TAGQ (That's A Good Question)
TAGQ (That's A Good Question)
Chewbacca in the Etherdome
Special guest Laura Johnston joins us for the first in-person recording of the podcast while Christmas cookies were baking downstairs. We discuss what it was like to work in a molecular endocrinology lab back in the early '80s, and other topics like sleep hygiene and what Chewbacca would look like shaved.
From podium.page:
Feeling the holiday cheer yet longing for some thoughtful banter? Curl up and join us for a Christmas Eve special, straight from the cozy confines of San Carlos, California. We're shaking up the holiday podcast scene, choosing celebration over hibernation, as we recount tales ranging from haircut hilarities at Supercuts to the serious tech of AI in military avionics. There's a sprinkle of festive mirth and a dash of nostalgia, as we reflect on our early days at Honeywell and revel in the shared joy of audio editing quirks and podcasting without pause.
Bake up some memories with us as we sift through the science of laughter, the precision of traditional sugar cookie crafting, and the warmth of family baking rituals. Our guest, straight from the lab benches of molecular endocrinology, tosses in a pinch of DNA sequencing history for good measure. We'll whisk you away from the ether dome's anesthetic origins to the threshold of modern healthcare, drawing connections that are as rich and intricate as the recipes we cherish. It's a conversation that's part science, part soul, and all sprinkled with heartfelt holiday spirit.
As the embers of our chat begin to glow with the close of the evening, we ponder the art of living freely and the tranquility that comes from a lightened mind. We're not just podcasters; we're time travelers, acknowledging our listeners far and wide, and the joyously jumbled schedules that bring us together. Before the final credits roll, we'll revisit past episodes, offer up some jovial corrections, and extend an invite for future surprises—keeping you wondering about the elusive tale of Joe Rogan. Sit back, relax, and let the holiday spirit and our candid conversations wrap around you like a warm blanket.
0:00:11 - Scott
Well, we got some holiday music playing in the background for this one and I can make that the audio clip. You know, at the start of each podcast I make a different audio clip. Can you sing that into the microphone a little closer? Battle of the gentle singers.
0:00:47 - Ben
Battle of the Gentle Singers.
0:00:52 - Ben
Okay, that what You're going to have to edit that one somehow. That's going to hurt all of our listeners' ears.
0:01:01 - Scott
No, we put it through the magic-processor at buzzsproutcom and they could. They could be our sponsor this week okay and then, and it balances everything out, it takes out the highs and the lows and the um. Wow, you know when I'm mumbling and you're speaking loud, levels it up yeah yeah, yeah so what are we doing? Here ben, what are?
0:01:34 - Ben
you doing well. We're sitting here in the same room for once. This is different. This is yeah. Why are we sitting here in the same?
0:01:45 - Scott
room. This happens on podcasts.
0:01:47 - Ben
Sometimes one of the hosts travels to the other's home yeah, yeah, and sometimes they have guests that sit with them in the same room. Yep, it's true. Yeah, what are we doing here? Well, we're recording our Christmas Eve episode from San Carlos, california.
0:02:08 - Scott
Of the podcast still named? That is a good question. T-a-g-q. T-a-g-q.
0:02:18 - Ben
And where do you get your haircut, scott? Do you get your haircut or is it just supercuts? Do you do still go to super cut? Yeah, wow, how often does that happen? Twice a year? Twice a year? Four times less than the average male. Yeah, two times less than the average human.
0:02:46 - Scott
I have to tell them every time, four times when I go in, that like it's been, it's been half a year. So, yeah, I really want it short and they never quite believe me, so they just clip it off, and then you tell them to clip off more I tell them to go really short on top, and they don't believe that either, so I end up with that you end up some height, some height to it, yeah, yeah, yeah.
0:03:11 - Ben
For all you listeners that can't see he's got a nice. What would you call that? How? What's the descriptor? Halo, oh, halo a wisp, a wispy halo of hair around Two to three inches of dark, gray to white hair sitting on the top of the head.
0:03:31 - Scott
With a bald spot in the middle. Yeah, that I never see and don't quite believe in.
