So I was Told

This wasn’t supposed to go here, but it did. What starts as a continuation of our Smash Bros conversation turns into something bigger: what actually makes a movie hit, why original films feel rare now, and how we’ve drifted away from the experience of watching something together. We talk about the kind of characters that don’t belong in Smash, the line between fun crossovers and complete nonsense,...

What started as a joke turned into a very real question: if Nintendo is actually building toward a Smash Bros-style movie…do we trust them to pull it off? In this episode, we spiral through the idea of a Nintendo cinematic universe, making our own fancasts, and breaking down what makes these characters actually work. From Fox and Falco to Ganondorf and beyond, we start building our own version of...

WW3 or nah? This episode is about what it does to your brain to live through one global emergency after another and still be expected to clock in, pay rent, answer texts, and act normal. We get into the fear around “World War III,” the confusion and misinformation spreading online, the way propaganda muddies everything, and why so many of us feel too burnt out to even panic properly anymore. More...

This episode picks up where we left off: the internet didn’t just “change,” it got redesigned around attention, anxiety, and endless consumption. We break down the difference between the old internet and the new internet. From there, we get into the “Amazonification” of everything i.e. platforms trying to become the one-stop shop, removing friction with autoplay, infinite scroll, and convenience t...

Remember when the internet had a bottom? In this episode Kirbs and Crispy talk Vine, the never-ending “MySpace comeback” rumors, and why nostalgia keeps lying to people who weren’t even there. We get into why Instagram/TikTok aren’t really “social” anymore and how infinite scroll turned every app into an attention casino.

With a new album on the way, we take the long route through his career, his timing, and why his trajectory matters in hip-hop and pop culture. This isn’t a review or a reaction, but history. We talk about where J. Cole came from, how he navigated the industry without abandoning craft, and why The Fall Off isn't a comeback. Whether you’ve followed his career closely or only know the headlines, this...

American Christianity insists it’s being attacked, but the real crisis is credibility. In this episode I walk directly through Scripture, history, and real-world data to confront an uncomfortable truth: when you take Jesus at his word, the values of modern right-wing ideology repeatedly clash with the teachings at the heart of Christianity. This isn’t a partisan rant, but a sober rebuke. From weal...

What do you do when nothing feels like it’s blooming, but nothing feels broken either? In this solo episode, I talk about tending to the garden of the heart. About seasons of stillness and growth that happens beneath the surface. About the pressure to always be producing, healing, or becoming something visibly better and what it looks like to resist that.

What happens when people demand that mental health stay “apolitical”? In this solo episode I unpack a real time online confrontation that exposed something deeper than an argument: the belief that comfort should come before truth, and that some people don’t deserve a political voice at all. Drawing on psychology, lived experience, and what it means to live in a city where violence isn’t abstract,...

What starts as a nostalgic question about middle school lunches, video games, and the usual playground chaos slowly opens into something much bigger: how social rules form, why they stick, and which ones actually keep us safe. In this episode, we bounce from Mario Kart cartridges and yearbook cameras to roughhousing bans, gender expectations, school hierarchies, and the strange way unspoken rules...

On this episode we revisit a time when housing was temporary, holidays were shared, and everyone was just trying to figure things out. Through mismatched memories and a lot of hindsight we talk about what it’s like to stay in someone else’s home, how stress messes with time and perception, and why certain moments stick with you more than others

In this episode, we unpack what happens when the holidays stop feeling magical and start feeling heavy. From childhood nostalgia and midnight Christmases to fractured families, financial pressure, and the erosion of tradition. This conversation traces how adulthood, trauma, and economic reality reshape the way we experience the holidays. We talk about why tradition isn’t neutral, how obligation re...

In this episode we revisit our most played early release and use it as a jumping off point to talk honestly about what being “chronically online” actually means now. We trace the evolution from channel surfing and MySpace to modern algorithms designed to capture attention, shape behavior, and profit from addiction. We reflect on growth, validation, and why this podcast exists in the first place: n...

