TAGQ (That's A Good Question)
TAGQ (That's A Good Question)
Sleep Hygiene and Other Bits
General discussion of comedy and sleep hygiene. Sponsored by the "Recording Started" voice artist.
From chat.openai.com:
Suggested Title: "Exploring Podcasting and Sleep Patterns"
In this episode, Scott and Ben delve into the world of podcasting, discussing the challenges and excitement of starting a new venture. From brainstorming podcast names to contemplating the elusive "hook," they share candid insights into their journey of creating a podcast together. Along the way, they navigate the complexities of self-doubt and the desire for validation, reflecting on the importance of authenticity in content creation.
The conversation takes an unexpected turn as they explore the dynamics of sleep patterns and their impact on daily life. From Ben's quest to address insomnia to Scott's musings on the intersection of exercise and inflammation, they offer contrasting perspectives on maintaining healthy habits. With humor and candor, they dissect the nuances of receiving unsolicited advice and the art of navigating well-intentioned but misguided suggestions.
Join Scott and Ben as they embark on a thought-provoking journey through the realms of podcasting, sleep hygiene, and the complexities of human interaction. Whether you're a seasoned podcaster or simply curious about optimizing your sleep routine, this episode offers a blend of entertainment and introspection that's sure to resonate with listeners.
Scott: [00:00:00] Okay.
Ben: Okay. Don't know.
Scott: Hit the wrong button.
Ben: Oh, I just had to restart. Is that a harmonica? Are you playing a harmonica? I can't hear anything.
Scott: You can't hear
Ben: it?
Scott: No. Wow. Can you hear me talk?
Ben: Yeah.
Scott: So the harmonica was just
Ben: wiped
Scott: out? It was
Ben: just complete silence. Wiped out by the AI? I could be. Do they try to avoid music?
Are they trying to destroy our joy now? Is this?
Scott: Yeah,
Ben: the beginning of the end,
Scott: I'm not sure [00:01:00] because, um, there's two separate recordings, so maybe it'll be on the recording, but you didn't hear it. Yeah, that could be, could be a thing.
Ben: Well, that's, that's a good idea though, to, as an opener,
Scott: a good
Ben: idea.
Scott: I, I just, Monica, what?
The sixth podcast and I just. I'm just using the break, you know, uh, that we always use, um, from lost of words, and that's the name of the song. And from Peter Johnston, Peter Johnston,
Ben: the composer,
Scott: the singer songwriter behind the borrower, borrower, borrower, good, good enunciation. Good
Ben: work.
Scott: I, it's hard for me to pronounce that word.[00:02:00]
I. Is it hard for everybody? ,
Ben: edited. Edited, uh, actually pretty good. Usually I have much harder time with that word. Yeah. And that's nice. That's a real grassroots effort. Doing our own. Doing our own. Live. Live interlude.
Scott: Mm-Hmm. . Yep. An intro. I just saw that, uh, Dana Harvey and, uh, David Spade started doing televised podcasts, which is.
You know, or recall circle recording. And so, uh, their breaks, it is, if you listen to the audio version, it's confusing because the break is just, uh, Dana Carvey fooling around on some instrument while they put up the logo or whatever. So when you watch it on TV, it makes sense. It's a TV transition, but it, it, uh, , [00:03:00]
Ben: what's the name of their podcast?
Fly on the Wall. Something like that. Fly on the wall.
Scott: Fly on the wall. But they, they're calling, uh, the tele, the one, the ones with the camera. Those are super fly.
Ben: So when you say they're televised, does that mean they're actually broadcasted onto television? Or they post a
Scott: YouTube video? Or you can listen without the video as a podcast.
Televised.
Ben: Like some people will get, get their, uh, you know, brain all tangled up about that term saying televised. Well, technically it's not televised. I was at a concert last week and it was a folk concert. There was one guy on a hammer dulcimer. You know what that is?
Scott: You hit it like with little sticks.
Ben: Yeah. Little hammers. [00:04:00] Right. Yeah. It's a really big, it's almost like you're opening up the inside of a grand piano and you're just playing the strings.
