Minisode: Listeners Interview Alie

You know, hey, it's that avocado you don't really feel like eating, but you also can't watch it mold because avocados aren't cheap. Okay, all word back with another episode of Ologies. This is a weird one. Listen, listen. This is going to be a full blown, fully long episode. I started editing it. There were some major audio lags and I said, you know what, ninety nine, I'm going to bed, and I just fell asleep. I thought, let's

We're shooting the shit.

So without their adoe, please enjoy this minisode of me answering your questions. I'm going to start randomly after the break, We're going to get to your most asked questions. Okay, cool, Okay, sorry, it's just me. You host the podcast. I know, Oh my gosh. Okay, first question, Alexis Wallach wants to know what's your favorite cephalopod. I think my favorite cephalopod is the blue ring octopus because it has all of these rings on it that look like a ring toss, and

I'm continuing to wear it.

I've kind of fell asleep meaning to work, and then I woke up this morning was like, dang it, so I'm doing great. I am an example of someone who is killing it. I am a hashtag entrepreneur. I'm a monster. I have it together. I'm as good as it gets. I brush my teeth today. I feel good about that. It's not great, salem Am. I talking to a therapist about it tomorrow morning.

Sure, I am. We'll get there. We'll get there. Don't be me.

Haw's that for helpful?

Great?

And Jude wants to know if you had to whip out a weird science fact to wow someone at a party, what would it be. I think square poops, wombats, square poops. Everyone needs to know that. Korn wants to know what's the craziest food that I have ever eaten or tried. I think fish eyes temper a deep battered fish eyes. Nobody wanted to eat them, and I was like, I'll do it for a dollar. Guess who left with a crisp, greasy dollar in her pocket? Aw, you know what? It tasted like?

Grease?

It tasted like crunchy. Although it is funny that no one wants to eat eyeballs, but if you were out in the natural world, everyone be like, fuck, did's on the eyeballs? The eyeballs are cherries on a Sunday. Can you imagine if you ate a whole Sunday and everyone's.

Like, Ooh, I give you a dollar to eat the cherry.

That's what happens when we don't eat eyeballs.

Ah, what a fucked up world.

That being said, I don't like eating eyeballs. Molly wants to know what's your favorite place that you've ever conducted in interview? Is there an ologist whose office is just the absolute coolest or weirdest? One of my favorite places was in the snow Hydrology episode. We just had to pull up a bench outside of lax. But that was very exciting because to find each other in the middle of the layover, I see someone walking, Please be ned.

Please be ned? Are you ned? Yes?

My phone was about to die, real high stakes. It felt like a heist movie. I will say that doctor Tom Folk, who's a mycologist, he had the most interesting office I've ever been in, and it had the most say ephemera. It had a lot of knick knacks, including his heart in a ziplock that I got.

To hold, and so and actually, my heart is in that recycled thing right there for you. Is it really?

I know if you wanted to look at it, you could, of course I do.

Can I look at it now or should I look at it later? Oh my gosh, it's in here. I knew your heart was in here. Oh my goodness. So I'm sorry.

If you have a human heart that is your own in a felted box in your office, I'm gonna forget a lot of the other offices. Andrey Pearce wants to know if I can be an animal for the rest of my days, what would you be? And I did see the movie The Lobster after eating a medicinal gummy and affected by it. But I think a lobster seems pretty dope, because if you can get far enough out or no one can catch you, you can live forever. And you're super happy just eating shit like bottom feeders,

In your closet?

And how do you stay organized with all you have going on. I still do record in my closet. I made a recording closet out of one of the closets in the house. Right now, I'm not recording in it because it's kind of hot and whatever. How do I stay organized with all you have going on? It is not easy because when you have a lot of different jobs, none of the jobs care about the other jobs, so you're like, ohh and so I have a lot of juggling going on, and I really really want to do

Stay tuned.

Maria Jerrevleva wants to know if I have any advice for people in our mid twenties. They just turned twenty five, and Bridget says ditto from another freshly twenty five year old, Ooh, twenty five, see a therapist. You might need to get diagnosed with something. Boy, oh boy, did I wish that I knew what anxiety disorder was before I turned thirty. Also, don't drink so much. People are usually not their best selves, Katie. You also asked that question about advice for those in college,

I don't know.

It took a really long time shoot. I mean that's like one hundred people, plus a cruel like seventy people. That's so many granola bars for craft service, there's golf carts. You know, a lot of phone calls you gotta make tell the people to show off for work the next day. It's a production, so I don't know. I will let you know. I really liked so many of the humans. A lot of them are really good friends. Still, some

I really want.

