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Post-Election Minisode - Ep 17
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Contact
- Show
- Twitter: @idigitpodcast
- Email: [email protected]
- Alyssa
- Instagram: aal.archaeology
- Twitter: Lyssakemi
- Michaela
- Instagram: mm_digitalized
- Twitter: m_mauriello
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Transcript
Introduction to the iDicket Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
You're listening to the Archaeology Podcast Network. You're listening to the iDicket Podcast, a podcast where we talk about the student perspective of navigating the world of archaeology and anthropology. I'm your host, Michaela. And I'm your host, Alyssa.
00:00:21
Speaker
Welcome into today's minisode. I think this is like the first minisode that we have, but welcome.
Election Results and Mental Health
00:00:28
Speaker
It is November 13th, 2020 at 11, 18 in the morning, end of week nine. Oh, okay. So in response to past Alyssa of the last podcast, she asked how I'm doing, how the election went, all of that.
00:00:50
Speaker
Yay! We're in a better place in that regard than we were this time last week. Joe and Kamala were able to pull through with the electoral college.
00:01:05
Speaker
thus far, not without conflict, but we're getting there. That was one of my highs for this last weekend, I think. I think a lot of stress was built up surrounding election day and that kind of relieved a little bit.
00:01:25
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, just a little. I mean, well, yeah, for the relief a little bit, but I mean the stress because everywhere you would go, everywhere you turn, it's about the election.
00:01:37
Speaker
And everything spewing one way or another, nothing was actually like a critical thought or productive. It was just more trying to create this catastrophism and being like, everything's going to die.
Global Perspective on U.S. Elections
00:01:54
Speaker
It's like that's not productive and that's not healthy mentally and for the world. Yeah. Social media was tough last week for sure.
00:02:07
Speaker
The funny thing was like seeing my friends like all over the world posting about the election, how they're watching it. I was just like, oh my God. And then I saw a post about how people in other countries know more about our states than other Americans.
00:02:24
Speaker
And it's just like they know like all 50 states or some Americans was dumb. Or it was like my brain wasn't meant to be thinking about Georgia for this long. Or there were some funny videos too about like people just staring at the map of the US and then noticing like some of the border lines are like not lined up perfectly. Have you seen that one? No. So funny. Yeah.
Historical Context of Voting Issues
00:02:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:50
Speaker
It was really interesting to think about and talk about with people about voter suppression, gerrymandering, and how these things came about.
00:02:59
Speaker
the beginning of the America, the United States of America. The before time. And the before time, and like thinking historically, archaeologically, anthropologically, and just how these thoughts and practices came about where it's just like we want to celebrate this freedom, but how do you even get freedom? Is anything really free? We're all just entangled.
Academic Life During Election Stress
00:03:22
Speaker
And then it just keeps going.
00:03:25
Speaker
No freedom. So that was a big part of a little stressful period. And I think a lot of people are also stressed. And I saw a lot of people trying to step away from social media. I tried to step away from social media, but then it was like November 3rd came and then it went. And then I was just like back on social media. I'm like, okay, now I'm like very invested. Like what's happening? I can't get on. This is causing more stress now.
00:03:50
Speaker
I think the night of the election, I ended up staying online till like two or three in the morning, just refreshing the Google page of like, ballot counting. I was like, oh, this is not good. And then the next day, I had like three classes, one of which was a three hour seminar. I obviously didn't do any reading for any of them because I couldn't.
00:04:20
Speaker
at all. So that was my first, I don't want to say failure, that was my first like hiccup in my PhD program where I just like couldn't do work at all. But the good thing is like I was able to email professors and just be like, hey, no, can't, sorry. And they were like, okay, that's why I'm like, I won't call on you in class today. And
00:04:42
Speaker
A lot of the classes ended up being fine anyway, so it wasn't as stressful as I made it out in my mind to be. So that was good. People were understanding, luckily, last week. Good that you reached out to them. And just like, hey, this is happening. And I'm assuming that was happening with everyone too in some way. And so just like, hey, verbalizing this. And they were probably already changing some of their curriculum to fit with the elections because
00:05:11
Speaker
I know in my undergrad during the 2016 election, one of my professors who was very strict on attendance and stuff, she was just like, honestly, email me that you're not coming to school, you're having a mental health day, I won't count it against you. So basically, if you just email her like, hey, I need a mental health day, I'm not gonna be in class, she's like, okay, cool, she won't mark it
Building Communities on Discord
00:05:33
Speaker
against you. But if you just don't show up to class or email two days later being like, oh, actually, she's like, man, I'm not counting that.