Scott: How many strings on it? More than, Oh
Ben: man. Yeah. There are a lot, 30 or something. I don't, that's just a guess though. And the other guy was a banjo player.
And, uh, before they started playing this one song, they said, this is a song, uh, written by. And someone actually commissioned him to write this song. Does anyone remember? And there was a, you know, a guy in the background. Oh my god, wow, you just whipped that right out, huh? You don't have hammers though, so.
Are you playing that right now and I still can't hear it? Oh, he can't hear it. Holy smoke. Okay. Wow. Wow. If I sing, will they be able, where are they going to get it?
Scott: This must be Zoom.
Ben: Zoom
Scott: is friendly. [00:05:00]
Ben: Can you hear that?
Scott: Yeah, I heard you sing.
Ben: Okay. Well, so much for that. It'll be, um, yeah. Uh, one guy in the back.
Is this hammer dulcimer player asked like does anyone remember who commissioned woody guthrie? And this guy's like the bpa the bonville power administration and The the dulcimer player was like, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Look at that. I totally forgot but yeah I guess I should have known that this crowd in this island She would there was someone that was gonna know this.
Well this This song is an artifact of capitalism. And then the guy was like, No, no, no, no, no. It was a public works project. Yeah. It's like, okay, sometimes, you know, just take, take the joke. Just like,
your, your boomer is showing. Sorry. [00:06:00] Um, anyway, we don't, we don't post these things. Oh,
Scott: they exist, it's true. But I don't back them. On TV?
Ben: Oh, you're saying the videos exist. Videos
Scott: exist, yeah.
Ben: So
Scott: what's the name of this podcast? Are we going to get a new name? I keep on seeing TAGQ is taken, but there's no There's no live ones. So it's kind of like, um, a contest, see if you can publish enough podcasts to be the more dominant user on the
Ben: top.
Scott: All right.
Ben: All right. Yeah. Wait, are you asking if we need a new name because other people have that name
Scott: or just tough it out?
Ben: Yeah, I think we tough it out.
Scott: Yeah.
Ben: Okay. I think we tough it out. Just like, uh, well, I [00:07:00] guess skinny Pete didn't, didn't tough it out. There's, you know, skinny Pete was, uh, Skinny Pete, stage name of Peter Johnston, former stage name.
Scott: Former stage name, but borrower is a band name, which is so much better.
Ben: Okay, so what's the difference? What's the difference between a stage name and a band name,
Scott: especially if
Ben: you're the only person in your band?
Scott: If you call yourself, let's say like Dewey and the Peoples, then, um, or, and that's how you go on stage, then everyone just knows, You know that one person's name is stuck to it.
Right. Uhhuh, . You know, so anybody who's make Instagram things, they have a hard time making bands because they're, [00:08:00] you know, they're just an, a identity and they can't slide out.
Ben: They're in, you're saying people with bands cannot slide out of the identity, whereas the stage name
Scott: Right.
Ben: You can.
Scott: Right. Tamala is a, A band.
A
Ben: band, yeah. But it's, you know, it's a guy. It's, it's him. Yeah.
Scott: But it's just, it's actually just one of his projects, right? Yeah.
Ben: Yeah.
Scott: Wow. But it's a good name because people don't instantly think of like, you know, it doesn't mean they can't, can't have a band. You can't have the people who help you bring the songs to this, to the stage.
Ben: Yeah. Well, I can see how this gets very nuanced, very fast
entertainment.
Scott: So, yeah. [00:09:00] And we talked about borrowers first song on the
Ben: podcast. No, we haven't. What did you, uh, think of your son's, son's song titled, Daddy was a stoner, Dad. What did you think,
Scott: Dad? It's a very heartwarming song.
Ben: Uh huh.
Scott: But you gotta listen to the whole thing.
Ben: Because, uh,
Scott: I
Ben: listened to it a lot a couple weeks ago, but I can't remember.
Is there,
Scott: you outro, like, tie it up, you know. Put the spin on it, you know, you know, the first verse and chorus, second verse and chorus sort of like, whatever, create the problem and then expand on what happened because of the problem and then it wraps up with like, Oh, but you know. Maybe, [00:10:00] maybe there's a different way to look at it.
