It's eleven fifty seven pm in Irwindale, California, at the Renaissance Fair, and you're listening to Night Call. Hello, and welcome to Night Call, a podcast for your brand days and frandly nights. My name is Molly Lamport and I'm here in Los Angeles with Tess Lynch and over in New York. We have as always Emily Oshda, Molly, you make Game of Thrones references without even meaning to. There's a character called Friendly Barathian in seasons one and two
of Game of Thrones. You're a super fan. It's amazing. That's what a friend of Night Call, Starley kind kept telling me when we went to the Renfair together with other friend of Night Call, Jane Mrie on Star Studied podcast team. Yeah, that's like a real that's like a meet up of the ages. It's a convention and convention a coven of podcasters. We enjoyed a fried artichoke and a baked potato, many many festivities were had, and just like in the old world, just like olden times, it
was great. But Starley is a big Game of Thrones fan. Yeah, as we discussed last week, and this time she kept pointing at people and going, oh, hey, do you like that? And I'd be like, yeah, yeah, that's cute. She got then you like Game of Thrones. That's Game of Thrones. You like it. It's a compelling argument. It was great. She like pointed as like a girl. It was probably like Aria suppresses Aria or something, and she was like, hey,
you like that outfit. I was like, good cosplay. She's like, boom, you're a huge Game of Thrones fan. She got me. I mean I went to the Renfair. You're halfway do you love? You love medieval times? Well, you know, I like the like the juck to position. Also, yeah, stuff. There's a lot of people just like wearing sublime shirts at the unfair. There's like a combo of people so dressed up in people just wearing a raider's jersey and flipops like they do every day. And that's what I
love about it. It's beautiful to me. And and they have those right, there's no dress code at their unfair. And they have those things where there's like a bubble that a kid can run around into, like the hamster ball type thing on water. There's like a Lady of
the Lake. Uh. Starley had an inquiry for miladies. Yes, we definitely want to hear Starley's call and this Nightcall and in general, we are going to take a bunch of night calls today because it's been a second we know we've got a backlog of calls we want to get to, so we're gonna have a regular call fest
this week. Speaking of which, if you would like to call, please give us a call about all things night related at two four oh four six night or at Nightcall podcast at gmail dot com, because we're gonna try to start taking more calls and emails and we'd love to hear from you. And you should check out our brand new Patreon. Oh yes that now exists. We've launched it today as of this recording, but it will be a week from today when you hear this and we will
have all ascended to the next plane. Thank you to everybody who has already subscribed, just within the first twenty four hours here, it's moved us all immensely. We're so grateful to all of you. If you'd like to check out our Patreon and support it, it is patreon dot com, forward slash Nightcall. Also, we we really have to thank Sa Serrano grant Land alum Sha Serrano who boosted our Patreon to the point of like, I almost cried and feel weird admitting that, but it was it was really
it was so nice of him. And yeah, we're really touched by all the support, and we have some cool stuff at the Tears to give you if you support our podcast, so please do yeah, including a book club and some mixed and we put out a little video that you can see that Emily did a great job on an amazing job and we would love for everyone to check it out and check out our Patreon. And now onto the night calls. All right, this is a
nightcall from Starley. Technically it is a night recording night field recording that we did in the car on the way home from the Renfair while we were still talking about Game of Thrones. Here it is, this is starlely Kine. I have a question for night Call, specifically for Emily, since Molly doesn't watch Game of Thrones even though she'd love it. Uh my question Emily is who are you personally rooting m M I think it's I'm a assuming that you want both these people to die, but who
do you want to die? More? John dun Snow or police Emily, who who are you rooting for? To die? First of all, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna stall for a second. Here, keep everybody in suspense, um so, and and this is with with all of the love in my heart. I watched the last season of Game of Thrones with the One and Only stay Kine Um. I would bring over bottle of wine to her apartment, and I feel like most of it would be drunk by the time the episode started, and it was really fun.
And usually I watched the show by myself, so it was it was fun to have somebody to like, yell at the TV with. Then, as this season was coming up, I went back and I was, you know, just trying to brush up, like remember where we were. And I started to watch the last season before this um, which was really short. It was like seven episodes or something.
