Episode 600: How TechStuff Works

going to do with this episode. We really weren't sure how we wanted to commemorate six hundred episodes of Tech Stuff because that's a whole bunch And it means that I've been with the show for over a hundred episodes now, which is also pretty exciting. I've also been with the show for over a hundred episodes. You have You have been on the show for every single episode that has aired ever, haven't you. Yeah, this is six hundred for me,

So yeah, it's it's a big deal for me. Really, I mean, I'm sounded like I'm being real dismissed every whatever. This really means a lot to me, And it means a lot to me that we have so many listeners who have stuck around for years and years and years who are very supportive and when we say hey, if you guys want to let us know what to talk about. You guys respond, and we've had some amazing episodes come out of suggestions from listeners. So we thought, hey, how

about we do that thing? So we we took to the social media. Social media is yeah, as is the media already plural. We took we went to the medium social and then we're like, no, we're going total large with this social and we put out the word saying what should we talk about? And on our Facebook page we had a lot of different suggestions, but one of the suggestions was just do how tech stuff works. Give us the stuff behind tech stuff and it got a lot of of likes, a lot of votes essentially, and

we decided, all right, we'll do that. Now we have talked about tech stuff before. We went a lot in of the history for episode five when Chris joined us in the studio again, by joined us, we mean that we kidnapped him. If you recall it, it opened with us ripping the tape off his face so he could talk, and then he immediately started making puns. So we put the tape back on and now here we are, so we'll give a quick overview of how this whole thing

got started. So about six and a half years ago, this is two thousand and fourteen, when we're recording this UM, I was approached by who was then the head of how Stuff Works, and I was even more important. Connal came up to me. If you've ever listened to Stuff you Should Know, I'm sure you've heard about Connal. In fact, he's probably popped up in a couple of other episodes too.

He he also showed up on video. He was the boss in that Trapped in a Meeting video series that Stuff you Should Know did, and that that the boss who was just up there rambling about really bossy stuff. That's exactly what our meetings are like. Yeah, he also improvd that entire thing just just went twice through two takes, like forty five minutes each. As far as I can tell,

he's made of magic anyway. So he came up to me and said, Hey, I was thinking about doing this podcast thing, and we're gonna start with stuff you should Know, and we're gonna start with stuff you missed in history class, which at the time was called Factor Fiction, had Josh Clark and Candice Senate Candice Keener. Yeah, in fact, Josh and Candice were the original host and that obviously that that show has undergone many changes and just continued to

get even more awesome. Everyone's done a great job on that. But those two shows launched first, and then they wanted to launch a technology podcast, and so it was gonna be called tech Stuff because of course, how stuff works, we had to have stuff and everything. So Chris Pellette and I became the original hosts of Tech Stuff and uh, originally, if you listen to those early episodes, they were really short.

They hadn't the cap, and that changed when they realized that Chris and I couldn't get through introducing ourselves within the five minute cap, and eventually we were able to go as long as we needed to. So that's the basic, the basic history for the beginning. Lauren of course joined us in all right. I think I began recording episodes at the end of and the first ones air the first week of ye and we threw you into the deep end. We immediately made you start making predictions. That's easy.

I mean, saying stuff that I don't know about is it's totally fine. I mean, that's that's an allowable thing. In the predictions episode, when it gets to the point where we have to actually cover technology and actually know what we're talking about, that's when it gets tricky. So yeah, and and we've been going strong since. So we had some other thoughts about, you know, what are we going to talk about with the behind the scenes, because it's not like we can take you guys around with us

and show you everything. This is an audio podcast. We could, but it would be a pretty boring audio show. Yeah, yeah, So one of the things we thought about was talking about how we actually put together an episode. So Lauren and I we will communicate usually via email, sometimes smoke signal, sometimes interpretive dance at some point in the week before we record word and we'll pick our subjects, our topics.

Often we will look at either what's trending in the news to see if there's anything that kind of sparks our imagination, or more frequently, we look at what listeners have suggested. We have a giant Google doc spreadsheet of all of these ideas that either we've come up with or that you guys have suggested, and uh, usually a few little notes about them, but sometimes just a single word and uh. And then we'll we'll take the suggestion

from there, yep. And then we'll sit there and look, and we'll also look at what's on our plates because some of these subjects automatically we know are going to require way more research than others. And and multiple episodes two. I mean, you know, when when we embarked upon Amazon, for example, we were like, this could potentially be seven episodes, so let's narrow it down to three. We wound up recording two and have the idea for a third kind

of nebulously floating around. So so those are things that we take into consideration because we only have a two hour block of recording time every week. Uh sometimes in all is great us enough to let us go over that. Yeah, because we are the last podcast to record on the day we record. Well, we'll talk more about that because we've got a specific listener question where we can chat about that. But uh, yeah, here's the thing. We don't have endless amounts of time to sit down and record.

In fact, our recording sessions are not a whole lot longer than the two episodes we tend to record. Sometimes we record three. Today we're recording three, for example, So uh, episode six hundred one and six hundred two we'll be coming out. We'll we'll be recording those the same day we're recording episodes six hundred because we love you that much and also because I'm going to be on vacation.

So um. That means that we have to be really cognizant of our time, especially since there are other podcasts that record, and we only have the one podcast studio. It's not like we have multiple studios here at Hell stuff works and we all just go into different rooms. Yeah, it's not a giant podcast farm. Yeah. We also only have two people who record podcasts. Noel is one of them. By by record, we mean the actual physical button pushing

and editing together and production. We'll be bringing Nol onto this episode shortly to talk about his side of this, uh, this whole wacky thing we call podcasting. And we also, of course have Jerry, the Mysterious Jerry, which we will say nothing more about because that's kind of what what we do. We don't talk about Jerry. Jerry is awesome, by the way. So then we have this in our next bit of notes, the actual equipment and software used

in the recording process. So here's the deal. Lauren and I one of the greatest joys I have at doing this is the fact that I'm really just responsible for making sure that I have the content to talk about and that I have the voice to actually express that that stuff while we sit down and record. I don't have to worry about any of the equipment. I don't have to worry about any of the software. I don't have to worry about editing. I don't have to worry

about publishing. I know a lot of people out there, people who listen to this show probably work on their own podcasts. And you guys are wearing multiple hats. You know, you might be you might be on air talent, you might be a producer, you might be an editor, you could be a publisher. You're probably doing sound design in your own studio. Yeah, this is a lot of stuff that you guys have to do, and Lauren and I

don't have to do it. Yeah. We we are very fortunate to UM have always worked with incredibly talented and dedicated people who make us sound so good. UM. I mean, you know, there's a whole lot of little blips and blobs and mess ups and coughs and oops. I need to go eat granola bars and etcetera. That happened in the middle of our episode. We've also had a this room has gotten so hot that there is no way my brain can function. We have to do this later. Uh.