0:03:37 - Ben
Whereas I might as well be a character right out of the Sonic the Hedgehog video games.
0:03:46 - Scott
You look like a Chewbacca who just shaved Just shaved or got a clip.
0:03:50 - Ben
No, you're right, it's a shave.
0:03:52 - Scott
Well, no, I mean, you shaved your face because, Chewbacca, you'd have more fur than that.
0:03:58 - Ben
Imagine Chewbacca, just cleanly shaving his face.
0:04:02 - Scott
Right, except for his beard on the chin.
0:04:05 - Ben
That's a scary image that we have imagine chewbacca with a cleanly shaven face like one of those people who are brought in and given a redo.
0:04:16 - Scott
Yeah, I bet.
0:04:17 - Ben
We can search for that image on the internet?
0:04:22 - Ben
we don't we don't need to insert that idea into google so um did you tell our special guest?
0:04:39 - Scott
I told yeah yeah, they've been notified, they've uh.
0:04:48 - Ben
Fifth, fifth podcast this is our fifth podcast and for the year?
0:04:55 - Scott
well, it won't come out this year. It'll come out next year, so there's that you know a lot of podcasts.
0:05:04 - Ben
They, uh, they skip over the christmas holiday. They take a break for a lot of december. That's a pretty standard, pretty standard practice amongst the popular podcasts. So in a way, we're like innovators, we're innovators, and we're. We're working, yes, working a lot harder than the Conan O'Briens and the Stephen Colbert's and the Pod Save America's. They're slacking.
0:05:32 - Scott
They're giving you like best of the year reviews. We could do that. We might have enough.
0:05:40 - Ben
Well, buzzsprout would beg to differ. Is it beg to defer, or is it beg to differ Like differentiate, or to defer Differential?
0:05:52 - Scott
Differential Differentiate D-I-F-F-E-R. I beg to express a difference? Okay, because every time I say I beg to differ, you might be begging I say something that could be interpreted as either one, I mean you can beg to defer but that's like, usually you don't have to beg to defer, people will just let you defer. I defer, right as in.
0:06:24 - Ben
I differentiate that I yeah, I defer to your wishes. I they don't say I beg to defer to your wishes.
0:06:32 - Scott
They say I defer to your wishes, I defer as in is.
0:06:36 - Ben
And now, in that context, is it the differentiate or deferential?
0:06:41 - Ben
differ, differentiate, differ different what's the diff, what's the depth? Yeah, you don't say what's the depth.
0:06:51 - Scott
You say what's the diff?
0:06:52 - Ben
yeah, wow it's a differential. Never mind, we don't need to get into that. What'd you do at Honeywell when you first worked there? What is Honeywell?
0:07:05 - Scott
Honeywell was a large aerospace and heating furnace technology. They made thermostats and then they got into making bullets and planes. They also did aerospace Bullets and planes and they also did computers, which is I was involved in the use of computers at Honeywell.
0:07:31 - Ben
Use of computers, like in thermostats, and weapons?
0:07:34 - Scott
No, I was in the avionics research. Was it just moderate destruction? Video cameras recognize tanks in the desert or tanks coming over the Fulda Gap from the Soviet Union into Germany.
0:07:55 - Ben
If the Germans were going?
0:07:56 - Scott
to do a tank attack on Germany. There's one gap in the mountain range you were working on you were working.
0:08:08 - Ben
Excuse me everyone, goodness, you were working on ai as soon as you graduated college, in like the late 70s same stuff early 80s same stuff.
0:08:19 - Scott
Computers were not as powerful. Yeah, so you're teaching.
0:08:24 - Ben
You're teaching a computer how to recognize yeah, a tank.
0:08:29 - Scott
Right, so that the united states could shoot at it yeah, with the equivalent of like a neural net, that's like you know, you can count on your hands, sort of, if you think about it.
0:08:43 - Ben
And now computers have neural nets that are thousands upon thousands or maybe that's too small a word, but they're huge and uh, and now they got smart yeah sort of because people like you just over the years just kept on chipping away at no, not making the technology thanks to me well, you amongst you and thousands of other engineers.