I did not remember for most of the stuff that happened in that season, Like all the rest of the seasons, I think I had watched the episodes at least twice because I was writing about them, so i'd have to go back and see what happened. But I do feel like I missed Starley this time around, like we became Game of Thrones buddies. So um, so I appreciate this question in more ways than one. I think Starley makes a strong argument just for watching Game of Thrones with Starle. Yeah, yeah,
she's like the most opinionated person to watch the show with. Um, it's uh, it's real fun. She's got takes usually, yeah, she's got takes, and I like to argue with people whose opinions are like not mine. Right, we have a good podcast, but also my conversation is fun. So hey, because she's setting you up in some way, does she know what you are going to answer this question already? Um? I don't think she does, but I mean I don't know if the answer is what she thinks it's going
to be. I mean, if I had to pick, and I don't think either of these people are going to die, but if one person dies, it's probably going to be drawn snow and I Rachel just looked at me in the most incriminating way. Well, let's just like, have it be clear that he has already died and then got back. Yes, it's a long story. Is he a ghost? Now? The Lord of Light brought him back? Because it was foretold that he would you know, necessary to be a ghost
wins the Game of Thrones, he's not a ghost. If a ghost word to win the Game of Thrones doesn't count, or do you get like a mull again, he's not a ghost. Well, if he's brought back from the dead, he's a zombie. At theast, he's kind of well, there are there are several people who have been brought back to like by the Lord of Light, and they are kind of like, they're telling me people. You're telling me people can die on the show and be brought back
immediately your favorite sounds like a cool show. It's extremely like specific circumstances. Well, like Dan said last week, it's really rare for there to be this kind of magic, but it does happen. But when it happens, it's like to be jerked around by a show into thinking that your beloved characters have died and then a wizard goes whoop and they're like, oh, they're alive again. Caring to
every bath. So we meet a lesser character, more minor character who's had this happened to him before we meet John Snow So it's not like we didn't know this could happen. We just knew it was. The President has been said, I'm going to answer that, like I think I've heard of you know that. I'm here to answer stars I'm going to answer Starley's question. I want all of them to die? Cool? All men must die? Yeah, he loved Game of Thrones. I do I say that
all the time? All men must die? It's vulis um. Yeah. And in the spirit of that, like, I hope that John Snow dies more than Kalisi. Yeah, I mean I think it makes less sense. Like I don't think it would be very satisfying for Kalisi to die. I feel like the r is going to be pulled out of her in some way or another. I don't know if that necessarily means she's going to die. Maybe they're going to pull that bad rug off her head finally and be like, we have an expensive budget, but the wigs
on the show are so bad and unbelievable. The Roastmaster has arrived. Tests you're also the Game of Rists. More of the roasts of the Roast is Nichol would love to host your roast. Please hire a night called it roast hosts Um where we'd be like the friendliest gentlest rost hoasts unless we forget to roast people. Halfway through. We just suvied we don't roast. It's a warm bath. Um test, Uh, Molly Test. You're also a Game of the Rones fan? Do you have a feeling about this?
Who would I prefer whom? Who would I prefer to die? John Snow or Denarest Targarion. Yes, I would prefer John Snow to die because a he already has and be I yeah, I think that. Like I'm the only person who saw a last Night's episode, which is now two episodes in the past. If you're listening to this, I feel like I have not been wowed by John Snow's charisma in a while. I'm kind of over it. I'm
a as we all know, I'm a Denarest fan. Last night and this is not a spoiler, but let me just say that there's a scene where they're at a party and Denarest is like sitting there looking at everyone. She's super paranoid, like everyone's you know, gonna take me down, Everyone's talking about me. Really identified with that. I need
to keep her around for that reason. It's like I know that feeling Nearest is like hit the bong and she's just like, I don't know if it seems like everyone hates me here terrible Ever since I saw that meme about how John snow looks just like George Costanza. Yes, cannot unsee a riveting joust, a riveting chouse. Indeed, I'm betting on brand Brand. I mean, it's clear you don't watch the show if you're betting. But I watched Veep and I think Veep is going to end with Split
being president, which is my dream. And I feel like you just always bet on like the person that nobody would bet on. Oh, you mean you're brand seems to know he's on the way out to win the game. Oh I thought you were betting on it. I was like, what, No, both are very unlike brands. Molly calls a game. He's not even brand anymore, Molly three eyed, he's a three eyed raven. Was not the appearance of the three eyed snake and Nature let me know that three raven is
gonna win. Speaking of the three eyed snake, yeah, you know how that is definitely the night Call mascot of the month. Yeah, we love it. Moving on to more creepy things, I believe we have an email regarding Roswell. Yes, we have a somewhat belated but nonetheless incredibly appreciated email
from Usenia, who is a Roswell native. While ago we were asking if there was anybody that listened to our show who was Roswell resident or a former resident or native, and uh, yeah, we heard back from U Senia and it was with a great email to get. So I'll just read it. Hey, night call pot. I am finally writing, even though your first episode wrangled me in with it's
whatever time it was in Roswell, New Mexico. Since then, there's been a lot of Roswell chats, so I felt I had to write in as a native of the city parentheses town. I was born and grew up in Roswell and left when I went to college, but my family is still there, so I visit. It really is such a small place, fewer than fifty thou people, so it was always really interesting to us as children when people would come from all over to hang out with
the aliens. I'm neither confirming nor denying that they're still here. I remember our family took a trip to New York when the Roswell show was at its peak, and my sister and I saw a billboard of the show and just turned to each other and laughed. The significance has only really hit me as I've lived outside for ten years, and it always starts cool conversation with people realize I'm
from there. Roswell definitely caters to the tourism. There's a UFO McDonald's the lamp Post downtown or Alien Heads, and the main theater is called Galaxy eight with a ufosque front. There's also a UFO museum and people love taking pics of the Roswell City limit sign not to mention alien paraphernalia everywhere, and of course the UFO crash site, which is a little north of the actual city, though I have to admit I've not visited. It's a big deal.