Fortunately this room is no longer that hot. Yeah, we we we worked out that situation. There was a thermostat issue. I can cover that when we get into the describe the podcast room as the question we have definite. But now I would like to bringing our producer and editor extraordinaire Noel onto the show. Alright, everyone, we are joined by our producer slash editor slash publisher extraordinaire Noel. Noel. Say hello, Hi Johnathan, Hi Noel. You're just a bundle

of energy today, aren't you. So those of you who are really astute may think, hey, that that voice sounds familiar, And if you listen to a lot of the podcasts from How Stuff Works, you may recognize his voice because Noel, you've done some at reads, right, sister, I'm usually much more a brilliant in those reads. That's true. Yea. We we forced him back around from behind his desk that's also located within our podcast studio to to join us here. Although we do have a foam barrier set up for

our own protection. Yes, it's really just to make sure we don't make eye contact with Noel while he's recording. It enrages him. It also makes me really uncomfortable to be on this side of the barrier, just so you know. Okay, well, well we'll keep this nice and short. So no A lot of people want to know about the technology behind tech stuff, and we thought who better to talk about that than Matt Frederick, but he was busy, so we came to you, Burn Burn. Um No, yeah, I mean,

ultimately it's a pretty low tech affair. We have some really nice microphones that we use their dynamic vocal mix and actually a funny little tidbit, the same microphone that was used to record the vocals of Michael Jackson's thriller, So the Shure SM seven B than only the SM seven, but now they added a little lowercase B. But they work really well for recording the voice. Um, you can get really close to them, as opposed to it's called a condenser mike, which kind of picks up everything and

all things around them. So this way we reduced the you know, noise, and we get a lot of that around here because our office is right on the edge of the building overlooking a Marta station, which is the public transit we have here, so we can hear that switching ound every now and then. That's the march. Also lots of sirens that we have to stop for, and

construction going on both above and below us. Yeah, we said, the only thing we're missing right now is a marching band walking through the office, which should be here any minute now. So these microphones they're picking up sound, they are sending that sound. Where does the sound go, NOL. The sound goes to a computer we have. It's a Mac Pro. I think it's about four years old, but

it does the job really well. We use this program that's part of the Final Cut seven suite of software, which a lot of video editors actually still like to use. But this is the audio editor that comes with that suite, and it mainly is just a basic audio recording program. There's nothing fancy about it. So once I'm done recording the episode, I export the audio files to a dropbox folder that I access from home, which is where I

do most of my editing. Is actually only come into the office here a couple of days a week to record everyone, um, and then I use a different program called Adobe Audition, which actually allows me to use audio plug ins that kind of sweeten the sound of the You know, your voices are already very sweet, but sometimes require a little bit of extra life. I need all the sweetener I can get, And then I just add some sound design and published them to the RSS feed,

which then goes out to iTunes and beyond excellent. So about how long does it take you to edit a typical episode of tech stuff? Well, I added everything at double speed is to maximize the time because I do quite a few shows and I have a limited amount of time that I can work on stuff. Um, So it takes about a half an hour to edit an hour show. But we all sound like chipmunks the entire

time that you're doing it, which is true. And you occasionally probably hear a little bleed from me editing while you're recording over there. So that's the sound of really comforting. I thought that was just in my head. Good clear up? Yeah, no, that my therapist is going to be so happy. So another question then, because you listen to so many different house stuff work shows and you have to edit so many different shows, whose shows. Do you like to addit

the most? Well, I mean, I think with with tech stuff, the majority of the time I spend is actually cutting out puns. What. Yeah, it's true. I make those for a reason, nol. He still leaves in. I mean, like like you know, a good so or thirty puns per episode. There's such a thing as pun overload. I'm just gonna put out there right Well, Chris Pallette has not been on the show for a really long time, so I would like to maintain that. I think. Okay, it's fair

you've edited them all out that that does make more sense. Okay, well, that's that's fair. Noel, thank you so much for joining us. Um we we're glad that people could hear your voice and hear you be you and and also just to give some more insight onto the kind of stuff we use here in the office. Uh. And now we're going to banish you to the other side of the room, back at your desk behind the safety phone barrier. I've

never seen someone take off their headphones so angry before. Alright, one more thing that we can talk about before we take a quick break is to talk about what it's like to work here at how stuff works and not necessarily go through what our routine is because we have a question a little bit later that I think will lead into that. But just what's the atmosphere, like, what's it like interacting with the other hosts of how stuff works? Because believe it or not, we do all have a

centralized office that we work out of. So yeah, yeah, and I think that we we mentioned when we first moved into the current office space that we are in that that's a little bit like a call center. It's it's very open um and you can kind of reach out and poke your your neighbors, and so so we're all in pretty close quarters. Yeah, I've got I've got Robert Lamb of Stuff to blow your mind on my left and Scott Benjamin of car stuff on my right.

So I've got the two rowdiest loudest people. I'm absolutely joking. They are both incredibly focused and so then and quiet and into everything that they are doing. Makes me feel re really self conscious because I'm an extrovert and I like talking to people and it helps me get excited about what I'm doing. But they're both introverts and they like really focusing on stuff, So I keep thinking going through my mind of we did that personality test like

five years ago. Who was an extrovert on that test? Josh, But he's recording, so that's no good and so but it is, it's it's a lot of fun. I mean, it's one of the best things about working here is that the people who work here have great personalities. They're wicked smart. Oh yeah, and they just they they they're so well read on such a wide variety of subjects, mainly because we all have been writing or editing articles on these subjects for years or even just that you know,

for for newer people who are here. Yeah, just I mean, there's no one in this office who I am not intellectually intimidated by in one way or another because they're they're all just amazing, funny, brilliant, terrific people. I sit by the way between Um Christian Conger of stuff Mom Never Told You and Joe McCormick are our third co host on Forward Thinking. Yeah, so we've got lots of

really smart, funny folks here and that's always a pleasure. Also, if you guys aren't familiar, I mean, we we do, like Lauren said, we do the show Forward Thinking which is an optimistic view of the future and talking about all sorts of stuff, not just technology, but science and culture and usually optimistic. We tend to be more optimistic than not. We We also don't shy away from talking about challenges, real challenge of course, that's that's always part of it. I do tend on that show to be

depressing numbers. Girl. That's usually my my job for every show is to look into all the statistics that are going to make me cry in the shower the next morning. But I sweep in and I say, remember that human beings are pretty amazing and overcoming obstacles. So that's my job. Also,

you know, we do a show. We're both hosts on a show called brain Stuff series right right Um that is being headed by Christian Sager and Um written by him and Ben Bolan, produced by Mr Paul den chant Um and other hosts on that show include Kristin Conger. Josh Clark is also host. Ben Bolan pulls double duty. He's also a host, and we tend to pick just uh, whatever topics we really like at this point. We kind of pick interesting stuff that we can explain in a

