Dear Hank & John - 347: The Ultimate Stalemate, Emotionally (w/ Mark Watson!)

Episode Date: October 17, 2022

Could you break out of a giant pickle? How do you balance gratitude? How do I pretend I know what someone's talking about? How do I be more understanding of reply anxiety? How do I handle people who don't like Rocky Horror? How do I correct someone's pronunciation? Hank Green and Mark Watson have answers! If you're in need of dubious advice, email us at [e-mail] us for monthly livestreams and an exclusive weekly podcast at patreon.com/dearhankandjohn.Follow us on Twitter! twitter.com/dearhankandjohn

Hello and welcome to Dear Hank and John. Or is that it? Think of it? Dear Mark Watson and Hank. It's a podcast where two brothers and sometimes a brother and a friend give you advice, answer your questions and bring you all the week's news from both Mars and AFC Wimbledon. Today I'm here with Mark Watson, Mark did you know that two vegetarians can never argue because they're not allowed to have beef. I don't think that's that bad.

Okay. I'm kind of disappointed by how little I'm cringing. Oh, okay. Well, you're a professional comedian, so you would know. So I guess the thing is I've also am a dad, so I probably have developed a kind of imperviousness to dad jokes now. Like, I'm kind of the dad, so I probably have developed a kind of imperviousness to dad jokes now. Like I'm kind of the target, wouldn't?

You're in it. I'm in it. How, what kind of children do you have? I have 12 year old boy and an eight year old girl. So I'm now in a very poor position to judge whether a joke is good, because everything I do is embarrassing to them anyway. Oh no, that happens that quickly.

Well, yeah, but I don't even say that with too much regret. I think it's kind of, I don't think it's embarrassing in the way that they experience as bad. I think it's just an expected part of the territory, basically. Right. And at least being a comedian is cool for a while. They'll come a point where they're actively resistant to it, but that point hasn't come yet. Okay, good.

So I am aware of your work just by being aware of the British comedy scene, which I enjoy very much. So thank you for coming on to our weird podcast. Well, thank you. I was surprised you were aware of who it was. And I also have to say, obviously, I've listened to the podcast, but I'm not normally party to all of the questions

that come through. Yeah, yeah, we sent, we sent Mark the whole doc. A lot of people don't even look. You've seen, you've looked it all of the time. I loved, yeah, I read several dozen questions. And the, the inquisitiveness and just the fun of them was, I mean, I'm not a surprise to you, but it's a, yeah, you've got a great listener base there.

Hello everyone. It is fantastic and I feel it is the thing that makes the podcast work. So I was, we recently did a charity event, like a fundraiser and at the end, one of the people who was there came up to me and brought me her list of every question she's ever sent to Dear Hank and John.

Amazing. It was an Excel spreadsheet and it also marked whether we had answered it them or not. There was, I would say, 150 questions and we had answered four. That's extraordinary. I love the idea, but I'm also unsurprised by the idea that one of your listeners would have such a spreadsheet. Adds another one to it every time. That's amazing. Those, I wonder whether she

considered the four questions better than the other ones or did she just get lucky or in it? I did what I said was that seems like a pretty good rate to me and she agreed. Good. And she wasn't there to complain about that 146. And then, but I should have asked, what do you think that we picked the good ones? That's a great question. Yeah, it would be kind of what we call in this country, so it's law, if it wasn't even questioned,

she was that bothered about, which did make the great. Because in the same way that sometimes a tweet gets far more attention than you could have imagined and you think, why that one? That one of the times? Why that one? It's all the times. Yeah. Why that one?

It was a spelling mistake and that one you idiot. Now I'm known for that stupid thought that I had. Now I'm the guy that made one joke about a goldfish. I'm the rest of my canon of work as irrelevant. Yeah. Well, at least now I can edit tweets, which is new for me, because I pay. I pay for it. I pay for it. I pay for it. I pay for it. Which means that I can get tweets, which is new for me, because I pay, I pay for it. I pay for it. Twitter blue, which means that I can get in there.

I didn't know that was a thing. If I do something wrong, for 30 minutes, I can make a fix. So I'm off the rails now. No one's in control. You must just be tweeting all kinds of racist stuff, knowing it only ever have a 30 minute shelf life. Well, it does keep the edit history. So they can see what you want to tweet it.

Right, and of course people will always be able to screen shot stuff after one second, I suppose. But also, screen shots can always be faked, and I remember I keep that in mind, because I often see faked screenshots. Wow, I guess it would have occurred to me, but that's another level of, I go, we'll put a lot of energy into Twitter, aren't we? Yeah, people make fun of me for paying for Twitter with money, but I pay way more with my mental health

and time and attention. So for sure, that seems like a good trade off. Dare I ask, can anyone have Twitter blue or is it available above a certain kind of fame level? Or anyone can have it with, in, I don't think it's available in every country. No, I don't think I've heard of that. It's available to anybody who wants to pay.

I mean, in the country's where it's available. I don't have a particularly bad history with, like I would mostly use it just for... Typos. Changing spelling mistakes, yeah. That's what I have it for. Again, I believe that's a good use of money, yeah. Yep.

It's removing grammatical errors from the history. I got, I went deep on how the edit actually, like the moment I got access to editing my own tweets. Yeah, bad. After years of wanting it, I just, I figured out every single way that it works and doesn't work, which was maybe a little much, but you won't know what you're paying for. Well, interestingly, if you read, if you like quote tweet or retweet a tweet before I edit it, it stays the old tweet, which I think is really good way of doing it.

So if you retweet my old tweet that has a typo and it keeps the typo in your retweet, it will always be there even after you have edited it. That's right, I see. But then it says like this tweet has been edited and you can see the more recent version of the tweet. That seems like quite a good compromise because people's reservation about the edit function

is that people could dishonestly change, you know. And then I've like quote tweeted something terrible. Not the thing I thought was great. Yeah, that makes complete sense actually. Yeah, this seems like quite a good way of doing it because you can imagine that if you could freely edit tweets forever, 30 minutes gives you a window to do it if you, if you've f***ed up, but it doesn't, right.

It doesn't allow, for example, dictators to change history. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Well, we say a lot of bad things about the Twitter guys, but I think they maybe have nailed that by the sound of it. I think they've been, I think they've been thinking about this one more than we have.

