October 24, 2025 • 45 mins
We’re closing out this week of curiosity with our good pals Josh and Chuck (and super producer Jeri!) from Stuff You Should Know. It’s a wide-ranging, brain-tickling conversation that touches on everything from childhood obsessions to SYSK behind-the-scenes stories to the shocking truth about off-mic personas. Plus: Everyone tries to figure out which Muppet they are, for some reason.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Guess what Will What's that Mango?
Speaker 1 (00:24):
So it is day five, the grand finale of our
week long series about curiosity, and I can think of
no better way to celebrate than by talking with two
of the most curious people we know.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Two of the most curious people we know who aren't our.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Kids, definitely not our kids. They are the brilliant podcasters
Josh Clark and Chuck Bryan aka Josh and Chuck, the
host of Stuff.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
You should know.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
We've known these guys for such a long time now,
so we decided to call them up and see if
they'd come on our show and talk about what it's
like to be curious for a living, how we all
got to be so curious, if curiosity has ever gotten
us in trouble, and so much more. It's going to
be so much fun. And before I say let's dive in,
I should mention that at the end of the episode,
(01:09):
we'll tell you about today's listener activity, which is your
very last chance this week to win a Part Time
Genius prize pack.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
It's pretty exciting. You definitely don't want to miss that.
All right, mego go ahead and say it.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Let's dive in.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Hey, their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good
friend Mangesh Hot Ticketer and sitting behind that big glass booth,
that's our wonderful pal Dylan fag And you all know
Dylan you're always looking forward to what he's up to today.
You'll never believe it. Dylan is waving a poster he
made and it says, I'm so glad I'm not the
(02:00):
only producer here today that has to listen to Will
and Mango's bad jokes. It's good to see you, Dylan.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
He is right, because we have super producer Jerry Roland
in the booth with us today, and we've also got
the star talent that she wrangles regularly, Chuck and Josh
chatting with us. We're so excited and Chuck and Joshua's
so good to have you here.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Hi guys, Hello dudes, thank you for having us.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
We're so excited to have you. But before we start,
and since we are grace with Jerry's presence, I wanted
to ask Jerry some questions about the two of you,
or Will and I Wilba both ask questions about the
two of you. So, Jerry, Today's thing is all about curiosity.
We're doing this whole series on curiosity. Obviously, we've got
two very curious people here. But do you notice anything
(02:48):
specific about Chuck and Josh's curiosity, Like you ever see
them being curious outside the office? Do you see them
being curious on tape? Like, tell me a little bit
about what you think of the two of them.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
I know it's it's funny, like in the context of
stuff you should know. I feel like we still have
conversations leading up to a recording or even after we
stop a recording where we're like, oh my god, that
was did you hear about this? Did you hear about that?
So I feel like that curiosity is kind of inherent
and always there. Outside of that, I see Chuck every
(03:23):
now and then, because anybody who listens to the show
knows that our daughters go to school together. So luckily,
you know, other than that, I wouldn't ever see Chuck
in the real world. But we've known each other for
so long, and we've kind of had this parallel path
for so long that when we're curious about something that's
usually in the sort of like we're getting older sort
(03:45):
of realm of like I wonder why my knees stopped working, right,
I wonder if this ever stops?
Speaker 5 (03:52):
Or is this it?
Speaker 3 (03:53):
You know? What's the A?
Speaker 5 (03:55):
Yeah, what's that?
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Which is the episode that come out next week? That's
going to be That's be great now I'm about it, yeah, exactly.
One of the things we've been talking about recently is
for curious people, they're routines, their superstitions, and obviously for
a show that's been successful for so long, Jerry curious,
if you can take us behind the scenes, are there
any routines or superstitions about the show that we should
(04:19):
all know about.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Chuck used to do this thing that ended a long
time ago, so I guess I guess it's fine that
he stopped, but he used to do his cheeks and
if he's down for it, he might give.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Us, Oh wow, that's impressive and a really horrid noise. Yeah,
so that used to be.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
I don't know if we have like any superstitious type
of routines, but like these days, when we show up
to record, it's like, hey, you guys ready, yep, clap, Okay,
let's go. There's not a ton of back and forth
because we say that honestly for the for the show.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
I mean the one time we recorded with you before
you guys did the same thing. You were like, okay,
let's go.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
And it was.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
For someone who is not as good without a script
in front of me or talking points. It was pretty
amazing to watch you at work. We do, like Jerry said, though,
we save it, like we actually tell one another this
is gold, save it for the podcast. So there's not
a lot of front loading because we recorded it all
and basically release our conversations.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
You know.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
M hm. Is there anything that makes you feel particularly
good on Mike? Like, I mean, this is an old reference,
but like Tiger Woods would wear red shirts because he
felt like it brought out a certain energy or something like,
is there anything that gets you excited to tape?
Speaker 4 (05:37):
Mmmm?
Speaker 5 (05:38):
Chuck here, I do I need to say that?
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Sure?
Speaker 6 (05:42):
Every time we're so used to doing that and stuff
like this. You know what I started doing, and this
was sort of during COVID when everyone was kind of
forced to go virtual or whatever and set up the
home studios.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
Is I started.
Speaker 6 (05:57):
I kind of went the other way rather than just
being a complete schlub. I would get up and take
a shower and you know, sort of dress for work.
And I continue to do that on my work days
because I don't know, it's just sort of a routine
that I feel like sort of helps me even though
I'm at home, kind of make a transition, you know,
Superman style.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
M That was like our old friend that would do
formal Fridays when when we were all working from home
during COVID, one of our good friends would would have
a fun Friday and be like show up on a
video and just like wearing just the most sparkly beautiful
dress and you're like, Okay, I guess it's it's normal Friday. Yeah, sorry, Josh,
we're gonna say something.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
I did the exact opposite of that, where I can
just go quite a while into the day without taking
a shower first.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
I like, he says it with pride too. It's like
it's like it was bragging. I can do. I can
keep going.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
I think, yeah, with the hygiene thing for me, not
that you asked, but I'm giving you an leaving. I mean,
like during COVID, like I did brush my teeth every day,
that it might not be until about five pmsh Oh, wow,
is the sun going up or down?
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Maybe I should.
Speaker 5 (07:08):
That was the teeth is a darker.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
For sharing that year.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Yeah, I knew you were just really dying to ask.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Let's uh, let's go way back pre COVID to your
childhood days, which just a few years before COVID. Let's
talk about curiosity from the earliest days. If somebody knew
you when you were you know, eight, nine, ten years old,
would they have seen this coming? Would they have been like, Yeah,
this kid is so curious that one day they're going
to be involved in something that involves knowledge or learning.
(07:38):
Let's let's maybe Josh will start with you. You want
to jump in first.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Sure, yeah, I would say, this is Josh, I would
say probably not. Actually I was never like a really
good student. My curiosity essentially extended to like what does
this taste like. I wasn't like an uncurious kid where
I was like, you know, beating up like nerds or
anything like that. But I just wasn't nearly as curious
(08:02):
as I am now. It just seems to have been
something that developed as a grown up. Actually, so I
was like a C student c I'm going to say
CMB generous to myself mostly through school, all the way
through high school essentially, and then once I got to college.
I'm not quite sure what happened, but it was like
a switch flipped to my head and all of a sudden,
(08:23):
I was I was a good student. I wanted to
learn everything that I possibly could, and I've been like
that since then. So I guess if you're not curious
out there, and you feel like a schlub and you're
under nineteen, then take hope.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Yeah, or start a podcast. Yeah, now that's terrific, Chuck,
how about you?
Speaker 5 (08:42):
I was sort of curious.
Speaker 6 (08:44):
I mean I was an AB student most probably a
solid B student in school, and I didn't give the
most effort. I kind of skated by a lot of
times on charm. So my teachers, my teachers are. My
teacher all liked me, and you know, I wanted to
be liked by my teachers, and so I and fellow students,
(09:05):
so I think they would have thought I was maybe
precocious more than curious. But outside of school, I think
I was pretty curious about the outside world, not as
much formal studies. But I grew up camping, and I
grew up in the woods, and so I was always
curious about sort of nature and stuff like that.
Speaker 5 (09:22):
But I also was you know, wasn't the kid who sat.
Speaker 6 (09:24):
Around and watched Nova in elementary school unless I had
to write a paper on it.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
You know what.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
One of these things we're doing for Kaleidoscope is trying
to collect moments of science, like the first moment that
you sort of had this sense of wonder about the
world and or about a topic or a subject or something.
And I was curious, like, is there a moment for
either of view about like when you discovered something that
(09:50):
you were just completely mesmerized.
Speaker 6 (09:53):
I'll jump in because I recently found a box of
old school work of mine from elementary school, and I
did not remember how obsessed with NASA and space travel
I was. But when I went back and looked through this,
I had a bunch of papers in school projects and
it seemed to be a well that I kind of
went back to a lot. And that's not something that
(10:13):
I'm still like super super into. Josh's more into that
stuff than me now, but I definitely remember looking back
through this papers like man, I was really and I
guess we were kids of the Space Shuttle program like
being birthed, and looking back, I was pretty into that
at the time.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
I mean there was so much romance around it, right, Yeah,
the idea of going beyond Earth and all the excitement
of science in a.
Speaker 6 (10:35):
Way, Yeah, totally, So that'd probably be it for me.
Science and then just camping in the natural world again.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Yeah, how about you, Josh.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
For me, it was writing. I always wanted to be
a writer, and I remember in third grade I had
a teacher who was particularly supportive about that, Miss Chamberlain,
and ever since then, I was like, I'm going to
grow up to be a writer, and luckily I did.
That was the first thing I was that kind of
got me. The first thing I remember like starting to
learn about that I was really interested in was history,
(11:05):
I think in like ninth grade or something like that.
So those two things definitely converge. I studied history in
college and I have been writing ever since third grade.
So I guess I fulfilled my promise, is what I'm
trying to say.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
And what was it about writing that drew you?
Speaker 4 (11:20):
Like?
