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Episode 439 -Alex Jones was/is Right
601 Plays4 months ago
This week Josh and M do something controversial: they argue that on some level, you have to admit Alex Jones is Right. Looking over Alex's long career and recent proclamations, Josh and M pinpoint when and where Jones has been Right, and what that means for conspiracy theories and conspiracy theorising...
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Transcript
Weather Irony in Auckland
00:00:00
Speaker
Good evening! How are things back in the old of the Auckland? The old of the Auckland? I have no idea what I'm saying there. You're thinking you miss a day or something, but in it, it doesn't make a lot of... Yeah. No. No, no. Auckland is fine. Auckland is fine. It's rainy, but it's Auckland, so that's what you speak. Oddly enough, it's been raining all day, except three minutes ago the sun has peaked itself out, almost as if it's punishing me for going, look, you've been stuck inside, it's been raining. Now the point in time, you have to be inside to record the sun's go going to be out. So I don't know what to make of that, but it's been passing with rain the last few days.
00:00:39
Speaker
to the
Flood Troubles Return
00:00:40
Speaker
point where because there's a leak in the apartment building, there was a waterfall in the central stairwell. It's the water from level five or six because we've got one of those things where the first floor is the second floor. Anyway, water was getting in through the roof and then cascading down the stairs. How exciting. And also alarming, because in theory, if it cascaded enough that it started pulling on the actual landings outside of the apartments, it could pull in such a way that it went over the lip and actually ingressed into the apartments. meaning I would have what you had two years ago. And that was a pain in the ass, so I would recommend it, to be honest. No, no, I would not recommend it at all. And it hasn't even happened to me.
00:01:30
Speaker
And I wouldn't recommend it. So I can't imagine what you would recommend in a situation like that.
00:01:38
Speaker
Not but being out of the country actually did work quite well. But you've just done that. So. Yeah. And i here, I mean, God knows what happened when I was out of the country last time. Who knows what hijinks occurred in my apartment building. Sometimes it's better not to know.
Marvel Movies in China: Why the Struggle?
00:01:55
Speaker
a Well, i I saw the Deadpool and Wolverine movie. So i don't I don't think that has been released in China, and I also don't know whether it's on the release schedule. Marvel films are big here, but I haven't seen any pre-release advertising for Deadpool versus Marvel. And I do wonder, given Ryan Reynolds,
00:02:22
Speaker
improvisational skills and the fact that the scripts are often not adhered to. Whether it's one of those things that just might be a little bit too hard to subtitle, because you can't just go to a script and then go, right, let's get the timings right here. You might go, the script is not exactly what's happening on screen at the moment. yeah But I have been rewatching two guys, a girl and a pizza place to get my Ryan Reynolds in. And James and Nathan Fillion. Not yet, so that's season two yeah onwards. yeah So season one still has Julius Carey and David Ogden Stires who disappear when the pizza place disappears. So it goes from being two guys, a girl in the pizza place to just two guys and a girl. But of course it actually ends up being more than two guys and actually more than just a girl, but that's another matter for another time. But
Deadpool vs Wolverine: A Real Movie?
00:03:15
Speaker
overall Deadpool versus Wolverine, good, bad, different. It's it's fun, I enjoyed it.
00:03:21
Speaker
I don't know if you could call it a movie. It's it like the whole thing. It's it's a big it' sort of lovely to slash farewell to the Fox Marvel stuff. So it's just ah the the the whole the the whole plot such as there is is a metaphor for old properties being cancelled and the the the the Fox X Men stuff going away and stuff getting amalgamated into into Marvel proper and that sort of stuff. And so there's some there's some very good cameos that they've done a very good job of keeping quiet about. I know i know of at least one featuring a former, I must say, co-star, main star of a Ryan re Reynolds film.
00:04:10
Speaker
Oh, there's, there's, um, yeah, the like the trailers, the trailers showed a couple and I thought, oh, okay. And then, then some folks showed up and I was like, okay, I was genuinely not expecting that. Nice to see. But yeah, I mean, it's, it's as a, as a movie with a story, it's not really one. It's a loosely connected string of events that give them an excuse to bring lots of stuff up. But everyone's having so much fun and there's obviously, you know the The people who made it really know their stuff and have genuine affection for all that stuff, and that comes across. so it doesn't That doesn't feel like a cynical cash grab, even though I guess that's kind of what it is. It's sort of milking the last bit of money out of a bunch of properties. but
00:04:55
Speaker
um yeah it's it's it's worth what if yeah i i looked I was on YouTube today and it's a good thing I saw it the first weekend after it came out because YouTube is now full of spoilers and and clips of the scenes and people showing up and stuff. so Maybe stay off YouTube if you're planning to watch it. now I only tend to watch video game restorations on YouTube, so I'm kind of fine. Actually, on
Red Dwarf: Sketches or Sitcom?
