Feature Creep: Built-in Microwave

Ned and Meg talk about movie reboots and propose a TMNT offshoot wherein Master Splinter is the focus of the story. Did you know that German TMNT fans are much more discerning than American ones? Is serializing the same story over and over again killing creativity? Does it annoy you to be asked endless questions in headers that are supposed to be informative? Us too! Thanks for listening, hi Buste...

Ned and Meg discuss healthcare in the US and in other countries, because we have lots of injuries in lots of geographic locations. Also on the menu is curing feet with hammers, emergency rooms, debilitating injuries, recent meta-research debunking SSRI antidepressants as snake oil, and driving on the autobahn.

Ned and Meg gripe about the problem of echo chambers, those ubiquitous spaces that come in literal or figurative form, and share in common the utter lack of critical self-reflection. We cover targeted advertising, the art world, search engines, friend groups, podcasts, Amazon, academia, industries, and abortion protestors. Thanks for listening, wash your hands, listen to criticism, vaccinate the r...

Ned and Meg discuss industrial design, ringspun cotton, data ownership, right to repair, how alexa is always listening, persistent flops, and the amazing book How to Talk to your Cat about Gun Safety. Thanks again for listening and sticking with us as our schedule has been wacky. Wash your hands, wear a mask, get the shots, do the things, don’t be a dick, watch for new episodes, enjoy the summer.

Ned tells Lauren and Meg all about a funny ancient story he read a while back that he’s been dying to share with us. We have been waiting a long time to hear this one. Lucien of Samosata wrote a scathing review of the thought leaders of KingDickLandia, also known as Ancient Greece, and in A True Story he crafts a satire embodied in an epic space opera. True Story! Check it out. Thanks for listenin...

Ned and Meg have a lovely chat about lovely Dan Graham, a lovely conceptual artist. Or was; he was an artist, but since he is now deceased, RIP Dan Graham. We also talk about Ned’s conceptual art, and Ned’s conceptual art’s paper, and Marcel Duchamp, and ReadyMade, and puppets, lots of puppets, and complicated math, and baby grasshoppers. Thanks to each of you for being an audient to our conversat...

Ned and Meg gang up in Southern California for a discussion of Northern California Cults and the restaurants that love them. If you are a fan of the dessert restaurant industry you will want to hear this, it’s wild. Thanks for listening, and also, keep washing your hands, wear a mask, get the shots, do the things, don’t be a dick. Happy Spring!

Ned and Meg take you on a leisurely tour through card game design, with the usual pit stops for distractions along the way. We talk about games that shed and catch cards, tarot and other types of cards, drinking games, multi-genre games, fishing, solitaire and tricky games. We stumble onto the best game ever, and we highly advise you drop whatever you’re doing after you listen to this podcast epis...

Ned and Meg have a serious discussion about serious sculpture so strap in! We side-swipe James Grashow, Max Zorn, Andrew Erdos, Henry Moore, Peter Draws, Blackbean_CMS, and lots of art! We also chat about our own artistic aspirations with interactive and permissive sculpture.

Ned and Meg discuss Brandolini’s Law, also known as the BS asymmetry principle, and how it relates to current events. We also discuss the Panopticon, we mean Santa, we mean Elf on the Shelf, we mean don’t lie to your children. We laud What We Do in the Shadows, ponder what a good-enough dystopia is, feast on the glory of cake vending machines, sneak peek a new segment, and succumb to decision fati...

Ned and Lauren tell Meg all about their coping mechanisms, managing tools, successes,experiences, strategies and trials with ADHD. Also we collectively declare the British Empire to be the worst one ever though we’re open to suggestion, and accordingly we declare caffeine to be the British Empire of drugs, see also humans, British Empire of species. We chat about Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria, whi...

Our tale today begins as so many have, with a gargantuan misunderstanding between friends followed by a backchannel conversation followed by unintentional hilarity followed by a podcast about it. Meg is always to blame somehow, but this time less so than normal! Things are looking up. Also: book reccs, hand-crank-food-processor-fish-oil-mayo, pain-as-liminal-space, other hyphenated phrases, semant...

