Should I Bother?

Travelling through Thailand. More monks around us than we’ve ever seen in our life. 95% of the population are Buddhists. And we wondered: what do we actually know about Buddhism?! Word on the street is, it’s more of a “way or life” or philosophy than a religion? Which was news to us!  We had definitely heard of Buddha and reincarnation, but outside of that, what does it really take to be a bu...

Some call it the fastest growing exercise franchise. Others, a cult. Globally it’s known as F45. But, what the F does the F stand for?!  Functional! As in, you get to use a lot of “functional movements” in the class i.e. “movements based on real-world situational biomechanics”. And since that means F all to most people, what then sets it apart?  Apparently, TV's tell you what to do while...

Wakeboarding is probably about as common as water skiing. It’s something you might have seen on TV - if you’ve even heard of it - but never in real life. And even if you have, unless you own a boat or live near a water park that accommodates it, you probably don’t practise it that often. Growing up in the middle of Irish countryside, we didn’t have a need for a boat, believe it or not. So we went...

To all non-Americans out there, how many of you have actually shot a gun before? Not an air rifle, or pellet gun. Or even a a fun finger gun around the office. We mean a real life, gunpowder-filled, murderous weapon. Being from a country (Ireland) where there’s so much regulation around guns, we never had the same opportunity as all of our Irish relatives in America - to buy one over the counter a...

It’s our Halloween Special! And what better topic to address than one that tears opinions straight down the middle. Ghosts!  Do you believe in them? When we asked our listeners on Instagram (@shouldibotherpod) 62% said yes, which is higher than the typical average of 40-50%. Unless you live in Taiwan, where it's over 90%. Are most of our listeners Taiwanese? Or just a bunch of spooky weirdos?...

As everyone in the world continues to get stressed out about every little thing in life, it’s no wonder that Rage Rooms - AKA Anger Rooms, Smash Rooms, take your pick - are also on the rise!  Just in case the name isn’t obvious enough, we’ll spell it out. Rage rooms are a place where you can smash objects to pieces with a blunt object of your choosing. Sound like your kind of thing? We’ve all...

Other than being voluntarily stabbed by tiny needles, what is acupuncture? What purpose does it serve?  ‘Puncture’ isn’t exactly a word that has a lot of positive connotations, so why on earth would this be something that’s a positive for your health??  Just like Tai Chi and Cupping, we learned early on that Acupuncture is from the same little family of traditional Chinese Healing. And b...

Statistics show that 75% of us check our phones within the first 30 minutes of waking up. And what’s more alarming is.. 25% of us don’t! Who are these weirdos?  But what’s wrong with that? Who cares if you want to indulge in some harmless puppy videos while slurping over your bland cereal in the morning?  As you might have guessed, studies show that starting your day with that little dis...

Did you know that approximately 25% of the global population eat “bugs" as part of their diet?! Nobody forces them to. There are other things they can eat instead. So the question on any “westerner’s” lips is probably a big fat, “WHY?!” 🤢 As it turns out, for some pretty big fat reasons.  Outside of being considered "tasty" across a lot of cultures (*holding back a gag*), we were surpri...

Kind of sounds like a type of tea? But it’s not, it’s Tai chi. The slowest and - what appears to be - most harmless martial art in the world. Although we don't know anyone personally that practices this, there are apparently 250 million people worldwide that do. That’s over 3% of the global population that thinks you should bother doing this!! If you’ve never heard of it, you may have seen people...

Close your eyes. Now try to picture the day you watched Michael Phelps in the Rio 2016 Olympics, gliding through the water with loads of weird circular bruises on his back. “ The f**k are those? ”, you may have pondered as you watched him pick up yet, another gold medal. But did you know, those circles were in fact a result... of cupping therapy?!  Also practiced by the likes of Gwyneth...

Ever heard someone talking about “BJJ” and wondered why they included the extra J? Well, that’s because they’re actually talking about the martial art, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Instead of, well.. you know.  We're guessing you - like most people - have one of those friends or distant associates who got heavily invested in the UFC craze over the last few years. They talk about MMA with so much pass...