00:05:21
Speaker
the not-quite-a-film, I've been rewatching Red Dwarf recently, and even though I really do like series one and two for its very
00:05:33
Speaker
isolating tone, the fact it really does feel like Listerous allows human being alive and what it would be like to have nothing to do three million years away from Earth. It is fairly clear that Doug Naylor and Rob Grant. Rob Grant, yes. so yeah They were sketch writers before they wrote Red Dwarf. And the first few episodes, I'd say actually majority of series one and two, really aren't sitcoms. They're a succession of scenes with the same characters. So it's really interesting to rewatch going, I mean, there's like there's actually only the barest sense of a plot here. So it's endlessly quotable.
00:06:17
Speaker
and the ideas are very clever, but I don't know whether it's actually a good sitcom. As the series goes on, it becomes more and more of a 3X structure standard sitcom. And I kind of feel it loses a lot of its character as it goes along, in part because they do things like making the cat, no longer a cat and things like that. But the first few seasons, really quite fascinating to go. I don't think this would be commissioned in the modern age because it just doesn't feel like a sitcom.
00:06:51
Speaker
a It looks like one, it sounds like one, structurally though it isn't one. Did you ever read his book? um I can't remember what it's called now. that You don't have to get it either. Which hay are you referring to here? I'm pretty sure it was, yeah, I'm just looking it up now. rob Rob Grant, he wrote a book called Colony. He's written a bunch of books. i mean agree good Because he he also wrote some Red Dwarf books as well, because there's the infamous split between the two creators, and they ended up writing sequels to the first two books, Infinity
00:07:28
Speaker
welcomes careful drivers and better than life. And then they, because they hated each other, wrote their own sequels to the third book, which take take the stories in radically different directions. But no, I haven't read any of the stuff outside of Red Dwarf. It's very... I don't know what the other ones are like. Colony is very, very sort of cynical. And it's sort of, you know, watching watching the main character just getting getting shat on for an entire book. to to the extent that it turns out the reason why the guy was sort of ultimately picked to be put in the situation is because he was such a loser with such low expectations of life. He's the only person who would have been able to cope with such a crappy cascade of bullshit happening to him without going insane.
00:08:16
Speaker
um But it was still quite funny with some, some, some fun ideas. That's about, um, a guy cons his way onto the last planet leaving earth, which is seemingly about to collapse due to some sort of climate disaster. Leaving earth, not last planet. Last spaceship leaving the planet. Yes. Uh, and, and then immediately gets murdered and then wakes up as a head in a jar. um much later and as the as the the ship's gone full of deocracy and has to sort things out. But it's kind of interesting. um um Now, before we record our episode this week, we do need to have our kind of annual meeting to keep an eye on things. So
Meeting Minutes Mishap
00:09:07
Speaker
I sent you through the agenda. Yes, yet no I have an agenda.
00:09:11
Speaker
Now, we should we should do this properly. So I need to ask, do we have a quorum for this meeting? We do this. We do this formally. So I'll just do a ah roll call. So Josh Addison, are you here? Yes. Then we have quorum. Yes. okay And I think we should leave it there because we're coming perilously close to ah Flight of the Conchords. but and i dont think like that's That's true. yeah Now, can you confirm the meeting confirm the meeting confirm the minutes of the previous previous meeting? Yes, I have them here. So any abnormalities, things which we left off, things that need to be addressed from the previous meeting? I believe I was in charge of taking the minutes of the previous meeting. I have them here. They just say, Josh, remember to write minutes for the meeting next time.
00:10:07
Speaker
um So i think I think possibly past me may have done us st dirty on that one and was was relying on future me, which is now present me. to um have a proper recollection, but I'm afraid I past Josh down just as he let me down, which is fair. So I think that requires that on the agenda we now have to add in that future Josh has to write the minutes that past Josh failed to do, because technically we have to have minutes for previous meetings.