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Do you have a particular style, did you like communicating
a certain thing? Did you just like spending time with
a page.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
I don't know. I think the fact that I can't
answer that makes me feel like I was kind of
born as a writer. You know. I read a lot
as a kid too, But I never remember saying like, oh,
I'm learning tips and techniques, and I wasn't absorbing the
writing for style. I was just enjoying it. But I
think along the way, I was learning a lot of style,
(11:48):
and I'd gotten pretty good at fiction. I don't know
around the time I got hired to How Stuff Works,
where I was actually like, this isn't that bad. And
then when I got hired to how Stuff Works, where
our podcasts grew out of Chuck and I both got
hired as writers for that website, my writing shifted over
from fiction to nonfiction, and there was a huge shift,
(12:11):
and I remember kind of like mourning not having an
opportunity to write fiction anymore. But then I kind of
became obsessed with nonfiction, and I think that was my
curiosity at that point took a new step from one
plateau to like a new higher level I guess where
I was just ingesting more and more information because nonfiction
(12:32):
kind of requires that writing nonfiction, so that was a
big change. For me and improvement in my curiosity too.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
I mean, it's funny because you're both writers, right, Like
Chuck came in with a script, or at least part
of a script, right, Yeahine Hostiff works.
Speaker 5 (12:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (12:48):
I didn't have any professional writing experience, but like Josh,
I was writing as a kid and had supported teachers.
In that stack of old school work, I found a
little piece of comment writing I did. I did Henry
David Thureaux satire in like the seventh grade about a
guy who goes to the woods to live deliberately and
(13:09):
it turns out it sucks and he prefers the city
for various reasons. But I read back through it and
I was like, man, I mean it wasn't the worst
piece of writing for a twelve year old and had
teachers who encouraged that. But I had, you know, been
knocking about trying to write screenplays and working in the
film business. So I didn't have any real professional experience
(13:30):
at all. And then our boss, our colleague, Connell Byrne, Yeah,
I sat down with him and I said, all that
had to give you or you know, I'll give you
the first twenty pages of my latest script. And thank god,
we all know Connell and he's a big movie guy
and has acted some and done some film production work.
So anyone else and I probably would not have gotten
that job. But Connall and I had a great just
a great report in conversation and he said, well this
(13:53):
counts You're hired.
Speaker 5 (13:54):
Wow, thank god.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Pretty terrific. When you think about the crazy rainge of
episodes that you guys have done. You know, Josh you
mentioned history, Chuck you talked about science and just that
range there, and in terms of the curiosity and desire
to learn in different categories, do you guys, when you're
coming up with your topics find yourselves going to your
comfort zone or your primary area of curiosity and say,
(14:19):
you know, Josh in your case going to history, and
Chuck in your case, you know, if it is the
natural world or things like that, or do you find
yourself trying to push yourself to come up with episodes
that are just so outside the realm of something that
you know about or knew about before. How do you
think about that process?
Speaker 3 (14:34):
I think it depends on the week. Actually, Like if
we both have a Bonker's week, we probably will do
something like history or maybe even pop culture, We've been
doing a lot of pop culture episodes lately, and they're
interesting and fascinating and everyone loves them and they're fun
to do, and we already know a lot of it
because we live through it. It's usually gen X, pop
(14:55):
culture nostalgia kind of stuff, but then you know other time,
So yeah, I definitely try to choose ones that I
don't know anything about that I think is kind of interesting,
or maybe I know a little bit about it, but
I want to know more. We recently did one on
nuclear waste, Getting rid of nuclear Waste. We're both very
troubled to find that the world doesn't really have any
(15:17):
good ideas about getting rid of the nuclear waste that's
been accumulating since the forties. And there's some good ideas
on the horizon, but they're not here yet, and we're
just basically shuffling our nuclear waste from one place to another.
I had no idea about that. I just knew that
there would be something interesting about nuclear waste disposal, even
though it sounds kind of boring. It turned out not
(15:39):
to be. And that's usually the case. Whenever we push ourselves,
we find that there's something way more interesting about the thing.
Than we even thought initially.
Speaker 6 (15:47):
M Yeah, for sure, go ahead, Chuck, No, yeah, for sure,
that's it.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
That was Chuck.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
I was gonna say, like, you ever find that, you know,
when you chase ideas on the web, I feel like
you end up going down a rabbit hole of different
topics that lead one to another to another. Do you
find that the topics that you cover ever make you
daisy chain into like other topics?
Speaker 6 (16:16):
Yeah, I mean that happens has happened since the beginning.
I feel like, and we'll say it during the episode, like,
you know, we'll bring up a part of that episode
and say, actually, this would make you know, a good
full length episode. Something we just sort of might briefly
mention that ties into the current topic. So I feel
like that happens all the time, you know, when we
were fully writing all the stuff all the time, full
(16:38):
time for us, before we got some freelance help, it
happened more in the research stage. But I think now
it tends to happen in the episode where like, hey,
you know, we should do a whole one on this
person that just had a very small part to play
in this story.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
One of the other ways that happens too is when
we're researching for an episode, a question will come up.
I mean tons of questions come up, But then you
go to answer that question because the rule of thumb
is if we have that question somewhere out there listening,
it's going to have the same question and we don't
want them to end the podcast with that question. Still,
we try to fill as many answers as we can,
(17:13):
and as you're going and finding an answer to that,
you'll turn up some mention of something else that you
hadn't turned up before, and now all of a sudden,
there's this whole richer component to what you're explaining in
the episode. It's really cool. I've never thought of it
as daisy chaining before. It's a much more pleasant way
of looking at it. But to me, it was just
turning stuff up. I like daisy chaining way more.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Okay, listener, if you've got to pay for the show
with some ads, but we'll be right back after this
quick break.
Speaker 5 (17:57):
You know.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Would we think about how much technology has changed information
gathering over the past decade, and then of course that's
just gotten so much faster in the past three or
four years, and there's this desire for instant gratification, having
a question being able to answer it within you a
matter of seconds or minutes. Has that changed how you
(18:17):
guys think about making the show or or how do
you think about that piece of it? Just knowing that
we do live in a world now where people are
instantly going to whether it's an AI source or their
search engine to try to answer questions, how do you
feel like you guys set yourself apart from that?
Speaker 5 (18:33):
Wooh, that's a tough one being human.
Speaker 6 (18:37):
Well, I mean, you know, the Internet was It's not
like we've been around for a while, but it's not
like we were doing card catalog research.
Speaker 5 (18:43):
So the Internet was always a part of our research. Yep.
In fact, we did a.
Speaker 6 (18:47):
Whole episode about like kind of I don't remember what
we called it, Josh, but kind of how to do
your best research and you know, present things truthfully and factually.
So we've gotten pretty good at sussing stuff out. I
think these days it is sort of a different realm
now with AI and you know, all the weird deep
fake stuff. Just to make sure that you're not getting
(19:07):
bad information or whatever, so we probably have to dot
our eyes and cross our tea's a little more closely.
Speaker 5 (19:12):
Now, Yeah, that's a tough question.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
I've found that it's getting harder and harder and harder.
It seems like the pace of clearly AI written and
researched articles has not quite hit a singularity, but it's
definitely sped up in the last couple of months. I
feel like, yeah, there's a lot of crud out there, yep,
and a lot of it is not reliable at all.
(19:38):
I use bing because I think Google's search results are
just a total mess, and duc ducgo is great, but
it's too slow. So I've kind of started bing and
like everything else has the AI result at the top
whenever you search for something, and I've found like it's
just flat out wrong. A lot of the times you'll
go and click on the source and the source doesn't
say anything like what the AI is telling you SA.
(20:00):
So I've learned not to trust that, and then going
and finding Okay, well, I need to find the answer
to this question somewhere. I might be on page two
or three of the search results before I find something
that's clearly reliable, that knows what it's talking about and
is yeah, can give me the answer I need. That
is not at all how it used to be. Yeah,
(20:21):
when you did search, you could read everything on page
one and you just had the biggest, best, like deep
knowledge of what you were talking about.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Now it's just it's just not there anymore. Like the
Internet has changed dramatically, and it seems like it's really
hit an inflection point in the last couple of months.
It's funny because like it went from you had to
do work to do research to having research at your
fingertips to having to work to do research again. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Yeah, it's really crazy. I had that experience not too
long ago where finished reading this fantastic book and was
reading it with a friend, and so we were going
to have a conversation about it and even just to
like remember the sequence of events put into an AI source,
you know, give me the overview, the plot overview of
this story, and it was just so completely inaccurate. It
(21:13):
was bonkers. Like all I was asking for was a
plot summary from this book to then be able to
walk through it and have the conversation around it. And
it was really bizarre. I'm sure all of that will
get better and it will improve, but it was just weird.
So I guess at the same time, part of what
people are turning to you guys for is to make
sense of that. Like, you guys are doing the heavy lifting.
You guys are navigating all of the nonsense that's out there,
(21:36):
but also a lot of the great information that's out there,
and so your job is to try to sort of
cut through that and get to the interesting stuff. I'm
sure it's gotten more challenging, but it's I guess it's
the challenge that you guys take on.
Speaker 5 (21:47):
Yeah, you know you want to hear something about me, guys.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
I do state your name first, though.
Speaker 5 (21:52):
This is Chuck.
Speaker 6 (21:54):
And I'm not doing it because I'm taking some big
like moral ethical stand or anything.
Speaker 5 (22:00):
I think.
Speaker 6 (22:00):
I'm not doing it because I'm just some old gen
exer that doesn't want to roll with things. But I
have never I wouldn't know how to use AI, Like
I wouldn't know if someone said, hey, use AI to
do whatever, I would.
Speaker 5 (22:13):
Know how to do that.
Speaker 6 (22:13):
I would have to look up like do you have
to go to a website and sign up for a
thing and then enter a question like That's how sort
of in the dark about all of that stuff I
am right now because.
Speaker 5 (22:24):
I just I don't feel like I I don't know.
I don't feel like I need it.
