May 20, 2024 • 54 mins
For the first time in the history of The Hidden Egg, TAM and mortal welcome special guest, Ben Ulansey!! (applause noises here)
We talked with Ben about his experiences with Medium since he started on the platform. As someone that has been recognized by the platform many times, we wanted to get to know the writer and what his art meant to him. We went a few different places with our first interview, discussing Ben's views on technology and the internet and what it all means for our futures and touching on some of the articles he wrote about popular media. We even took a brief dive into one of his articles on religion. It was a wonderful time, with a fantastic writer and we hope you enjoy the talk!
(Ben asks that listeners forgive the audio quality of his iPhone during the interview.)
For more about writing with vulnerability and information on articles discussed in the episodes, visit themonsteralley.com. Got a story you’d like us to consider? Read this article to share it with us!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hi, I'm Tam and I'm eternally mortal and this is the hidden a podcast where we talk about vulnerability
(00:07):
And stuff and things and say your thing Ben real quick and I am Ben you Nancy
Yeah, go ahead. Damn. Sorry. I got I got into it
Today we're listening you're listening to season 4 episode 9 and this week's theme is Ben you Lansy
Mm-hmm our our special guest and first guest on the on the hidden egg podcast Ben you Lansy right around medium
(00:34):
and
Not Kermit the Frog
Definitely. So before before we really get into that
I want to just kind of plug a little bit because I I submitted this article or published this article today
Like literally today as we're recording this
to
Hopefully get people that want to get their articles on here
(00:58):
There's no way that we can possibly read all like hundreds of thousands of articles that are published every day every week, whatever
so
Whatever like if we're not seeing your articles
Find this story and and and do the thing to submit your article
So that we can read it and determine if it fits with our podcast or one of the episodes for season 5
(01:23):
Yep, just a little way to put a line in there if you want it. Check it out. It's pretty cool. Well done, Tam
Okay, so moving on
We're we're talking about Ben you Lansy and I don't know if you noticed but so when I first started like looking through
This list he has this list of his boosted articles
(01:43):
He now has 62 so in the past like few days, he's gotten two more boosted
Yeah, 62 boosted articles in your career on medium Ben
Do you want to like introduce yourself in whatever way you'd like to do so you don't have to if you don't want to I?
Don't have a particularly set way of introducing myself
(02:04):
What do I have in my medium bio? I think it's a fairly good descriptor
Do you mean to read it? That is a word enthusiast who writes about everything from technology politics religion film AI and video games to
dreams drones drugs dogs memoirs and
terrorizing a Floridian with dinosaur costumes
Heck yeah
(02:25):
There was more than one story about that. So I get to officially put it on the list
I missed that one. I'll have to check those two out
That was not one of the ones to get boosted perhaps not unsurprisingly
And I read your story today. Is it okay if I kind of reveal what you wrote in the story from today?
(02:46):
Yeah, absolutely that Ben is now a well he has been for a little while, but he's now openly a boost nominator
Ooh
nominator Ben and with 62 boosted stories in the
Just over a year of the boost program kind of makes sense why he's in that program
Totally get it
(03:08):
Well, I appreciate the kind words
We've obviously know what it takes to be boosted
62 stories like that's that's more than one a week
Well from your perspective Ben, do you feel like you know what it takes to be boosted on medium?
Nowadays? Whenever people ask me
(03:30):
I don't feel as though I can generally do a whole lot better than what medium has already
explained in their
The articles they posted to the medium blog where they introduce it where they there's there's three or four articles now that they've posted where they
Explain specifically what they're looking for
I've been a little bit reluctant to write an article myself to say this is how you get boosted because I don't
(03:52):
Really feel as though I have a whole lot new to provide that conversation
That that's understandable and humble too. And also if you're gonna get uncomfortable with compliments
I hope you're prepared and girded because you're gonna get complimented a lot. I think
Thanks
Side topic. I didn't even notice the Sturge put crisscross in the chat and it made me really smile
(04:14):
That is my childhood right there. That's amazing
And for our listeners, I just want to say we have a new chatter that has joined us
Robin Robin is apparently a an all-star a nobody and a staff pick all at the same time and sounds delightful so far
She wears many
Not to call you out Robin. Hopefully you don't feel too like the spotlight shined on you too much. I just wanted to say hi
(04:39):
One mustache
So do we want to start with the question?
We have or do we have anything else we want to kind of chit chat about beforehand?
Well, I wrote some notes down and like one of the things that really interested me about doing an interview with Ben is
I mean, obviously the 62 stories is kind of a big deal
Obviously, he has something whether he knows what it is or not to tell us is another story
(05:05):
But he's got something down that everybody likes or the medium likes that people like
When I went through and I looked into all of your stories, I'm sorry that probably messed with your stats a little bit
Most of them are five to seven minutes, which is
Standard for what people are saying out. There is like the sweet spot and the longest
(05:27):
There's like two of them. There are 13 minutes
Which is pretty awesome
One of the 13 minute ones I can't take full full credit for
Because it was largely just a conversation that I had with chat GPT when it first became available
And we were just going back and forth talking nonsense, but it was a pretty entertaining story. I will say
(05:49):
I've noticed in going through your articles like most of them the average for
What the boost settles out is like one to two thousand claps and then 50 to 60
Comments is that kind of what you you got a feel for as well?
Sorry, you cut out for a second. Could you repeat that question? Yeah the the
(06:13):
The gen like general
Standard for your boosted articles seems to be that you get about one to two thousand claps and then about 15 to 30 comments
Is that is that a pretty accurate assessment from what you?
That sounds about right. There are certainly some subjects that are a little bit more successful than others
(06:37):
I would say in general with the film pieces
They're not as likely to do as well as a hot-button political topic, right? Yeah, that is true
So, um, I went all the way back all the way back
To your very first one last not this past April but April
two thousand twenty three and
the name of it, oh
(06:59):
Wait, no, we're not gonna do that one because Steve went or mortal wanted to talk about
This one that I didn't write in my notes
Yeah, sorry about that. But yeah, I was just
Tam and I didn't get to the same articles when we were looking through them
And I found the forgotten lives of forgotten phones
Remember that one? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I wanted to put together
(07:20):
In the ones that I read this one was what I determined to be the most vulnerable
you know from my perspective because like you it's
It is incredibly vulnerable to start looking at yourself from the past
There's a lot of people that when they look at themselves 10 20 years ago
They all they see is cringe
They want to just get away from it and stuff like that
And there's other people that just look back with the fondness
(07:41):
But like you looked at the past and you looked at the future and you looked at the future
And you looked at your fondness, but like you looked at your evolution
And I thought that was really insightful
Yeah, that was a really interesting one to put together how that came about for to give people a little bit of context
I had this old iPhone 4 that had been sitting in the bottom of a drawer for the better part of a decade and
(08:07):
I just randomly wondered one time when I was going to get a computer repaired anyway
I was like, oh my god, I don't know if I can do anything with this old phone
and ironically, they were able to repair the phone in only minutes when the computer took them a couple days and
then I had this treasure trove of old
Of this old version of who I used to be to sort through and and that was a really really interesting
(08:32):
There were just tons of memories that I'd completely forgotten about and people that I couldn't remember used to be in my lives and
I was surprised I used to talk and it was like seeing my own voice was very unfamiliar
Yeah. Yeah, and you had changed you had had experiences that like, you know
It changed you in very distinct ways over that time period and so seeing like a completely different version. I
(08:57):
Don't know. It's one of those moments that like I don't think a lot of humans really do don't really get around to
Connecting with their past self in that sort of way. And so I thought it was pretty impactful
But it's just one of our shout outs. We're gonna jump on to a couple other ones
Do you have any final thoughts about that article you wanted to share before we move on?
Yeah, I think that there was another piece that kind of followed from that from what you just mentioned there and it's
(09:22):
fascinating to me one of the things about our digital lives is that we
Have the ability to go back into our past in a way that we didn't used to only 20 or 30 years ago
like my parents and grandparents don't have this
Uncanny glimpse into who they were in middle school and elementary school and specific conversations that they had with specific people
(09:42):
So I brought a follow-up piece on that called
Why we never truly die anymore. I believe was the title I came up with and
Well, actually we're gonna talk about that one more in depth. Oh, okay. Awesome
Sorry Tam didn't mean to skip the script no, no, you're fine. I love it. Okay
(10:05):
But yeah, I actually did make that connection as well that's that's awesome
But well, I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna cut you off for a little bit because we're gonna talk about that pretty in
depth towards the end of I think the
Cast okay sounds good to me
awesome
Yes, I actually before for a second there
Do what didn't mean to dominate the floor for a second there. I mean you are you're welcome to you're the way today
(10:28):
Not like we're walking on you or anything. No, not like sorry. You're you're all the things on the floor. Are you?
the floor
Yeah, exactly
No, but like this was one that was within the range of like your normal boosted things
And so I had to like 60 at the time 60 articles
(10:48):
I just could not figure out like how am I gonna figure out what to talk about?
So I just anything that was in this standard like normal range. I was like I'm gonna leave that to
mortal to maybe
Do what he does and and pick out what interests him and I'll go I'll go to the outliers. So
(11:10):
This one's actually a normal one, too
But it was your very first one which makes it an outlier all of its own
the religious disconnect
and and I
I hastily read them. I'll be honest. I didn't like go in depth on on any of them, but I did wonder
What made you?