00:10:41
Speaker
And also, it gets us normally to do the minutes of this meeting as well. Your future self has to remember to do the past minutes and the current minutes. And of course, the current minutes will be the past minutes after this meeting is finished. So in future, you have to do the past meeting and the past-past meeting. Now, can you guarantee that future Josh is going to be able to remember to distinguish one past from another past? Future Josh has never let me down. Yeah, but past Josh has... Oh, past Josh would not trust him as far as I can throw him. No, no, but future Josh, great guy. All right, let me just, let me make a note. Older and wiser, you know. All right, hold on. So I'm gonna make a note here to remind you to do that next time. Okay, brilliant. Okay, all right, good. Okay, all right, so we've got things to discuss.
Show Scheduling Debate
00:11:33
Speaker
The first item on the agenda is going back to a weekly schedule.
00:11:39
Speaker
I mean, how do we feel about going back to weekly schedule? And also, how do we feel about the show having been fortnightly for the first half of the year? um I actually kind of liked the yeah the the fortnightly format. Gave a bit more bit more room to breathe, a bit more room to think about stuff. Is that just because we did the book reviews and you hate reading? Well, I mean, I do hate reading horribly, but um I mean, I know you hate reading horribly, but does it mean you just hate reading? ah It depends on what I'm reading. I think it would be more accurate to say I hate Neil Levy. No, I've never met Neil Levy. You hate the work of Neil Levy. You should hate Neil Levy. You hate what Neil Levy produces. And maybe not even everything he he produces. I mean, as far as we know, he may or may not be a winemaker.
00:12:35
Speaker
Although admittedly you don't like wine. So actually you probably do hate everything that Neil Levy produces, whether or not he's a winemaker. So maybe you actually do hate Neil Levy. Interesting. Interesting. I think that's how inferentialism works. If you hate Neil Levy, whether or not he's a winemaker, then you hate Neil Levy. I didn't realize I had that level of hate in me. Well, I mean, I mean, meetings are where we learn things that we sometimes don't realize we know. All right. So does that mean you would prefer us to remain fortnightly, dabble with weekly? I mean i think, how do you feel? only by I think fortnightly by default, but if something happens, such as say the attempted assassination of a US presidential candidate, then it might be good to fire up the podcast engines, even if it's a week early.
00:13:28
Speaker
Okay, all right, so let me just make a note there for future reference, we will be mostly fortnightly. as decided okay actually you're meant to be making that uh yeah actually given we've already had a discussion about how past you and future you one of you is reliable and the other is not in the same way that if i ask your brother whether you're a liar and one of you is a lot liar we have to work out who the liar is in that paradox maybe i should just take the notes here so we mostly fortnightly
00:14:03
Speaker
Unless something comes up that requires us to do a inter-weekly? No, inter-fortnitely? Inter-episode into episode in into episodede episode episode. I don't know. Anyway, if something comes up that means we do something. Just put another note down to find out the correct word to describe how we'll do other things. What word do we use? Okay. All right. Well, all right. So we're going to stay fortnightly unless something comes up that requires us not to be fortnightly.
00:14:40
Speaker
Okay, actually maybe that will have a flow-on effect for when we talk about the length of episodes, but we'll talk about that when we get to section C, although actually there's quite a lot to do with respect to the next part, yeah which is segments.
Reviving Morrissey and Pluddles
00:14:56
Speaker
So there is demand for more Morrisian pluddles. Is the demand from you? No, it's from it's it's not from me. It's from one of our producers. Admittedly, they are the owner. Actually, I'll just say, Philip wants more Morrissey and Pluddles, but they are a producer on the show. so you know they They get to demand that sort of thing. Yeah.
00:15:24
Speaker
Now, we had a discussion about Morrissey and Pluddles after the last section of the episodes, which I realize now is almost three years ago. So actually, it's been a long time coming. And I offered you the opportunity to write the follow-up serial. You see, that's very much my thing to do. Are you still of the opinion that the next series of Morrissey and Pluddles should be my baby rather than yours? I do think so, yes. it's okay and then I will I will start thinking and about so I mean i I actually do have a document which has the basic outline for the next Morrissey and Puddles story line I just have to actually
00:16:08
Speaker
write it out because this time around age you want to do a proper whodunit with characters and evidence and clues throughout the entire thing so rather than last time which was making it up episode by episode as you might do a classic serial this time i want to actually write something which has a beginning a middle and an end which technically means people could solve the mystery before the final episode ever it is so i will get to work on that but i have had the idea In part because when Philip was actually asking about more Morrisian pluddles, we had a discussion about the previous scripts. So I've actually gone back through the previous episodes, culled the scripts from our notes, and I'm wondering
00:16:52
Speaker
Do we as either an extra episode or an episode in rotation just re-record the entire thing as one consistent piece? Because I am aware that even though I have a world-class Belgian accent, the voice I used for Morrissey was not particularly consistent per episode, or even actually technically within the episodes. No, I don't think I was an awful lot better, to be honest. I think you were, I mean, you were perfect, but compared to me, you were substantially better. Possibly you were shooting for the stars and had further to fall, whereas I was trying to, I was, I was doing it more low-key, so I didn't have his is is as far to diverge from. but So I'm thinking, yeah.