I appreciate it, and I'm sure Roswell, New Mexico does too. I'll send a postcard next time i'm down there. Thank you so much. You said, yeah, this is great. I mean, this is sort of how I would imagine it, like even the UFO McDonald's that like, even the national and international chains will like catch Roswell fever if they have an outpost there. It seems very appropriate. This made me want to go to Roswell so bad. There are been a lot of things that have made us want to
go to Roswell. To be honest, yeah, we send night called Roswald. I'm kind of jealous. I mean, I love l A, but like it could use that extra layer of like a weird event. That's not bad. Oh, we have too many weird events what they're all about, But what about like a not a neutral weird event to add a layer. It's like a clarity of theme with Roswell.
It's like there's lots of weird stuff in l A and it's all kind of competing for your attention, and you can like ride different wavelengths of weird l A history to go down and then places to get your picture taken or whatever. But like the fact that Roswell is just all about this one thing is really pure. I feel like LA doesn't have a central theme or location. Well it's I feel like it does have like central themes.
There are a few themes, I mean. And also we have like some good ghosts, very big fan of our ghosts. What if you're not what if you don't believe in Aliens and you live in Roswell, I must be terrible. You must not believe in aliens if you live in Roswell. But like, I don't know, like not being the protagonist in your own life, I don't know. You just seize the opportunity. You don't think everybody just rebels against whatever a town is serving them when they're young. No, you
have to go along with it. Otherwise you're at your out. That's why your listeners. If you live in Roswell in New Mexico and you don't feel like the protagonist of your own life at these times a nightcall I want to for no matter where you live, if you don't feel like the protagonists, I don't feel like the protagonists into something much weirder. I'm sorry why like the protagonist and a long time is really unnerving When you start
feeling an ensemble cast, that's terrible, right, It's great. Nothing is better than an ensemble movie. One of my theories about Game of Thrones that I said to Starley that I was like, this is why I think Game of Thrones is good is because I like any ensemble show that tricks men into caring about a bunch of female characters by seating them with an equal number of male characters, which is I think all good ensemble shows. The sopranos,
like every ensemble show. You're like, ha, you tricked men into like getting involved in the emotional lives of like a teenage girl because they want to see what happens with dragons. Um. Yeah, so bully to you, Thrones, Yeah,
bully to you. This email does make me think about like like not being into the thing that your town or like where you grew up was about, Like like the feeling of alienation that is like very common for for growing up in any of them place, but when that's at like if you grew up in a football town, for example, but you like hate football, or you just really like, I don't know, lacrosse and stuff, but like being being at odds at the thing that your your
town is known for. Um. I mean that the the UFO thing is such a strong idea like around that. But I do feel like probably a lot of l A kids grow up feeling really like alienated from show business or or you know, any of that. Probably as many kids who grow up and want to just be actors or directors or whatever too. But and what about the people who live in Maine but they're allergic to shellfish? Exactly.
That's terrible. That's worse. That's worse, honestly, because if you believe in aliens or not, that doesn't affect your ability to appreciate like all the alien kitch stuff that goes on. Still better than being from Connecticut, where the theme is
repression Connecticut. Yeah, And if you can't do the thing like as I say so eloquently, or to have the good thing where it's good, like I like lobsters in Maine or something, if you can't do that, that always feels like a bummer, Like if you're lactose intolerant and you live in Wisconsin, for example. Exactly exactly, Guys, I think we should take another night call this one. I've been thinking about this one a lot. Okay, So this one comes from a m HI test Emily and Molly.
