaker 1: for how Stuff Works. UM. Also Josh and Chuck of
Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know have their own line of shirts
Speaker 1: that I believe you can access through Stuff you Should
Speaker 1: Know dot com. But if all of you out there
Speaker 1: have been dying for tech stuff merchandise, let us know, well,
Speaker 1: will at least let people know about it, and you know,
Speaker 1: we can't make any promises, but I mean, come on, guys,
Speaker 1: you know me, I'm not going to be upset if
Speaker 1: my face is plastered on shirts out there. I don't
Speaker 1: I don't know if I want my face on a
Speaker 1: shirt not. Okay, that's that way. It could be like
Speaker 1: a picture, as if someone were standing in the doorway
Speaker 1: and taking a photo of the podcast room. Alright, So well,
Speaker 1: you know we've got one last pair of questions. But
Speaker 1: before we get to that, I think a certain Josh
Speaker 1: and Chuck wanted to say something. Yeah, speaking to those
Speaker 1: crazy kids. Hey, this is Josh from Stuff. You should know.
Speaker 1: Chuck can't be here, but he asked me to speak
Speaker 1: on his behalf as well, which I'm happy to do.
Speaker 1: And we just want to throw in our two cents
Speaker 1: about how grateful we are to tex Stuff for even
Speaker 1: being in existence. I remember back in the days when
Speaker 1: it was Jonathan and Chris and that was wonderful, and
Speaker 1: then now it's Jonathan and Lauren and it's just better
Speaker 1: than ever. You guys are doing so great, uh, and
Speaker 1: we are just so thankful to you guys. You know,
Speaker 1: before tech stuff came along, Chuck thought everything was magic.
Speaker 1: He used to refer to his phone as his little
Speaker 1: magic box, and he's quite serious at the time. Um Me,
Speaker 1: being married to a woman of Japanese descent, I'm familiarush
Speaker 1: with technology and I realized it's not magic. But I
Speaker 1: never realized just how intricate our modern world is until
Speaker 1: I was introduced to tech stuff and everything changed. So um,
Speaker 1: thank you very much, you guys. And also I want
Speaker 1: to point out I don't think it's necessarily a coincidence.
Speaker 1: Do you that before tech stuff came along, there was
Speaker 1: no such thing as the iPhone. There was no such
Speaker 1: thing as three D printing. Really, uh, there is no
Speaker 1: such thing as four K definition television. If some may
Speaker 1: say that they just happened to not really be correlated,
Speaker 1: but I would say that they are definitely correlated, if
Speaker 1: not cause aided, which is a word. But thank you
Speaker 1: you guys, and congratulations, this is fantastic. Congratulations on your
Speaker 1: six hundredth episode. Celebrate it, relaship, enjoy it. Congratulations guys,
Speaker 1: Thanks guys. Now Josh and Chuck, of course they had
Speaker 1: their six hundredth episode already. They Stuff, you should know,
Speaker 1: started recording before tech Stuff did a couple of months before,
Speaker 1: so they're ahead of us quite a bit in more
Speaker 1: ways than one, but they are. They're amazing guys. And
Speaker 1: if you have not listened to stuff, you should know
Speaker 1: you've got to listen to it. Then you really do.
Speaker 1: First of all, I don't know what rock you have
Speaker 1: been living under, but um, it's probably been a fabulous vacation.
Speaker 1: But it's time. It's time to listen to that show.
Speaker 1: It's great and and they are genuinely just two of
Speaker 1: the nicest Rattus dudes. Um. When Jonathan and I took
Speaker 1: a took a work trip up to Discovery corporate headquarters,
Speaker 1: Chuck was very much my ambassador through through that very
Speaker 1: strange experience, and and he was just awesome the entire time.
Speaker 1: Not that Josh wasn't, but I didn't have as much
Speaker 1: personal contact. The neat thing is they're very laid back,
Speaker 1: very relaxed. Uh, And they're relaxed whether they're interacting with fans,
Speaker 1: with their coworkers or with celebrities. I mean, they've got
Speaker 1: celebrity fans that they've met and hung out with, and
Speaker 1: they're really cool guys. I don't know if we have
Speaker 1: any celebrity fans, but to me. You guys are all
Speaker 1: celebrities because you're awesome. So whether whether you have a
Speaker 1: show or you just like to listen to them, we
Speaker 1: love you. And finally, from Rogilio on Facebook, we have
Speaker 1: our our last question. What is the most exciting part
Speaker 1: of the recording process? I think when I say, um,
Speaker 1: we'll talk to you again really soon, and we hear
Speaker 1: the little clicking button from KNOWL saying that the recording
Speaker 1: has stopped and we have finished our final recording of
Speaker 1: the day, and it means we can leave, that might
Speaker 1: be it. Yeah, it depends on your on your definition
Speaker 1: of the word exciting. Um, I mean, if you're talking
Speaker 1: about like terror of performance, that's pretty exciting. Oh I do.
Speaker 1: I do. It's I mean not not like every day
Speaker 1: and not the same like kind of physically shaking terror
Speaker 1: that that I got for the first couple of weeks there.
Speaker 1: But but you know, I still get nervous basically every
Speaker 1: time I come into the studio just a little bit.
Speaker 1: It'll it'll gradually wear off. But but no, I mean
Speaker 1: it's like like I was saying kind of near the
Speaker 1: top of the episode, UM, just just getting to learn
Speaker 1: stuff that I never even knew existed, let alone how
Speaker 1: it worked, and then getting to share that with all
Speaker 1: of you guys, and furthermore getting to hear back from you,
Speaker 1: um is amazing and beautiful. Yeah, they they to be
Speaker 1: really honest about exciting. The thing I find really exciting
Speaker 1: is when we have a topic that neither of us
Speaker 1: thought was going to be particularly interesting, and then as
Speaker 1: you get into the actual recording, you realize this is
Speaker 1: really good, fascinating and multi tiered and yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: even stuff that on the surface seems simple and you're like,
Speaker 1: how are we going to make how refrigerators work an
Speaker 1: interesting podcast? But as you start talking about like, no,
Speaker 1: this this physics stuff, it's amazing you started to learn
Speaker 1: elegant and beautiful system learning how the universe works and
Speaker 1: how we work within it is uh constantly a really
Speaker 1: high motivator for us, so as is our interaction with
Speaker 1: you guys. So that leads us to our question for you,
Speaker 1: which is that, now that we've done six hundred episodes,
Speaker 1: wants something you would like to see from us in
Speaker 1: the future. Are their particular style shows that you've always
Speaker 1: wanted us to do but maybe we haven't. Maybe that
Speaker 1: interview style show is something you've always wanted, Or maybe
Speaker 1: there's some other form of topic that we've never tackled
Speaker 1: that you think is right for a tech Stuff episode.
Speaker 1: Or maybe you're just saying, look, we want the Jonathan
Speaker 1: and Lauren t shirts already. Let us know, send us
Speaker 1: a message. You can let us know on email or
Speaker 1: addresses tech Stuff at Discovery dot com, or drops a
Speaker 1: line on Facebook, Twitter or Tumbler or handle it. All
Speaker 1: three is tech stuff hs W and Lauren and I
Speaker 1: will talk to you again, who knows, maybe another six
Speaker 1: hundred times really soon for more on this and bathands
Speaker 1: of other topics, because it has staff works dot com