00:17:44
Speaker
Yeah. it sounds like sounds like Sounds like a good ah patron bonus, perhaps, the complete works. Yeah, I mean, I looked at the script and if we were to do it as one episode, it needs to be slightly rewritten in that because it was it was written as an episodic piece. So it's not going to make much sense as one thing to have the scenes the way they work. I may need to. bung some scenes to together, put some additional stuff in between to explain transitions and the like. But yeah, that will be something I will work on at the same time. As I work on the second script, I'll work on revising the first series of scripts. We can re-record it. Once it's re-recorded, maybe we release it to patrons first and then work out how to release it to the general public afterwards, which actually, this is not on the agenda.
00:18:39
Speaker
But I actually have thought about putting up the musical cues for the intros and the individual segments up on Bandcamp to be one of those things, pay as you like, to download the complete soundtrack to the podcast's Guide to the Conspiracy. So maybe we could put that up on Bandcamp as well. The thing is, it could be technically free, but if you want to give us a bit of money for it, you can. Mm, that makes a lot of sense, yes. Yeah. Now, next thing, now we've gone past Maureen's puddle, there's also demand for a new series of What the Conspiracy. Ah. Well, I mean, I always did enjoy it. i just found I just sort of ran out of ideas, but maybe it's been long enough. And since I was able to chuck together a couple of filler episodes all on my own, that does sound like something we could start doing again.
00:19:35
Speaker
Yeah, and i've I've got a ah list of things that I would like to do as a what the conspiracy episode. So yeah, maybe we can bring back what the conspiracy into ro rotation. I mean, because normally what we tend to do is we tend to have rotating segments anyway. So depending on how many segments we decide to work with going forward, we can work out what the frequency of what the conspiracies are. And given
'What the Conspiracy' Revival
00:20:03
Speaker
we're going to be a fortnightly podcast, there's also a lot more prep time if we're doing all the conspiracy anyway. Yes. Yeah, no, I'm in favor of bringing that one back.
00:20:14
Speaker
Fantastic. Because once again, there is demand. It's demand by the same person who wants more Marcy and Pluddles. Once again, they are a producer on the show. yeah so word is law Therefore, what they want is what they get. I mean, if this was an if this was an actual episode as opposed to us just talking about the agenda. We could even go, look, if people want to demand segments, become producers of the show. Maybe we should actually mention that in an episode. One of the things about being a producer is you do get a certain degree of sway over hell how the show works. We haven't really, I mean, this is kind of the discussion of the Patreon stuff.
00:20:57
Speaker
We haven't really leveraged the Patreon tiers particularly well, so maybe that's something we should also be doing going forward. It might make a bit more sense, yes. Yes. All right, so the next thing on the agenda was my idea that I suggested earlier on this year, which is you listening back on old episode to the Tent of the Files and Conspiracy Corner, the segments I did on 95 BFM, and then seeing whether I have any memory whatsoever of things that I discussed. Because even though they're all uploaded on the blog,
00:21:34
Speaker
And most of them have quite voluminous notes. When I went through to make sure the files were linked correctly, I didn't actually look at any of the content or listen to the episodes again. So there might be a bit of a goldmine there to see whether I remember past conspiracy theories that I opined about on the radio back in Auckland. Yes, the only one I can remember is one where you kept talking about fingering the Pope. See, i don't i don't I don't remember that at all, but frankly, if you can find that and we can discuss it, I'm happy to finger the Pope once again. Actually, i wonder I wonder which Pope we would think we were we were, I was fingering at that time. yeah Yes, I'll have to have to look it up. Yes, I mean, that could that could even be
00:22:23
Speaker
it could It could be a thing for me to fall back on if i could if it's my turn to do a what to conspiracy, and yet I don't have a conspiracy, I could instead surprise you. I could spring a ah memory check on you, test your faculties. This is your life thing of, do you remember this clip? And then you play me saying something really, really stupid and I go, i That's not my voice. That's a deep fake. In fact, I was on a riverboat in Phuket at the time that that recording occurred. In fact, I'm not even the person you think I am. I'm the evil Spanish clone or something of that kind. e Yes, I think that could work.
