You're listening to Part Time Genius, the production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio.

Guess what Will What's that Mango?

So it is day five, the grand finale of our week long series about curiosity, and I can think of no better way to celebrate than by talking with two of the most curious people we know.

Two of the most curious people we know who aren't our.

Kids, definitely not our kids.

They are the brilliant podcasters Josh Clark and Chuck Bryan aka Josh and Chuck, the host of Stuff.

You should know.

We've known these guys for such a long time now, so we decided to call them up and see if they'd come on our show and talk about what it's like to be curious for a living, how we all got to be so curious, if curiosity has ever gotten us in trouble, and so much more.

It's going to be so much fun.

And before I say let's dive in, I should mention that at the end of the episode, we'll tell you about today's listener activity, which is your very last chance this week to win a Part Time Genius prize pack.

It's pretty exciting.

You definitely don't want to miss that.

All right, mego go ahead and say it.

Let's dive in.

Hey, their podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius.

I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my good friend Mangesh Hot Ticketer and sitting behind that big glass booth, that's our wonderful pal Dylan fag And you all know Dylan you're always looking forward to what he's up to today.

You'll never believe it.

Dylan is waving a poster he made and it says, I'm so glad I'm not the only producer here today that has to listen to Will and Mango's bad jokes.

It's good to see you, Dylan.

He is right, because we have super producer Jerry Roland in the booth with us today, and we've also got the star talent that she wrangles regularly, Chuck and Josh chatting with us.

We're so excited and Chuck and Joshua's so good to have you here.

Hi guys, Hello dudes, thank you for having us.

We're so excited to have you.

But before we start, and since we are grace with Jerry's presence, I wanted to ask Jerry some questions about the two of you, or Will and I Wilba both ask questions about the two of you.

So, Jerry, Today's thing is all about curiosity.

We're doing this whole series on curiosity.

Obviously, we've got two very curious people here.

But do you notice anything specific about Chuck and Josh's curiosity, Like you ever see them being curious outside the office?

Do you see them being curious on tape?

Like, tell me a little bit about what you think of the two of them.

I know it's it's funny, like in the context of stuff you should know.

I feel like we still have conversations leading up to a recording or even after we stop a recording where we're like, oh my god, that was did you hear about this?

Did you hear about that?

So I feel like that curiosity is kind of inherent and always there.

Outside of that, I see Chuck every now and then, because anybody who listens to the show knows that our daughters go to school together.

So luckily, you know, other than that, I wouldn't ever see Chuck in the real world.

But we've known each other for so long, and we've kind of had this parallel path for so long that when we're curious about something that's usually in the sort of like we're getting older sort of realm of like I wonder why my knees stopped working, right, I wonder if this ever stops?

Or is this it?

You know?

What's the A?

Yeah, what's that?

Which is the episode that come out next week?

That's going to be That's be great now I'm about it, yeah, exactly.

One of the things we've been talking about recently is for curious people, they're routines, their superstitions, and obviously for a show that's been successful for so long, Jerry curious, if you can take us behind the scenes, are there any routines or superstitions about the show that we should all know about.

Chuck used to do this thing that ended a long time ago, so I guess I guess it's fine that he stopped, but he used to do his cheeks and if he's down for it, he might give.

Us, Oh wow, that's impressive and a really horrid noise.

Yeah, so that used to be.

I don't know if we have like any superstitious type of routines, but like these days, when we show up to record, it's like, hey, you guys ready, yep, clap, Okay, let's go.

There's not a ton of back and forth because we say that honestly for the for the show.

I mean the one time we recorded with you before you guys did the same thing.

You were like, okay, let's go.

And it was.

For someone who is not as good without a script in front of me or talking points.

It was pretty amazing to watch you at work.

We do, like Jerry said, though, we save it, like we actually tell one another this is gold, save it for the podcast.

So there's not a lot of front loading because we recorded it all and basically release our conversations.

You know.

M hm.

Is there anything that makes you feel particularly good on Mike?

Like, I mean, this is an old reference, but like Tiger Woods would wear red shirts because he felt like it brought out a certain energy or something like, is there anything that gets you excited to tape?

Mmmm?

Chuck here, I do I need to say that?

Sure?

Every time we're so used to doing that and stuff like this.

You know what I started doing, and this was sort of during COVID when everyone was kind of forced to go virtual or whatever and set up the home studios.

Is I started.

I kind of went the other way rather than just being a complete schlub.