Speaker 6 (22:27):
Like everything is going fine for me as far as
how I do my job and get my work done,
So I don't need it as a tool. But I
wouldn't even know how to go about starting that kind
of thing.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
It's pretty easy, Chuck, You just go out into your
yard and yell it. I feel like though, that's gen
x is, that's like the technology right there where like
the generation before. So I guess the Boomers if they
didn't pick up on the internet, yeah, they got left behind,
and a lot of them did. Like my dad does
(23:00):
not use email. He doesn't text, and it's so maddening.
It's like you have to pick up the phone and
call him and you have a conversation and you can't
just ask a question, you know, but he doesn't care.
But he he would have no idea how to send
an email now right that like us right now, Chuck me, Jerry,
you guys, if we don't learn that, we're gonna get
(23:22):
left behind. That maybe, okay, that's not the end of
the world. I don't think AI will bring about the
end of the world, but us not learning to use
like chat GPT won't bring about the end of the world,
I think, but it is we are at that point
I feel like right now and I don't I should
say I don't know. I don't know how to use
it either.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Do you think you guys will do an episode on
how chat GPT works?
Speaker 3 (23:42):
We did?
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Yeah, we did, you did, and without using it?
Speaker 3 (23:45):
We did, right, that's what we do. Well, it's very
much in step. We we did an episode on it. No,
we didn't use it. But one of the the key
components of that episode, if I remember correctly, Chuck, was
we were just a gog that this had arrived, yeah,
(24:08):
and that we were both kind of like it's starting
I can't believe it, but it is starting right now,
and I think that's true.
Speaker 5 (24:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Yeah, So in a completely different vein. Well, I have
two questions and they're completely unrelated. What one is is
just because I'm curious. I know, Josh, you said used
to hate your voice, and then someone told you sounded
like a muppet, and then you started loving your voice.
I'm curious. I always wanted to be a Fozzy Bear,
but I think I'm actually a Kermit. I'm curious, are
(24:36):
are you a specific muppet? And does anyone else have
a spirit animal Muppet on this line.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
I did not see that question coming. Segue speaking of Ai,
which Muppet are you?
Speaker 6 (24:50):
Wow, it's a tough one because it's like, which Muppet
do you aspire to be? Which one do you probably
most realistically identify with. It's probably easier to assign that
to Josh and Jerry than it is myself.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Thank you for that.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Yeah, maybe you can also answer that way you can,
you can give them Muppet names.
Speaker 6 (25:10):
Well, I mean, I aspire to be a cool, like
rock and roll guy, so I would want to be
in the Electric Mayhem.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
Oh nice, that's a good call. Any of them, I
would go, Chuck, I would put you down as I
don't know that you'd be a cross between Doctor Teeth
and the sax Player, right.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
Yeah, I can see that.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
I like you, Josh.
Speaker 5 (25:36):
Josh is kind of Kermity.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
I've always yeah, I mean, I definitely if I do
resemble a Muppet, is Kermit for sure? That's just vocally.
I've never really identified with Kermit much like watching him
on screen, but I've never been like that's my soul mate. Yeah,
I've always loved Grover as a kid. I thought Grover
was great he was my favorite. Yeah, but when I
look down in my arms and think of a Muppet,
(25:58):
I see red. So maybe I guess Elmo Elmo. But
I hate being tickled. That's the weird.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
You have my word, Josh, I will never tickle you.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
All right, I'm going to hold you to that.
Speaker 4 (26:14):
I mean, I'm thinking about these guys, and I've never
ever thought about this before, but if I had to assign,
I might assign Josh Fazzi Beer.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
I'll take that. I can see that.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
Okay, Yeah, Chuck, you have this baritone voice, and I
can't if we're talking vocally, I can't really think of anybody.
But the first visual I had was one of the
little old guys up in the in the yeah balcony. Yeah,
that's basically you guys. And I might be more of
like a beaker. Like I don't talk a lot, but
I'm kind of running around a little anxious and out
(26:49):
of sort.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
One of the guys names in the Statler and Walter.
Speaker 6 (26:54):
Yeah, I'm a bit off mic. I'm a bit more
of a heer mudgeon. I don't present like that on
the show, but in real I r L. I'm probably
more like those guys.
Speaker 5 (27:04):
Now that I think about.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
It, Yeah, I can tell you when it comes to
like school functions, it brings out the school function.
Speaker 5 (27:13):
God, there's just too many guys.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
Chuck walks away saying, like that PTA meeting was okay,
Well it wasn't very good. No, it's stunk. It was terrible. Yeah,
that can be painful.
Speaker 5 (27:25):
And I made the mistake of bringing my camera.
Speaker 6 (27:29):
Started photography again a few years ago, and I got
some good camera gear and took two good at pictures
of that talent show. So now every time it's like
you gonna are you gonna bring your camera, Chock like, uh, sure, Yeah,
that means I'll stay for the whole thing and not
leave that forms.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Can't sneak out. That's that's pretty tough. Actually, I'm glad
you brought that up though, because it, you know, it
shows your curiosity about other things. Putting the show aside
for a second, and knowing that you guys have been
super successful with this, you find yourselves in a awesome
life stage where you, you know, maybe have the opportunity
to explore other paths of curiosity. What are you curious
(28:06):
about right now? It sounds like, Chuck, for you, photography
has been a new exploration, but curious to hear from
each of you.
Speaker 5 (28:12):
Yeah, got back into that.
Speaker 6 (28:13):
I grew up taking pictures, you know, back in the
old thirty five millimeter camera days, film camera days, obviously
through my father because he was a photographer, lifelong photographer,
and then I didn't touch a camera for probably twenty
five or thirty years, maybe because I had a bad
relationship with my father.
Speaker 5 (28:32):
I like doctor Freud would probably say that's the case.
Speaker 6 (28:35):
And I did get into it after he passed away,
so I think that maybe something there may be something there.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Wow, And are you you're printing out the film?
Speaker 5 (28:45):
Well no, no, no, this is now all digital. But I did.
Speaker 6 (28:48):
I did get a nice photo printer, and I'm like
printing and framing stuff, and I'm making I do a
lot of events and like vacations and friends and family events,
and I'll make books for people because you can make
books now, like hardcover, coffee table like professional quality books.
So I make those and give them out to people,
and it's just sort of a fun thing.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
That's such a great gift.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
Yeah, sounds great.
Speaker 5 (29:11):
Never see, well maybe you'll get Josh.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
I haven't gotten one either. No, Sorry, what am I
when I I so I like to kind of turn
off my brain when I'm not working. So I've gotten
into gardening quite a bit. It still requires obviously some
thought or else you just start digging up plants and
forgetting to plant them or whatever. But one of the
(29:39):
other things I've kind of gotten into is like house stuff,
like house projects, because I don't know anything about it.
So I'll figure out something I need to go do,
like rewire something, and then I have to go research
that and figure out how to do it. And it
takes a lot of trial and error. I've lost some
fingernails before getting shocked, and then I'll fig get it out,
(30:00):
I'll get it done, and I'll know some new thing.
So that's that's probably the thing that I've gotten into
the most, is just figuring out how to do house
up keep stuff that I didn't know how to do before.
Speaker 6 (30:12):
I want to point out though, that that probably has
less to do with Josh's innate curiosity than not wanting
to speak to a repair person.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
Right, they're hard to find.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
But Jerry, you also you also like did up your
house previously, right, Like you know how to do a
lot of that stuff.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
I mean, you know we do higher. People do the
big stuff, but I'm I'm comfortable doing small stuff Like
I've I've replaced some lights. I've actually uh not just
like lights, the actual light that's in the wall or
the ceiling. Yeah, I'm not that accomplished, but I'm kind
(30:53):
of like Josh, like I like to take that kind
of stuff on. But I also have to be careful
because I'll start like three or four projects and they'll
all get close to done but not quite, and then
I walk by them and I get mad about it
because I haven't finished that I know I need to finish,
and it's still sitting there, and.
Speaker 5 (31:09):
It's that's that used to be my cycle.
Speaker 6 (31:11):
Emily said, I was a member of the ninety percent club,
so it sounds like you're in there too.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Yeah, I'm an in incredible enthusiast about starting things, like
I have piles of books that are like yeah, you
know yeah. So one of the questions I had also
wanted to ask, was you seem like maybe as kids
you got in trouble a little bit? Like was was
(31:37):
curiosity ever a cause for that?
Speaker 5 (31:40):
I was a pretty good kid, So I think Josh
was a was a delinquent.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
Well, a little bit, but I was mostly a good kid.
But it is true I started smoking cigarettes at age fourteen,
So that's that does automatically.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
This episode is brought to you by Hey.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
But I was smart about it. I I I. So
I would smoke out in the woods at the edge
of a golf course, and there was a water hazard,
and that what it's called chuck water a pond, And
so I had a bar of soap that I kept
out in the woods. So after I smoked, I would
go to this water hazard and wash my hands off
(32:18):
with the soap and go home and just suspect no
one knew a thing. But I'm sure I was coming
and smelling like smoke, but no one said anything.
Speaker 5 (32:26):
You should have gotten.
Speaker 6 (32:27):
I want to envision fourteen year old Josh by the
golf course with one of the Hunter S.
Speaker 5 (32:31):
Thompson cigarette holders. You don't have to wash your hands.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
I was more going for FDR okay.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
Right, knowing that you're still trying to learn as much
as you can to do these these new episodes? Are
there outside of your show? Are there other creators other
you know, just other people that you've admired for a
long time, either as a writer, or some other form
of content creator that that you sort of see as
(32:58):
your heroes in the space. Who do you like to
learn from?
Speaker 6 (33:01):
I mean, if Josh likes to sort of turn his
brain off after work, I turn my brain off when
it comes to other podcasts because I exclusively listen to
kind of dumb comedy shows. So I just I don't
think I could listen to other sort of learning podcasts.