00:23:03
Speaker
Okay, right, so we're going to have what the conspiracy back in rotation and maybe what the conspiracy and something like does him remember or in some cases what the conspiracy being replaced by does him remember. I think I'll leave that up to you. Maybe we'll just make the segment what the conspiracy slash does him remember and sometimes you might do does him remember and sometimes you might just do a what the conspiracy. So that's going to be two segments. So yeah, we'll put back in rotation.
00:23:40
Speaker
And, oops. And yeah, and that's where, okay. Now, now. literature review episodes. So we've done our, we did conspiracy masterpiece theater for a while and then we kind of stopped because we were getting very very close to the present day and the worry about calling something a masterpiece if it's only been published in the last three years or so as we might be kind of over egging the pudding so to speak.
00:24:13
Speaker
Do
Literature Review Episode Plans
00:24:14
Speaker
we want to go back to looking at the philosophical literature in the kind of historical way we were looking at it last time, which is going year by year, paper by paper? Or are we still too close to the present day? And we do what we did at the end of last year, which was looking at prominent pieces in the conspiracy theory, theory literature, just not in philosophy. Yeah, I think the i think the latter might be better, because yeah, the modern ones, the recent ones did seem a little bit recent, and it would be interesting to see what else has been, because I mean, you that this is this is perhaps more familiar to you, but I have no idea what was going on outside of philosophy at the times of the original episode, the original um papers that we looked at in the earlier episodes. So I think that could be, if nothing else, instructive for me,
00:25:12
Speaker
Yes, yes, all right, so we will we will keep two older papers, not necessarily philosophical, okay.
00:25:27
Speaker
All right, that's that's fine. so right So we will continue on with that, but we'll avoid recent philosophical work for the time being. And I guess what we should do is, what is the threshold? How many years old should a paper be to be in the Masterpiece series? Well, I mean, when did we start? Late 90s? The mid-90s, 1995. And we've gone up to not this decade yet, have we, but not far off yet. Yeah, late teens, late teens. So I mean, I don't know, maybe you need to tell me, but when was this stuff in other disciplines?
00:26:14
Speaker
starting or prominent. So the big explosion of recent literature is basically 2016 onwards. So the advent of the Trump presidency led to a lot of work and then of course COVID led to a lot of work in 2020, 2021, more 2021, 2022 than 2020, truth be told, had to be very on the ball to be doing stuff at the end of 2020. So, yeah, 2016 you get and a new interest and then COVID a massive explosion of literature. Now, admittedly, 2021, depending on how you look at it, is four years ago or so. So we could have a kind of five to six year moratorium, anything published
00:27:06
Speaker
five or six years it goes fine anything more recent than that you have to wait for it to slide back into into the past yeah that sounds sensible All right. I assume there are papers from the other disciplines prior to 2016. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's actually a whole bunch of stuff, although it's actually mostly books, that was written in the late 80s, early 90s, we could be looking at. Because there was a lot of work on conspiracy theories in communication studies, and in what's called American studies.
00:27:44
Speaker
And so you've got, you know, Peter Knight, Claire Burchill, people like that are Jack who i talked I talk about a lot, all writing work at an earlier era. And it might be interesting to look at that, but it is mostly books. It is mostly books. And I do know you're not the greatest fan of the book. Well, if they're short books. No, unfortunately not, because the kind of literature these people belong to does not does not lead to short, succinct or or precise prose. No matter how good the content is, it does tend to be wordy, just like me.
00:28:24
Speaker
well Well, we'll have to see then, I don't know. All right, so five or six? Six, five... Let's say six. Right, six years old. Okay, all right, sir so if we get papers which are published basically at the Let's say by the beginning of 2018, we're willing to look at those. Otherwise, next year it will be 2019. We can take those papers in. But things have to be older than six years to be able to be in the Masterpiece Theatre episodes. That sounds fine. Yeah. Yeah. OK. Good. Good. All right. Next thing. Remakes of prior episodes. So we've been doing a few of those over the last year and a bit.
