The Unmade Podcast - 61: That's The Way I Remember It

Episode Date: September 24, 2020

Tim and Brady discuss memory techniques, rainbows, safes, passwords, spoon of the week, song titles and podcast inspiration, and a patron idea about ice. Go to Storyblocks for stock video, pictures and audio at storyblocks.com/unmade - and maybe find that perfect Tim look-a-like - https://www.storyblocks.com/unmade Support us on Patreon for extra stuff and a chance to have your idea of the show - https://www.patreon.com/unmadeFM Join the discussion of this episode on our subreddit - https://redd.it/iyryqc USEFUL LINKS 8-bit Sofa Shop Jingle by Joe Chris Gaines - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Gaines Brady's Tim Look-alike on Storyblocks - https://www.unmade.fm/episode-61-pictures Shroud of Tim merch - https://teespring.com/shroud-of-tim Pictures of Spoon of the Week - https://www.unmade.fm/spoon-of-the-week Lakes Entrance - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakes_Entrance,_Victoria IceHotel - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_hotel

🎵 There we go. There's the 8-bit computer game version of The Sofa Shop. That comes from Joe. Joe's actually contributed music before to the show, and he said, I've done your request of an 8-bit video game version of The Sofa Shop. I first started making music several years ago with simple square wave synths, whatever that means, in this style. So how could I resist

stepping up to this challenge? It felt like going back to my roots. It felt like going back to my roots too, Tim. I was having a lot of kind of Nintendo nostalgia. Yes, it's funny how something so technical, like it's not an organic sound, it's a technical sound, and yet it can be so heartwarming because of the nostalgia attached to it. I think he did smuggle in a few Mario sound effects by the sound of it there. Yeah, yeah. Now, we have been deluged with Sofashop covers and mashups and contributions. They've been brilliant.

We're going to give them a rest today, maybe to give people a rest, but also because I've got so many of them, I haven't actually been able to get on top of my emails. So we are saving them up for a next or a future episode, but we have been getting them. We have been enjoying them. I always text them off to Tim straight away as soon as I get them so he can have a listen.

It's fantastic. Yeah, they're really, really impressive, some of them, I tell you. Oh, yeah. We'll dribble them out over future episodes. and it's fantastic it's yeah they're really really impressive some of them i tell you oh yeah we'll dribble them out over future episodes we'll dribble them out we'll either dribble them out or we'll have an absolute extravaganza i think we might need an extravaganza because if we dribble them the the dam is building up and the dam is going to break at some point so we need we need to get them out there you're sending them in quicker than we can play them fantastic keep it keep them coming unmadefm at gmail.com if you want

to send one in. We're loving it. But the Unmade podcast is about ideas for podcasts that we probably will never make. Sometimes we do. Yes. So I have an idea. You're going to lead off? Go for it. I'm going to lead off. I'm going to lead off. Confident. Confident style. I like it. This idea is called That's the Way I Remember It. Okay. Now, I will make a quick nod to the Garth Brooks song when he was in his Chris Gaines guise. Here's a song called That's the Way I Remember It. It's one of my favourite songs by him, and it's in the Chris Gaines era.

Go and have a listen. It's really good. I don't think you needed to mention that, man. Like, I don't think anyone was going to pick that up and go, oh, hang on. Like how many people are aware, not just of Garth Brooks' music in our listeners, but of the Chris Gaines era when Garth took on another identity in a rather peculiar. It just sounds stupid as soon as you say it, but all right. Yes. I'm just saying if you search for it, it might come up under Chris Gaines. I'm not sure if it comes up under Garth Brooks or Chris Gaines. The song was called That's the Way I Remember.

Anyway, this idea has got nothing to do with that song or Garth Brooks or Chris Gaines or any of that stuff. My idea, it doesn't use the term, well, that's the way I remember it, the way you might think. It's not like, you know, well, that's my recollection. What's your recollection? It's not that. Okay. Its meaning is that's the way that I remember things. It's the technique you use to remember things. Now, I'll give you some early examples to show you where I'm coming from. This would be a podcast that people can come onto and share the way they remember things. I know there are people who use all these things like memory palaces and techniques and apps,

and there's all these things you can do to have a better memory. And that could be part of the show. It's not something I'm particularly into, but I'm aware that's there. So that would be part of it. It could be just like little things like, you know, how there are people who remember the colours of the rainbow. I was taught Roy G. Biv to remember red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet, things like that. Can I just interject here for a second and say that's the second time within two hours that someone has named the colours of the rainbow today. That's so strange. Except someone sang it over lunch.

Red and orange, or however it goes. That was different to the Roy G. Biv that song, though, wasn't it? It's red and yellow and pink and green, purple and orange. I've had orange already. Yeah, but what's that doing there? Double orange. I don't know what's going on. I don't know what the colours of the rainbow are.

Anyway, that's beside the point. That song, by the way, is based on a Garth Brooks song from the Chris Gaines era. It's on that album, I think. This podcast can also be personal little things. Let me tell you sort of a story. In my house, my wife and I hang the towels on two hooks that are side by side on the back of a door.

I don't know, for some reason, I can't explain it, but for some reason, apparently, recently, I swapped them in my head, whose was who, and I started using her towel, because our towels look the same. And, like, she wasn't pleased about this, obviously. Her, like, beautiful towel being used on scruffy old me. She was like, you know, yours is on that side. And I went, no, I thought mine was always on that side. And, I don't know, something flipped in my head.