I'm listening to Night Call sixty three. The scary statistic you cited about panies using data on their employees movements reminded me that a temporary job I had at I'm going to redact this in Queens required me to submit biometric data at the start and end of every shift. Here's how it worked. After signing my employment contract, a manager told me to stand against a wall in the store. I didn't know what was happening until she had me move my head up and down, and I realized a
camera was reading my face. We clocked in and out of shifts by putting our faces in front of a scanner, and could only unlock slash log into our registers by touching a fingerprint scanner. It didn't really matter that I hadn't given my permission to the store's security slash surveillance team to collect my data because I needed the job, but I still wish they'd offered me a chance to
opt out. I'm certain it would never occur to the stores managers that this was a breach of privacy, or that there's any legitimate reason we wouldn't want our biometric information in a security database. The scanners sometimes wouldn't work if I wore dark lipstick or took my coat and hat off. Do you remember seeing stories several years ago about makeup and hairstyles that could thwart facial recognition tech. I feel like I've been waiting for the anti surveillance punk.
Luke to come in fashion since then. Obviously only a temporary solution, but a fun one. I wonder if it works. Thank you so much for this terrifying email. Um, I just want to jump right in. Please don't say that I just bought one of those space blocker things. What are they like a full face shade. Yeah, I posted pictures of it. I wore it to the Unfair. It's like, um, it's like the visor that goes all the way down, like I did see it. I had no idea what
that was, and we posted it. Vista Viano Vista Viano, Donald Sterling's Stress War one, but they're also just popular. Yeah, it's like a big like Grandma look in l A. I feel like interesting, I'm into that you will be so that your face. Did you do it for fashion purposes? I did it for sun purposes because I was going
to the Unfair, which is an early it's super sunny. Um. And also I just found one that I've been like thinking about getting one for a long time, and then night called friend to create a longworth had one, and I was like, oh, I totally do want one. I just do it. And then I was wearing it around and it was like the most amazing feeling because people can't see your face. It's incredible. You walk around it
almost seems impolite. It's it's amazing because also like if you're a woman, especially, it's like, oh, men cannot see your face. They can't even see if you're smiling. They like, you can see your body, but who cares it can't see your face. It's amazing. I love it. But does
does that inhibit your ability to like connect with people? Yes, that's what I've found about the point for wearing it for a whole day because it's kind of amazing because it's like you have this little like bubble around you. I was also like, yeah, I was just like vaping inside of it. I was very like you were hot boxing your own head, my little cocoon um. But you still get a Darth Vader from talking under it voice. Do you think it's healthy? It? Is it breathable? Like
is there a air circulation? I mean it's just a shade, so it's it's not like hockey mask or like a or yeah, like a fencing mask or something like that. Fencing mask would also be a good look now. And also Jane Murray was like some dudes might just be into that. That's true too, just a body, especially if I'm wearing it on like Star Wars day and it's a little Stormtrooper. But it is really fun. I do recommend it if you're going to like the beach or something,
check it out. I don't know how i'd feel walking around without my face in front of me, you know what I mean. I'm an overwear of sunglasses. Like I wear sunglasses on cloudy days. I started doing it because I squint in the sun really badly and it would like hurt my face all day if I was like I remember like on snowy days in Iowa, if I was like squinting all day, then my face would her you get a headache? Yeah, yeah. So I started wearing
sunglasses really obsessively, like all the time. I can't leave the house without sunglasses even if it's raining, and that I feel like affords enough freedom. It makes you look like an asshole, which I also kind of like, um, I don't know, nobody's going to really try to talk to you, like on the training. That's funny. I always I didn't wear sunglasses for like until I was like eighteen or something because I thought they were like pretentious.
