Speaking Generally

Career, love, social life: are all these things easier if you're socially gregarious and feel energized around people? Or are there hidden superpowers to being an introvert that go under-valued? Join us as we wrestle with the pros and cons on introvert personalities, including: - The struggle for introverts to get their needs met in love and relationships - Dating apps as an asset for shy-types -...

There are many reasons for you to want an Oscar: prestige, praise from your peers, ticket sales, sexual attention... But are awards a good thing for everyone else? Or do they allow incompetent arbiters of taste to over-inflate certain kinds of art over other more deserving ones? And who the hell decided that awards should be so political? We sink our teeth into the good, the bad, and the ugly of c...

Is it good to "stick it out" when things get difficult? Sometimes. But it can also be better to just quit! Some pursuits waste our time, careers get stale, or we extract all the value out of a hobby and now see diminishing returns. So in this episode, we talk about the biggest things we've given up, the benefits/struggles or quitting, and what makes it worth sticking with difficult projects.

Our culture tends to place ambitious people on a pedestal: Napoleon, Elon Musk, Kanye West. And yet, ambition has also been the cause of many great tragedies and follies throughout history. We question the value of ambition. What makes it noble? What does it cost in terms of love and friendship? And can you find a way to have ambition in your life without it going too far? Or is it simply the pric...

We all know Hollywood is obsessed with taking valuable Intellectual Property and turning it into movies. And nowhere is this more common than turning books into films. But adaptation is a medium as old as the hills. Many opera's are based on Shakespearean plays and epic poems, plays are based on histories, paintings adapt scenes from the Bible... So in this episode, we look at the best and worst i...

2020 is here. One of our resolutions last year was to see and live in more new countries, and we actually did a pretty good job of it! Now Steve is back from his Asia trip so we decided to talk about the value of travel. What do you learn from seeing lots of countries in a short space of time? What parts of travel overrated? And how do you make the most of a long trip?

Japan seems to have been enjoying a resurgence of interest here in the West over the last few years. And since we're both flying out to Tokyo REAL soon, we thought we'd discuss the art and culture that first plunged us into the world of Japan and its unique aesthetic and philosophical outlook.

If you know us, you'll know we can't stop talking about books. But instead of talking about what we read, today we're going to examine HOW we read. Topics include: - How to find books you love - How to STOP reading things you don't - Who to ask for recommendations - Whether it's worth struggling to the end of difficult/boring books We all strive to learn more and get more books under our belt. The...

We're back from our summer "break". We talk about Steve's observations from being on tour talking dating in the USA, why we're STILL in peak "nostalgia porn", and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. Plus, George digs into Taylor Swift's new album and gives us his verdict.

Steve has become fairly obsessed with how he spends his time since turning 30. One way we frame out decisions more and more as we get older is trying to avoid doing (or NOT doing) things we'll regret later on. But is this healthy? Is it a useful decision-making tool, or is it too paralyzing to try and predict what your future self will think 10, 20, 30 years from now? Join us for a chat about how...

No matter how far we've progressed as a society, being single beyond a certain age carries some kind of social stigma. We all know relationships can be amazing (when they're good at least). But why can't being single also be great? The cultural story tells us: “Your life will finally make total sense when you meet the right person.” Actually, it’s even worse than that. It says: “Get a relationship...

How is it possible to get 1 billion YouTube views and still have the average person not know who you are? Is there an official "mainstream" in popular culture anymore, or does everyone live in their own small bubbles on the internet? We talk about mass popularity, the value of a monoculture, and whether tv shows/movies/music can be culturally important if hardly anyone knows about them.

How do you feel when people in real life speak like a Twitter post? Do you shudder when someone says, "They're #goalz" at the dinner table? Or when your friend describes her partner as "bae" over a coffee? At the risk of sounding older than our 30-odd years, we debate the constantly annoying creep of internet language into everyday speech. Is Twitter-speak just an evolution of language? Or a sign...

Would you quit doing something you love if you sucked at it? Why? Humiliation? Frustration? Embarrassment? Is it possible to LOVE a hobby for it's own sake, and find value in it's pursuit that transcends mere improvement? Maybe if we give up the pressure to be great at everything we can just be happier and enjoy it more. So here's the question: when was the last time you bravely tried something kn...

So, George isn't entirely sold on the idea of gratitude. So it's up to Steve to sell it to him. Is being grateful a symptom of middle class smugness? Can people in the worst circumstances really look for the positives? We discuss the benefits of gratitude, whether you have to be spiritual to practice it, and why the law of attraction is terrible.

Not every big ol' book is worth the struggle, but some are hearty banquets full of sublime prose, rich themes, cognitive insight, sex, death, all that good stuff. So here are our top BIG books to feast on this summer!

Do you want to get back into fiction reading? Looking for some quick summer reading to add to your book list? Here's our list of short, punchy fiction we love that doesn't waste your time!

It's finally time. Dating apps, hookup culture, being single vs. being in a relationship. We talk about what's difficult about modern dating, why it feels different in 2019, and what you can do about it.

Big book trilogies, eight season-long tv series, movies that require you to see twenty films to see the whole story. Is everything getting too long and bloated in an impatient world? Should art get to the point quicker to save us time? We debate the merits of short vs. long storytelling, getting to the point...and of course, the new Sonic the Hedgehog trailer!

Episode #15 - How To Focus, Best New Music of 2019, Avengers: Endgame by Stephen Hussey and George Taylor

We talk about Netflix vs. Disney streaming apps, our favourite new TV shows, and the state of the Marvel Cinematic universe...also Star Wars.

Talk doesn't have to be cheap. Especially when conversation is such a big part of life. We chat about annoying conversational habits, ways to be more interesting when meeting new people, and how to better connect with people you love.

Let's talk about what NOT to do with your life! Or at least, how to improve a bit with every decade. We talk about our biggest lessons and mistakes from the last 10 years in the realms of love, career, fashion-sense, and more...

Another booky episode for you readers out there! We talk about what we've read recently, and give our list of "books-to-read" from our current pile.

Episode #10 - 9 Non-Fiction Books That Will Change The Way You Think by Stephen Hussey and George Taylor