00:29:15
Speaker
Do we want to continue doing that? And what do we think about remaking older episodes? um I think it's a good idea. i I think we need to be a bit selective. We've already done a couple where it turned out we'd already redone it. we Yeah. was the third time we'd looked at it yeah yeah um So we need to look at that. But there there must still be a bunch of old topics that are classics that are worth talking about and that we it's been long enough since we've talked about them that it's worth looking at them again. Yeah, no, I think i think as long as we're very selective,
00:30:00
Speaker
And we also need to make sure that we've got something new to say about the contents or rather simply just rehashing the old episode. There needs to be some substantial update or some new idea as to how to approach the material. I mean it's interesting now that we've moved podcast hosts from Podbean to Zencaster, Zencaster doesn't necessarily have all of our old episodes. It's kind of an episode limit for how old stuff can be when it gets imported.
00:30:34
Speaker
So some of the earliest episodes of the podcast I don't believe are currently available. So in one respect remaking old episodes is a great idea because some of that material's now kind of gone beyond the veil. But I do think we need to have something interesting to say if we want those episodes to work. Yes. I think i think i' old, what the conspiracy episodes could be, candidates for remaking as well, depending on the topic of something new comes up. That could be a good way of either the person who originally originally had it presented to them can try turning the tables or possibly it can be a thing. of How much do you remember about the thing that I
00:31:19
Speaker
I mean, it would be quite great if one of us did a what the conspiracy which was the exact same what the conspiracy other person I've never heard of this before and you go and here's a previous episode where I told you all about it is I don't remember that at all. That'd be hilarious. yes To the point where it would actually be worth doing just for a joke of pretending not to remember a previous one. Yeah, you do two what the conspiracies in a row, which are exactly the same topic. You just pretend that you don't remember what happened four weeks ago.
00:31:54
Speaker
Okay, right, yeah so yeah so we'll we'll continue doing remakes. We just need to make sure that there's something interesting to say. Okay, so that leads on to the next part of the agenda on segments, which is, do we have any new segment ideas?
00:32:12
Speaker
um Nothing springs to mind and and looking looking at our notes there, I think we've got a decent selection to keep us going anyway. All right, so I'll just say no. Given I wrote the agenda, if I had any ideas, I would have just slaughtered them in there. So we have no new ideas because we are, we are fussy and dusty old people. yeah we're We're fossilized, we're stagnating, where we're just, we're just doing the same old thing. Which brings us on to the final part of our
00:32:48
Speaker
section on segments so let's say our segment on sections although i guess it also works as well intros so we used to have intros then we went through a period of time where we didn't have intros and then as it appears to be the case one person on social media said bring back the intros we brought back the intros do we want to continue having intros to episodes or do we want to get rid of them or just do them when we think we've got something interesting to say because when I was going back to find the Morrissey and Puddle stuff, I knew I'd lost one of the intros. And so I went back and I just went through the episodes at the time, listening to them. Turns out almost every single intro I wrote at that time begins with the word so.
00:33:45
Speaker
Well, you do like a, what is it in medias res, sort of a it's true idea catching you midway through a conversation, sort of a device there. But it was just alarming too, because the way that macOS works with previewing is just press space and the file plays. So, next up, so, so, anyway, that's that six so's in a row. Maybe I need to be slightly better with my in media res intro, but yes, intros. How do we feel about the current state of introductions to the podcast? I mean, I don't mind them. I don't mind them.
00:34:31
Speaker
I don't have your flair for the amateur dramatics. so i don't i've I've written the occasional one, but I don't usually feel i' i don't usually feel the muse move within me. So if you're happy to keep writing them, I'm happy to keep doing them. um well i so i think I think rather than saying we have to have one per episode, we'll have them when there is something clearly interesting or amusing to say. So that way, we'll have in or have intros win intros ah when when intros been inspired and intros been inspired in the person. What kind of sentence is that? And intros been inspired. All right, so we'll just say sometimes that's good, because I have to say,
00:35:20
Speaker
Occasionally I write the intro within an hour of the episode being due to be recorded because sometimes I go, I don't have anything, which is why some of the intros are basically just variations of the same old theme. So maybe I should, I should, and actually, although if we are going to be fortnightly, it does give me more time to think about an appropriate intro. Okay, now, this brings us on to the next item on the agenda, which is episode length. And
Optimal Episode Length
00:35:52
Speaker
I think the fact that we're talking about staying as a mostly fortnightly podcast, we need to talk about how long the episodes are.