That's when I'm on my dog walks. I just want
to check out and laugh at, like, you know, the
three or four comedy shows I listen to.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
I hear you.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
I get mine from a bunch of different sources, and
it'll it's not necessarily podcasts. It's not necessarily on the web.
It could be a book, it could be something I
ran across in a movie, and then something will connect
to something else. And that's kind of how I get
my inspiration in my info. There's not like a single
go to place that I go to to recharge my
(33:45):
brain or anything like that. It's just kind of a
little bits here or there.
Speaker 5 (33:48):
Yeah, what about you, guys.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
The tables have turned, That's right.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
I think that you know, whenever I'm curious about something,
I assigned a show out about it. I feel like
that's been the joy or articles, right, that was the
joy of mental floss was that, like anything we were
curious about, we could get someone to research for us
and bring back to us and tell us in a
really fun and quick and engaging way. And that has
(34:16):
been such a pleasure and luxury in my life.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Yeah, I've sort of been in a kick recently of
reading either historical fiction or works that are kind of
adjacent to that. So there was a book that I
probably one of my favorite books of the past decade
or so that I revisited called Pachinko. I don't know
if you guys have read it before, but it follows
this family, this Korean family, early twentieth century, four or
(34:40):
five generations. And there was an Apple show made from,
you know, inspired by the book as well that ran
a couple of seasons, and so been watching that at
the same time. And I don't know, I feel like
when you find really good historical fiction that feels like
it can actually transport you to that time and place,
and then you're obviously getting the entertainment of following whatever
(35:01):
the story is there, but it just shed so much
light on what that relationship between the Japanese and the
Koreans were at the time and throughout most of the
twentieth century. That's sort of been my latest kick in
terms of trying to learn while also combining it with
some good entertainment.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Hey, listeners, do not go anywhere. We've got to pause
for a quick break, but we'll be back with more
part time genius very soon. I think, you know, one
(35:39):
other thing but I never would have imagined had spurred
my curiosity as much as it has is having kids
and getting to see the world through their eyes and
like what they get excited about. And I'm sure you know,
Shuck and Jerry you see this too, but I find, like,
you know, when they're excited about art and learning about
artists and going to a museum or something, it's like
(36:00):
joyous or like my son was only into anime for
the longest time, and suddenly he watched a Spike Lee
movie and was like, show me movies, And now we
go to movies all the time, and like discovering, like
what he sees in a movie, which is so different
on what he hears from music, is like so different
from what I hear, and it's really incredible.
Speaker 5 (36:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (36:20):
Yeah, I also found myself having to like, you can't
take for granted that your kid knows about whatever, so
sort of having to explain things to Ruby, but then
realizing like, oh, I need to be able to explain this,
Like we went to MoMA last week. We went to
New York for Fall break, and you know, Andy Warhol's
soup cans are on the wall, and she asked me
(36:41):
about him, and so then I had an opportunity to say, like, oh,
I said, well, that's Andy Warhol and he's very famous
artist called pop art. And you know, Josh I kind
of knew about this stuff anyway, but we did an
episode on Andy Warhol. So it's like, man, I get
to actually teach her something about why paintings of soup
cans are cool and important or maybe not to someone else,
(37:02):
you know, like she can make up her own mind
about that kind of thing. And so, you know, my
parents are both teachers. I never got to be a teacher,
but I ended up being one through the show and
through being a dad.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
You know, I just want to go on record as
saying that I have a daughter too. She just happens
to have four legs and is not allowed in the moment.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
Well, one of the questions we had on the list
was whether you see the curiosity in your pop Josh do.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
I yes. As a matter of fact, she's very curious
but also really smart and enthusiastic in a way that
that is actually super infectious. Every morning she goes down
to the park and we feed the squirrels, and in
the park we go to, the squirrels are really really
brave because everyone feeds them, and she's learned over the
years to just hold still and they'll get within like
(37:53):
a hair's breadth of her sometimes to get like the
nuts that were throwing to them, and she just picked
that up, like just learned it over time. But every
single morning, we do this every morning, every single morning.
When we tell her we're going downtown, she jumps around
like it's the first time she's ever heard that. So
she gets so excited every morning that it's super infectious.
(38:15):
So yeah, she definitely affects things for me for sure,
impacts my outlook. I love that I was silent.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
Huh No, it actually makes me remember like why we
love listening to the show is like Josh is telling
us a story about his pet and I'm like right
in it, I'm like, yeah, yeah, tell me that, and
then what happens to the squirrel, then the nuts and
then but you know, but just to make sure before
we let you go. You know, we started listening to
you guys in the early days of when we were
(38:45):
growing our little magazine, Mental Floss, and I was asking
the question before about you know who and inspired you,
and just wanted to take a minute to note that,
like watching you guys for for this many years be
curious multiple times and come up with such interesting episodes
and such interesting topics, jumping from history to science to
(39:06):
pop culture to all over the board. It's a joy
watching people do that and love what they do and
getting to learn from them day in and day out,
and so just you know again, wanted to say thanks
for being that inspiration not just for us, but for
so many others, and that joy that you bring to others.
Whatever the topic is, I would venture to guess that
(39:26):
the majority of your listeners after they finish listening to it,
even if it's a topic that's not like the most
happy topic, my guess is they leave the episode happier
than when they were. You know, started listening to the episode,
So just wanted to take a minute to say thanks
for what you do.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
Yeah, I mean, wow, thank you.
Speaker 5 (39:45):
Thanks man.
Speaker 6 (39:46):
I mean at the end of all this, maybe one
day someone will say Josh and Chuck were curious two
days a week, every Tuesday and Thursday, they were very,
very curious, and every Wednesday they were a little bit
curious with their short stuff.
Speaker 3 (40:00):
I think you listeners are still they're still saying to
themselves like, wait a minute, they did an episode on
cht GPT, but they've never used Chett. I'm sure there's
some people still, you know. I do want to say, though,
while you guys were being inspired by us, we were
inspired by you as well. Like back in the day
and still today, we draw from Mental Floss a source
(40:22):
of recent time, not just for researching facts and getting
answers like that, but also for inspiration too, because it's
just always been such a great curious magazine but also
presented in just such a great approachable way too. So
I will always admire you too for having found that.
Speaker 6 (40:39):
It's funny how it all worked out because we were
using you guys producing our show that you were listening to,
and you know, now we're all colleagues and former colleagues
and friends, and it's pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
I love it all.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
That's so wonderful to hear. And I think part of
what makes me so happy is like when I get
to see how the community responds to your show. You know,
I felt that with Mental Floss, where like people would
write in or like be so excited to have this
magazine on the coffee tables. And when I've seen your
shows and the crowds that come out and people that
(41:13):
are so excited just to be around you, it's it's
really really joyous. And I also remember, you know, we
were not in the House Stuff Works office, the old
one anymore, but like people would send in extraordinary gifts,
like that massive wooden puzzle that was there, like on
a giant wheel. I don't know if you remember this,
but it was just like there forever and no one
(41:34):
could figure out how they lock it for the I mean,
but like remember that the appreciation for just like opening
people's minds to things that they could get excited about
was just so fun to watch.
Speaker 6 (41:48):
I'm glad that Mystery saw Mangush because I always thought
what made you happy was when you opened your eyes
in the morning. I don't know that I've ever known
more continuously sort of positive human.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
So yeah, when the tape stops rolling, Chuck right, you
should you should be he is on the actual.
Speaker 3 (42:10):
Moment, Yeah, you throw your headphones and you're like you
blew it spoty.
Speaker 5 (42:19):
On like Sean Penn in one battle after another. That's
who he turns into.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
Well, we did just want to say thank you so
much for being here and spending time with us. We
know we're all super busy, but it's so fun to
be chatting with you and just joyus to have you
on the show for sure.
Speaker 5 (42:36):
Thanks for having us huge.
Speaker 4 (42:37):
Fans, huge fans personally and professionally.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
All Right, dudes, it was good to see you. Thanks
for doing this with us.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
All right, Mango, that's a wrap for this week. Tell
me how are you feeling.
Speaker 1 (42:54):
I mean, honestly, we've been working on the series for
a few months now, and it's just been kind of
funny to spend so much time. I'm being curious about curiosity,
Like I really pay attention now when I realize I'm
curious about something because I know so much more about
what's going on in my own brain and how that
ties into history or philosophy science.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
It feels pretty amazing.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
Yeah, I'm the same, and you know that brings us
to today's listener activity. So it's very simple. We want
to know your favorite fact that you learn from us
in this week's episodes, So just leave us a comment
on our Instagram or Blue Sky and you'll be entered
to win a part Time Genius prize pack. Now, if
you want an extra entry, make a video telling us
about your favorite fact, upload it and tag us. The
(43:36):
deadline is Sunday, October twenty sixth, and all the details
and links are in the show notes and on our
social accounts. Again, we're on Instagram and Blue Sky at
part Time Genius.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
That's right, and remember you still have time to participate
in all the listener activities for this week. You can
go back to our social feeds and find them, and
you have until Sunday to do it.
Speaker 3 (43:55):
So go do it.
Speaker 1 (43:56):
And thanks to everyone who's entered so far. We have
really really enjoyed seeing your posts and comments. Okay, so
before we go, we want to thank Josh and Chuck
for hanging out with us today. Be sure to follow
their show stuff. You should know wherever you get your podcasts,
and we will be back next week with some slightly
spooky Halloween episodes. Not too spooky, though, no a very
(44:17):
manageable level of spooky, so be sure to join us
for that and in the meantime, From Will, Dylan, Gabe, Mary,
and myself, thank you so much for listening. Part Time
(44:39):
Genius is the production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. This show
is hosted by Will Pearson and me Mongagehatikler, and research
by our good pal Mary Philip Sandy. Today's episode was
engineered and produced by the wonderful Dylan Fagan with support
from Tyler Klang.
Speaker 3 (44:57):
The show is.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
Executive produced for iHeart by Katrina Norvell and Ali Perry,
with social media support from Sasha Gay, Trustee Dara Potts
and Viney Shore. For more podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope
and iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Guess what Will What's that Mango?
