A Conversation with Adam Mastroianni!

Hey, this is Adam Mastroianni, and you're listening

to the Geekcast Radio Network. I am the one,

the only, Steve Megatron. And this is the oligopolized

version of Altered Geek. This is how you remind

me. Hi, this is Adam Mastroianni, and you are

listening to Altered Geek. That's right. I am

TF2 and Mike, and I am the Altered Geek tonight.

Joining me is that studier of people, Mr. Oligopoly

Avenger himself, Adam... Shit, I forgot how to

ask you how to pronounce it. Is it Mastroianni?

I say Mastroianni, but there's a real jumble

of vowels in there. I don't hold it against anybody.

Like, an O is fine, O -I, that's okay. But when

you get to O -I -A, I mean, really, anything

goes. Well, I was thinking, like, Maestro, so

Mastroianni, or I don't know. Anyway, you are

here, sir. Thank you for having me. Glad to be

here. This is going to be a blast. And I have

read, I have actually read all of Adam's writings

on his substack that are available to the free

people that don't pay for substacks. But we are

focusing on three of your articles tonight, continuing

on with our conversation that Steve and I did

in our pop culture. oligopoly episode of this

show that uh we focused on your your your article

about that and so before we get into all that

explain how you study people online in real life

like how how is because that's part of your your

your thing you're like your name and then i study

people and i'm like who is he studying people

yeah it's a good question So I'm trained as a

social psychologist. I have a PhD in social psychology.

And what I do is a mix of things. So I see my

job as putting people in situations and then

measuring what they do. And so like my kind of

psychology, like I don't treat patients, I can't

prescribe pills. All I can really do is ask people

questions and record their answers. So like one

of the... research projects that i've done was

just all about conversations and whether conversations

end when people want them to and uh like kind

of a very basic question about social interaction

that had just never been answered and the way

i studied that was i brought a bunch of people

into the lab um had them talk as long as they

wanted to and afterward they fill out a questionnaire

that just asked them was there any point at which

you felt ready for that conversation to end if

so when was it like try to estimate to the nearest

minute If not, how much longer do you want to

go? Estimate that to the nearest minute. And

then guess the same thing for the other person.

Do you think they wanted to leave at some point?

If so, when? If not, how much longer do they

want to go? And just with those questions, I

can look at like, well, first of all, do people

say there is a point at which they wanted to

leave? And how far is that point from the point

that they actually did leave? And what we found

was, to us, surprising, which is that almost

never do people say that the conversation ended

pretty much when they wanted it to end. And it's

not only that people say that they wanted to

go sooner, about 30 % of people say they wanted

to continue. And this happens for two reasons.

One is that people very rarely want to speak

for the same amount of time as somebody else.

So it's really hard for us to both get what we

want if we want different things. And the other

problem is people really don't know when the

other person wants to leave. So when people estimated

when the other person wanted to leave, they were

off by 60 % of the length of their conversation.

So if we talk for just 10 minutes, and I guess

when you wanted to leave, I'd be off by six minutes.

Wow. And we have a bunch of other findings. And

so in that project as well, so other than just

bringing people into the lab, we also surveyed

people online about the last conversation that

they had. So in the lab, people are talking to

people that they haven't met before. And obviously

those conversations could be different than the

majority of conversations people have, which

is with people that they know really well and

talk to all the time. And so we also did this

study where we surveyed people about the last

conversation that they had. overwhelmingly with

people that they know really well talk to all

the time and like a lot and just ask them like

okay think back to the last conversation was

there a point which you wanted to end if so and

was all the same questions and we found the same

thing so this isn't just a matter of like oh

conversations between strangers are really fraud

and nobody gets what they want the same thing

that happened in our laboratory is happening

in people's living rooms so hopefully that gives

kind of an example of uh of what it means to

me to study people yeah it's one of those things

where you've you know You found that conversations,

you know, you know, you could set up a conversation

anywhere. You, it doesn't matter if it's in real

life or online on Twitter on, you can't really

do conversations on Instagram, but Facebook,

whatever, you know, and next thing you know,

you're recording a podcast with that person for

14 years or so kind of thing, you know, and it

just depends like the same thing with a pot,

like basically. Everything you just said, you

could turn that into a giant podcast show because

depending on when the conversation stops is depending

on when the episode moves on or it ends. This

has a clear -cut ending at some point, this interview

will, because it's more of like when I am out

of... that we're discussing, I'll say, okay,

well, we're going to, you know, go to an ad break.