They will have done because for at least 10 years, people have been complaining about the lack of Twitter edit from. So, I'm very glad to have you on the podcast. more than we have. They will, because for at least 10 years, people have been complaining about the language which is pretty, really different. So I'm very glad to have you on the podcast. I'm very glad that you are excited about the questions. I am. And I feel like I should just leave you in charge because you are such a connoisseur of quality questions from my question-asky podcast.

Well, that is, I would say both an honor and something of a threat because I don't have to be in front of me now, but I can get, I can easily get that Google document up. Okay. Well, I will ask the first one that you highlighted from Lucy who says, Hey, dear Hank and Mark, my mom just said, if we needed to, we could get ourselves out of a pickle. And my brain took that literally, so I wondered, do you think that if you were stuck inside of a giant pickle, you could break your way out. No such thing as an original thought or sign off, Lucy. I think if I was in a literal pickle,

I might be done. That might be game over, Fag. That might be it. I mean, yeah, I think, I like the question because it reminds me of James and the Giant Peach. Yeah. My role, I think is one of the canonical works

where someone is stuck inside food. And I like, I mean, for a start, he has a lot of trouble getting out of that. And the pickle is probably a lot more robust than a peach, right? Yeah, yeah. And there's a lot of space in out of that, and a pickle is probably a lot more robust than a peach, right? Yeah, and there's a lot of space in that particular peach for whatever reason, which seems like troubling. That's true.

He has a lot of room to maneuver. I think if you were encased in a giant, it depends on the dimensions of the pickle, doesn't it? If you can't even stand up, then you are in big trouble, I think. Yeah, yeah. I was imagining just completely surrounding, like I've been in a pickle avalanche, like, an avalanche, but it's all the inside of a pickle and now I'm just sort of frozen in whatever shape I'm in.

I can't make a new hole. No, I think then that could be very tough. I feel like I'm not going to eat my way out because I don't like pickles. I mean, I don't mind them, but I think I would tire of the task of trying to eat my way out of one quite quickly, like, yeah, I think I don't mind one in a big to eat my water fun quite quickly. Yeah. I think I'd have lined one in a big mac or something, but this is a very different proposition. This is a...

What's the thing that you could get stuck in that probably would go okay? Because there's definitely on the far side, it's like a can of beans. Can of beans, you're not getting out of that can of beans, that's the end. Oh, I think if it's a can, then you do have to start thinking about your regrets then, yeah.

Yeah. And then on the nearside, the best option is cotton candy. We're like, I'm stuck in cotton candy, but my only worry is falling once I get out. Like, you're only worried that cotton candy is suspended on the edge of a cliff or something. And something genius, super villain. I'm very small, how high up am I?

Yeah, and then you have to have other questions about how you got there in the first place, which I guess is another conversation. You're right, actually, Comcandy is quite literally the best case scenario here, because it's barely, it's textured, barely exists at all, exactly. So in the middle is maybe stuff like a strawberry,

soft fruit, like barely stuff. Yeah, or like a newgut, like a newgutty candy bar. I think I could just punch my stuff. Or like a newgity candy bar. Like I could just punch my way out of a newgity candy bar. Again, I think I am, maybe one of the reasons I'm not that into the superhero movies and stuff, is I'm too literal minded. And I'm again asking how had this came to be in the first place, which is not the point of these inquiries, obviously.

It's like when someone says, if I put a gun to your head and then ask me to, you know, decide a favorite, a flavor of chocolate, whatever it is, like my first thing is always, but why, why such a violent means? There seems like a terrible way to extract that kind of information. It's just, I would imagine reaction. Exactly. I've never even been silent on this subject.

Why, why, why don't you just present me with some chocolate? And I'll choose. Yeah. If I refuse to talk for years, and it's a matter of major importance, but even then, I don't think it's a gun. Is it? It just threatened me with legislation or something.

Just be mean, a little mean. I'm very weak-willed. Oh, absolutely sensitive. You wouldn't have to get anywhere near a gun before I caved in. Yeah. But yeah, I think you're right. I reckon even Nuga, you're worried that it would be tougher than you. I reckon a lot of things would be tougher to break out if you were encased in them than we imagine.

Right, right. I mean, I'm wondering, am I tiny and it is normal sized or am I my size than it is big? Yeah, as happy. I guess that shouldn't matter. No, but instinctively you feel like it does. Like you feel that... If I was very small, could I punch through Nuga? If I'm my size than it is big. Yeah, as happy. I guess that shouldn't matter. No, but instinctively you feel like it does. Like you feel that... If I was very small, if could I punch through doogit?

If I'm my size, I definitely can. I've done it before with my teeth. Of course you have three more points to do. Yeah, like you feel, even though it shouldn't matter, you do feel like it does. You feel like if James had been tiny

and in a regular size peach, he would have been in quite big trouble. As it was, he was still a boy with the ability. Well, to be fair, I can't, I think he got out by making alliances with a load of weird animals and stuff that also were in there for what I remember. Yeah, but so he was inside the peach and there was space in the peach though. Yeah, you could, I think the way I remember, you could kind of walk around the peach. He was like being a big tense or something.

If I ever bid into a peach and it was a normal sized peach and like, it was, like, there was a bunch of air inside, I would be really worried. Totally. What? Super worried. I understand it's a giant peach and giant peaches are different. But you're right. When you bite into a peach, you bank on it all being there, really, all being solid matter. Yeah. Yeah. I guess. Right. But again, I mean, it's not the biggest liberty

role Dal took. He was allowed to do that. He had that license. Yeah. That's, yes, definitely. That's how you set yourself up if you're role Dal. You have done that. You have succeeded in that. You can now have a peach with just about anything in there, and it still makes that totally. And sometimes I envy authors like that who write from the get-go that their thing is a world like a rainbow. Let's not worry too much about how things are. Exactly. If you're allowed to have at least one thing that is completely mad, then you can do that

forever, then. I'm not saying there's no skill to it, but it's really helpful for plotting if, for example, animals can talk or fruit can get massive. And just have a big air pocket inside. It's good that it only happens to giant peach because you wouldn't want to take a bite out of a peach and have a bunch of animals be inside of it. No, I think in a lot of ways that it was what we might call an anomalous peach. Yeah, and a weird one.