00:05:40
Speaker
If I'm ever professor, I will be doing that. Yeah, she was so cool. Maybe I'll just have like a button on Canvas, like mental health button, click it and then that day's work is gone. That's an email. Yeah, that's an email. That's the click. Put it in the syllabus or say it in class or something.
00:06:07
Speaker
a functional human being in general right now is like...
00:06:11
Speaker
so impressive and not possible. I had a meeting today with a couple people scattered across the world for a Fulbright thing. My friend Zoe and I were both in our PhD program and the other three people were like, I cannot believe you're in a PhD program right now. I was like, oh, same.
00:06:40
Speaker
I could never also, but here we are. Kudos to everyone doing anything right now. Good job.
00:06:50
Speaker
Yeah. I'm proud of you because it is hard. One update I have with the Discord is that we've gotten a lot of activity lately and I recently posted a link on my Tumblr to just get archaeologists involved in whatever. But every week we've been streaming lectures that have been put on by my school and we've been able to have some good discussion in the chat.
00:07:19
Speaker
So if you are an archaeologist and you're interested in being in a community of a ton of archaeologists, Discord is a really cool place to be in our server. So that's cool. That's my plug for the week. It's, I don't see a lot of communities for archaeologists outside of academia that much. And like, I'm on my archaeology Twitter every now and then. And
00:07:49
Speaker
I, it's a good place. It's like a good communal place for archaeologists on archaeology Twitter.
00:07:55
Speaker
But it's also, I just feel so, I don't want to say so disconnected, but it's more disconnected than having like a discord. I would like for the, I dig it, discord to have just people just in there talking like it's a place, it's a communal place and people like post their research. And like, I would love to like hear about everyone's work and read their stuff and their life work and their projects and.
00:08:23
Speaker
hearing different updates. I want to know what's going on in their world. Your world. Yeah, I think I like Discord because it's more casual in that you're not flaunting around your status like you do on social media. Everyone has their like, oh, I'm a professor at this place or I'm doing this or whatever in their bio.
00:08:44
Speaker
But Discord kind of like equalizes everything to where like, you know who you're talking to, but you don't really know who you're talking to. And it's just like, like, you can just talk like you don't have the pressure of status or hierarchy or anything. So I think that's really cool about Discord too.
00:09:02
Speaker
Yeah. It's like, Hey, I'm Steve. I'm a professor and supervisor and, um, the lead archeologist at this university. It's like, Oh my God. And I like playing video games. Yeah. There, there isn't a Steve word. I'm just making somebody, but it's like, it could be something like that where it's just like, I just want to chill with that with the kids.
00:09:25
Speaker
I thought something that happened in the Discord, which was kind of funny. We were streaming a talk. It was about civ, civilization. And so we were streaming that in the Discord and also having the conversation. And then after the conversation, he was apparently in the Discord and he was like, hey guys, you guys might've just seen my thing, but my name is so-and-so and I'm doing this.
Dreams During Pandemic Stress
00:09:48
Speaker
And I was like, oh no, I hope we didn't say anything bad about this talk. But it was so funny.
00:09:54
Speaker
Not to burst that funny bubble, but I started following him on all social media. Then he started following it back, and then that's when he joined. It was after the talk. I was just like this guy. I love his work. I was like, was he in here already? No, he wasn't. Okay, good. That makes me feel a little better. I mean, he can still read everything, but I don't think we said anything bad. It was a very interesting talk.
00:10:26
Speaker
But yeah, so there's there's some really cool people in the discord is my point. Some people we haven't had any like high school age people on the podcast yet. I feel like that would be really cool to get like pre college career thought processes up in here. I know that there's people like in their senior year or like the equivalent of their senior year wanting to go into archaeology and I think some
00:10:55
Speaker
We're looking at universities, but this was like back in probably a couple months ago. That was a couple months ago. Yeah. Interesting. I know we have some people under the high school role in Discord, so we can reach out to them. Yeah. There's a lot of things we haven't covered yet. Yeah. We're nowhere near finished. This is episode 17. Yeah.
00:11:24
Speaker
So like right now we've just been struggling on finding time with Alyssa's PhD and my work and with my work being a little bit less. That you were going to stop after struggling and I was going to be like, yeah. We've just been struggling. It's true. Yeah. I mean, everything is hecka crazy, but I'm done with school next week, which is crazy.
00:11:49
Speaker
I had a dream about you last night though. You're in my dream. It was like I was on archaeology Twitter and that's why I'm like bringing this up because it's archaeological related. And I saw that you tweeted and then you tagged our friend from our masters Theo. You tagged Theo in it and some random person. I don't remember the name and it's like oh going on vacation here and it's like had a flag for some random country.
