The Two Vague Podcast

ASAP, AFK and sonar walk in to a bar.  The bartender says, “As Soon As Possible… Away From Keyboard… who’s your friend?”  If you don’t understand this “joke,” don’t worry; you will before the end of the show.  This week Ben and Norah discuss the difference between acronyms, anacronyms, and initialisms.  Other topics include: a recent TikTok trend, commonly used acronyms, a comedy bit by Gary Gulma...

Norah leads the conversation about the word generation while Ben sits comfortably in the cohost chair.  Norah shares her research on the meaning of the word, provides a breakdown of the social generations, and explains the personality tendencies of Boomers, X-ers, Millennials, and  Zoomers.  Ben contributes a summary of console generations, some marketing statistics about gamers from the social ge...

Tracy joins Ben this week to converse about the word role!  From jobs, to theatre, to games, the word role plays important… um… role in our day to day lives.  However, these two love games, so this conversation revolves mostly around tabletop games and RPGs.  Discussion topics include: acting, the now defunct Pathfinder Adventure Card Game (by Paizo), Betrayal at House on the Hill (2004 Avalon Hil...

This week John joins Ben to talk about the importance of the word cooperation in two of his hobbies.  John talks about his college experience so far, playing lacrosse, and precision first-person shooters.  For once Ben tries to keep up, asking John questions about a sport (lacrosse) and a game (Riot Games’ Valorant) he’s not very familiar with. 00:00:40 - Thoughts on cooperation, and learning “the...

Norah joins Ben this week to talk about the bodily fluid responsible for oxygen transport to and from the heart.  They each have research to present on the components that make up blood, blood pressure, blood sugar, and blood types.  After those “lectures,” Ben talks about blood type bias in Japan and why blood types appear in old arcade game character bios.  He then moves on to describing the gam...

Norah joins Ben this week to talk about the word pin!  It’s a fastener!  It’s a connector!  It’s a target!  It holds things in place!  Is there anything “pin” can’t do?  Topics include: chess, pin phrases, bowling, punk rock, pin collections, pinball, laserdisc games, and the TWEWY franchise 00:01:06 - Seasonal fruits, fascinating cloth, plugs, and sockets 00:04:39 - The word pin in chess, Adam th...

This week hosts Ben and Norah are talking about the word roll.  As a verb and as a noun it conjures up a wide variety of phrases and concepts.  Along with the conversational riffing, additional topics include: ball bearings, inline skates, some mild Physics, RollerGames, and the 1975 movie Rollerball.  Then it’s on to video games!  Ben talks about Roller Champions, Mega Man, Katamari Damacy, and B...

It wasn’t the original plan, but Ben convinced the infamous Aunt Norah to co-host with him this week!  One could say it was “in the stars” so to speak.  In the Venn diagram of the universe stars are celestial bodies and our word is a celestial body, but our word is not a star.  Ben and Norah delve in to all of the things they can think of that relate to the word moon: common sayings, urban legends...

This week Ben talks about his vehicular troubles, supplemental show ideas, the Paramount+ shows he’s been watching, and his preliminary experiences with Far Cry 6.  He also does a “dramatic” reading of the iconic Star Trek opening monologue. 00:00:30 - Not an apology and Ben’s vehicle issues 00:03:00 - The soliloquy experiment, getting Paramount +, CSI, and Star Trek 00:09:10 - Ben takes a crack a...

Aspiring actor (and top notch barista) Ryan joins Ben to talk about the word comic.  Ben is going super-old school with his trivia and references, and Ryan tries to keep up.  They discuss their favorite stand-up comedians, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ( mild spoilers 16:02 - 39:02 ), their favorite comic themed video games, and what comic book characters they would make a game about...

It’s Mental Health Awareness Month and Rusty (perhaps the most positive person on planet Earth) joins Ben on the podcast to discuss a word that he feels is important to develop in life… resilience.  Ben has conducted extensive research on the psychology of being resilient, the Google Ngram Viewer, and a mobile game designer who created an application to help her “slay her concussion.”  Meanwhile,...

Dr. Tahnee is back in studio to provide her expert opinions on the subject of translation!  Ben may not be a “Spoony Bard” but all of his base do belong to them… as they discuss the intricacies of communicating source language content successfully in a target language.  What does translation success mean or even look like?  Listen in to their discussions and find out!  00:00:20 - This week Ben and...