few minutes in an entertaining way. It's usually basic science kind of stuff, and we have a lot of fun. It's the first time I've done video, and it's a huge trip for me getting to to learn this new, terrifying skill set. Yeah. So if you've ever wanted to see what Lauren looks like when she's enacting a nineteen eighties power ballad, you need to watch the episode we did about how fast his hair Grow? Yeah. That the

very first episode that we did. Uh. We we brought in a floor fan and I flipped my hair and I didn't really understand what my life was anymore. Yeah. The only thing was we didn't have any actual soundtrack to go along while you were physically flipping your hair or else we could have really had you lived the moment. Yeah, it was really just just you and a Resci Recivic, our original producer on that show, giggling, giggling a lot about it. It was very difficult not to know. That's

that's I agree. It was mostly out of envy, Lauren. I my hair flipping days are long behind me. But you know, no, working it has stuff works in general. Um, Honestly, it's the first job I've ever had where I felt like I belonged, like where I felt like I was part of a team that cared that I was there, um and and that was really working towards something awesome. Yeah, and I mean, it's it's the most rewarding. I keep telling people, it's the most challenging job I've ever had,

and it's the best job I've ever had. Absolutely. We probably both work way too much, but but it's it's all because we we love learning stuff and sharing what we learned with you guys. Yeah. Absolutely, I mean, you know, it's it's not like, you know, a lot of people said, hey, you guys get paid for podcasting. That's actually that wasn't true for a very long time, in the sense that podcasting was something on top of everything else we did. Uh,

these days, it's a little bit different. We'll talk about that more in the second half. But you know, the reason why people would stick with it is because they loved it so much. They were really enjoying the experience of having these conversations and sharing it with other people and then getting the feedback and uh, you know, sometimes feedback can be rough, but you know, most of you

guys out there are pretty awesome. Oh oh yeah, and we I mean, we don't always have time to respond to every email that we get and every Facebook message that we get, but I want you all to know that we read every single one of them and appreciate so much that you guys take time out of your day to to write into us and and share your thoughts or give us corrections or any other assorted stuff

that comes our way. Absolutely, yeah, whether it's a photoshopped, uh poster of a popular science fiction film that's been retouched to have different people on it, or it's a handmade youkalile, I mean, we've we've received some pretty cool stuff from folks. You guys are all awesome, So to prove how awesome all of you are. And the second half what we're going to do is we're going to

respond to specific questions from our listeners. Plus I think we might hear from some fellow how stuff works folks as we go along. All right, well, let's take a quick break. Okay, we're back, and our first question comes from JP on Twitter, and JP asks how much time is spent researching prior to recording an episode? Gosh, Jp, I don't know that we have an easy answer for this.

It varies widely depending on the topic and how much else is going on in a given Weekum, I would I would say that my bare minimum in an emergency situation has been an hour and a half, which is probably terrible. No, no, Lauren, let me let me put your mind at ease. There used to be a time when I would record this show at nine am on a Friday, and I would get into the office at six thirty in the morning and start researching for two episodes that we'd started nine and we wouldn't be done

till eleven. Now, that was an incredibly intense period of research. These days, I spread it out a lot more. I look at a lot of other sources. I try and pull in more information so that it's not just a list of facts. I don't want it to be boring. So I mean, I would say, on average, I probably spend about four hours of research per hour of podcast The Child. Yeah, I was I was gonna say three to six. It's my it's my average, so probably probably

right around that. So, yeah, it's it's a lot of research for for just a simple conversation, but it's really so that we can make it as interesting as we can and as accurate as we can, and knowing that we do occasionally make mistakes and I make puns. Uh, you know, you take that into account as well. But we really do try very hard to make sure that

our episodes are entertaining and informative. And there's some topics out there that when we decide we're gonna do it, we think, oh, this is gonna be a breeze, We're gonna be done in half an hour. Usually the more sure we are that it's going to be a short and sweet episode, the longer the episode winds up being,

and the harder it is to research. Yeah. Absolutely, Um, although you know that there are we are benefited by the fact that Jonathan, you have been working for How Stuff Works for so long and you have literally written the book, the article on a lot of the topics that we talk about. Yeah, sometimes I forget that I wrote them. I certainly have forgotten that I've recorded podcasts where I tell Lauren, hey, we should do this, and you tell me, hey, you did that already. That's happened

more than once. All right, Well, our next question comes from the Pencil to Be on Twitter, who asks what is the average time of day that you guys record and it's not usually an average because we have a studio schedule because there are enough people coming in of vying again not not literally, but but vying for a studio time and space. I will loom. Uh, this is

totally true. I will loom if the podcast that records immediately before us, which by the way, in case you're wondering, is car Stuff with with Ben Bolan and Scott Benjamin, they will they record immediately before us. Their recording schedule is from one pm to three pm on Thursdays. We begin at three pm on Thursdays and technically we're supposed to end at five right right now, it's about five. Yeah,

we go over. That is being really nice. Nol Noel has been a saint and has sat in for long episodes on multiple occasions, and very occasionally will tell us how to stop the recording when we're done and leave early. Yeah, because we don't want to keep him here longer than he absolutely has to be. So yeah, three pm on Thursdays is typically when we record, which, by the way, is prime time to be on fire or committing a crime in Atlanta. We we know this because as as

we may or may not have said earlier. Our our podcast studio is has one for one wall, a window that looks out over a busy roadway and a trainway. Yeah, we're we're near for those in Atlanta or who are familiar with Atlanta, we overlook Peach Tree. There's also Highway four hundred that's just under our building and UM and also one of the market tracks, so we get we get some traffic noise occasionally. So yeah, but anyway, that's UM that's when we record. So next from Aaron on Twitter.

Do you guys still write articles or mostly focused on the podcasts? Which do you prefer to do? This is a great question because when I started podcasting, I was writing an article a week plus a short piece. Yeah, there was an article of a week and I kind of question of the day style article, which are our shorter pieces on how stuff Works dot com right, and then doing two podcasts. I was never a writer for

How Stuff Works. Actually, I was an editor when I first joined up UM and then didn't start podcasting until about a year and a half or two years into my tenure here. So uh, eventually I got to the point where I was writing two full articles a week plus recording two podcasts. Uh, then I got to the point where I was shooting video and right two articles a week and doing two podcasts. These days, I don't really write articles anymore. I haven't written a brand new

article from start to finish since two thousand twelve. Okay, we just did an update on the how Google Glass works article just earlier this month, which Jonathan had originally written, and he did a revision on it, and I was his editor, standing in for Mr Chris Pollette, who was always previously your editor. Right right, You did an excellent job Because I've had I've had lots of editors here at Hell Stuff Works. I go through them pretty regularly.

