Does this beard make me look fat? You never quite know what to expect from an episode of the Real Brian Show, but you can expect to enjoy being dragged along to wherever we venture! I have the privilege of co-hosting with Brian, once again, and we go from what's in our cups to discussing the awesomeness happening at the Olympics to realizing some hard truths about social media. Join us for the fun!
In This Episode
- Miss Ice takes over.... again
- Body hair. Trust me, you'll have to listen for more
- Olympics & amazing people
- Finding a social platform for conversation
- Social media...arg!
- Endorphin rush! Where does yours come from?
Does this facial hair make me look fat?
The title of this week's episode comes from another conversation he and I had about two years ago! Randomness in the form of Emilee and Brian at its finest. Living in Minnesota, I see more than my share of beards. Some of them are epic, some of them need to be shaved yesterday. But when they're done right they really suit a man and I can appreciate them for their bizarre uniqueness. Not uniqueness in the way they're maintained or shaped, but uniqueness in just considering that human men naturally grow hair on their face. It's so awesomely weird, and still... totally natural.
But isn't it more weird to NOT have a beard? Maybe not in this day and age, but consider generations past. Consider a time before razors and blades. Today, shaving AND not shaving is a decision. It was Alexander the Great who sort of established the norm for shaving in western civilization, but shaving wasn't a concept he invented. Think about classic photographs of noble Egyptians, who strategically shaved their faces and their heads.
Back and forth, the scale was tilted in favor, then not in favor, of shaving. Alexander the Great established shaving as a norm in his time (300s BC), but then the leader of the Roman world, Publius Aelius Hadrianus, intentionally pushed back, grew a beard and established facial hair as a new form of manliness. Historical records account for the resurgence of beards in what they call "Beard Movements", which is interesting because I could find the inversion of that. I couldn't find "Shaving Movements".
It's fascinating. With just a little searching on the interwebs a learned a lot about beards I've never thought of. What side do you come down on? Beard. No beard.
Links
Whether Valentine's Day is your thing, or you enjoy celebrating love every day of the year, we are happy to welcome you back to the Real Brian Show and an installment that will hopefully satisfy the broad spectrum of our listener base! We're not much for Hallmark Holidays here at The Real Brian Show, but we do love the fun history of the internationally-observed day of love. Mangodroplet joins the Real Brian and they chat about all sorts of wonderful, nerdy things...
In This Episode
- I wish I wasn't SO DANG SWEET!
- Watching the heck out of the Olympics
- Staad Backpack
- Torchlight Society
- Nerve conduction study
- Espresso shot: the more you know...
- Music, TV and Movies
The Staad Backpack
Looking for a backpack that is both practical AND professional? Plus excellent quality? Check out Staad Backpacks. We are SO impressed with The Staad. Brian had a chance to review and talk about the Bolt Backpack back in August and, while he also really enjoys The Bolt, The Staad is absolute perfection in a backpack! Ok, well, maybe it's just perfect to Brian. Ergonomically, The Staad is fantastic. Not too heavy and just right on the shoulders for even distribution. It's also exceptionally well-made with waxed canvas that looks better as it ages and full grain, high-quality, leather. Truthfully, this bag (as long as taken care of) should last Brian's entire life. If you're wanting to look professional (wearing suits, nice clothes, etc.) and you need something ergonomic, then ditch the high school look and GET A STAAD! :D
Torchlight Society
We've talked about, and even spoken with, the brilliantly talented Brian C. Roll a number of times and here we are again raving about his art. Torchlight Society is an art subscription club, in which you receive a ton of perks on artwork produced by Odyssey art AND receive quarterly shipments of all sorts of sweet stuff. Here's some of the art that Brian has received:
Links
Welcome back to the Real Brian Show! With episode 100 in the bag, we return this week with a fresh dose of realness from crowd favorite, Mangodroplet (aka Anna). There's a lot on the docket for this episode! Brian has some quality Chinese coffee; Owl City and Plumb top our Now Playing list; and the Greatest Showman comes highly recommended.
In This Episode
- Espresso Shot!
- Healthy foods... you are what you eat!
- Netflix: Altered Carbon and The Cloverfield Paradox
- Music: Owl City, Plumb, Lights
- How real can we really be?
How Real
We want to be real, but we don't want to overwhelm everyone around us with hardships...nor do we want to alienate people with updates that have distasteful sense of boasting. Does striking a balance prevent us from being really real?
