TAGQ (That's A Good Question)
TAGQ (That's A Good Question)
Mushroom Mysteries and Moving Thrills
Now a flashback episode from earlier in the fall. Have you ever wondered why some superfoods are shockingly affordable? Join us as we unravel the mysteries of a company selling superfood mushroom powders at Grocery Outlet for prices that make us question the entire supply chain. Our conversation kicks off with a "hilarious" take on the ever-present Zoom notification, sparking a chat about privacy and etiquette in virtual meetings. Then, we shift into high gear with tales of quirky packing habits and the fascinating realm of citizen journalism. As we speculate wildly, laughter ensues with theories about hidden ingredients and marketing wizardry.
But that's just the beginning! Get ready to explore the intricate dance between anxiety and intuition. Personal stories reveal the emotional ups and downs of moving to the lively city of Seattle, capturing the bittersweet mix of leaving familiar comfort zones behind and diving into new adventures. Plus, we share the humorous saga of a wardrobe mishap that turned into unexpected local fame. Through it all, we celebrate the blend of human anxiety and AI that spices up our daily lives, wrapping this episode with warmth and gratitude.
there you go.
Ben:Oh okay, recording in progress. You're being recorded everyone. Well, do you wish to leave the meeting?
Scott:no, I do not. No, I do not.
Ben:Your response has been yes. I wish to leave the meeting. Goodbye.
Scott:All right, have you ever?
Ben:gotten that? Have you ever gotten that option when you log into a Zoom and it says recording in progress and then it says leave meeting?
Scott:Oh. I am not okay, gives you the option to say like I'm not okay with this right now, goodbye. No, yes, I probably have Fast fascinating. That is a good question, which is the name of this podcast.
Ben:Now the next question is have you ever left the meeting? Because the recording was in progress.
Scott:No Kind of like a photo release form.
Ben:When you go join a workshop or something, you're going to some jujitsu class or something, something, and first you have to sign the waiver to say, like I accept that I might die by the hands of an experienced jujitsu and I also agree to have my face or back of my head on facebook.
Scott:If you know, it works out that way you could like be two separate documents though could be a journal, I don't know why they couldn't just fit them into one you could be a citizen journalist and go ask, zoom this question like hey, is anybody and I'm sure somebody has- I'm sure somebody you're, you're, you're sure somebody has been a citizen journalist and gone to zoom headquarters no, no, no, you can't get through to them by phone.
Scott:Let it be known somebody has not clicked the thing has clicked the thing and skipped the meeting. Once they saw it was recorded there.
Ben:Yeah.
Scott:And maybe other people turned off their camera. Yeah, oh, it's recorded.
Ben:Oops, that probably happened Quickly. My default is always the video is off as soon as I log on.
Scott:That's not necessarily by choice are you all packed up to uh leave the island?
Ben:just this does this wall and bed look like it's packed up no, is that wall in bed coming with you? What about that dresser or that closet?
Scott:hard to tell. Hard to tell okay it's hard to tell.
Ben:Your digs are in such disarray ben that I can't really tell if you're all packed up or not that's just me giving benefit of the doubt, you know.
Scott:Okay, I don't know. Either way, it's not good. No, everything could be really organized in those, uh, dressers, drawers yeah, all right, it's, it is.
Ben:It's hard to tell, hard to tell on zoom, isn't it? Yeah, I did not. I did not consent to this degree of introspection into my living style.
Scott:Logged off of this what else do you expect from a parent?
Ben:soon as I heard it was recording.
Scott:No, that's sort of that's the most commentee I've ever been on your environment well, it's the most, I think I've asked you about it commentee. Is that a word?
Ben:sure, um, um, um. What is it? What do people do next? What do people do next? What do people say next? We needed structure, right I had something earlier, but actually no, let's see, we were talking about recording. We were talking about, oh, citizen journalism, but it sounds like you have something too.
Scott:Okay, hit it, that sounds good. You have something too? Okay, uh, hit it, that sounds good. I was just saying this is hard, where the introductory ramble sort of like. It's like okay, time to, it's not going.
Ben:Okay, time to bring your guest on now cut it off.
