Ned and Meg get some stuff off their existential chests in this very existential episode about existential dread and a thing called the self-licking ice cream cone of despair. Dread: where does it come from? We say cops, pain, illness, and other people. Hell is always, always, other people. So what should we do, rob banks and go into existential retirement? It worked for Meg, or the latter half of that sentence did anyway. Join us as we further discuss anxiety, fight flight or freeze, how much Zoom sucks as the default communication tool during Covid, and who we might instill dread in by just being ourselves. Wash your hands, get those shots, keep your mask on because of viral variants, and be nice. Also don’t force your coworkers to be your friends, everyone HATES mandated fun. Get a real social life; we’re never coming back to the office. Thanks!

Ned and Meg and Dana go down the rabbit hole of unusual punctuation and before we know it, we embark on an accidental voyage of discovery where we uncover truths about the many contexts and names for the “#” symbol and explore keyboard layouts. We ask wtf is a hexadecimal?! What’s this about Jim Thorpe?! Who is the mystery man, Doug Kerr?! Find out. Wash your hands. Wear a mask. Get yer shots. Stop being a disappointment. Just kidding. Maybe. Thanks for listening!

Ned and Meg discuss the dangers of flop sweat, as well as Gio Ponti’s daughter, Lisa Ponti, who made exceptional drawings and watercolor paintings, and who died not long ago at the age of 97. Her work is showing in NYC through the end of May 2021. We also discuss blood draws, cleaning house, the height of Roman plumbing and lead abatement as a means of coping with murder trials.

Ned and Meg discuss their favorite artist, Peter, of Peter Draws on YouTube. We discuss many of his videos and his aesthetic before moving on to aspirational musings around a future Peter Draws fan convention. Beyond that, we rant a while on abortion rights and introduce a new department in the FC:BM empire, the D.E.A.D. Thanks for joining us once again. Wash your hands, wear a mask, get the shot, don’t be a dick, watch Peter.

Ned and Meg discuss crappers, commodes, and washlets. Join us on a foray into the world of toilet design and see how many variations there are on fulfilling a universal basic human function. Did you know there are toilets that can scan your poo and give data to your doc? Beware! Even toilets are not safe from the internet of things... Wash your hands, wear a mask, get your shots, don’t be a dick!

Ned and Meg discuss Yayoi Kusama, a visionary Japanese artist who works in dots and is probably the most influential living woman artist in Japan. It’s important to note that she is ALIVE, because this episode was inspired by a piece of erroneous information Meg got saying Kusama had died in 2019 but it was a LIE. She is a fascinating individual whose art is so very clearly and thoroughly an extension of her experience of being. This may be the first in a series of episodes about art as a coping mechanism. Wash your hands, get a shot, don’t be a dick, keep that mask on. Thanks for listening. Go see Kusama!

Ned and Meg talk Gestalt. Design and more! Gestalt is a German word that means the shape of a thing, or like the quality of its appearance, or its form, we think. Kurt Kafka, German Psychologist, said 'the whole is other than the sum of the parts' which sorta sums up the whole concept. We discuss Gestalt in relation to shifting consciousness, Greg Egan, personal identity, authenticity, Mission Cheese, and then we dive into the Dictionary of Untranslatables, p. 1066 Structure, Pattern, Gestalt.

Ned and Meg edify the masses and discuss punctuation, too. Interrobangs, interrogative point, and others, no punctuation is too weird for us. You can thank Martin K Speckter for inventing a form of punctuation that is essential and absurd! We also propose punctuation for asking a question in a question, and make fun of Inception for a bit, too. To the staircase, for some wit! Treppenwitz! Wash your hands, get the shots, wear a mask, don’t be a dick and THANKS for listening, kids!

Ned and Meg and Dana talk about idioms, again! Violent idioms are confusing to us because we don’t want to beat dead horses or kill multiple birds or bite bullets. Meg is pretty fond of idioms with vivid imagery. Ned schools us on snipe hunts. We discuss our intermittent and subjective love of liars. Red herrings etymology, WTF. We revisit our annoyance about the changing definition and use of the word “literally.” We discuss the Wayback Machine, too. Update on the Exceptional Mouse. Object Permanence and ADHD. Also, this retraction/correction: the Oval Pawfice twitter account is NOT official but it’s still cool. Ok, carry on. Wash your hands, wear a mask, get your shots, don’t be a dick, thanks for listening.

Ned and Meg (well, mostly Meg) talk about the practice of Harm Reduction and why philosophers have totally failed to get into the conversation for the last 30 freaking years. Wash your hands, wear a mask, don’t be a dick, thanks for listening.