Ben: We should, we should find out what these lyrics are. What's that? Well, no, we don't need to do that. I don't need to throw you under the bus like that. That's,
Scott: and it's only lyrics. Everyone has their own interpretation. I mean, right. Uh, Peter called me and gave me his interpretation as of two weeks ago, which is not the same as this week.
So, you know, no, He, you know, I was gonna ask him, he's like, well, it's time to publicize, but he's all on that on his own, uh, is, you know, doing the tick tock videos. And, uh, I recorded shorts of myself, uh, doing everything. I mean, singing it, drumming it, playing bass on it. Guitar. [00:11:00] So I think I'm going to be on Tick Tock in the near future.
The video background to this song.
Ben: Tick Tock debut. Well,
Scott: you gotta, and you probably just got
Ben: to pay, pay for ads. You know, that's pay you pay for ads.
Scott: Yeah. You pay, pay someone so that you
Ben: can be advertised to.
Scott: Yeah. Yeah. You.
Ben: Oh,
Scott: I
Ben: see what you're saying. You're the first advertiser for your own brand. Yeah.
Yeah. Got it. Got it. Got it. Got it. So, as in, you give TikTok money and then they, yeah. They say,
Scott: hey, yeah, we'll promote you. We'll promote you. Or, yeah.
Ben: Yeah. It's an ad. It's, yeah.
Scott: Right.
Ben: Buy ads, please.
Scott: Yeah. I think that's the secret of, uh, how some people have used this streaming to blow up is like, oh, they probably put money into ads.[00:12:00]
I'd never told you that, but what's
Ben: new, same old, same old
Scott: knowing Peter, he'll write a song about it. So there's no stopping him from telling
Ben: things. We need more transparency in this world.
Scott: Yeah. Well, your guest wrangling go
Ben: by guest wrangling.
Scott: Yeah.
Ben: Oh, you know,
Scott: we need some, it was
Ben: hard. Yeah. Yeah. You might need some, someone on a talent acquisition team.
Yeah, that might be helpful. Uh, it's hard telling friends here that I'm doing a podcast with my dad. Oh man, that's so cool. That's, that's really cool. And then they're like, so what's it called? I'm saying, that's a good question. They're like, Oh my God, is that the [00:13:00] name of the podcast? I'm like, yeah, it's like, okay, that's actually a pretty good name.
That's good. And then they ask like, okay, so like, what's the hook? And I'm like, I mean, my dad and I get along and we talk and sometimes we were like, okay. And then other people. I've said like, I'm an avid podcast listener, and my feedback is, I'm bored just listening to you say that. And I'm like, okay, all right.
So I've been a little bit, well, I've been a little apprehensive about asking people on the podcast because I'm like, what's. I don't yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, my own stuff my own stuff to work through going to therapy Kind of
Scott: just because somebody's not interested in somebody else wouldn't be interested.
Ben: Yeah, it's true. It's true [00:14:00] And just uh, i'm always hyper aware of people being bored I'm, like I need I need to have this need to be fucking killer You know, it's, it's gotta be like, you know, people gotta be cracking, cracking up in order for this to be worthwhile. But no, it doesn't really have to. No, I have some people in mind.
I got a couple of people in mind that I feel like would be down for it. Um, just a couple though, uh, beyond those folks, I don't know. At that point, I think we really do need to think about, uh, who's, who's going to be on the show. I'm not, uh, just start reaching out to celebrities and their agents and see if we have a random podcast.
What do you think?
Scott: Yeah, well,
Ben: we take up 20 minutes of your time.[00:15:00]
Scott: In my mind, it's just like, it's such a joke we're making it that that should be entertaining.
Ben: How far does that get you?
Scott: We're not going anywhere.
Um, well maybe I just, you know, turn 65, so can no longer say I'm in my. Younger sixties. You're now, yeah, mid and, um, yeah, my plans do not require copious amounts of revenue from this creative effort, [00:16:00]
Ben: but
Scott: some,
Ben: some would be nice.
