Episodes

Why are we all suddenly calling these chicken "tendies"? This week, Jess and Joey talk about children's food, compression, self-deprecation, cutification, Big Chicken, and expressivity. They don’t talk about brekky. references Chicken Fried philology ScienceDirect: Compression and communication in the cultural evolution of linguistic structure

Do you believe in the idea that collective vibes could exist, and are we fully entering into a new vibe? This week, Joey and Aaron talk about the debt ceiling battle, the Writers Guild of America strike, AI, not sitting idle, Lucy Lawless, and pasta. They don’t talk about cowboy pasta. references A long "May-tember" ARTnews: Hannah Gadsby’s Disastrous ‘Pablo-matic’ Show at the Brooklyn Museum Has Some ‘Pablo-ms’ of Its Own The Writers Guild of America strike Cascatelli pasta The New York Time...

What have you learned in one year of playing DnD together? This week, Jess and Joey talk about Dungeons & Dragons, body doubling, Type 1 and Type 2 Fun, hobbies, forks, and the Metaverse. They don’t talk about the D&D All-Stars. references Dungeons & Dragons DM = Dungeon Mster OBS

How should we feel about optimism? This week, Joey and Jess talk about genetics, pessimism, risk aversion, oxytocin, hugs, and butt pats. They don’t talk about why cats like butt pats, though. references chanteuse Is Optimism Genetic? oxytocin Do you believe in life after love? Chimp Empire

When was the last time that you experienced something familar unexpected? This week, Jess, Joey, and Aaron talk about mochi, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, chord progressions, rollercoasters, Warrior Cats, and Doppler radar. They don’t talk about The Lloyd Dobler Effect. references Corrections Department: The original The Parent Trap film came out in 1961 Kramer vs. Kramer Mochi Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Carolina Chocolate Drops "Hit Em Up Style" "7 Common Chord Progressions You’ll Instantly Recogn...

What are you watching right now and why? This week, Aaron, Jess, and Joey talk about SpongeBob, YouTube shorts rabbit holes, RuPaul's Drag Race, the NBA Playoffs, Alan Wake, and bikinis. To the Sunbathing Angel's dismay, they don’t talk about The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. references Calm Down Revsiting Critical Nonsense 217! AI Centaurs Progress Report Edition 092: Consider the Centaur Only Murders In the Building "A potato flew around my room until you came" The Ren & Stimpy Show Stephen Hillen...

How do you summon The Genuine Maybe? This week, Jess and Joey talk about the Confidence Interval, curiosity, viewquakes, the gender norms of being assertive, rightness, and openness. They don’t talk about Björk. references Confidence Interval The New Yorker: Emojis That Parents Are Still Waiting For

What do I know? This week, Joey, Aaron, and Jess talk about not having all the answers, amoebic sponges, career archs and karma, graciousness in success, recognizing your value, and being dumb. They don’t talk about low-performing assholes. references Revisiting Critical Nonsense 215! Success Randy Johnson Men at Work

What does cake tell us about now? This week, Jess, Aaron, and Joey talk about Cake Boss, Duff Goldman, Instagram cakes, Julia Child, wedding cakes, and enlightenment. They don’t talk about Daniel Craig. references Claire Saffitz on Instagram about the Cake Renaissance Saveur: How to Make Those Fabulously Unhinged Cakes You Saw on Instagram Corrections Department: "Cake Boss" Buddy Valastro's Carlo's Bakery in ... Hoboken "The Other Dude" Duff Goldman's Charm City Cakes in Baltimore Netflix: I...

What do you think is going to be the next musical instrument solo in pop music? This week, Aaron, Jess, and Joey talk about sax solos, the digitization of music, musicianship, sonic genre markers, Ice Spice, and background music. They don’t talk about Raphael Ravenscroft. references Running to your circles of flame Plain English podcast with Derek Thompson: Why the Cult of Achievement in Schools Is Making People Miserable A phenomenon like Uncle L and Melle Mel Who will always love you? Dolly...

How do you feel about centaurs and what centaurs do you want to be? This week, Joey and Jess talk about ChatGPT, Garry Kasparov, workplace production, individualistic augmentation, the Chinese zodiac, and mitochondria. They don’t talk about manticores. references Falkor the Luck Dragon Revisiting Critical Nonsense 191! AI Art and Hamsterstanistan How To Become A Centaur "Experimental Evidence on the Productivity Effects of Generative Artificial Intelligence" by Shakked Noy and Whitney Zhang ...

How do we reflect? This week, Jess and Joey talk about rumination, perseveration, internal monologues, employee reviews, radical candor, and feedback. They don’t talk about "2000 Seasons." references Joey makes money moves. "MotorSport" LLM (Large Language Model) Corrections Department: RLHF (Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback)

How should we approach success? This week, Joey and Jess talk about whales, personal comparison, persistence hunting, gender dynamics, emotional labor, and lunch prep. They don’t talk about fairyfly hearts. references Foxy Brown's "Candy" Corrections Department: A blue whale's heart isn't actually the size of a Volkswagen Beetle. Kajornwan Chueng's twitter thread about her kid "doing the bare minimum." Emotional labor The New York Times: ‘Fleishman Is in Trouble’ and the Angst of the Striving...