So, I needed a new way to remember whose towel was who. And, like, you know, short of putting signage up, which wasn't really an acceptable option in the bathroom. So, the way I now remember it is hers is on the left and mine is on the right, which doesn't help much because I've kind of forgotten who was left and right. But now what I remember is my wife has L's in her name. So, she's L for left, but she has no R's in her name. I have no L's in my name, but I do have lots of R's. So R for right. So that's how I remember.

Now when I get in this muddle, like, oh, no, whose towel is who? I can't remember. There's these two white towels. I remember. L is her, R, Brady Haran, me. That's the way I remember it oh well done rain man like well speaking of rain man another thing i that occurred to me it's sometimes i find it very hard to to think how i think to remember how i remember it's a sort of it's a very internal process for me

yeah but one thing i'm pretty sure I do when I'm remembering numbers and phone numbers, which I'm not very good at, and you don't really need to do anymore anyway, is I find myself making lots of little additions in my head. For example, if I had a phone number that had 936 in it, the way I remember that is there's a nine, The way I remember that is there's a nine and then the next two numbers, three and six, add up to nine. So it's nine, three, six, nine, two numbers that add up to nine. And then I remember what those numbers are. That's like a thing I always find myself doing when I remember phone numbers. I look for natural pairs of numbers that add up to a single number that I can remember. I think that's fascinating.

I look for other patterns too. Like if there's like consecutive numbers or consecutive pairs of numbers, like if a number has 5, 2, 5, 3 in it, I find that easy to remember because it's got 52, 53. Like I find little moments in a number and everyone's got their different things. I'm not claiming I'm special, but it's just interesting to hear other people's little techniques and devices and things they do. That's the way I remember it. How do you remember things, Tim? Well, I think it sounds like you are special, Ben. Just drop a box of toothpicks in front of me and I'll blow your mind. That's right. I'd love to hear, how do you remember which shoe to put on the right foot? Do you draw a little L on the left?

There are lots of people who have problems knowing the difference between left and right. For some people, that's just a mental block, left and right. And I always find it interesting hearing how they do it. How do you know the difference between left and right? I don't know, but I do know what you mean about this kind of you've got two choices and you've got one choice between two options and yet you go for the wrong one or you swap between them. I don't know if I've mentioned, we recently moved house.

And your dad's Dutch. And your dad's Dutch. And there's one of these, you know, you've got to find light switches that are all in new places in, you know, a new house. And there's two light switches, one which does one set of lights and another one that does another set of lights in a similar sort of area. And every time I walk up to this particular light switch, I'm forever going, I'm going to turn this one on and that's the bottom one and click, no, sure enough, it's the top one.

But I'll go back again and I'll go, aha, no, I messed this up last time. I know, it's the bottom one. Click, no, damn it, it's the... And then you say, whatever you do, remember, bottom, not top, bottom, not top. And the next time you go to the switch, it's like, was it bottom, not top or top, not bottom? What was the thing I had to the switch, it's like, was it bottom, not top, or top, not bottom? What was the thing I had to remember?

It was one of them. One of them's definitely right. I was so confident. We've been there for two months now, and I was so confident the other night, like, I don't even have to think about it this time. I know it's the bottom one. No, it's the top. It's not.

Trust me, that can last years. I have that in my sort of kitchen dining area. I have no idea what one's to press. I know this kind of thing. I remember early on, in terms getting back to the numbers and calculations, I don't tend to do addition. I tend to be a bit more visual, like in terms of how rounded and nicely the numbers sit as a pattern. And with my wife's mobile number, in Australia,

you sort of have everyone has pretty much a similar opening or, you know, four numbers. And then you've got two lots of three numbers. Yeah. And I'm obviously not going to say her number, except to say that I've always thought the three numbers in the middle would be far more balanced if they were at the end. So I would always look at...

And I remember honestly now by going, oh, that's the one that should come at the end, that comes now, and the one that looks like it should be in the middle, that little set of three numbers goes at the end. And I have that little conversation in my head every time I type it in or have to write it down on a form or something like that. It just looks imbalanced.

Can I just say, I was looking at your phone number just a moment ago, actually, for various reasons. Not only do you have a very good number for remembering, it's so, your phone number's kind of sexy. It's so curvy and nice. Like, do you know what I mean? Like, it's really like, your phone number's hot. I've got the only number where when I was dating, people were like, you know, would you like my number? And they're like, yes, not for you, just for the number. Do you know what I mean, though? You know you've got a cool number, don't you?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's very handy. People often compliment it. Do they? I do. I give it to people in, you know, whatever administrative circumstances and they'll go, nice number. So, my grandpa Ron had a good way of remembering safe combinations I found out because he died in the early 1980s. I have very few memories of him, but I do remember when he died and we went to his home to sort of, you know, clear it out and things. And I went with my mum,

you know, she had to clear out his place and all his possessions and things. And he had this office and he had lots of interesting stuff, my grandpa. And my mum said, you can have any two items from the office, you can take them and keep them, whatever you want, you know. And one of the items I chose was a safe. And this was like a little transportable safe. It was like, It was kind of like a lunchbox, probably about three times bigger than a lunchbox. I don't really know what the purpose of it was in some ways because you could easily walk away with it. It was easy to carry. But it had two combinations, number combination dials on either side of the handle. And you had to put one number on one dial between 0 and 100 and one number on the other dial between 0 and 100.