Scott: Hey, no,
Ben: non copy.
Scott: That's not what, well, people have fun with it. More fun with it.
It'd be great.
Ben: Yeah. More fun, more fun. What was your, uh, I'm not saying we're not having fun.
Scott: I mean, ongoing.
Ben: I understand. I understand. I understand. Um, I remember you texted me, like, we should actually do a podcast, however many months ago that was. And I know it's something that you've talked about in the past.
Um, what, where does that, uh, where did that inspiration come from? Why, why'd you send that text on that day? Or why, more generally, I was probably thinking of calling you and asking you
Scott: to do a podcast.
at that moment and [00:17:00] um, you know, just remembered past conversations.
Ben: Yeah, thinking, oh man, I wish we had that recorded.
Scott: Well, yeah, realizing that it was You know, clever and, and funny and interesting and, um, yeah, it's sort of like, why, why not? Uh,
hello. Recording in pro
Ben: Hello. Recording in progress. This episode is brought to you by Recording in Progress. Ah, Zoom. That woman that [00:18:00] speaks, you know, whenever you start a recording. She's got the dough. She gets paid royalties every time they use her voice.
Scott: Really? A billionth of a cent or something?
Ben: Yeah, but billions of people doing it every day, I guess.
You're right. That's a penny a day, but, uh, she's donating her services to us.
Scott: Good. So she's, she's, uh, uh, sponsoring zoom also, just like we are. Yes. I, I could talk for a moment on zoom. How, you know, since the early in the fifties and the sixties mad magazine was like making fun of the future of. You know, a video telephone, a video phone, you know, showing how, uh, people would have to, like at the bar, they would have a, um, movie screen that got pulled [00:19:00] down and they'd project something that made the person look like they were still at the office when they called on the video phone.
And, well, thanks to my, thanks Steve. You know, new devices and then zoom came along and finally made made it all work in a way that, you know, it's like those are two big Innovations like the iPhone's better speaker phone than any speaker phone. I saw any conference table, speaker phone. I ever saw none of them ever worked.
And then people just pull out their iPhone and they work. Zoom is way better than any other tele conference, video teleconference. Right. They just roughed up. No, they smoothed over all the rough edges of the experience. [00:20:00]
Ben: Yeah, they were one of those people that came into the game, there's a word for it, probably, in the world of entrepreneurship, right?
It's like the person that, the people that come along and do offer a service or product first are often not the ones that are actually end up making billions of dollars from it. Someone else comes along and kind of perfects the art. Yeah. Kind of feel like Facebook came along after MySpace and did that.
Yeah. Zoom came along after a number of different kind of products and like whatever happened to Skype, you know,
Scott: we're, we're not having Facebook sponsor this. Podcast. Yeah, you can just wanna put that out there. Yeah, yeah,
Ben: yeah.
Scott: So Zoom, you can use it for teleconferencing on anything on your phone, on your fax machine, on your tv, right?
You can, or [00:21:00] you can use
Ben: Zoom with anything. You can, you can connect zoom to your fax machine.
Scott: Yeah, it's really slow. It's really slow. That's the fax out one page at a time and you have to decide what of
Ben: what a transcript. No, a video. One frame? You get one frame? Oh my God. That's It took my brain to figure out how much ink that would require.
Scott: The words are translated by AI in the bottom, so you know they're not that good.
Kind
Ben: of looks like Netflix subtitles, or YouTube subtitles, I guess, on the bottom. Yeah.
Scott: Okay. So anything else you want to say, say about our teleconferencing technology?
Ben: Um, since I do a weekly meditation with zoom,
Scott: yeah,
Ben: it's really cool.
Scott: [00:22:00] I, I, yeah, you can use it in case you were unfamiliar. I have a background in, in video and networking and.
Uh, history of software and hardware. So, um, and you know, I'm just trying to give more weight
Ben: to approval. So whatever happened to Skype, it's a legitimate question from your, from your perspective,
Scott: did you see the funnier guy, uh, skit about Skype in the middle of the pandemic, this guy is playing the CEO of Skype and he comes out and, uh, he's like, just gonna give up.