To do an episode on ADHD and I'm not quite sure exactly what ology that would be, and I want to find the perfect person to interview, so I really would like to do that. Also, a neurology episode and doing something on MS would be really great. Katie Coast wants to know have you gotten into any video games during this downtime and I have not even animal crossed once. I don't know what is happening with you, the turnups and stuff. I haven't done any video gaming. This downtime

For eight hours.

I'm learning if I could implant a chip in my brain that would teach me how to do that, oh, I would do it myself with a wine opener and a pair of tweezers. Like yesterday, Carrie wants to know what is my guilty indulgence. I pinterest landscaping. Also, there is something that is very relaxing about whittling. You have to make sure that you buy these like ten dollars gloves that work like oven mits or a shark cage for your hands, but you just get these little gloves

Was like, never mind, I'm in like a dirty tank up.

Were there concrete actions you took to put yourself on the path that you are on? Are there moments or decisions you made internally that you feel like were particularly defining? And when did I start feeling accomplished or fulfilled? Oh? Good, good questions? Okay, The concrete actions I took to put myself on this path were identifying the things that actually

I was very sad.

I think I talked about this in the museum episode, the field Trip episode. I started volunteering at a museum, and I realized I loved being there so much. And wouldn't you know it, that three hours a week that I went in to volunteer, time that I probably would have spent scrolling on Instagram really helped me realize what I loved to be doing, and that was like learning about bugs and hanging out with nerds.

So that was really helpful.

If you can find even like an hour a month to go volunteer or just meet new people who are into what you're into, hang out with him socially distanced or online, that can really help. Putting up this podcast is something that was really defining. I had been sitting on it for nine months before I put it up, and then I had the logo, I had the trailer, I had the Instagram handle, I had the Twitter handle, and I was just tinkering too much. And then someone

I was like, no, I've been working on this forever.

I've done like five interviews, and so I had already done the trailer, and so I just put up the trailer that night, and that's how I Launchedologies.

So that was very defining. It was a big lesson that I.

Should have just put it up eight and a half months sooner, because I had been working on it all that time. But it took that threat of getting scooped by an idea that I had wanted to do for twenty years that really made me do it. So it was a very defining moment. Is just do the thing, don't wait for it to be perfect. It'll get better as you go. And I started feeling accomplished and fulfilled. I think when I realize it, more than just my

Or I say, I wonder who.

Knows the most about horses and then I just start googling the terms.

Horse expert or hipologist.

Or whatever, and I sometimes will look at the hashtag let's say it's hippologist and like, who's self identifying is that?

On Instagram? And do.

I want to talk to them, and I love finding people and I love making contact with them, and when I get an email back saying they're interested, it's like, huh.

It really does feel like.

The person that you have a crush on in eighth grade just passed you a note back. It's very exciting. Cycling Tiger just wants me to know that they added a forty plus mile detour to the end of their cross Canada cycling trip just so that they could visit the town of Dildo, and then asked, what's the rudest named place I've ever been to? I mean, I was an inter course, Pennsylvania. It's related, right.

Sorry, Pennsylvania. That's okay, Katie.

First time question asker wants to know if I had any other alternative names for ologies when I was first starting out, and I do. Actually, I'm so glad you asked me this because I found this recently and I sent it to a friend of mine who's trying to come up with some show ideas. Okay, you ready, these were the names that Ologies was maybe gonna be named. Science Corner with Ali Ward science questions. Okay, but why cocktail party?

Science?

Science surrounds us you can science also science for people the world according to Ward. Things that are science with Ali Ward, Science, creep creepy science with Ali Ward, Science l cove, Okay, Cephala Podcast, The Big Weird World and beyond thinky stuff, fire hose of science. Should I put this in my brain?

So?

Yeah, that's what ologies was almost called.

Isn't that weird?

Isn't it like someone being like your name was almost Janet and you're like, what why?

Anyway?

It's ologies with Ali Ward, Dad, We're just gonna have to accept it. Science alcove? What the fuck was I thinking with that? What even is an alcove? Anyway? Paola Alejandra Martinas Ramos wants to know ketchup store it in the pantry of the fridge. I may be wearing yesterday's shirt with a pile of laundering next to me, and I had a whole pizza for dinner, but in the fridge.

So much.

The insides remind me of cytoplasm. They're very mucisi. You'll notice I said the word mucus. I don't bleep it anymore. We get it, we get the joke. We don't need to bleep it anymore.

Anyway.

It's like organelles in a cidoplasm, and I hate.

That when you bite into it.

Ugh.

If you do that, there's like too much give and chew. It's like a.

Peach that's so much some one should have eaten last Wednesday. There's nothing crisp about a raw tomato. There's nothing crunchy, like if I'm going to eat a peach, like I want that peach to have been green five minutes ago, Like I want crisp. You give me a raw tomato, A number one.