Why are we so bad at packing? This week, Jess and Joey talk about reducing travel expectations, The Uniform Project, embodying different personas, punting decisions, efficiency, and shoes. They don’t talk about Kevin. references The Uniform Project

When or how or where are the places that we should be deploying pettiness and feel okay about it? This week, Joey, Oliver ... er ... Aaron, and Jess talk about petty/offense pairings, berms, feedback loops, Karens, The Pettisphere, and FAFO. They don’t talk about Jemelle Hill. references You don't know how it feels ... to set fire to the rain. Arena Is Free on Mortal Kombat Savannah James claps back Nancy Pelosi claps back The Atlantic: The Mythology of Karen The petticoat The not-very-petty...

How do we navigate the tricky feelings? This week, Jess and Joey talk about whistling, the Circumplex Model of Affect, anger in the workplace, navigating of negative spaces, being a squeaky wheel, and heightened emotional points. They don’t talk about Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam. references "The circumplex model of affect: An integrative approach to affective neuroscience, cognitive development, and psychopathology" by Jonathan Posner, James A. Russell, and Bradley S. Peterson The 16-box version of...

How do you ask a good question? This week, Jess and Aaron talk about 5-cent vs. 25-cent questions, tempo, performance question-asking, prioritizing curiosity over confidence, checking for clarification, and signposting. They don’t talk about Gang Starr. references Aaron's Lullaby Revisiting Critical Nonsense 174! Askers vs. Guessers and Working Hours Harvard Business Review: The Surprising Power of Questions The New York Times: The 36 Questions That Lead to Love Ryan Hall, Y'all America's Tes...

What's the best way to encourage people to own their confidence and speak their minds? This week, Jess and Joey talk about flatness, self consciousness, modeling vs. metering, explicit conversations, confidence intervals, and pants-pants. They don’t talk about Julie Andrews. references Six Thinking Hats: An Essential Approach to Business Management by Edward de Bono The New York Times: A Conversation With Bing’s Chatbot Left Me Deeply Unsettled Stratechery

What is "cool"? This week, Joey and Aaron talk about kinetic energy, Obama, privilege and power, nerds, Blackness, and fish sauce. They don’t talk about Freestyle Fellowship. references The Joey Sleeps Alone Tonight while Aaron Learns Damien Rice covering Sia's "Chandelier" How do you do, fellow kids? (the not-black version) Wondrium Daily: Why The Word ‘Cool’ Has Stayed Hot For So Long "I Like to Watch": Drag Queens Trixie Mattel and Katya React to Mean Girls Hank and John Green Quartz: How ...

What do you think are the right places to deploy euphemisms, or should we abandon them altogether? How harmful is it to use euphemisms, and why not err on their side just in case? And, if we took all the euphemisms off the table, what do we do with language next? This week, Joey, Jess, and Aaron try out a new Exquisite Corpse segment where they pass along a conversation to each other one thought at a time. They talk about tech layoffs, pooping and peeing, the Space Shuttle Challenger, unrecepti...

What are the things you are competent and interested in but constitutionally not disposed to engage with? And how do we deal with not ever being in control? [21:40] This week, Joey, Aaron, and Jess talk about jazz piano, The Trifecta of Making Things Happen, The Overachiever's Dilemma, facilitators of fastidiousness, expectations, and purpose. They don’t talk about The Perks of Being a Wallflower or Joy Division. references Mr. Joey's Lullaby Apropos of nada: "You DO doodle on the paper!" "Be...

What's to come in 2023? This week, Wild Prognostications (finally) returns! Joey, Aaron, and Jess reunite in person to make their annual predictions for the new year. They talk about the impending demise of influencers [4:31], a rise in video game super-franchises [19:18], extreme-weather clothing [35:00], chickens as the new unicorns [51:05], checkers [59:11], and a seismic shift in dating [1:03:17]. They don’t talk about the Chicken Unicorn. references Rob Freund on Mikayla Noguiera The Dot...

What makes video-game-to-film adaptations so damn hard to get right? And how do men make friends? [24:57] This week, Aaron, Joey, and Jess talk about world building, gaming IP, media properties, masculinity, love, and social infrastructure. They don’t talk about Whodini. references How Levain Bakery’s co-founders came up with their iconic super thick cookie The Last of Us video game HBO's The Last of Us series The Last of Us Podcast The New York Times: In ‘The Last of Us,’ Bella Ramsey Might ...

How did our predictions play out in 2022? This week, Aaron, Jess and Joey make a belated review of their prognogs from Episode 156, discussing the low-rise jeans revival, the stabilizing housing market, rollerskating and black culture, crashing crypto, the gap-year micro-trend, and dreaming pants. They don’t talk about nightmare snuggies. references Rest in Paradise, Coolio. Who did it better? Joey or Alan Whicker? Also, hi, Tom Browne. Vox: "Low-rise jeans are back. Don’t panic." Refinery...