Ned and Meg chat about The Sims while Ned’s in Germany, which ties into a conversation about some dogs, some rabbits, the nature of sentience and concepts of harm. The discussion of the Sims leads us to talking about governance and potentially bad ideas involving an earthen berm. We round out with a determination to do another episode about the importance of considering the context. As always, thank you for listening to our meandering conversation, wash your hands, don’t be a dick.

Ned and Meg revisit their annual tradition of asking no one in particular whose troops we should support in the war on xmas. This year we discuss how Target is targeting your kids for targeted indoctrination with targets. Or, gay nutcrackers. It’s hard to say. Just think of the children. We also take a stab at people who pose, dangerously we may add, with high powered firearms in photos celebrating the co-opted birth of Jesus, a man who would probably faint at the sight of painted wood, since we’re told he was a woodworker of sorts.

Ned and Meg talk about William Shakespeare. Was he a lone wolf? Or was he an old timey Banksy, an art genius at the helm of an art cabal? Maybe he was both or neither. We are not Shakespeare experts. Meg also tells Ned about a harrowing visit to the Stratford Upon Avon home of William Shakespeare, if that even is his real name. Thanks for listening, wash your hands, don’t be a dick, read Shakespeare.

Ned and Meg discuss the various thematic elements of our multitudes of nervous breakdowns, be they big or small, exceptional or pedestrian. Themes include having shingles, caffeine induced nervous dysfunction, medical debt, disability, medical treatment abroad versus at home in the US of A, insurance, academia, drugs, wine culture and climate. Phew! You’ve been warned. We also throw in cake related nervous breakdowns just for funzies. We also coin a new term for seeing things, the verbs 'rodding and coning' (you’re welcome) and we offer two exceptional colors of the day which couldn’t be more on-theme for this podcast if we did them on purpose. Enjoy, and thanks for listening, wash your hands, don’t be a dick!

Ned and Meg introduce their new series of short episodes that serve as backfiller for Mondays where we didn’t get something posted. We think you might not even want to know this stuff, so if you don’t get an alert it may be for the best. If you are a masochist, listen in! We discuss the waning Atlantic Ocean current that basically makes it possible for people in Europe, Africa, and India to grow food, the loss of which will lead to an ice age in Europe and a horrific shift in global weather patterns. We also discuss the graph of global average temperature, which is shaped like a hockey stick, and that is bad news. Thanks for listening, wash your hands, don’t be a dick!

Ned and Meg discuss the disappearance of the editing profession. Editors are losing their toehold in the workplace! We discuss what we think led to the loss of so many of these crucial professionals who make us not sound like idiots when we write. See? Everyone needs an editor. We also discuss ChatGPT for a hot second, the advent of which we feel is tied to the loss of editors in some ways. As always, thanks for listening, wash your hands, consume less, don’t be a dick!

Ned and Meg discuss the history of, and legal settlement between, Henrietta Lacks’s descendants, her cells, and Thermo Fischer Scientific. This is a celebratory episode and a little more produced than our normal fare, so thanks for listening, wash your hands, don’t be a dick!

Ned and Meg solve a problem, which is that Meg couldn’t get some candy so Ned had to mail it 2000 miles and it finally arrived so you get to hear all about it! But before we get to that, we sold 13 of our books and we talk about that along with hummingbirds, our podcast ranking in Ireland, our book ranking in the genre of Humor-General, the You Me Food Review and Peter Draws channels both of which you find on YouTube, and whether the show Succession is funny. Phew! Get our book, Every Time a Bell Rings on Amazon and laugh 65% more of the time! Thanks for listening, wash your hands, welcome the Spring, don’t be a dick.

Ned and Meg celebrate the return of Lauren as our guest-host-comrade. We chat like old times about whether you’re supposed to swim on an empty or a full stomach, exposure therapy, how a once-disgraced-but-not-really-disgraced germline-editing doctor is back on the science scene, Ned’s progress in Dungeon23, Camaro cars, and the merits of the movie Harold and Maude. As always, thanks for listening, don’t be a dick, wash your hands, do something nice for someone without expecting anything in return.

Ned and Meg discuss the fate of Pablo Escobar’s wayward Colombian hippopotamuses. Yeah that’s right, Colombian Hippos. What else is there to say? Thanks for listening, wash your hands, don’t be a dick!