Stop Me If I've Heard This

Prod Me, Poke Me. Make Sure That You Woke Me.

The first question Art had waking up from his colonsoscopy this week was whether he'd been abducted by aliens. Turns out no. Without getting too gross, Art shares his experience from the prep day to the hospital gown puzzle, to the drugged up ride home. As we get older, these are the kinds of procedures most of us have to endure...along with insurance companies and a broken medical system. What a great chance for Art and Susan to complain. And complain we did. Lots of laughs. 

What Now Brown Cow?

The last year and a half have caused many of us to pause and re-evaluate our lives. Are we living the life we want or just going with the flow wherever it may take us. As we get closer to retirement, we're starting to ask how we want to spend the finite number of years we have left on this earth. Change careers? Move to another country? Join the circus? Learn something new? Have an identity crisis? We talked about some ways to answer these questions and decided to keep doing what we're doing. Maybe. Or not. 

The New Njørmle

So half of us are vaccinated against the virus now and it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas is the soonest we can hug our nana. Nonetheless, hope is in the air and it looks more and more like we'll all be able to breathe it. With or without a mask life will likely be forever changed. But how? We had more laughs than usual pondering what movies theaters, restaurants and social gatherings will look like. Are fist bumps really that bad? Is there really a microchip in our bloodstream now?  Air hugs and kisses to all of our listeners. Enjoy this particularly fun episode. 

News To Me

How do you get your news? Sitting in a coffee shop with a paper, scrolling through your emails, watching late night talk shows? When is the last time someone called you up and said, "Quick! Turn the tv on!"? The more news sources, the less of a hive mind we have. We talk about our memories of news stories that we'll never forget and what's different now. 

The Envelope Please...

And the winner for least watched Oscars in modern history goes to- you guessed it, 2021. This years' Oscar show was such a three hour sleeping pill that even the winner of the award for best actor was at home sleeping through it. Susan and Art share their feelings about the Oscar ceremonies, the winners and losers, and what they think is wrong with the world. 

One Word. Plastics.

Who would have known how prophetic this line from The Graduate was back in 1967. Today, plastics are so much a part of our life we're drowning in them. The ocean is filling with them and breaking down into micro particles that are threatening all marine life. Yikes! How did we get here and what can we do about it? What happened to recycling? We thought in honor of Earth Day we'd scratch the surface of this global topic. It's not all bad. Believe it or not, there are actually some possible solutions that have a degree of hope.  

Hey Let's Go Hang Out At The Cybermall

The Malls are closed. Theaters are dying. And Restaurants are empty. Where should we meet? Even before the pandemic, human contact has been moving from actual to virtual as we become more and more isolated. How did we get here and what can we do about it. Have we lost any sense of community? We're still gathering online and having an easier time identifying who our tribes are and connecting with them but something is missing. Susan and Art reminisce about their favorite malls and what they liked about them and wonder about what belonging might look after the pandemic and moving forward. 

Andrew Sleighter

Rising young comedy star Andrew Sleighter is with us, talking comedy shop talk, family, and zoom-tastic performances during the lockdown. Andrew has appeared on Conan, Dry Bar, and Last Comic Standing and has his own podcast The Cavalry. Aside from all that, he is a really fun, likable, and funny guy to share an hour with. It seemed like fifteen minutes had gone by and we had to wrap it up.  

Hear Me See Me Message Me Text Me

All about the changes in communication. From morse code and ham radios to the evolution of the phone, emails and zoom calls. The first ten minutes or so start out heavy as we ruminate about voter suppression and other maddening stuff then we lighten up with our memories of early phone use and work our way all the way up to the present, ending with some funny texting and auto correct fails. 

Belinda Carroll Makes It Happen

Our guest this episode is Belinda Carroll. Comedian, writer, activist, actress, and singer. In addition to organizing the Portland Queer Comedy Festival and helping to organize Portland Dyke March, Belinda has appeared on  Portlandia and has written for publications such as The Portland Mercury, Huffington Post, and Cracked.com. Oh, and she was awarded the Woman of Achievement Award from the State of Oregon, presented to her by governor Kate Brown. We had a laugh and talked about the evolution of the lgbtq comedy scene since her arrival in 2008. During the quarantine, Belinda has been working to help find safe housing for houseless people who've been exposed to or have contracted Covid 19. It's hard to find enough good things to say about this powerful, energetic, funny young woman. I know you'll enjoy it as much as we did.