Scott:Yeah, bring on a guest or um, or to have a question of Get into the main content of the day. Point of focus.
Ben:yeah, yeah, have you ever, have I ever talked about the company that gets that? I don't think I've talked about it on this podcast, but there's this company that sells these different mushroom powders at a grocery outlet. Mushroom powders and just mushroom extracts and mushroom products are kind of all the craze and these are not psychedelic mushroom anything chaga, shiitake superfood mushrooms that are really good for cognitive health and overall physiological stress reduction in your body. These mushrooms are very expensive but there's a company that you can pretty much always find a grocery outlet and you can get a mushroom powder like six ounces of mushroom powder or something for like eight dollars and it pretty much anywhere else you would go to buy these mushroom powders it would be like 45 dollars and I wonder how is this possible? This is the only time I've actually seriously considered whether or not to do the whole citizen journalism thing how is it possible they can sell it for a quarter of the price, or?
Ben:or even less or less. That might be an exaggeration, but I think it's about a quarter of the price and you can almost always find it at grocery outlet. I did some research on them and I could find very, very little information on the company. It's like really. It's very like brand marketing and everything on these bags.
Scott:Is there one of those here in California, a grocery outlet?
Ben:Yeah, they're in California.
Scott:Yeah, there's one in Redwood City, is that?
Ben:what? Maybe we never went to one. I didn't actually start visiting until I was in Oregon and I had never stepped foot into a grocery outlet until I was in Oregon. And let me tell you that.
Scott:Maybe they control their supply chain more so that there's less middlemen, Therefore it's cheaper.
Ben:Yeah, I think it's full of lead. Is that it? That's my hypothesis.
Scott:Why it's cheap.
Ben:I feel I don't know how can you have a product that's so goddamn cheap compared to all of the competitors and then not have any information on your packaging? I guess you don't have to invest anything in marketing because it's the price point is so good, so, like you don't really have to stand out. You stand out because you have a 13 dollar price tag. It's instead of a 60 dollar price tag. So I'm just and when you look up the company in its headquarters, it's just in this random little office building in an office park in Los Angeles, and like where are these powders manufactured?
Ben:What I'm saying is I want to trace the supply chain and see, like where are these mushrooms coming from? Who are the people harvesting them? Are they taken care of? They get paid? Are they taken care of? They get paid? Or is this just people in like somewhere in India, for instance, that are just like getting paid $2 a week to go out? And I don't, I don't even know. Are the mushroom powders cut with something that's not even remotely a mushroom? I just have questions.
Scott:I would assume that, like the, true cost.
Ben:They're farmed mushrooms, yeah, they're. I mean, yeah, they're not wild, probably. Sure, I want to see these mushrooms. Like what? What are these mushrooms that I'm eating? I just you can find so little information on them on the internet, but I guess that's kind of true for a lot of companies. They're only going to share information that they want to share.
Scott:And it's true for a lot of information. Therefore, it's true for the knowledge of any AI. They're only going to know what people let them know are willing to divulge, right? They can't really access all the other experiences people have had who haven't found a way to divulge it on the internet. You know right, so it's up to me. Yeah, haven't found a way to divulge it on the internet, you know Right.
Ben:So what's up to me?
Scott:Yeah.
Ben:I have to do this.
Scott:You're your own AI. You didn't know that. Huh, you thought you were supposed to be the sound effect of a face palm.
Ben:You are your own AI. Why do our conversation always this is the question of the day. Why do our conversations always go back to AI? Oh, I guess it's a latent computer scientist in me yeah yeah yeah, and I mean, I guess it makes sense because in the context of your career, you but, but. But it's also having you used the natural intelligence of biological systems to inspire artificial intelligence sure, yes so that's why you keep saying you are your own ai.
Ben:I think this might be the third or fourth time you might have said that like humans are just great ai. I'm like that's the whole point. That's why it's called artificial intelligence, because it's actually not natural, it's not human, so it's you're going there's got to be a term for that where it's like uh, I know artificial.
Scott:Yeah, it's not an artificial intelligence but but it's sort of like your Sort of like your muscles and flexibility is constrained in some of the same ways that robots are constrained, right, I mean you're doing a natural thing.