00:36:04
Speaker
Um, I like, I like an hour as a, as a podcast length. Um, but certainly like it's, as happened, I think, especially when we're doing the nearly levy stuff and what have you, we ended up talking for a bit longer than that. And some of those when we had a head, had the media topics and that felt fair enough because the episodes were coming out less frequently. So, um I don't know, it's just a personal preference for me. I like about an hour when I'm listening to podcasts and I find most most podcasts just sort of creep. I don't know. I mean, we started small and it went up to half an hour and then ended up just doing hour long episodes without even really meaning to. Some of the ones I listen to start hitting an hour and a half or getting close to two hours and they that that irks me.
00:36:55
Speaker
See, I was thinking, given that the longer episodes are the book reviews and the literature reviews, so often the literature review ones go well over an hour. And the book reviews definitely for some of the Neil Levy stuff was getting close to two hours per episode. I do wonder whether for those reviews maybe we make them we record as one session but we make it into a two-part thing so we plan ahead and we go look this will be about halfway through the section of chapters we're looking at or halfway through the article we find a way to introduce a break there and that way we can release episodes which are less than an hour in length
00:37:42
Speaker
And in that case, then we we are weekly for that particular session. Yeah, that sounds sensible. Yeah, because the literature reviews do tend to be long. And I think part of the issue is that when we've done the literature reviews in the past, we get towards the end of the paper and then we start speeding through because are we, you know, we're we're running up against time here. Well, so if we aren't speeding through by going, well, look, we can just split this into two episodes. We can do better justice to the reviews. And also we've been producing two episodes rather rather than one. yeah Yes, that's that sounds ridiculously sensible. I'm not sure if I approve.
00:38:24
Speaker
okay I'll just put down there sensible suggestion made sensible suggestions made which means that future me when they come to do the minutes will go what the hell was that sensible suggestion meant to be all right so we're happy with the current length when we do episodes we know would normally go over that length we will split them in twain Yes. Sounds like a plan. OK, next item on the agenda, bonus episodes. So at the moment, our current bonus episode format is basically news and occasionally pop culture chat. Do we want to keep to that or shake things up a little? um I think our patrons deserve the best we can give them.
00:39:18
Speaker
Yes, so are we giving them the best with our sometimes perfunctory news coverage? Possibly not. I mean, yes, we we have we have once or twice recently something has popped up, especially when there's been a little a little sort of appendix to the main episode that wasn't directly related to it, but was an interesting little little factoid to go along with it. um I thought those sorts of things worked well. So if something like that pops up, we should definitely do that as a bonus episode. But should we be looking out for more of that stuff? Because I do sometimes feel our news coverage is just a little bit perfunctory.
00:39:58
Speaker
Yes, I think some of them, look looking through our list of possible topics, I think maybe some of them would actually be better as bonus super episode topics. Yeah, I agree. yeah The one the one would that I ended up not doing so I could do the PogChamp episode instead about um Gunpei Yokoi. I think would have made a good bonus episode because I think I probably would have struggled to turn it into a full episode, even though I'd lighted on that one. Yeah, we do actually have quite a long list of episode topics which we've never covered over the last four or five years. And I think that's in part because it's interesting, but is there enough to do a full episode on? So I think we just start carving those topics out of that master list and start doing those as the bonus stuff.
00:40:47
Speaker
a And once again, because we're fortnightly, we can spend a bit more time doing a bit of prep for what the bonus episode is going to look like. And if there is exciting or important news, we can cover it. But of course, arguably, if there is exciting and an important conspiracy theory news, it probably should be in the main episode. Yeah, yeah if it's if it's genuinely significant, yes. yeah Yeah, so maybe we should make the bonus episodes either extensions of things that we talked about in the main episode that didn't naturally fit in, or is it interesting aside,
00:41:27
Speaker
or little topics that we've got on our list which don't really make the cut for main episodes but is the kind of things I feel the patrons might like yeah yeah yeah and that way we kind of shake the patron stuff up and we go away from having to go and look at worse there has it been any news oh god because the thing is it's going to be so much trump news coming up and we had the trumpatorium back in 2016, 2017. And I don't really want to talk about Trump all the time. I mean sometimes, sure, but all the time, no. So yeah, let's shake the patron stuff up. Yeah, yep, I agree. Okay, is there anything else we could be doing for the patrons?