Speaker 1 (00:24):
So it is day five, the grand finale of our
week long series about curiosity, and I can think of
no better way to celebrate than by talking with two
of the most curious people we know.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Two of the most curious people we know who aren't our.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
Kids, definitely not our kids. They are the brilliant podcasters
Josh Clark and Chuck Bryan aka Josh and Chuck, the
host of Stuff.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
You should know.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
We've known these guys for such a long time now,
so we decided to call them up and see if
they'd come on our show and talk about what it's
like to be curious for a living, how we all
got to be so curious, if curiosity has ever gotten
us in trouble, and so much more. It's going to
be so much fun. And before I say let's dive in,
I should mention that at the end of the episode,
(01:09):
we'll tell you about today's listener activity, which is your
very last chance this week to win a Part Time
Genius prize pack.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
It's pretty exciting. You definitely don't want to miss that.
All right, mego go ahead and say it.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Let's dive in.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Hey, their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius. I'm
Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good
friend Mangesh Hot Ticketer and sitting behind that big glass booth,
that's our wonderful pal Dylan fag And you all know
Dylan you're always looking forward to what he's up to today.
You'll never believe it. Dylan is waving a poster he
made and it says, I'm so glad I'm not the
(02:00):
only producer here today that has to listen to Will
and Mango's bad jokes. It's good to see you, Dylan.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
He is right, because we have super producer Jerry Roland
in the booth with us today, and we've also got
the star talent that she wrangles regularly, Chuck and Josh
chatting with us. We're so excited and Chuck and Joshua's
so good to have you here.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Hi guys, Hello dudes, thank you for having us.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
We're so excited to have you. But before we start,
and since we are grace with Jerry's presence, I wanted
to ask Jerry some questions about the two of you,
or Will and I Wilba both ask questions about the
two of you. So, Jerry, Today's thing is all about curiosity.
We're doing this whole series on curiosity. Obviously, we've got
two very curious people here. But do you notice anything
(02:48):
specific about Chuck and Josh's curiosity, Like you ever see
them being curious outside the office? Do you see them
being curious on tape? Like, tell me a little bit
about what you think of the two of them.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
I know it's it's funny, like in the context of
stuff you should know. I feel like we still have
conversations leading up to a recording or even after we
stop a recording where we're like, oh my god, that
was did you hear about this? Did you hear about that?
So I feel like that curiosity is kind of inherent
and always there. Outside of that, I see Chuck every
(03:23):
now and then, because anybody who listens to the show
knows that our daughters go to school together. So luckily,
you know, other than that, I wouldn't ever see Chuck
in the real world. But we've known each other for
so long, and we've kind of had this parallel path
for so long that when we're curious about something that's
usually in the sort of like we're getting older sort
(03:45):
of realm of like I wonder why my knees stopped working, right,
I wonder if this ever stops?
Speaker 5 (03:52):
Or is this it?
Speaker 3 (03:53):
You know? What's the A?
Speaker 5 (03:55):
Yeah, what's that?
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Which is the episode that come out next week? That's
going to be That's be great now I'm about it, yeah, exactly.
One of the things we've been talking about recently is
for curious people, they're routines, their superstitions, and obviously for
a show that's been successful for so long, Jerry curious,
if you can take us behind the scenes, are there
any routines or superstitions about the show that we should
(04:19):
all know about.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
Chuck used to do this thing that ended a long
time ago, so I guess I guess it's fine that
he stopped, but he used to do his cheeks and
if he's down for it, he might give.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Us, Oh wow, that's impressive and a really horrid noise. Yeah,
so that used to be.
Speaker 4 (04:40):
I don't know if we have like any superstitious type
of routines, but like these days, when we show up
to record, it's like, hey, you guys ready, yep, clap, Okay,
let's go. There's not a ton of back and forth
because we say that honestly for the for the show.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
I mean the one time we recorded with you before
you guys did the same thing. You were like, okay,
let's go.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
And it was.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
For someone who is not as good without a script
in front of me or talking points. It was pretty
amazing to watch you at work. We do, like Jerry said, though,
we save it, like we actually tell one another this
is gold, save it for the podcast. So there's not
a lot of front loading because we recorded it all
and basically release our conversations.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
You know.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
M hm. Is there anything that makes you feel particularly
good on Mike? Like, I mean, this is an old reference,
but like Tiger Woods would wear red shirts because he
felt like it brought out a certain energy or something like,
is there anything that gets you excited to tape?
Speaker 4 (05:37):
Mmmm?
Speaker 5 (05:38):
Chuck here, I do I need to say that?
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Sure?
Speaker 6 (05:42):
Every time we're so used to doing that and stuff
like this. You know what I started doing, and this
was sort of during COVID when everyone was kind of
forced to go virtual or whatever and set up the
home studios.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
Is I started.
Speaker 6 (05:57):
I kind of went the other way rather than just
being a complete schlub. I would get up and take
a shower and you know, sort of dress for work.
And I continue to do that on my work days
because I don't know, it's just sort of a routine
that I feel like sort of helps me even though
I'm at home, kind of make a transition, you know,
Superman style.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
M That was like our old friend that would do
formal Fridays when when we were all working from home
during COVID, one of our good friends would would have
a fun Friday and be like show up on a
video and just like wearing just the most sparkly beautiful
dress and you're like, Okay, I guess it's it's normal Friday. Yeah, sorry, Josh,
we're gonna say something.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
I did the exact opposite of that, where I can
just go quite a while into the day without taking
a shower first.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
I like, he says it with pride too. It's like
it's like it was bragging. I can do. I can
keep going.
Speaker 4 (06:49):
I think, yeah, with the hygiene thing for me, not
that you asked, but I'm giving you an leaving. I mean,
like during COVID, like I did brush my teeth every day,
that it might not be until about five pmsh Oh, wow,
is the sun going up or down?
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Maybe I should.
Speaker 5 (07:08):
That was the teeth is a darker.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
For sharing that year.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Yeah, I knew you were just really dying to ask.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Let's uh, let's go way back pre COVID to your
childhood days, which just a few years before COVID. Let's
talk about curiosity from the earliest days. If somebody knew
you when you were you know, eight, nine, ten years old,
would they have seen this coming? Would they have been like, Yeah,
this kid is so curious that one day they're going
to be involved in something that involves knowledge or learning.
(07:38):
Let's let's maybe Josh will start with you. You want
to jump in first.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Sure, yeah, I would say, this is Josh, I would
say probably not. Actually I was never like a really
good student. My curiosity essentially extended to like what does
this taste like. I wasn't like an uncurious kid where
I was like, you know, beating up like nerds or
anything like that. But I just wasn't nearly as curious
(08:02):
as I am now. It just seems to have been
something that developed as a grown up. Actually, so I
was like a C student c I'm going to say
CMB generous to myself mostly through school, all the way
through high school essentially, and then once I got to college.
I'm not quite sure what happened, but it was like
a switch flipped to my head and all of a sudden,
(08:23):
I was I was a good student. I wanted to
learn everything that I possibly could, and I've been like
that since then. So I guess if you're not curious
out there, and you feel like a schlub and you're
under nineteen, then take hope.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Yeah, or start a podcast. Yeah, now that's terrific, Chuck,
how about you?
Speaker 5 (08:42):
I was sort of curious.
Speaker 6 (08:44):
I mean I was an AB student most probably a
solid B student in school, and I didn't give the
most effort. I kind of skated by a lot of
times on charm. So my teachers, my teachers are. My
teacher all liked me, and you know, I wanted to
be liked by my teachers, and so I and fellow students,
(09:05):
so I think they would have thought I was maybe
precocious more than curious. But outside of school, I think
I was pretty curious about the outside world, not as
much formal studies. But I grew up camping, and I
grew up in the woods, and so I was always
curious about sort of nature and stuff like that.
Speaker 5 (09:22):
But I also was you know, wasn't the kid who sat.
Speaker 6 (09:24):
Around and watched Nova in elementary school unless I had
to write a paper on it.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
You know what.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
One of these things we're doing for Kaleidoscope is trying
to collect moments of science, like the first moment that
you sort of had this sense of wonder about the
world and or about a topic or a subject or something.
And I was curious, like, is there a moment for
either of view about like when you discovered something that
(09:50):
you were just completely mesmerized.
Speaker 6 (09:53):
I'll jump in because I recently found a box of
old school work of mine from elementary school, and I
did not remember how obsessed with NASA and space travel
I was. But when I went back and looked through this,
I had a bunch of papers in school projects and
it seemed to be a well that I kind of
went back to a lot. And that's not something that
(10:13):
I'm still like super super into. Josh's more into that
stuff than me now, but I definitely remember looking back
through this papers like man, I was really and I
guess we were kids of the Space Shuttle program like
being birthed, and looking back, I was pretty into that
at the time.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
I mean there was so much romance around it, right, Yeah,
the idea of going beyond Earth and all the excitement
of science in a.
Speaker 6 (10:35):
Way, Yeah, totally, So that'd probably be it for me.
Science and then just camping in the natural world again.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Yeah, how about you, Josh.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
For me, it was writing. I always wanted to be
a writer, and I remember in third grade I had
a teacher who was particularly supportive about that, Miss Chamberlain,
and ever since then, I was like, I'm going to
grow up to be a writer, and luckily I did.
That was the first thing I was that kind of
got me. The first thing I remember like starting to
learn about that I was really interested in was history,
(11:05):
I think in like ninth grade or something like that.
So those two things definitely converge. I studied history in
college and I have been writing ever since third grade.
So I guess I fulfilled my promise, is what I'm
trying to say.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
And what was it about writing that drew you?
Speaker 4 (11:20):
Like?
