As long as we’ve told stories and communicated with one another, humanity has employed comedy to great and widespread effect, to the delight of many audiences. But what about the perspectives and viewpoints that they offer? How do comedians approach ideas and thought in ways that the everyday person might not naturally? This week, we welcome Vally D to explore this relationship between improv and stand-up comedy. Are they distinct in their methodologies and philosophies?
Episode 243: The Indoor Species
According to a 2018 report by the EPA, the average American spends 90% of their time indoors. Belonging just as much to the natural, unkempt world as any other species, what does this statistic/idea say about our culture and its relationship to the indoors? What do indoor spaces lack or sacrifice when compared to the vast and unconquered outdoors? How do we idealize indoor spaces? And what might this sequestration say about our human future?
Further Reading:
EPA, “Indoor Air Quality”
Episode 242: A Pale Blue Launch II
What would you send into outer space to commemorate Earth and humanity, to a potential audience of alien life? This week, we continue an interview series to tackle that question. In each entry, we’ll interview someone about the five objects - with a stipulation - they would place in a space capsule to launch into the starry beyond. For our second episode, we spoke with Wade Roush about the five objects that he would launch - all of which had to contain wood.
Further Reading:
Wade’s podcast, Soonish
Episode 241: "Excited to Speak"
While speech and discussion are central pillars in our species’ history and evolution, not all conversations are created equal. This week, Kathleen shares a compliment she once gave a friend who made her “excited to talk”. Examining the phrase, what does it reveal about the relationship between closeness and what we share or say? What would its opposite be? How do we benefit from/respond to this type of influence?
Episode 240: No Longer Epistolary
As communication technologies have evolved over the millennia of human history, we’ve adopted new methods of communicating with one another. And with the emergence of the new, we see older approaches reserved for more traditional or antiquated practices. So how do we approach letter-writing, a method which was once the only means of long-distance communication? What role does it play in our modern society and as email, texting and other means increase in popularity, what does the relative decline in letter-writing mean for our ways of connecting with one another?