0:09:14 - Scott
Yeah, the biggest thing is they kept on making the computer chips smaller and smaller and faster and faster I mean up until the last 10 years ago. But everything got smaller and smaller and faster and faster. And once they hit the wall on how small they could get, then they just will give you two, four, six, eight. They just give you multiple processors and with that much computational power and the whole Internet worth of data collection, like these things we didn't have. We didn't have that much power, we didn't have that much access to like a world of imagery or a world of video, and you put those together then yeah, that's modern AI.
0:09:56 - Ben
Boom, just like that. Yeah, now we have cars that drive themselves.
0:10:02 - Scott
We worked on video products and cars that go when you back them up?
0:10:04 - Ben
Yeah, put them in reverse. Now we have cars that drive themselves. We worked on video cars and cars that go.
0:10:07 - Ben
When you back them up, yeah, put them in reverse.
0:10:10 - Scott
So I got exposure videotaped 10 years before that general population Videotaped in just 1860. You're right.
0:10:26 - Ben
Exaggeration.
0:10:28 - Scott
But only black and white.
0:10:30 - Ben
It is true that my time stamp for that is all off, yeah you got no idea I have no clue.
0:10:43 - Scott
Well, is it time to go remind the guest how long have we been sitting here? Oh it's you know, this is enough of the pre-roll. Pre-roll the conversation the hosts have before the guest joins.
0:11:03 - Ben
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow, we have a pretty long pre-roll. Our pre-roll usually takes up about 80% to 90% of the show.
0:11:12 - Scott
Well, these guests are a new thing, hello.
0:11:17 - Ben
Oh, I hear a cough.
0:11:18 - Scott
I hear some doors opening and closing. I'm going to go check to see if they.
0:11:23 - Ben
Yes, it was always taking care of business. Okay, always taking care of business.
0:11:48 - Scott
Well, this is a placeholder commercial for buzzsproutcom, because the more organic commercial happens near the end of the podcast, because the more organic commercial happens near the end of the podcast. Also, stay tuned after the end, because we'll have some great comments about the previous podcast four and the things we got wrong. So yeah, buzzsproutcom, it works for us in putting out our podcast so how was your flight?
0:12:49 - Ben
you know, I recently heard that when you're a uh I, there's the cough. There it is. I recently heard on a different uh podcast that people that tend to strike up conversations with strangers tend to be happier and we tend to overestimate how crappy our conversations are going to be with strangers. And I got. I was tired when I got into my flight and I already told you, I already told you and mom this. But when I got onto my flight and the stewardess asked me how's it going and I said it's all right because I was tired, um, and she said just all right. Well, wow, that wasn't very enthusiastic and I interpreted that as just like, buck up, buddy, life is good.
And you know, because I was tired, I just projected and so that was how my flight got kicked off was thinking that people wanted me to put a smile on my face when I just wasn't there, and so I just sat. I just sat with a straight spine for pretty much the whole hour and a half, just with my eyes closed, trying to meditate and just not really being able to do it. Just let my thoughts take me away wherever they would. So kind of sucked, but it was really good because I really did try meditating for pretty much an hour and a half, and sometimes that's just the slog that is meditation, yep. Anyway, here we are. Here we are Very special guest today. I would not be here were it not for this guest. They were married to someone that worked for Honeywell Back when Honeywell was creating.
AI to identify tanks coming over the Flapadoodle. No, I quit.
0:14:59 - Scott
I quit before we got married Okay.
0:15:03 - Ben
There you go, much more important piece.
0:15:08 - Scott
We moved to Boston.
0:15:09 - Ben
Okay, much more important piece of information is that they, they, you were a lab assistant in boston, all right I was a lab yeah, technician research assistant research with the howard youth medical institute racking up pieces on that resume before going to med school, exactly after trying eight times to get into med school. That's an exaggeration Eight times, I think it was just two or three times, just twice. The third time, third time. So never give up kids. That's what that means. And now tenured professor at Stanford.
0:15:56 - Laura
Boom, boom, it's that easy everyone the blink of an eye.