00:42:15
Speaker
Well, I mean, being present on Discord, I suppose. Or utilizing the the system that Patreon has, which is a Discord replacement.
00:42:27
Speaker
Yes, i've just i've i've never been for as long as I have been on the internet, I have not been socializing on the internet. I was also not socializing on the internet before I was on the internet. You did a bit of socializing on on forums back in the day. The old forums, yeah, I suppose, back when we had nothing better to do. But yeah, well, for a long time, I guess. It's not my natural thing to just pop in for a chat, but maybe I should. Yeah, no, same, same. It's one of the things I keep meaning to do it, and then I never do.
00:43:01
Speaker
So yeah, maybe this is something we we just need to think more for about. What else can we do? I mean, yeah, maybe maybe because the the discord thing, I don't have any natural inclination to go there, but we have to go to Patreon at least every fortnight to upload stuff. If we start using the Patreon system, we're probably more inclined to use that to check in to see what's going on. So yeah, maybe Maybe leverage Patreon more effectively. That seems like a plan. Okay, that is good. I've just misspelt effectively. Yeah, I didn't expect the check got you before you even knew what was happening. Although it's not actually giving me any suggestion as to ah who cares, who cares. The minutes can be updated later. All right, final thing on the list. So.
00:44:00
Speaker
We have the ability to make merch. Should we make merch?
00:44:06
Speaker
it ah sounds It sounds like fun. I like the idea of merch. I don't know about the economics of it. with a Well, so Patreon has a system where they you can make t-shirts, hoodies, cups, mouse mat to just upload the graphic design. We own the graphic design for the podcast since we spent that money and actually those eight years ago. And we've got we've got the rights to our own imagery and the like. So there's no problem in producing that merch. Now admittedly, when we mentioned merch,
00:44:42
Speaker
At the end of last year, we only got one positive email saying, yes, I definitely would like X, but I probably wouldn't like Y. So I think someone wanted a T-shirt, but didn't think they'd have any use for a mug. I, on the other hand, would have more interest in a mug with the podcast logo on it. I like a mug. Even though I don't drink anything out of mugs. So I don't drink tea. So I don't actually use mugs for anything. But, you know, a mug on a desk. What do you drink? I drink coffee out of little little tiny tazzy coffee cups. So I can go yeah and so knock us right back. yeah yeah i like to drink my I like my coffee small, like I like my small powerful.
00:45:27
Speaker
like ah
00:45:30
Speaker
mixed mix ah put Mixerputonic. I've just mispronounced at least through two words in Romanian there, because I'm learning Romanian, or at least brushing up on Romanian with Duolingo. And it turns out when Duolingo was to spend money on a language, you get Mandarin or Italian which has systems in place to make sure your pronunciations are good and they don't they're not obviously not spending any money on Romanian because a there's no way to check your pronunciation and b the recordings are awful.
00:46:01
Speaker
and also see I had speech disfluency so I find it hard to pronounce things at the best of times anyway it's amazing I can speak English all right so we will as part of leveraging patreon uh says I haven't actually looked into the patreon much stuff I should go and investigate myself Yeah. you want to Yeah. I mean, there is a, yeah, there are buttons to press, which basically just upload the file and I've got, I've got the master files and high res so we can just upload that stuff. Yeah. I think I've got copies of them as well. Yeah. So yeah. All right. All right. We could even the old logo, the old yellow one. We could have podcasters go into the conspiracy classic.
00:46:40
Speaker
or even the the old vintage the black and white image of the person pointing over that one as well yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah there's there's a lot of stuff out there a lot of stuff okay so i mean normally these things end with the kind of open what house is there anything else we need to say um i don't think so we've covered plenty I think and we've we've we've we've got like points and action items and probably yeah some proactive synergy as well.
Meeting Wrap-up and Future Plans
00:47:16
Speaker
No, I think we're good. All right. Well, then we should probably record the episode there. All right. So i'll I'll click the record button. We'll test the levels and things, and then we will continue. yeah And yeah, we'll just do the usual thing. OK, click away.
00:47:36
Speaker
Well, I'd say I thought that was a great episode. Yes. to to i thought i thought I thought the record like blinked when you were recording and stopped when you weren't. No, no, no. I got that wrong. No, no, no, no. That's right. No, that's fine. All right. So we should probably go and record the patron bonus episode now. So I'll just do the usual thing and set us up in another room. You do that.