I have a really hard time wearing sunglasses because the difference between my peripheral vision and my forward vision gives me like a little bit of a vertigo, a shield that covers your whole face. But my problem, as Molly knows, from hanging out for a long time at random like corners, I really I like talking to strangers. It's like it gives me my juice. Not always, I mean definitely, not always, but I've I've kind of like it's become part of the texture of my life that I wouldn't want to
get rid. I'd be like sad if people if I couldn't connect with people's faces. But at the same time, like this, you know, the sunglasses issue, Well, it's interesting to think about using it as a facial recognition technology blocker. That's true, I wonder if it would work because I love that idea. And also that whole story about getting the biometrics of people at a company is super weird. I mean, that's just crazy that you clock in it you stand against a wall and like they scan your
face for you to clock in. It's like what they're they're just see It seems like it's all a front and I redacted the name of the store where she worked, but it was not like a national security firm. She's not working at Google, like we can exactly much like it's not this like huge high security, Like it feels very excessive if if the kind if the business is the kind of business that the name makes it sound like, yeah, I feel like that all of that tech is really
really easily compromised too. Like I feel also you can take a picture of or like have a full color scan of your face pace and like put it in front of your head and walk in front of the scanner and probably like get away with it, you know, like uh, somebody really wants to take your identity and it's just your face, Like I don't know. I like that that facial recognition technology will never be as good
as like a crow is recognizing humans. Well, but I mean, like we have to say, like crows are extremely intelligent, super intelligently intelligent. I just think like the idea of putting so much of your identity on your face feels like a really like slippery philosophical argument to me, not only because like everybody gets work done now and stuff, and that's like fairly common. Especially, that's a very philosophically scary thing when you look on Instagram and it's like
every beautiful person has the exact same face. That's a very weird phenomenon. Yeah, what if everybody had no face at all? That would be worse. No, think about it, Like no, that's like the stuff of nightmare, like blank face. Yeah, well, this is the shadow people. This is my shadow person experience. Was the person with no face? I hate it. There's a no face in Dick Tracy. It turns out to be Madonna. Then spoiler for Dick Tracy. Look it all
comes together. We're just talking about Dick Tracy last week. One theme. It is all one theme. Well, this this email was amazing. Thank you so much for Yes, it was awesome. I wanted to stay real quick and like kind of on the subject of of of um, I guess like future dystopias is that in the broad category.
I went to Hudson Yards today, Like I wasn't planning on it at all, but I went to a screening this morning and I happened to run into a buddy there and we ended up riding bikes, Like I I got a city bike and like I've never biked in New York before because it scares me a lot. But
we we biked up to Hudson Yards. And for those of you who don't live in New York or don't know about this, Hudson Yards is like this terror of fine development that now exists like basically over the Hudson Yards like the train yards for UM for Penn Station.
And it's really kind of in the middle of nowhere, like super super west side Midtown, And there wasn't much of anything there before except for like the jab At Center, but now there's like five I think there are five currently um hotels, condo type you know, mixed use buildings, and like a big stupid shopping center with like a Cardier and a Lululemon in it. And that is what the Hudson Yards is. It's the most charmless public space
I've ever seen. There's actually a really really good, just complete burn of it in the New York Times that came out about that. I think the day that it opened, just about how like anti human the space is, how it's it seems so counter to like the needs of the city. Like the funny thing is is that the high the high line. You guys near the high Line. Um. So it goes up all the way to Hudson Yards. Now, oh, basically like runs into this wall of like steel and glass.
It's just like you you went right into the giant skyscraper. Um. And it's funny because I think of the Highline as being something that like is actually a pretty humanistic and like a nice space, even though it's a total people zoo, Like it's a nice like thing that they decided to put money into it, but it has a purpose. Yeah, the Hudson Yards is like totally from this like post human dystopia. It's like very There's there's this big thing in the middle of it called the vessel. Yeah, that's
what people have been concentrating on. That is like it's like an art installation in the middle and it's literally a staircase to nowhere apparently really Yeah, so the vessel. The crazy thing about this and this is um, I'm looking now at this article on Curbed New York. The vessel is basically made to be a Instagram trap because it's so crazy looking. It looks like a big like our producer Rachel's calling it the shourma. I think that's
like the nickname that's that they're working on for. People are trying to make that one stick because it does look like a meat tornado. But people take these pictures of it, and uh, there are like terms and conditions if you visit the vessel, which means that you agree that if you go into the structure. Okay, when you a ton of reader's notice that hidden within vessels visitor terms and conditions which ticket holders agree to when signing
up to climb the structure. There's a clause that more or less gave Hudson Yards the right to photos, audio recording, or video footage depicting or relating to vessel for any purpose whatsoever, in any and all media, in either case now known or developed later. So like basically, if you it's a trap, yeah so you said, that's why you
said it's a sliver. Yeah, yeah, it's like this, it's just a staircase to nowhere that everybody gets like Instagram photos in I think I read somewhere else that there's photo recognition for it, like the structure, because it's such a unique structure, so that like there's some kind of algorithm that can tell when somebody has taken a photo of the vessel and then can use that to use that photo for promotional purposes or whatever they want, Like
they confined photos of it just like automatically on. So it's super scary. Also, if this stuff was even at all charming or kind of like fun to look at, it would be one thing. But it's so ugly all of it. It's so and like everybody goes there because they know that they have to get a picture taken there, because it's like the Instagram thing now to get your picture taken there. But like, what do you do? Like
what is inside? Nothing? It's just stairs. It's like literally it's like a honeycomb thing of stairs that's like a kind of half like it's a basket basically, so you can car their emergency. It's a great question, I do think, so yeah, Like that's why I mean question about it seems like a death trap. Yeah. I don't think there's an elevator or anything in it. Like it's all stairs, so it's not accessible. It looks like a water slide
that got grounded. You know. It's just like a really like it and the super skinny towers in New York that like appear overnight that like oligarchs parked their money in are like really really great visual metaphors for um. Yeah, we have a lot of those two and like the other thing we have way too many of now that you guys also have a lot of in New York.