(11:30):
Get so vulnerable like where how did you come up with the personal stories and
Beliefs and opinions that you used for this particular
article
One one thing I should first mention I
didn't begin compiling the lists until a couple months after I
(11:53):
the program was a
Thing on medium didn't come up with a better way to say that
But um, so so the the order for those first few isn't entirely accurate
The first piece that I had picked up was actually the one on AI porn, but
More than more than happy to talk about this one still
That's so that is funny. I didn't even notice that we were talking about that. That's the next one. We'll talk about too. So I
(12:18):
Have the date for that too. I just didn't realize in my brain that it was before
the date for this
It's a largely chronological. I've mostly added them as they come in. So you're not crazy for thinking that
But to answer your other question didn't mean to go on that
Second there
(12:41):
There were a few religious pieces that came out of a very specific
Experience where there was this woman. I knew all throughout elementary school middle school high school
Who was just truly one of the the kindest people that I'd ever met in my life
and there were very few people who knew her that would have told you different and then
(13:01):
Suddenly
There's this there's this spiritual transition
After high school for her where she began talking about
tarot and astrology and and crystals and whatnot and
It was harmless and innocuous and coming from a good place and then a couple years after that
He began to talk about how
Everyone who does yoga or is involved in any spiritual practice or type of stretching is going to hell
(13:28):
And anyone who hasn't discovered Christianity is going to hell
and anyone who hasn't discovered Christianity is going to hell
so I uh
had a
bit of a
I was I was pretty angry at religion itself at that point and there's there are still moments where I
Feel like religion has taken people from me. She's not the only person who uh
(13:52):
Became religious and then I feel as though it was a
Worst person in a lot of regards afterwards
Yeah, I've I've had an experience like that as well. It's and I
Should and I should clarify that I don't feel that it's religion. That's always going to make people into a worse person
I've certainly watched the opposite happen too
but um, it's
(14:14):
I think that there's a curtailing of critical thought that goes into faith-based thinking that I've always had issues with
Yeah religion religion is like a knife
You know you can use it for good or you can use it for bad like it
It's not inherently. Yeah, either one
But it's the wielder of it that really determines what what's going to happen with it
(14:37):
And the stories can be useful and they can make people into better people and they're
It's there's certainly no use in in saying all religion is bad all the time
Right, but there are a lot of examples where it it turns
in that direction
Yeah
Yeah, absolutely and this specific article that you wrote then has a conversation that like i've imagined having
(15:03):
Dozens of times that i've seen like, you know
played out in in certain like
Atheist youtube channels in certain regards a couple of times as well
And I was I was amazed with how you tackle like even just the recounting of the certain aspects of that conversation where you brought up
Specifics and real like actual scientific everyone. I know that actually argues these topics. They never come prepared including me
(15:29):
I'm always like there's data and they're like show me and i'm like fuck
Yeah, it can be hard in the moment and I think that it's useful sometimes to have conversations
Over text and in an online medium where you can actually at least have a little bit of time to verbalize your thoughts
But in the moment, I don't typically do
uh incredibly in religious debates, especially if it's if there's any uh,
(15:52):
Ganging up situation or anything? Oh, yeah, absolutely. I totally understand. I hate that feeling both ways actually
Yeah
so
Since this was something that was really personal that happened to you
Would you say that you were intending?
Controversy I can't say the word controversy
(16:12):
um or or or were you just sort of
Blundering into a controversial topic because of something personal that had happened to you
Religion is always one of those points where i've been willing to challenge controversy. I was uh
that annoying kid in high school who would have religious debates on facebook all the time and
(16:36):
I definitely annoyed people with that but I think that it was a precursor to
Some of the articles that I ultimately wrote on the subject so I don't regret being that annoying atheist
Now I see where we get along
I was also that kid. Yeah. I watched a whole lot of uh,
(17:00):
religious debates on youtube with like christopher hitchens and
Richard dockens and I think that they
Colored my argument a bit more than i'm proud of and I would be a little bit too pretentious on the subject sometimes
I think i've gradually gotten a bit better of a voice in addressing that because
At least now I do as an adult feel as though there's
(17:23):
Some spiritual truth to what's going on in the universe even if it's not
Something that's described in the bible or the quran, but I don't quite feel as though it's uh
I used to believe that there was no such thing as any supernatural or paranormal activity when I was younger
Hmm. Yeah understood
I uh, there's a oh, I can't remember his name. There's an australian musical comedian that I
(17:48):
I really like even though he's so far to the side of um, you know
No such thing as metaphysical things that it's sometimes that's tim mentioned exactly. Thank you
Um so far that sometimes even the things the things that he says i'm like, yeah, but there's something man
It's okay to believe in stuff just for funsies
But sometimes not okay to believe in stuff for funsies. That's you know, some people get into christianity that frivolously
(18:12):
And then all of a sudden they're down a road that they're not
They're not accepting the people in their lives
They're rejecting everyone around them because everyone's going to hell unless you believe my personal conception of what it takes to heaven
And it's it's really sad
And there's this popular notion that all religions are created equally and and we need to respect them all the same
(18:34):
But there are religions that if you follow the literal word of the doctrine are going to take you to a peaceful place
And then there are religions that if you follow the literal words, you're going to
jihadist suicide bomb people
right, right
so yeah, so I don't really feel as though it's uh
A subject that we can address with a a broad stroke
(18:58):
true
But we could talk about it all day
No, yeah, absolutely. It's a fun one
On that note, i'm gonna push us to move on because like otherwise, I know i'm just gonna get
Into the religious debate and that's not what we're here for
We're here for you ben
Yep
And not then is our religious sturgis trying to start shit in the comments. I just want to point it out
(19:22):
I don't know if anybody's been listening or watching what's what's going on there, but uh
I'm reacting to a lot. Oh, I miss that one though
Okay, so then then there was the next one which is ironically the first one the artificial intelligence pornography
artificial intelligence pornography and a brave new world
(19:45):
Which was an insane outlier. I think this one did the best out of all of them from what I could see
And it was before I discovered the oxford comma, which is a point of shame for me ironic
So, yeah, that was that was my most successful article that i've posted on medium
6.6 thousand claps and 129 comments. That's huge
(20:09):
huge
so this one I I didn't
I don't know if I really grasped what it was about but I
I could tell that it it exposed other vulnerabilities and I was wondering if that was your intention
of like showing how
how these knew and you know the ai and everything and it it it exposes our
(20:33):
Our susceptibility to to being vulnerable in a broader sense or if that was
Something that I just read into
I think that technology has been a unique opportunity to
write vulnerably
and oftentimes what i've seen in the past is that people when approaching
(20:55):
new apple products or or
new ai they do it with this very dense and technical language
and
It's very hard for me to not look at each of these new product unveilings through a more emotional and philosophical lens
so
with uh
when when ai first came out I
(21:17):
Very much was looking at it from a how is this going to affect society going forward perspective rather than uh
These are the literal things that chat gpt does here's how many?
parameters and data points it's built off of because I don't really feel as though that
Matters as much to uh at least to the common person yeah, not to the debate that you are addressing
(21:41):
Yeah
Yeah, because people don't want to know like what the parameters are or why it does what it does how it does what it does
They want to know how it's going to affect them
Yeah
And that's a yeah, and that was discussion
Yeah, that was a really uh fascinating time when the ai porn generators first
came out
(22:02):
I uh
Went into one of the stories a little bit in the article. There was this twitch streamer who
got caught
with uh ai generated porn open in one of their tabs of a of another popular twitch streamer
And that was one of the big incidents that brought the conversation into public light
Yep, that'll do it. Yeah, I remember that
(22:24):
I don't I don't remember who it is or anything like that and i'm highly curious
But I don't want to ask because i'm not a fan of doxing of any sort so I don't remember who it was either
But I I remember it kind of sweeping
the
Easy enough news to find I don't feel like uh, there's any harm in
Discussing these public figures. It was uh
(22:44):
Brandon atrioc, I think it was uh
Qt cinderella. I actually don't uh watch twitch myself
It was qt cinder. Oh my gosh. I wow
Wow, why?
Not that qt is delightful. Um, but she's the type of person that will absolutely 100 take offense to that sort of thing
(23:05):
Yeah, if someone had amaranth up on their screen
I don't think amaranth would really like bat an eye at that
That's madness. Okay. I'm sorry. I don't mean to derail. I do know a little bit about I don't know the dude you're talking about
That's a name i'm not familiar with
I think one of the things that most distinguished my perspective on the subject at that time was that
Many people were taking the perspective on that. Oh my god. How could you use this porn generator to to
(23:32):
Create an image of this person you know, who's a porn star
And I couldn't help but taking a step back and just feeling as though
We're not able to wield these tools responsibly and we shouldn't expect ourselves to
It really isn't all that long ago that we were cavemen sitting around fire and now we're demagnizing each other for
(23:54):
apps that generate porn based on
Commands that you type in and then you type in
apps that generate porn based on commands that you type into your computer so I
I feel for qt cinderella in in
Whatever
Emotional trauma that might have put her through and there's a part of me that feels for brandon h reoc too in
(24:20):
using this
Software that could have never been conceived of only a few years prior
Right. Absolutely. That's what I really liked about your article actually was like it was it was almost a sociological
view of how this affects the species and if I remember correctly you have an article or two that kind of
It touches on the same sort of point, you know
Like how how much having a computer with all with that?
(24:44):
Well, I remember you put in one or two articles like all of human knowledge just floating in the air around us
You know what I mean?
like
Thanks, I've
Looked for various ways to
state that same line and i've not been able to do much better than
the entirety of human knowledge floating through the air around us, but it's
(25:07):
Hard to uh hyperbolize that much more than what it literally is, right?
It's a good line. I really like it
And I don't think anybody else is going to deep dive all of your articles like I do like I tend to read all of everything
Kind of quickly all at once but um, but yeah
I thought it was a really good sociological view because you're absolutely right that like
Like i'm a huge big super fan of consent. Like when someone's consent is taken away. I get pretty upset about it
(25:33):
It makes me sad. I wish that we didn't feel like we had to do that
But do I understand that if everyone had the ability to just make an ai?
Make everyone that they wanted to sleep with on their screen
Doing stuff then they absolutely there's a bunch of people that absolutely would and there's nothing I can do to stop that
And so it's a view of what is the reality and where we can hope to get to but just the just the realization that like
(26:00):
The the expansion of what humans are now capable of has exploded in a way that none of us comprehend
And we're not going to understand for decades probably
Yeah, I mean
Yeah, people really just need to accept that we are walking into the time where people can have put on a helmet and have a realistic conversation
(26:20):
with an ai girlfriend or boyfriend it's
Bizarre that these are the times that we're living in but we should be more sympathetic with ourselves and not
Be so quick to demonize people for what is a little more than thought crime
Yeah
Yep, yep
I'm not overriding you over there. Am I tam? No, no, no, no, no
(26:42):
I was trying to react to sturg in that moment. No, um, but this this whole
The what I see so I I like to try to keep it to the the vulnerability theme and i'm noticing that like
When I was writing the notes, I didn't notice it before but i'm noticing that what you do ben
Is you don't take your vulnerabilities and share them with the world you take a vulnerability that the world has
(27:07):
And share your insight about it
Does that sound about right to you?