And if they were both right, the safe would click open. I loved this. I loved just keeping things in it as a boy. It was just a cool boyhood thing. But, of course, you're thinking, how do I know the combination? Grandpa Ron had died. The safe was locked. But Grandpa Ron had a very clever way of remembering the number, though.

When you turned it upside down and looked at the bottom of it, it was made of metal. It was this sort of green, beautiful racing green. It was a beautiful object, racing green metal. When you turned it upside down and looked on the base of it, he'd obviously used like a knife or a pen or something and he'd scratched the combination in like four-inch high letters on the bottom of the

safe you know 939 so you just turn it upside down and there were the numbers and oh there you go click and it was like it was like the most pointless safe ever not only was it a safe you could walk away with it had the combination written on it that's the way he remembered his safe combination he wrote it on the safe one thing we have to do these days, of course, is have passwords for everything, for apps and all that sort of stuff. And so you're often having to come up with new things to remember all the time. And particularly when you go, if you're not using the device

you normally use where it might remember it or you can use your fingerprint or whatever, I'm forever having to change it or go back. And it often asks questions. I think Google does this. What's the last one that you remember? And you're like, oh, gosh. And then you get a code and away you go again. But I often will design a new fresh password based on some sort of connection with a particular person connected with the product. So if I

if I'm ordering like if it's let's say's say it's Amazon and I've got to set my Amazon, you know, and I'll be ordering a book and let's say it's a book about a particular theologian and I'll think and I'll associate the password with a person who introduced me to that theologian 25 years ago. And I'll add there the year or something like that that I met them you know how do you remember that then how do you remember that later on like oh what what book did I order six months ago when I came up with this password and then which person did I associate it with and then which number did I append to that no because it it does somehow work because I'll look back and

I'll go I bought that book and bought that book and immediately it's that person. There's a small pool of people, colleagues and previous lecturers and things like that. And I'll go, oh, it's that person. And then, oh, it would have been this. Oh, no, it's not that number. It's that number. So your password isn't CSLewis01 for everything. That's right. I thought when you said you associated it with the product, I thought you were going to say my Amazon password is Jeff Bezos and my Facebook password is Mark Zuckerberg. That's right, yes. My phone password's Steve Jobs.

Yeah. I also have, with an alarm, you know, a once upon a time combination. People, we've just cut a section of the podcast. I'm sorry you missed that, but Tim just gave away all the passwords to everywhere he ever works and we then realised he shouldn't have done that. I forgot to preface it with a many years ago comment at the start. Funnily enough, I've actually had an idea on my list for a while.

It was unrelated to this, but it was like one of, you know how sometimes I do like a joke podcast idea. One of the ones I've had sitting on the list for a while to do is, how did you come up with your password and why? Oh, yes. But that's a joke because, you know, you'd be stupid to go on and do that. But there you go. We've kind of stumbled into that idea as well. How did you come up with your pin number and why? That would be a fascinating podcast if you could somehow make it work. You could do it. You could anonymize the people and have them talk about passwords they haven't got anymore. But I don't know. I think that would be an interesting listen. It's probably a bit of a security nightmare,

but it would be an interesting listen. What passwords do you choose and why? It's always very interesting. I'm happy to talk about passwords I don't choose and why I don't choose them. Yeah, but then you might choose them one day, but also like someone really smart could listen to that and maybe engineer ways to figure out the ones you do choose. I don't think it will be that hard to figure out your passwords, to be honest.

Mine? Oh, no, I've sat through many, many of those online educational tutorial lessons where they teach you how to design a password. But you gave me a password the other day to log into something of yours, which I'm very grateful for, by the way. Did you make up that password just for me? Because when you sent me the password, I was like, oh, that's the most obvious password ever. Yes, yes. No, but that was one. Remember, I had to resubscribe to that. So I came up with something that I thought you'd know and appreciate. Okay. All right. That's the most obvious password ever. Yes, yes. No, but that was one. Remember, I had to re-subscribe to that,

so I came up with something that I thought you'd know and appreciate. Okay. All right. That's good. Nice one. We're sailing too close to the wind now. Let's stop. This would be the perfect time to go to an ad for a password manager,

but that's not who our sponsor is today. No. All right. But please jump on Reddit and tell us your passwords and how you came up with them and what you might vary them to and whatnot. All right. Let's do a sponsor message. Today's episode is brought to you by Storyblocks.

Oh, wow. You always say that. You just go like, oh, wow. Wow. Or you go, again? Again. What? They're back?

So anyone who watched the YouTube version of our last episode, which was the special where we marked things out of 10, you will have noticed there was all sorts of lovely video all the way through it. Each object, as I mentioned it, there were often videos playing. I'm locked in a hotel room. How do you think I got that video, Tim? How do you think I got all that amazing footage? Story blocks.

Correct. Correct. Yes. I downloaded it from their epic library of video. Also, there's also pictures and audio that you can just download unlimited if you're a subscriber and use in your various projects. I'm finding Storyblocks especially helpful while I'm locked up at the moment in quarantine. So those beaches and winter scenes and jigsaw puzzles and basketball games and people eating hot dogs, even Australia's Parliament House, I was able to download from Storyblocks. Check them out. Go to storyblocks. Check them out.

Go to storyblocks.com slash unmade. That's storyblocks.com slash unmade. Have a look. Sign up. You won't regret it. Having all this stuff at your fingertips if you are a creative person is extremely helpful. Also, Tim, I wanted to give people a little Storyblocks challenge today. Because you can go to the Storyblocks website even if you're not a subscriber and look at all the stuff.