You know, uh, like CEO talking for an ad, right. Telling how wonderful Skype is and how, you know, it's going to be the future. And this is like six months into the pandemic and, and he's just [00:23:00] trying to like, make it sound like they're doing really well, but it gets more and more frustrated by like the interviewer's questions.
You know, like, well, why didn't, why don't you do this? Or, and then he finally just like, you know, flams down the microphone and said, ah, damn it. I got to go zoom my mother.
Ben: Ah, and then that's how Skype died. That's what, uh, that's what a degree in computer science will get you.
Scott: Okay. And here they
Ben: all know in the story. No, I can't.
Scott: No, I
Ben: have to find, I hope it shows up. I wonder if I started playing my guitar, if you could hear it. [00:24:00] Um, yeah, that's our sponsor. Thanks. And, uh, because I'm in a sleep deprived state pretty much all the time these days, I can't remember what we were talking about before our internet.
Scott: I haven't recorded.
Ben: Okay. So we'll just. That conversation will just end abruptly, we won't pick it up at all, and it'll just be like, just, just like the old days when we first started. Perfect. Alright, sounds good.
What do you, uh, what are you, uh, what are you drinking?
Scott: Green tea. Green tea.
Yep. And, uh,
last time you asked about comedians that I've been [00:25:00] watching. Yep. It's Nate, Nate Bargettsi, Bargottsi, Bargettsi, and Nate Bargettsi. And Taylor Tomlinson. And the other guy that I still can't remember his name.
Ben: The other guy? Yeah. From the other guys?
Scott: No.
Ben: Are these, uh, how did, how did you discover Nate Bargottsi and Taylor Tomlinson?
Uh, he
Scott: did, I was finding him on Instagram. Before, but he did SNL once this year, so that, you know, got him more famous. Um, he does this really good, uh, skit on SNL. You should watch it where he plays like [00:26:00] George Washington in the revolutionary army camp. And he tells everybody about his dream for the, what the country will be.
And he goes, and while the whole world resists us, we will measure things in inches and feet.
Oh, really? How many, how many feet to, to a yard? Three. Oh, how many yards to a mile? Nobody knows.
And then, uh, you know, Kenan Thompson is one of the people lined up, you know, soldiers sitting on stumps talking to the leader, the whatever, and he goes, and in this country, it will be, you know, liberty for all. [00:27:00] And you know, his George Washington character just looks the other way and goes, and we're going to use Fahrenheit.
Keeps on going. Oh
Ben: god. Ah.
Scott: So it's
Ben: like, just like we have, uh, private companies dealing with our health insurance. Yeah. Got uh, people. Yep. Just weird. We're just blips, you know, just blips that affect absolutely everything. Yes. Great.
Scott: And we will. Have a favorite pastime, uh, a game of football where you use your hands to throw the ball.
is there no kicking? Yes, there is some kicking to score points, sometimes one, sometimes [00:28:00] three.
Ben: Football,
Scott: football,
Ben: most confusing sport. I think we were talking about
Scott: the metric system and football earlier in this podcast. So kind of an okay callback.
Ben: Okay.
Scott: Okay.
Ben: Yeah. That's decent.
Scott: So what's new in improv?
Ben: Nate,
Scott: I don't,
Ben: there's no improv going on right now. Did I not tell you this?
Scott: It's uh, winter break.
Ben: Back, well, back in November, the uh, the instructor said, I, I'm going to send out a survey soon, but uh, I need to, because he was more or less donating his time, you know, the improv class was [00:29:00] done by donation, and he said I need to reassess, so I'm going to send out a survey and see what people are really wanting from the class, and, you know, so.
Yeah, no, no more improv until further notice, but it'll start again at some point, 2024. Um, he sent out a re, a new email a couple of days ago. Uh, I haven't taken a look at it. And I mean, in the last year I started doing, um, the improv classes. I started going to an ultimate Frisbee group and then I started really doing dancing every week.
And so those, those three were, those three things were kind of just these fun things that like. I got to go do, and the, after a few months of doing the ultimate Frisbee, it was a lot of fun, and Uh, in terms of the, [00:30:00] I had the hardest time connecting with the people that were there. Um, and it was also really hard on my body just because I would be sprinting as fast as I can all the time.