And I never thought of it that way but that is an interesting way of looking at it. I think you're right
Because I mean I we're talking about this one and it it's definitely like a vulnerability that the world has
And then yeah, moving on to the next one the why we never truly die anymore
(27:29):
It's also this was out of all of them that I was able to read this one was my favorite
Yeah, i'm really proud of that one i'm glad you liked it
And it it has the same I think this might be where you said that you know
We have all the data all around us all the time or something like that
And because that's basically what it is like we we are leaving our virtual footprints
(27:54):
And it's not a footprint. It's like ghosts of us
Mm-hmm that will never never really have to die unless society dies or unless we need to delete that but it doesn't have to and that's
That's a scary premise of
You know what a hundred years from now? What what are they going to think when they come across?
(28:16):
You know a personal video one of these podcasts and it's it's a it's a very different line of
Thinking than any other generation has had in the in the past
Oh, yeah, it's and there are very few people who can't relate to having
some dead person in some friend list and
Being able to go to their wall and and see them type with their icon as though it's
(28:41):
as though it's still today and
Yeah, there's just something truly eerie about the way that we're uh preserved in our app
And our conversations yeah, where did you get the?
Sorry, you can go ahead. It's just a quick side note
I love the fact that it started with a game cube memory card. That just makes me super happy
(29:02):
What if I'm I know I was gonna ask like where did you get the inspiration to put those specific anecdotes?
Because you could have started in a in in literally an infinite number of places
but you chose to start with the the nintendo memory card and then like you you went on and
Had that same theme throughout the whole
(29:23):
The whole deal so i'm just wondering where where the inspiration came from I guess
I think that that memory card was actually uh
A bit of a core memory for me you have you guys seen inside out?
Yes, we have yes
I really enjoy that concept. I think about that a lot, but um, yeah my dog who I I no longer have
(29:47):
chewed up that memory card and it literally contained
Four megabytes and at that time period when it was chewed up it felt like it was the
absolute end of the world like oh my god my data and
Not not only did it live to to see another day and still
functions 20 years later, but just to think about how much I was able to care about a thing like that then and how
(30:15):
Exponentially, it's grown since then
I think we do actually have like 30 year old memory cards for ps1 and ps2
And some of those just contain kilobytes. Yeah. Yeah, uh-huh
But they they're memories trapped in time of games that we were in the middle of playing
Or that we finished playing just sitting around
(30:37):
Yeah, even something as simple as playing an rpg or loading up an rpg file from 1994 and seeing what you named the characters
Is enough to be like holy fuck
You know
Yeah, and it's not all that infrequent that you'll hear people talk about the
Sheer sums of data that we traffic in but I don't know
I had never really heard people talk about the data that we traffic in
(30:59):
but I don't know I had never really heard people talk about the like vast accumulation of all the devices that are
still sitting around and every memory card and every
st cards and
Whatnot from the last 20 30 years just all infinitely piling on top of itself. It's just a strange thing to think about this sheer numbers that we uh
(31:22):
We've achieved at this point
Absolutely. I would what I liked the most about this article was that you started off with something somewhat light
I know at the time when the memory card happened, it was like an enormous deal
but at this point you can kind of look back and be like well
there are there's a lot more other things that like
comparatively, this is a
(31:44):
child's worst nightmare, but an adult not so much so
Adding it in is sort of like a light-hearted
story, but then you get real like you slowly go into
deeper concepts like the digital graveyard and what's what that's going to mean for people who are actually dead
Like what they're leaving behind is is kind of
(32:06):
I don't know. It's just a perspective that I don't know that many of us even think about
Yeah, I'm I feel as though I'm like constantly entrenched in the whole philosophical side of this and
It's it's annoying sometimes to
Whenever there's a new technological innovation people just get excited. Oh my god, did you hear this can do this and
(32:29):
I'm like meanwhile just brooding in a corner like yeah, but what does this represent for our future?
Yeah, yeah, absolutely you're the you're the guy that um when someone's like
Oh, we can generate so much energy when we split an atom. You're like guys. I don't know if we should yeah. Yeah, yeah
I like to think i'm a voice of caution
(32:49):
Yeah
Yeah
Absolutely. I think it's a great I think it's great to have those voices and the
There's a lot of people out there that'll just like be unhappy with change and just like him and haw about it
But like you you think about it you put the at the details you you you look at the angles you
You know bang the corners as I like to say and I think that that's a great a great perspective to have
(33:12):
from my perspective, thank you
So i'm gonna skip around a little bit in my notes
And kind of skip past way and we'll come back to what I had next
Because I want to I want to talk about the two that did like had the least results
And see what your thoughts were about it. Both of them were about
(33:35):
movies
I believe
Yeah, loki and well loki's a show but they're they're both about media
And they didn't do very well like loki season two
muddled multiversal and still awesome only got like 420 claps, which
Still a great number and seven comments
(33:58):
Even though it was boosted it just didn't seem to to go anywhere
Do you have any insight on why because it's not the only
media article that you've written
Yeah, it is a bit of a misconception that
Boosts automatically equates to success
I think that uh, there's an algorithmic component to it as well
(34:19):
And if a piece gets boosted and then isn't performing spectacularly then it kind of just slowly fizzles out and
Gets you up to that 500 views, but no more and
Yeah, it's more or less
Just fizzled out at that point and uh, yeah, you're you're right that it is media articles that that's more likely to happen with my uh
(34:42):
Smash Brothers article recently didn't perform all that well. Um
Yeah, there were there were a couple like that
I've definitely a recurrent theme though is the film articles that are the most successful are the ones that
actually touch on some personal
or
social uh
thing going on for example, my uh, don't look up review and the uh
(35:06):
Movie Civil War that came out recently were both uh touched on some hot button subjects
So you don't see it because I was gonna ask. Um, I don't know how well Loki
Did in in its views in its ratings?
But I was wondering if the success of the show or movie had anything to do with the success of your article about it
(35:27):
It sounds like it doesn't
You know, I never actually asked myself that um, I I saw it got boosted
I was surprised to see it get boosted. I was unsurprised to not see it go anywhere
Yeah, and and honestly like
So the other one was the swiss army man and the beauty in unexpected places
(35:47):
I wasn't surprised that it didn't do as well as the other articles
But I was saddened that it didn't do as well because
It is such a great movie, but I know that it was under sold
I I didn't even know about it until like six months ago
And it's been out for like a like a decade. I think
(36:10):
I didn't even know about it until six seconds ago. Sorry go on. No, I just saying I didn't know about it until six seconds ago
That's a new one for me. I didn't pay attention to that part of the notes. Technically. We told you about it
It is on the server
So, you know, i've told you about it and we've recommended it to you
It's it's the one with um, daniel radcliffe in it that he's a dead guy
(36:32):
Oh, okay. Say no more. Please continue. Please continue
Ben you're saying yeah
Yeah, I saw everything everywhere all at once before that, uh, which was the two directors later project
And only knew about this one as a concept
But it wasn't until just a few weeks ago that I watched it
Myself and I think I kind of like it a little bit more than everything ever all at once in some regards. It's definitely
(36:57):
simpler and less bloated and a little bit more macabre but
Uh, it's a pretty great movie I would I would certainly recommend people watch that one, but it's a
Not for everyone not for everyone. Yeah, i'm not really sure about the ending myself, but it is a great movie
Otherwise, i'm in love with dan radcliffe. So absolutely
(37:21):
Um, I think he's a phenomenal actor that has done really really really interesting roles, especially after he got out, you know of the harry potter thing
Um, so yeah, I i'll definitely check that one out and then i'll read your article
I definitely didn't read the loki article because I do a plan on watching loki at some point. I like the character a lot
Yeah, I enjoyed the show it wasn't uh, my favorite marvel show
(37:44):
But there were a lot of good things going for it. Yeah, did you ever see everything ever all at once?
My favorite streamer talks about that movie constantly because it's it's their favorite movie
And I want to watch it. I just never really sat down to figure out how to go about watching it. But
You saying it's also amazing. It is pretty indicative
(38:05):
I mean you said it wasn't quite that swiss armand was a bit better and that's
Interesting to hear because I thought that swiss army man looked really good, but they both are movies. I want to see
The reason I bring up everything everywhere again is just because uh, I think the actor's name is ki hai kwan
Is in both and it's as though they told him to just
(38:26):
Simply reprise his role from everything ever all at once again loki and
Having loved that role the first time I was glad to see him back
Oh nice, he had a different name and he was a little bit more of a
Oh nice, he had a different name and he wasn't explicitly the same person, but they were just too similar to ignore it
So I should probably watch them in that order then everything everywhere and then swiss army man
(38:50):
Um
I don't really see that it matters. They're not
Related, uh, okay. All right, swiss army men did come out first. I think every everything ever all all at once is more ambitious
Um, yeah, they're both great. I enjoyed them a lot. They're among my all-time favorites
Star just saying we should ask you about wah-wah
(39:12):
Um, well that's to say about wah-wah they they're open 24 hours a day in my area
What is wah-wah wonderful wonderful food? You don't even know about wah-wah. No, are you in a sheet? Are you in a sheets region?
What the hell is sheets?