Yeah. You just can't use it in your projects yet until you're a subscriber. So, I'm going to tell people, go there, have a look through their stuff, and I want you to find the best lookalike you can of Tim. So, Tim, have a look at these. This is a chap who's in some of the stock video there that I think looks a bit like you. This is my contribution to the contest. You think he looks like you? Oh, I see what you mean. Maybe he looks like me from the distance of the balcony, like of 16 floors or whatever where you are. Closer than that. I mean, he's a sort of slimmer,

younger version of you. Sorry. I mean, he's a less of slimmer, younger version of you. Sorry. I mean, he's a less wise and experienced version of you. It says here he's older than me. But if I was making Tim the movie, I think this guy would be a chance. He's a good looking rooster. I'll give you that. This says, and it's captioned, a portrait of young happy man with glasses looking to the camera and smiling on the city background or you can also get a video of close-up shot of young smiling man with glasses using smartphone for checking his flight on the

arrivals table in the background very specific yeah so go on to storyblocks see if you can find that tim look-alike and let us know online and we'll tell you what we think. Storyblocks.com. Make sure you go there with storyblocks.com slash unmade, by the way, so they know you came from us because, you know, that makes us look good. Every now and then you post a picture on Twitter of me and some people will say, oh, that's what Tim looks like. I didn't know that's what Tim looks like.

I've been listening for months. Yeah. And I'm always perplexed by that. And it is funny to hear, I wonder what people have in their mind. Yeah. That's not like a state secret, though. Like, you've got your pictures on your Twitter. We sell T-shirts with your face on it.

Oh, no. They're not obviously shopping at our merch store. However, I'd be interested to know if people don't know what I look like for some reason and then they go to Storyblocks and find a picture of who you think Tim looks like. Oh, that's even better. Yeah, if you don't know what Tim looks like, still play the game. Go to storyblocks.com slash unmade.

Search through pictures of people. They certainly have plenty of those. They can be doing anything, walking on the beach, playing tennis, whatever, playing the guitar or trying to play the guitar. Talking into a microphone. Yeah, and send it in and say, this is what I think Tim looks like. So either send us a lookalike if you know what he looks like or send us a, this is what I think he looks like.

Interesting. Intriguing. We still haven't got a jingle, but Spoon of the Week. It's time for Spoon of the Week. It's Tim's Spoon of the Week when he gets a spoon from the family archive of souvenir spoons from his, mainly his dad or his parents' travels around rural Australia, it usually seems. Many souvenir spoons have been collected. What have you got this week, Tim?

In fact, this is an emergency spoon, isn't it? Well, Brady, that's right. This is the emergency spoon, the one that I've kept in the bottom of my bag in case I forget to bring a spoon. And instead of incurring the wrath of Brady for having to drive back and delay the recording to find a spoon. No, what you normally do is get your daughter to take a picture of it and send it in. No, that's right. That happened once, yes. Find a spoon.

Find a pretty spoon. But I have – this is the emergency spoon because I'm recording in a different place today. So I've pulled it out. I must remember to replace it with a new emergency spoon. Otherwise, we'll be talking about this spoon several times over the next 12 months. All right. This is a souvenir spoon from Lakes Entrance in Victoria. So this is a special place, really. You've got to describe the spoon first.

You never talk about the spoon. You always say, like, you always go straight to where the spoon's from and that, and you never, like, you don't paint the picture. The purpose of the spoon is to be a souvenir of a place, to evoke the place, and it just takes me there straight away. The spoon points beyond itself. But sure, you want to know about the spoon? Okay. Well, look, this one has quite an unusual scoopy bit.

It does. This has, it's not a bowl. The bowl is not, it's not shaped like a bowl, like it's not a bowl. The bowl is not shaped like a bowl. Like it's not an oval. It's sort of a, what do you describe? It's like a, you know when you've got, here's how you describe it. You know when you get like a big hubba bubba, like a big thick piece of chewing gum. Yeah, a piece of bubble gum.

Like a little cube, rectangular cube of bubble gum. That's right, even like a minty, although minty is too hard to do what I'm about to describe. That is you hold it between your thumb and your forefinger and you squeeze it in just a little bit. And so it's sort of a square but the sides are curved in. It's a bit curvy, isn't it? It's a bit like, you know, yeah, a little bit raunchy.

It would give my phone number a run for its money in the curvy states. It would. It is. It's quite, yeah, it's sort of like, yeah, it sort of curves inwards. It's like got a. It's almost like a fork except it doesn't have prongs. Nothing like a fork. It's not, you know, it's more squarish.

That's what I mean. Although it's still enclosed. Don't you give me fork rubbish. And we're not That's what I mean. Although it's still enclosed. Don't you give me fork rubbish. And we're not getting fork of the week. You've got spoon of the week. Be happy with that. I don't know why we're doing spoons.

Knives are way cooler. Knife of the week would be a much more edgy podcast. So anyway, we've got our freestyle bowl. We've got a pretty nice handle, ornate handle. And then we've got that enamel at the top for this, which is this scenic picture of this place called Lakes Entrance in the state of Victoria where Tim spent much of his upbringing. Well, yes, it's sort of a holiday spot about an hour further on, you know, down from Terrelgan where I grew up,

and it's a place with lots of boats and things, and there's lovely blue and a bit of, I love the colours in this actually. They've held up quite well. There's red down the bottom where it says Lakes Entrance Victoria or it just says Vic, the blue of the water and then there's another blue of the sky and it's a lighter blue and there's some green. There's a bit of greenery, there's a bit of sand and there's a boat.