I can't remember how it had. Not the only one of its kind. Yeah, I got big because of some supernatural happening, which I now can't remember, but again, that's kind of what you expect, isn't it, from a dial? Yeah. It's sort of upsetting that you, one of the leading role-dars scholars, doesn't remember that about the Giant Beach. Famously, I've only recently been crowned one of the leading role-dars scholars, as in by you in the last few seconds. I kind of feel like it's not one of his absolute top tier books, but it has been probably 30 years, and so I read it so that maybe needs to be revisited,

as an opinion. Ah, yeah. All right, what do you have for us? Anyway, I feel like we've cleared up Lucy's inquiry to some degree. Yeah, you and your mum are dead and so are me and Mark one. Basically, that might not be what you want to hear,

but we're not here to make friends, eh? This, I think, is a really interesting question because it's both very specific and also relates to something we can all identify with. It's from Julia. Dear Mark and Hank, I'm currently stranded four hours from home in Washington, DC. I came here with my dad to hike some trails. His car broke down. It's a holiday weekend, so nothing is open and we're stuck for the time being. This is obviously really frustrated. At this point, I thought it was going to be a query about how to fix her car, which probably,

this isn't the best way to go about that, writing to a podcast. No, I would not feel that way. I also wouldn't. And even if we were, I feel like a podcast is a long lead time if your car has broken down. But then she says, I'm trying to remember this is the first world problem.

And I'm lucky to have a car to begin with and that we can afford to stay in a hotel a couple extra nights. But I still have been struggling with this and it's made me wonder and here is the question, how do you balance gratitude for what you have and validating your own feelings? So, great question I think. How do you get to be a real **** about your car having broken down while still maintaining, keeping sight of the fact that it's nice you've got a car. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And look, you're also in our hour, hour, my nation's beautiful capital, where there's many things to do,

and I hope that you took the chance to not be in the hotel for two days straight, just be like, hey, I guess we're gonna just walk around CDC. I believe there is some historic stuff in Washington, D.C. Yeah, we made it the thing. Yeah. And I couldn't tell you how, but maybe you can after having spent a couple extra days there. Yeah, that's interesting actually, because it's not even that big a city as it compared

with a lot of America. Like as capitals go, it's... Yeah, I think that it's some very good branding, anyway, some good PR. Yeah, yeah. It's weird to have a think that it's some very good branding, anyway, some good PR. Yeah, yeah. It's weird to have a city with just a couple extra letters after it too. We don't do that with any of the other cities. Yeah, the, why is it there? Is it distinguishing it from the state of Washington?

It's the District of Columbia. So yeah, I think maybe, and the District of Columbia is famously for Americans, one of the only places where you don't have like a representative in Congress. Because you're living in. Because yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I see. Yeah, there's like it. So you get to vote for stuff and there's like a person you elect who sits there but doesn't get to just make decisions. That sounds like quite a lot of MPs here to be fair. Yeah, but officially, that's all that is actually also the case for Puerto Rico. It's not in there's sort of, we have a lot of weird things. You got a lot of weird things also the case for Puerto Rico. It's not, and there's sort of,

we have a lot of weird things. You got a lot of weird things. Your relationship with Puerto Rico is puzzling to an outsider, I will say that. Yeah, no, it's puzzling to an insider as well. Right, okay, good. Yeah. One day maybe we'll work that out.

Also, occasionally I was suddenly remembered that you've got Hawaii as well, and I'm like, hang on, what? That's just a state, normal state. And I'm sorry, but I was so far away. Your relationship with many places is very puzzling. I know what you mean. I know what you mean.

Just on the money of our Australia. What are you talking about? We have absolutely no history of claiming places that have got nothing to do with us. As far as I know, no, no, we hear relationships going on at all. No, we have a very secure, a normal sense, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, We're following it loosely. So, but two of the question. I think that like, I err on the side of just being down

on myself and being like, why I have nothing to complain about, just move forward. But I've also seen plenty of situations where that's super, so I think that it's more about what inspires the most productive action. And so if you're sort of like sitting here being like, well, like, I shouldn't be sad about stuff and that makes you even more sad about stuff.

Yeah, then that's clearly not a good road to go down. I'll do that. Meta sadness. Yeah, yeah. And then they get more sad about that sad. I think the fact that she's even posed the questions just she's on the right path, maybe. Yeah, yeah, I think you're probably pretty good.

Most people don't have that. No, I think if you have the capacity to self-reflection to identify one of your problems as a first world problem, then that puts you ahead of quite a lot of people with them. That's a nice compliment. Although it's a nice compliment. Before we know, she might have been like

swearing for two days solidly before she sat down and wrote this question. And she realized, finally, and maybe I don't have that much to complain about. Yeah, yeah. But I do think it's, yeah, I think it's very, I find it not easy to remember, because the thing is, almost by definition, all of our problems are, first of all, problems, right? Like anything you do, you could say to yourself, yeah, but, right, somewhat a billion people

are without, so at some point you have to still make space for the fact that problems are problems. Right, and you can also look back at the first world problems of the past, like the King of France in the 1600s, had to carry his own poop in a pot. I maybe had somebody to pick the poop up, but he had to poop in a pot in his room. We don't, like, we got this whole thing,

whole system totally, I'm dealing with that. Hot showers, all kinds of different food available. Right, very nearby. So basically at any point, there is a better or worse scenario that you could be in. And that's not your fault. It's not our fault that people used to

put in pots and that we don't have to. I sort of thought, I guess we could knock that out with the current toilet system, but there's nothing in that for us. No, I don't think it would be good for anybody. I think that's right. I think it's really important to stay conscious of your responsibilities to other people and to do what you can to narrow inequalities and stuff, but you can't start beating yourself up for the existence of inequalities that aren't your fault in which

you have no control over for a start. Right. And there's something, like there's something to the fact that, regardless of how bad, how much pain someone else in the world is experiencing, if you stub your toe, if you like wrap your toe around the bed, like the little legs of your bed,

the way that happens in the middle of the night. In that second, you are in as much and as real pain as anyone. Yeah. It doesn't matter how anybody as real pain as anyone. Yeah. It doesn't matter how anybody else feels, that sucks. Yeah, that's right. Like, it's happening to me right now. Stepping on a piece of Lego is a first world problem

because not everyone can afford to buy Lego, but nonetheless, for those three seconds, you are the most put upon man in the world. And that's just the way it is. It doesn't matter if the Lego costs 45 pounds, your pain is real. And also, different people's brains do process things in different ways. Some people do have more of a capacity for stoicism than others.