Ben:Much more right. Yeah, it faces similar constraints, but it's just much more nuanced. Right, right, yeah, faces similar constraints, but it's just much more nuanced, right right, yeah, biological system just has a lot more wisdom to it right, but the same computations finer grain programming. They yeah the computation yeah it's just the same.
Scott:Computations are going on. Like all the vision-based AI took off when they just traced vision neurons and just made computer models of them and then tried them out and it's like, oh look, we can do these things. Oh, nature already designed our computer for us, we just had to use it as a stencil. Yeah, yeah, great, which kind of surprised me. It's like, really that worked. Duh, so, like the the uh, creating images is like a reverse engineering of that process. So you're part of your visual um neurons. Um, I think I don't know what I'm talking about. Take it on the advice of other people.
Ben:Yeah, I guess that's what humans do, just refine the advice.
Scott:I know a little.
Ben:Well, that's a satisfying answer. I can, I can, okay, all right. That's why the conversation always ends up back to ai who's on your coffee mug today?
Scott:colonel, the whitby institute oh, are we sponsored by them today? No oh okay, today we are sponsored by um anxiety wow, which the breakout by breakout star in in what's it called inside out to inside out too.
Ben:Yeah, I still want to see that, yeah no, I don't want to break out.
Scott:I think there's a new, new one.
Ben:Oh, anxiety addiction no anxiety is the new one really, oh man, I want to see that movie. Uh, this is brought to you by anxiety because I only recently secured housing for my imminent move to seattle. I signed a lease that begins on september 1st, so I actually I have two homes right now wow.
Scott:Anxiety and how did you to focus what happened and what you need to get done?
Ben:anxiety yeah, I mean, that's actually kind of what. That's the function, that's the function. And then we kind of just take it a little too far and get scared. It's like I don't. The body says I don't want you to feel like this anymore, and then you're just like, ah. So you scream the other and run the other direction and then it's like, no, I don't go, come back, come back, wait. It's kind of like in those uh tv shows where there's like the really nice monster or something that just like wants to be loved, and then like one of the main characters like turns a corner and then they see each other and then they both scream, and then the main character turns around and is like, oh, and then the really kind, loving monster just kind of looks scary, it just keeps running. It's like, no, I'm just trying to help, wait, I love you. And then you just keep running and instead of just like turning around and being like what do you want from?
Ben:me what do you want? Just like I, just I just want a hug. It's literally it.
Ben:I just want to be, take my hand and let's go walk down this fun but kind of scary road. The job of anxiety is to pay attention to all the things that maybe you should be paying attention to. Yeah, yeah, and I'm sure it's not entirely that simple, because some of us feel more anxiety than others and all that, so I need to get too far into it. But it's also well. I say it's brought to you by anxiety because in this housing search I was waiting for the right thing and I had something that seemed really good. But I had a gut feeling that said you know, I'm going to keep looking, even though this feels like it could be really a good fit, could be really nourishing. So I just kept looking and kept trying. Different things kept going, kept going and I was fully ready to just be like okay, I need to completely change my approach here. I need to. I just need to do something different. Made a whole game plan. I was ready to just start going on Craigslist. That's how desperate I was.
Ben:And then I texted a friend that a friend who I've been a little bit anxious to reach out to because he's one of those people that's just like seems to be just living his best life and I'm like scared to associate more with this person that just is embodying you know things that I want to embody, you know courage and adventurousness, and he's just moving through fear and anxiety and just some really cool things. And so I finally texted him because I've been putting and I didn't even ask about housing, he just said, hey, I just got two new spots that opened up in my house. Come join me if you want. Not a good fit, that's fine, but just come check it out. And sure enough, here I am.
Ben:But here's the thing I agreed to do this and then I found in myself this like level of grief, of like, oh man, now I really have to say no to these other folks. Oh, okay, man, but I still really like what they have going on and they've been living in community for 30 years. It's been really inspiring Coming out of Whid widby. There's a much more kind of mature, quieter still energy compared to this. You know, new move into seattle, going to be surrounded by young people, and what's so exciting about the new house that I am moving into is that I'm gonna just, I'm just gonna like fall right into a community of like really thoughtful, active, smart, intellectually curious young folks I feel like I'm I feel like I'm just listening to the podcast right now okay, good, yeah, well, I guess, in a way, I always listen to 50% of the podcast whenever I'm talking Cool.