But uh, yeah, it's it's it's interesting because everyone has a different way of working with people. But this was seamless. For one thing, I think it helped that we had been sitting down at the same table and talking every Thursday. We also do I mean, we technically edit each other's work all the time because of the way that we that we do. Yeah. So, anyway, um to ask about

do you prefer to podcast over writing articles? I miss writing articles, to be perfectly honest, I really do miss the the art of researching putting together an article and writing it. However, uh, from the day when I really felt like I had a handle on podcasting. Moving forward, I've always enjoyed podcasting a little more. I like both, but podcasting for one thing. Anyone who's talked to me knows, I'm a you know, I'm a chatterbox. You're you're fond,

You're fond of speaking aloud. I do. I do well, because if I don't speak aloud, all of this happens in my head. Lauren, I have to let it out. You're right, that's terrifying. Yeah. So anyway, what about you, I mean you, you You did not come from a podcasting background, and I would think that you're a little more introverted than I am a tiny bit. Um And then again, I think like Liberacci is a little bit more introverted than you are. Technically, Um no, no, well

you know, I um, I do miss editing. Editing is honestly my passion in life. If that is not the geekiest thing you've ever heard. I really love working with an author to figure out, um, not not only what they've said, but what they were trying to say, and try to, you know, merge the two into a completely perfect universe of of just the best way for them

to express what they were trying to express. I love that process and and I especially love working with it with weird technical articles about strange things that I've never gotten to to learn about before. So uh so I missed that, but I do. I do also love this, this crazy thing, this and and and It's been a terrific opportunity for me to to expand myself. I never thought that I could do this kind of performance, and

I'm enjoying it very much. That's great. That's great because if you were to say, like I despise every moment that I come into this room and I don't want to talk to you again, I do feel like I need to, like like head boop a kitten or eat large quantities of chocolate every time that I leave. But I've been told that that's an adrenaline saying yeah, you get you can you can feel little tired afterward if

you're on performance mode for too long. So next from Emial on Twitter, does Jonathan use puns off the air as often as he does on the show, Emil No, I do not use puns as often off the air as I do on the show. I use them way more. Actually, I would say that you you reserve your best puns for the show. Well, what's best is that they're concentrated. Will actually put in for a lot of them. I'll put in the pause and then the pun, which is like it's really just the warning here it comes and

then boom. Just really because I want to I want to pause and remind myself. You need to look at Lauren now to watch her reaction. So, uh yeah, because my my reactions. Hey look, look our next question from Dawn on Twitter. How often does Lauren roll her eyes at Jonathan at least twice an episode? I'd say that's probably a pretty good average. I've been keeping track and so far it's three. I'll um, I'll update you guys

at the end of this episode. Yeah. Uh So, before we go on, I want to take a quick moment to allow one of our fellow podcast groups to say something. I believe Car Stuff has something they wanted to say. Hey Jonathan, Hey Lauren, it's a car Stuff. I'm Ben Scott, and we just wanted to tell you and all of

your fans that we're huge Tech stuff fans. We have an argument sometimes about what the most important thing that happened on a June tenth ever was right, Yeah, that's right, And I think we've got it pretty well narrowed down, don't we. Yeah, Like it was between the Spirit Rover, which launched on June tenth, Equal Pay Act signed in the law. First, the one of the first female Saints of Lebanon canonized on June tenth. But then there was

something else. Yeah, something that happened on June tenth, two thousand eight, and it was a big, big deal. It was the very first episode of tech Stuff and the world has never been the same. Congratulations on your six hundredth episode, guy, it's a big milestone. Congratulations. Wow. I haven't heard what they said yet, but I assumed that it was amazing and that when I listened back to this podcast, my heart is going to grow three sizes. That's that's the effect that Scott Benjamin has on me

every day. And to be fair, we haven't heard. We know that they recorded something. In fact, that's the case for all of the ones, with one exception, so we'll find out now. I want to know how you would say the next name, because I keep dividing it up in different ways, and I'm not sure that any of them are right. I actually asked, and I don't think that the human person in question had a chance to get back to me. Um, this is a question from

tumbler um, and I'm going to assume it's the mathist tree. Okay, that makes sense more since than them apes tree, which is what I was thinking. Yes, but the tumbler being what it is, UM, I didn't have immediate access to the person's name, so the mapistry on tumbler um asked do you to name the office equipment? And to do either of you have your own microphone cover? I've heard that they can get nasty. I have not named any office equipment. I'm not one to actually give names to

um inanimate objects in general. I find it amusing when other people do. I do understand that lots of folks name their cars. I don't do that either. So well, you don't have a car, to be fair, Well, no, but technically I have a car, I just don't drive it. Uh, but do you name any of the office equipment? I don't. I don't think I have, but now that you mentioned it,

I feel like we should. Usually I reserved names for things that like for inanimate objects, I'll reserve a name for something that that tasks me wrath of con style. So you see, this would be even better than I mean if we if we named stuff around the office, especially like after our co workers, just to sow discord. Okay, but yeah, things like if the copier we're being particularly difficult, I might name it to therefore direct my ire in

a more focused way. But everything here works pretty well, with one notable exception until recently, the air conditioning in this podcast studio, which I have referred to at least one other time in this Yes, but no I do not. And as for the the own microphone cover, I use the one that's already in here. I do as well. Um, I believe I could be wrong about this that Chuck is the only person who brings in his own microphone cover. Nol Is is nodding to us from behind his safety wall. Chuck.

Chuck will remove the microphone cover and often leave it off. So sometimes when we come into record, not not this show, but when we record Forward Thinking, which follows stuff you should know on Tuesdays. Yes, then often we will come in and Lauren's microphone will be sans cover and we have to check it down. So if you want to write to Chuck and ask him to be more more thoughtful, it's not a big deal. No, I mean, Lauren, it's

usually like right there. It usually takes Yeah, she pointed, by the way, in case you were wondering what that was, I think they figured it out. Yeah. Well, here's a neat surprise. We've got our friends from Stuff to Blow your mind, Robert and Julie, who wanted to say something to us. So here we go, Lauren and Jonathan, we have a message for you. We've really enjoyed your episodes about technologies impact on our lives, and we really like your jokes and puns. They've never once given us hives.

