All right . So , kevin , I've been thinking since our last episode . I think I understand why you did not like the SNL Medcast skit . All right , why do you think I didn't like this ? Okay , so to set it up for anybody who didn't listen to the end of the last episode , snl had a skit and it was kind of like men Kevin's in my age .
They don't really go to the doctor and instead they're just listening to podcasts . So the doctors do like a fake podcast interview and that's how they're getting guys to come in for their checkups Like tricking them .
Kevin said I love SNL , but I didn't really love this one and I was thinking about it more and I was like what , what's in here that we didn't like ? And I've got a theory . Okay , the theory is that it's just a straw man .
The straw man is that there's all these guys out there that instead of going to the doctor , they're really just listening to podcasts and it's funny . I found it funny , but it is . It's definitely fake . I seriously hope it's fake and somehow it kind of is taking a shot at podcasting , which is near and dear to our hearts .
Yeah .
And it takes a shot at podcasting by which is near and dear to our hearts . Yeah , and it takes a shot at podcasting by saying podcasts are kind of saying they're just as good as a doctor , but they're really not .
And I basically have spent the last week thinking about all the ways in which podcasting is beautiful for what it is , but people need to stop misusing it People including SNL . So this is my theory .
Oh , wow .
I think that's a good theory . Some of that's definitely resonating with me . Some of that is definitely true . I don't like when people poke fun at podcasts as like one of the leading sources of misinformation in the world . Yeah , like as a blanket statement or that sentiment .
It annoys me because I do think there are a lot of podcasts that do spread misinformation and are just doing , you know , bro , science and garbage content , but there are a lot that are doing the opposite of that , that are exposing people to new ideas and new concepts and things that they never considered before , and I think , overall , that's totally great .
And it's like there's tons of other stuff that they never considered before . And I think , overall , that's totally great . And it's like there's tons of other stuff that does the same stuff . Youtube does the same stuff .
People who write books or editorials in very respected publications all of that stuff could also fall into the same category , but for some reason , podcasts have gotten a bit of a bad rap for doing this .
Yeah , to be clear the printing press , as soon as it came out , was all the most popular books were not the Bible . It was like how to identify witches in your neighborhood . It was misinformation , was like the first thing people pressed because they're all excited about all this crazy stuff in these books .
But what I kept thinking was like misinformation and free speech and podcasting , and I kept going back to all these cases . I read about free speech and the best antidote to bad speech is more speech . We need more ideas and podcasts .
We definitely are now at a point where we have tons of ideas , but just saying ideas is not the final step and I feel like that might be . Where is like a culture ? We seem to be all a little bit confused right now . People are going on podcasts and we say all sorts of dumb stuff . We say dumb stuff on this podcast .
That is not the end of the scientific method . It's not the end of fact finding . It's not the end of like we have the affirmative truth . We're just at the free speech , like we're not stifling ideas phase .
We're just at step one of like hey , you can say what you want Legally , we're not even going to try to stop you from saying what you want , but that's not the end .
We still have the scientific method , we still have good explanations , we still have fact finding , we still have articles and journals and everything else , and somehow podcasting has been like falsely accused , slandered by saying that somehow we now are the standard bearers for like podcasts . Are it ? As soon as you say it on a podcast , it's good and it's done .
No more work needs to be done after that .
See , okay , so from my perspective I'm going to be like the female voice in this room .
Here is I was thinking that it was more taking a friend , and so I trust them , as I would trust a friend , I don't know , for me it was more taking jabs at , like the people that are just like I love podcasters so much and I listen to them and I'm going to regurgitate everything that they say to all the people that I know . I don't know .
It kind of feels like podcasters are getting ushered into this more serious stage , like us . We're talking , we're going to be wrong about things . That's okay because it's not to be taken that seriously , right .
But it feels like podcasters are getting pushed more into , I mean , like this new media where it's to be taken more seriously , and they're getting like media passes and stuff like that and it's fully not reporters . These are podcasters and influencers . You know what I mean .
I don't know . Yeah , I think the the unlock for me was that it wasn't the Kevin and I are in the age group for men that don't go to the doctor . That is , I think , a fact . I don't think that that is incorrect , but it wasn't the like male part of me that bristled at it .
I think it is the part of me that's like an advocate for the podcasting industry . There's just like oh yeah , of course , like it shouldn't be used as medical advice , but everyone knows that and I this is like the stupidest thing to do is argue with a comedy Cause it was funny , I found it funny .