You'll hear some ads and some other stuff. We'll

come back to close the show after this. Of course,

I'll say that like 40 minutes from now or whatever

it is, and then I'll go through the closing and

then the show will end. Whereas some of these

conversations people may have, like, you know,

insert message service here, whether it's SMS,

whether it's Facebook Messenger, whether it's

Twitter DM. Like, there's a clear -cut conversation

stop in some of the private messages. Like, okay,

I'll talk to you later. Or, okay, that's it.

Or, oh, sorry, I didn't see this message from

two days ago. Let me reply to you now kind of

thing. You know, and it's so weird. you can have

a conversation with almost anybody on almost

any topic. And as long, I've always said this,

I will podcast with anybody as long as we have

some sort of similar thing. And like, I'm not

going to be on a Game of Thrones podcast because

I've only ever seen the first episode of the

first season. So that's like, you know what I

mean? You find those like -minded people and

those people that have your interests as well.

But at the same time, I also do this other thing

called Origins now. I've been doing it on our

comic show for almost 10 years now. A couple

years ago, I expanded it from comics to toys

to Transformers to He -Man to cartoons to whatever,

where I have a set series of questions that I'll

ask people. And it's basically an interview style,

kind of like how this is going to be. And, you

know, we just have a fun old time. Your pop culture.

It's so hard to say it this way. Your oligopolization

article, the very first. Yeah. I mean, you know,

I'll obviously have the link in the show notes.

So anybody wants to read Adam's article, which

you should go read this article. Like we did

a whole podcast on this thing and like, wow.

Yeah. I wish there was a less silly name for

it, but the dictionary gives what it gives. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, I mean, I think in that Altered Geek

episode, I used ization. I used oligopolizing.

I've been oligopolied. It's like you can, oh,

God. But the whole premise behind that is just

crazy to me. Like, it just, like. Is pop culture

and even to a higher extent geek slash nerd culture,

is it devolving? Are we not, like, because what

I find is we seem to, like, I get it. Companies,

insert company here, has to hold on to this IP

here, whatever. I get it. But, like. there's

nothing like anything new is like, Oh, well,

we're not going to give that a chance. Like I

mentioned earlier, like, and I get it. This is

more of a TV thing, whatever. But I mentioned

a, I mentioned, I think I mentioned this to you

off. I don't know if I mentioned on air the,

there was a Fox TV series called APB back in

2016, 2017. And it was about this tech billionaire

who takes over a police district in Chicago.

lasted one season 13 episodes and apparently

it didn't do well enough and of course it's one

of those shows that ends on a come back next

season to see what you know it ends on that cliffhanger

it's like oh god but i like that show to the

point of it's like oh man this was like look

police dramas are have haven't been new Since

like the first time police dramas were new, let's

say the 40s or 50s or, you know, Dragnet, Chips.

And I know technically Chips is a comedy, but

you know what I'm trying to say. Yeah, yeah.

But, you know, police procedurals are not new

now. We have 20 plus years of the Law & Order

franchise, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But

this one was cool because you had. First of all,

they had cool cop cars. Cadillac says cool cop

cars. That's awesome. Second of all, you have

this Tony Stark genius -like billionaire coming

in, and because his friend got murdered, he wants

to have justice and 911 put him on hold and whatever

else. But it's like that was something new that

I liked, and I wanted more of it. But yet here

we are. on the upteenth return or upteenth –

either upteenth return of Family Guy because

it just can't stay canceled or the 32nd, 33rd

season of The Simpsons. Don't get me wrong. I

like The Simpsons. It's great for the most part.

I mean most people will say it kind of sucks

past season five, but that is – that's whatever.

But it's like my whole point in going off on

all this is like they want to tie us to franchises.

And it seems like nothing new is catching on.

So that's what I mean about the de -evolution

of the culture. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's one

way of looking at it. And I mean, you know more

about this than me, but another way of looking

at it is like, you know, when I was growing up,

I was born in 91. So when I was growing up in

like late 90s, early 2000s, when I wanted to

play a video game, like... I would go to the

mall and whatever was at GameStop or back then

at Electronics Boutique was what I could play.

So the 60 or whatever N64 games that were on

the wall, those were the options. And there were

plenty of good options. But now, if I was growing

up, it's like, well, you could boot up Steam

and there are thousands of options. There are

so many different games that you can play. And

some of them are really good and some of them

don't have to actually get all that popular in

order for there to be a sequel or at least for

the creator to support themselves. Yeah. And

so I think there's a positive version of this

too, where like we have more options than ever.