It's just gush. It's just gush town. It's just squish city.

And so I feel like I'm eating a flaccid peach that spit in my mouth.

I don't like it.

Now. You broil that tomato for five minutes, you sun dry it, you put it in a can. I'm down to clown. But if that thing is just right off the vine, get it out of my face. Do not put that in my mouth. I've eaten one cherry tomato in my life, and that thing is lucky I digested it. Okay,

Okay.

Your most asked questions after the break all most asked question you ready for this? I think the most asked question by Alexis Wallach, Diane Jelottie ashle Er by Jessica Chamberlain, Lauren wy Earl of Graham Olkin, Katie Stomps, cass Claremyer, and gentle all wanted to know how is Gremy? Grammy is my dog? Diane, this is the first question ever. Wanted to know, who's your favorite living creature? Why is it Gremy?

People?

Want to know weird things about her, weird noises, she makes goofy behavior. I will fill you in a little bit about this. So Grammy's my dog. She's about eight years old. I got her a year ago. She was very skin it and she looked kind of like a rat. I'd wanted a dog for probably fifteen years, and I finally lived in a place where I could have a dog, and I thought we should give her back. After the first week, I was like, I don't think we're a vinemen Like.

I don't think she really likes us. She seems kind of bummed.

Maybe she needs to be in a place with like goats or other dogs, or like cuter furniture or something. And it turned out she just had a camel cough and then she got on antibiotics and she was like, no, it's it's not you.

I just had a respiratory infection.

And I was on a business trip and Jarrett informed me, He's like, we're keeping this dog. This is our dog now, and I was like, so it is. She's such a good dog. Oh, she doesn't chew anything she shouldn't. I never come home and find like the bathroom garbage strewn.

All over the house.

She's only diary had maybe four times in the living room and it was because of fireworks. It's fine, who hasn't done that. She only works when we have a package or if she's sleeping, and in terms of noises she makes, she falls asleep and then her little belly will flutter and you just hear and she sleep works and it's the fucking Her mouth sometimes smells like fish, and I think that's from licking her butthole when she needs her anal glance squeezed. Have I learned how to

Of course it is. I love her. I would do anything for her.

She doesn't even listen analogies, Okay b Wilson, Emily Arnold, a less opie, Cameron Stewart all wanted to know do you narrate the Kroger commercials? Emily Arnold said, I need to know this. I've absolutely yelled about it in the car.

Yes, I do.

It's Kroger, it's Pick and Save, sometimes it's Smith's. It's also Gerbs. Here's the deal. So someone reached out to me and they're like, we are trying to find a voice of Kroger, and I guess some of the people who were like in the ad creative department listen to ologies, so they're like, we want to find a voice like this lady. And then they're like, why don't you just ask that lady. And so it's a union job. I don't have to wear pants when I do it. I

I want to say.

Merlin Tuttle is someone I wanted to interview before the podcast even existed. I think I put up a picture of him months before the first episode even came out. Was just like, look at this guy. Look at this guy. He was wearing a head lamp. He had a big old mustache. It was like from the nineteen eighties. He had a fruit baat, and I was like, I gotta know this guy. I gotta talk to him. How do I become his friend? And sure enough, boom, I got to go to his house and hang out for three hours.

It's very creepy.

A bunch of people including Spencer, Siames, Roxham, Parker, Sarah Lych which is Shmidie Thompson, Even Stoller, and Ted Hamilton asked about books specifically. Ted Hamilton said, when you hit the road for a long haul drive, do you have any go to comforts like books on tapes at twenty four ounce slushy screaming show tunes? Ted Hamilton, good question.

I did not know. I had anxiety.

We both got very easily but hurt by each other and just felt rejected a lot. Yeah, the ADHD Effect on marriage by Melissa or Love, But it is about essentially partnerships. Jar and I aren't married, but it's essentially about partnerships. We both listened to that audiobook over the same course of like a week at our own pace, and it is fundamentally changed the way that we relate to each other and also the way that I, in general, I think relate to people. I think it's made me

Which way is your go to?

Is it different if you are cooking versus someone else, Poppy Millican, these are the questions that we all want to know. They're hard hitting. I'm glad you asked. My go to is scrambled because it's hard to fuck up if someone else is cooking, I'll have a hard poached egg. Don't give me something gooey though. I'm sorry, I can't do.

A gooey egg.

So I ask for hard poached, and then everyone up Brunch's like, oh my god, they screwed up your egg order, and I'm like, no, I asked for it this way, and they're horrified. Katie Coast wants to know favorite way to eat a potato mashed skins on.

I like them.