I would get up and take a shower and you know, sort of dress for work.

And I continue to do that on my work days because I don't know, it's just sort of a routine that I feel like sort of helps me even though I'm at home, kind of make a transition, you know, Superman style.

M That was like our old friend that would do formal Fridays when when we were all working from home during COVID, one of our good friends would would have a fun Friday and be like show up on a video and just like wearing just the most sparkly beautiful dress and you're like, Okay, I guess it's it's normal Friday.

Yeah, sorry, Josh, we're gonna say something.

I did the exact opposite of that, where I can just go quite a while into the day without taking a shower first.

I like, he says it with pride too.

It's like it's like it was bragging.

I can do.

I can keep going.

I think, yeah, with the hygiene thing for me, not that you asked, but I'm giving you an leaving.

I mean, like during COVID, like I did brush my teeth every day, that it might not be until about five pmsh Oh, wow, is the sun going up or down?

Maybe I should.

That was the teeth is a darker.

For sharing that year.

Yeah, I knew you were just really dying to ask.

Let's uh, let's go way back pre COVID to your childhood days, which just a few years before COVID.

Let's talk about curiosity from the earliest days.

If somebody knew you when you were you know, eight, nine, ten years old, would they have seen this coming?

Would they have been like, Yeah, this kid is so curious that one day they're going to be involved in something that involves knowledge or learning.

Let's let's maybe Josh will start with you.

You want to jump in first.

Sure, yeah, I would say, this is Josh, I would say probably not.

Actually I was never like a really good student.

My curiosity essentially extended to like what does this taste like.

I wasn't like an uncurious kid where I was like, you know, beating up like nerds or anything like that.

But I just wasn't nearly as curious as I am now.

It just seems to have been something that developed as a grown up.

Actually, so I was like a C student c I'm going to say CMB generous to myself mostly through school, all the way through high school essentially, and then once I got to college.

I'm not quite sure what happened, but it was like a switch flipped to my head and all of a sudden, I was I was a good student.

I wanted to learn everything that I possibly could, and I've been like that since then.

So I guess if you're not curious out there, and you feel like a schlub and you're under nineteen, then take hope.

Yeah, or start a podcast.

Yeah, now that's terrific, Chuck, how about you?

I was sort of curious.

I mean I was an AB student most probably a solid B student in school, and I didn't give the most effort.

I kind of skated by a lot of times on charm.

So my teachers, my teachers are.

My teacher all liked me, and you know, I wanted to be liked by my teachers, and so I and fellow students, so I think they would have thought I was maybe precocious more than curious.

But outside of school, I think I was pretty curious about the outside world, not as much formal studies.

But I grew up camping, and I grew up in the woods, and so I was always curious about sort of nature and stuff like that.

But I also was you know, wasn't the kid who sat.

Around and watched Nova in elementary school unless I had to write a paper on it.

You know what.

One of these things we're doing for Kaleidoscope is trying to collect moments of science, like the first moment that you sort of had this sense of wonder about the world and or about a topic or a subject or something.

And I was curious, like, is there a moment for either of view about like when you discovered something that you were just completely mesmerized.

I'll jump in because I recently found a box of old school work of mine from elementary school, and I did not remember how obsessed with NASA and space travel I was.

But when I went back and looked through this, I had a bunch of papers in school projects and it seemed to be a well that I kind of went back to a lot.

And that's not something that I'm still like super super into.

Josh's more into that stuff than me now, but I definitely remember looking back through this papers like man, I was really and I guess we were kids of the Space Shuttle program like being birthed, and looking back, I was pretty into that at the time.

I mean there was so much romance around it, right, Yeah, the idea of going beyond Earth and all the excitement of science in a.

Way, Yeah, totally, So that'd probably be it for me.

Science and then just camping in the natural world again.

Yeah, how about you, Josh.

For me, it was writing.

I always wanted to be a writer, and I remember in third grade I had a teacher who was particularly supportive about that, Miss Chamberlain, and ever since then, I was like, I'm going to grow up to be a writer, and luckily I did.

That was the first thing I was that kind of got me.

The first thing I remember like starting to learn about that I was really interested in was history, I think in like ninth grade or something like that.

So those two things definitely converge.

I studied history in college and I have been writing ever since third grade.

So I guess I fulfilled my promise, is what I'm trying to say.

And what was it about writing that drew you?

Like?

Do you have a particular style, did you like communicating a certain thing?

Did you just like spending time with a page.