We hit play on our past selves and perform a full audio autopsy of year one. We revisit an unreleased pilot and a long early episode filled with Domino’s tracker updates, local Chinese takeout with a surprise fly, free food ethics, POS loopholes that hand out free coffee, and our sincere belief that everyone should steal from corporations, not small businesses. Then things escalate into fake meat...

In this solo episode, I talk about shedding the pressure to deliver a polished year end character arc and why real growth rarely waits for a calendar to give permission. I get into the psychology of “temporal landmarks,” why New Year momentum fails most people, and what it means to choose your own turning points instead of performing them for an audience. This is an invitation to let December be a...

We're taking a week break to be with our friends and family, but in the meantime...Kirbs is breaking down the mess and meaning of Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and the retail blackout because nothing exposes our relationship with gratitude and capitalism quite like this week does. We go from “be thankful” to “panic-buy everything” in under 12 hours, and we're pretty over it. What does gratit...

What happens when the internet flattens every subculture into an “aesthetic”? And what does it mean to build identity through music when the dance floor is no longer neutral if it ever was? In this episode, we sit down with ZAKU.86 , an LA DJ, record collector, city pop obsessive, and former punk kid who somehow became a cultural bridge between Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, Chinese, and Southeast A...

This week, I’m sitting down with a guest whose life looks nothing like the script most of us were handed. Melanie AyLin (_melanie.aylin) first gen kid, fulltime nomad, community builder, festival worker, and desert sunrise chaser joins me to talk about what it really costs to choose yourself when everyone expects you to play it safe. At 19, she dropped out of college, converted multiple vehicles i...

When artist and writer Eva (@birdlets) asked their therapist for help, they ended up locked in a psych ward. In this one-year anniversary episode, we talk about surviving childhood abuse, an eating disorder that nearly killed them, a $130K porn lawsuit pinned on an ex, and the long climb back to self-trust. ⚠️ CW: sexual assault, eating disorders, psychiatric abuse, self-harm.

Why are this year’s costumes mid while horror cafés and niche coffee shops are thriving? We get into men flopping photo poses (sorry, Travis), Eric André winning, Sabrina-core, the Xbox → Sega pipeline, and how third spaces beat corporate beige. The nerds won, the vibes are local, and Halloween doesn’t end on Oct 31 it just moves to your favorite spooky café.

In this solo episode, I break down why we need monsters and why we keep making new ones. Drawing from Frankenstein , queer horror, and modern psychology, “The Myth of the Monster” explores what happens when difference gets mistaken for danger. We talk dehumanization bias, cultural fear, and the instinct to exile whatever reminds us we’re not as healed as we pretend. Sources: Shelley, M. (1818). Fr...

Cold fronts, rain-memory, and Horror Nights chainsaws. Salem plans, pumpkin pie beef, Sonic nostalgia, VR ethics and a real talk pit stop on SAD, sleep, and why your October mood isn’t just “in your head.” Press play cause we’re carving deeper.

Spooky season used to start on October 1. Now it rolls in with a PSL in late August. In pt. 1 of this spooky series, we ask why Halloween keeps creeping earlier, how retail turned September into Spirit Month, and why Thanksgiving got ghosted. We swap school-parade nostalgia, Cartoon Network Blair Witch memories, and debate whimsical-cozy vs. gore-for-sport horror. Also on the table: climate change...

In this episode, we break down what real hope looks like when life’s falling apart: not blind optimism, not “good vibes only,” but psychological grounding, micro-rituals, and the small ways we keep going. We’ll talk about the science behind hope (Snyder’s Hope Theory), how to rebuild it through agency and action, and what it means to treat hope as resistance instead of denial. If you’ve been runni...

We start with a simple question “How old were you when you discovered sparkling water?” and end up everywhere: LaCroix slander, Topo Chico devotion, why block cheese > pre-shredded, and how pineapple on pizza became a personality quiz. Along the way, we talk about depression turning soda cravings into seltzer habits, being a “food freak” vs. “food cautious,” sushi redemption arcs, and Thai home...