Uh, but what is happening at the top of the charts

is like that is calcifying. Um, and like new

stuff doesn't break through to the mainstream

as much anymore as it did, even though outside

of the mainstream, there's this wealth that we

have now that we didn't have before. And so part

of the way this cashes out is like, yeah, if

there's, you know, if you are, if you're a person

who really loves something that like doesn't

get very popular, you're just out of luck. Like

you don't get the second season of APB. On the

other hand, you might get something in the first

place that you never would have gotten before.

Whatever those games are that wouldn't have been

on the wall at GameStop, you now get to play

them. So there's an element of this that I do

think is unfortunate and an element of it that

I think it is almost because I think there are

more options that we get this oligopolization

at the top. So I think it's sort of two sides

of the same coin. Yeah, because at this point,

we are... and we have been for years now, riddled

with choice. Yeah. Ever since, insert whatever

here, whatever came first, I don't care, I'm

not looking it up, but let's say since 2005,

from 2005 to 2022, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime.

2B, Peacock TV, Pluto TV, HBO Max, Warner Discovery,

whatever the hell that's going to turn into.

We have all this choice and it's the same thing.

I was born in 80. 11 years older than you or

whatever it is. But like you're saying about

the stuff with GameStop, I remember playing Spyro

and Crash in a GameStop or an EB Games or whatever.

Hell, I remember before any of those stores were

in the mall, they had and yes, I know. I know,

I've been old man, folks. Sneaking off my lawn.

Damn kids with your hipping and your hopping.

Pull up your damn pants, you morons. I remember

in the mall, in the center of the mall, right

next to the, you know, earrings and other boutique

thing that would be in the center, the Nintendo

Center. Yeah. But in the center of whatever area

that is, just, you know, in its own kiosk was

the Nintendo Center. And they had, Because at

the time, in 91... 91? 92. 92. Yeah, that sounds

about right. 92. They had these things called

the Nintendo Center, and they had Super Nintendos

hooked up, but the screens and the controllers,

like the... Consoles were on the inside where

the employees would be, and the screens and the

consoles were facing out. The screens and the

controllers were facing out, so you could stand

there and play, and everybody would stand around.

It was just like an arcade, except it's a TV

and a Super Nintendo controller. You'd spend

hours in, because they would only, and I would

love to find the history of this if there was

ever just a, and I don't think there is. But

it seems to me every time I was playing that,

I was only on Donut Plains 1. That's the level

that was playing all the time. And I don't know

if that was a special cartridge or whatever,

but it's the same thing. Like you were saying

with GameStop, you know, you go and you could

play whatever games or whatever. And it's just

that evolution of, again, more choice, more.

There's too much stuff. Yeah. And and I think

it's a blessing and a curse, right? Because when

there's so much more to choose from, it's much

more likely that you're going to find the thing

that's exactly in the niche that you want. On

the other hand, it becomes impossible to pick

anything. And I think there's some evidence from

from psychology. I think it's fairly complicated

as to like when exactly this happens. But we

do know it is possible that when when you're

offered more choices, you end up less satisfied

with the thing that you choose. Because you always

think about like, well, I could have chosen better

because there were so many other possibilities.

What if I chose the wrong one? Choosing itself

was harder. So you had to think about all the

reasons why this wasn't the right choice. Like

I'm picking one thing out of 50 possible options.

And so I have to think about the pros and cons

of all of them, which means that whatever I pick,

I'm going to know all the cons. I mean, I think

a good example of this is whenever if you're

with two other people and trying to figure out

what to watch on Netflix. Or even just alone

trying to figure out what to watch on Netflix.

It's so hard to go through all those options.

And one way out of this is like, well, I kind

of know what I like already. So what else is

in that niche? And I'll just keep watching that.

And I think that's part of why we see oligopolization

is because like, well, look, there's so many

video games to choose from, but I know Zelda

games are good. So like, why don't I just play

the next one of that? because I know I'm not

going to be wasting my money. It's a AAA title,

and I like the last one I played. All these other

things that could be good, they could be bad,

but can I really take a risk, especially knowing

there are really good options out there? Why

take a risk when I know there's a sure thing

that's going to be good, even if it's the same

thing that I know already? I think that's one

reason why you now very rarely see new video

games in the top 20 bestsellers. Because you

have a bunch of people doing that. Yeah. And

I mean, again, the other thing is like they put

out a Spider -Man game or a Batman game. And

look, the current run of the Marvel's Spider

-Man, Peter Parker, Miles Morales, those two

games, absolutely amazing. Absolutely amazing

game. Same thing with the Arkham stuff that they

did years ago. Oh, yeah. City and Asylum and

all. Absolutely amazing. Absolutely great. Yeah.