And by the way, from the podcast Factor, bow your mind. Wow, I hear there was singing involved. I honestly don't know yet because I haven't listened to it, but I am sure that it was amazing because both Robert and Julie are amazing podcasters and amazing singers. They mostly communicate around the office through chanting they do. In fact, it's eldritch chanting, which is what really makes me jibber. So thanks guys. So next for Prosaic Paradise on Tumblr. What's up with

the app not showing the current hosts? Excellent question. We want to know the same thing, or actually we do know the same thing and uh and basically the the answer is that UM that the company that developed the app for how Stuff Works UM is no longer under contract with with How Stuff Works. Yeah, that means that changing it it's outside of our area, right. We don't have anyone in How Stuff Works who does app developments,

so we can't We can't do it well. And and furthermore, we don't own the code for it, and they own the code for it, so we can't really go in and change it ourselves from a legal standpoint. So that is why the even though I've been with the show for over a year, my picture is not on there and my name is not on there. That This is a frustration shared by several of the podcast teams. UM stuff you missed in history class has gone through changes,

forward thinking isn't even on there. So so we're trying very hard. I know that we have top men working on it. We do not have a timeline for when that will be addressed, but trust us, it frustrates us as well. We would much prefer it to reflect um the current state. So next we've got a five part questions. So before we go into the five part question, I wanted to take another quick moment. I hear that there's this conspiratorial podcast that wanted to say something. Yeah, they

kind of creeped me out, but let's go ahead. Could it be trueban have the prophecy has been fulfilled? The signs are there, Matthew six, it's the mark. We've waited so long. Now it's here. The time has come. I would say congratulations to Lauren and Jonathan if you know what happens next. I'm going to assume that that was a cheerful hello and congratulations for six D episodes. I have not listened to that one either. I'm going to

assume that it wasn't full of nothing but audible spiders. Yeah. Yeah, here's hoping it wasn't just a number station right, just twenty seven sevent three? Yeah, you never know with those guys. So next we have our old friend on Tricks who from Facebook, and I do apologize if I've mispronounced your name. He had five different questions for us. So the first one is which studio slash recording room has been the best so far. I know you guys and gals have moved,

boy have we? Um? So, I have been in three different podcast studios in the year that I've been here, Jonathan, Were there others besides that? Or was it there was one more? Okay, oh, that's right, because they stuck you guys in the really creepy little booth first. Didn't think well, first, there was a room. It was similar to the one

that we ended up in. You remember, the one that had the alcove was the audio recording studio that had an alcove and a little curtain that blocked the alcove off from the rest of the studio, right and the larger part of the studio being used for for video video. Now, originally we weren't doing videos, so the audio room was just one giant room. So with all that acoustics bouncing

around him. Yep, you had the producers sitting there in full view, kind of sort of the way we do now if the phone barrier were taken down, Um and joke about that. No, we we don't. We're turning into Welcome to night Vale. Uh So, the yeah, we we had a one big room there. Then we moved into the model where we are. Well, first we were in a corner office, the same no, not the same corner office, a different corner office than we were in the last time, which of course was not ideal because we had a

lot of outside noise that came in. We did that for a while while they did construction and added the alcove into our production studio. So then we went moved back into that room, except now it was a different kind of style room. It had been laid out in a different way, and it had the specific outcode that was just big enough to have one of these small round tables that we set across, and it was about the size of a of a kitchenette. Yeah, yeah, it's

pretty much it. And then we have that little curtain that would divide off. So once we closed the curtain, we could never really be sure that our producer was still sitting at the computer or had and just wandered off somewhere. I generally assumed that Tyler was our was our producer, editor or or predator as I really prefer to use for him specifically, because he was also doing some work and and um in one of those anti

suits as an invisible character. If you've ever seen any of the Invisible Man videos, usually Tyler, Yeah almost so, I mean really he's I mean, he's a predator, he can turn invisible. Yeah. He also uh, he also does that weird laugh thing. Uh. Then we moved over into an office that was not meant to be a podcast studio either, but we needed to do that for a while. And that was again again a corner office overlooking highways. Yep.

And then uh, and that was because we had gotten into video production quite a bit, and then so that we could not afford to shut down video every time we needed to record audio and vice versa. Yeah, there were too many conflicts, right, You'd have some people in shooting video while other people needed to record podcasts, and we only had one space to do both. So that's why we had to convert an office into a podcast studio.

Then we moved office locations, moving within the same building but down a couple of floors, and now we have a really pretty nice set up. It's a larger room. Uh, it's got plenty of space for for the predator to sit at. Uh. Then we've got our tiny little table

with our our three microphones set up. The table is actually way smaller than what this room could could have in it, So we do plan on replacing the table at some point so that three people can sit around it and not feel like they're sitting in each other's laps. We have one window that faces into the office. That that's the window that I like to stand at and stare through when a car stuff is going too long?

He creep, he creeps on it. I do. And then of course all the walls are pretty much covered in foam. Uh that that solid film we were talking about earlier. And um, yeah, there was a while where this podcast was our least favorite podcast studio because of the heat problem. Uh yeah, for for a while we thought it was

broken and there was a duck tissue. Um. It turned out the entire time that the thermostat was on a different side of the office and that the people there would would get really cold, and so crank the thermstat up to high. Uh, and the thermstat was controlling our room, not their room. So they were like, why is this still cold? Turn it up a little more. Meanwhile, Lauren and I are in here thinking we're turning into puddles. Yeah,

that there was definitely some some sweating. I actually wants um in complete earnesty said to Jonathan and all, I can't work like this. Yeah, and I meant it so much, and I still are you guys cookies for that thing? Oh? You know, ultimately, if you had sat through it and tried to do a podcast in that mood, it would have been the either the greatest podcast ever recorded but for the wrong reasons, or the worst podcast ever recorded. So I'm glad that we we cut it at that point.

So then the next part of the question is do the podcasters face each other or sit side by side? And where does the producer sit. I feel Jonathan can illustrate all this with his voice very well. All right, journey with me, folks. So if you were to walk into the door, that would hurt. But if you open the door and walked into the room, you would see first, you'd be staring at the back of Lauren's head. She's

she's keeping a tally. Uh. So you would see the back of Lauren's head because she's facing with her back to the door. I, as the paranoid person who's always aware of my situation, refused to have my back to the door. He doesn't in restaurants too, he won't sit with his back facing any door. This is actually true. So anyway, I'm sitting towards the corner of the room, and we've got this little round table in the middle, and we are facing in one another, so I'm looking

directly at Lauren. I can see the door behind her. The little window into the office is behind her. To my left. To Lauren's right is the desk and the protective foam barrier where we have the computer where you know, the mac that all this audio is flowing into. On the other side that mac is Noel. I assume he's still there. I'm seeing a glare. I made eye contact,

all right. Well, anyway, behind Nol is the window. We talk about the window that faces out toward the street a right, not the small window, the inter office window. It is coated with foam and a large heavy curtain that's meant to muffle sound, which it does pretty well. The average traffic sounds we don't really hear. It's when sirens or a very heavy truck or someone who wants to be a drag racer is going up and down

the street, or you know, it's a marta train. Those are the times when we can actually hear it right. Next question was the studio and the stuff you should know TV show your actual studio. The answer is not at all, Um, that was that was a set um that was not on location here at the office. It was elsewhere. Um. Although briefly some staffers got to come in and uh and and create desks for the fictional staffers that we're going to to be on the show.