Sand, beaches and there is a boat, yeah. So there's quite a lot going on. Now, like there's a couple of things I'll say about Lake Centre. Could I stop you? No, no, no, no. There's something very contemporary. And then there's something a bit more originating from the spoon itself. Because this is where my parents went to have their honeymoon, believe it or not.

Yes, yes. So it could be that this is actually a honeymoon spoon and the honeymoon spoon wow a honeymoon spoon don't you guys have a honeymoon spoon i can't say but i do yeah so i think they bought this on their honeymoon at lake's entrance um and uh isn't that lovely lovely with your mum like last night could you not have asked her or you could have rung her today? Oh, I could have. Well, I don't think so.

I think I would have been given a, well, I don't remember. Or you could have stumbled onto honeymoon stories you definitely don't want to hear from your mum. No, I don't like to ask my mum and dad about their honeymoon. No. mood. No. The other thing that I remember about Lake's Entrance is that this is where I first saw the movie The Bodyguard with Whitney Houston. I've always wondered where you first saw that movie. Yes, I saw it. It was funny because I'd already moved to Adelaide and you and I

were friends, but I went back there for a holiday to see some folks. For a screening of The Bodyguard. Yeah, specifically went to the, I think the world premiere was in Lake's Entrance actually. And I can't remember Kevin Costner being there or Whitney Houston, but we saw it and it was really strange. It was in a gymnasium, like it's a very sort of country place and it's in a gymnasium and we're just sitting there and I was watching the movie and then it stopped and there was an intermission and we were halfway through.

I was like, what the heck is going on here? An intermission? Wow. Yeah. That's old school. There is a lake in the bodyguard, so it's sort of appropriate. There's that lake, isn't it, where that boat explodes? Oh, yes, yes.

Yeah, Lake's entrance is nowhere near as pretty as that. What is Lake's entrance? Because, like, the spoon itself does have this picture where there seems to be this, like like bank of land with a little gap, which obviously is kind of the entrance to the lake. What is Lake's Entrance? Is it like a, is it a marina with access to a lake or is it a river going into a lake or like what's entering what? I actually don't really know. I guess it's, I think it's the lake's region and the rivers are. What river is it? Hits the ocean.

Lakes Entrance is a seaside resort and fishing port in eastern Victoria. It's situated 320 kilometres from Melbourne near a managed artificial channel connecting the Gippsland Lakes to Bass Strait. Oh, there you go. At 2016 census, Lakes Entrance had a population of 4,810. The town is best known for hosting the world premiere of The Bodyguard. There you go. There you go. Although I think there was snow in that scene, wasn't there?

There's not a lot of snow in Lakes Entrance. Okay. But look, this is a nice spoon. It has a few original features. On the back, there's something almost like a clover kind of Irish feel to it. Well, it's for good luck for your marriage if it's the honeymoon spoon. This probably, I mean, this would be worth $10,000, $20,000 as a spoon. One would, but of course, I would never sell it because of its sentimentality.

Yeah, well, yeah, it obviously means a lot to you. You don't know if they got it on their honeymoon. You don't know anything about Lakes Entrance. No, that's right. It's been banging around in the bottom of your bag for a few weeks in case you forgot the second spoon. Everything I know about Lakes Entrance I've pretty much got from this spoon. That spoon is the Wikipedia of Lakes Entrance.

That's it. Imagine if all Wikipedia was communicated through spoons. It's a bit like those US seals, you know, the state seal. They try and convey the entire state's history. They end up with too much on one seal. I'm just picturing the girls doing homework going, Dad, what's the capital of Uruguay? Oh, let me go and check the spoon drawer.

We'll look it up. Dad, what's the capital of Uruguay? Oh, let me go and check the spoon drawer. Check the spoon. We'll look it up. Oh, dear. Anyway, that's Spoon of the Week. There we go. So that's the emergency spoon. I'm going to have to replace the emergency spoon now, and this will go back into the general collection.

And we don't have a winner of one of our souvenir spoons this week, the unmade podcast souvenir spoon in production. We normally do a random draw and, you know, we're not doing that today because Brady forgot. Forgot what? To do the random draw, to run the algorithm. Oh, isn't there just a name? Don't you have just a list and a name?

Yeah, but I've run like a whole mathematical algorithm to decide who it is. I don't just like choose a name that I like the look of. Otherwise it'd always be won by people called Jason or Cindy. Cause they were my two favorite boy and girls names when I was growing up. So we don't have a winner. Why Cindy? I just thought it was a lovely name at the time. I still think it's a lovely name to all the Cindy's out there. Yeah, yeah. Cindy Crawford.

Well, yeah, you know, yeah. She's like, she's the Tim's phone number of models. Time for another idea. Now, look, we have discussed before, Tim has been in a bit of an ideas slump lately. That was probably best shown by the fact when I texted you earlier today and said, are you up for doing a podcast later? And you said, yeah, I am.