This week Dr. Tahnee is back to discuss the word translation, but first we call up Aunt Norah!  She has 3 questions that are perfect for our guest’s chosen profession / field of expertise.  Discussion topics include: gender pronouns, learning languages, discriminatory tendencies in AI, and linguist centric humor 00:00:22 - Many hellos to / from Norah, and Ben’s “hot take” on media reviewers today...

The one and only Aunt Norah is in town this week to see her favorite (?) nephew Ben, or perhaps it’s just to record a show about the word metaverse?  Who’s to say?  They do have differing views on what it is and what it could be; however, it’s a very interesting discussion from a generation X-er and a Baby Boomer just trying to make sense of it all. 00:00:21 - It’s a dry heat, and starting off the...

This week Paul joins Ben to discuss the word virtual.  Topics covered include: virtual experiences present and future, programming languages, virtual software environments, pioneers of the home computing industry, pondering the uses of virtual reality in the future, and envisioning improvements to VR hardware. 00:00:30 - “Jinx, you owe me a coke” 00:03:01 - “Does technology make us more or less vi...

Andrew is back in Tucson with Ben this week, and it’s about time… figuratively AND literally!  Andrew shares stories about teaching, inspirations for his novel, his favorite authors, riding the light rail in Portland, and dreaming about acronyms.  Ben talks about Choose Your Own Adventure books, a mildly disappointing reality show, a favorite time loop movie filmed near his home town, and the arca...

Philosophy student Jenna and Generation X-er Ben are talking about the word morality this week, but before they get started on this thought provoking topic… they have a “warmup chat” with Norah.  After the official show introduction Ben and Jenna dive in to the discussion… and it goes to some unexpected places.  Video games mentioned include the GTA franchise, Call of Duty, Dante’s Inferno, the Ma...

Ben is excited to tell you about Two Vague’s work on their “Only Fans” page!  Additional topics include a brief summary of the OnlyFans platform, some interesting facts about fans, (maybe fictional) details about 2VPs “Only Fans” page, one of Ben’s favorite commercials, his time with a sequel in the Horizon franchise, and some trivia about… “April Fools Day!” 00:00:40 - Some information about Only...

For this week’s discussion, Ben (and an incredibly vocal Mango who presumably was confused with Ben appearing like he was talking to himself for an hour and a half) is joined by Aunt Norah for a somewhat unfamiliar word to both of them, but it’s nothing that can’t be cured by some research and questioning of Chicago restaurant waitstaff.  Topics of discussion include Lunchables, Economics, “The Pr...

Paul joins Ben this week to discuss the word drive.  The conversation focuses mostly on professional racing due to Paul’s enthusiasm about the topic, but Ben has a few trick questions, some trivia, and maybe a golf club up his sleeve.  Paul shares his knowledge of Formula 1 and NASCAR racing with Ben, and they both reflect upon their favorite console driving games.  00:00:35 - Paul gets right to t...

This week Emelie joins Ben to discuss the word travel.  First they talk about the interesting places they have each been for work and pleasure.  Driving, flying and riding the train are just a few of the modes of transportation discussed before Ben talks about two ridiculous travel themed “games.”  To close out the show Emelie and Ben share their international and domestic dream vacations: Tokyo,...

Spring Break season is upon us, and you know what that means… it’s time for a philosophical debate?  Sure, let’s go with that.  Norah had a question about “Episode 34 - Space” for my guest Paul, so we called her up and recorded her for the program.  We ended up talking about the vastness of space, Ben’s lack of knowledge when it comes to automobiles, and the “Metaverse”. 00:00:52 - “It’s an uncle-...

For this week’s episode (nearly lost to the evils of SD card data corruption), Cheyenne is running the show!  Cheyenne and Ben talk about Fight Club, their favorite John Hughes films, their favorite characters from pop culture (too numerous to mention individually), and their favorite video games for character customizations. 00:00:30 - Role reversal, consolation prizes, and character 00:03:30 - M...

Paul joins Ben this week to talk about a very expansive word… assorted nerd-geekery ensues on the subjects of telescopes, aliens, Star Wars, Dune, and other memorable science fiction media.  They only scratch the surface of science fiction space games, but their favorites include a list of recognizable properties (to non-Norah’s) and one forthcoming new Bethesda project that Paul hasn’t heard of....

Ben and Cheyenne are incredibly excited to talk today, but it could just be the word… HYPE (insert airhorn noise here)!  Ben educates Cheyenne on “hype men” in the music of his youth, Public Enemy’s song/video “By the Time I get to Arizona,” the air horn, Beanie Babies, and assorted documentaries.  When the conversation turns to video games, they discuss Cyberpunk 2077, how to promote games succes...