We have sheets on our bed
Uh-huh beds sheets and while are considered the two rivals. I'm not sure their exact geography
(39:35):
but uh, yeah sheets I I have only been to a handful of times they're not in my area i'm a wah-wah region myself
and yeah, it's just like a
picture like a
gas station
but it's just like loaded with snacks and there's like a touchscreen for you to order meals and milkshakes that are
Very hit or miss but those times where they hit it's like fuck. Yeah, I just got a bang up meal at four in the morning
(40:01):
sounds like quick trip
Sounds like sounds like a uh, uh, uh, different quick trip
Well, it sounds like piggly wiggly mixed with quick trip, but we don't have piggly wiggly here
So I don't know. I don't know what you're talking about. Piggly wiggly. I don't know anything about that
I know because you don't you've never come with me on on
Extended vacations with my family
Yeah, it's it's piggly wiggly is not in the south. So I don't know if you're talking about piggly wiggly or not
(40:26):
That's more of a north thing. I think there are probably some in the south too. They're in a weird place
They don't have a region
I'm glad that me and robin don't have any idea what you people are talking about
That that makes me feel comfortable. I also do not know
So moving on
Um, you've so you've written about so you've like you've said you've written about so many things
(40:50):
I wrote down that you've you know, you've got articles about suicide israel and palestine
You've also got media and and sillier articles
What subjects do you notice do best with or without the boost?
I would say pretty plainly especially in 2024 that politics is the best performing subject
(41:13):
And technology would be probably a second behind that
Okay, which article what
Technology article was the one that performed the best overall
um
Yeah, they're both very hot button subjects like when if the right article on ai is going to perform spectacularly
(41:34):
What are you prefer to write about though?
Yeah
It certainly is
It certainly isn't the ai and political pieces that are my favorite to write. Um, they are draining. Um
I feel as though like I just don't always have something new to provide to the conversation
(41:54):
Like i'm amazed that i've come up with seven or eight political pieces that each justify their existence
um
and with with ai articles, I feel like
there's a lot of
really dense information that I need to bring people up to speed on with each article and
Yeah, that's that's never fun. I I don't enjoy that side of the of
(42:16):
Any piece really the the researching?
Me neither. I'm right there with you, but it's a necessary tactic for certain articles, especially
politics
and tech so
Those are the big ones
I would I would say that my favorite to write about are uh,
(42:36):
Just like the most fun like i'll actually like be laughing at my own humor like a jackass while writing them sometimes
Um
Memoirs are are really rewarding. They can they can be draining in the same way as politics, but uh,
They can help you through things sometimes
I think those few pieces that i've written about losing my dog were not only the most vulnerable
(42:58):
Or vulnerable pieces that i've ever shared to medium but helped me to process it and to accept it
That's awesome
So it's like the the dream leads to a catharsis sorry, yeah, exactly over you we said the same thing. It's fine
Um, do you have a very cathartic component to a lot of memoirs?
(43:19):
Do you have a favorite article out of all of the ones you've written?
Like I don't know how many you've written, but it's a lot
Um
I think that the articles that I have pinned to the top of my profile
Apart from my my bio just gives people a bullet point intro on who I am
Are are generally a pretty good indicator on
(43:40):
my favorites, um a lot of the
personal ones, uh where I talked about my dog like I just mentioned were
Definitely among my favorites another one that was uh, I felt
Underappreciated from a couple months ago was a piece about the experience of being an only child
I didn't expect that one to bring so much out of me and
(44:01):
How many emotions that I still had invested in that subject and
Writing that I really realized myself like just how much of an impact that had on who I was as a person and some of the
grander implications of being only child that you don't consider when you're younger and just worried about
Hey, I don't have to share with a sibling. Yay. All right
(44:22):
right
Exactly. It takes a while to really get the whole scope of that
Yeah
I had a little bit of both worlds. I was an only child for nine years and then I had four brothers and sisters
That's interesting. Yeah, you definitely did get the best of both worlds
I don't know. I think I got the worst of both worlds really
The grass is always greener
(44:43):
I mean I was I was an only child for 11 years and then my sister was born
I was an only child for 11 years and then my sister was adopted and um, and I'm adopted too. So
it just took 11 years for my parents to get around to the next one, but uh,
so I didn't get to have only childish long enough to be able to
See it in that light. And so
I just kind of felt like I was on my own in a lot of ways for the first 11 years
(45:07):
I haven't read your only child article. I should probably do that at some point. It sounds interesting. I bet I'd relate to some bits
Yeah, what was the name of that one?
Uh what I learned from being an only child
Not my best title, but I that was uh
Yeah, it was a personal one
Descriptive. Sturge has a request
(45:28):
What's that?
Mention your lucid dreaming pieces. They deserve more attention. Sturge likes your dream pieces
Yeah, I I agree. Um, they've they're some of the very most fun to write
I've almost even felt like I've had to shy away from them because they're
so much less popular and so much harder to generate an interest in but
(45:49):
uh
To give people a brief description on those I started to lucid dream a couple years ago
Which is when you take control of your your dream
While it's happening you become consciously aware of the fact that you're dreaming and can exert that
Some level of control over the narrative as it's playing out
um
And in those lucid dreaming pieces, I basically just
(46:12):
Tell the stories of my amateur experiences exploring that process
and
I can't hype enough how much of an amateur I am at this like there are truly so many better people to
learn about this from but
Even as an amateur
It's hard to overstate how utterly fascinating these experiences have been for me and how
(46:35):
Cathartic also that some of them have been for me like i've had
lucid dreams
One of the most powerful for me and one of the pieces that I it was probably one of the
First 10 or 15 pieces that I wrote on medium
was about a
friend I had who committed suicide eight years ago and
I saw him in my dream encountered him
(46:57):
in my old school as I was walking through the hall and
Just really began to talk to him in depth about the world that had gone out gone on without him and
It was such a powerful conversation and the entire time that it was happening
It was just so hard for me to grasp that that could be taking place inside of my head while I was sleeping
(47:19):
Like I was aware that I was in my bed and that none of it was real but
The things that that person his name was jacob was uh saying to me were just
so completely true to himself and
Could have only come from him that I just
Couldn't believe that my own subconscious mind could create the things that he was saying
(47:41):
as if you were like in a
Pocket universe instead of in your mind
Yeah, it's it was it really lent to credibility to the idea of an afterlife
Like walking away from that dream. It was hard not to conclude. I really just talked to my my friend who died and
Man to just tell a little bit about jacob. He was the most singularly brilliant person i've ever met in my entire life like I
(48:06):
there's no one i've ever met who was more poised to change the entire world and
Just to
Hear him speak like it did
There are hard there's like
that there are hard there's no no person I can think of that would have been harder to mimic and
Yes, yeah, I really felt like I spoke to him in that dream
(48:29):
That's amazing. It's absolutely amazing. Also you're uh
You're you're you're studying the human mind from the inside of it and I think that that's amazing as well
um
That's really what it is. You are walking around inside of your own subconscious. It's truly bizarre that it's possible
I didn't used to fully believe that it was
(48:49):
Side note. Have you tried emdr because I find that same
Kind of description would apply to what i'm doing in
Emdr as well is sort of just walking through my subconscious
That's uh, like a hypnosis adjacent, right adjacent now. I wouldn't necessarily call it hypnosis, but there is
(49:10):
Is there it is kind of like going into a state of mind where my defenses against my like to keep me out of my subconscious
are
torn down slowly
They just would have melted away
I actually do have a bit of experience with that. I uh went to a few sessions with a therapist
(49:30):
Probably four or five years ago now
It was useful. Um, it wasn't as useful as psychedelics
well
That's fair for me. Sure. I absolutely I can't condone
Any all of our listeners, uh doing psychedelics, but um, yeah for me
it was a far more effective route for
(49:51):
getting to mental health than
Pharmaceuticals or uh therapy well and the psychedelic thing is
Getting more traction in the medical communities too. So
You know some people it works better some people doesn't
Yeah, those articles are fascinating as well
I did read at least one article about um the psychedelics and I was i've always been fascinated by that because I i'm
(50:18):
completely in love with the human mind
as fallible and silly as it is a lot of the time and so
When we start going outside the realm of you know, everyday experiences then i'm always immensely fascinated
by it
So there were good articles
A few of the articles that I uh didn't mention in my list of favorites that are certainly among my favorites are the ones where I
(50:41):
talk about dmt
um
That as a as a substance just it never stops blowing my mind that it even exists
The experiences i've had with that one are pretty unbelievable
Cool cool cool cool cool cool cool
I was going to ask um what the range of your earnings were from the boost boosted articles, but
(51:01):
uh the more we went through the
Interview the more i'm like, I don't know if that's really the important part
I think
It's interesting information and people might want to know that so if you are willing to talk about it
You can but I don't know that it's necessary to
Because I think the point of being on medium and being a writer in general is to be read and not necessarily
(51:27):
How much money you're going to get from being read?
Yeah, so i'll just leave finances out of it and say that the range is very pretty enormously
I have I have been told that that is true
Um, so last thing is there anything that you are currently working on or anything that you wanted to promote that?
(51:50):
We haven't talked about in the rest of the podcast
Hmm
This has kind of felt like one giant promotion. I
Don't know that I could impose and and point toward anything else
You could also use this time if you wanted to just you know to have this this this
Spotlight for a moment to shout out somebody else that you think is interesting or something that if you think our viewers would would like
(52:13):
To check out or you know publication
Or you could thank your mom or god or whatever to whatever
You want to do really?