00:12:15
Speaker
And it wasn't real country. And I was just like, how have I never seen this place before? It's like, we're going to do some excavation stuff here. And I was just like, but it's COVID. My rational brain and my dream brain were just trying to have like a fight in the middle of my dream. Why are you vacationing? Why are you vacationing? Since when does Theo have a Twitter? Who's this other person? I'm like, why are you going to a country that doesn't exist?
00:12:45
Speaker
And then I was like reaching out to you to talk to you about it. And then I think I woke up because I wanted to go too.
00:12:53
Speaker
Well, I hope Dream Me had fun. I'll make sure to invite you next time, please. I felt left out, you know? That was so good. Wow. I've been dreaming about aliens a lot recently. Okay. And I don't know why, because I haven't consumed any alien media. I haven't watched movies about aliens or anything.
00:13:16
Speaker
But I think it might just be like, oh, can someone else in the universe come save us, please? Because we're not doing too great. Maybe that's it. But yeah, I've had a lot of alien dreams lately, like three in the last three weeks. So I wish I knew more about dream analysis. Me too.
00:13:35
Speaker
It's fun. Maybe I'll quit and go into dreaming, Alice. Into dreams. Just start dreaming. I'm already dreaming. I'll just sleep for a living. Just sleep for a living. I mean, all dreams are just reflections of your inner self-conscious.
00:13:52
Speaker
my my inner self-conscious is weird. You're just like, yeah, you're you have weird dreams. All of my dreams are like very supernatural, like nothing to do with the real world, except like small things from like my day will be in it. So like if I see a red bike throughout my day, I'll like have it in my dream. But it's also in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. Maybe because you have such like a rational brain that you're
00:14:22
Speaker
your dream brain needs to be irrational for things to like process. It's like this is how you're processing this. There's just a zombie apocalypse. It just means that thought that you had earlier about what you needed to choose between. Yeah, this is it. This is it. You either go up the stairs to run from the zombies or down the stairs. What do you choose?
00:14:45
Speaker
Exactly. I would love to be able to record my dreams and send them somewhere for analysis. One day I'm sure we'll be able to watch our dreams. I have the most vivid dreams when I take Benadryl. I never knew that because I've never really had to take Benadryl before but all of a sudden I have these allergies and I'm supposed to take this medication that I haven't taken yet and I should actually look into it.
00:15:10
Speaker
I just haven't, I keep, so a couple weeks ago I broke out into hives. Not weeks, no, no, no. A couple weeks ago I had a piece of ginger that was touching scallop and then my mouth started like tingling and like I felt like it was swelling up and I was like, oh, I can't feel my tongue right now. What's going on? And then my house mage, I was like, oh no. And so she jumps up and grabs the Benadryl and pops it to me and I'm just like,
00:15:35
Speaker
It's like chugging water. I'm like, I probably shouldn't be drinking the water. I should be like squishing it, spitting it out. But I have never had an allergic reaction before in my entire life. So I didn't do that. And so I think I was scallop allergy because I've never had scalp before.
00:15:51
Speaker
But you can also develop seafood allergies like in your adult life and also just other allergies. And then just like last week, I started breaking out into really bad hives all over my legs and arms. And that proceeded for like four days in a row. And I got prescribed this medication for like an anti-inflammatory thing.
00:16:09
Speaker
But I was like taking Benadryl and then Benadryl like makes me really loopy and then I passed out and then I'm still like groggy for like half of the next day because it just stays in my system even though the half-life should only be like eight hours. And so I'm just like, I have the most vivid dreams. They were pretty intense. Some of them were fun.
00:16:31
Speaker
I recommend it if you have any type of allergic reaction or you just need antihistamine. Just don't take it. Don't do the Benagil challenge. You have to be over 18 to buy Benagil now apparently.
Allergy Struggles and Remedies
00:16:42
Speaker
Oh my god. Crazy TikTokers. Them kids. Always something new. How is your rash?
00:16:52
Speaker
Um, I haven't, I have not been breaking out into a rash lately. I get really itchy, but I like spray back teen on it. And then I like just go into bed. I'm like, I'm just going to go to bed. I don't need this. Cause it happens in the night and it doesn't, it usually happens like in my house, but it happened like when I was outside one night and I'm like, when, where, why, why is this happening to me? I haven't been using anything new. So I just need to go see an allergist. I think I need to get just
00:17:22
Speaker
I just need tests. I hope they can figure it out. Yeah, my eczema has been breaking out, but I think that's just like stress stuff. And apparently hot showers too, which is sad because I like hot showers, but apparently hot water strips your skin of its natural oils and then makes you itchy.