And I believe in the original pilot, Um, you had a cameo, I have a walk by, Yeah, see me walking by and one of the shots. Yeah that And in fact, the pilot episode was shot in a different set than the rest of the episodes were. But yeah, that's set dressing and everything that was all created for the show. None of that is really what. Some of it came from our office. They actually took some pieces

from our office. But our office is not quite as eclectic as that, not not quite and and not quite as open an airy and capable of putting large camera rigs through, although we do still have some of the red foam um forming our protective phone barriers barrier exactly. Yeah, all right, Next, we have what gadgets do both of you use in your daily lives? Um, I personally, I

mean I mean daily. I've got an iPhone for fitbit Force and a MacBook Pro that I I'm looking at one of these screens basically any time that I'm off of work. Yeah, I've got Nexus four smartphone, my Pebble smart watch, which everyone who knows me knows I've talked about a billion times. I've got I pretty much used my Xbox at least once every single day, whether it's to play a game or to watch video on I

use it as a media player as well. Um. I've got a Nexus seven tablet, which I occasionally used, mostly to play goofy games that I don't want on my phone. Um And then on top of that, then I've got you know, some other random things. I used to be the person who carried uh an iPod with me wherever I went because I didn't really want to use up my phone battery for for playing m P three's as I used to use an HTC G one, which was great except the battery life was terrible. But the next

is four battery life is actually quite good. And now I've gotten to the point where it took a while to wean me off of it. But I've gotten to the point now where I just rely on that. I used that to listen to podcasts, I used it to listen to streaming audio, and I use it as my phone. So um oh and I and I really rely on a gift that was given to all of us here at how Stuff Works, that battery charger that as well. That's a big one that was not given to all

of us. That was that was that was a major award. Thank you. No I was thinking of the Beats Audio head guns, which this is not obviously this episode not sponsored by them, but that was a gift because we were moving to an open office environment and there was a concern that would be too much noise, so they gave all of us Beats Audio headphones. But they have like a little microphone on them. They're that kind of headphones.

So I used them with my phone so that way when I get calls, I can take the calls and still have the headphones on and I actually hear the call better because my hearing is not great, guys, and my hearing has been I've been losing my hearing slowly over the last few years, so uh, yeah, and I guess I also do use that kindle pretty frequently. There we go. Cool, So what's next? This is the last question from him. What online service slash app? Can you

not live without? Uh? Dash Lane, which is my password manager. Oh, yeah, that's right, that's right. You talked about that one all the time. Yeah, that one. Uh, I use that that. It has a desktop app, it has a smartphone app, but it also has a web interface. So if I were to use someone else's computer, I can navigate to the dash Lane website, use my master password to log into my dash Lane account, and then from there I could log into whatever account I needed to And I

don't even need to know what the password is. So I used d ash Lane to generate strong passwords that I could never remember on my own, because I'm not someone who's gonna be like lower case X seven uppercase G like I'm not going to remember that. But because I can use this one master password to access everything, I don't have to. Sure, UM, I I am going

to say Space Team. Um. This is this is a game. Um. It was developed by Henry Smith, formerly of bio Ware, and UH, basically it turns it's a it's a team game, and so you hook a bunch of phones into this game all at the same time. It's it's for two to four players, or with an expansion, four to eight and uh, it's it turns your phone into into like the bridge of the Star Trek Enterprise. And so you've got these weird little nonsense buttons, and everyone else has

different nonsense buttons. So you have to shout at your friends to do different stuff in order to make the ship fly. So it'll be all like, toggle the shock crane, set the alpha fluid to zero, test the hypothesis, boil the kettle, and it's it's the best fund that I've ever had in my entire life. I might have to try that now. I wasn't familiar with that. It's great, all right, Well, before we move on to our next question, we do have quite a few more. Let's take a

quick break. I think stuff Mom Never Told You wanted to say something. Oh, hey Jonathan, and hey Lauren, happy six hundred Tech Stuff episode. This is Kristen and this is Caroline from Stuff Mom Never Told You. And hey, even though we don't have six hundred episodes yet, we'll get there, right Caroline, I'm getting there. We're working on it every week, every week. So thanks for you know, showing us up. Yeah always, thanks ladies. That was awesome. I still haven't listened to it yet, so I'm I'm

making assumptions. It's pretty safe when it comes to Kristen and Caroline though they're they're awesome people. They are their stand up humans. Yeah. And by the way, every single one of these shows, if you're not familiar with them, go check out a few episodes, because honestly, our co workers are incredible people. We talked about that earlier. We really mean it. Their shows are amazing and they really are.

And in the coming days and weeks, I'm going to try to share some specifically tech relevant episodes because we all have a little bit of overlap here and there in our show content, um and and trying to recommend a few things that you guys would really like soly so. Next is from Cody on Facebook, who said, if you have children, how adept are they with current technology? My three year old daughter thought she could swipe to the next picture in her book L O L made me

feel old. Well, neither of us have kids. We've had limited interaction with children because they frightened us. But some of our friends have children, and we do have pets, not saying that pets are exactly like having children, because that's terrible. Also, my dog is terrible at any technology. Yeah that my my dog also not And it's not even fun having a dog because you don't even have good like iPad games for dogs because the dog is kind of like, I just want to chew that thing.

There was a time where my dog was fascinated by any dog that appeared on the television, but he has since stopped caring. So the the only time that my dog has ever reacted to anything going on on a screen was, Um, do you remember that that squeaky frog video? There was this really cute, kind of like inflatable looking frog. It's called the Namaqua rain frog. It's from South Africa. It has this squeaky distress call like defense mechanism. Um, if you guys, if you guys, just google squeaky frog,

you'll you'll find it. But um, but it's this very high pitched like upset kitten or puppy dog kind of noise that this frog makes in order to discourage things from eating it. And upon playing this video, my dog freaked out, And this is like a thirteen year old dog, like she doesn't really freak out about stuff unless it's absolutely necessary. Right, this is this is clearly freak out