As I was thinking about this idea, and listening to Brian and Anna discuss, a couple things occurred to me. As they mention, social media does a lot to distort our perception of other people's lives and to affect the way we present our own. Our online persona is the person most of our associations actually see - isn't that bizarre? I interact with an entirely different group of people on Facebook versus "in real life" (i.e. at work, church, neighborhood). For many of the people who know me, what I put on Facebook is all they really know.
How about that phrase lying by omission? Just because we didn't put it on Facebook doesn't mean it didn't happen. I know, I know, crazy! And just because we put something on Facebook doesn't mean we've accurately represented something that happened. Social media is just filtered perceptions, and then comments on those perceptions. It's exhausting.
The second thing that I realized was that in order to really be real, we have to be honest with ourselves... and not just by posting a variety of information. It isn't entirely about striking a balance between sharing hardships (but nothing too serious) and sharing wins (but nothing overtly braggy). It's about resetting our brains to count our blessings when we are hurting the most, or to remember those in need when we are particularly happy. As the authenticity of our online interactions increase, each story we share doesn't become about qualifying our pain or excusing our glee, but about sharing something genuine, without transforming it in order to control the narrative.
I'm very honored by Brian mentioning the anniversary of my Dad's death, and in that spirit I am not sorry to say that I've had to take a serious look at this approach to Facebook myself. For many years, my mantra was "pain is gain" and "suck it up" or "rub some dirt in it". Bad things happen to good people, good things happen to bad people. We all deal with stuff. But I've grown much more compassionate since having to deal with the grief of losing my dad, which has forced me to look for joy even when it seems so far away... and then to also accept the pain of grief as it bubbles up. But it doesn't matter, ultimately, what anyone else thinks about my pain or my joy, what matters is that I don't lie to myself about it. After I quit lying to myself, I quit sharing very cultured stories on Facebook. I quit the random little comments that made it look like I was always having a ball, and I quit posting every time I was feeling sad.
We don't need the validation of Facebook. We should not look to these mediums for validation or relief. It is a massive network, now, that seems unstoppable in terms of what it enables us to do with "community", but the fact of the matter is that if we feel a need to cultivate a persona... it should not be considered community. Several weeks ago I talked about finding a tether - someone, or several someones, who bind you to the earth. That is where it matters to be really real. Everywhere else is just a smokescreen, no matter how much people try to convince you otherwise.
In the words of e.e. cummings: "To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting." Fight the battle for your own identity by fighting against that tendency to carefully craft every outward-facing story and comment. You be you, and I'll be me. I'd rather not try to be you.
Links
- Owl City: Lucid Dream
- Lights: Magnetic Field
- (and because Justin Timberlake's new album dropped last week and this video is so adorbs) Justin Timberlake: Man of the Woods
We've arrived at the 100th episode! It's a milestone for any podcast and few make it all the way. We're so thankful to everyone who has made this show possible and to the amazing participation of our community. In this installment of the podcast, Brian goes solo in order to reminisce on the last 100 episodes and play some sound bites from the community. If you didn't get a chance to pipe in, leave a comment on the blog post!
In This Episode
- 100 episodes!!
- Where we started... embracing your inner nerd...
- Still nerding out, but rebranded
- Two sides to us all
- Podcast journey closely paralleled with personal journey
- Sound clips from the community!
- Keeping with variety
100th Episode
In the television world, 100 is an important number. It means that a show is viable for syndication. I was reading a bit about this and it's advantageous because the network can run consecutive weekday reruns for a longer period of time without having to repeat episodes, meaning that viewing audiences will feel like it's less repetitive.
However, there are a handful of shows which purposefully ended their run early to avoid being put into syndication, realizing that it is possible to over-saturate the market or that the value in each episode might decrease if they're overplayed. Reaching 100 episodes is difficult. In America it typically requires remaining on the air for five seasons (because there are 22-24 episodes per season). And then, even when that 100 episode mark is reached, there's no guarantee that syndication will be successful.
The point being, there are a number of factors that go into determining success. And though we love quantity, we also value impact and quality. Had we, at The Real Brian Show, valued sheer quantity and an unrelenting consistency, we actually might have reached the 100-episode threshold sooner. We acknowledge that this is an important milestone, but also acknowledge that numbers mean nothing without the quality of each one being met to the standards our community expects. As we look ahead to the next 100, 1000 or 1M episodes (a girl can wish), we strive to deliver content that is encouraging, beneficial, humorous, serious, nerdy, smart, clever, mouth-watering and memorable.
Thank you for being part of this journey! We look forward to sharing much, much more with you in the upcoming years.