Or those pop up museums that aren't actually museums opening one down the street from where we record here called the Museum of Fruit that we were getting mad about because it's like the space that used to be an art store and then it was like recently a Halloween store, and then they're turning it into the Museum of Fruit, which is like an Instagram thing with different rooms. In each room is like a fruit that you take photos in front of it. It's like, we need housing, Like
this is insane. And then I was in the Beverly Center, which is another kind of staircase to nowhere. It's been under construction for like ten years now, like they finished it, but it hasn't like they didn't change anything. It's hilarious. They just put this kind of frank Gary great on the outside and they're like it's that's it. But on the top floor it's also like it does a weird Labyrinth thing to my brain because it's like they took
out the movie theater and the food court. So when I go to the top and that's not there anymore, I'm like nothing. And it's like being in a video game where you like go down the wrong way because you're like, I know something is here, but it's not anymore, and what they put in its place is nothing. But then there's like a Playboy pop up right now, that's like I didn't pay because I wouldn't pay for a pop up, but it's like the Playboy Museum, like go in the room that's a fake Playboy club and take
your photo in front of some stuff for fifteen dollars. God, We're like the word museum is becoming like completely yes, you know, and it's we've eroded, right, And it's interesting because like obviously the way museums or program did start to cater to Instagram, like like they went, you know, which was smart to be like you can take photos in front of the art, you know. I mean I went to the Helma f Clint show, like I did
my part. I didn't post any photos there, but like, you know, it's not the appeal of that for many people like that one. No, but I saw a lot of people posting about that one. I thought it was funny because I just kept being like Helma clint A f totally also she's cool. So no, it was. It was a cool show. And it's just like but and and and I really, I mean I really genuinely enjoyed it.
Um but I you know, there were people who were just going through and taking a photo of everyone and not even like looking at taking a moment to look at the art with their own eyes, which is, you know, just kind of right. The experience economy has gotten so weird. I'm also going to call it now, not that I'm going to stop using it, but in a way, I think like Instagram might be the most insidious social media
platform in what way? Go on, Well, I just feel like talking about facial recognition and having these kind of Instagram traps, like it takes more legwork to kind of draw a person to a physical location and then expect to for them to give you exposure. If it's in a written piece versus just a picture. I mean, it's
obviously crosses language barriers. It's like easily interpreted by anyone, and there's a lot of data that you can collect from that without the person really understanding how they're interacting with the platform. I think conversely, TikTok, which is the new vine, Yes, I think might be good and save us all. It's our old town road came from, right,
It's it's where old Town Road came from. And then Jay Kang has been posting all these amazing he's he found a good stream and it's literally a stream called of stream cooking. It's like foraging in a stream and then cooking in the stream, and it's the most relaxing, great cooking in the stream. Yeah, you have to fire in the street. I almost don't want to, like spoil the one that he posted because it's like, okay, I almost screamed when I saw what happened at the end
of it. I was like so delighted. That's all I'll say. All right, but this in the show notes so everyone can see slow internet will return, So yeah, it's perfect slow Internet. The other thing I think of when it comes to Instagram about you know it maybe being secretly the most insidious is just the way that's certain visual things are normalized in it, or patterns and behaviors are just repeated over and over and over again until like
they become reality. And for some reason, like there's obviously the link stick version of that, but then there's the like visual version of that. There was an article recently in the Atlantic about how the current batch of new Instagram influencers are like abandoning what we think of as the Instagram aesthetic. Like they're not doing the super bright colors and food arranged just so and that kind of they're like it's blurrying out of focus. Yeah, yeah, they're
like deal with it, grunge Instagram. But I still thought that was interesting at least, like because you intend to think of these things are like the idea of influences as being like this big, like just one big movement, but the idea that there are some people who are
I don't know. I also feel like it must be so weird for like, like if you're a kid who knows people that are making a living as influencers, Yeah, yeah, that must shift your perception of like if you're like that is what's valuable and like nobody thinks about like when will this end? Right? Well, it's also like if no career is sustainable, why not go for the career that everybody knows is not sustainable, but like burns the brightest. Yeah,
and at least you're prepared going into it. I also just say that the other thing that I think is kind of unsettling about Instagram is the story. Well, first of all, it's it's the platform that I think is most kind of explicitly expecting you to document in real time, you know. And I think that the stories feature also gives this weird like you're able to really track a person's movements. Not that I would, but theoretically you could.