00:17:47
Speaker
I talked to a doctor person lady a couple weeks ago because I was like, why do I have eczema? And she was like, if you're taking a shower and there's steam, it's
Transportation Nostalgia
00:17:58
Speaker
too hot. So I was like, oh, I take a lot of steam showers. I feel like we're in the part of the year where it like sucks to take a shower because it's so freezing when you get out of it. I just dread taking showers because I know how cold I'm going to be.
00:18:15
Speaker
I tried just getting out of bed because I have a heated blanket, nice comforter. I'm just like, I don't want to leave. And then right now, because I'm not working, I'm just like, there's no point to leave. But I make myself get up and then I just take a drive. I just go somewhere.
00:18:35
Speaker
You take a drive? I need to do that. Just take a drive. I just take a drive. I go through like a drive-through like Starbucks or something, get some caffeine. I drive through Midtown in Sacramento, Old Town, just kind of like looking at things. It's like, I should be taking a walk, yes, but you can see more on a drive. I can see more on a drive. And they have the jump bike still in operation. Yeah, they do. You should use, those are so nice to ride around Midtown with. But they don't get like sanitized.
00:19:04
Speaker
You could bring like your own wipeys or something though. That's true. Yeah. But I did that a couple of times and you can like go over the Sacramento bridge and around town and stuff. And it's super fun. That's a good idea. Yeah. I might do that. Maybe not this weekend because it's supposed to rain. It's supposed to start raining. Yeah. I'm excited. I love the cold weather, but because of urban sprawl, it's just hard to get places without driving there. So it's like, well, I want to go here anyway. So I might as well just drive.
00:19:33
Speaker
That's what I miss about living in the UK. Everything was just so close. Some places were far, but walkable. But even then you could walk to the train and then walk off of it. Yeah, or walk onto the bus and walk off. Like when we would go to the movies. Memories. I haven't been to a movie in so long. Yeah, I was just gonna say, I've watched Cats four times now. I do not recommend it.
00:20:03
Speaker
I mean, if you've ever watched it before, you watch it the first time, you're just like, I don't know what I just watched, I need to watch it again.
00:20:11
Speaker
So then you watch it again. And it wasn't my idea. I just need to clarify that. I did not at any way or in any shape want it to be on.
Creative Pursuits in Archaeology
00:20:20
Speaker
But I did agree after the second time. It's like, okay, one more playthrough. That third playthrough actually was just like half of the movie, but it's just like, was it Jellicle Cat? I don't know. But I do know. There's, yes.
00:20:36
Speaker
And I do not recommend doing that, but also if you want to understand something, you have to watch it or read it more than once. And that goes with everything and tying it back to anthropology. I don't know if I want to understand cats though. I don't know. I feel like it can write my new dissertations on it. I'm going to go get a master in theater and I'm going to write my dissertation on cats.
00:21:06
Speaker
Goodbye, archaeology. Thanks, babe. And we'll be right back after this break. Alright, what is one thing you're looking forward to? Either this week, or this month, or... Oh, December is almost here. The year is almost over. What are you looking forward to before January?
00:21:31
Speaker
I think for me, I've been saying this like on almost every episode, just kind of like finding my path in archaeology, because it's like where I am is fun. I just know that this isn't where I want to be long term. And I miss being in like the digital world and, you know, doing the podcast and stuff helps me stay in the digital world and being able to do
00:21:56
Speaker
the things that I want to do. And I really want to start making some films again. I just don't, I mean, I have my iPhone, I could just use that. But I want to be able to just like go around and find something and make like a little short film about it and
00:22:12
Speaker
stuff like that. And so I'm going to look more into that and my career in general. And I've kind of taken a pause on it because with work and just like starting out wanting to be fully available and like trying not to think about anything else because it's just like, okay, let me let me do this. And now that I'm like, I kind of like a pause
00:22:33
Speaker
because there's no projects right now. It's the perfect time to start thinking again. I don't know if it's always good to be always wanting, it's not wanting a change where it's just like always searching for something, but it's like, I found the thing that I was searching for. So I took a pause and then I'm like, this wasn't the thing that I was searching for. I'm going to go off and find it. Yes, I think that's healthy.
00:22:59
Speaker
Should make a short film of day in the life of me, which is like rolling out of bed. I'm not, I'm not like the biggest fan of like myself in films and stuff, but like I do other things. I like being behind the camera. I like being in front of the camera, but also could do it of me then I could do it. Yeah. Yeah. Day in the life of a zoom PhD student. Yeah. But.