I don't know.

I think the fact that I can't answer that makes me feel like I was kind of born as a writer.

You know.

I read a lot as a kid too, But I never remember saying like, oh, I'm learning tips and techniques, and I wasn't absorbing the writing for style.

I was just enjoying it.

But I think along the way, I was learning a lot of style, and I'd gotten pretty good at fiction.

I don't know around the time I got hired to How Stuff Works, where I was actually like, this isn't that bad.

And then when I got hired to how Stuff Works, where our podcasts grew out of Chuck and I both got hired as writers for that website, my writing shifted over from fiction to nonfiction, and there was a huge shift, and I remember kind of like mourning not having an opportunity to write fiction anymore.

But then I kind of became obsessed with nonfiction, and I think that was my curiosity at that point took a new step from one plateau to like a new higher level I guess where I was just ingesting more and more information because nonfiction kind of requires that writing nonfiction, so that was a big change.

For me and improvement in my curiosity too.

I mean, it's funny because you're both writers, right, Like Chuck came in with a script, or at least part of a script, right, Yeahine Hostiff works.

Yeah.

I didn't have any professional writing experience, but like Josh, I was writing as a kid and had supported teachers.

In that stack of old school work, I found a little piece of comment writing I did.

I did Henry David Thureaux satire in like the seventh grade about a guy who goes to the woods to live deliberately and it turns out it sucks and he prefers the city for various reasons.

But I read back through it and I was like, man, I mean it wasn't the worst piece of writing for a twelve year old and had teachers who encouraged that.

But I had, you know, been knocking about trying to write screenplays and working in the film business.

So I didn't have any real professional experience at all.

And then our boss, our colleague, Connell Byrne, Yeah, I sat down with him and I said, all that had to give you or you know, I'll give you the first twenty pages of my latest script.

And thank god, we all know Connell and he's a big movie guy and has acted some and done some film production work.

So anyone else and I probably would not have gotten that job.

But Connall and I had a great just a great report in conversation and he said, well this counts You're hired.

Wow, thank god.

Pretty terrific.

When you think about the crazy rainge of episodes that you guys have done.

You know, Josh you mentioned history, Chuck you talked about science and just that range there, and in terms of the curiosity and desire to learn in different categories, do you guys, when you're coming up with your topics find yourselves going to your comfort zone or your primary area of curiosity and say, you know, Josh in your case going to history, and Chuck in your case, you know, if it is the natural world or things like that, or do you find yourself trying to push yourself to come up with episodes that are just so outside the realm of something that you know about or knew about before.

How do you think about that process?

I think it depends on the week.

Actually, Like if we both have a Bonker's week, we probably will do something like history or maybe even pop culture, We've been doing a lot of pop culture episodes lately, and they're interesting and fascinating and everyone loves them and they're fun to do, and we already know a lot of it because we live through it.

It's usually gen X, pop culture nostalgia kind of stuff, but then you know other time, So yeah, I definitely try to choose ones that I don't know anything about that I think is kind of interesting, or maybe I know a little bit about it, but I want to know more.

We recently did one on nuclear waste, Getting rid of nuclear Waste.

We're both very troubled to find that the world doesn't really have any good ideas about getting rid of the nuclear waste that's been accumulating since the forties.

And there's some good ideas on the horizon, but they're not here yet, and we're just basically shuffling our nuclear waste from one place to another.

I had no idea about that.

I just knew that there would be something interesting about nuclear waste disposal, even though it sounds kind of boring.

It turned out not to be.

And that's usually the case.

Whenever we push ourselves, we find that there's something way more interesting about the thing.

Than we even thought initially.

M Yeah, for sure, go ahead, Chuck, No, yeah, for sure, that's it.

That was Chuck.

I was gonna say, like, you ever find that, you know, when you chase ideas on the web, I feel like you end up going down a rabbit hole of different topics that lead one to another to another.

Do you find that the topics that you cover ever make you daisy chain into like other topics?

Yeah, I mean that happens has happened since the beginning.

I feel like, and we'll say it during the episode, like, you know, we'll bring up a part of that episode and say, actually, this would make you know, a good full length episode.

Something we just sort of might briefly mention that ties into the current topic.

So I feel like that happens all the time, you know, when we were fully writing all the stuff all the time, full time for us, before we got some freelance help, it happened more in the research stage.

But I think now it tends to happen in the episode where like, hey, you know, we should do a whole one on this person that just had a very small part to play in this story.