Thank you mom. Thank you. Jesus. Thank you
Um, I I definitely would like to give a shout out to
Thought thinkers as a publication in general and some of the amazing contributors that we have cultivated there in the recent months
(52:39):
I've uh
I was uh a little bit reluctant to enter the world of publication owning initially
And it's really turned into a pretty exciting endeavor on medium and i'm i'm glad that I did
Heck yeah, that's awesome
Hold on I need to respond to robin, okay
You did it so um, I think we're probably about
(53:03):
done
Okay, so should I so uh
Thank you
for
Sturge and robin and of course ben for being part of the live recording if you dear listener would like to join in the live recording
Fun, please visit the monster alley.com. You'll you get the spotify links to episodes
(53:26):
Article links merch, etc
But more importantly you can get your invite to the alley's discord server and join us on the stage channel weekly
visit the monster alley.com and
You'll make us super happy if you do
As a bonus, you'll get a thanks at the end of each episode just like this
Heck yeah
And thank you so much for having me
(53:47):
Thank you ben so much for being here and dealing with our unorganized
stuff
Yeah, we were both a little nervous and you made this real simple and we really appreciate that
I really appreciate how conscientious you are too. Um, that's awesome. So thanks
Thank you so much
Uh-huh
So i'm doing the outro now, right? Right? Yes. Yes. Okay, cool
(54:08):
All right. Well, thanks dear listeners and viewers now, uh for coming along on our uh podcast journey
We've appreciated you being here and listening. Um, i'm eternally mortal and I hope you find smiles this day
And i'm the accidental monster. We have just been through an interview with ben you lancy
All three of us can be found on medium.com and follow yourself always
Hi, I'm Tam and I'm eternally mortal and this is the hidden a podcast where we talk about vulnerability
(00:07):
And stuff and things and say your thing Ben real quick and I am Ben you Nancy
Yeah, go ahead. Damn. Sorry. I got I got into it
Today we're listening you're listening to season 4 episode 9 and this week's theme is Ben you Lansy
Mm-hmm our our special guest and first guest on the on the hidden egg podcast Ben you Lansy right around medium
(00:34):
and
Not Kermit the Frog
Definitely. So before before we really get into that
I want to just kind of plug a little bit because I I submitted this article or published this article today
Like literally today as we're recording this
to
Hopefully get people that want to get their articles on here
(00:58):
There's no way that we can possibly read all like hundreds of thousands of articles that are published every day every week, whatever
so
Whatever like if we're not seeing your articles
Find this story and and and do the thing to submit your article
So that we can read it and determine if it fits with our podcast or one of the episodes for season 5
(01:23):
Yep, just a little way to put a line in there if you want it. Check it out. It's pretty cool. Well done, Tam
Okay, so moving on
We're we're talking about Ben you Lansy and I don't know if you noticed but so when I first started like looking through
This list he has this list of his boosted articles
(01:43):
He now has 62 so in the past like few days, he's gotten two more boosted
Yeah, 62 boosted articles in your career on medium Ben
Do you want to like introduce yourself in whatever way you'd like to do so you don't have to if you don't want to I?
Don't have a particularly set way of introducing myself
(02:04):
What do I have in my medium bio? I think it's a fairly good descriptor
Do you mean to read it? That is a word enthusiast who writes about everything from technology politics religion film AI and video games to
dreams drones drugs dogs memoirs and
terrorizing a Floridian with dinosaur costumes
Heck yeah
(02:25):
There was more than one story about that. So I get to officially put it on the list
I missed that one. I'll have to check those two out
That was not one of the ones to get boosted perhaps not unsurprisingly
And I read your story today. Is it okay if I kind of reveal what you wrote in the story from today?
(02:46):
Yeah, absolutely that Ben is now a well he has been for a little while, but he's now openly a boost nominator
Ooh
nominator Ben and with 62 boosted stories in the
Just over a year of the boost program kind of makes sense why he's in that program
Totally get it
(03:08):
Well, I appreciate the kind words
We've obviously know what it takes to be boosted
62 stories like that's that's more than one a week
Well from your perspective Ben, do you feel like you know what it takes to be boosted on medium?
Nowadays? Whenever people ask me
(03:30):
I don't feel as though I can generally do a whole lot better than what medium has already
explained in their
The articles they posted to the medium blog where they introduce it where they there's there's three or four articles now that they've posted where they
Explain specifically what they're looking for
I've been a little bit reluctant to write an article myself to say this is how you get boosted because I don't
(03:52):
Really feel as though I have a whole lot new to provide that conversation
That that's understandable and humble too. And also if you're gonna get uncomfortable with compliments
I hope you're prepared and girded because you're gonna get complimented a lot. I think
Thanks
Side topic. I didn't even notice the Sturge put crisscross in the chat and it made me really smile
(04:14):
That is my childhood right there. That's amazing
And for our listeners, I just want to say we have a new chatter that has joined us
Robin Robin is apparently a an all-star a nobody and a staff pick all at the same time and sounds delightful so far
She wears many
Not to call you out Robin. Hopefully you don't feel too like the spotlight shined on you too much. I just wanted to say hi
(04:39):
One mustache
So do we want to start with the question?
We have or do we have anything else we want to kind of chit chat about beforehand?
Well, I wrote some notes down and like one of the things that really interested me about doing an interview with Ben is
I mean, obviously the 62 stories is kind of a big deal
Obviously, he has something whether he knows what it is or not to tell us is another story
(05:05):
But he's got something down that everybody likes or the medium likes that people like
When I went through and I looked into all of your stories, I'm sorry that probably messed with your stats a little bit
Most of them are five to seven minutes, which is
Standard for what people are saying out. There is like the sweet spot and the longest
(05:27):
There's like two of them. There are 13 minutes
Which is pretty awesome
One of the 13 minute ones I can't take full full credit for
Because it was largely just a conversation that I had with chat GPT when it first became available
And we were just going back and forth talking nonsense, but it was a pretty entertaining story. I will say
(05:49):
I've noticed in going through your articles like most of them the average for
What the boost settles out is like one to two thousand claps and then 50 to 60
Comments is that kind of what you you got a feel for as well?
Sorry, you cut out for a second. Could you repeat that question? Yeah the the
(06:13):
The gen like general
Standard for your boosted articles seems to be that you get about one to two thousand claps and then about 15 to 30 comments
Is that is that a pretty accurate assessment from what you?
That sounds about right. There are certainly some subjects that are a little bit more successful than others
(06:37):
I would say in general with the film pieces
They're not as likely to do as well as a hot-button political topic, right? Yeah, that is true
So, um, I went all the way back all the way back
To your very first one last not this past April but April
two thousand twenty three and
the name of it, oh
(06:59):
Wait, no, we're not gonna do that one because Steve went or mortal wanted to talk about
This one that I didn't write in my notes
Yeah, sorry about that. But yeah, I was just
Tam and I didn't get to the same articles when we were looking through them
And I found the forgotten lives of forgotten phones
Remember that one? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I wanted to put together
(07:20):
In the ones that I read this one was what I determined to be the most vulnerable
you know from my perspective because like you it's
It is incredibly vulnerable to start looking at yourself from the past
There's a lot of people that when they look at themselves 10 20 years ago
They all they see is cringe
They want to just get away from it and stuff like that
And there's other people that just look back with the fondness
(07:41):
But like you looked at the past and you looked at the future and you looked at the future
And you looked at your fondness, but like you looked at your evolution
And I thought that was really insightful
Yeah, that was a really interesting one to put together how that came about for to give people a little bit of context
I had this old iPhone 4 that had been sitting in the bottom of a drawer for the better part of a decade and
(08:07):
I just randomly wondered one time when I was going to get a computer repaired anyway
I was like, oh my god, I don't know if I can do anything with this old phone
and ironically, they were able to repair the phone in only minutes when the computer took them a couple days and
then I had this treasure trove of old
Of this old version of who I used to be to sort through and and that was a really really interesting
(08:32):
There were just tons of memories that I'd completely forgotten about and people that I couldn't remember used to be in my lives and
I was surprised I used to talk and it was like seeing my own voice was very unfamiliar
Yeah. Yeah, and you had changed you had had experiences that like, you know
It changed you in very distinct ways over that time period and so seeing like a completely different version. I
(08:57):
Don't know. It's one of those moments that like I don't think a lot of humans really do don't really get around to
Connecting with their past self in that sort of way. And so I thought it was pretty impactful
But it's just one of our shout outs. We're gonna jump on to a couple other ones
Do you have any final thoughts about that article you wanted to share before we move on?
Yeah, I think that there was another piece that kind of followed from that from what you just mentioned there and it's
(09:22):
fascinating to me one of the things about our digital lives is that we
Have the ability to go back into our past in a way that we didn't used to only 20 or 30 years ago
like my parents and grandparents don't have this
Uncanny glimpse into who they were in middle school and elementary school and specific conversations that they had with specific people
(09:42):
So I brought a follow-up piece on that called
Why we never truly die anymore. I believe was the title I came up with and
Well, actually we're gonna talk about that one more in depth. Oh, okay. Awesome
Sorry Tam didn't mean to skip the script no, no, you're fine. I love it. Okay
(10:05):
But yeah, I actually did make that connection as well that's that's awesome
But well, I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna cut you off for a little bit because we're gonna talk about that pretty in
depth towards the end of I think the
Cast okay sounds good to me
awesome
Yes, I actually before for a second there
Do what didn't mean to dominate the floor for a second there. I mean you are you're welcome to you're the way today
(10:28):
Not like we're walking on you or anything. No, not like sorry. You're you're all the things on the floor. Are you?
the floor
Yeah, exactly
No, but like this was one that was within the range of like your normal boosted things
And so I had to like 60 at the time 60 articles
(10:48):
I just could not figure out like how am I gonna figure out what to talk about?
So I just anything that was in this standard like normal range. I was like I'm gonna leave that to
mortal to maybe
Do what he does and and pick out what interests him and I'll go I'll go to the outliers. So
(11:10):
This one's actually a normal one, too
But it was your very first one which makes it an outlier all of its own
the religious disconnect
and and I
I hastily read them. I'll be honest. I didn't like go in depth on on any of them, but I did wonder
What made you?