00:23:29
Speaker
Yeah, it's like I miss making films about buildings and people and yeah. She's one of Angie and her friend. Yeah.
00:23:42
Speaker
The 14 year olds in 2020 and anthropological view. Yo, that would be so interesting. Of social anxiety and stigma and what it's like to be 14 and then knowing things, but being told you're too young to know what it really means. Yeah. It's like my first interview I've ever conducted was for a podcast that I made like in 2016. So.
00:24:08
Speaker
I miss doing that type of stuff. I mean, I'm still doing that type of stuff, but it's like, I want to make more films as well. More media. Yeah. And I need to continue on with my digitization projects, but I'm just never home because I'm like, I want to not be home right now because I'm always at home.
Community Service in COVID Times
00:24:25
Speaker
Relatable.
00:24:26
Speaker
And how about you? What are you looking forward to for this end of the year, week, month? I don't want my only thing to be something ending. I'm excited for the end of the term. We're thinking about maybe doing a trip somewhere, maybe to like Tahoe or something, but I don't know. I don't really like the snow, so I don't want to go to Tahoe too much. You have to not go to Tahoe. I know, right? It's all going to be snow.
00:24:56
Speaker
This weekend, though, I'm volunteering with the homeless shelter, which I'm excited about. And we're flipping pancakes and distributing cold weather stuff. So that'll be fun. I think I'm going to start doing that regularly also, just because I've found a lot of local Instagrams that help with homeless, unhoused populations in the area.
00:25:19
Speaker
My ethnography class that I'm in right now is a lot about those who are not working. Because when we look at capitalism, we often think about the working man and what they're doing and the family household and blah, blah, blah. But we don't really hear about who's not working or who's left behind or stuff like that. So a lot of our books have been about those populations.
00:25:44
Speaker
including like homeless or people who can't get jobs or for whatever reason are left behind by their government. So that's been on my mind a lot lately and I think one way to help with that in the real world is doing this. So that's what I'm doing.
00:26:01
Speaker
So I'm excited about that. Get some community service going, hopefully make a difference. I also joined, it's a group at Stanford called Stanford and Government, and I'm on the community service board for that now. So we're looking for ways to get the community involved in helping out the community.
00:26:24
Speaker
and each other and finding ways to do like food banks for students who have been impacted by COVID and like clothing drives and that sort of thing. So I've been doing a lot of that lately too. I feel like COVID has made me feel very
00:26:40
Speaker
lucky in a lot of ways because I'm one of the people who didn't lose a whole lot in terms of job security or a house over my head and stuff like that. I've been feeling lucky and guilty at the same time for living in a place that's so shitty for so many people.
00:27:03
Speaker
I want to try to make it a little less shitty for some people if possible. So that's my goal for the rest of this year and the rest of my life. But starting now, I'm going to try to be more community driven. When you're just so into your own self and what you're doing throughout your day and like, well, I need to go do this, I need to do this. But taking that time out of your norm and making time for others who you don't even know,
00:27:33
Speaker
And just like that first step of like helping out in the kitchen. Yeah. And then that makes it like, Oh, I'm so lucky to be able to have opportunity to do this instead of like, Oh, this is something I have to do. And I'm so annoyed. Yeah. Yeah. And it's a good stepping stone too. So it's like this first interaction and then it's like, okay, I can, I can do this more. Cause I think like the first time people do like community service, they get like, they have like the, uh,
00:28:02
Speaker
I shouldn't be doing this. Like I want to do this, but not at all. Or it's like a requirement for something. Yeah. Yeah. Or it's just like, no, this is, I'm, I'm doing something for somebody else. This is fine. People need these things that they might not have access to. And so I want to help distribute that to them.
Episode Conclusion and Engagement
00:28:22
Speaker
Should all look to do a little more things for others.
00:28:25
Speaker
That was this week's minisode. We'll come back with a scheduled normal episode at the next week. A little catchy ketchup. We hope everyone is surviving and thriving as much as you can.
00:28:41
Speaker
Any comments, concerns, ideas, just hit us up on the iDigit podcast, Instagram, Twitter, Discord, email, join our Discord, join in on our weekly lectures. I think even when the lectures are done, we should still do something weekly. That would be fun. I'm done. See you guys next time. Bye. Bye.
00:29:15
Speaker
This show is produced by the Archaeology Podcast Network, Chris Webster and Tristan Boyle, in Reno, Nevada at the Reno Collective. This has been a presentation of the Archaeology Podcast Network. Visit us on the web for show notes and other podcasts at www.archpodnet.com. Contact us at chrisatarchaeologypodcastnetwork.com.