One of the other ways that happens too is when we're researching for an episode, a question will come up.

I mean tons of questions come up, But then you go to answer that question because the rule of thumb is if we have that question somewhere out there listening, it's going to have the same question and we don't want them to end the podcast with that question.

Still, we try to fill as many answers as we can, and as you're going and finding an answer to that, you'll turn up some mention of something else that you hadn't turned up before, and now all of a sudden, there's this whole richer component to what you're explaining in the episode.

It's really cool.

I've never thought of it as daisy chaining before.

It's a much more pleasant way of looking at it.

But to me, it was just turning stuff up.

I like daisy chaining way more.

Okay, listener, if you've got to pay for the show with some ads, but we'll be right back after this quick break.

You know.

Would we think about how much technology has changed information gathering over the past decade, and then of course that's just gotten so much faster in the past three or four years, and there's this desire for instant gratification, having a question being able to answer it within you a matter of seconds or minutes.

Has that changed how you guys think about making the show or or how do you think about that piece of it?

Just knowing that we do live in a world now where people are instantly going to whether it's an AI source or their search engine to try to answer questions, how do you feel like you guys set yourself apart from that?

Wooh, that's a tough one being human.

Well, I mean, you know, the Internet was It's not like we've been around for a while, but it's not like we were doing card catalog research.

So the Internet was always a part of our research.

Yep.

In fact, we did a.

Whole episode about like kind of I don't remember what we called it, Josh, but kind of how to do your best research and you know, present things truthfully and factually.

So we've gotten pretty good at sussing stuff out.

I think these days it is sort of a different realm now with AI and you know, all the weird deep fake stuff.

Just to make sure that you're not getting bad information or whatever, so we probably have to dot our eyes and cross our tea's a little more closely.

Now, Yeah, that's a tough question.

I've found that it's getting harder and harder and harder.

It seems like the pace of clearly AI written and researched articles has not quite hit a singularity, but it's definitely sped up in the last couple of months.

I feel like, yeah, there's a lot of crud out there, yep, and a lot of it is not reliable at all.

I use bing because I think Google's search results are just a total mess, and duc ducgo is great, but it's too slow.

So I've kind of started bing and like everything else has the AI result at the top whenever you search for something, and I've found like it's just flat out wrong.

A lot of the times you'll go and click on the source and the source doesn't say anything like what the AI is telling you SA.

So I've learned not to trust that, and then going and finding Okay, well, I need to find the answer to this question somewhere.

I might be on page two or three of the search results before I find something that's clearly reliable, that knows what it's talking about and is yeah, can give me the answer I need.

That is not at all how it used to be.

Yeah, when you did search, you could read everything on page one and you just had the biggest, best, like deep knowledge of what you were talking about.

Yeah.

Now it's just it's just not there anymore.

Like the Internet has changed dramatically, and it seems like it's really hit an inflection point in the last couple of months.

It's funny because like it went from you had to do work to do research to having research at your fingertips to having to work to do research again.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's really crazy.

I had that experience not too long ago where finished reading this fantastic book and was reading it with a friend, and so we were going to have a conversation about it and even just to like remember the sequence of events put into an AI source, you know, give me the overview, the plot overview of this story, and it was just so completely inaccurate.

It was bonkers.

Like all I was asking for was a plot summary from this book to then be able to walk through it and have the conversation around it.

And it was really bizarre.

I'm sure all of that will get better and it will improve, but it was just weird.

So I guess at the same time, part of what people are turning to you guys for is to make sense of that.

Like, you guys are doing the heavy lifting.

You guys are navigating all of the nonsense that's out there, but also a lot of the great information that's out there, and so your job is to try to sort of cut through that and get to the interesting stuff.

I'm sure it's gotten more challenging, but it's I guess it's the challenge that you guys take on.

Yeah, you know you want to hear something about me, guys.

I do state your name first, though.

This is Chuck.

And I'm not doing it because I'm taking some big like moral ethical stand or anything.

I think.

I'm not doing it because I'm just some old gen exer that doesn't want to roll with things.

But I have never I wouldn't know how to use AI, Like I wouldn't know if someone said, hey, use AI to do whatever, I would.

Know how to do that.

I would have to look up like do you have to go to a website and sign up for a thing and then enter a question like That's how sort of in the dark about all of that stuff I am right now because.

I just I don't feel like I I don't know.

I don't feel like I need it.

Like everything is going fine for me as far as how I do my job and get my work done, So I don't need it as a tool.