It's not purely your fault if you experience quite small sadness or problems as quite big things. You can work on it, but still that's part of who you are. Other people might be very, very resilient and good at dealing with crisis just naturally. So there are a lot of factors, basically. So I think the first world problem is in a way a misleading phrase because if you're not careful, it can give you the idea that none of your feelings are valid, which is the root of the question. And that's not a good place to be. This next question comes from Annabelle. It's very close to my heart, dear Hank and Mark.

I'm a decently smart person, I think. But every now and again, someone will be talking about something and they know what I'm talking about, and I don't know anything about it. It's very confusing. My question is, how do I seem like I'm following someone and understand what they're saying even when I don't? Annabelle. I don't.

Do you? Do you. Do you do that? Do I? I've stopped doing that Do you, do you do that? Do I? I've got, I've stopped doing that. Well, it's interesting this because at university, I went to a well-known expensive, well, no, not actually expensive, it's not right.

It's no more expensive than other university, but it has a prestige attached to it. And I felt kind of intellectually inferior to most people when I got there for various reasons. Some of them do with my brain. And also also I was also right in a lot of cases, because some of them were either mad geniuses or had to have the kind of schooling where they've been. Right, so I spent a lot of my academic career basically doing what Annabella is describing, appearing to be keeping up with the conversation, and none of that did me much good except that

it is a useful skill in life, so indirectly, so you actually know how to answer this question, whereas I don't. I'm like, well, no, explain it to me more and better. Well, actually, I think I also am like that, but I've had to beat that out of myself. I think most of my academic career, in advertently or not, taught me that being able to simulate understanding and knowledge is the same as actually having it. And in a way that's true, as in a lot of people are managed to pull away through all of life, essentially. But as I've got older, I've got much better at saying, I'm sorry, I just, I don't understand. And so I think, I think basically the answer to the animal's question is, do not ever feel you have to pretend.

For a start, and even a listen of one episode of this podcast tells you this, the world is absolutely baffling. The human experience is massive and complicated. You cannot be across more than one percent of everything that's happening. So just be cool with that, Arekken. I've found it liberating as I've got older to just understand that I know almost nothing and don't understand loads of stuff, including some of the science-y aspects of this podcast. I'm alright with that. You have to be. Yeah, I feel like I am never

trying to, like, what I don't want to do when I'm in a situation where I am the one who doesn't know anything. I don't want to try and have an opinion or have a perspective. I feel like in that situation, I am trying to get them to showcase how their excitement and what makes them excited about that thing. Totally. And then try and draw out the things that I'm like, oh, so it would be, I try to rephrase what they said back to them.

Am I understanding this right? Do you just say that time doesn't exist? Whatever. Yeah. Well, actually, that, yeah, that is a good example or weirdly relevant example, because the last kind of science adjacent book I read was about time. Oh, God. Which is something that I find very interesting, but also bewildering. Obviously, it was called the Order of Time. I think I read that. It was a very short book, that's partly why. I went for it, Carlo Revelli, I think the guy's name, right? And like, for about, maybe half of it, I was like, all right, I'm just about there.

And then there was a bit where I thought, right, I am gone now. I'm like the guy in the can of beans. I'm not coming back from this, he's lost me. But then I found almost a weird beauty in that. in that. I am totally immersed in your brain here. I really can't find my way around it. But there's a sort of poetry in just these ideas, whether or not I can really understand them. Because most people can't do that. Yeah, I actually think that I think I stopped that book in the middle, probably in the same paragraph that lost you, where I was just like, I'm done now.

That's so what I know for sure is that whatever I think, whatever I sort of like is my instinct about time is definitely wrong. Yeah, my take home for most even popular science books is like most of what I know isn't really right. And so that's fine. I was chatting about this with, in Australia, with the community of David O'Dogherty, who will be known to some people on this box. I wish, brilliant Irish community. And we were talking about, we both have this problem with sound books where, like, typically it will go, imagine the earth is a beach ball and the moon is like, you know, whatever, a tennis

ball, you're like, fine. And then next step is, now imagine someone is holding that beach ball further away, that, and you're like, I'm still just about, and then the third step is always, now tilt the beach ball on its axis and cut into it like an orange. And immediately you're like, no, it's too many things. That's too much. I'm gone. And this is, that's too much.

And this is page six. So I feel like I'm in trouble here. Yeah. I'm gone and this is that's too much and this is page six. So I feel like I'm in trouble here. One of the one of the things that I That highlights this for me is The moon which is there all of the time like it's in a sky half of the time Would it like almost precisely half and? It's what we think is not that it is yeah, yeah, it's either on the other side of the world or it's just invisible because it's black Because it's not all and and the way that the world, or it's just invisible because it's black. Yeah. Because it's just black.

Oh, and the way that the moon works is it goes around us while we go around the sun and while that's happening, it's also spinning, but it's keeping its face toward us as it spins. And also, we are tilted. And with that many variables, no one who doesn't think about it professionally actually gets what's going on with the moon.

And like, how to say what a lunar month is and why the phases work the way they do. Someone needs to make, like someone very clever needs to make a one hour Netflix special called what's going on with the moon. And it was just, it was just a definitive statement in some way because you're right. Yeah. And then, and then you'll watch it and at the end of the special, you'll be like, I understand what's going on with the moon. And then a month later, you won't anymore. You will have forgotten. Even a day later, you'll already be hazy on quite love it. Yeah. It's just my, I was talking to someone that remembered the moon landings about how, you know,

especially older people felt they ought to be able to look at the window and see the guys, you know, on the moon, like on the night that it was happening when it was on TV and everything like that. They're up there. They're on their way. And of course, in a way that seems like to us like an easy thing to laugh at, but it's sort of also, it chimes with something, which is insane we went that people

can even go to the moon. So it's not that insane to think, if they're there we should be like, see them, it's like, I find it almost, I'm not from minutes trying to get on board with moon, conspiracy theorists, but I do find it astonishing that people were able to devise a machine

that could get there and with 1960's computers could navigate there. And every time I see anything to do with it, I'm like, it's just, I mean, it's still crazy now, but at least computing is so advanced now that I understand how those calculations could be made. The idea that in the 60's, it was not to patronize them, but they did really well.