I know that like I don't have to fight the comedy , but I do think as podcasters we should every once in a while throw the caveat out there . We're in the idea space , we're in the exploration phase , but once people come up with good ideas , then we come up with good explanations .
We then test our hypotheses and we come up with theories and we do studies and then we start publishing in journals and we do peer review , Like there's a lot of other stuff that comes up . All that we're in is just like step one . Of course , that's not the last step .
All right , I'm resisting the urge to get too deep on it on a conversation around a Saturday Night Live skit . I would love to see how deep we can go .
How far down the rabbit hole ?
I really am resisting the urge because , at the end of the day , podcasts are a place for people to come together and go as deep or as light as they want , and I think it should be , and should remain forever like a safe space for people to have conversations with their friends or with other people who are interested in similar topics sometimes experts , sometimes
not and just say , hey , here's something that I've discovered for myself , here's something that works for me , here's something that I heard that I tried , that didn't work for me , whatever . And it doesn't all have to follow the scientific method and be fully . We have verdicts through blind studies and all that kind of stuff .
Some of it is just conversations and as a podcast listener , you can listen in on those conversations and you can decide how much of it you want to believe and how much of it that you don't Right .
Yeah , a ton of the most popular podcasts , in fact , one that Jordan just helped launch last week is talking about crazy UFO theories and stuff like that , and that's just a couple of people getting together and just talking about what they think about some stuff that they've read , you know , and their ideas around it , and it's just fun .
And they know nothing .
And that should be perfectly fine , okay . The other point I want to make , about the Saturday Night Live skit specifically , is that I just didn't think it was that funny , and so I am a little bit offended as somebody who enjoys funny stuff . I thought , it was a little .
I'm offended somebody who enjoys funny stuff . I thought it was a little . I'm offended .
Cause you weren't funny enough . I think it was a little bit of the same tired joke that they did last time . They did a podcasting skit .
But the first time I thought it was really funny and that was you know , the the father son microphone that helps you fathers and sons have conversations , and it's playing off the joke that men have a hard time having deep conversations with each other , and this is a way for fathers and sons to actually have real conversations .
Right , If we make it like a podcast , maybe they'll talk . And then they use the same joke they recycled it to how can we get men to talk to doctors ? Well , it's the same thing . Men have a hard time talking , so if we put them in a podcast environment , they'll talk to their doctor . And so I'm like same tired joke again .
You know , podcasts are kind of the a little bit of the punchline here , taking jabs at whatever , and so I think that's kind of the core of why I was like , eh , okay , great , podcasting again , a little bit more mainstream , but it wasn't the genius .
That was like the original podcast get on SNL , which was the serial Sarah Koenig impression , which was genius and wonderful and all that kind of stuff .
Well , and maybe I thought it was funny because I hadn't seen those other skits , those other podcast skits , and so for me it was a little bit more fresh .
Oh , you hadn't seen the dad Mike .
Uh-uh , no , I hadn't seen it , so to me it was new .
Yeah , if you go watch it , it'd be interesting to see if you think it's funny now that you've kind of seen the joke already once , because it'll just be a retelling .
I have to be honest with you . I've tried watching SNL so many times and I just I don't think it's funny , so I don't watch it .
I think like YouTube killed SNL because it used to be that you'd suffer through the hour and a half duration of the show for the one or two good skits on the show . Yes , and now you don't have to anymore , because they will just surface on YouTube .
I just wait for someone to post them in the company chat or something I'm like . Okay , this is going to be good .
Right , yeah , yeah , I used to watch it on Saturday nights and you'd suffer through the commercials and then you'd have the musical guest who I didn't care about and I'm like , oh man , it's another 15 minutes . Hopefully there's another skit coming up . Youtube premium watching SNL is the way to watch SNL .
Like I just do it the next morning and then you just go and it's like 25 minutes of I find hilarious skits and I watch it all and I'm like , oh , these are great . I send my favorite ones to my sister and not a two hour kind of going through it and watching tons of truck and beer commercials .
