Our Milestone Special! Thanks so much for being on this journey, when we set out we had no idea there that might be as many as 50 different ideas out there. Here's to another 50* *there couldn't be more than another 30 ideas tbh but we'll keep looking
The idea of 'burnout' is such a feature of modern life that it's hard to believe that it was only first coined in 1974. Is its popularity caused by great utility or is it instead a symptom of a society gone mad? Find out in this, the return of your favourite podcast. We thank you for your patience in waiting for this episode - we took a precautionary break to ensure we wouldn't succumb to some sort of topical fatigue tipping point.
Is hyperbole the best thing you've ever heard of? Or is it literally the stupidest idea ever? Billions have asked the question - but only one podcast can answer!
There's an inherent virtue in withholding. Is there? Well, it's an idea so subtly catchy that it turns out it's everywhere! Only good ideas end up everywhere, right? Wrong! Break your run of refusing to enjoy life by listening to the Rank Ideas podcast now, in the lead up to our big LIVE extravaganza 50th episode :)
Nick and Chris are so biased towards loving hanging out that they created a whole podcast where they get to do it and nobody complains. It could be because the podcast doesn't have a centralised email, but it could also be because the prospective complainer also knows the value of pursuing hanging out over rage in their life.
After a brief interregnum to cater for Chris's 'life' 'outside the podcast', the team is back together in the boiler room of the ranking industry complex that serves as their prison. Who cares about that - is cooperation good? Hard to imagine podcasts in a world in which it didn't exist. That's all well and good, but have you ever had to pitch a 6-person tent alone? Me neither.
Friendship is an idea surely as old as the species and one you can be confident will last until our collective end. It's a strong candidate to land at the top of the list and has been suggested by an astute listener with just this aim in mind. How do they go? Nick and Chris put their own friendship on the line to test the critical ideas for you!
You ever once in your whole life lose your patience and say or do something you later regretted? If not, we salute your decision to play it cool. We take a look at the idea that we can better contain our first emotional responses to situations and slot it in that list we keep going on about of all ideas ever.
My friend Jeff is a troublemaker. When visiting America, a cheeky prank he liked to pull was to demand something unreasonable in a public space, and loudly declare 'I'm a gosh darn American, and it's my gosh darn right!', which inevitably attracted approval and applause from the people around him. The existence of this gag alone should hurtle 'rights' to the top of our list, are there other virtues? Or hidden vices? Join us on our endless journey - it's your right!
Prior to understanding cause and effect we all just floated around attributing everything to malevolent spirits. But also beneficent spirits. So maybe it wasn't all bad. Or was it? The cause of doing a ranked list of everything is having the effect that we are ranking this topic this week!
Who likes short shorts? We like short shorts :)
It's essential that we can speak truth to power. It's essential that we give a group power to do this. It's essential to check their power. Wait, who does that? What's going on? Is journalism a job, a process or a culture? We start tugging at our own inevitably-biased threads and end up, as always, by placing the fourth estate at the objectively true place on our master list.
Two things in this podcast are inevitable life - Nick and Chris. Nick is immune to death and Chris is immune to taxation. What else is there to know? Why, some 40 minutes worth, as always!
It's always struck me as weird that there are laws to prevent cruelty against animals that don't apply to the ones we like to classify as food. I wonder if that would change if enough people kept sheep just for company. Or started eating possums. What's going on? Dive in to hear about Chris's dog and witness Nick's stone heart slowly melt as he is forced to look at lolcats throughout the episode.
As a teenager I (Chris) had a joke book with 2000 gags from Australian lounge comic, Marty Fields. One of them I remember now and then was 'I'm not much of a gym goer, my motto is, no pain, no pain'. I guess I just share this anecdote as a reminder to be vigilant about the material you leave lying around your children - they too may grow up to shun physical exercise and think it's normal to communicate via 90s lounge gags.
In the future, everyone will be rounded up in order from most good to most evil and a line will be drawn at the halfway point beyond which everyone will be imprisoned. I just hope whoever draws the line is good. The act of imprisoning the evil half of the world can only be good :)
I chose to write this blurb in this way. Because of the intersection of everything I was born with and everything I've experienced. Purple monkey dishwasher.
"What's mine is yours, what's yours, is mine, the more you give, the more the sun'll shine" - Uncle Charlie, All Dogs Go To Heaven All of which reminds me, we need to rank Dogs, Heaven, and of course, All Dogs Go To Heaven.
Nothing will give you a born-to-rule mentality more than being born to rule. The idea that someone's birth station should confer political and financial power is laughable to many of us now, but it was a systemic norm that held sway in some very successful societies for millennia. Is it really so different from the contemporary versions we find, with the same privileges being conferred through birth but without the indignity of codification? Maybe!
To be human is to yearn to boat. This much is certain. It's the pillar upon which our civilisation is built. The same can be said for being trapped with others. The same must then be contended for shuffleboard and F-grade comedians. Is there more than meets the eye to this phenomenon? Maybe yes, maybe no, only one way to find out!
Who better to dissect fashion that two people who at first glance seem to be its natural enemy? A second glance instead reveals that fashion isn't hostile but in fact indifferent to our protagonists. But how do they feel about it? Also Chris released his album! Do yourselves a favour right here: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5lNYUnp4XSezHcIfzTAyrN
Debate is such a classic format of contesting ideas that it has come to colonise much of the mainstream discourse. This alone must be proof of its virtue. Wait - no! That thinking is a trap! If you disagree, feel free to debate either Nick or Chris - it's surely a better way of resolving difference than a glove slap and pistols. Isn't it?
"All the World's a Stage, and all the men and women, merely Players" Shakespeare said it, so you know it's good. But don't forget that Shakespeare's view is clouded as he was an actor himself. Chris and Nick have dabbled in a little acting, will they allow their own biases and irrationality to inform their ranking of this universal craft? Inescapably!
Ideology! It's short for 'idea astrology'. Or is it? Find out now, with your hosts - commun-fasc-femin-apolog-capital-somnabul-ists Nick Delatovic and Chris Endrey. Rank Ideas truly is a belief system worth dying for.
Exploring fairness seemed like a reasonable thing for Nick and Chris to do. At first look it seems like one of the most valuable ideas going around - thank goodness these guys have more time on their hands than the average person would choose to spend putting something so innocuous to the sword. The conversation turns to Nick's creative practices and if you're interested to see what they're talking about, do yourself a favour and check it out: https://vimeo.com/273260417...
Nick and Chris discuss inheritance, which is a luxury moot point for both of them, as neither of them are capable of dying. Don't interrogate this fact, just prepare for its reality!
This episode sees Nick and Chris discuss the merits of marriage without once mentioning their own secret marriage. For you see, they are both wedded to their job! (podcast host) Nick mentions a work he created for his partner Zev, it's really beautiful and you can see it here: https://vimeo.com/303833607
If this episode doesn't give you everything you need, you'll probably never be complete
Why IS a raven like a writing desk?
Everything the light touches, is our kingdom.