I reckon to get up there. That's it. And then just like, no one's ever landed on the moon before, and it's like, that's your job. Neil Armstrong land on the moon. It's insane. They must have been a part of them thinking, like, it's great to be the first guy,

but I don't actually know if I wasn't going to be the sixth guy. Yeah, to me being the pressure of not, like, if I'm Neil Armstrong or Buzz Aldrin, particularly those two, because Michael Collins is waiting up in the thing, look at, look and, look and down at them.

Collins at least just gets to babysit, yeah. If I'm about to land and like, I know that if I run out of fuel, if like, I land tilted and it just like rolls over and there's no way to get it right back, right side up, if I make a fractional mistake of any kind. Yeah. Yeah. And then I, all of the work that everybody did to get me here instead of being a tremendous achievement is like one of the grandest tragedies in the history of the nation. Yeah, because I get I just get to die of thirst up here.

Yeah. Well, America is like fatally set back in the cold war and like generations of human ingenuity. Yeah, it's a first moment in it. Yeah, me dying at that point is like not that big of a deal. No, but like being the cause of the tragedy. Yeah, like way too much pressure. Setting back the cause of the space race, well not just the space race, but.

That it totally, I also feel like, yeah, when you think how many other people would have wanted that gig, how many other astronauts, how many generations of people would have dreamed about it, I think the few moments leading up to it, I would have been utterly overwhelmed by that feeling. I couldn't have stopped dwelling on all the people that were.

It would be hard not even to think about your, your mum and dad watching or. Yeah. But if you then started, I mean, like I find it stressful, I still find it stressful being on a TV show that a million people watching, even if it's not live and it can be edited and all of it.

But that's the definition of one where you can't tidy it up in the edit, I think, the first step on the moon. You really have got a, it's also the definition of something where you really only get one shot. Yeah, listening to what they talk about, like, so there's like the recordings.

They don't seem to be thinking about anything, except landing the spacecraft, which is a remarkable amount of brain control. It's not like self-control, it's like controlling what your thoughts are doing. Yeah, this is interesting. I found this very interesting. I spoke to a prominent brain surgeon a couple of years ago and he said that like being a brain surgeon has something in common with being a psychopath because again, you don't think, I'm cutting it, like if I cut this,

then this guy will never be able to do this again, or you just purely doing the thing that you're doing. I'm doing the thing. Yeah. And I was saying landing the first ever vessel on the moon is a very extreme example of doing the thing. Yeah, doing the thing.

What are you thinking about right now? Just the thing. I'm just doing my job. It happens, though, that my job is to participate in one of the iconic moments of human history. But that's cool. I don't know what that is. Maybe it says good things about us,

but both of us would have had far too many thoughts to have ever done that job. Oh, yeah, that's not for me. It's not for me. Most things aren't for me for this reason. The only job I could do is one where you're actively rewarded for overthinking and where no one else suffers if it goes wrong. Yeah. Which reminds me that this podcast is actually brought to you by the thing. The thing doing it is what you're supposed

to be doing, but it probably isn't. Podcasts also puts you by Payne. If you've had a Lego related accident or emergency, we are here to look after you. The podcast is additionally brought to you by James and the Giant Pickle. James and the Giant Pickle is, it's rolled dolls new classic. It's just a little less sweet and a lot more spicy. It's amazing. They found a new doll, isn't it? After all, this time. The podcast in addition is brought

to you by, and this is quite a bit cool I think, a sponsor's go, the city of Washington DC, visit America's exciting capital today. That's to get funding from them must feel great. I mean, yeah, I mean, I think it's really going to take us to the next level. And then there must be some question marks over taxpayers money going into sponsoring one podcast, but I don't know. That's a matter for you and then, I guess. As long as the people get up and spend their money in DC, they're happy. It's all about...

You're a very old message with these guys. Five million dollars. We'll do that, though, I guess. We also have a project for us, a message. This is from the Dutch and Belgium Nerdfighters and Friends to Nerdfighters in the Netherlands, Belgium and far beyond, I guess. Happy 15th birthday to the project for awesome. For the past five years, we've gotten together with the group of awesome Dutch and Belgian Nerdfighters to digitally reconnect, hang out, and donate during the project for

awesome. This community has been a big part of our lives, and even though our paths don't often cross, we know that we will always have the P4A. Here's to doing hard things with friends. Even this message was crowdsourced. Neederland, oh, Neederland, Stage Direction, Song, and the tune of Aldrang's line. Okay. Neederland, oh, Neederland, oh, neederland, oh, neederland. I was looking forward to the moment when you realized that that was a stage direction, and you had to go back and do that. I saw your face change. It's like, oh, I have to do a thing.

I don't know what time it is where Mark is, but he's just straight drinking a glass of wine. Oh, that could be any time hanging. But to be fair, it is almost eight o'clock here. That night, I should additionally. Yeah. Thank you for, thank you for spending, spending your precious evening, times, time with me. You're very welcome. During the lockdowns here, there was quite a lot of drinking and also quite a lot

of doing podcasts, of course, because not much else was going on. So I've tended to associate the two things together now as activities. This next question comes from Sarah who asks, Dear Hank and Mark, a lot of people have reply anxiety. They feel anxious when they need to reply to someone, even if it's just a friend. But I get anxious when people don't reply. I can't help but think that they either don't care to talk to me or have been in some horrible accident, even though I know that's irrational. Some of my closest friends have reply anxiety, so this is a problem for me.

Is there any way to communicate my needs without diminishing with their feeling? Anxiously awaiting your response? Sarah, I'm so glad that we got to this because otherwise we'd just be pilot, piloting the problems on the problem. Yeah, this is why I felt we couldn't overlook this question really because it's phrasing the way which makes it feel it'd be neurologically and advisable to skip it.

Also, I think sometimes, or it used to be a common trope that people made fun of American, like therapy speak and jargon and stuff because it was seen as a kind of American invention. And now therapy is very widespread, even here, even in this buttoned up country. So, you know, but nonetheless, I think there's something somehow quintessentially American about the idea of one person with reply anxiety and one person with an anxiety about not receiving a reply.

The ultimate stalemate emotionally. Who's new? So we going to have to get together, have a meeting of the minds and decide who's got it worse. Yeah, basically. Yeah. Right of way must go to whoever has its leg worse. Yeah. So you obviously can't control other people.