0:16:02 - Ben
Laura Johnston, everybody. Excellent, boom, boom, it's that easy everyone the blink of an eye.
0:16:05 - Scott
Laura johnston, everybody, how are you? How are you related to laura johnston?
0:16:10 - Laura
um, I'm, I have her uh, her uh, the meiosis mitochondria meiosis no, I'm her son talking about cell version biological oh yeah biological progeny are you trying?
0:16:28 - Scott
you were trying to make a biological.
0:16:32 - Ben
I was trying to go back to my biology degree and she didn't say something fancy, but I couldn't what. What did they?
0:16:40 - Ben
The little son.
0:16:41 - Ben
Well, we should ask do you have anything going on in your life that people need to know about? I'm making Christmas cookies. They're currently in the oven right now probably.
0:16:51 - Ben
Yeah.
0:16:53 - Ben
Whose is that? What's going on? Oh shit, sorry, sorry, everyone, sorry, everyone Will Buzzsprout. Figure that one out.
0:17:05 - Scott
Maybe Will it take dings from your phone off of the podcast.
0:17:11 - Laura
Making Christmas cookies on Christmas Eve? Yeah.
0:17:16 - Ben
What's your favorite one?
0:17:18 - Laura
Of the cookies.
0:17:19 - Ben
What are you most?
0:17:20 - Laura
excited, for I think they're all going to be really good. Buttery is the key ah yeah, yeah.
0:17:29 - Ben
Peanut blossoms, also known fondly as heart blossoms that is what some people call them, and I, this brother-in-law I I've realized recently that poop jokes and fart jokes are really hard for me. Yeah, me too like I.
0:17:45 - Laura
I respond a little bit actually said it I was.
0:17:49 - Ben
I respond a little bit too viscerally. You know, when someone says fart blossoms, it's like, well, great, now.
0:17:56 - Laura
Now I don't know.
0:17:57 - Ben
There's a taste in my mouth.
0:18:00 - Laura
Well, hopefully not. No, they're good. Anyway, they are good. Peanut blossoms. Peanut blossoms why?
0:18:06 - Scott
did they call them that?
0:18:10 - Laura
Well, we used to use the chocolate stars instead of the chocolate kisses.
0:18:15 - Ben
I don't know.
0:18:18 - Laura
That's just Dave. Dave just likes to do stuff like that.
0:18:22 - Ben
He's a guy yeah, yeah, he's a man, and you know what's the man?
0:18:26 - Laura
yeah, and then the others are really good. Cut out sugar cookies and I finally got a good recipe and figured out the patience of making a good sugar cookie. Just got to roll it out, so it's kind of thick Got new cookie cutters too. Yeah, new cookie cutters, and Jordi, in fact, is doing the rolling out and the cutting to perfection, so they're going to be really good this year.
0:18:52 - Ben
We have a professional artist working on our cookies, that's nice. Does she decorate them all too?
0:19:03 - Laura
No, you guys can't do that, you can't do everything Family thing.
0:19:10 - Ben
What was the?
0:19:12 - Laura
And then those many different names, but they're like Mexican wedding cakes or pecan somethings so yet another ball of buttery goodness yeah yeah, with pecans yeah, yeah, what's your own.
0:19:32 - Ben
What, what, what, what did the lab do that you worked for in Boston?
0:19:36 - Laura
it was a molecular endocrinology lab, molecular molecular endocrinology lab Molecular Molecular endocrinology. It was in its early days of doing DNA sequencing.
0:19:49 - Ben
Right.
0:19:50 - Laura
RNA and DNA and protein. Yeah, famous Maniatis lab handbook was what a ring binder. That was about this. That way, I can't say this uh, what is that? Five inches thick, three, that's only three. So it was a large like binder that had the how-to of doing DNA sequencing and RNA and protein.
0:20:23 - Ben
In the early days it just took a three-.
0:20:26 - Laura
The early 80s.
0:20:27 - Ben
Thick binder to know everything you needed to know about sequencing DNA.