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Do you have a particular style, did you like communicating
a certain thing? Did you just like spending time with
a page.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
I don't know. I think the fact that I can't
answer that makes me feel like I was kind of
born as a writer. You know. I read a lot
as a kid too, But I never remember saying like, oh,
I'm learning tips and techniques, and I wasn't absorbing the
writing for style. I was just enjoying it. But I
think along the way, I was learning a lot of style,
(11:48):
and I'd gotten pretty good at fiction. I don't know
around the time I got hired to How Stuff Works,
where I was actually like, this isn't that bad. And
then when I got hired to how Stuff Works, where
our podcasts grew out of Chuck and I both got
hired as writers for that website, my writing shifted over
from fiction to nonfiction, and there was a huge shift,
(12:11):
and I remember kind of like mourning not having an
opportunity to write fiction anymore. But then I kind of
became obsessed with nonfiction, and I think that was my
curiosity at that point took a new step from one
plateau to like a new higher level I guess where
I was just ingesting more and more information because nonfiction
(12:32):
kind of requires that writing nonfiction, so that was a
big change. For me and improvement in my curiosity too.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
I mean, it's funny because you're both writers, right, Like
Chuck came in with a script, or at least part
of a script, right, Yeahine Hostiff works.
Speaker 5 (12:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (12:48):
I didn't have any professional writing experience, but like Josh,
I was writing as a kid and had supported teachers.
In that stack of old school work, I found a
little piece of comment writing I did. I did Henry
David Thureaux satire in like the seventh grade about a
guy who goes to the woods to live deliberately and
(13:09):
it turns out it sucks and he prefers the city
for various reasons. But I read back through it and
I was like, man, I mean it wasn't the worst
piece of writing for a twelve year old and had
teachers who encouraged that. But I had, you know, been
knocking about trying to write screenplays and working in the
film business. So I didn't have any real professional experience
(13:30):
at all. And then our boss, our colleague, Connell Byrne, Yeah,
I sat down with him and I said, all that
had to give you or you know, I'll give you
the first twenty pages of my latest script. And thank god,
we all know Connell and he's a big movie guy
and has acted some and done some film production work.
So anyone else and I probably would not have gotten
that job. But Connall and I had a great just
a great report in conversation and he said, well this
(13:53):
counts You're hired.
Speaker 5 (13:54):
Wow, thank god.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Pretty terrific. When you think about the crazy rainge of
episodes that you guys have done. You know, Josh you
mentioned history, Chuck you talked about science and just that
range there, and in terms of the curiosity and desire
to learn in different categories, do you guys, when you're
coming up with your topics find yourselves going to your
comfort zone or your primary area of curiosity and say,
(14:19):
you know, Josh in your case going to history, and
Chuck in your case, you know, if it is the
natural world or things like that, or do you find
yourself trying to push yourself to come up with episodes
that are just so outside the realm of something that
you know about or knew about before. How do you
think about that process?
Speaker 3 (14:34):
I think it depends on the week. Actually, Like if
we both have a Bonker's week, we probably will do
something like history or maybe even pop culture, We've been
doing a lot of pop culture episodes lately, and they're
interesting and fascinating and everyone loves them and they're fun
to do, and we already know a lot of it
because we live through it. It's usually gen X, pop
(14:55):
culture nostalgia kind of stuff, but then you know other time,
So yeah, I definitely try to choose ones that I
don't know anything about that I think is kind of interesting,
or maybe I know a little bit about it, but
I want to know more. We recently did one on
nuclear waste, Getting rid of nuclear Waste. We're both very
troubled to find that the world doesn't really have any
(15:17):
good ideas about getting rid of the nuclear waste that's
been accumulating since the forties. And there's some good ideas
on the horizon, but they're not here yet, and we're
just basically shuffling our nuclear waste from one place to another.
I had no idea about that. I just knew that
there would be something interesting about nuclear waste disposal, even
though it sounds kind of boring. It turned out not
(15:39):
to be. And that's usually the case. Whenever we push ourselves,
we find that there's something way more interesting about the thing.
Than we even thought initially.
Speaker 6 (15:47):
M Yeah, for sure, go ahead, Chuck, No, yeah, for sure,
that's it.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
That was Chuck.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
I was gonna say, like, you ever find that, you know,
when you chase ideas on the web, I feel like
you end up going down a rabbit hole of different
topics that lead one to another to another. Do you
find that the topics that you cover ever make you
daisy chain into like other topics?
Speaker 6 (16:16):
Yeah, I mean that happens has happened since the beginning.
I feel like, and we'll say it during the episode, like,
you know, we'll bring up a part of that episode
and say, actually, this would make you know, a good
full length episode. Something we just sort of might briefly
mention that ties into the current topic. So I feel
like that happens all the time, you know, when we
were fully writing all the stuff all the time, full
(16:38):
time for us, before we got some freelance help, it
happened more in the research stage. But I think now
it tends to happen in the episode where like, hey,
you know, we should do a whole one on this
person that just had a very small part to play
in this story.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
One of the other ways that happens too is when
we're researching for an episode, a question will come up.
I mean tons of questions come up, But then you
go to answer that question because the rule of thumb
is if we have that question somewhere out there listening,
it's going to have the same question and we don't
want them to end the podcast with that question. Still,
we try to fill as many answers as we can,
(17:13):
and as you're going and finding an answer to that,
you'll turn up some mention of something else that you
hadn't turned up before, and now all of a sudden,
there's this whole richer component to what you're explaining in
the episode. It's really cool. I've never thought of it
as daisy chaining before. It's a much more pleasant way
of looking at it. But to me, it was just
turning stuff up. I like daisy chaining way more.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Okay, listener, if you've got to pay for the show
with some ads, but we'll be right back after this
quick break.
Speaker 5 (17:57):
You know.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Would we think about how much technology has changed information
gathering over the past decade, and then of course that's
just gotten so much faster in the past three or
four years, and there's this desire for instant gratification, having
a question being able to answer it within you a
matter of seconds or minutes. Has that changed how you
(18:17):
guys think about making the show or or how do
you think about that piece of it? Just knowing that
we do live in a world now where people are
instantly going to whether it's an AI source or their
search engine to try to answer questions, how do you
feel like you guys set yourself apart from that?
Speaker 5 (18:33):
Wooh, that's a tough one being human.
Speaker 6 (18:37):
Well, I mean, you know, the Internet was It's not
like we've been around for a while, but it's not
like we were doing card catalog research.
Speaker 5 (18:43):
So the Internet was always a part of our research. Yep.
In fact, we did a.
Speaker 6 (18:47):
Whole episode about like kind of I don't remember what
we called it, Josh, but kind of how to do
your best research and you know, present things truthfully and factually.
So we've gotten pretty good at sussing stuff out. I
think these days it is sort of a different realm
now with AI and you know, all the weird deep
fake stuff. Just to make sure that you're not getting
(19:07):
bad information or whatever, so we probably have to dot
our eyes and cross our tea's a little more closely.
Speaker 5 (19:12):
Now, Yeah, that's a tough question.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
I've found that it's getting harder and harder and harder.
It seems like the pace of clearly AI written and
researched articles has not quite hit a singularity, but it's
definitely sped up in the last couple of months. I
feel like, yeah, there's a lot of crud out there, yep,
and a lot of it is not reliable at all.
(19:38):
I use bing because I think Google's search results are
just a total mess, and duc ducgo is great, but
it's too slow. So I've kind of started bing and
like everything else has the AI result at the top
whenever you search for something, and I've found like it's
just flat out wrong. A lot of the times you'll
go and click on the source and the source doesn't
say anything like what the AI is telling you SA.
(20:00):
So I've learned not to trust that, and then going
and finding Okay, well, I need to find the answer
to this question somewhere. I might be on page two
or three of the search results before I find something
that's clearly reliable, that knows what it's talking about and
is yeah, can give me the answer I need. That
is not at all how it used to be. Yeah,
(20:21):
when you did search, you could read everything on page
one and you just had the biggest, best, like deep
knowledge of what you were talking about.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:32):
Now it's just it's just not there anymore. Like the
Internet has changed dramatically, and it seems like it's really
hit an inflection point in the last couple of months.
It's funny because like it went from you had to
do work to do research to having research at your
fingertips to having to work to do research again. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Yeah, it's really crazy. I had that experience not too
long ago where finished reading this fantastic book and was
reading it with a friend, and so we were going
to have a conversation about it and even just to
like remember the sequence of events put into an AI source,
you know, give me the overview, the plot overview of
this story, and it was just so completely inaccurate. It
(21:13):
was bonkers. Like all I was asking for was a
plot summary from this book to then be able to
walk through it and have the conversation around it. And
it was really bizarre. I'm sure all of that will
get better and it will improve, but it was just weird.
So I guess at the same time, part of what
people are turning to you guys for is to make
sense of that. Like, you guys are doing the heavy lifting.
You guys are navigating all of the nonsense that's out there,
(21:36):
but also a lot of the great information that's out there,
and so your job is to try to sort of
cut through that and get to the interesting stuff. I'm
sure it's gotten more challenging, but it's I guess it's
the challenge that you guys take on.
Speaker 5 (21:47):
Yeah, you know you want to hear something about me, guys.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
I do state your name first, though.
Speaker 5 (21:52):
This is Chuck.
Speaker 6 (21:54):
And I'm not doing it because I'm taking some big
like moral ethical stand or anything.
Speaker 5 (22:00):
I think.
Speaker 6 (22:00):
I'm not doing it because I'm just some old gen
exer that doesn't want to roll with things. But I
have never I wouldn't know how to use AI, Like
I wouldn't know if someone said, hey, use AI to
do whatever, I would.
Speaker 5 (22:13):
Know how to do that.
Speaker 6 (22:13):
I would have to look up like do you have
to go to a website and sign up for a
thing and then enter a question like That's how sort
of in the dark about all of that stuff I
am right now because.
Speaker 5 (22:24):
I just I don't feel like I I don't know.
I don't feel like I need it.
Speaker 6 (22:27):
Like everything is going fine for me as far as
how I do my job and get my work done,
So I don't need it as a tool. But I
wouldn't even know how to go about starting that kind
of thing.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
It's pretty easy, Chuck, You just go out into your
yard and yell it. I feel like though, that's gen
x is, that's like the technology right there where like
the generation before. So I guess the Boomers if they
didn't pick up on the internet, yeah, they got left behind,
and a lot of them did. Like my dad does
(23:00):
not use email. He doesn't text, and it's so maddening.