Ned, Meg, and Lauren talk about a scientific and cultural hero, Dr. David Nutt. Like many people who speak truth to power, his attitudes and research into drugs often offend politicians and policy makers because his discoveries overturn years of taboo and misunderstandings about the relative harms of drugs to individuals and society.

Ned and Meg get together after a protracted separation over the holidays and new year and record a similarly protracted podcast about the goings on! First topic of the new year, single men in minivans. Then, in not quick succession, what hurts or helps your chances when attempting to pass out candy, internet crazes we missed out on, adjusting expectations around panel vans, squirrel baffle sagas,...

Ned and Meg revisit the historical waypoints along the existence of Monopoly, our favorite polarizing game. If you are lucky enough to have people in your life still willing to engage you in a game of Monopoly, you are probably a good hearted person. That’s nice. However, everything about Monopoly is ruthless and rewards avarice and that’s what we like to discuss. See also: daring escapes from Naz...

Ned and Meg revisit what has become an annual episode topic! Oh, the differences in nomenclature between Xmas and Christmas. We discuss the current status of the ongoing War on Christmas, including the oft-misunderstood Catholic Christmas traditions and appreciation for the thoughtfulness of Kwanzaa, plus we cover the big news, which this year is how the Fox Tree was burned down for reasons beside...

Meg and Lauren discuss their favorite peppers and birds who steal fruits. We get into a long discussion about food dehydrators and mushrooms as well. We enthuse about which foods make great powders and which CSAs to sign up for in Minneapolis. Thank you for listening and as always wash yer hands, wear a mask, get yer shots, don’t be a dick, hi Buster.

Ned and Meg discuss design methodologies and the people who made some of them famous. We also talk about Futurama, rational design, engineering and art, making the abstract real, and the Design Thinking Methods Catalog. Join us, thanks for listening, get your shots, wear a mask, wash your hands, don’t be a dick. That’s that.

Ned and Meg talk about their podcast production process and the potential for streamlining it because right now our process is a clunker! We also discuss the present, future, and past, and RIP laser discs. Heady stuff. Also laughing. The usual. Thanks for joining us, wash your hands, wear a mask, get yer shots, don’t be a dick!

Ned and Meg talk about a terrible idea.

Ned and Meg talk about a new book idea. We lay out the case for why we think it’s inspired and then get off track pretty quickly, which is exactly the point of all of this anyway. We discuss the opening lines to some famous books and also gripe about TV we hate. We also have some killer colors of the day today so thanks for listening, wash your hands, wear a mask, get the shots, don’t be a dick.

Riddle me this? What happens if Ned and Meg and Lauren record a podcast episode where we make up garbage philosophy and pass it off as wisdom? Find out. We also bring up Chesterton’s Fence and Sim City 4: Rush Hour Edition. Chicago’s civil engineering gets a shout, and then we round things off with a chat about STIs. Don’t miss it. Wash your hands, wear a mask, don’t be a dick MINNEAPOLIS I’M LOOK...

Ned and Meg talk about the wide world of vacuum cleaners and how special some of them are to us. For example, the only heirlooms Meg’s family passes down are, in fact, Rainbow vacuum systems. Now you know. We also explore the historical aesthetics of Rainbow and other vacuum cleaners, and compare design elements to what was going on in Sci-Fi movies at the time, which leads us to National Treasure...

Ned and Meg revisit one of their favorite books, Pragmatic Thinking and Learning, by Andy Hunt, and they discuss the concept of an expansive context. Also, multitasking makes you stoopid, so knock it off and remove that “skill” from your resume. Thank you for listening to us (especially Buster), and wash your hands, wear a mask, get the shots, don’t be a dick.

Ned and Meg confuse Meg's dad over text messages and then talk about it. We reassign the rings of hell and remind people that deterrents are not really useful in the ways that proponents usually expect them to be. We sideswipe MLMs, religion, public education, the benefits of the GED, and naming things. Welcome, thanks for coming, please email us, wash your hands, wear a mask, get the shots, don’t...