But again. We're falling into franchises. Yeah.

We're falling into characters that have been

around for 70, 80, 90 years. Yeah. And like,

there is no, I'm going to pull something out

of my butt here, but there is no legacy of Cain.

There is no soul. Like I remember when legacy

of Cain, the first one came out and then the

sequel soul reaver came out. I was like, oh,

this is new. Same thing with Tomb Raider. When

Tomb Raider came out, that was huge. You know,

kind of thing. And obviously with PlayStation

having to compete with Nintendo, they create

their own mascots and Spyro and Crash, and they

each have their own game series, and some games

are good and some games are bad, and you have

all this choice. But again, I don't want to say

you're locked into it, but you're... they're

setting you up to be follow these characters

through these games. And like, there's no more

new. Yeah. And what is new is not like, like

what is new to me is whatever new, even though

they probably have some of the same tropes in

every film, whatever the new slate of Hallmark

Christmas holiday insert, whatever, like. Seriously,

those Hallmark movies, they went from, like,

Halloween to Flag Day. Like, I love some of them,

but, like, you know, come on. And, like, seriously,

those are the only – I mentioned – I think I

mentioned this to Steve about not necessarily

doing a Hallmark movie podcast, but I had mentioned

something about at the time when Karen was still

here. I said, oh. you know, let's, let's, you

know, have Karen on one of the shows and we can

talk about, Oh, I need to edit this and put this

somewhere. We actually did this. So Karen was

always supportive of me podcasting. She was always

like, go do it. If you got to, you know, if you

got to edit you, whatever, like she literally,

as you know, she wasn't so far along in her declining

health, but. when I was editing our top 100 Transformers

characters countdown, there were like three and

a half days where I sat here at my computer for

12, 13, 14 hours editing audio. Because I'm like,

I want this to be the best countdown that I can

do. And she supported that and whatever else

and everything else. But every time I would want

to come up with an idea for her to be on any

of our shows, It was like, eh, not really. It

wasn't like her big thing. And then we see this,

and to me it's just completely stupid and inane

and whatever. I thought it was a full movie.

No, it was a short. That stupid Mario Lopez KFC

thing that Lifetime, I don't know, you can look

it up. Just look up Mario Lopez KFC Lifetime

Hallmark, whatever. But it's this, like, short

movie where they're trying to biopic the colonel's

life or something. And we looked at that, and

we're like, oh, yeah, we're going to watch this,

and we're going to record as we watch it, and

we're going to have opinions. So I have that

audio that I still need to edit together as,

like, a fitting tribute to my late. Wow, it's

a recipe for seduction. Yep, that's it. Yeah.

People also ask, is the Mario Lopez KFC movie

real? The answer is yes. Do you want me to talk

about this nasty thing I just watched? This waste

of 19 minutes I can never reclaim? Yes, but you

have to talk louder. A recipe for love. A recipe

for seduction. A lifetime slash KFC mini movie.

Mini movie, people. That's what they're calling

it. Mini movie. At first, when I heard about

this thing, I thought it was going to be a full

-length, one, two, three -hour Hallmark -type

movie. My lovely wife, Karen, has just watched

this 19 -minute catastrophe. Yes. What do you

think? I have not seen this yet. I think I need

to gouge my eyes out. Let me tell you, Norm MacDonald

and Jim Gaffigan are better colonels in the commercials

for KFC than Mario Lopez was. But it's like,

what, five minutes, six minutes, eight minutes?

It's like under ten minutes. It's a short, and

I'm thinking it's going to be a full -on Hallmark

movie, and then she tells me, no, it's only X.

I'm like, seriously, really? People are really

excited to see Slater from Saved by the Bell

as a young Colonel Sanders. Give me a break.

You got to give the people what they want. And

the people want the sexy Colonel. People want

the Colonel with full frontal. Oh, God, no. And

they want to see that fried chicken. And aren't

we lucky that we live in the timeline where we

got it? I don't know if lucky is the right term,

but yeah. But, I mean, this is part of the upside

of Too Much Choice is, like, would you have gotten

Recipe for Seduction in 1991? I don't know. I

don't know if, like, direct -to -video, maybe,

or you got to go to, like, a dirty video store

to, like, watch The Colonel in a steamy sex scene.

Oh, God, I could just... Oh God. I, I, I am that

dirty minded that I can actually like, you know,

you know, in some books in, in old, like whatever

story it is, but they'll say they, they went

to a, you know, porn house or whatever. Cause

they used to be actual, you know, porn film houses

and all this and all that. And it's like, Oh

God. Like I can, ah, no. Yep. The thing that

gets me about this is I've never seen The Colonel

in short sleeves. That really feels like that's

what signals to you that this is going to be

a sexy movie because you're going to see The

Colonel's arms and I'm sure a whole lot more.