But I wouldn't even know how to go about starting that kind of thing.

It's pretty easy, Chuck, You just go out into your yard and yell it.

I feel like though, that's gen x is, that's like the technology right there where like the generation before.

So I guess the Boomers if they didn't pick up on the internet, yeah, they got left behind, and a lot of them did.

Like my dad does not use email.

He doesn't text, and it's so maddening.

It's like you have to pick up the phone and call him and you have a conversation and you can't just ask a question, you know, but he doesn't care.

But he he would have no idea how to send an email now right that like us right now, Chuck me, Jerry, you guys, if we don't learn that, we're gonna get left behind.

That maybe, okay, that's not the end of the world.

I don't think AI will bring about the end of the world, but us not learning to use like chat GPT won't bring about the end of the world, I think, but it is we are at that point I feel like right now and I don't I should say I don't know.

I don't know how to use it either.

Do you think you guys will do an episode on how chat GPT works?

We did?

Yeah, we did, you did, and without using it?

We did, right, that's what we do.

Well, it's very much in step.

We we did an episode on it.

No, we didn't use it.

But one of the the key components of that episode, if I remember correctly, Chuck, was we were just a gog that this had arrived, yeah, and that we were both kind of like it's starting I can't believe it, but it is starting right now, and I think that's true.

Yeah.

Yeah, So in a completely different vein.

Well, I have two questions and they're completely unrelated.

What one is is just because I'm curious.

I know, Josh, you said used to hate your voice, and then someone told you sounded like a muppet, and then you started loving your voice.

I'm curious.

I always wanted to be a Fozzy Bear, but I think I'm actually a Kermit.

I'm curious, are are you a specific muppet?

And does anyone else have a spirit animal Muppet on this line.

I did not see that question coming.

Segue speaking of Ai, which Muppet are you?

Wow, it's a tough one because it's like, which Muppet do you aspire to be?

Which one do you probably most realistically identify with.

It's probably easier to assign that to Josh and Jerry than it is myself.

Thank you for that.

Yeah, maybe you can also answer that way you can, you can give them Muppet names.

Well, I mean, I aspire to be a cool, like rock and roll guy, so I would want to be in the Electric Mayhem.

Oh nice, that's a good call.

Any of them, I would go, Chuck, I would put you down as I don't know that you'd be a cross between Doctor Teeth and the sax Player, right.

Yeah, I can see that.

I like you, Josh.

Josh is kind of Kermity.

I've always yeah, I mean, I definitely if I do resemble a Muppet, is Kermit for sure?

That's just vocally.

I've never really identified with Kermit much like watching him on screen, but I've never been like that's my soul mate.

Yeah, I've always loved Grover as a kid.

I thought Grover was great he was my favorite.

Yeah, but when I look down in my arms and think of a Muppet, I see red.

So maybe I guess Elmo Elmo.

But I hate being tickled.

That's the weird.

You have my word, Josh, I will never tickle you.

All right, I'm going to hold you to that.

I mean, I'm thinking about these guys, and I've never ever thought about this before, but if I had to assign, I might assign Josh Fazzi Beer.

I'll take that.

I can see that.

Okay, Yeah, Chuck, you have this baritone voice, and I can't if we're talking vocally, I can't really think of anybody.

But the first visual I had was one of the little old guys up in the in the yeah balcony.

Yeah, that's basically you guys.

And I might be more of like a beaker.

Like I don't talk a lot, but I'm kind of running around a little anxious and out of sort.

Yeah.

One of the guys names in the Statler and Walter.

Yeah, I'm a bit off mic.

I'm a bit more of a heer mudgeon.

I don't present like that on the show, but in real I r L.

I'm probably more like those guys.

Now that I think about.

It, Yeah, I can tell you when it comes to like school functions, it brings out the school function.

God, there's just too many guys.

Chuck walks away saying, like that PTA meeting was okay, Well it wasn't very good.

No, it's stunk.

It was terrible.

Yeah, that can be painful.

And I made the mistake of bringing my camera.

Started photography again a few years ago, and I got some good camera gear and took two good at pictures of that talent show.

So now every time it's like you gonna are you gonna bring your camera, Chock like, uh, sure, Yeah, that means I'll stay for the whole thing and not leave that forms.

Can't sneak out.

That's that's pretty tough.

Actually, I'm glad you brought that up though, because it, you know, it shows your curiosity about other things.