Um, and it was just, just after dance or on Tuesday and Thursday nights. And so I, uh, started going to Ultimate Frisbee less and less, but I kept going to the dance and in terms of. The connections I was making with other people, how much I was able to face my fears, how much growing I felt like I was doing as a person, um, how good my body felt after doing it.
Um, the, the dancing just seemed to be most aligned.
Scott: I mean, it's maybe the same body movements, but you don't have to risk injuring yourself to, for competitive reasons, right?
Ben: Yeah. It's really dropping into my body and seeing like what. what feels good. And if [00:31:00] I'm injured, I can still like move. I just have to be aware of the injury.
Whereas I'm doing ultimate frisbee. It's probably not wise to play at all. I mean, you can walk up and down the field instead of running, but that's just, I'm, I'm so bad at throwing that like I would, that would be such a bore for me to just walk. Cause some people that are a little bit older run very slowly or just walk up and down the field, but because they're so good at throwing the frisbee.
They can do that and still be really valuable members of teams.
Scott: So if you stack up these three activities, the Frisbee saying to the bottom and the, the improv is floating in the middle, maybe kind of in limbo
Ben: right now. Yeah. And the, and the dance
Scott: is, uh, self sustaining.
Ben: So, yes, very much. So very much. So I would really like to do the Frisbee [00:32:00] still.
Um, but. I've noticed some tightness in my, in my joints and my hips now that I'm not moving my body for eight hours a day for a living, like I was with farming and working at the nursery. I, uh, I, I'm, I'm kind of in a new era where I'm kind of having to figure out how to make sure the aches and pains
Scott: don't.
Do you want to know my very qualified, uh, opinion about inflammation like that?
Ben: Yes.
Scott: Because I'm, I'm married. Yes. A doctor. So I must. Yes. Talking about.
Ben: Don't eat brown rice. Is that what you're going to tell me?
Scott: No, I think you have like a finite amount of, um, inflammation, uh, chemistry floating around your body and it's always ready to go.
And if you're not inflaming things by exercise, It's just going to find other [00:33:00] things to go in flame.
Ben: Uh huh. So it's a matter of like, exercise as a stress, as a stressor that's good for you.
Scott: Yeah, in a way it becomes a anti histamine, a natural way of, you'd rather just have it in your sore muscles than in your sore joints.
Ben: Yeah, right.
I've almost been feeling like I've been doing too much. Um, like cross legged sitting. Oh
Scott: yeah.
Ben: Cause like my upper thighs, like where my, where my, where my thighs, where my quadriceps connect to my hips is getting like, really? Yeah. I'll have to, I'll have to figure that one out. And I think a lot of it's because it's figuring through all of this, like cross legged sitting through all this meditation and stuff.
It's just,
Scott: you just need to tell the history. You'd have somewhere else. I [00:34:00] hit the means to go elsewhere. It's like, no, go over, go over here. Um,
Ben: I, uh, got a gym membership, spent an arm and a leg, went to the sauna today, got a lot of cool amenities. So that's, that's one way that my kind of everyday life patterns are going to be changing at least for the next month.
I'm going to see if there's some sort of rhythm that behooves me comes to go into a formal place to do my exercise. Yeah. Which is big for me. Can I ask a
Scott: meta question?
Ben: Yeah, so long as it's not about Facebook.
Scott: When I shift into sort of the, uh, didactic voice, because both, honestly, I really think I know something, but it's also I'm kind of being a little pedantic for humor [00:35:00] sense.
Are, um, are you okay? Let's see. Does that annoy you?
Ben: Just a moment. I am currently doodling didactic. Okay.
Scott: You're doodling didactic.
Ben: That's not helpful.
Scott: It's the way a teacher talks.
Ben: Uh,
I'm a pedant. Pedant? Is that the noun? I guess. So, when you are didactic and pedantic, does it bother me? Uh, no. No, it doesn't. I don't know, [00:36:00] somehow, because you're right. Like, there's this, when you are trying to advise people, and like, presuming to fix someone's, you don't presume to fix my problems. Or don't you, it doesn't feel like you're being patronizing.