It's like you have to pick up the phone and
call him and you have a conversation and you can't
just ask a question, you know, but he doesn't care.
But he he would have no idea how to send
an email now right that like us right now, Chuck me, Jerry,
you guys, if we don't learn that, we're gonna get
(23:22):
left behind. That maybe, okay, that's not the end of
the world. I don't think AI will bring about the
end of the world, but us not learning to use
like chat GPT won't bring about the end of the world,
I think, but it is we are at that point
I feel like right now and I don't I should
say I don't know. I don't know how to use
it either.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Do you think you guys will do an episode on
how chat GPT works?
Speaker 3 (23:42):
We did?
Speaker 2 (23:43):
Yeah, we did, you did, and without using it?
Speaker 3 (23:45):
We did, right, that's what we do. Well, it's very
much in step. We we did an episode on it. No,
we didn't use it. But one of the the key
components of that episode, if I remember correctly, Chuck, was
we were just a gog that this had arrived, yeah,
(24:08):
and that we were both kind of like it's starting
I can't believe it, but it is starting right now,
and I think that's true.
Speaker 5 (24:14):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Yeah, So in a completely different vein. Well, I have
two questions and they're completely unrelated. What one is is
just because I'm curious. I know, Josh, you said used
to hate your voice, and then someone told you sounded
like a muppet, and then you started loving your voice.
I'm curious. I always wanted to be a Fozzy Bear,
but I think I'm actually a Kermit. I'm curious, are
(24:36):
are you a specific muppet? And does anyone else have
a spirit animal Muppet on this line.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
I did not see that question coming. Segue speaking of Ai,
which Muppet are you?
Speaker 6 (24:50):
Wow, it's a tough one because it's like, which Muppet
do you aspire to be? Which one do you probably
most realistically identify with. It's probably easier to assign that
to Josh and Jerry than it is myself.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
Thank you for that.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
Yeah, maybe you can also answer that way you can,
you can give them Muppet names.
Speaker 6 (25:10):
Well, I mean, I aspire to be a cool, like
rock and roll guy, so I would want to be
in the Electric Mayhem.
Speaker 3 (25:17):
Oh nice, that's a good call. Any of them, I
would go, Chuck, I would put you down as I
don't know that you'd be a cross between Doctor Teeth
and the sax Player, right.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
Yeah, I can see that.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
I like you, Josh.
Speaker 5 (25:36):
Josh is kind of Kermity.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
I've always yeah, I mean, I definitely if I do
resemble a Muppet, is Kermit for sure? That's just vocally.
I've never really identified with Kermit much like watching him
on screen, but I've never been like that's my soul mate. Yeah,
I've always loved Grover as a kid. I thought Grover
was great he was my favorite. Yeah, but when I
look down in my arms and think of a Muppet,
(25:58):
I see red. So maybe I guess Elmo Elmo. But
I hate being tickled. That's the weird.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
You have my word, Josh, I will never tickle you.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
All right, I'm going to hold you to that.
Speaker 4 (26:14):
I mean, I'm thinking about these guys, and I've never
ever thought about this before, but if I had to assign,
I might assign Josh Fazzi Beer.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
I'll take that. I can see that.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
Okay, Yeah, Chuck, you have this baritone voice, and I
can't if we're talking vocally, I can't really think of anybody.
But the first visual I had was one of the
little old guys up in the in the yeah balcony. Yeah,
that's basically you guys. And I might be more of
like a beaker. Like I don't talk a lot, but
I'm kind of running around a little anxious and out
(26:49):
of sort.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
One of the guys names in the Statler and Walter.
Speaker 6 (26:54):
Yeah, I'm a bit off mic. I'm a bit more
of a heer mudgeon. I don't present like that on
the show, but in real I r L. I'm probably
more like those guys.
Speaker 5 (27:04):
Now that I think about.
Speaker 4 (27:05):
It, Yeah, I can tell you when it comes to
like school functions, it brings out the school function.
Speaker 5 (27:13):
God, there's just too many guys.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
Chuck walks away saying, like that PTA meeting was okay,
Well it wasn't very good. No, it's stunk. It was terrible. Yeah,
that can be painful.
Speaker 5 (27:25):
And I made the mistake of bringing my camera.
Speaker 6 (27:29):
Started photography again a few years ago, and I got
some good camera gear and took two good at pictures
of that talent show. So now every time it's like
you gonna are you gonna bring your camera, Chock like, uh, sure, Yeah,
that means I'll stay for the whole thing and not
leave that forms.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Can't sneak out. That's that's pretty tough. Actually, I'm glad
you brought that up though, because it, you know, it
shows your curiosity about other things. Putting the show aside
for a second, and knowing that you guys have been
super successful with this, you find yourselves in a awesome
life stage where you, you know, maybe have the opportunity
to explore other paths of curiosity. What are you curious
(28:06):
about right now? It sounds like, Chuck, for you, photography
has been a new exploration, but curious to hear from
each of you.
Speaker 5 (28:12):
Yeah, got back into that.
Speaker 6 (28:13):
I grew up taking pictures, you know, back in the
old thirty five millimeter camera days, film camera days, obviously
through my father because he was a photographer, lifelong photographer,
and then I didn't touch a camera for probably twenty
five or thirty years, maybe because I had a bad
relationship with my father.
Speaker 5 (28:32):
I like doctor Freud would probably say that's the case.
Speaker 6 (28:35):
And I did get into it after he passed away,
so I think that maybe something there may be something there.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
Wow, And are you you're printing out the film?
Speaker 5 (28:45):
Well no, no, no, this is now all digital. But I did.
Speaker 6 (28:48):
I did get a nice photo printer, and I'm like
printing and framing stuff, and I'm making I do a
lot of events and like vacations and friends and family events,
and I'll make books for people because you can make
books now, like hardcover, coffee table like professional quality books.
So I make those and give them out to people,
and it's just sort of a fun thing.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
That's such a great gift.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
Yeah, sounds great.
Speaker 5 (29:11):
Never see, well maybe you'll get Josh.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
I haven't gotten one either. No, Sorry, what am I
when I I so I like to kind of turn
off my brain when I'm not working. So I've gotten
into gardening quite a bit. It still requires obviously some
thought or else you just start digging up plants and
forgetting to plant them or whatever. But one of the
(29:39):
other things I've kind of gotten into is like house stuff,
like house projects, because I don't know anything about it.
So I'll figure out something I need to go do,
like rewire something, and then I have to go research
that and figure out how to do it. And it
takes a lot of trial and error. I've lost some
fingernails before getting shocked, and then I'll fig get it out,
(30:00):
I'll get it done, and I'll know some new thing.
So that's that's probably the thing that I've gotten into
the most, is just figuring out how to do house
up keep stuff that I didn't know how to do before.
Speaker 6 (30:12):
I want to point out though, that that probably has
less to do with Josh's innate curiosity than not wanting
to speak to a repair person.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
Right, they're hard to find.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
But Jerry, you also you also like did up your
house previously, right, Like you know how to do a
lot of that stuff.
Speaker 4 (30:29):
I mean, you know we do higher. People do the
big stuff, but I'm I'm comfortable doing small stuff Like
I've I've replaced some lights. I've actually uh not just
like lights, the actual light that's in the wall or
the ceiling. Yeah, I'm not that accomplished, but I'm kind
(30:53):
of like Josh, like I like to take that kind
of stuff on. But I also have to be careful
because I'll start like three or four projects and they'll
all get close to done but not quite, and then
I walk by them and I get mad about it
because I haven't finished that I know I need to finish,
and it's still sitting there, and.
Speaker 5 (31:09):
It's that's that used to be my cycle.
Speaker 6 (31:11):
Emily said, I was a member of the ninety percent club,
so it sounds like you're in there too.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Yeah, I'm an in incredible enthusiast about starting things, like
I have piles of books that are like yeah, you
know yeah. So one of the questions I had also
wanted to ask, was you seem like maybe as kids
you got in trouble a little bit? Like was was
(31:37):
curiosity ever a cause for that?
Speaker 5 (31:40):
I was a pretty good kid, So I think Josh
was a was a delinquent.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
Well, a little bit, but I was mostly a good kid.
But it is true I started smoking cigarettes at age fourteen,
So that's that does automatically.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
This episode is brought to you by Hey.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
But I was smart about it. I I I. So
I would smoke out in the woods at the edge
of a golf course, and there was a water hazard,
and that what it's called chuck water a pond, And
so I had a bar of soap that I kept
out in the woods. So after I smoked, I would
go to this water hazard and wash my hands off
(32:18):
with the soap and go home and just suspect no
one knew a thing. But I'm sure I was coming
and smelling like smoke, but no one said anything.
Speaker 5 (32:26):
You should have gotten.
Speaker 6 (32:27):
I want to envision fourteen year old Josh by the
golf course with one of the Hunter S.
Speaker 5 (32:31):
Thompson cigarette holders. You don't have to wash your hands.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
I was more going for FDR okay.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
Right, knowing that you're still trying to learn as much
as you can to do these these new episodes? Are
there outside of your show? Are there other creators other
you know, just other people that you've admired for a
long time, either as a writer, or some other form
of content creator that that you sort of see as
(32:58):
your heroes in the space. Who do you like to
learn from?
Speaker 6 (33:01):
I mean, if Josh likes to sort of turn his
brain off after work, I turn my brain off when
it comes to other podcasts because I exclusively listen to
kind of dumb comedy shows. So I just I don't
think I could listen to other sort of learning podcasts.
That's when I'm on my dog walks. I just want
to check out and laugh at, like, you know, the
three or four comedy shows I listen to.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
I hear you.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
I get mine from a bunch of different sources, and
it'll it's not necessarily podcasts. It's not necessarily on the web.