Scott:Well, I'll continue to interrupt the story, I just yeah that's a good thought, yeah, no, no, feel free.
Ben:You're a co-host, so feel free to you know, come in with hot, hot bits.
Scott:Well, and you've got to wrap up an ad. That's what I was.
Ben:You know, that's right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, this is yeah, okay, you're right there. Anxiety did not pay for this much airspace, so I really gotta wrap this up. It's true, all right, one sec, one more sip of tea, ah, okay, that's good tea, also really good partner with anxiety. And so I was feeling, after agreeing to this, you know, I guess what's going to be a little bit, it's going to be a rowdier energy, it's going to be a more active energy, just mentorship, eldership in my life. So these people actually have been living in a way. That's not that I want their lifestyle exactly, but I just know that I could learn a lot from them, because I think living well in community is a really big deal and we're not trained to do it well and not really trained to live well with other people, and they've been doing it quite well for a long time. And this they start meals with moments of silence and they're they're just have a. They have a cool rhythm and I decided that it's like you know what I'm going in to this new chapter. I'm asking for what I want and I am. I'm going to be courageous, and you know what I want. Their rent is really cheap. So I'm going to spend a few nights in that house still. I'm still going to learn from them. I'm still going to maintain those connections. I'm fearless. That's what I most want. I want to live in both of these places. I'm going to have it all.
Ben:And I sat on that idea for a day Just because it was like that's what I most want. And I'm just trying to cultivate for myself a willingness to just like do that. And so what arose was this I couldn't quite tell where it was coming from, but this level of fear and anxiety about asking for what I wanted or what I felt my intuition was most asking for. And so I did. I wrote up an email to say this is kind of why I request, but I'm not moving into your place, but what would you say to me living there half time?
Ben:And they responded within a day in a way that I wasn't entirely expecting, and they said we love that idea. Like I don't know why. I thought I wasn't expecting that, who knows. And then, after I got such an enthusiastic response, I was like okay, oops, I think I've made a terrible mistake. I didn't. I think I'm biting off way more than I can chew here. Why? Why did I think it would be a good idea to try and have two different places to settle into? Um, and so this morning I so for like the last two days, I've been just settling into this really, really anxious feeling of being like I can't do that, I can't do that. Oh, there's no way I could do that. Uh, and I followed the anxiety and I finally wrote back to them today and said not in these words, but like I've made a terrible mistake I've bitten off way more than I can chew.
Ben:I'm sorry for making such a wild request and walking back. Got it? I would still love to have dinner with you once a week or so. That sounds nice. Maybe the occasional walk. I really like you, but I'm sorry. Okay, okay, all right, and hope to connect soon.
Ben:I'm sorry, I've made a mistake, but all that to say is yeah, my, that weird mistake that I made is out in the world now and I just I'm trying to follow my intuition and doing the crazy thing more often, just because anxiety and fear arises. It's like I gotta move through this somehow. And if you move through it somehow, you'll arrive on the other side with more clarity. And now I'm at much more clarity. I feel like if I just didn't pursue it and let the idea out into the world, it was going to be right now, but now I'm feeling a little bit less anxious.
Scott:Anyways, thanks, Anxiety you got me where I needed to be. It sounds like you really fell for him yeah, yeah, I did I still am, but there's a.
Ben:There's a such thing as embracing your limitations as a human, and you know, saying yes to something means saying no to another, and that's right, right, yeah, yeah, wow. But yeah, I just I don't. I feel like that's something that old Ben would have never done.
Scott:What do the crazy thing?
Ben:Yeah, or ask for the crazy thing.
Scott:Well, you probably worded it in a way that gave you an escape when you even asked the crazy thing I mean you always have an escape.
Ben:You, you weren't consent it.
Scott:Consent is ongoing you can change your mind I no longer consent but, but you're yeah.
Ben:What do you mean by that?