Defcon one. But yeah, I will be having a niece soon, so I will experiment on my niece and find out what kind of technology I can get her addicted to and then laugh at my sister and brother in law. So we'll we'll see next. We have from Kyle on Facebook several questions, So, what is the technology that you

covered that you still struggle to fully understand. This is a great question because there are times when we go into the podcast studio and you know, most of the time you'll hear me say like, I have to be honest, there's parts here that are beyond me. But this is my understanding of it. Um large Hadron collider, I think

leaps to mind. I think the thing with particle physics is that no one really understand I mean, any particle physicist and we talked to is probably going to say that they're like, there comes a point where you're just like, well, this is what happens. I don't understand it. Yeah, for me, honestly, energy systems get really difficult to understand, Like, like like anything having to do with electron flow intrinsically confuses me. Um. I mean, because it's like I totally get that it works,

but I really can't convince my brain that it should work. Well. It doesn't help that the earliest descriptions of electricity we're talking about positively charged elements moving along a current or moving along a circuit rather and therefore, uh, everything that followed is intrinsically backwards because it turns out it's negatively charged particles. However, I mean, like like photon behavior and the quantum mechanics tend to make perfect sense to me

that I follow along perfectly. My brain has no problems mincing that kind of stuff. So to be fair, Lauren often finds herself entangled and in super position, so I that cannot be more true. Next, Kyle asks, are there any shows that you have recorded but not aired or shows you rerecorded because the first take was not up to snuff? Okay, yeah, so we recorded. We sat down and did a full recording. Full episode had to be an hour long. Easy about the Ultima series, the video

game series. Yeah, the computer game series that started with Richard Garriott, starting with al Calabeth technically and then moving

all the way through Ultima. Uh. Once we were done, I didn't feel great about it as soon as we left the studio, and that that feeling stuck with me, and I felt that we really that this really falls on my shoulders, that I really didn't do a very good job with it, that that it didn't feel like it was much more than what you would have gotten if you had stood at a store shelf and all of the games were in front of you and you just read the backs of the games. Was like that.

It was. It was very early in my podcast days here, and um, and I was having an off week. I think that honestly, you were having an off week and and it just turned out to yeata to not be It could have used some editing going in. I could have stood to have added some more notes, and I wasn't being extremely talkative in the studio that day, so so overall, um, it turned into not a great episode that we wound up scrapping, and we we haven't recorded. Yeah,

we we haven't gone back. I mean, one of these days we should really face our fears and tackle it again. Yeah. Well, we'll go back. I mean, I love that series, so I do want to do it justice. But yeah, that particular episode. Now, if you go back further, Uh, there was an episode that I re warded with Chris Palette

ages ago about who Invented the Radio? And Chris and I sat down and we had a forty five minute discussion and as soon as we finished, we just stared at each other for a good probably fifteen seconds, and then I said, yeah, that was awful and and and he said, you know that was terrible. I said, do you want to do it again? And he looked at me and he's like, I don't want to do it again,

but we need to do it again. And we re recorded it at that time, like we as soon as we had finished, because there was no one coming into the studio after us on that day, and this was eleven in the morning. We had been around the studio for two hours, and so we started it up again. So if you go back and listen to that who Invented the Radio podcast, which still is out there, that's the re recorded one. And it was amazing. It was easily one of the best episodes we did that year.

But we had to go through some terrible, terrible times to get there. So can we hear some outtakes or unfiltered pre post recording BA, No, you cannot. You cannot, Uh, you cannot. We we do have some, but it's almost all either uninteresting. Yeah I can. I mean basically, what happens, UM that you don't hear is us mispronouncing words or names, sometimes our own names, coughing, making weird mouth noises, UM, drinking tea. I laugh a lot, you guys. There's also UM.

There's also occasionally some swearing that happens. Yeah, it's not comic. It's just when something really frustrating happens. Uh. You know, we're not um, we're not always the you know, both of us have dropped some some interesting colorful metaphors, as they would say in Star Trek. That that is, that is correct, but not at each other, by the way, No,

I don't mean that we yell at each other. Whether it's more because there's something that's gone wrong that has you know, we thought we were ready to go and something has gone wrong and it and it makes everything go pear shaped. Yes, also depending on how punchy I am, I'll just kind of pepper anytime. Anytime I mess up a line, I'll toss a few interesting words in their footnell to cut out and black Man material takes aren't

really terribly interesting. It's usually like it's something where we've stumbled over a sentence and we've gone back and to try to say the sense again. Like that little stumble I just had. That could be an example. It's not entertaining really. Next, what kind of technology does Jonathan used to shave his head. It's called a razor. I like a straight razor. I mean, like like a straight razor. He's a safety razor. I'm not insane. I'm not Sweeney Todd.

Are you are? You know I can't talk about that, not without the chorus. Uh, they have to back me up. No, I use I use a safety razor. I'm actually part of they don't sponsor the show, but I'm probably Men's Shave Club. Men's Shave Club, I remember, I remember a lot of about that. I'm a member of that. I love it because I just subscribe and then I get razors sent to me and I'm it's fantastic. So I use that al right. Next, what technological brand best sums up your co host and why do we really want

to go here? All right, so we have to decide what what what brand. I'm gonna have Lauren go first, because that will determine how how I answer, whether whether I'm nice or snarky. All right, Um, well, I was I was gonna say. I was gonna say Android because because you've got a sense of humor, um, perhaps a fixation on dessert. And uh and you do a lot of cross branding. That's fair. Okay, that's good. That was very sweet. Crap as I got to back off alright

because I was gonna say Ferbie. Um oh, okay. Really is just that that, you know, you speak gibberish and I can't understand anything you say. No, that's I'm totally kidding. I'm totally kidding. Uh. You know it's interesting. I'm gonna and this is gonna sound weird, and it's not because this is the gaming console you have. But I'm gonna say Xbox the reason. And I'm talking about like Xbox

three sixty to be specific. All right, I'm being really specific because Xbox three sixty because one, you're awesome, you know, I love the Xbox three sixty. Uh. Two, when you make a mistake. You own up to it, because that's what Microsoft did with Xbox three sixty quite a few times. Sometimes it take took them a while, is never taken Lauren, Well, she's in fact, she's way too hard on herself most of the time. And uh, also, UM, I can't tell

you say Lauren, turn off and you turn off. It doesn't work because you're not Xbox one, You're an Xbox three sixty. So that's also true. That's very true. All right. Well then now that's all of Kyle's questions. You know, we got another got another notification here. Uh turns out that, um, this is the show called Forward Thinking wants to say something. Yeah, yeah,

let's let's hear from Let's hear from them. Hey, there, tech Stuff, this is Forward Thinking, the podcast that looks at the future and says, I am the madron man in I'm Jonathan Strickland, I'm Lauren Vogelba, and I'm Joe McCormick, and I am the only member of Forward Thinking who is not also a member of tech Stuff. So here we are saying a great shout out to tech Stuff. Congratulations on your six hundred episodes. Thank you so many.

Congratulations Yeah, we're so happy. Yeah, we're great. Joe, did you you said that you had like a listener suggestion for us. I have a suggestion, as just coming as a fan of tech stuff. I think you should do a year of Event Horizon, which is just one solid year of episodes that are only about Event Horizon. The technology of Event Horizon. Um, well, it's tech stuff, so would basically just be the technology, I guess. So. So, Joe, were you aware that we we did an episode about

event Horizon? One is not enough? Oh I see, I see, that's the whole point. We will We will definitely take that under advisement and put that in our good idea pile, won't we? Lauren h that was all I had in my good idea pile to begin with. So I'm not sure are we working off of different piles. I'm so lone. You know, two out of those three hosts sounded really awesome. The third host sounded even better. Joe, You're amazing. So that was that was a lot of fun for us

to do. That was the one of these these little shout outs that we've actually heard before. So, um, next we have from Ricardo on Facebook. Why is your research process. On every podcast, we've kind of covered that, but we'll talk a little bit more. Is your research limited to surfing the internet, or do you guys do some investigative or journalism work to become knowledgeable or maybe you guys

are just walking encyclopedias. We are not walking encyclopedias, Jonathan is a tiny tiny bit um more like a walking like really old farmer's almanac. That's about as close as I can get. That's fair. Most of our research is online. Very occasionally we will consult a book, but it is usually a book that has been scanned into Google ducts. Yeah. So yeah, it's really rare that we ever go outside that.