Scott: There's a tone of voice when you're
Ben: providing Yeah, teaching or, or when you're being like, uh, yeah,
Scott: but there is a tone of voice trying to convey authority. When I. I kind of use it sparingly because I kind of think it's funny, you know, I mean, maybe
Ben: sometimes it bothers me, but, um, I think usually if it bothers me, I end up, uh, reacting and getting pissed off without really knowing why.
I'm sure it
Scott: depends on the topic. If I ever got pedantic about some topic where.
Ben: Right. It's like, I don't know. [00:37:00] Like for instance talking to people about my shitty sleep recently People people like to be didactic about that.
Scott: What does that mean?
Ben: I just it means They're it means they're like teaching taking taking the taking the role of a teacher,
Scott: right?
I sit down to jam with someone and they become didactic in the first 15 seconds.
Ben: Yeah,
Scott: like And
Ben: A lot of the time, whether or not, you know, people will always say, Well, it wasn't my intention to, you know, like, think that, you know, I knew more than you did. They, you know, it's like, well, when you tell me that I should consider how much screens I use before bedtime, or you tell me that I should watch my caffeine intake, you know nothing about me, [00:38:00] and you have no idea what my bedtime ritual looks like.
You're not, yeah, you're not taking in, you're not, you're not trying to get to know me before you're advising me. It's, and it's frustrating because it's like, you don't know, I have gone around the fucking block to try and address this insomnia and screens, Caffeine, I've tried it fucking all I I need a blood test next so that's helpful information Sometimes some people say that I'm like, ah, fuck you, but you're right.
Okay. Um But what what are you
Scott: gonna but from the perspective of the other person? All they're really caring about is whether they seem Authoritative to you. They don't care if the information is useful to you. They don't care um
Ben: You think they're trying you think they're either consciously or unconsciously Wanting to put themselves in a position to get
Scott: admiration for saying [00:39:00] something that conveys knowledge, you know, like it could be.
Ben: I think a lot of time if that's the motivation is unconscious, but that's probably true.
Scott: But, but don't you get excited when you know something and you want to share. That's not a, that's not unconscious. And why, why are you, it's true because it'll reflect well on you. If you share this wonderful bit of knowledge or witticism and then feel like whatever you add ways, you know how to feel for a moment.
Ben: Information is basic is like, try not using your phone before bedtime. Do you think that's reflecting well on you? Giving me this shitty advice. It's like,
Scott: well, they don't know what's in your head. They don't
Ben: know they don't and that's why I'm saying like get to like [00:40:00] don't don't presume to know me Yeah,
Scott: I'm pretty good with phones phones and sleep. They're actually a sleep aid to me
Ben: Yes, complete opposite for me. I stay far away from that thing within At least within an hour of going to bed or waking up.
Scott: No, I fall asleep using it, and then in the middle of the night I fall asleep using it. It works. But that's, I think I also don't get,
I'm not, whatever, clickbait's not my vice. Right. Even click words, you know, where people are just trying to get me to, I'm think I'm pretty good at not being emotionally manipulated, but that's probably not true.
Ben: Not true of any of us. No, but it's, it's, it's a [00:41:00] spectrum though.
Uh, I also think the screens though, it's to me from the research I've done, I think it's not so much that it like, Gets in the way of you being able to fall asleep, even though it does for me, But it's that's not so much the issue. The issue is that the light is sending signals throughout your body and causing this cascade of events so that chemicals and hormones and stuff are Balanced or imbalanced in a particular way so that it inhibits your ability to access true deep sleep So it's not you can still be you can still go to sleep fine You But, there's this sort of level of brain regeneration that's not able to happen to the same extent when you use phones around bedtime.
That's what I, I think, if I'm [00:42:00] remembering correctly. So when people give me advice on all of it, it's like, I don't, as far as I know, it's like not, like the insomnia, it's not so much insomnia, it's Your brain's ability to access deep sleep.