Like looking at Molly Stories, I was like, okay, she's moving through the Renaissance Fair and now she's here, Like I can almost do like a map befhere Molly goes, and then I could pin it to my bedroom wall and in real time I her footsteps and look for I think we assume people are posting in real time, but I feel like sometimes they're not. But I think across the board most people do. It's something that you do without thinking, and it's also it seems to be
like less incriminating. You're not really expressing opinions as off. I'm gonna go ahead and say I do think about it, and I generally post after I'm not at that place anymore because I don't want to be so like here's where I am right this second. But it's also like with Twitter, I think after the Justine on the plane thing went, I mean, after everyone realized that, like a bad tweet can kind of ruin your day, month, your career, whatever.
There's there's nothing in Instagram. I mean, you can have a terrible Instagram caption, but for the most part, most people I follow are not writing like little mini essays. Very off harder to get canceled from Instagram. Yeah, it's harder to get canceled from Instagram, and as a result, you can thoughtlessly document things without I mean with Twitter, I think now everyone gives like a little more pause before they express something exactly. Yeah. No, I remember like seeing, uh,
like David Chow had Snapchat and I would not. He brought it to Disneyland, and I was like, why would you document like every five seconds of things that are happening, Like who wants that? And then that just became how everyone does everything. People do want it? I like, don't. I think it's too much the amount of energy that
it takes for me is like not worth it. I I and it's not actually thoughtless for me to post a selfie, Like I have so many selfies that I was because you're such a director, you have a director's But I'm also just like, oh, like I'm going, like the top nine photos on my Instagram, it's like if any more than three of them are selfies, and I start to get really self conscious that that everybody thinks
I'm just an idiot who post selfies. I don't think you post too many selfies, Emily, and I would tell you if I thought. I think also, once you're past a certain age, like it doesn't feel self conscious anymore. It's kind of like, here's my face, it's what I was, part of my body, Like that's all I got. I think it took me a long time to be like to not feel like it was just really vain to post selfies, to be like it's fine to just be
like I am documenting that I exist. So that's sort of the funny thing about launching the Patreon this week is that we have like photos of ourselves and video out there, and like it's not that we don't have photos of ourselves out there, we're just like not primarily, I would say, like visually represented people, and there was somebody who responded to one of them be like, it's so weird to see like sound coming out of their mouths at the same time, like a bunch of people.
Maybe yeah, I was like, maybe we've hidden our faces like too much. Well, what people don't realize is that all of our the whole video was c G I and Emily had to computer generate the voice. I mean that's why I was saying, is a lot of work, because she actually related this. Yeah, so much wire work. Hey guys, before we wrap up, can we take one last night call? Absolutely? Can it be the abject cosmic horror?
One Okey dokey. This female was from Christian Hey night CALLI says, I still love the podcast a lot, whatever crazy days and lonely nights are in store for us all. In the last episode, you asked about listeners reactions to the black hole images, and I can tell you abject cosmic horror. Why the online community is celebrating this image of a giant piece of nothingness is beyond me. I have always had mainly fear of the vastness of space,
usually bigger than any sense of wonder or awe. However, this brings me to a question to you connected to this sense of cosmic horror. A few nights ago, my girlfriend and I were sitting on my terrorist, drinking white wine and looking at the stars. One particularly bright and
blinking sorry when you say, humble, humble drag. One particularly bright and blinking star caught our eye, and my girlfriend's night sky app told us it was Arcteris, a red giant thirty six light years away and a hundred and ten times brighter than our sun. We both shuddered at that thought. Then I remembered reading about pan psychism, the idea that the entire universe and everything in it, not just us, but every tree in rock, has a consciousness.
One piece of evidence for panpsychism is that stars movements in the galaxy seems to be explicable only if we assume their own volition. The idea that Arcterris might have some sort of incomprehensible consciousness scared my girlfriend even more, but I got a weird sense of consolation from it that there is this being up there instead of just a cloud of very hot gas. Which would you prefer and which scares you? More Christian such a good night call.
