213! Pondering Pettiness

When or how or where are the places that we should be deploying pettiness and feel okay about it? 

This week, Joey, Oliver ... er ... Aaron, and Jess talk about petty/offense pairings, berms, feedback loops, Karens, The Pettisphere, and FAFO. They don’t talk about Jemelle Hill. 

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212! Feelings

How do we navigate the tricky feelings? 

This week, Jess and Joey talk about whistling, the Circumplex Model of Affect, anger in the workplace, navigating of negative spaces, being a squeaky wheel, and heightened emotional points. They don’t talk about Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam. 

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211! Question Asking

How do you ask a good question? 

This week, Jess and Aaron talk about 5-cent vs. 25-cent questions, tempo, performance question-asking, prioritizing curiosity over confidence, checking for clarification, and signposting. They don’t talk about Gang Starr. 

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210! Metering Confidence

What's the best way to encourage people to own their confidence and speak their minds? 

This week, Jess and Joey talk about flatness, self consciousness, modeling vs. metering, explicit conversations, confidence intervals, and pants-pants. They don’t talk about Julie Andrews. 

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209! Defining Cool

What is "cool"? 

This week, Joey and Aaron talk about kinetic energy, Obama, privilege and power, nerds, Blackness, and fish sauce. They don’t talk about Freestyle Fellowship. 

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208! The Exquisite Euphemism Corpse

What do you think are the right places to deploy euphemisms, or should we abandon them altogether? How harmful is it to use euphemisms, and why not err on their side just in case? And, if we took all the euphemisms off the table, what do we do with language next? 

This week, Joey, Jess, and Aaron try out a new Exquisite Corpse segment where they pass along a conversation to each other one thought at a time. They talk about tech layoffs, pooping and peeing, the Space Shuttle Challenger, unreceptive audiences, buying used cars, the joy of playing with language, and protective speech. They don’t talk about exquisite jorps. 

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207! Competence, Constitution, and Control

What are the things you are competent and interested in but constitutionally not disposed to engage with? And how do we deal with not ever being in control? [21:40] 

This week, Joey, Aaron, and Jess talk about jazz piano, The Trifecta of Making Things Happen, The Overachiever's Dilemma, facilitators of fastidiousness, expectations, and purpose. They don’t talk about The Perks of Being a Wallflower or Joy Division. 

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206! Wild Prognostications 2023!

What's to come in 2023? 

This week, Wild Prognostications (finally) returns! Joey, Aaron, and Jess reunite in person to make their annual predictions for the new year. They talk about the impending demise of influencers [4:31], a rise in video game super-franchises [19:18], extreme-weather clothing [35:00], chickens as the new unicorns [51:05], checkers [59:11], and a seismic shift in dating [1:03:17]. They don’t talk about the Chicken Unicorn. 

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205! Video Game Film Adaptations and Male Friendships

What makes video-game-to-film adaptations so damn hard to get right? And how do men make friends? [24:57] 

This week, Aaron, Joey, and Jess talk about world building, gaming IP, media properties, masculinity, love, and social infrastructure. They don’t talk about Whodini. 

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204! 2022 Wild Prognostications: A Year in Review!

How did our predictions play out in 2022? 

This week, Aaron, Jess and Joey make a belated review of their prognogs from Episode 156, discussing the low-rise jeans revival, the stabilizing housing market, rollerskating and black culture, crashing crypto, the gap-year micro-trend, and dreaming pants. They don’t talk about nightmare snuggies. 

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203! Phase Shifts

How do we identify phase shifts, and how do we deal with big changes that are happening much more quickly and in a punctuated fashion? 

This week, Joey and Jess talk about going into work, social media, college, Web3, loose flaps, and vanilla. They don’t talk about math. 

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202! Idea Killers and Body Doubling

Why should a good idea die? And how do you use concepts that you discover to make things better for yourself? [25:35] 

This week, Jess and Joey talk about speed dating, engineers, iterative creativity, body doubling, ADHD, and Santa's narc. They don’t talk about James Hinton. 

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200! The Most Specialest of Thanks

This week, our 200th episode! 

To celebrate, Jess, Joey, Aaron, and Alex dish out a bunch of big thanks—on behalf of themselves and some of the SYLVAIN team—and show their appreciation to all of you, dear listeners, for riding with us over the years. They talk about plastic, grandpa strips, popcorn, warm legs, perspective that sticks, and aging. They don’t talk about herding pandas. 

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199! Remembering the Dead

How do you choose what moment in time represents somebody? 

This week, Jess and Joey talk about death, recency bias, in memoriams, James Dean, one-hit wonders, and headstones. They don’t talk about Beenie Man. 

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198! Preponderance of Ponderances: Jess Edition

196! The State of Reality TV

Will competitive reality TV go back to what it used to be? 

This week, Aaron, Joey, and Jess talk about pandemic "normalcy," earnestness, parasocial relationships, referees, social media, and taxons. They don’t talk about Ernest Borgnine or his amazing eyebrows. 

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195! Pranking for the Likes

Where should we draw boundaries around pranking "for the likes"? 

This week, Joey and Jess talk about the latest updates on the "fights", meme culture, when something stops being funny, the consent paradox of pranking, entertaining each other, and the oversaturated market of bad jokes. They don't talk about if sugar belongs in stew. 

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