Putting the show aside for a second, and knowing that you guys have been super successful with this, you find yourselves in a awesome life stage where you, you know, maybe have the opportunity to explore other paths of curiosity.

What are you curious about right now?

It sounds like, Chuck, for you, photography has been a new exploration, but curious to hear from each of you.

Yeah, got back into that.

I grew up taking pictures, you know, back in the old thirty five millimeter camera days, film camera days, obviously through my father because he was a photographer, lifelong photographer, and then I didn't touch a camera for probably twenty five or thirty years, maybe because I had a bad relationship with my father.

I like doctor Freud would probably say that's the case.

And I did get into it after he passed away, so I think that maybe something there may be something there.

Wow, And are you you're printing out the film?

Well no, no, no, this is now all digital.

But I did.

I did get a nice photo printer, and I'm like printing and framing stuff, and I'm making I do a lot of events and like vacations and friends and family events, and I'll make books for people because you can make books now, like hardcover, coffee table like professional quality books.

So I make those and give them out to people, and it's just sort of a fun thing.

That's such a great gift.

Yeah, sounds great.

Never see, well maybe you'll get Josh.

I haven't gotten one either.

No, Sorry, what am I when I I so I like to kind of turn off my brain when I'm not working.

So I've gotten into gardening quite a bit.

It still requires obviously some thought or else you just start digging up plants and forgetting to plant them or whatever.

But one of the other things I've kind of gotten into is like house stuff, like house projects, because I don't know anything about it.

So I'll figure out something I need to go do, like rewire something, and then I have to go research that and figure out how to do it.

And it takes a lot of trial and error.

I've lost some fingernails before getting shocked, and then I'll fig get it out, I'll get it done, and I'll know some new thing.

So that's that's probably the thing that I've gotten into the most, is just figuring out how to do house up keep stuff that I didn't know how to do before.

I want to point out though, that that probably has less to do with Josh's innate curiosity than not wanting to speak to a repair person.

Right, they're hard to find.

But Jerry, you also you also like did up your house previously, right, Like you know how to do a lot of that stuff.

I mean, you know we do higher.

People do the big stuff, but I'm I'm comfortable doing small stuff Like I've I've replaced some lights.

I've actually uh not just like lights, the actual light that's in the wall or the ceiling.

Yeah, I'm not that accomplished, but I'm kind of like Josh, like I like to take that kind of stuff on.

But I also have to be careful because I'll start like three or four projects and they'll all get close to done but not quite, and then I walk by them and I get mad about it because I haven't finished that I know I need to finish, and it's still sitting there, and.

It's that's that used to be my cycle.

Emily said, I was a member of the ninety percent club, so it sounds like you're in there too.

Yeah, I'm an in incredible enthusiast about starting things, like I have piles of books that are like yeah, you know yeah.

So one of the questions I had also wanted to ask, was you seem like maybe as kids you got in trouble a little bit?

Like was was curiosity ever a cause for that?

I was a pretty good kid, So I think Josh was a was a delinquent.

Well, a little bit, but I was mostly a good kid.

But it is true I started smoking cigarettes at age fourteen, So that's that does automatically.

This episode is brought to you by Hey.

But I was smart about it.

I I I.

So I would smoke out in the woods at the edge of a golf course, and there was a water hazard, and that what it's called chuck water a pond, And so I had a bar of soap that I kept out in the woods.

So after I smoked, I would go to this water hazard and wash my hands off with the soap and go home and just suspect no one knew a thing.

But I'm sure I was coming and smelling like smoke, but no one said anything.

You should have gotten.

I want to envision fourteen year old Josh by the golf course with one of the Hunter S.

Thompson cigarette holders.

You don't have to wash your hands.

I was more going for FDR okay.

Right, knowing that you're still trying to learn as much as you can to do these these new episodes?

Are there outside of your show?

Are there other creators other you know, just other people that you've admired for a long time, either as a writer, or some other form of content creator that that you sort of see as your heroes in the space.

Who do you like to learn from?

I mean, if Josh likes to sort of turn his brain off after work, I turn my brain off when it comes to other podcasts because I exclusively listen to kind of dumb comedy shows.

So I just I don't think I could listen to other sort of learning podcasts.

That's when I'm on my dog walks.

I just want to check out and laugh at, like, you know, the three or four comedy shows I listen to.

I hear you.

I get mine from a bunch of different sources, and it'll it's not necessarily podcasts.

It's not necessarily on the web.