0:20:32 - Laura
At that time, they were just starting to learn how to Wow. It was fascinating To find a gene you to clone, like hundreds of the. You know you would plate bacteria and try to get the right dna and you had to do the searching to find the clone, the bacterial clone that had the dna you were looking for.
0:20:51 - Scott
It's pretty, pretty cool wasn't the technique like invented at mit, and then they spread it across the river to the Harvard affiliated well, harvard is on the same side of the river as MIT. But yeah, then it went across not, but I mean the Harvard medicals yeah oh, oh, so you worked, so I worked in this research lab.
0:21:18 - Laura
Yeah, that was funded by howard hughes medical institute really early days and very early days, and you it was not, and there was a lot of p32 going around.
0:21:31 - Ben
So I had to be careful not to get radiate radiated you are one of probably many thousands of people responsible for the reason why we can now genetically engineer our babies and you dad are responsible for the reason why we can now identify tanks tanks from miles and miles away.
0:21:57 - Laura
Wow progress yeah progress yeah, that's incredible it is incredible. Do you think we had a lot of?
0:22:06 - Ben
help everyone has a part. Do you think that, uh, your, your lab's approach and the technology you were using to sequence DNA was a necessary step in getting to where we are now in sequencing as quickly?
0:22:26 - Ben
and effectively.
0:22:28 - Laura
In general, the lab has become well-known in molecular endocrinology basically.
0:22:37 - Ben
Howard Hughes.
0:22:40 - Laura
There was a diabetes research lab right next to us. We were also initially housed in the bulk bench building where the world famous ether dome, where they first used anesthesia with ether at the massachusetts general hospital right below the ether, what is?
what does it mean to use ether? Ether is the substance they use to put people asleep, so they have like literally a surgical theater up above where our research lab was, and of course they weren't doing surgery in the ether dome anymore, but they used to like the. You know, the men that the doctors would be down below doing surgery on a human being and the people that those trainees or doctors would be sitting in this steep theater you know like a and it had a glass glass dome ceiling, so that was lighting.
0:23:33 - Scott
This was like the 1800s, right when they first used ether for um. It's like after anesthesia.
0:23:42 - Laura
Your grandma in fact. One of her birth with my siblings, right, they used to eat in the ether dome not done in the ether dome, but they used ether to anesthetize her for one of her seven children do they still use ether? Not for that. We used to put mice to sleep with ether. You put fruit flies to put, didn't? We use fruitful ether for fruit flies and bicycle wow well, you had a. I think, yeah, you'd have a little cotton ball.
0:24:13 - Scott
Who was he? Who was the?
0:24:15 - Laura
teacher and you'd put a little ether on it and you'd put it on the top of the flask and then the flying things would go. And then you'd shake them little ether on it and you'd put it on the top of the flask and then the flying things would go. And then you'd shake them out and look at them under the microscope to see if they had red eyes or whatever eyes, and vestigial wings or not. Those kind of things who was the teacher?
at that time that was mr stewart, wasn't your dad, my, my dad didn't. He was seventh grade science. We didn't get that advanced in seventh grade science. You didn't get to kill.
0:24:44 - Ben
Proof flies in seventh grade science.
0:24:47 - Laura
You don't kill them, you just put them to sleep with the ears. Well wow, no, actually we probably didn't kill them because I can't.
0:24:54 - Ben
Imagine them waking up and flying A proof fly is going to bed, and then you're like, okay, we're okay now.
0:25:03 - Scott
We're going to hear the music on the background.
0:25:07 - Laura
I didn't realize it's coming up through the register, yeah right below us pretty much. I'm kind of amazed you can hear it so well. Well, the window's open.
0:25:17 - Scott
Maybe somebody's not just looking at the window window that's my musical choice.
0:25:21 - Laura
It's george winston george winston.
0:25:26 - Ben
Not to be confused we heard him perform.
0:25:28 - Laura
Remember we went to see him perform when we lived in boston, in fact, yeah, at the boston symphony and he did the whatever he did the charlie brown christmas yeah, that was, it was that they're tied it all together, doesn't it?
0:25:43 - Scott
is that where the boston symphony plays? Yes, the building we're in.