Scott: I'd like to see the experiment between people never thought that about watching TV, not to the same extent, but it's
Ben: somehow
Scott: falling asleep on the couch.
Watching TV is better than falling asleep in your bed, looking at a phone.
Ben: Yeah. It's also weird. It's weird because I was on a, uh, probably a zoom call with a sleep expert. Um, Like, it was a big Q& A, uh, about a year ago, and someone asked, like, so you talk about phones and how we need to avoid phones around [00:43:00] bedtime, but what about television?
And they said, you should probably avoid it, but it's not nearly as bad. And it's like, what? How is that? It's a giant screen that you're sitting like 10 feet in front of. How can it not? I don't understand. It depends on
Scott: whether you're in bed or not. That's the difference.
Ben: Yeah, that could be
Scott: whether you have a separation of activities like oh, well, yeah, I turn off the tv and go go to bed
Ben: Yeah, yeah, I never use my phone in bed.
Like holy shit. I don't want that association But that's not cool. It's not quite like uh, okay Yeah, my my charger has to be across the bedroom because otherwise I would
Scott: You do it also
Ben: gets me up in the morning when my alarm goes off. I have no choice but to get up
Scott: I like that. It's such a dismissive thing to say You You do you. [00:44:00]
Ben: Alright, fine. You do you. Don't, don't sleep with your phone six inches from your face. Fine. You do you. I won't judge.
Anyways, I feel like, uh, a couple different points in this conversation. Yeah. Might've been talking outta my ass. It's okay. Well,
Scott: we should probably wrap up this record to
Ben: be shooting the shit. Yeah, it's 'cause we got an extra 40 minutes because it, yeah, yeah, yeah. Zoom's not keeping us honest, so is there any way we could leave that as a
Scott: review?
Ben: Four stars?
Scott: Um, sure. I, I honest we did, we did sponsor them on this show so we could give 'em some feedback too. I like how the word sponsor can just be.
It's like, well, I'm paying for the advertising
Ben: so long as we don't make copious amounts of [00:45:00] income.
Scott: Okay. All right.
Ben: Well,
Scott: good to talk to you, Ben.
Ben: Good to talk to you too. And yeah, I expect to see this published. You don't know what to call me on this podcast.
Talk to you too, dad. Uh, I hope, I hope the, uh, harmonica and the dulcimer work. It's a soundbite.
Scott: Yeah, let's just see if I try it again for the outro here. Oops. It's so
Ben: funny.
It's like literally silence. You're not, you're not just like screwing with me, are you? Like you're actually playing, right? No,
Scott: we'll, we'll see if it, I can't believe. It must
Ben: be a certain frequency. They don't want to hurt my ears or something. [00:46:00] Like if someone, Oh, I heard a little bit there. I heard a,
it's like, I'll
Scott: try normal voice. There's
Ben: an episode of Avatar, the last airbender. Where Aang gets a bison whistle, and he spends like all of their money on it. You know, if you don't know anything about Avatar The Last Airbender, there are like three 10 to 12 year old kids are on an air bison. And they have no money, but they need to go save the world.
And Aang, the airbender, spends all their money on an air bison whistle that's supposed to call the bison when like they need his help. And then They get out of the store and they find out that all their money is gone. And he's like, don't worry guys. I got a bison whistle. It's going to be coming handy, you know?
And then he blows into it. There's nothing. It's just, [00:47:00] that's what, that's what, but it does work. It does actually work. It's just a frequency that only the, so they didn't
Scott: have, what was the air? Bison's name? Did they didn't have a buddy yet?
Ben: Oh, they did. Like the first show. He just, yeah. Aang had the forethought to know that it would come in handy someday, where they'd be surrounded by, you know, villains, and then Appa would be able to come sweep them from elsewhere.
Anyway, yeah.
Scott: Okay.
Ben: Uh, I, I'm excited for, uh, Grassroots, uh, music intros. So we've
Scott: actually hit the time left countdown, so I think we can, you know, stop anytime after, after you see that.
Right. Talk to you in a couple of weeks.
Ben: [00:48:00] Indeed. Not before. Adios. See ya, everyone. So long.