It could be a book, it could be something I ran across in a movie, and then something will connect to something else.

And that's kind of how I get my inspiration in my info.

There's not like a single go to place that I go to to recharge my brain or anything like that.

It's just kind of a little bits here or there.

Yeah, what about you, guys.

The tables have turned, That's right.

I think that you know, whenever I'm curious about something, I assigned a show out about it.

I feel like that's been the joy or articles, right, that was the joy of mental floss was that, like anything we were curious about, we could get someone to research for us and bring back to us and tell us in a really fun and quick and engaging way.

And that has been such a pleasure and luxury in my life.

Yeah, I've sort of been in a kick recently of reading either historical fiction or works that are kind of adjacent to that.

So there was a book that I probably one of my favorite books of the past decade or so that I revisited called Pachinko.

I don't know if you guys have read it before, but it follows this family, this Korean family, early twentieth century, four or five generations.

And there was an Apple show made from, you know, inspired by the book as well that ran a couple of seasons, and so been watching that at the same time.

And I don't know, I feel like when you find really good historical fiction that feels like it can actually transport you to that time and place, and then you're obviously getting the entertainment of following whatever the story is there, but it just shed so much light on what that relationship between the Japanese and the Koreans were at the time and throughout most of the twentieth century.

That's sort of been my latest kick in terms of trying to learn while also combining it with some good entertainment.

Hey, listeners, do not go anywhere.

We've got to pause for a quick break, but we'll be back with more part time genius very soon.

I think, you know, one other thing but I never would have imagined had spurred my curiosity as much as it has is having kids and getting to see the world through their eyes and like what they get excited about.

And I'm sure you know, Shuck and Jerry you see this too, but I find, like, you know, when they're excited about art and learning about artists and going to a museum or something, it's like joyous or like my son was only into anime for the longest time, and suddenly he watched a Spike Lee movie and was like, show me movies, And now we go to movies all the time, and like discovering, like what he sees in a movie, which is so different on what he hears from music, is like so different from what I hear, and it's really incredible.

Yeah.

Yeah, I also found myself having to like, you can't take for granted that your kid knows about whatever, so sort of having to explain things to Ruby, but then realizing like, oh, I need to be able to explain this, Like we went to MoMA last week.

We went to New York for Fall break, and you know, Andy Warhol's soup cans are on the wall, and she asked me about him, and so then I had an opportunity to say, like, oh, I said, well, that's Andy Warhol and he's very famous artist called pop art.

And you know, Josh I kind of knew about this stuff anyway, but we did an episode on Andy Warhol.

So it's like, man, I get to actually teach her something about why paintings of soup cans are cool and important or maybe not to someone else, you know, like she can make up her own mind about that kind of thing.

And so, you know, my parents are both teachers.

I never got to be a teacher, but I ended up being one through the show and through being a dad.

You know, I just want to go on record as saying that I have a daughter too.

She just happens to have four legs and is not allowed in the moment.

Well, one of the questions we had on the list was whether you see the curiosity in your pop Josh do.

I yes.

As a matter of fact, she's very curious but also really smart and enthusiastic in a way that that is actually super infectious.

Every morning she goes down to the park and we feed the squirrels, and in the park we go to, the squirrels are really really brave because everyone feeds them, and she's learned over the years to just hold still and they'll get within like a hair's breadth of her sometimes to get like the nuts that were throwing to them, and she just picked that up, like just learned it over time.

But every single morning, we do this every morning, every single morning.

When we tell her we're going downtown, she jumps around like it's the first time she's ever heard that.

So she gets so excited every morning that it's super infectious.

So yeah, she definitely affects things for me for sure, impacts my outlook.

I love that I was silent.

Huh No, it actually makes me remember like why we love listening to the show is like Josh is telling us a story about his pet and I'm like right in it, I'm like, yeah, yeah, tell me that, and then what happens to the squirrel, then the nuts and then but you know, but just to make sure before we let you go.

You know, we started listening to you guys in the early days of when we were growing our little magazine, Mental Floss, and I was asking the question before about you know who and inspired you, and just wanted to take a minute to note that, like watching you guys for for this many years be curious multiple times and come up with such interesting episodes and such interesting topics, jumping from history to science to pop culture to all over the board.

It's a joy watching people do that and love what they do and getting to learn from them day in and day out, and so just you know again, wanted to say thanks for being that inspiration not just for us, but for so many others, and that joy that you bring to others.