0:25:48 - Laura
I can remember sitting right there way up high, yeah, balcony, kind of on the edge. We're looking this way to look at them you're gonna have to crane your neck. Yeah, we had to crane your necks a little bit. And they handed out the music. Remember, they handed out the piano music to the charlie brown song I remember falling asleep in the middle of it it just goes on forever I think about traditional jazz and classical concerts.
0:26:19 - Ben
I kind of fall asleep. Have you been to some?
0:26:23 - Scott
classical concerts or just stay awake. What?
0:26:27 - Ben
What classical concerts have you been to? Well, I'm thinking mostly of the opera and going to the Phantom of the Opera on Broadway.
0:26:38 - Ben
When did?
0:26:38 - Ben
you do that. That was when I visited New York when I was in eighth grade.
0:26:43 - Scott
You went to an opera.
0:26:45 - Laura
I went to the opera. No, we went to Phantom of the. Opera, that's a musical yeah, it was on Broadway.
0:26:52 - Ben
It's not an opera, it's not All I'm sure is a 14-year-old felt like it. It was a musical. Yeah, I couldn't understand a thing they were saying and I didn't know what was happening. Yeah, I'm not cultured. You know what? You've seen one musical.
0:27:11 - Laura
I haven't been back. I've fallen asleep with my share of concerts and theater and plays.
0:27:20 - Ben
Definitely fallen asleep more often with movies, just in general nowadays the thing.
0:27:28 - Laura
Maybe that's the trick. I'm not supposed to give you advice, but maybe that's the trick to sleep yeah I should I should sleep better.
0:27:36 - Scott
That could be a good question put a, put a movie on.
0:27:39 - Ben
I've been meaning to watch for years and I'll inevitably fall asleep psycho that's on our list. 30 minutes yeah, we better start that one early whenever we decide yeah, we better do it about noon well then can't you just watch the rest when you happen 3 am you're not supposed to use screens.
No, you're not. That's what people say every time I tell people, sleep has been really tough for me and I just they inevitably try to give me advice and one of the first things is like how much do you use your phone before you? Go to bed oh my god, I hate, I hate Instagram you hate Instagram don't her. No, I don't use my phone before bed. It makes me anxious. The problem is not that I'm doing anything. There's not one thing that I could do differently. It's anxiety.
0:28:39 - Laura
I am curious when they say well, when you wake up in the middle of the night, don't use any screens, don't turn the lights on. Do something you know relaxing and you're thinking like read a book. Well, you can't read a book because you need light to turn to read a book, right?
0:28:56 - Ben
Exactly, and I'm the kind of person that overthinks everything, and along with overthinkinginking I ascribe meaning to everything. I read a book, no matter pretty much no matter what the book is. It gets me riled up so I can't read. Really, the only things that I've been able to find that I can do well and like help calm me down is not doing anything, just sitting and journaling, and journaling is a hit or miss and you need light to journal and I need light to turn the light on.
Yeah, exactly right, trying to turn on the orange light, that tends to help, but some days I'll never get tired enough to go back to bed. And then other days it'll be like 7 am and it's like well, it's time for me to go to work soon.
0:29:48 - Laura
I do find that listening to like rain or something like that can help, but sometimes I've done that so many times it's aggravating Brown noise. Brown noise. You should call it like balloon noise or something.
0:30:07 - Ben
Yeah, why brown? Because it's not white.
0:30:11 - Laura
I think those white noise things are just obnoxious, like are they outside of our. We have a lot of white noise because the freeway can sometimes be noisy.
0:30:21 - Scott
We got a pump outside.
0:30:24 - Laura
That's peaceful, peaceful sound. It doesn't make you think about the fish that are in there.
0:30:31 - Ben
No, I just need to. What Is that what?
0:30:38 - Scott
Laura said that the pump makes her think of fish. Well, goldfish are where the pump is. That was weird. I've never called her Laura in conversation with you.
0:30:50 - Laura
I didn't know how to take that.
0:30:55 - Scott
Must be called the.
0:30:56 - Ben
Laura, I don't know how to take that.