Yeah, I don't even – I would have to rewatch

it and I eventually am going to re -listen to

that audio. the audio of us talking about it,

but like that, again, that, that was the first

time and only time I have some other audio bits

for like, so there's a, I think I threw it in

there. I got, I got to look at that, at that

editing session to see what's in there. But so

when we were, when we were driving back, to Chicago

from Louisville at the time in 2017, September,

October? I don't know, whatever the hell it was.

I don't remember. Somewhere in September of 2017,

there's a point in downtown Louisville where

the junction of all the highways screws everybody

up that hasn't driven it before. She was like,

go this way, go that way, figure this out. She's

like, get me out of Louisville. I'm like, can

you do that again? Get me out of Louisville.

I hit the recorder on my phone. I'm like, here

you go. I have that clip. I have various clips

of her doing stuff. She never was like super,

like she wasn't like me where I'm like, okay,

let's sit down and let's talk about this, this,

this, and this, and this. And that's okay. That's

fine. It is what it is. But she was super supportive

of everything. Hell, I had, well, you may or

may not know who this is. There is a place in

Waukegan, Illinois, and I think they might have

moved recently, but I'll have to look into that,

called Big Ed's Barbecue. Okay. And Big Ed's

Barbecue is one of the best things in Illinois

when it comes to food because this dude is just

awesome. And he's so fun. And I'm like, you know,

he will go out of his way to do things for the

community. And, you know, he'll do this or he'll

do that or whatever. So was it 2018? I think

it was. I'd have to look at the website to see

when I recorded that episode. 2018, 2019. It

was like right before Thanksgiving. And he had

posted on social media. It was like, yeah, I'm

going to be doing this. And I'm going to be,

I'm like, dude. How would you like to come over

to the house to record a show and talk all about

your Thanksgiving? What they were doing was they

were doing a Thanksgiving dinner for anyone who

needs it kind of thing. Like come to the restaurant

or if you can't come to the restaurant, we will

deliver a specifically prepared like mini Thanksgiving

meal to you. So, you know, it was like turkey

and mashed potatoes and stuffing. And it was

kind of like what some of the shelters and some

of the soup kitchens and that kind of stuff would

do. But this is like a full -on barbecue restaurant

kind of thing. So I was like, you know, let me

– can I order some food? Why don't you come over

and we can record the show? And I had a great

interview with him in person, an amazing conversation.

And it just – it was just so fun. And it was

just one of those things where she was like,

oh, this is awesome. This is great. We get to

have one -on -one time, even though she wasn't

on the actual recording for the podcast. But

like, you know, he sat there and talked with

us and it was just a fun, fun experience. And

it just, I don't know, it just felt like it was.

a home kind of thing. Cause initially, and she

would never let me do this. And thankfully she

didn't cause I'd probably be dead before she

would, if I ever did this. So big Ed at big Ed's

barbecue has a challenge. It's a burger challenge.

It's similar to what, uh, the other Adam. Oh,

what's his name? Is it Adam Richmond? man versus

food. Okay. Whatever his name, but you know,

man versus food, he would go in and, you know,

or these other eating, you know, hot dog eating.

So it was like the, the stack of burger, like,

you know, thing with unlimited fries. And it's

like, if you can eat this under 10 minutes, it's

free. And you get your, and my thinking was,

I'll never get home. If we go to the restaurant,

my original thinking was let's have. Big Ed,

bring the challenge to the house. And she vetoed

that. But, you know, it was just fun. And that's

the thing. Like, you know, it's things like that

that you don't, like, I'm not really a barbecue

person, but some of the other things that he

had on his menu and whatever else were really

great. And all that. Yeah. You really – I don't

think you can oligopolize barbecue because everybody

makes it differently. There's no – you want to

talk about a new experience every time. Every

different restaurant you go to, everybody has

a different recipe. Yeah. That's the one good

thing about food. Food can never be an oligopoly.

Yeah. Yeah, too many different people making

it, too many different preferences. Yeah. Yeah.

Yep. Yep. Yep. All right. So you followed that

up with the oligopolization of everything. Yeah.

When you, when you write a whole post about how

there's so many sequels, you got to write a sequel

to that post. Yeah. But, but I mean, really this

was stuff that like I wanted to put in the first

post, but it really felt like. It made more sense

to finish the thought just about popular culture

because that's where I had a bunch of data rather

than branching out into everything else, even

though this is also true in a bunch of other

places where you look. A lot of people know about

increasing income inequality, and people may

know that big businesses take up a larger share

of GDP. Uh, but I think there's other stuff in

here that people might not be as familiar with.

