A glowing red “jellyfish” above a thunderstorm looks like sci‑fi until you hear the science. We start with a simple birthday fitness win—standing up from the floor without using hands—and follow that thread of intentional choices into the sky, where NASA explains sprites: rare, vermilion flashes that bloom 50 miles up and vanish in milliseconds. The images echo Stranger Things, but the truth is better than fiction—a peek at the upper atmosphere’s hidden electrical theater and how storms can spark beauty we rarely see.
From awe to impulse, we pivot into a candid look at TikTok Shop and the way shopping now lives inside the same stream as entertainment. Ten billion dollars of U.S. spend this year hints at a bigger shift: when video, social proof, and one-tap checkout erase the pause between wanting and buying. We unpack FOMO across generations, why buy-now-pay-later stretches small choices into long-term debt, and how to rebuild healthy friction with simple guardrails—separating watch from buy, adding a 24-hour list, and removing autofill to invite reflection back into the process.
We wrap with a lighter tradition that still carries weight: favorite Christmas movies. Miracle on 34th Street, Love Actually, The Holiday—stories that help us measure what matters and remind us that belief, community, and restraint can coexist. Come for the strange red lightning and stay for the practical toolkit against the scroll-to-cart spiral. If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend who loves space or struggles with impulse buys, and drop a review with your top holiday film—we’re reading every pick.
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Episode Transcript
Well, hello and good morning, December 11th.
My birthday.
Hey, this is 59 years old.
And I was working out yesterdayand I decided to test myself.
I was sitting on the floor withmy legs crossed, you know, as
the used to tell our kids whenthey were little crisscross
applesauce.
(00:50):
And I wanted to see if I couldget up, stand up without using
my hands to help.
And I was able to do it.
So I think I'm doing well for 59years old.
When you can sit down on thefloor and get up into the
standing position without usingyour hands to help you get up
off the floor.
I think I did alright.
(01:12):
Okay.
Whoop-dee-doo.
59.
Woo-hoo.
Oh, this is the year that okay,whatever.
I only have two stories for youtoday.
I couldn't find anythingworthwhile.
And not that any of this isworthwhile, but I'm trying again
to find things that are nothorrible things out there in the
(01:35):
world.
I want some fun, unusual thingsthat people aren't talking
about.
And so let's go to NASA explainsfrightening red jellyfish
phenomenon spotted floatingabove the storm.
Okay, well, and they havepictures, by the way.
So if you want to go see thepictures, go check it out.
(01:56):
Uh I have the story out on my Xfile.
They've shed light on thisglowing interstellar hydra.
Luminescent images of a glowingred jellyfish have sparked
speculations of alienvisitations, but NASA assured us
that there's nothing to fear.
Speaking of NASA and speaking ofSpace Command, guess who's
(02:18):
coming to Huntsville to help uhinaugurate the opening?
Secretary of War Pete Heckseth.
I wish I could go, but I don'thave access to the Arsenal
anymore.
And that is where it's happeningis on the Arsenal here in
Huntsville, Alabama.
I wish I could go to it, butagain, no access to the Arsenal
anymore.
Damn it.
(02:38):
Alright.
Um I don't know when he's gonnabe here though.
I didn't read that far into theinto the article.
Alright, back to the jellyfish.
The bizarre vermilion vermvermin vermilion?
I don't even know.
Lights.
V-E-R-M-I-L-L-I-O-N lightsdetailed in an X C okay,
(03:00):
whatever.
Detailed in an X formerlyTwitter post.
Why do they they're still doingthis?
They're still putting in an X inparentheses formerly Twitter
post by the space agencyreportedly appeared in the sky
above a thundercloud.
The crimson fireworks displayevoked an intergalactic sea
(03:22):
jelly or a visage from theupside down realm in the
paranormal Netflix seriesStranger Things, and it
certainly does look like that.
Some even floated the idea thatit could be a celestial visitor.
An Unilad reported.
It does, it looks phenomenon.
(03:42):
It does, it looks like thatStranger Things.
It is crazy, these pictures.
I've never seen anything likeit.
However, NASA has dispelled anyrumors of its extra terr of
course they have terrestrialprovenance, noting on X that
it's an extremely rareweather-related phenomenon known
as a Sprite, an acronym meetingmeaning Okay, here we go, with
(04:08):
the words stratosphericperturbations resulting from
intense thunderstormelectrification.
That is a mouthful.
This fleeting red flash above athunderstorm cloud is one of
Earth's most elusive electricalphenomena, gushed the space
(04:31):
agency of the event, which wasshot by a citizen scientist,
Nicholas Eskerit of SpiritSpirit Sprentacular.
All these things out there thatI know nothing about.
It does.
Oh my gosh, look, they have theStranger Things poster and the
other picture of the realpicture of it, it looks just
like it.
That is crazy.
(04:53):
Um, let's see.
The did I read this?
Okay, yeah.
Also known as red lightning, thetransient luminous event is
associated with extremelyintense thunderstorms, which are
typically only spotted usingspecific cameras or from space.
So that that would be reallysomething to see in person.
(05:14):
I think I would freak out thoughif I saw that in real life.
I would think that, oh my gosh,aliens have landed.
Unlike most lightning thatextends from the clouds to the
ground, these bright red boltsspout up into the atmosphere.