Rustic d Adams wants to know a fact that will forever stick with me. I think at some point I learned that post themself. Thirteen nipples and the thirteenth is just right in the middle like a bull's eye. What the fuck?

Man? What is life? Eric A.

Stairs wants to know what my favorite conspiracy theory is. Maybe that Scarlet Johansson's a clone. I do really want to know who the human clones are out there, because there's got to be human clones. We're far enough down the line where there are certainly human clones. Who are they? Do they know their clones? Do the people that clone them? Do they get what they expected? What is a soul?

I don't know.

These are not questions I'm here to answer. Alison Ewald wants to know first time question asker, what's my favorite part of the day.

I love going to bed.

I love getting ready for bed. I love taking a shower before bed and get into pajamas. And I don't do it enough. I kind of fall asleep doing what I'm doing. But going to bed feels like a vacation. It feels like a luxury. Like when I actually go to bed and I turn the line off and I'm like, it's time to sleep now. I like, people do this every day, and if I did that, oh, my life would be amazing. If I would just be like, Nope,

A bad house dude.

Heather Densmore wants to know how much input do you have with the fun TV and film assides or does Stevie just surprise you when he's done editing. No, I actually I actually pick those and I put a link, and Steven Ray Morris does surprise me with putting in a few extras, and sometimes those extra stay and sometimes I cut some of mine that I put in but keep his, or sometimes I'll cut the ones that he puts in. But yeah, I just I use those sometimes

Like.

I went with a friend of a friend, but Disneyland was open all night and someone had an extra aril onesie, so I put it on over my clothes. It was not slimming, but it was warm. I looked like a big od old baby.

Hangry.

Auntie wants to know if I enjoy my red headedness. They're a redhead and they vacillate between staruting four and hiding from the attention. I die my hair like this, so clearly it's choice, and I'm sorry that I'm ripping off your look. Ruby Lee wants to know fingers for toes or toes for fingers? Ruby Lee, I would rather have fingers for toes because A shoes and B you pick stuff up in the shower better.

I already pick up a.

Razor in the shower with my toes, but if you have fingers down there, sh I might get good at French braiding.

Who knows?

Michael Handy wants to know what's my go to drink at a dive bar where I know that they don't have a wine list or decent booze. A wine spritzer is usually pretty good. Treat yourself. Have a wine spritzer. They're a lot better than you.

Think they are, white Wine Spitzer seth.

So she wants to know. This is a serious one important to me. How do you personally face and overcome mental health challenges you might struggle with They struggle with oppression on the daily, and I like to hear other people's strategies with dealing with their own mental burdens. It's a really good question. I think I have to remind myself a lot that anxiety is kind of like clouds

Things are a little nutty.

If you feel a little a little nutty, that's par for the course right now. So yeah, let's try to take it easy on ourselves and know that we're not going to be writing a novel during this time, and we're not going to be cleaning out every closet.

This is not a vacation.

This is isolation and it's not easy, and so like understanding that there are those ups and downs.

Yeah, And I.

Also used a company called gene Site to find an antidepressant that worked well for me. So it's they're not sponsors, but I looked into some studies, and some studies found that people who chose medications based on some brain chemistry stuff had better odds, And so I did that and I found something that worked better for me. So that's helpful and that if you are going the medication route. But yeah, if you can spend time outside, do it.

You deserve it. So I've tried to do that as well.

Finally, a few of you, including Angela's GOOTUZI I want to know got to do it. What do you hate most about making the podcast and what is your favorite part about making the podcast?

Oh?

What do I hate the most about making the podcast is probably having to listen to it right before it goes up, because by that point, it's like the third time I've heard the conversation, and I'm just doing QC to make sure everything's in the right spot and there's nothing missing, and so I have to listen to myself like tell the same jokes over like this is the third time, or I just am listening to my voice again, and so that's always just cringe fest twenty twenty for me.

That need it. I just send out good vibes.

My family could use them this week. In all this, it's not the easiest time right now, but I think staying hopeful and appreciating the most that we can, whether it's moss or frogs, or your neighbor or somebody you haven't talked to you in a while, just try to appreciate them and ask some more people stupid questions. And obviously, if you want to follow ologies, you can follow ologies Twitter, Instagram. I'm Aliward of one l If you want ologies merch.

Schedule on track.

Jarret Sleeper assistant edits and helps me through anxiety attacks. And the wonderful Stephen raymore Is will be editing this and putting this up tonight. Thank you to him and his mustache for making every episode better. He is completely responsible for that little thing that you hear at the very very end of the episode. That's all Steven. He surprises me with it every week. He's a genius. Nick Thorburn does the music which we are getting up on iTunes and if you stick around to the end of

Wow home Miss