Third Space Podcast

After a nice, lengthy holiday break, Bennett and Daniel return to report on how their 2024 is going thus far. Daniel's is boring, but Bennett's has started off pretty crappy, with incapable men, illogical women, and a whole lotta snow. After that, Bennett tries his darndest to convert Daniel to veganism using the strongest arguments he can, to a surprising degree of success.

Why do authors insist on having their characters whisper in unrealistic fashion? Are food delivery services trashy, lazy, and low-class or a luxury for people after a hard day? Are tips rewards for good service or blackmail? Is Chili's really a cool ghost kitchen or some garbage restaurant? Bennett and Daniel weigh the pros and cons of services like Uber Eats, discuss their experiences, and predic...

Bennett springs a surprise game on a suddenly very uncomfortable Daniel called: Is It Racist? Before the podcast, Bennett gathered three somewhat random things from Daniel, and the premise of the game is to have Daniel determine whether these things, by modern definitions, are racist. Bennett provides substantiating and totally irrefutable journalistic examples as to why these things are, in fact,...

Daniel reflects on his recent experience as assistant director of an absurdist play, and he discusses with Bennett whether and why absurdism is entertaining. Then, Bennett reads a very, extremely scientific and valid Forbes article touting the necessity of hugs and consequently discovers he should be dead multiple times over.

After some minor (or major) dispute over whether the universe is fundamentally musical, Bennett springs a Mind Your Morals on Daniel, resurrecting a popular gimmick: The Elimination Button. This is a magical button that can eliminate certain things from reality, and Daniel must consider the moral implications of its pressing. Unlike the last episode, Daniel is put in the position of preventing pre...

All Hallows Month has begun, so Bennett and Daniel discuss when it's appropriate to start decorating for Halloween and whether or not adults who LOVE Halloween have issues. Daniel then introduces a segment called Concision Incision, which he bills as "questions that cut deep in time that's cut short." Essentially, it consists of a series of deep and/or personal questions delivered and answered wit...

Daniel is a teacher, so he should be hip to the modern pop scene, right? Well, in this episode, Bennett tests his pop music acumen with Pop or Slop! Just like in past episodes about rap or country, Bennett serves up a set of song lyrics, where some are penned by him, and some are real songs. Daniel is then tasked with discerning the difference. Truly, the state of pop is dire, so it's more of a ch...

Daniel reveals his impending fatherhood, which fuels discussion on babies and naming and parenting philosophies. Bennett laments getting laughed at for hiking with an umbrella. And Daniel and Bennett discuss the genre of zombie entertainment.

Are spiders or ladders more dangerous? Doctors or car crashes? Bennett interrogates Daniel to see if he can guess which of a variety of categories kills more people each year. Then, they discuss creativity and its relationship to freedom. Does more freedom generate more creativity, or, paradoxically, does the imposition of limitation? Bennett and Daniel play with the idea, tossing out some example...

Superpowers and Drawbacks returns after a bit of a hiatus, bringing discussion of candy bar births and crow supervillains. Then, Daniel and Bennett discuss the culture and practice of hunting. Is it moral to hunt? Which animals are okay to hunt, for what reasons, and should children be allowed to do it?

In this episode, Daniel and Bennett discuss the phenomenon of gossip. Is gossip inherently negative? Is there a way that gossip can be a good thing? What sorts of people are more prone to gossip, and what are Daniel and Bennett's experiences with it?

Alternate title: Come Hail or High Water. In this episode, Bennett recounts a very intense hiking experience that he classifies as perhaps the most physically demanding thing he's ever done. Daniel asks questions along the way, making for what is hopefully an entertaining story.

Should we stop shooting fireworks on Independence Day to protect little Floofy's sensitive doggie mental state? What about the supposed veteran with PTSD who gets triggered by the explosions? Or is it reasonable to celebrate a cultural event with fireworks? Daniel and Bennett discuss. Daniel also brings back Father Bennett, this time presenting Bennett with three hypothetical fatherhood scenarios...

Daniel brings multiple fascinating language-related topics to this episode, including an idea borrowed from Malcolm Gladwell about how memory and language are intertwined. This leads Bennett and Daniel to examine other instances of language affecting memory, how culture ties in with language and behavior, and how aliens and AI might play into it all. This was a fun one that certainly contained som...

Daniel celebrates his last day of work (for the school year) apparently by recording a podcast. In it, he and Bennett complain about adult obligations like car registration and insurance, but then they transition to a discussion of fear. What does it mean to feel fear? Is it different from anxiety or panic? Do Bennett or Daniel have any phobias? This and more is discussed, so don't be afraid to li...

Acknowledgement. In this episode, Daniel and Bennett discuss greetings and how odd they can be. Daniel satiates his curiosity about light bulbs and learns why we can't just have TV technology inside them (or can we?!). And finally, they discuss houses; what kind of house would be best? What room is the most important? How valuable is land? Are tiny homes a sinister social engineering scheme?

Well, Zelda came out, so of course Daniel and Bennett discuss it a little. But considering the length of the game, it will likely be a recurring mini-topic. Afterwards, Bennett forces a Daniel Does Science, this time asking: is it alive?! Daniel does a surprisingly good job assessing the living qualities of things like milk, blood, and mildew. This leads into a little bit of discussion on the educ...

Daniel introduces a new segment called Overrated Or Underrated Or Just Rated (OOUOJR) that really allows Bennett to flex his judgment muscles. Shopping malls, empathy, electric cars, and jerking before bed, among other things, all are judged. See if you concur.

Mind Your Morals returns, this time with a topic that is a little closer to the real world than those of previous episodes: the practice known as assisted suicide, or more recently, Medical Aid in Dying (MAID). Bennett presents Daniel with situations ranging from the sympathetic to the slightly outlandish, and Daniel tries to weigh the weight weights of morality and whether people should be assist...

What do you think about birds? A simple question, but one that occupies Daniel and Bennett for half of the podcast. They then consider what a world might be like if cheap, nutritionally complete pills were readily available. Would restaurants disappear? Would fat people cease to be? Would it be overall a good thing or a bad thing?

The recent Super Mario Bros. movie serves as the backbone of this podcast. Bennett gives his movie review, but the discussion spawns tangents about mind-over-matter, identification with characters in media, video game design, and sequelitis. And somehow we forgot to even say "So long, gay Bowser!"

The snow melts away, leaving plentiful piles of pet poop, which Bennett complains about. Daniel muses on the sentience of AI and whether humans are the only beings with souls. And Bennett brings up Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, an interesting disorder that Daniel and Bennett speculate on in relation to some current societal issues.

Daniel returns from his honeymoon to discuss teenage risk assessment, Willene in the Ingles parking lot, and Io, the moon of Jupiter, with a little help from Bennett. The conversation then broadens to vacation and travel in general; why do people travel? What's up with the people who make travel part of their identity? Should we live in a van?

Daniel conceptualizes a brand new segment for this episode: Father Bennett. Bennett is not actually a father, whether biologically or Catholically, but nevertheless Daniel presents him with a particular parenting scenario and has him explain how he would behave. This scenario involves Bennett's hypothetical teenage daughter wanting to wear somewhat revealing clothing, and Bennett handles the situa...

Mind your Morals returns after a few episodes, this time examining the risque topic of strip clubs. Are they moral, either for the strippers, the patrons, or the owners? If not, on what grounds? What about weird futuristic scenarios with VR strip clubs and robo-boobs? Bennett and Daniel examine it all.