In fact, they reportedly occurabout 50 miles up in the Earth's
(05:35):
atmosphere, producing quickflashes of reddish light that
only last for a few millisecondsand show up in bizarre shapes.
Generally, either a jellyfish ora carrot.
Mmm, now I'm hungry.
Carrot.
Mmm, yum.
All right, moving on to our nextand last topic.
Um just because it's Christmastime and it's shopping and it's
(05:59):
TikTok.
TikTok shopping is latestmindless addiction as users
confess to spending thousands onproducts I have not even used.
Oh my goodness.
I I have TikTok, but I rarelyget on it anymore.
I I would like to use it, but Idon't know how to use it.
And then I'm thinking, you knowwhat?
You're 59 years old, you don'tneed to use it.
(06:21):
Why?
What would I what would I I feeland I see these commercials on
TV, and they're so wonderful,feel-good commercials about
TikTok.
About this, like this, forexample, one of the commercials
is this there's older gentleman,our age, who who just simply
gives advice to youngergenerations, like how to tie a
(06:44):
tie or how to whatever.
And he's gone viral for that.
So, you know, just what can Iteach somebody?
Nothing.
Okay, whatever.
Moving on to the to this story.
And I say this too, because mydaughter has mentioned TikTok
shopping too.
She's bought a couple of thingsthat I know of because uh every
(07:05):
time when I see her, she'll havesomething on and say, Oh, that's
really cute.
And she'll say, TikTok shop.
At least she uses her items.
Okay.
TikTok isn't just feeding socialmedia addiction, it's now
enabling shopping addiction too.
Between January and October, the170 million Americans who are on
TikTok spent more than 10billion with a B dollars on
(07:28):
TikTok shop.
10 billion, y'all.
Um, so double the amount spentlast year over the same time
span.
Sam Reddy was irritated byTikTok shop when it first
started popping up in her feed ayear and a half ago, but very
quickly got hooked.
(07:49):
At first it was annoying, butthen with all the ads and people
talking about the products, itbecame fear of missing out.
See, I think that's agenerational thing too.
I was telling somebody the otherday on X that I I forget what
the topic was, but it was abouta generational thing.
(08:09):
Um, I forget what it was, but Ithink this is the fear of
missing out.
I think this is a generationalthing too.
I don't fear of missing out.
I was raised before theinternet.
I think these fear of missingout people and stuff like that,
they were raised on theinternet.
I was raised when we wentoutside and played and didn't
come home till the sun went downor was going down.
(08:32):
And we had we just we had boardgames, we had other things to
take, you know, we actually didactivities and went out and
socialized.
So and it was also before allthis horrible crime and
everything that's happening.
I mean, we had crime back thentoo, but not like it is now in
(08:52):
all the oh oh all theentertainment industry.
No, forget it.
So she's 40 years old fromBaltimore, so she's only well, I
was just about to say 10 yearsyounger than me, but she's
really 19.
I still think I'm 50, not 59.
I still think I'm 50 years old,not 59 years old.
So she's actually 19 yearsyounger than me.
(09:15):
Good heavens.
I'm old enough to be your mom.
Oh, the 40-year-old fromBaltimore told the post, you see
people talking about an item,and so you want to get it.
Inevitably, you go from watchingTikTok to looking at a product.
Ready makes corsets for aliving, so it all started with
buying corset boning on TikTokshop.
But when she got hooked onlittle food items, it was soon
(09:38):
buying so many trendy snackslike Dubai chocolate bars and I
don't even know what that is,filicious faux noodles, that her
cabinets begin to overflow.
Oh my goodness.
She has spent three thousanddollars in just the past six
months, and at one point owed athousand each to buy now pay
later platform to a firm andKlarna.
(10:01):
Look, I gotta confess I have thesame thing with the wig problem
with buying wigs that damnKlarna and the A firm pay in
for, but you know it's kind ofnice.
Alright, anyway, I'm done buyingwigs, though I'm not buying
anymore.
I know I've said that before,but for real, I've got too many
right now.
I've got plenty to wear.
Okay, it's spending, I wouldn'thave done otherwise, she said.
(10:24):
You don't even realize when it'shappening.
That is what's so concerning.
You're in the world of shoppingand you're watching in the video
mode, so you're not reallypausing and making conscious
decision to consume.
There you go.
That's it right there.
You're watching a video, soyou're not really pausing and
making a conscious decision toconsume.
(10:48):
That's it.
That's it right there.
TikTok Shop is an integratedone-stop shop that's
transforming the social mediaapp.
Okay, blah, blah, blah, blah.
You can go finish reading thatif you like.
We need to go on to the questionof the day.
All right, question of the day.
What is your favorite Christmasmovie?
I have several.
Um, some of them not sotraditional, like Love Actually
(11:12):
and The Holiday.
Those aren't really Christmasmovies, really, not really, but
they take, I think they takepart, they take place in in
during a Christmas time.
All right, so the moretraditional movies that I love,
my favorite one is Miracle on34th Street.
I love that movie, and I likeall the versions of it too.
(11:33):
Every single version of it.
Uh, I probably like the um oh,the one with oh gosh, I don't
even not the latest one, but theone be not the latest one with
Elizabeth Perkins, but the onebefore that.
I like both of those anyway.
I just like that story.
I love it.
Alright, we need to, I guessthat's it.
(11:55):
We're gonna need to wrap it up.
Alright, gotta go.
Thanks for listening.
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