I mean, it's we've done on tech stuff in the past, Ages and Ages Ago, a couple of interview episodes, but mostly it's online. We don't tend to do any investigative oral journalism work in that sense and the traditional journalism work, because that's not our training. We're not trained as as investigative journalists. I technically am a little bit, but um, I got out of that field because I really dislike it.

Um but uh but but but yeah, no, I mean also that's not yeah, that's not really what we're going for with this show. UM, I would love it if we could um do more interviews in the future and have have people join us on the show. I know a bunch of our our sister podcasts do that, and

I think it's pretty awesome. Yeah. Well, well certainly, And if you guys have a wish list of folks that you think we should interview, definitely send them in because we'll be happy to at least put out feelers out there. And especially if any of you guys know anyone who is awesome who you think we should talk to, then you know, give us a hook up. And next, Ricardo says, and do you guys sell a tire like shirts and sweatshirts?

Thanks for the show, I'm your biggest fan. We do not. Um. There is how Stuff Works merchandise that you can find by going to store dot Discovery dot com and searching for how Stuff Works. UM. Also Josh and Chuck of Stuff you Should Know have their own line of shirts that I believe you can access through Stuff you Should

Know dot com. But if all of you out there have been dying for tech stuff merchandise, let us know, well, will at least let people know about it, and you know, we can't make any promises, but I mean, come on, guys, you know me, I'm not going to be upset if my face is plastered on shirts out there. I don't I don't know if I want my face on a shirt not. Okay, that's that way. It could be like a picture, as if someone were standing in the doorway

and taking a photo of the podcast room. Alright, So well, you know we've got one last pair of questions. But before we get to that, I think a certain Josh and Chuck wanted to say something. Yeah, speaking to those crazy kids. Hey, this is Josh from Stuff. You should know. Chuck can't be here, but he asked me to speak on his behalf as well, which I'm happy to do. And we just want to throw in our two cents about how grateful we are to tex Stuff for even

being in existence. I remember back in the days when it was Jonathan and Chris and that was wonderful, and then now it's Jonathan and Lauren and it's just better than ever. You guys are doing so great, uh, and we are just so thankful to you guys. You know, before tech stuff came along, Chuck thought everything was magic. He used to refer to his phone as his little magic box, and he's quite serious at the time. Um Me, being married to a woman of Japanese descent, I'm familiarush

with technology and I realized it's not magic. But I never realized just how intricate our modern world is until I was introduced to tech stuff and everything changed. So um, thank you very much, you guys. And also I want to point out I don't think it's necessarily a coincidence. Do you that before tech stuff came along, there was no such thing as the iPhone. There was no such thing as three D printing. Really, uh, there is no

such thing as four K definition television. If some may say that they just happened to not really be correlated, but I would say that they are definitely correlated, if not cause aided, which is a word. But thank you you guys, and congratulations, this is fantastic. Congratulations on your six hundredth episode. Celebrate it, relaship, enjoy it. Congratulations guys, Thanks guys. Now Josh and Chuck, of course they had

their six hundredth episode already. They Stuff, you should know, started recording before tech Stuff did a couple of months before, so they're ahead of us quite a bit in more ways than one, but they are. They're amazing guys. And if you have not listened to stuff, you should know you've got to listen to it. Then you really do. First of all, I don't know what rock you have been living under, but um, it's probably been a fabulous vacation. But it's time. It's time to listen to that show.

It's great and and they are genuinely just two of the nicest Rattus dudes. Um. When Jonathan and I took a took a work trip up to Discovery corporate headquarters, Chuck was very much my ambassador through through that very strange experience, and and he was just awesome the entire time. Not that Josh wasn't, but I didn't have as much personal contact. The neat thing is they're very laid back, very relaxed. Uh, And they're relaxed whether they're interacting with fans,

with their coworkers or with celebrities. I mean, they've got celebrity fans that they've met and hung out with, and they're really cool guys. I don't know if we have any celebrity fans, but to me. You guys are all celebrities because you're awesome. So whether whether you have a show or you just like to listen to them, we love you. And finally, from Rogilio on Facebook, we have our our last question. What is the most exciting part

of the recording process? I think when I say, um, we'll talk to you again really soon, and we hear the little clicking button from KNOWL saying that the recording has stopped and we have finished our final recording of the day, and it means we can leave, that might be it. Yeah, it depends on your on your definition of the word exciting. Um, I mean, if you're talking about like terror of performance, that's pretty exciting. Oh I do.

I do. It's I mean not not like every day and not the same like kind of physically shaking terror that that I got for the first couple of weeks there. But but you know, I still get nervous basically every time I come into the studio just a little bit.

It'll it'll gradually wear off. But but no, I mean it's like like I was saying kind of near the top of the episode, UM, just just getting to learn stuff that I never even knew existed, let alone how it worked, and then getting to share that with all of you guys, and furthermore getting to hear back from you, um is amazing and beautiful. Yeah, they they to be

really honest about exciting. The thing I find really exciting is when we have a topic that neither of us thought was going to be particularly interesting, and then as you get into the actual recording, you realize this is really good, fascinating and multi tiered and yeah, I mean even stuff that on the surface seems simple and you're like, how are we going to make how refrigerators work an

interesting podcast? But as you start talking about like, no, this this physics stuff, it's amazing you started to learn elegant and beautiful system learning how the universe works and how we work within it is uh constantly a really high motivator for us, so as is our interaction with you guys. So that leads us to our question for you, which is that, now that we've done six hundred episodes, wants something you would like to see from us in

the future. Are their particular style shows that you've always wanted us to do but maybe we haven't. Maybe that interview style show is something you've always wanted, Or maybe there's some other form of topic that we've never tackled that you think is right for a tech Stuff episode. Or maybe you're just saying, look, we want the Jonathan and Lauren t shirts already. Let us know, send us a message. You can let us know on email or addresses tech Stuff at Discovery dot com, or drops a

line on Facebook, Twitter or Tumbler or handle it. All three is tech stuff hs W and Lauren and I will talk to you again, who knows, maybe another six hundred times really soon for more on this and bathands of other topics, because it has staff works dot com