So, uh, so I mean, important to me, uh, like

more scientific paper, fewer scientific papers,

get more of the citations. So like same thing

we see in, you know, movies, TV shows, music,

video game, video games, books. We also see it

in science. So like fewer of the players own

more of the game. Uh, a lot of people know about,

you know, the collapse of, of regional news and

local newspapers, but. The, I mean, the consequence

of that is like fewer people reading their local

newspaper. People are still reading the news,

but now they read the New York Times and the

Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.

So like there too, we get oligopolization. Even

the internet, the like, you know, the data that

I have here isn't as good, but I think anybody

who has been on the internet from the beginning

knows like the internet was really a weird, wild

place at the beginning with like all these sites

that would appear and disappear. And now, and

for the past 10 years, the top sites are the

same. It's Google, YouTube, Facebook. And that

is weird historically. It didn't used to be that

way. Things were moving in and out of the top

of the charts much more frequently than they

are now. Well, because I think that, I mean,

not necessarily Google, because, okay, Google

tried to do this. Google is at its core an ad

agency. But with their search engine, with their

algorithms, with their all -seeing eyes in the

sky and everything else and whatever else, you

know, they are the, like, who's going to use

MSN search or Yahoo search? Got to get on that

bait. I'm just constantly binging. No, don't

you. Don't you. I'll bing you. Don't bing you

in the head. Don't do that. But it's that thing,

like Google is now the thing. Wikipedia has been,

and people are often arguing, oh, Wikipedia,

you can't just, like if I want to do a podcast

about, let's say, what's your favorite cartoon?

Invader Zim. Okay, that's not exactly what I

thought you were going to say, but okay, let's

say I go to the Wikipedia article for Invader

Zim and I want to do the most generic podcast

in the world. Well, I'll just read from Wikipedia.

So why are people going to listen to my podcast

unless I make it interesting to give you the

information that I get from that? But Wikipedia

is the place you'll go to get certain information,

whereas Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and

now TikTok. Oh, God, my head hurts. Look, my

head hurts at TikTok. I am too damn old. Too

damn old to deal with TikTok, and I'll tell you

why about that in a minute. But, like, Facebook,

Twitter, and Instagram. Instagram needs to stop

doing this whole move towards video. I want photos.

I want to be able to like a photo, comment on

a photo. If you want to do video for stories,

fine, whatever. But Facebook is kind of – I've

kind of gotten my social media to a point where

– I notice things, but I only notice the things

that I want to notice. I don't pay attention

to every single person fighting on Twitter over

whether insert character here is better. Like,

oh, I'm Team Iron Man. Oh, I'm Team Captain America.

You know, like this whole Civil War over. And

so, you know, like there's so many. And yeah,

so the whole TikTok thing. In my lifetime, I

was born in 1980, ladies and gentlemen. Yes,

I am old. In my lifetime, the ultimate goal has

been to get to a, I don't want to say theater

screen, but get to a widescreen television. Get

to a widescreen monitor. Get to a this. Get to

a that. And we now have that. We have widescreen

televisions, widescreen monitors. We have all

that now in 2022. And then all of a sudden, TikTok

and some of these other things come. Like, oh,

let's do portrait video. No. No. Don't do that.

Stop it. We've spent the last 42 plus years trying

to get wide, horizontal screens to fill up our

lives. Why do we want to then tilt them into

portrait mode? I'm sorry. I did not mean to go

down this route. But seriously, I have a 32 -inch

Samsung M7. It's flat panel. It's widescreen.

It's the biggest monitor I've ever had in my

entire technology life. I started out as a 1991.

Yeah, I got it in 91. I was 11 years old, and

I had an Apple IIgs. Oh, yeah. If anyone remembers

the old Apple II monitors, they're not exactly

widescreen. So I have worked, sort of worked,

quotation marks, to get to a point where it's

like I want to see everything. If I'm watching,

what's your favorite movie? That's a harder question.

What's your favorite action movie? Oh, would

Shaun of the Dead count? I guess, but okay. So

you have all those zombies that fill up the screen.

That's what you want. You don't want to see black

bars on the top and bottom. Like, I don't want

to see, I don't want to have to tell, and I know

that they make these. I know Samsung actually

makes them, too. Other companies do, too, where

the monitor will tilt and you can have the monitor

or the television in portrait mode. But portrait

mode to me is like, why do I want to look up

and down? I just want to look left to right.