Whatever the topic is, I would venture to guess that the majority of your listeners after they finish listening to it, even if it's a topic that's not like the most happy topic, my guess is they leave the episode happier than when they were.

You know, started listening to the episode, So just wanted to take a minute to say thanks for what you do.

Yeah, I mean, wow, thank you.

Thanks man.

I mean at the end of all this, maybe one day someone will say Josh and Chuck were curious two days a week, every Tuesday and Thursday, they were very, very curious, and every Wednesday they were a little bit curious with their short stuff.

I think you listeners are still they're still saying to themselves like, wait a minute, they did an episode on cht GPT, but they've never used Chett.

I'm sure there's some people still, you know.

I do want to say, though, while you guys were being inspired by us, we were inspired by you as well.

Like back in the day and still today, we draw from Mental Floss a source of recent time, not just for researching facts and getting answers like that, but also for inspiration too, because it's just always been such a great curious magazine but also presented in just such a great approachable way too.

So I will always admire you too for having found that.

It's funny how it all worked out because we were using you guys producing our show that you were listening to, and you know, now we're all colleagues and former colleagues and friends, and it's pretty cool.

I love it all.

That's so wonderful to hear.

And I think part of what makes me so happy is like when I get to see how the community responds to your show.

You know, I felt that with Mental Floss, where like people would write in or like be so excited to have this magazine on the coffee tables.

And when I've seen your shows and the crowds that come out and people that are so excited just to be around you, it's it's really really joyous.

And I also remember, you know, we were not in the House Stuff Works office, the old one anymore, but like people would send in extraordinary gifts, like that massive wooden puzzle that was there, like on a giant wheel.

I don't know if you remember this, but it was just like there forever and no one could figure out how they lock it for the I mean, but like remember that the appreciation for just like opening people's minds to things that they could get excited about was just so fun to watch.

I'm glad that Mystery saw Mangush because I always thought what made you happy was when you opened your eyes in the morning.

I don't know that I've ever known more continuously sort of positive human.

So yeah, when the tape stops rolling, Chuck right, you should you should be he is on the actual.

Moment, Yeah, you throw your headphones and you're like you blew it spoty.

On like Sean Penn in one battle after another.

That's who he turns into.

Well, we did just want to say thank you so much for being here and spending time with us.

We know we're all super busy, but it's so fun to be chatting with you and just joyus to have you on the show for sure.

Thanks for having us huge.

Fans, huge fans personally and professionally.

All Right, dudes, it was good to see you.

Thanks for doing this with us.

Thank you.

All right, Mango, that's a wrap for this week.

Tell me how are you feeling.

I mean, honestly, we've been working on the series for a few months now, and it's just been kind of funny to spend so much time.

I'm being curious about curiosity, Like I really pay attention now when I realize I'm curious about something because I know so much more about what's going on in my own brain and how that ties into history or philosophy science.

It feels pretty amazing.

Yeah, I'm the same, and you know that brings us to today's listener activity.

So it's very simple.

We want to know your favorite fact that you learn from us in this week's episodes, So just leave us a comment on our Instagram or Blue Sky and you'll be entered to win a part Time Genius prize pack.

Now, if you want an extra entry, make a video telling us about your favorite fact, upload it and tag us.

The deadline is Sunday, October twenty sixth, and all the details and links are in the show notes and on our social accounts.

Again, we're on Instagram and Blue Sky at part Time Genius.

That's right, and remember you still have time to participate in all the listener activities for this week.

You can go back to our social feeds and find them, and you have until Sunday to do it.

So go do it.

And thanks to everyone who's entered so far.

We have really really enjoyed seeing your posts and comments.

Okay, so before we go, we want to thank Josh and Chuck for hanging out with us today.

Be sure to follow their show stuff.

You should know wherever you get your podcasts, and we will be back next week with some slightly spooky Halloween episodes.

Not too spooky, though, no a very manageable level of spooky, so be sure to join us for that and in the meantime, From Will, Dylan, Gabe, Mary, and myself, thank you so much for listening.

Part Time Genius is the production of Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio.

This show is hosted by Will Pearson and me Mongagehatikler, and research by our good pal Mary Philip Sandy.

Today's episode was engineered and produced by the wonderful Dylan Fagan with support from Tyler Klang.

The show is.

Executive produced for iHeart by Katrina Norvell and Ali Perry, with social media support from Sasha Gay, Trustee Dara Potts and Viney Shore.

For more podcasts from Kaleidoscope and iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.