I'm really looking forward to it. And then five minutes later you text and said, oh, I haven't come up with any ideas though. So, like, what were you looking forward to? I was just looking forward to talking to you. You know. The spoon. Yeah your emergency spoon. You're as unprepared as you could possibly be. And then when I called you, you didn't have your

microphone. Well, I had my other microphone ready. I thought I was very organised because I've got this new cool mic. But I was just looking forward to it in a general sense, I have to say. I thought I was very organised because I've got this new cool mic, but I was just looking forward to it in a general sense, I have to say. I do have a list of ideas, but I just think they're rubbish. All right. Well, I've got an idea, Tim, that I want to share for you that I'm quite excited about. Right. As an idea itself, but also as a sort of a training exercise or like introducing you to new ways of thinking that I think will help you get out of your slump. Oh, okay. Is this going to involve the word innovation or different hats of thinking and stuff like that?

There's going to be lots of that, Tim. Oh, dear. This idea, it's a bit meta because it's kind of like an unmade podcast within an unmade podcast. Because this idea is called song title based podcasts. And the idea of this would be you have to come up with a podcast, not about music, preferably not about music or songs, but the title of the podcast would be a song. For example, I'll give you two examples to start with. I could say to you, okay, I want a podcast called Brown-Eyed Girl. What's the podcast? And you would say, well, this is a podcast where each week I interview a different woman who happens to

have brown eyes. Yes. That would be the Brown-Eyed Girl podcast. Or you could have a podcast called Born in the USA. And each week you feature a different figure from history who happens to have been born in America. Very American podcast, obviously. So pretty simple. So what I want to do is I've got a list here of 10 song titles, and I've taken them from a mixture of sources, the best-selling songs of all time, Rolling Stone, 500 greatest songs of all time, and just a few that I put in

there for fun. Yes. And I want you and I to go through these song titles and really quickly, the first thing that comes into your head, you and me or together or just we'll see, we'll workshop it for like a minute or so per song. Talk about what that podcast could be about. Oh, this is, wow. This is so helpful. Brilliant. Yes. I can feel

my slump ending already. All right. Because this is a new way of thinking because you can think sometimes it's not about the idea. Sometimes the title can come before the idea. That's what I'm training you here. Are you ready? First of all, I'm ready. I'm ready. Tell me about the podcast, White Christmas. I've got nothing. I think this is a podcast where guests come on and talk about their first ever white Christmas. Because for some people, Christmas is white every year. But for a lot of people, like us in Australia, even in England, having a white Christmas is rare. It's something special. It's something you look forward to. Will I see snow on Christmas? Have England, having a white Christmas is rare. It's something special. It's something you look forward to. Will I see snow on Christmas? Have you ever had a white Christmas?

I have. I have. In Holland. We went to Holland when I was three or four, three and four. And we, yeah, yeah, it's beautiful. And Christmas is a bit different in Holland anyway, with a slightly different date and practices and St. Nicholas. Yeah, it was white and beautiful and I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it. So if you were a guest on White Christmas, you would come on and tell that story. I would tell the story of when I went to Austria and had my first ever White Christmas and what that was like visiting my brother-in-law's family and stuff like that.

So what was your first White Christmas, listener? Do you remember it? What was it like? Tell us the story. That is the White Christmas Podcast. That's a great idea. Very good. All right. You ready for another song title? Oh, come on. We're done. That's great. That was good. Let's go with that. Let's go. Let's go. Another song title. Tell me about what this podcast is about, Tim. The podcast is called I Can't Get No Satisfaction. I knew you would do this one.

That was the first song that came to mind when I thought you mentioned your idea. Yeah. I think this one would be about customer service. Oh. This would be a podcast about where people complain about poor customer service. The I Can't get no satisfaction podcast. You'd be like, I've been trying to find this thing or I had a problem with my product and I called them

and this is how they fixed it and they sent the wrong part and then I complained and they sent a guy out but the guy didn't come until the guy came on a Friday when he was supposed to come on a Thursday and then they rescheduled it for two months and it's like a complaining podcast. Yeah. I can't get no satisfaction.

I feel like that's a podcast that would be most enjoyable for the person who's telling the story. Oh, yeah. Because it's very cathartic to tell the story of how annoyed you are. Yeah. All right. Yeah. I was thinking the first thing that came to mind for that idea was the most irritating thing that the person you love the most does.

So the thing you hate the most about the person you love the most. That is a good podcast idea, but I can't see how the title fits. I can't get no satisfaction. It's like someone you love, but then they let you down. I know the song's not quite about that. Anyway, you said the first thing that came to mind. That's what came to mind. See what it did? It gave you a good podcast idea. I mean, in true Tim fashion, you then associated it with a bad title.

But it gave you an idea. I gave it a bad name. Even when you gave me the name first. Even when it's your name, I still choose a bad name. But that's by the by. You came up with a good idea from it. See what we're doing? See how this works?

Are you ready for the next one? You're such a good consultant, Brady. I am. Next. I am. I'm available. My rates are very fair. Maybe a little on the expensive side.

How about this one? You ready? What is Candle in the Wind, the podcast, about? I mean, this is obvious to me. Candle in the Wind. Well, there is a – the first thing that comes to mind is a celebration of someone that you love who has passed away. Yeah, but it's got to be about people – it's also got to be about people who died young, doesn't it? Oh, indeed, yes.

Under early tragic circumstances circumstances that kind of idea that's right like Marilyn Monroe and of course Princess Di as well yes is that your idea yeah that well I mean I haven't come up with ideas for all of these necessarily they're just the idea is just to hear it and say what you think so but yeah I just I just wrote the song titles down what's this podcast about in the summertime? About your, well, you could think your favourite summer or a summer that stands out and the memories associated with it. Things, activities you only do in the summer. It's a celebration of summer.