0:31:01 - Laura
I was joking, that seemed perfectly fine. We're in a podcast jokes are not allowed. You can't really say oh, you could have said your mom your mom.
0:31:12 - Ben
Your mom thinks of fish. No, what makes, what helps me sleep well is, uh, living with freedom. That's really the only thing I've been able to find like it, and not eating too much fudge before bed oh, you're not gonna get any sleep this week.
0:31:39 - Laura
Yeah, living with freedom, in other words, you're emptying your brain of of um, I need to stop overthinking everything.
0:31:52 - Ben
Yeah, it's really what it comes down to. I overthink everything. I overthink more than anyone I know, and if I could just stop stop caring so much? Well, you know with time, your brain will slow down and when you wanted to, or not you're gonna die young you can't get any sleep and as you, as you start to just disintegrate, you'll start to get better sleep.
That's reassuring, that's really nice no I had a friend recently say to me have you tried, just you know, letting go? And honestly, that's the best advice I've heard from anyone. Much easier said than done, but it's really the only thing that I think will actually if I were to actually truly let go. I think that's the only thing that would actually improve my soul. Just stop giving, just like, be you know, live from your essence. Stop trying to live out other people's questions. Figure out what's right for you and do what you need to do, and do it.
0:33:07 - Ben
I'm already falling asleep, it's all buried.
0:33:10 - Ben
You're already falling asleep. Okay, ben gets vulnerable. It's just so boring.
0:33:15 - Scott
No, no, I meant I was letting them go.
0:33:19 - Laura
Yeah, exactly, don't overthink it yeah.
0:33:28 - Ben
Much easier said than done. Don't overthink it. Yeah, much easier said than done, don't overthink it, yeah, anyway well, we talk all night about it.
0:33:33 - Scott
We've got a new new problem here on the podcast yeah, we do, it's not.
0:33:37 - Ben
It's not gonna kick us off for us, because it didn't start exactly on the hour.
0:33:42 - Scott
It's not kicking us off exactly on the hour. It's up to you. It's like we could have a controlled podcast wrap up.
0:33:59 - Ben
We only knew how to do that.
0:34:01 - Scott
It's a little bit too much freedom. It's discomforting that it kept on going.
0:34:07 - Laura
Now you've got to follow the rule. You can't just get chopped off.
0:34:11 - Ben
Discomforting the way I feel.
0:34:13 - Laura
Do you want me to be the Zoom and just?
0:34:18 - Scott
turn it off. Well, you've got to say some words about the sponsor. Okay, who was the sponsor?
0:34:24 - Ben
Okay.
0:34:24 - Scott
Who was the sponsor? Buzzsprout, buzzsprout, buzzsprout, yeah, or they could be a sponsor if they wanted to give us anything for free.
0:34:35 - Ben
Have you ever used? Well, they kind of are. They're kind of giving us podcasts for free.
0:34:42 - Scott
No, I'm paying money.
0:34:43 - Ben
Oh, you're paying money. Well, Buzzsprout does this really cool thing. If you have a podcast, they'll give you a podcast. They'll give you your Buzzsprout wrapped and they'll tell you all the different listeners throughout the whole year. They'll give you the hot spots, the city where people listen to your podcast the most Like.
0:35:11 - Scott
Eagan.
0:35:11 - Ben
Minnesota. Very similar to Spotify right, kind of inverted, because it's you know you're an art. It's like you know, it's like if you were the artist you know. Know, you're Tosh Sultana. And then Spotify tells you this is where people like listening to you. The most Tosh people love listening to you. In Rio de Janeiro, buzzsprout tells us that people in San Mateo, california, is that the hot?
0:35:42 - Scott
spot, that's the biggest. Yeah, san Mateo, california, california.
0:35:44 - Ben
Is that the hot spot? That's the biggest. Yeah, san Mateo, california, the town, the city. The hot spot, yeah, that's where the most people listen to us.
0:35:50 - Scott
From now.
0:35:51 - Ben
From.
0:35:51 - Ben
Buspo.