(11:30):
Get so vulnerable like where how did you come up with the personal stories and
Beliefs and opinions that you used for this particular
article
One one thing I should first mention I
didn't begin compiling the lists until a couple months after I
(11:53):
the program was a
Thing on medium didn't come up with a better way to say that
But um, so so the the order for those first few isn't entirely accurate
The first piece that I had picked up was actually the one on AI porn, but
More than more than happy to talk about this one still
That's so that is funny. I didn't even notice that we were talking about that. That's the next one. We'll talk about too. So I
(12:18):
Have the date for that too. I just didn't realize in my brain that it was before
the date for this
It's a largely chronological. I've mostly added them as they come in. So you're not crazy for thinking that
But to answer your other question didn't mean to go on that
Second there
(12:41):
There were a few religious pieces that came out of a very specific
Experience where there was this woman. I knew all throughout elementary school middle school high school
Who was just truly one of the the kindest people that I'd ever met in my life
and there were very few people who knew her that would have told you different and then
(13:01):
Suddenly
There's this there's this spiritual transition
After high school for her where she began talking about
tarot and astrology and and crystals and whatnot and
It was harmless and innocuous and coming from a good place and then a couple years after that
He began to talk about how
Everyone who does yoga or is involved in any spiritual practice or type of stretching is going to hell
(13:28):
And anyone who hasn't discovered Christianity is going to hell
and anyone who hasn't discovered Christianity is going to hell
so I uh
had a
bit of a
I was I was pretty angry at religion itself at that point and there's there are still moments where I
Feel like religion has taken people from me. She's not the only person who uh
(13:52):
Became religious and then I feel as though it was a
Worst person in a lot of regards afterwards
Yeah, I've I've had an experience like that as well. It's and I
Should and I should clarify that I don't feel that it's religion. That's always going to make people into a worse person
I've certainly watched the opposite happen too
but um, it's
(14:14):
I think that there's a curtailing of critical thought that goes into faith-based thinking that I've always had issues with
Yeah religion religion is like a knife
You know you can use it for good or you can use it for bad like it
It's not inherently. Yeah, either one
But it's the wielder of it that really determines what what's going to happen with it
(14:37):
And the stories can be useful and they can make people into better people and they're
It's there's certainly no use in in saying all religion is bad all the time
Right, but there are a lot of examples where it it turns
in that direction
Yeah
Yeah, absolutely and this specific article that you wrote then has a conversation that like i've imagined having
(15:03):
Dozens of times that i've seen like, you know
played out in in certain like
Atheist youtube channels in certain regards a couple of times as well
And I was I was amazed with how you tackle like even just the recounting of the certain aspects of that conversation where you brought up
Specifics and real like actual scientific everyone. I know that actually argues these topics. They never come prepared including me
(15:29):
I'm always like there's data and they're like show me and i'm like fuck
Yeah, it can be hard in the moment and I think that it's useful sometimes to have conversations
Over text and in an online medium where you can actually at least have a little bit of time to verbalize your thoughts
But in the moment, I don't typically do
uh incredibly in religious debates, especially if it's if there's any uh,
(15:52):
Ganging up situation or anything? Oh, yeah, absolutely. I totally understand. I hate that feeling both ways actually
Yeah
so
Since this was something that was really personal that happened to you
Would you say that you were intending?
Controversy I can't say the word controversy
(16:12):
um or or or were you just sort of
Blundering into a controversial topic because of something personal that had happened to you
Religion is always one of those points where i've been willing to challenge controversy. I was uh
that annoying kid in high school who would have religious debates on facebook all the time and
(16:36):
I definitely annoyed people with that but I think that it was a precursor to
Some of the articles that I ultimately wrote on the subject so I don't regret being that annoying atheist
Now I see where we get along
I was also that kid. Yeah. I watched a whole lot of uh,
(17:00):
religious debates on youtube with like christopher hitchens and
Richard dockens and I think that they
Colored my argument a bit more than i'm proud of and I would be a little bit too pretentious on the subject sometimes
I think i've gradually gotten a bit better of a voice in addressing that because
At least now I do as an adult feel as though there's
(17:23):
Some spiritual truth to what's going on in the universe even if it's not
Something that's described in the bible or the quran, but I don't quite feel as though it's uh
I used to believe that there was no such thing as any supernatural or paranormal activity when I was younger
Hmm. Yeah understood
I uh, there's a oh, I can't remember his name. There's an australian musical comedian that I
(17:48):
I really like even though he's so far to the side of um, you know
No such thing as metaphysical things that it's sometimes that's tim mentioned exactly. Thank you
Um so far that sometimes even the things the things that he says i'm like, yeah, but there's something man
It's okay to believe in stuff just for funsies
But sometimes not okay to believe in stuff for funsies. That's you know, some people get into christianity that frivolously
(18:12):
And then all of a sudden they're down a road that they're not
They're not accepting the people in their lives
They're rejecting everyone around them because everyone's going to hell unless you believe my personal conception of what it takes to heaven
And it's it's really sad
And there's this popular notion that all religions are created equally and and we need to respect them all the same
(18:34):
But there are religions that if you follow the literal word of the doctrine are going to take you to a peaceful place
And then there are religions that if you follow the literal words, you're going to
jihadist suicide bomb people
right, right
so yeah, so I don't really feel as though it's uh
A subject that we can address with a a broad stroke
(18:58):
true
But we could talk about it all day
No, yeah, absolutely. It's a fun one
On that note, i'm gonna push us to move on because like otherwise, I know i'm just gonna get
Into the religious debate and that's not what we're here for
We're here for you ben
Yep
And not then is our religious sturgis trying to start shit in the comments. I just want to point it out
(19:22):
I don't know if anybody's been listening or watching what's what's going on there, but uh
I'm reacting to a lot. Oh, I miss that one though
Okay, so then then there was the next one which is ironically the first one the artificial intelligence pornography
artificial intelligence pornography and a brave new world
(19:45):
Which was an insane outlier. I think this one did the best out of all of them from what I could see
And it was before I discovered the oxford comma, which is a point of shame for me ironic
So, yeah, that was that was my most successful article that i've posted on medium
6.6 thousand claps and 129 comments. That's huge
(20:09):
huge
so this one I I didn't
I don't know if I really grasped what it was about but I
I could tell that it it exposed other vulnerabilities and I was wondering if that was your intention
of like showing how
how these knew and you know the ai and everything and it it it exposes our
(20:33):
Our susceptibility to to being vulnerable in a broader sense or if that was
Something that I just read into
I think that technology has been a unique opportunity to
write vulnerably
and oftentimes what i've seen in the past is that people when approaching
(20:55):
new apple products or or
new ai they do it with this very dense and technical language
and
It's very hard for me to not look at each of these new product unveilings through a more emotional and philosophical lens
so
with uh
when when ai first came out I
(21:17):
Very much was looking at it from a how is this going to affect society going forward perspective rather than uh
These are the literal things that chat gpt does here's how many?
parameters and data points it's built off of because I don't really feel as though that
Matters as much to uh at least to the common person yeah, not to the debate that you are addressing
(21:41):
Yeah
Yeah, because people don't want to know like what the parameters are or why it does what it does how it does what it does
They want to know how it's going to affect them
Yeah
And that's a yeah, and that was discussion
Yeah, that was a really uh fascinating time when the ai porn generators first
came out
(22:02):
I uh
Went into one of the stories a little bit in the article. There was this twitch streamer who
got caught
with uh ai generated porn open in one of their tabs of a of another popular twitch streamer
And that was one of the big incidents that brought the conversation into public light
Yep, that'll do it. Yeah, I remember that
(22:24):
I don't I don't remember who it is or anything like that and i'm highly curious
But I don't want to ask because i'm not a fan of doxing of any sort so I don't remember who it was either
But I I remember it kind of sweeping
the
Easy enough news to find I don't feel like uh, there's any harm in
Discussing these public figures. It was uh
(22:44):
Brandon atrioc, I think it was uh
Qt cinderella. I actually don't uh watch twitch myself
It was qt cinder. Oh my gosh. I wow
Wow, why?
Not that qt is delightful. Um, but she's the type of person that will absolutely 100 take offense to that sort of thing
(23:05):
Yeah, if someone had amaranth up on their screen
I don't think amaranth would really like bat an eye at that
That's madness. Okay. I'm sorry. I don't mean to derail. I do know a little bit about I don't know the dude you're talking about
That's a name i'm not familiar with
I think one of the things that most distinguished my perspective on the subject at that time was that
Many people were taking the perspective on that. Oh my god. How could you use this porn generator to to
(23:32):
Create an image of this person you know, who's a porn star
And I couldn't help but taking a step back and just feeling as though
We're not able to wield these tools responsibly and we shouldn't expect ourselves to
It really isn't all that long ago that we were cavemen sitting around fire and now we're demagnizing each other for
(23:54):
apps that generate porn based on
Commands that you type in and then you type in
apps that generate porn based on commands that you type into your computer so I
I feel for qt cinderella in in
Whatever
Emotional trauma that might have put her through and there's a part of me that feels for brandon h reoc too in
(24:20):
using this
Software that could have never been conceived of only a few years prior
Right. Absolutely. That's what I really liked about your article actually was like it was it was almost a sociological
view of how this affects the species and if I remember correctly you have an article or two that kind of
It touches on the same sort of point, you know
Like how how much having a computer with all with that?
(24:44):
Well, I remember you put in one or two articles like all of human knowledge just floating in the air around us
You know what I mean?
like
Thanks, I've
Looked for various ways to
state that same line and i've not been able to do much better than
the entirety of human knowledge floating through the air around us, but it's
(25:07):
Hard to uh hyperbolize that much more than what it literally is, right?
It's a good line. I really like it
And I don't think anybody else is going to deep dive all of your articles like I do like I tend to read all of everything
Kind of quickly all at once but um, but yeah
I thought it was a really good sociological view because you're absolutely right that like
Like i'm a huge big super fan of consent. Like when someone's consent is taken away. I get pretty upset about it
(25:33):
It makes me sad. I wish that we didn't feel like we had to do that
But do I understand that if everyone had the ability to just make an ai?
Make everyone that they wanted to sleep with on their screen
Doing stuff then they absolutely there's a bunch of people that absolutely would and there's nothing I can do to stop that
And so it's a view of what is the reality and where we can hope to get to but just the just the realization that like
(26:00):
The the expansion of what humans are now capable of has exploded in a way that none of us comprehend
And we're not going to understand for decades probably
Yeah, I mean
Yeah, people really just need to accept that we are walking into the time where people can have put on a helmet and have a realistic conversation
(26:20):
with an ai girlfriend or boyfriend it's
Bizarre that these are the times that we're living in but we should be more sympathetic with ourselves and not
Be so quick to demonize people for what is a little more than thought crime
Yeah
Yep, yep
I'm not overriding you over there. Am I tam? No, no, no, no, no
(26:42):
I was trying to react to sturg in that moment. No, um, but this this whole
The what I see so I I like to try to keep it to the the vulnerability theme and i'm noticing that like
When I was writing the notes, I didn't notice it before but i'm noticing that what you do ben
Is you don't take your vulnerabilities and share them with the world you take a vulnerability that the world has
(27:07):
And share your insight about it
Does that sound about right to you?