That's all. I don't want to have to crane my

neck to see what's at the top of the stupid.

I don't know. It's just so weird to me about.

How technology has changed to the point where

now TikTok is the hottest social, and I just

can't. I just, I don't want, as a content consumer,

I do not like watching portrait mode. Like I

said, if I'm on my phone, which is Google Pixel

6 Pro, which is a, what is it, 6 .7 inch display.

And I go on Instagram and I look at a story.

Fine. That's my phone screen. That's okay. It's

fine. It's whatever. On my television, I haven't

set it up yet, but I have a 55 -inch 4K UHD TV

sitting in a box. I don't want to. The whole

point is wide. Wide, not tall. Like, I don't

know, man. And I'm just kind of. ranting about

all this but again it's it's a thing that things

are shifting in culture whether it's pop culture

whether it's geek culture whether it's nerd culture

whether it's tech cult like you know part of

your All the gobbledy, every article is hail

the weirdos. And this is my favorite part of

the entire article because you say in here, when

everybody moves to the city, you get traffic

apocalypse. When there's only five book publishers,

you get endless franchise installments from a

guy who is technically dead. I didn't even, I

see that that's hyperlinked. I didn't even click

on that to see which guy you're, oh my, wait,

did he die? Yeah. Holy shit. Yeah. Tom Clancy

died nearly 10 years ago. Oh my God. And the

books kept coming out. Regardless, it didn't

matter. Tom Clancy is a force beyond. He's become

more powerful than you could ever know. He's

become more powerful than Stephen King, apparently.

And then you go on to say, so what do we do about

it? We get weird. In an oligopoly, being different

is a form of civil disobedience. You can't pass

antitrust legislation all by yourself, and you

don't have a million votes you can give to a

third party. And then, you know, as you go down

here about that's why you're worried, and you're

absolutely right about this part. That's why

I'm worried that we seem to be suffering from

a deficit of deviance. In addition to the decline

of cults and third parties, signs of counterculture

are hard to find. Teens nowadays are less likely

to smoke, drink, fight, do drugs, or have sex

today than they were 30 years ago. You're not

wrong about that. Because look at how... Look,

I grew up in the 80s. I was in first grade in

1985. I was in sixth grade in 1992. Yeah, 1992.

And all that through first through sixth grade,

we had a D .A .R .E. officer. We went through

drug resistance education. We, you know, McGruff

the Crime Dog was a thing. You know, all this

stuff was a thing. And, yeah, kids today. They're

more likely to fight over who gets to play on

the iPad than they are to go out and have sex

or smoke or do drugs. And I'm not saying that

that doesn't happen because I'm sure it does.

But like you're saying in the article, it's probably

less likely to happen because all these kids

are stuck on the screens. Yeah. To be clear,

less teen pregnancy. is good oh yeah absolutely

but there's a downside which is you know you

don't uh when you turn that dial that deviance

dial down you also lose some things you know

you lose people doing interesting new creative

things um that we all benefit from that expand

our consciousness that make us expose us to new

ideas and it's not clear to me exactly where

that dial should be and uh uh and so i I'm not

even necessarily saying that, that we should

turn it up across the board, but we should be

aware of like the trade -offs that we, uh, that

we lose when we turn it down. Um, and I think

we should be wondering like, okay, can we get

some, like, can we, uh, not have teens having

kids, but can we, uh, can we get back some of

the things that, that, that might've come with

a culture where those sorts of things happen?

Yeah. And I think part of that comes from seeking

out and tolerating new weird things. And that's,

and that's part of the problem is there are no

new weird things for kids. If there are, they

aren't popular enough to like, you look at anything

in the eighties from 80, let's say 81 to 89.

Maybe some of the things in certain things I'm

about to mention aren't new, but the characters

were. Look at He -Man. You look at Voltron. Technically,

Voltron was whatever, but you look at He -Man.

You look at Transformers. You look at Mask. You

look at G .I. Joe. You look at... Any of those

boys at Jim and the Holograms, I will forever

say that Jim and the Holograms is not just for

girls. It's also a boys action cartoon, even

though it's rock chicks fighting each other over

who's got the better concert and whatever else.

I know there are other issues there, but all

of that stuff was new and original. And we also

had... the Looney Tunes, we had Pink Panther,

we had all these legacy things that had been

around since the 30s, 40s, 50s. Because to me,

in the 80s as a kid, Looney Tunes was brand new.