You also do some extent. Yeah, control yourself. Yeah, so actually, so what we're going to do is cut open your friend's brain and put in a little electrode that makes them not worry about this anymore and now they can reply when I wanted to tell you along it would be before you got into sort of transhumanism, strug genetic experiments.

Because that is an answer to a lot of these questions. Yeah, it's all a lot easier if we're not humans anymore. It's just perfectly efficient robot. If we just sign over some of our humanity to machines then as I've been saying for years, it isn't just in this because all of us are constantly in a negotiation between our needs and someone else's and this is quite a stark example of that dilemma. But do you think communication is half of it? Like if you know someone is quite nervous if they don't hear from you, then even as

somebody with a reply anxiety, I reckon you can accommodate that. I reckon this is about both parties understanding exactly what the others needs are and trying to find a compromise somehow. Yeah, there also, it has to be that maybe there is some amount of, so for example, I don't have reply anxiety, I have a different condition called reply prioritization failure. Uh-oh, where. Up, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, where I get a text and then I see it and I think here's my text that I'm going to send. But you don't. And I don't type it or send it. Totally, I've done that before, yeah. text that I'm going to send. But you don't. And I don't type it or send it. Totally. I've done that before. Yeah.

And my wife is in particular the greatest sufferer of this quirk of mine. Yeah. Because she obviously is the one who text me the most. And also the one who most needs me to text back. Probably because. It also presumably you're so in tune with her that you automatically assume that you've done the work when you

haven't, I can imagine that. Sure, maybe that's it. It's a positive way of putting it anyway, yeah. But often, so sometimes the text messages are just like lovely and don't require a reply. But sometimes they are like, who is going to pick the child up from school today? And that probably does need to reply, yeah.

Which is, does, yeah. Like if several hours go by, the report that text no longer matters. I think that this legitimate to have right reply anxiety, or no, no reply anxiety, whatever it is, when it concerns, if it's potential that you're... When there's an actual task at the end of it, yeah. Yeah. When your child might be committed to social care,

if someone doesn't reply, yeah. But that is the thing about the phone, the way we all live is there is this weird leveling effect where an important text that needs action like that only carries the same weight on your phone is like someone sent you from Twitter or like, and especially if you're on what's happened, things can be coming in every 20 seconds. it is, I think, like, reply prioritization is

something we all have to work quite hard on because the lifespan of a text is so short before something else pops out. Yeah. And it's a totally new skill. And I think in particular, like the other thing is that I think that there are times when the, the sort of barrier to action is higher and times when it's lower. And so it's trying to keep conversations like low priority or low stakes with your friends who,

like what, like an understanding what, because like, reply anxiety is very non-specific term. Maybe there is something more to understand about it there. And that can be done through communication, whether it's on text or not. Yeah. Where you understand what is actually standing in the way and thus being able to empathize more effectively

and also to know that this person is probably just, you know, playing Minecraft right now and needs that time to themselves and they are not dead in a ditch. Right. Everything always comes down to accurately reading other people's needs. But yeah, I wonder if, I mean, probably not us because we're busy,

but should someone organize a massive, international reply anxiety conference or something and get all these people together and just like, hammer out? Except, of course, the RSVPs would be a minefield. I don't want to be the person monitoring the replies to that invitation. Yeah. Right. It was really, it's just, it turns out it's just like a big exposure therapy thing where you just have to, all you do all weekend is just reply to things. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

If you RSVP that means you're ridiculed and don't have to attend the conference. But if you don't, if you don't come, that means you should have. It's almost a catch 22. Yeah. From Amanda, dear Hank Mark, long time, listen, a long time questioner, maybe this is the 150 person. I just showed my friends the Rocky Horror picture show for the first time, they didn't like it.

Rocky Horror has been one of my favorite movies for years. Had we handled knowing they aren't as cool as I am. Did you say that? It does say that, and then she goes on to say, like, should they just get new friends or, uh, and this is the bit which interested me about the question, should I accept that not everyone likes the same weird stuff I do? I think what's interesting is how personally you should take it, how personally we do take it when someone doesn't like, uh, something that you like, right?

Because it's odd how much of a slight it can feel like. I mean, how deeply do you know the Rocky Horror Picture Show? Well, unfortunately, I am in the camp of people that are questioning a wooden gallon with Amanda. My relationship with the Rock Horror Show is that I was taken at college by a bunch of people who were fans, who were Amanda in the Amanda's camp and I didn't really know much about it. I was just made to wear a short skirt and fishnet tights which was fine. That part of it I enjoy. I don't know what I thought it was going to be but obviously what it was was an evening of people yelling at catchphrases that I couldn't

have anticipated didn't understand. So yeah, I've never really rooted it. So actually my memory of Rocky Horror is also that I didn't like it, but I didn't like it because I was with people who did like it. Specifically, you got thrown into the deepest, deep end and it was like, swim boy! That's right, and it wasn't even a film. I should add, it was like a live performance which meant if anything, there's even more interaction encouraged, but not in a way that an outsider could really understand. So yeah, basically, I think if you are a fan of cult stuff, you have to accept that people, the other side of that. There's a reason. Yeah, there's a reason, right?

And a part of the joy of being an occult fandom is that other people don't quite get it, right? That's just how it is. Right. Famously, the Rocky Horror Picture Show is a bad movie. Right. Like there are ways in which it is good, but like, and for a bad movie,

it has a surprising amount of ways that you can enjoy it. Yeah, but that doesn't mean that someone coming to it, a newish. It's still a bad movie. Right. Right. Yeah. With some pretty good songs. But it is enjoyed in the way where like you expose yourself to it so much that you

start to see the ways that it's good. But I think in the beginning, it was consumed because it's, because in some part, because it was funny to watch this bad movie over and over again. Right. And I've seen Rocky Horror probably 30 times. So I am in there. I put, I was in a Rocky cast once, like, I've done, you're the other side of it from me. Right.

Yeah. So there you go. That's a good insight, I think. Like, if you, If something becomes a cult thing because of the baggage of the people who have put on it, and that feeds off itself, then it's almost impossible to expect somebody to enjoy it without any of that history. But what I do feel is, I guess the question was flippantly asked, but it definitely doesn't mean that you should get new friends. I think there's something cool about friendships where you just accept that there are things you

simply don't agree on or want to consume to get, not everything, or you probably wouldn't be friends, but it's healthy to have the huge artistic disagreements. I reckon within a friendship. It's also great if you can have some rocky horror friends and some not rocky horror friends. Yeah, I don't want that's totally all right. You know, everyone to be a Rocky Horror friend, surely. Yeah. What we certainly don't want is for everyone to like the Rocky Horror picture show. Yeah.