What you look forward to with summer. Yeah. The early smell of summer. A podcast all about summer. See, if you came on to the Unmade podcast one week and said, oh, my idea is called In the Summertime, and it's a podcast where people come on and talk about their favourite memories of summer, I would say, job done, slump over. It's that easy. You ready for another one? I'm now trying to think of the worst possible

title I could have given a podcast about summer. Don't think, don't think is my message to you. What is the podcast Money for Nothing about? Well. No, not that, but I'll play it anyway. Money for Nothing. Easy ways to make money. Easy scams, tricks of the trade, ways you can make money with very minimal effort. Who wouldn't listen to that?

Oh, that's good. That's good. Very good. Yes. All right. Yes. You can have a variety of people. Well, here we go.

This is appropriate. This is on my list. This is just a coincidence. It's on the list. I will always love you. What's that podcast about? Well, favourite Whitney Houston songs. I mean, that's that.

Yeah, it could be that. You could feature Whitney Houston on the Candle in the Wind podcast. You could, indeed, yeah. I Want to Dance with Somebody, that's probably my favourite Whitney Houston song. What's yours, man? I Think I Will Always Love You would be a podcast about childhood, youth, teen, Love You would be a podcast about childhood, youth, teen crushes, people you had crushes on like at school that you know, unrequited loves and that sort of stuff. And you talk about, yeah, I didn't end up with that person, but I will always love them. I will always love you.

Yeah. The girl you didn't get, the boy you didn't get. All right. What is the podcast I'm a Believer about? Something you've been recently converted to, I guess. I didn't follow this, but it's a little bit like I've changed my mind, which I know we've talked about. Or what about people that just believe crazy things like flat earthers and all those sort of people?

Or people of all different religions? Just why do you believe the thing you believe? Interview people that believe things that you don't believe and just find out why they do. Why do you believe that? I want to hear. I want to know. I want your story.

Nice. All right. What's this podcast about? Mysterious Ways. The song's about a girl, but with the metaphor of kind of the spirit. You really struggle to detach from the song, don't you? That's not the point.

It just happens to be a song title. I don't care what the song's about. It's a cracking song, of course, by you two. Well, that's right. I feel like it's important to note what the song's about before we move on to the title. No, no, that's not. I know, I know.

That's unimportant. But only mysterious ways. It could be about unusual things that have happened, unusual coincidences and moments that are unexpected and things that breezed into your life that might have brought a fork in your choice. No, but you're not using the ways, though, there. I think mysterious ways is about people who do things that you don't know how to do, like that are seemingly magic, like people who can lock smiths, how they can just unlock your front door in 10 seconds without the key.

Ah, yes. How do they do that? What do they, you know, and people who can do tricks and have skills that you, to you seem magical and they come on and explain how they do it. That's very good. Mysterious ways. All right, I'm writing that down. Mysterious ways, next. Basically, I'm just burning through a whole bunch of great ideas. That could have been the next five or ten podcasts.

Thinking out loud. This could be a little bit like we were talking earlier, how we remember things, but how you process, how you come to decide things. Well, we've just done that idea, man. We've literally done that idea in this episode. Yes, I know. What else you got? But not just how you remember, but how you process it, how you come to decisions.

You know, some people think and decide things intuitively and instinctively. Some people are more logical. No, I need to go away. I need to process that and I need to come back. What sorts of – some people talk to lots of people about things before they make a decision. I need to refer to people. Yeah of – some people talk to lots of people about things before they make a decision. I need to refer to people.

Yeah, so people just going through their thought processes. Yeah, I like that. Okay. And it's a good title. Last one, Start Me Up. Well, it could be your ritual in the morning. Yes, yes, correct. That's what it should be.

I say correct because that's what my idea is too, which is obviously therefore correct. That's correct. I do love your twin package comments. Firstly, it can be anything, anything. As long as it's my thing. And then I say something, you go, no, no, it's not. Well, your idea for Starving Mat would be, what's your favourite Rolling Stones song? That would be Gimme Shelter.

That's it. Oh, dear. So there you go, Tim. Have I changed your mindset a bit here? Do you think I'm helping you out of the slump? Just go through a bunch of song titles and think, what would a podcast be if that was the song title? This is the most helpful thing you've said in three or four years i think this is does that

mean every single uh podcast idea you have from now on is going to be a song title it pretty much is anyway so yeah the only twist is this time it won't be about the song well not directly anyway no but i can do this from anything because Because I will, from book titles, from film titles, you can walk along and go, here we go. Yes, yes. But remember, keep it general. Keep it general as well, though. The idea has to be more general than the title and obviously linked to it.

This is something people can play at home. Nine times out of ten, people should be able to guess your podcast from the title what it is. They should be no, they shouldn't have to figure it out. I think, yeah, I'd like to see people on the Reddit coming up with some song titles and what the podcast to go with it is. That would be fun. But don't do too many because then we can't do them.

No, indeed. I always feel like we can't do an idea if I've read it somewhere else. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, stay away from the good ones, people. Yeah, just rubbish ideas. In fact, we'll leak Tim's list and then you'll have a whole bunch of rubbish ideas. Well, horses for courses.