Scott:more than an idea probably in your, I mean, I know in your head. You're going like this is stupid. I knew I was asking, but you probably worded it. If you went back and you saw that you were exploring the idea like, well, what would you think? You know you, you're probably were, you probably were, uh, softer about it than your memory.
Ben:Yeah, right, right. I mean at the end of the day. I think that is like initially how I propose the question. You're just like what would you? Think what would you say? What would you say to a, you know, half term residence or halftime residence?
Scott:I'm sure you posed it as predescent making such a decision.
Ben:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I had a great. I had someone that I, someone that I I guess I would a friend you didn't lead him on farther than enough time to think about it? I hope not. I was trying to be bold, but we'll see. But I also have been told that because I'm so much more in the realm of people pleasing and so far outside of the realm of arrogance. Yeah, and not that that's necessarily. You really took a dramatic In the lateral spectrum.
Scott:You really took a dramatic route to getting yourself invited to a group dinner.
Ben:Yeah, yeah, yeah dinner, yeah, yeah, yeah, which I honestly still hope it to be a recurring group dinner, because I feel like yeah.
Scott:Well you can cook too.
Ben:Be a cool community? Yeah, and I even offered that.
Ben:I said happy to share with meal costs, cooking clean, yeah, but I've been told that it's like for someone that is very much far from the realm of arrogance or confidence. You can tend to err on that and it will feel like it's this level of selfishness, but it's actually coming across as pretty chill and pretty okay. Okay, I lost. So for someone that's, for someone that tends towards, um, people pleasing. When you act and you feel like you're being super arrogant, chances are you're actually coming across as being like totally normal and okay and normal and you're just asking for really simple things. Even though to you it can feel like a lot. It applies to me. I don't know if it applies to anyone else. Take what you will. Okay, thanks for the thanks for this.
Scott:Like half it's yeah, thanks, thanks for listening I hope that's not why I'm drinking tomato juice, drinking this tonic, without anything else. It's one of those times, nice, nice.
Ben:Nice, nice, uh. But yeah, that's our sponsor, anxiety, thanks. I'm still learning how to be your friend. I'm an easy person to love. Let me tell you Pretty, pretty ugly, oh boy.
Scott:Wow.
Ben:Um yeah, have you ever wanted to be a citizen journalist?
Scott:oh yes, um cool. I had the inspiration when living in boston, like during the reagan mondale election. I I just wanted to sort of like, uh, I just wanted to sort of like analyze the impact of polls on, I mean, polls, polls, polling, polls and holes. Yeah, I forgot what. I forgot what my point. I was trying to hammer home.
Scott:But yes, you remember, really I remember it's like no, I should go investigate this and write and publish something. It was kind of like, oh, you can, there's more. You can do more than just publish scientific articles. You can publish, you know, opinion articles. I mean, this is way before you know. Then the only thing you'd possibly do is submit it somewhere and hope it gets published. There's no, nothing like today.
Ben:Right, right, yeah. Getting published into a local newspaper can get you a lot further than just you know, proselytizing on Facebook.
Scott:I got a few letters to the editor when I was in college. It's like the school paper, but that was pretty big.
Ben:Yeah, university of Minnesota. It was all small, small change.
Scott:But now it's like man who's going to read it.
Ben:Well, a good number of people here read the paper. There was a paper recently up out about, yeah, the non-profit. I just finished working for people. People have been right like when I'll see them in the grocery store or something they'll be like hey ben, I just saw your face in the paper.
Ben:I'm like, wow, there are a lot more people are reading that than I actually first imagined. Okay, well, there was a picture of all the staff sitting on the steps and I was wearing my socks, because the alternative was I forgot we were taking a staff photo for the newspaper that day. I didn't change what I was wearing at all and, uh, I wore my usual work boots and completely ragged. So either completely destroyed boots or socks those are my options. So I have to look for socks Either way. It stuck out like a sore thumb. I think I'm glad people are razzing me for the call I made, but so it is All right. We have 32 seconds left here with all of you Lovely people. Wow, thanks for joining us. Any last words about AI.
Scott:Discussion of AI. Yes, no.
Ben:I'd like to thank the AI in my brain for anxiety Right, wow Right.