And I never thought of it that way but that is an interesting way of looking at it. I think you're right
Because I mean I we're talking about this one and it it's definitely like a vulnerability that the world has
And then yeah, moving on to the next one the why we never truly die anymore
(27:29):
It's also this was out of all of them that I was able to read this one was my favorite
Yeah, i'm really proud of that one i'm glad you liked it
And it it has the same I think this might be where you said that you know
We have all the data all around us all the time or something like that
And because that's basically what it is like we we are leaving our virtual footprints
(27:54):
And it's not a footprint. It's like ghosts of us
Mm-hmm that will never never really have to die unless society dies or unless we need to delete that but it doesn't have to and that's
That's a scary premise of
You know what a hundred years from now? What what are they going to think when they come across?
(28:16):
You know a personal video one of these podcasts and it's it's a it's a very different line of
Thinking than any other generation has had in the in the past
Oh, yeah, it's and there are very few people who can't relate to having
some dead person in some friend list and
Being able to go to their wall and and see them type with their icon as though it's
(28:41):
as though it's still today and
Yeah, there's just something truly eerie about the way that we're uh preserved in our app
And our conversations yeah, where did you get the?
Sorry, you can go ahead. It's just a quick side note
I love the fact that it started with a game cube memory card. That just makes me super happy
(29:02):
What if I'm I know I was gonna ask like where did you get the inspiration to put those specific anecdotes?
Because you could have started in a in in literally an infinite number of places
but you chose to start with the the nintendo memory card and then like you you went on and
Had that same theme throughout the whole
(29:23):
The whole deal so i'm just wondering where where the inspiration came from I guess
I think that that memory card was actually uh
A bit of a core memory for me you have you guys seen inside out?
Yes, we have yes
I really enjoy that concept. I think about that a lot, but um, yeah my dog who I I no longer have
(29:47):
chewed up that memory card and it literally contained
Four megabytes and at that time period when it was chewed up it felt like it was the
absolute end of the world like oh my god my data and
Not not only did it live to to see another day and still
functions 20 years later, but just to think about how much I was able to care about a thing like that then and how
(30:15):
Exponentially, it's grown since then
I think we do actually have like 30 year old memory cards for ps1 and ps2
And some of those just contain kilobytes. Yeah. Yeah, uh-huh
But they they're memories trapped in time of games that we were in the middle of playing
Or that we finished playing just sitting around
(30:37):
Yeah, even something as simple as playing an rpg or loading up an rpg file from 1994 and seeing what you named the characters
Is enough to be like holy fuck
You know
Yeah, and it's not all that infrequent that you'll hear people talk about the
Sheer sums of data that we traffic in but I don't know
I had never really heard people talk about the data that we traffic in
(30:59):
but I don't know I had never really heard people talk about the like vast accumulation of all the devices that are
still sitting around and every memory card and every
st cards and
Whatnot from the last 20 30 years just all infinitely piling on top of itself. It's just a strange thing to think about this sheer numbers that we uh
(31:22):
We've achieved at this point
Absolutely. I would what I liked the most about this article was that you started off with something somewhat light
I know at the time when the memory card happened, it was like an enormous deal
but at this point you can kind of look back and be like well
there are there's a lot more other things that like
comparatively, this is a
(31:44):
child's worst nightmare, but an adult not so much so
Adding it in is sort of like a light-hearted
story, but then you get real like you slowly go into
deeper concepts like the digital graveyard and what's what that's going to mean for people who are actually dead
Like what they're leaving behind is is kind of
(32:06):
I don't know. It's just a perspective that I don't know that many of us even think about
Yeah, I'm I feel as though I'm like constantly entrenched in the whole philosophical side of this and
It's it's annoying sometimes to
Whenever there's a new technological innovation people just get excited. Oh my god, did you hear this can do this and
(32:29):
I'm like meanwhile just brooding in a corner like yeah, but what does this represent for our future?
Yeah, yeah, absolutely you're the you're the guy that um when someone's like
Oh, we can generate so much energy when we split an atom. You're like guys. I don't know if we should yeah. Yeah, yeah
I like to think i'm a voice of caution
(32:49):
Yeah
Yeah
Absolutely. I think it's a great I think it's great to have those voices and the
There's a lot of people out there that'll just like be unhappy with change and just like him and haw about it
But like you you think about it you put the at the details you you you look at the angles you
You know bang the corners as I like to say and I think that that's a great a great perspective to have
(33:12):
from my perspective, thank you
So i'm gonna skip around a little bit in my notes
And kind of skip past way and we'll come back to what I had next
Because I want to I want to talk about the two that did like had the least results
And see what your thoughts were about it. Both of them were about
(33:35):
movies
I believe
Yeah, loki and well loki's a show but they're they're both about media
And they didn't do very well like loki season two
muddled multiversal and still awesome only got like 420 claps, which
Still a great number and seven comments
(33:58):
Even though it was boosted it just didn't seem to to go anywhere
Do you have any insight on why because it's not the only
media article that you've written
Yeah, it is a bit of a misconception that
Boosts automatically equates to success
I think that uh, there's an algorithmic component to it as well
(34:19):
And if a piece gets boosted and then isn't performing spectacularly then it kind of just slowly fizzles out and
Gets you up to that 500 views, but no more and
Yeah, it's more or less
Just fizzled out at that point and uh, yeah, you're you're right that it is media articles that that's more likely to happen with my uh
(34:42):
Smash Brothers article recently didn't perform all that well. Um
Yeah, there were there were a couple like that
I've definitely a recurrent theme though is the film articles that are the most successful are the ones that
actually touch on some personal
or
social uh
thing going on for example, my uh, don't look up review and the uh
(35:06):
Movie Civil War that came out recently were both uh touched on some hot button subjects
So you don't see it because I was gonna ask. Um, I don't know how well Loki
Did in in its views in its ratings?
But I was wondering if the success of the show or movie had anything to do with the success of your article about it
(35:27):
It sounds like it doesn't
You know, I never actually asked myself that um, I I saw it got boosted
I was surprised to see it get boosted. I was unsurprised to not see it go anywhere
Yeah, and and honestly like
So the other one was the swiss army man and the beauty in unexpected places
(35:47):
I wasn't surprised that it didn't do as well as the other articles
But I was saddened that it didn't do as well because
It is such a great movie, but I know that it was under sold
I I didn't even know about it until like six months ago
And it's been out for like a like a decade. I think
(36:10):
I didn't even know about it until six seconds ago. Sorry go on. No, I just saying I didn't know about it until six seconds ago
That's a new one for me. I didn't pay attention to that part of the notes. Technically. We told you about it
It is on the server
So, you know, i've told you about it and we've recommended it to you
It's it's the one with um, daniel radcliffe in it that he's a dead guy
(36:32):
Oh, okay. Say no more. Please continue. Please continue
Ben you're saying yeah
Yeah, I saw everything everywhere all at once before that, uh, which was the two directors later project
And only knew about this one as a concept
But it wasn't until just a few weeks ago that I watched it
Myself and I think I kind of like it a little bit more than everything ever all at once in some regards. It's definitely
(36:57):
simpler and less bloated and a little bit more macabre but
Uh, it's a pretty great movie I would I would certainly recommend people watch that one, but it's a
Not for everyone not for everyone. Yeah, i'm not really sure about the ending myself, but it is a great movie
Otherwise, i'm in love with dan radcliffe. So absolutely
(37:21):
Um, I think he's a phenomenal actor that has done really really really interesting roles, especially after he got out, you know of the harry potter thing
Um, so yeah, I i'll definitely check that one out and then i'll read your article
I definitely didn't read the loki article because I do a plan on watching loki at some point. I like the character a lot
Yeah, I enjoyed the show it wasn't uh, my favorite marvel show
(37:44):
But there were a lot of good things going for it. Yeah, did you ever see everything ever all at once?
My favorite streamer talks about that movie constantly because it's it's their favorite movie
And I want to watch it. I just never really sat down to figure out how to go about watching it. But
You saying it's also amazing. It is pretty indicative
(38:05):
I mean you said it wasn't quite that swiss armand was a bit better and that's
Interesting to hear because I thought that swiss army man looked really good, but they both are movies. I want to see
The reason I bring up everything everywhere again is just because uh, I think the actor's name is ki hai kwan
Is in both and it's as though they told him to just
(38:26):
Simply reprise his role from everything ever all at once again loki and
Having loved that role the first time I was glad to see him back
Oh nice, he had a different name and he was a little bit more of a
Oh nice, he had a different name and he wasn't explicitly the same person, but they were just too similar to ignore it
So I should probably watch them in that order then everything everywhere and then swiss army man
(38:50):
Um
I don't really see that it matters. They're not
Related, uh, okay. All right, swiss army men did come out first. I think every everything ever all all at once is more ambitious
Um, yeah, they're both great. I enjoyed them a lot. They're among my all-time favorites
Star just saying we should ask you about wah-wah
(39:12):
Um, well that's to say about wah-wah they they're open 24 hours a day in my area
What is wah-wah wonderful wonderful food? You don't even know about wah-wah. No, are you in a sheet? Are you in a sheets region?
What the hell is sheets?
We have sheets on our bed
Uh-huh beds sheets and while are considered the two rivals. I'm not sure their exact geography
(39:35):
but uh, yeah sheets I I have only been to a handful of times they're not in my area i'm a wah-wah region myself
and yeah, it's just like a
picture like a
gas station
but it's just like loaded with snacks and there's like a touchscreen for you to order meals and milkshakes that are
Very hit or miss but those times where they hit it's like fuck. Yeah, I just got a bang up meal at four in the morning
(40:01):
sounds like quick trip
Sounds like sounds like a uh, uh, uh, different quick trip
Well, it sounds like piggly wiggly mixed with quick trip, but we don't have piggly wiggly here
So I don't know. I don't know what you're talking about. Piggly wiggly. I don't know anything about that
I know because you don't you've never come with me on on
Extended vacations with my family
Yeah, it's it's piggly wiggly is not in the south. So I don't know if you're talking about piggly wiggly or not
(40:26):
That's more of a north thing. I think there are probably some in the south too. They're in a weird place
They don't have a region
I'm glad that me and robin don't have any idea what you people are talking about
That that makes me feel comfortable. I also do not know
So moving on
Um, you've so you've written about so you've like you've said you've written about so many things
(40:50):
I wrote down that you've you know, you've got articles about suicide israel and palestine
You've also got media and and sillier articles
What subjects do you notice do best with or without the boost?