You say tomato, I say tomato. How about we do something we haven't done for a little while, an idea from one of our Patreon supporters. Please, bring it on. Join the growing list of people who make this show possible and be in the running to have one of your ideas read out on the show which is about to happen to Christelle. Where is Christelle? Is Christelle from Australia? No. Canada?

No, surprisingly. Uruguay. No. Lakes entrance. Oh, no, that's in Australia. All right. She is from the northeast of USA. She grew up in New York City and now lives across the river in New Jersey,

very close to Newark Airport. My town, South Orange, is one of the very few remaining areas in the state and the country where the streetlights are gas lamps. Wow. Very cool. I actually did email Christel back about that, and we had a little conversation. I found it so interesting, but that's by the by. Well, hang on, hang on, hang on.

I wasn't privy to that conversation. No, it was personal between us. Oh, gosh. Yeah. Is that safe? It doesn't sound safe, does it? But, you know. No.

It's what they do. Is there anything interesting about Christa we should know? Besides the fact she lives in a place where there are gas lamps? She says, I do a lot of volunteering with dog rescues. So I not only have six small dogs of my own, but in the past year and a half, I've also fostered over 30 dogs. at over 30 dogs and in June I drove over 800 miles each way to bring 11 dogs from a high kill shelter in Georgia to foster and adoptive families here in New York and New Jersey. Good for you Christelle. Good stuff. Well done. Save those doggies. All right now here's the important part her podcast idea. She says my podcast idea is about, all aspects of ice. There's the

scientific angle, such as the fascination with glaciers, the safety aspects like black ice, the sport aspect, like how rinks are built and maintained and how certain arenas can be used for basketball and hockey, popular culture, like references to ice in songs and movies and the strange success of shows like ice capades and disney on ice and of course the culinary from the different types that are best for different cocktails and other applications like shaved ice to people's obsessions with different styles of ice from different locations dry ice zambonis Vanilla ice The revolutionising of the kitchen through ice delivery Truly this is a simple subject Yet with no conversational end in sight

That's her idea There we go Good one Ice Ice cast I'd listen to ice cast Do you like ice? Do you go ice skating or to icy places?

I like ice a lot I recently stayed at the Ice Hotel, which was amazing. That was amazing. You could make – that was one of the real experiences of life. I don't know if I agree with Christelle that there is no conversational end in sight. I do envisage a day where I would get sick of talking about ice. But I think I could go for quite a long time. I've just Googled ice and it came up with a question,

are iced tea and ice cube related? I see they don't think that vanilla ice is related. But there is a connection between ice and wrappers. There's three prominent wrappers. Definitely, definitely, yeah. There's ice sculptures as well. I mean, that's a very beautiful... That's what the Ice Hotel was amazing for. They have these special rooms and each one is carved in this... Do you know the Ice Hotel? Only from you

mentioning it, but I forgot to ask. Google the Ice Hotel and then click on images and look at some of the pictures of all the amazing rooms. They're incredible. Oh, they're marvellous. Is it recreated every year? Yeah, every year it melts and they sweep the remnants into the river that flows by and they start again the next year. There are permanent rooms too. There's like a big, it's almost like a big kind of big warehouse building. And in there, it's kept cold all year round and they have permanent rooms

but then they have another section where they make temporary yearly rooms. And how do you keep warm? Are you just rugged up really, really well? Yeah, there's all these like deer skins and stuff on the bed because the bed itself is made of ice. It's got all these deer skins on it and then they give you these special suits to wear to keep warm

and then you get into like these sleeping bags. Wow. Quite often and what we did was you also hire, you rent like a warm room and usually you'll stay in the warm room one night and then like your ice room another night. And after a few hours or quite a few hours, I have to admit, we did retreat to the warm room. So, after a while, it did get a bit on the cold side

but it was still quite an experience. It looks beautiful too. Oh, it's ridiculous. It's like it's not real. It's incredible. It's like you're Superman. Oh, it's like it's every Instagram dream come true at once. They invented Instagram for this place.

And is the menu full of ice things as well? Like do you order ice cream? You can go to the bar for drinks and the drinks come in these glasses that are made of ice. They're like a kind of a cube with a glass kind of carved into it, like a curved area carved into it. So you drink your drinks out of these huge blocks of ice. Do you have it with ice? Does everyone make that joke?

On the rocks, please. Yeah, and like the bars made of ice and all the seats you sit in are made of ice. And it's like, yeah, it's fantastic. Oh, that's cool. That's very cool. Ice cast, Christelle, thank you very much for a great idea. That's just a good, solid idea. I like it.

I like it. It's a good, solid idea. It's fertile ground, which is something you don't often say about ice. I wonder if it spawned out of her name. So having the name Christelle and then having ice, there's a nice connection there. She spelt Christelle like Christ with an E-L though, not Christelle like, you know, the dark crystal.

Oh, yeah. Right, okay. But who knows? Who knows where the idea – she didn't say why. She didn't say where the idea came from. Maybe it came from a song title. Maybe Ice Ice Baby. Yeah.

Anyway, thank you very much. And thank you for your patronage, Christelle. How do you know which towel's yours at home? We have different colours just to help. Yeah. Yeah. Which is very wise, really. Particularly if you've, you know, moved to the bedroom and so towels end up, you know what I mean?

Who's left on the bed while you've got dressed and gone and had breakfast and come back? Oh, it could be chaos. Is that mine or yours? It could be utter chaos. Oh. You need monograms.