Okay , so this this is a little bit off of the topic of the SNL skit , but Albin sort of hinted around it One of the things that I think is starting to resonate with people who listen to podcasts , or people who are starting to consider listening to podcasts , is that these longer conversations lead to people being more real and I think , potentially , like you ,
can say something that in and of itself could be taken poorly , but in the larger context of a very lightly edited long conversation where you get to hear the person you know for 30 minutes before and 30 minutes after , you start to really understand , sort of like , where their heart is , where their motivations are , some of their back history , some of their story
, and then they express an opinion which may or may not be popular with you , like it might not resonate with you , you might disagree with it , but at least you're more open to it , knowing more context on both sides of those opinions .
Yeah .
And I think that is a really powerful thing in podcasting that you don't really get in , I would say , traditional media , whether you're reading a newspaper or whether you're watching an interview on a popular news show or something like that .
Those things are all are tight because they're very time constrained , but it's one of the things that Joe Rogan is like the most popular example of a podcast that does this .
But now other podcasts have started to follow this format as well , that you're not just having guests on who are expressing opinions about things and those opinions you might just disagree with and decide I don't like this person . But you're actually starting to get some of the story around that person . And who is this person ?
And they talk about hobbies , they talk about their family , they share stories and so you can say , listen , I don't really like how you've gotten to this opinion , a political opinion , a medical opinion , an opinion about education , an opinion about how you should do things in the workplace , whatever it could be .
But you could say , well , but now that I know a little bit more about you , I understand how you've gotten to that place , how it makes sense to you , and they're just more like real life , humanizing you know , it's like I've got a lot of friends who we disagree on a lot of things with .
I disagree with a lot of things in their lives and yet I'm still able to find some common ground . I'm still able to know them as a person .
And so , even though we disagree on , like where your kids should go to school or like what is , you know your involvement in school sports look like , or the fact that you go to the , you know you're heavily involved in the PTA and you think that I should be too , but we can still have fun together . Outside of that , A lot of school conflicts , Kevin .
I don't know what my examples are coming from .
Yeah , they aren't more humanizing because if you're a guest on TV , you know they're only going to pick 30 seconds and they're going to pick the 30 seconds that are the best for TV . And often it's when you misspoke and you said something really dumb and they went sound bite done . We got you Right .
So you get a lot of interviews that are very wooden because people are thinking the whole time I got to be very careful . What exactly am I going to say ? Is are thinking the whole time . I got to be very careful . What exactly am I going to say ? Is it going to sound dumb ? How will it come across if it's only this one sentence ?
And you just get a lot of very wooden interviews but podcasts , when you know this whole thing's going to be like 45 minutes , it may even be multiple hours then you know , oh , if I missay it and I go wait , let me say that again and you give some more context .
A lot of times what sounded really dumb or misspoke in one sentence is clarified in the next , and that's becoming much more of the norm in podcasting . So you get way fewer of the gotcha moments . You get much more of the wow . I totally disagree , and yet I kind of see how we just have totally different life paths so we ended up at very different results .
Yeah .
So it's leading me to this new theory that I might be ready to accept for me personally , and that is like I think more short form content drives more emotional responses and drives more , you know , this side or that side , and in a lot of cases it also drives like like rage , like we have to do whatever we can to stop this or to shut this down or to
censor this content . And then more long form content , like books and podcasts and stuff , I think , do the opposite . They kind of open your mind and you're like , okay , well , yeah , we , I there . There are other ways to look at this again .
Even though I may not disagree with it , at the end of the day I don't necessarily think the person behind it or who believes that is , you know , the worst thing ever . We just disagree and it's okay to have disagreements and it's okay to share my idea and your idea and then still be friends and have a drink out .
But you don't get that on Twitter , you're not going to get that on TikTok . You're not going to get an Instagram and YouTube shorts and even YouTube proper , like you know , three and four minute videos . You're not going to get all that stuff .
Even the worst person . You're not going to be able to disagree with 90% of the things they say . You know deep down , even the people you find like the most confusing or the most confused , they still love their own family .
They're still like day to day dealing with a lot of the same things that you are , and so when you hear their story , you're like , wow , even though I disagree on everything I've ever read , they've written every TikTok they've ever posted . Now , when I actually hear more about them , I get like they're just different .
We're very , very different , but we still have like 40 , 50% of the human experience is exactly the same .
All right . Well , I think that that was a great deep dive into an SNL skit . Can't wait for more of that next week when we have our full Buzzcast episode and our sound off question for next week is what is the creator path you've taken ? So we're still accepting some submissions for that .
So go ahead and tap the text , the show link in the show notes to send that in and until next time , keep podcasting .