0:35:52 - Ben
Travel a couple towns over they like it Really they just don't know San Carlos exists.
0:35:58 - Laura
I know it probably is San Mateo to them.
0:36:02 - Ben
Yep, or maybe you're on the train or something. That's okay, downline.
0:36:06 - Laura
And then I hear there's people in Eagan, minnesota, yep and Plainton, washington, maybe A couple people in Seattle, Washington In Seattle.
0:36:20 - Ben
No, we haven't quite cracked the market in Southern California.
0:36:25 - Laura
Yeah, what's up with that?
0:36:27 - Ben
They're a little more cultured. They need something a little more competition, a little more pizzazz.
0:36:32 - Laura
We need to get it out there, it's just access.
0:36:37 - Ben
Yeah, this is about access Okay.
0:36:41 - Scott
Well, Buzzsprout will help us with that.
0:36:43 - Ben
Yeah, buzzsprout will get your name out there to at least 13, 14, 15 people. Yeah be, optimistic.
0:36:54 - Laura
I think there's San Francisco also.
0:36:56 - Ben
We can hope we've quite made it into that we can hope but I got my fingers crossed that some blood relatives might exactly if they can be guests again.
0:37:16 - Scott
Yeah, well, that wraps it up. We've had three whole guests so far not partial, had three whole guests.
0:37:27 - Ben
So far Not partial guests but whole guests, Not two and a half.
0:37:36 - Laura
And they are still whole.
0:37:37 - Ben
Yeah, they are still whole. Last last last we heard of it. Yeah, all right, everyone Happy holidays. Merry Christmas. Last we heard of it. Yep, alright, everyone happy holidays. Merry Christmas Eve, happy new year happy new year.
0:37:53 - Ben
Happy new year. Happy new year that'll work.
0:37:58 - Scott
Happy new year resume recording you're on scotty so I had some. I had some things to correct and expand on from uh podcast four, which is uh lactose tolerance and uh surprised guests and lakes. So now I've seen a lake that wasn't frozen over in the middle but its bay was frozen. This is a real thing. But I also realized in the podcast, after saying I'd never seen it, I hypothesized that it must be possible and that's yeah it's possible from here once again at the lake and this is its current condition From here once again at the lake and this is its current condition, you know, you could take a snowmobile out on the bay but you wouldn't take it out on the main lake.
Got it.
0:39:37 - Ben
Or you'd stay away from the hole in the middle of it.
0:39:41 - Scott
And what did you say in podcast four? I said like I thought lakes froze instantly, but I guess, that's not. There are lakes that don't.
0:39:50 - Ben
There are bigger lakes that don't freeze overnight. Yeah, okay, good, good correction, peter, was you have two?
0:40:02 - Scott
Peter was a guest and you know we'll have to have him back because we didn't get a chance to get much into his story did we get into anyone's story?
0:40:19 - Ben
no good point, but we just need to make sure we get in the theaters well, he'll have new material to publicize.
0:40:30 - Scott
Let's put it that way. Okay, next time got it yeah alright, now you can like slide in a you know audio marker to yeah, I tried to use that one. I tried to use that one. Oh, I found my own singing. I went with that instead for podcast four.
0:41:06 - Ben
You did go with it.
0:41:07 - Scott
Yeah.
0:41:10 - Ben
Okay.
0:41:11 - Scott
Somewhere, somewhere Okay.
0:41:23 - Ben
What about lactose intolerance? What, what?
0:41:26 - Scott
uh, that was last.
0:41:28 - Ben
That was two podcasts ago yeah, but did you said there was some oh oh. You said oh, it's oh that, that about lactose intolerance. You have some corrections? Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay you didn't have a correction we'll cut that out also.
0:41:45 - Scott
Also, I wanted to mention with that podcast since we still seem to be in the draw here or no the retro um. What did? Oh um, I left it in the order. We recorded it just because it was funnier more drama okay it ends with you saying Joe Roe and the gun, joe Roe the gun is missing, so it's humorous, okay, and the gun is missing.
0:42:31 - Ben
So it's humorous.
Transcribed by https://podium.page