I mean, I know the answer immediately. I mean, the lack of consciousness is so much more scary, Like I mean, yes, that's a very quick way to feel okay about the
vastness of space? Is that like some somebody's up there? Um, you guys know in Griffith Observatory in the museum part like the um there's sort of that downstairs area where there's like, um, a huge mural on one side of the stars, and it's supposed to be if you hold up your finger and you're looking at the night sky like your index finger, like kind of close to your face, the amount of the night sky that fits into your finger is approximately what that part of the wall represents,
which is about like three stories high. And I don't know, it cannot be over overstated how big space is. Uh, And yeah, I think the thing that's upsetting about that is the fact that there's not anything there like that as far as we know, or that there's not anything comparable to what we understand as being consciousness or life or sentience out there. Um. I think that's immensely more
upseaving than the stars having consciousness. Well, I just want to say that the Griffith Park Observatory has been closed for the last week and we are starting No, it's fine. Well, it's supposedly to install LED lights along the path, but at night call we are starting the rumor here you heard at first that it's because they found an alien. Oh good one, right, I'll totally disseminate that. Okay, great, Molly. Do you prefer to think of planets as being sentient
or just objects? I'm going to tell you, I like make everything sentient, whether it wants to be or not. Like when I was a kid, I was really into like giving numbers personalities exactly. Yea a sign that I would not be good at math, be good at world building. And that We went to a camp in elementary school called Astro Camp. Yeah, that was like a sleepaway camp for a couple nights in Idle Wild where it's like
space themed. Um. But it was like you're supposed to go on this night hike, and there was this whole thing was like the big thing is the night hike and then you like chew winter green lifesavers in the dark to make sparks and look at the stars through
a telescope. Camp. Um. But it was too foggy to see the star, so instead they showed us Powers of ten Um by the eames Is And I've never seen it before, and it's scared the living daylights out of me because it's just like, here's space, and then it just goes here and further away and further away, and like it just never ends, and we don't know where it ends, and there's no end the end um. It's like the beginning of contact. Yeah, but I think I think now I find it weirdly consoling. I like that
there's no order to things. Maybe I'm an anarchist. You definitely are an anarchist. I've been told that a few times resent and I'm like, but I like order to some things. You're a virgo anarchists, Yeah, like a an uncluttered uh chaos. Yeah. I definitely have felt bad for the planet Pluto in my life, oh for sure. I mean Pluto is also always kind of like an emotionally accessible planet. I think I like also that when you see things and it's like we don't know why the
moon exists. Oh hey, speaking of which, I just wanted to spend a moon minute with you guys. Really briefly to let you know that a new study that was conducted by American and Japanese researchers hypothesized that the Moon was formed when a proto planet crashed into Earth way back in the day when Earth was just like a ton of it was covered with like a sea of magma, and then the magma splashed into outer space and then it expanded and then it like jelled together and made
the moon. Isn't that a great theory? Love it? And they're like, this theory is just as viable as all the other theories, none of which we know if they're true. Well, there were like problems with previous theories that they were like gaping holes and I didn't realize we didn't know why the moon exists. Well, they didn't understand why it was.
It's materials were so earthlike but also not earthlike. Yeah, I liked it the moon through a real pair of binoculars recently, and that also made my brain explain Y's like really like yeah, but it also again it's comforting. You're like, oh, we matter so little, it's great. Well, with that, with that thought, I think that does it for this week's nightcall. Thank you so much for all your night calls and night emails this week, and we're glad we had a chance to get to some of them.
If you have any thoughts or night calls that you want to make yourself, please give us a call at one two oh four six night or an email at
Nightcall Podcast at gmail dot com. You can also follow us on Twitter at Night Call Pod, Instagram at Night Call Podcast, and Facebook at Night Call Podcast, and subscribe to our Patreon It's uh, it's it's it's chucking along now weekend, so go to patreon dot com slash Nightcall and check out our newsletter, our book club, all sorts of stuff we have coming soon in the Night Call verse. Also watch the video Emily made. It is so amazing, especially now that you know it's all c G. I
really appreciate it. I mean I want to be up for an Oscar this year. So yeah, animated short, um, yeah, we'd like to support the new season of an Emmy for Megan which is ye not I believe it's not an Emmy for me again. Uh, give Megan, Amram and Emmy and then give an invest Animation Award for let's just our beautiful animated faces. I'll try to get some awards this year, like good Time. Yeah, every season is awards season. Your own nightcall. All right, we'll see everybody
next week. Thanks for listening, by bye.