It could be a book, it could be something I
ran across in a movie, and then something will connect
to something else. And that's kind of how I get
my inspiration in my info. There's not like a single
go to place that I go to to recharge my
(33:45):
brain or anything like that. It's just kind of a
little bits here or there.
Speaker 5 (33:48):
Yeah, what about you, guys.
Speaker 3 (33:50):
The tables have turned, That's right.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
I think that you know, whenever I'm curious about something,
I assigned a show out about it. I feel like
that's been the joy or articles, right, that was the
joy of mental floss was that, like anything we were
curious about, we could get someone to research for us
and bring back to us and tell us in a
really fun and quick and engaging way. And that has
(34:16):
been such a pleasure and luxury in my life.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
Yeah, I've sort of been in a kick recently of
reading either historical fiction or works that are kind of
adjacent to that. So there was a book that I
probably one of my favorite books of the past decade
or so that I revisited called Pachinko. I don't know
if you guys have read it before, but it follows
this family, this Korean family, early twentieth century, four or
(34:40):
five generations. And there was an Apple show made from,
you know, inspired by the book as well that ran
a couple of seasons, and so been watching that at
the same time. And I don't know, I feel like
when you find really good historical fiction that feels like
it can actually transport you to that time and place,
and then you're obviously getting the entertainment of following whatever
(35:01):
the story is there, but it just shed so much
light on what that relationship between the Japanese and the
Koreans were at the time and throughout most of the
twentieth century. That's sort of been my latest kick in
terms of trying to learn while also combining it with
some good entertainment.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Hey, listeners, do not go anywhere. We've got to pause
for a quick break, but we'll be back with more
part time genius very soon. I think, you know, one
(35:39):
other thing but I never would have imagined had spurred
my curiosity as much as it has is having kids
and getting to see the world through their eyes and
like what they get excited about. And I'm sure you know,
Shuck and Jerry you see this too, but I find, like,
you know, when they're excited about art and learning about
artists and going to a museum or something, it's like
(36:00):
joyous or like my son was only into anime for
the longest time, and suddenly he watched a Spike Lee
movie and was like, show me movies, And now we
go to movies all the time, and like discovering, like
what he sees in a movie, which is so different
on what he hears from music, is like so different
from what I hear, and it's really incredible.
Speaker 5 (36:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (36:20):
Yeah, I also found myself having to like, you can't
take for granted that your kid knows about whatever, so
sort of having to explain things to Ruby, but then
realizing like, oh, I need to be able to explain this,
Like we went to MoMA last week. We went to
New York for Fall break, and you know, Andy Warhol's
soup cans are on the wall, and she asked me
(36:41):
about him, and so then I had an opportunity to say, like, oh,
I said, well, that's Andy Warhol and he's very famous
artist called pop art. And you know, Josh I kind
of knew about this stuff anyway, but we did an
episode on Andy Warhol. So it's like, man, I get
to actually teach her something about why paintings of soup
cans are cool and important or maybe not to someone else,
(37:02):
you know, like she can make up her own mind
about that kind of thing. And so, you know, my
parents are both teachers. I never got to be a teacher,
but I ended up being one through the show and
through being a dad.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
You know, I just want to go on record as
saying that I have a daughter too. She just happens
to have four legs and is not allowed in the moment.
Speaker 1 (37:24):
Well, one of the questions we had on the list
was whether you see the curiosity in your pop Josh do.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
I yes. As a matter of fact, she's very curious
but also really smart and enthusiastic in a way that
that is actually super infectious. Every morning she goes down
to the park and we feed the squirrels, and in
the park we go to, the squirrels are really really
brave because everyone feeds them, and she's learned over the
years to just hold still and they'll get within like
(37:53):
a hair's breadth of her sometimes to get like the
nuts that were throwing to them, and she just picked
that up, like just learned it over time. But every
single morning, we do this every morning, every single morning.
When we tell her we're going downtown, she jumps around
like it's the first time she's ever heard that. So
she gets so excited every morning that it's super infectious.
(38:15):
So yeah, she definitely affects things for me for sure,
impacts my outlook. I love that I was silent.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
Huh No, it actually makes me remember like why we
love listening to the show is like Josh is telling
us a story about his pet and I'm like right
in it, I'm like, yeah, yeah, tell me that, and
then what happens to the squirrel, then the nuts and
then but you know, but just to make sure before
we let you go. You know, we started listening to
you guys in the early days of when we were
(38:45):
growing our little magazine, Mental Floss, and I was asking
the question before about you know who and inspired you,
and just wanted to take a minute to note that,
like watching you guys for for this many years be
curious multiple times and come up with such interesting episodes
and such interesting topics, jumping from history to science to
(39:06):
pop culture to all over the board. It's a joy
watching people do that and love what they do and
getting to learn from them day in and day out,
and so just you know again, wanted to say thanks
for being that inspiration not just for us, but for
so many others, and that joy that you bring to others.
Whatever the topic is, I would venture to guess that
(39:26):
the majority of your listeners after they finish listening to it,
even if it's a topic that's not like the most
happy topic, my guess is they leave the episode happier
than when they were. You know, started listening to the episode,
So just wanted to take a minute to say thanks
for what you do.
Speaker 3 (39:42):
Yeah, I mean, wow, thank you.
Speaker 5 (39:45):
Thanks man.
Speaker 6 (39:46):
I mean at the end of all this, maybe one
day someone will say Josh and Chuck were curious two
days a week, every Tuesday and Thursday, they were very,
very curious, and every Wednesday they were a little bit
curious with their short stuff.
Speaker 3 (40:00):
I think you listeners are still they're still saying to
themselves like, wait a minute, they did an episode on
cht GPT, but they've never used Chett. I'm sure there's
some people still, you know. I do want to say, though,
while you guys were being inspired by us, we were
inspired by you as well. Like back in the day
and still today, we draw from Mental Floss a source
(40:22):
of recent time, not just for researching facts and getting
answers like that, but also for inspiration too, because it's
just always been such a great curious magazine but also
presented in just such a great approachable way too. So
I will always admire you too for having found that.
Speaker 6 (40:39):
It's funny how it all worked out because we were
using you guys producing our show that you were listening to,
and you know, now we're all colleagues and former colleagues
and friends, and it's pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
I love it all.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
That's so wonderful to hear. And I think part of
what makes me so happy is like when I get
to see how the community responds to your show. You know,
I felt that with Mental Floss, where like people would
write in or like be so excited to have this
magazine on the coffee tables. And when I've seen your
shows and the crowds that come out and people that
(41:13):
are so excited just to be around you, it's it's
really really joyous. And I also remember, you know, we
were not in the House Stuff Works office, the old
one anymore, but like people would send in extraordinary gifts,
like that massive wooden puzzle that was there, like on
a giant wheel. I don't know if you remember this,
but it was just like there forever and no one
(41:34):
could figure out how they lock it for the I mean,
but like remember that the appreciation for just like opening
people's minds to things that they could get excited about
was just so fun to watch.
Speaker 6 (41:48):
I'm glad that Mystery saw Mangush because I always thought
what made you happy was when you opened your eyes
in the morning. I don't know that I've ever known
more continuously sort of positive human.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
So yeah, when the tape stops rolling, Chuck right, you
should you should be he is on the actual.
Speaker 3 (42:10):
Moment, Yeah, you throw your headphones and you're like you
blew it spoty.
Speaker 5 (42:19):
On like Sean Penn in one battle after another. That's
who he turns into.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
Well, we did just want to say thank you so
much for being here and spending time with us. We
know we're all super busy, but it's so fun to
be chatting with you and just joyus to have you
on the show for sure.
Speaker 5 (42:36):
Thanks for having us huge.
Speaker 4 (42:37):
Fans, huge fans personally and professionally.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
All Right, dudes, it was good to see you. Thanks
for doing this with us.
Speaker 1 (42:44):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
All right, Mango, that's a wrap for this week. Tell
me how are you feeling.
Speaker 1 (42:54):
I mean, honestly, we've been working on the series for
a few months now, and it's just been kind of
funny to spend so much time. I'm being curious about curiosity,
Like I really pay attention now when I realize I'm
curious about something because I know so much more about
what's going on in my own brain and how that
ties into history or philosophy science.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
It feels pretty amazing.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
Yeah, I'm the same, and you know that brings us
to today's listener activity. So it's very simple. We want
to know your favorite fact that you learn from us
in this week's episodes, So just leave us a comment
on our Instagram or Blue Sky and you'll be entered
to win a part Time Genius prize pack. Now, if
you want an extra entry, make a video telling us
about your favorite fact, upload it and tag us. The
(43:36):
deadline is Sunday, October twenty sixth, and all the details
and links are in the show notes and on our
social accounts. Again, we're on Instagram and Blue Sky at
part Time Genius.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
That's right, and remember you still have time to participate
in all the listener activities for this week. You can
go back to our social feeds and find them, and
you have until Sunday to do it.
Speaker 3 (43:55):
So go do it.
Speaker 1 (43:56):
And thanks to everyone who's entered so far. We have
really really enjoyed seeing your posts and comments. Okay, so
before we go, we want to thank Josh and Chuck
for hanging out with us today. Be sure to follow
their show stuff. You should know wherever you get your podcasts,
and we will be back next week with some slightly
spooky Halloween episodes. Not too spooky, though, no a very
(44:17):
manageable level of spooky, so be sure to join us
for that and in the meantime, From Will, Dylan, Gabe, Mary,
and myself, thank you so much for listening. Part Time
(44:39):
Genius is the production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio. This show
is hosted by Will Pearson and me Mongagehatikler, and research
by our good pal Mary Philip Sandy. Today's episode was
engineered and produced by the wonderful Dylan Fagan with support
from Tyler Klang.
Speaker 3 (44:57):
The show is.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
Executive produced for iHeart by Katrina Norvell and Ali Perry,
with social media support from Sasha Gay, Trustee Dara Potts
and Viney Shore. For more podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.
Part-Time Genius News
Hosts And Creators
Will Pearson
Mangesh Hattikudur
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