I would say pretty plainly especially in 2024 that politics is the best performing subject
(41:13):
And technology would be probably a second behind that
Okay, which article what
Technology article was the one that performed the best overall
um
Yeah, they're both very hot button subjects like when if the right article on ai is going to perform spectacularly
(41:34):
What are you prefer to write about though?
Yeah
It certainly is
It certainly isn't the ai and political pieces that are my favorite to write. Um, they are draining. Um
I feel as though like I just don't always have something new to provide to the conversation
(41:54):
Like i'm amazed that i've come up with seven or eight political pieces that each justify their existence
um
and with with ai articles, I feel like
there's a lot of
really dense information that I need to bring people up to speed on with each article and
Yeah, that's that's never fun. I I don't enjoy that side of the of
(42:16):
Any piece really the the researching?
Me neither. I'm right there with you, but it's a necessary tactic for certain articles, especially
politics
and tech so
Those are the big ones
I would I would say that my favorite to write about are uh,
(42:36):
Just like the most fun like i'll actually like be laughing at my own humor like a jackass while writing them sometimes
Um
Memoirs are are really rewarding. They can they can be draining in the same way as politics, but uh,
They can help you through things sometimes
I think those few pieces that i've written about losing my dog were not only the most vulnerable
(42:58):
Or vulnerable pieces that i've ever shared to medium but helped me to process it and to accept it
That's awesome
So it's like the the dream leads to a catharsis sorry, yeah, exactly over you we said the same thing. It's fine
Um, do you have a very cathartic component to a lot of memoirs?
(43:19):
Do you have a favorite article out of all of the ones you've written?
Like I don't know how many you've written, but it's a lot
Um
I think that the articles that I have pinned to the top of my profile
Apart from my my bio just gives people a bullet point intro on who I am
Are are generally a pretty good indicator on
(43:40):
my favorites, um a lot of the
personal ones, uh where I talked about my dog like I just mentioned were
Definitely among my favorites another one that was uh, I felt
Underappreciated from a couple months ago was a piece about the experience of being an only child
I didn't expect that one to bring so much out of me and
(44:01):
How many emotions that I still had invested in that subject and
Writing that I really realized myself like just how much of an impact that had on who I was as a person and some of the
grander implications of being only child that you don't consider when you're younger and just worried about
Hey, I don't have to share with a sibling. Yay. All right
(44:22):
right
Exactly. It takes a while to really get the whole scope of that
Yeah
I had a little bit of both worlds. I was an only child for nine years and then I had four brothers and sisters
That's interesting. Yeah, you definitely did get the best of both worlds
I don't know. I think I got the worst of both worlds really
The grass is always greener
(44:43):
I mean I was I was an only child for 11 years and then my sister was born
I was an only child for 11 years and then my sister was adopted and um, and I'm adopted too. So
it just took 11 years for my parents to get around to the next one, but uh,
so I didn't get to have only childish long enough to be able to
See it in that light. And so
I just kind of felt like I was on my own in a lot of ways for the first 11 years
(45:07):
I haven't read your only child article. I should probably do that at some point. It sounds interesting. I bet I'd relate to some bits
Yeah, what was the name of that one?
Uh what I learned from being an only child
Not my best title, but I that was uh
Yeah, it was a personal one
Descriptive. Sturge has a request
(45:28):
What's that?
Mention your lucid dreaming pieces. They deserve more attention. Sturge likes your dream pieces
Yeah, I I agree. Um, they've they're some of the very most fun to write
I've almost even felt like I've had to shy away from them because they're
so much less popular and so much harder to generate an interest in but
(45:49):
uh
To give people a brief description on those I started to lucid dream a couple years ago
Which is when you take control of your your dream
While it's happening you become consciously aware of the fact that you're dreaming and can exert that
Some level of control over the narrative as it's playing out
um
And in those lucid dreaming pieces, I basically just
(46:12):
Tell the stories of my amateur experiences exploring that process
and
I can't hype enough how much of an amateur I am at this like there are truly so many better people to
learn about this from but
Even as an amateur
It's hard to overstate how utterly fascinating these experiences have been for me and how
(46:35):
Cathartic also that some of them have been for me like i've had
lucid dreams
One of the most powerful for me and one of the pieces that I it was probably one of the
First 10 or 15 pieces that I wrote on medium
was about a
friend I had who committed suicide eight years ago and
I saw him in my dream encountered him
(46:57):
in my old school as I was walking through the hall and
Just really began to talk to him in depth about the world that had gone out gone on without him and
It was such a powerful conversation and the entire time that it was happening
It was just so hard for me to grasp that that could be taking place inside of my head while I was sleeping
(47:19):
Like I was aware that I was in my bed and that none of it was real but
The things that that person his name was jacob was uh saying to me were just
so completely true to himself and
Could have only come from him that I just
Couldn't believe that my own subconscious mind could create the things that he was saying
(47:41):
as if you were like in a
Pocket universe instead of in your mind
Yeah, it's it was it really lent to credibility to the idea of an afterlife
Like walking away from that dream. It was hard not to conclude. I really just talked to my my friend who died and
Man to just tell a little bit about jacob. He was the most singularly brilliant person i've ever met in my entire life like I
(48:06):
there's no one i've ever met who was more poised to change the entire world and
Just to
Hear him speak like it did
There are hard there's like
that there are hard there's no no person I can think of that would have been harder to mimic and
Yes, yeah, I really felt like I spoke to him in that dream
(48:29):
That's amazing. It's absolutely amazing. Also you're uh
You're you're you're studying the human mind from the inside of it and I think that that's amazing as well
um
That's really what it is. You are walking around inside of your own subconscious. It's truly bizarre that it's possible
I didn't used to fully believe that it was
(48:49):
Side note. Have you tried emdr because I find that same
Kind of description would apply to what i'm doing in
Emdr as well is sort of just walking through my subconscious
That's uh, like a hypnosis adjacent, right adjacent now. I wouldn't necessarily call it hypnosis, but there is
(49:10):
Is there it is kind of like going into a state of mind where my defenses against my like to keep me out of my subconscious
are
torn down slowly
They just would have melted away
I actually do have a bit of experience with that. I uh went to a few sessions with a therapist
(49:30):
Probably four or five years ago now
It was useful. Um, it wasn't as useful as psychedelics
well
That's fair for me. Sure. I absolutely I can't condone
Any all of our listeners, uh doing psychedelics, but um, yeah for me
it was a far more effective route for
(49:51):
getting to mental health than
Pharmaceuticals or uh therapy well and the psychedelic thing is
Getting more traction in the medical communities too. So
You know some people it works better some people doesn't
Yeah, those articles are fascinating as well
I did read at least one article about um the psychedelics and I was i've always been fascinated by that because I i'm
(50:18):
completely in love with the human mind
as fallible and silly as it is a lot of the time and so
When we start going outside the realm of you know, everyday experiences then i'm always immensely fascinated
by it
So there were good articles
A few of the articles that I uh didn't mention in my list of favorites that are certainly among my favorites are the ones where I
(50:41):
talk about dmt
um
That as a as a substance just it never stops blowing my mind that it even exists
The experiences i've had with that one are pretty unbelievable
Cool cool cool cool cool cool cool
I was going to ask um what the range of your earnings were from the boost boosted articles, but
(51:01):
uh the more we went through the
Interview the more i'm like, I don't know if that's really the important part
I think
It's interesting information and people might want to know that so if you are willing to talk about it
You can but I don't know that it's necessary to
Because I think the point of being on medium and being a writer in general is to be read and not necessarily
(51:27):
How much money you're going to get from being read?
Yeah, so i'll just leave finances out of it and say that the range is very pretty enormously
I have I have been told that that is true
Um, so last thing is there anything that you are currently working on or anything that you wanted to promote that?
(51:50):
We haven't talked about in the rest of the podcast
Hmm
This has kind of felt like one giant promotion. I
Don't know that I could impose and and point toward anything else
You could also use this time if you wanted to just you know to have this this this
Spotlight for a moment to shout out somebody else that you think is interesting or something that if you think our viewers would would like
(52:13):
To check out or you know publication
Or you could thank your mom or god or whatever to whatever
You want to do really?
Thank you mom. Thank you. Jesus. Thank you
Um, I I definitely would like to give a shout out to
Thought thinkers as a publication in general and some of the amazing contributors that we have cultivated there in the recent months
(52:39):
I've uh
I was uh a little bit reluctant to enter the world of publication owning initially
And it's really turned into a pretty exciting endeavor on medium and i'm i'm glad that I did
Heck yeah, that's awesome
Hold on I need to respond to robin, okay
You did it so um, I think we're probably about
(53:03):
done
Okay, so should I so uh
Thank you
for
Sturge and robin and of course ben for being part of the live recording if you dear listener would like to join in the live recording
Fun, please visit the monster alley.com. You'll you get the spotify links to episodes
(53:26):
Article links merch, etc
But more importantly you can get your invite to the alley's discord server and join us on the stage channel weekly
visit the monster alley.com and
You'll make us super happy if you do
As a bonus, you'll get a thanks at the end of each episode just like this
Heck yeah
And thank you so much for having me
(53:47):
Thank you ben so much for being here and dealing with our unorganized
stuff
Yeah, we were both a little nervous and you made this real simple and we really appreciate that
I really appreciate how conscientious you are too. Um, that's awesome. So thanks
Thank you so much
Uh-huh
So i'm doing the outro now, right? Right? Yes. Yes. Okay, cool
(54:08):
All right. Well, thanks dear listeners and viewers now, uh for coming along on our uh podcast journey
We've appreciated you being here and listening. Um, i'm eternally mortal and I hope you find smiles this day
And i'm the accidental monster. We have just been through an interview with ben you lancy
All three of us can be found on medium.com and follow yourself always
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