I think that would definitely ruin it. Right. Because again, and I love it. I just think that it's bad. Right. Like it's objectively not a good movie for a lot of reasons. And then there are also inside of this bad movie, some tremendous performances.

Totally. And some very weird moments. And again, with any phenomenon like that, it means that a very specific percentage of people will love it. And that percentage should never be higher than it is, because that's how cult things happen. If, as you say, if everyone loved it,

the cult would have no oxygen. There'd be no fan in it. It's, you know, you have to identify within a fandom like that as where the guys that get it. And for that to happen, other people have to exist the dome. So actually, I think your friends have done the right thing by not enjoying your favourite thing. And you need to release the pressure from them

and be like, that is fine. Do I feel in my deepest heart that I'm cooler than you and that I really wished you liked this? Yes. But I'm letting that emotion and that I really wished you liked this? Yes. Yes. But I'm letting that emotion go. Besides not holding on to it. That's a good exercise.

I feel it. I feel it and I let it go because different people are different. And if we weren't, it would be a really boring world. Before we get to the news from Marzenay of Sea Wimbledon, I'm going to ask this question from Lucia who asks, it says, howdy. I just started my freshman year at Barnard College and I only have one friend. That's great, but she keeps calling my home state of Illinois, Illinois. She pronounces the S at the end. She has been doing this for two months now and I die inside every time. How do I tell her that she's pronouncing the state incorrectly? And she has been for her entire life

without losing the one and only friend I have on the East Coast. Lucia. I think this is great, especially the only friend I have on the East Coast, puts such a bleak framing on the question. The thought of those thousands of miles. Yeah, it's all, yeah.

So a lot of people, then, is only one. This is a famous, like a textbook example of a social anxiety causing problem. The typical one is someone, it's calling you by the wrong name, and it gets the point where it's been eight years and there's nothing you can do about it. But I feel like this is,

I mean, I'm just, can't this be rectified by just her saying Illinois in the correct way several times in conversation, like just naturally? Well, yeah, it could be another thing, which is that the person knows that they are pronouncing it incorrectly, and it's just like the way that they say it. Right, okay.

There are words like this that we do. I had a friend who said Piscetti instead of Spaghetti. Right. Which is kind of like the kiddo word for Spaghetti because it's hard to say, so you say Piscetti. And so you just hang on to it. They just grew up. He just grew up and he's like hard to say, so you say pesquetti. And so you just hang on to it. But you just grew up. Yeah. You just grew up and he's like a 45 year old man

who's just pesquetti. And I'm like, okay. Yeah, it's too late to change this, you know. That's, this is done. This is not about awareness, this is something else. Either I don't, either I learn to learn to love this or I can't hang out with this person when spaghetti's nearby.

So that's an interesting aspect to the question. What if it's a known thing and that like, could she still love this person if right Illinois's thing is some sort of affectational tip or habit? I think here's my suggestion. You start selling saying other states wrong and see what happens. Yeah. Just just it like call, call Arkansas, Arkansas. Which is what most of us do here.

Yeah. Or just a really weird one like, Oh, hi, oh, or something. Yeah, yeah. Oh, oh, oh, here. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Just try saying, like, New York, a new Mexico with the, with the emphasis on the new. And see how long that comes before it becomes a, a conversation point. Yeah. And then when she bites, go, all right, well, about this Illinois bullshit. Yeah, I was like, oh, let's go.

But since, since I'm also having trouble, since, well, not also, since I'm having trouble with pronunciations of states and all, like, also, you have to seed Illinois in there. You start referring to Illinois as Illinois. And then she says that's wrong. have to seed Illinois in there. You start referring to Illinois as Illinois. And then she says, that's wrong. And then you say, oh, I didn't know, let's look it up. I think I'm right. And then it turns out you're both wrong.

That would be a very generous way of doing it, actually. So there's no blame, there's no, and it was, yeah. Oh, it's like a tie. It's like, oh, it's a tie. And we put it behind this. Yeah. The greed Illinois tie. I just wondering, oh, it's a tie. And we put it behind this. Yeah. And the great Illinois tie. I'm just wondering, I don't know quite how this helps, but there's, uh,

Suffian Stevens made that album called Come on Feel the Illinois as well as a deliberate. Maybe that's what happened. Like, I can't, and it's a great, great album. I can't help wondering if, I don't know if these people are into the right kind of music, but that might be a conversation starter. That's all I'm saying.

There's a piece of work out there which plays on the Illinois-Ishting already. But yeah, this is of all the dubious advice we've given, I feel like this might actually work. This is a solvable problem in the way that some of them maybe aren't. There's something there. Yeah, there's something there we've helped.

It may, you may just be an Illinois household now. Like if, if, if enough people called it Illinois, it would just be the word. Uh, yeah. It's not like, eventually, it's not like the original, no, word, Illinois. No, no, I'm stuck usage in the end dictates how we do these things. So yeah, that's, will your friendship with this person survive a cultural shift where Illinois is actually correct? And then that's a massive climb down?

I think probably not, because she did say I'd die inside every time. So I think there's a fair bit emotionally riding on this that the print maybe shouldn't be. It's a little bit like having something in your teeth incorrectly, pronouncing a state for the whole of your life. And you do, some day you do need to find out about the thing in your teeth. And you do, someday you do need to find out about the thing in your teeth. One way or another.

Totally. So however the situation plays out, it is for the greater good of these people, I think. This can't go on forever. You have to pretend like it's the first time you heard, though, and like you haven't been thinking about it. Like next time she says, Illinois, you're like, did you say the noise? Yeah. And if this friend is a listener to this podcast,

then the game really is out. But I guess she's factored that possibility, yeah. It's a sin of the podcast. All right, what's going on in English football? I don't need to tell you, probably the FC women suffer the disappointing defeat at the weekend, but I think they're still doing all right, basically.

Do you, because they're not winning a lot of games? Yeah, no, actually, I'll revise that. They're not doing all right, basically. Do you, because they're pretty, they're not winning a lot of games. Yeah, no, actually, I'll revise that. They're not doing great. But I would say that they're kind of below where one would want to be at this stage of the season. But the thing is, I support quite an unsuccessful football team. And so I don't really regard it as going badly and less things properly as Americans would say in the toilet.