Breathing. That’s literally all this is. So... how, the, f**k, can it cause your hands and toes to curl up and feel like you've been drugged?! Being a melting pot for spiritual healing, breathwork is something we heard A LOT during our time in Bali (between other mentions of Reiki, Kundalini and full moon ceremonies, of course). Assuming it neatly fit into the category of "latest fads ad...

Who would’ve though it was spelled, “padel”? Perhaps the 18 million people that play it worldwide?! But don’t feel out of the loop because of that, dear listener. Because it’s not something we were familiar with either! Also known as "Padel Tennis", Padel is a close relative to - you guessed it - tennis! Along with “Paddle Tennis" and “Pickleball” (mmm-hmm, you better believe it), these are all sp...

So, apparently a lot of people like to pretend they live in the medieval ages these days, throwing axes around for fun. Do we blame shows like Vikings or Game of Thrones for this? Or just point our fingers at the bored Canadians that made it up?  For those that are into it (a world axe throwing league exists, unsurprisingly) some big claims are being made that it could one day rival...

Hoping someone would look deep into our souls this week, we put all our cards on the table (eh?) and opted for Tarot reading. Not exactly the ideal activity for the skeptics of the world.  Knowing veeerrry, very little about this global phenomenon, we really wanted to see if you should bother, or if your local mystic is just filling you with a load of (crystal) balls.  Crossing our...

Colonic irrigation has always been something we were curious about. Literally washing yourself from the inside out sounds so... weird! So why do so many people do it? Neither a hobby nor a habit, this week we wondered, what turn has this podcast taken?!  When we researched the benefits, we also found a lot of risks. But we remained curious - and nervous - to find out which would we exper...

Yoga. You likely have a good idea of what it's about. You’re also likely to know one or two people you probably don't like that claim it as a hobby. Perhaps your posh friend that loves to educate people on how to live their lives? Regardless, given that it’s been around longer than some of the oldest civilisations, there has to be a plethora (yep, big word) of reasons that it's stood the test of t...

This week we decided to try the go-to lockdown activity for many during covid - swimming in the cold sea at a ridiculous hour of the morning when sunrise hits. As fun as people make it out to be? We found that hard to believe. But judging by those smug faces you see on instagram, it was something we just had to try. We expected a lot of positives. Similar to our 5AM club episode, we were already s...

Tired of sculpting your sick pair of abs at the gym? Well why don’t you take a break and try sculpting some actually clay, you big f**king legend?  That’s exactly what we tried this week. And although we’ve never had success sculpting said abs, we thought we’d have more luck with the clay.  The objective - find out if this really is just a hobby for the middle aged out there. Oh, and may...

What do the CEO of Apple, Xerox and General Electric all have in common? ... They're the first people out on a lawn at 5am, on their hands and knees, catching worms, while the rest of us are sleeping soundly in bed at stupid o'clock. On this week's episode, we decided to take a leaf from their books of success. Not by crawling around a garden in the early hours, but by actually being awake and act...

Another listener's suggestion, ticked off the list! (Pssst... you'll hear the rest in EP 4 🤫) This week - following Steph's short bout of Typhoid #survivor #salmonellawho? - we took to a cooking class in Bali, Indonesia. After a quick, "cooking classes near me" search and zero expectations, we were actually both looking forward to it. Not something we can say for every episode! Even if Steph's co...

Completely lacking in both blond hair and tanned skin, surfing is not something either of us were accustomed to. So we took to surfing lessons to really understand why these "cool surfer dudes" love to hang loose all the time. For anyone that can surf, gliding on top of a wave looks so effortless, so could it be that hard? Considering some dogs can even do it... As one of the most popular water sp...

Rise & Grind, bitches! In this week's episode we dive into the world of the side hustles. You know, those second jobs that people like to do on top of their existing jobs? We chat about what they are and why every Rick, Ross (thats a hidden reference; bonus points if you get it) and Harry loves working themselves to the bloody bone these days. As we discuss some of the umpteeeeen examples that...

Dearest gentle reader, settle in for what promises to be a lively discussion regarding the ton & its antics this season (it's a reference from the show; if you don't get it, don't you worry your pretty little head about it.) Are you one of the millions of people that watched Bridgerton when it was first released at the end of 2020, or are you - like Gary - only catching up now? If you're the l...