So where FC Wimbledon are in their league, which I think is 17th or something like that now, is roughly similar to where my team are in a different league, but nonetheless, and I don't yet regard this as a problem. I'm just kind of wearily strapped in for another year of struggle. If that's your mentality. What league is your team, man? Well, actually, again, this is a first world problem. My team is in the championship.

So the second tier of English football, so compared with the Wimbledon fan, I mean, a good situation. But I still spend most of my time, most of 30, 35 years now dealing with broadly speaking disappointing results. So, and between fans like that, there is a real kinship because a lot of fans of huge Premier League teams feel as if life is really tough for them and all they mean is,

like they haven't won a trophy for six months or something. If you haven't won anything, my team is only ever won maybe five or six trophies in like 100 years. So you do kind of, and quite often, fans of super clubs like Manchester United, who go through a bit of a dry spell, commentators, pundits will say, yeah, these fans are so patient, they've been through such hardship. There's this, and so people like us that is obviously insane. So basically, yeah, you do not realize that those,

that the teams in the second league have stadiums with fans in them. Yeah, but there are 25,000 of us that would kill for like one minute as I mentioned. Yeah. So yeah, I would say that it's been a slightly rocky start. This is when the buy suppose my overarching point is there is kind of a glory in just sticking at it in the I also don't think what what I, as some people might know, what everybody really fears is if you finish in the bottom two, you drop out of the legal together and that would be a disaster.

But I think they'll comfortably stay clear of that trap door. That is the fear. Well, this weekend in Mars News, the Insight Lander is trying to survive as a dust storm bears down upon it. And as I first saw the dust storm happening on September 21st, first, is how you say that word, letter number.

It's a number. This is like the inner noise thing again, yeah. First. So they saw from space, they were looking down and they saw a dust storm happening on Mars. It didn't seem to be having a lot of impact on the lander because it's quite a ways away, but the storm has kept growing

and filling the atmosphere with dust, and that's beginning to impact the amount of sunlight that's reaching the lander's solar panels, so that has lowered the amount of energy that it can use from 425 watt hours per soul, which is a day on Mars, to 274. So, nearly have to conserve energy, the landers turned off the seismometer,

which will hopefully allow it to keep working for a bit after the storm is over, but that means it can't get any data right now. But the team behind the mission has estimated the mission might end sometime between the end of this month and January 2023, depending on how much dust accumulates on the solar panels. So Insight has been trucking for a while now, but it's gonna be a shorter mission than we are sometimes used to with these stellar performing rovers. Again, you see, when we talk about levels of stress in a job, I feel like that's quite a big problem. A dust storm on Mars is threatening Mike's bentcy for equipment. I've been like, right, I know how much I can really do about this. But look, my car broke down.

Yeah, right. You might be stuck in Washington, DC, but there's a thing that stuck on Mars with a dust storm engulfing it. Yeah. But look, my car broke down. Yeah, right. You might be stuck in Washington, DC, but there's a thing that stuck on Mars with a dust storm and gulfing it, yeah. But at least it's not me. I can breathe the good ol' earth air with all of its oxygen and it's fantastic. Oh, we have great air.

Such good air. I mean, most of it isn't anymore, but still. There's a quite a bit of it is less good than it once was. It's all a hundred percent of it is better than Mars Air. For sure. We still, we still galaxy leaders in that regard. As well as possibly know, okay. I don't, that is unclear.

I don't know what Air I would prefer, honestly. This is the Air that we evolved for. So it's probably, in terms of our usage of it, probably we are galaxy leaders. Surely. It would be hard to imagine something better for us than oxygen, right? Yes. If anyone's got anything, then we'll give it a go. Well, too much oxygen actually would be bad,

but you don't want to get it me started. Oh, that's right. Air is composed of several different gases, isn't it? Yeah, okay. It's mostly nitrogen and oxygen. All right, yeah. Almost entirely. And it's mostly nitrogen, which is weird

because it does nothing. It just is, yeah, super for us to walk around in and keep the planes up. Which is important, I guess, yeah. Yeah, without all the nitrogen, it would be much harder to fly planes I hadn't ever thought about that. Oh, there you go.

Good old nitrogen. You don't often think about it, but it's doing so much work for us. Thank you, Mark Watson, so much for coming on the podcast. Do you have anything that you want to tell people about? Well, I suppose I'll just ask them to find me on Twitter if they would like to, which is what's some comedian, at what's some comedian, and then in turn is a portal to the many things that I hope hope people my life with. That's probably the best way. Oh, the different places that we can go and consume your content. Yeah, although of course I'll be editing those tweets from now on. Now I know this is a thing. There's also, I just, I googled you at the beginning of this to see if there was anything I should share. And the top question is Mark Watson, Emma Watson's brother.

Right, and the odd answer to that is is I am not the brother of the famous star Em Watson but I do have a sister who is called Emma and who's now married at least such as a different surname but for the first 30 years or so years of her life I'd say about once a year a weirdo would get in touch with me hoping that I could put him in touch with that well no not for the first 30 years, from whenever the Harry Potter movie started, yeah. I'm certainly a troubling number of people out there think that I am the answer to them meeting Emma Watson the actor. Well, that's a, that's traveling in a number of levels. It really is,

yeah, a number of levels. The main one is that I do not have the moral right to traffic Emma Watson, or facilitate hookups with her, but again, the main argument against it, as I say, is that I'm not in touch with that Emma Watson. That's good to know. My sister Emma is great, but I don't think that's what those people are after. Right. I'm glad that we got that out at the end of the podcast so people wouldn't be confused. Me too. I was trying to guess what the first question was going to be there. That's what it was when you started with Ismail Watson, there you go. It could be a lot worse than that.

If you want to send us questions, the place to do that is hankinjonnagemail.com and you can impress Mark without what clever questions you have. The pressure is on that. This podcast is edited by Joseph Tune of MetaShirts, produced by Rosiana Hals-Rohas. Our communications coordinator is Brooke Shotwell. Our editorial assistant is Deboki Chakravarti, the music you're hearing now,

and at the beginning of the podcast, it's by the great Gunnarola, and as they say in our hometown, don't forget to be awesome.