Same thing with Batman Super Friends and Adventures

of Batman and Ra. Even though Batman and Superman

and all that had been around since 1938 and 39,

In 1982, when we're seeing a show from the 70s

on syndication, it's like, oh, this is brand

new to me. Whereas nowadays, it's like, oh, this

franchise now has a new iteration. Yeah. You

know? Yeah. Something that I'd be really interested

in, so I haven't seen any data on this, but I'd

be really interested to know, you know, those

kind of like TV shows, other content, whatever,

that are technically for kids, but like... You

watch them and you're like, oh, geez, like this

is like this is clearly like kids maybe shouldn't

be watching this. For instance, I mean, I said

my favorite cartoon is Invader Zim, a show that

like wasn't like it's not safe for kids. Like

it is there's dark, weird things in it. There's

an episode where like to fit in because he collects

a bunch of organs from all the kids in school.

And by the end, he's like this big, bloated mass

of organs. And it made a big impression on me.

And it got me into reading Yonan Vasquez, the

guy who created it. I got into reading his comic

books, which definitely aren't for kids. I mean,

they're called Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. And

that got me into writing cartoons as a kid. Anyway,

what I would love to know is, has the rate of

kids' content that isn't really appropriate for

kids changed over time? Because, I mean, my very

limited exposure to it right now, I have a niece

who is six years old and some nephews who are

younger than that. And so I've seen some of the

stuff. And, like, I mean, look, Invader Zim obviously

wasn't made for kids who are six. But I'd love

to know if anybody out there knows, like, are

there still kids things that don't feel kid appropriate?

Because I think that is, like, one of the on

-ramps into, like... weird and interesting things

when you're a kid is like seeing stuff that is

a little bit beyond what uh you know most uptight

parents think you should be watching at that

point and i mean some of that can screw you up

a little bit but like i i feel thankful that

uh that i got into stuff that like wasn't exactly

age appropriate at the time because it like it

turned me a little bit weird uh and i and i remain

appreciative of that yeah i mean you you look

at the simpsons yeah I was nine years old in

1989 when that debuted. I saw the very first

episode, and my stepmother heard something that

either Homer said or Marge said or somebody.

My stepmother at the time. She's no longer my

stepmother, thank God. And she's like, what are

you watching? You can't watch that. And then

later on sometime in 1993, I was watching an

episode of Batman, the animated series. Oh my

God. They said this or, oh my God, that, you

know, Batman hit this person. That's too violent.

You can't watch that. Like, seriously, this is

the Simpsons and Batman and the Simpsons. revolutionary,

evolutionary. I mean, like who today that grew

up then is not still saying I Karamba or like,

I am not kidding. I have this playlist on Spotify.

I've had it for years actually before I joined

Spotify, but since 2006, when I first got iTunes

and yes, folks, iTunes is still a thing. It hasn't

gone away. I've had this playlist called faves

where I just put all of my favorite songs from

every artist that I like in that playlist. And

I just put that playlist on shuffle. It goes

from, let's say, 12 Stones all the way to ZZ

Top and anything in between. I've got Nickelback

in there. I've got some Creed. I've got Theory

of a Dead Man. I've got Blackstone Cherry, who

are currently my all -time favorite rock band.

I've got Hall & Oates. I've got Cyndi Lauper.

I've got Annie Lennox. I've got, like I said,

ZZ Top. I've got Rolling Stone. I've got just

all of the songs and all of the music that I

absolutely want to listen to at any time. And

a couple of years ago, I wanted to buy back my

childhood because I haven't had that CD in a

long -ass time. So I went on eBay, and I found

The Simpsons Sing the Blues. Anyone remembers

the 90s? The early, early 90s, right before you

were born, The Simpsons released their first

album, The Simpsons Sing the Blues. Track one

is Bart Simpson. nancy cartwright and michael

flippin jackson do the bart man it was it was

a part of culture like there have been things

like i mentioned earlier about and you know you're

talking about the whole like cartoons not necessarily

made for kids and things like that i'm looking

just specifically at the transformers cartoons

that have happened from 84 to current and what

i notice is that Hasbro, luckily, has throughout

the years gone through and done various things

like in the aligned continuity of cartoons. So

like Transformers Prime, Transformers Rescue

Bots, Rescue Bots Academy, Robots in Disguise

from 2015. All of these cartoons, Transformers

Prime is pretty much the adult's cartoon. Like

it's for us that grew up. Rescue Bots has more

of like it's more aimed at kids kind of thing.

Same thing with Rescue. It's sequel Rescue Bots

Academy. You know, so I think with specifically

the Transformers brand, Hasbro has found a way

to appease both, you know, adult fans who grew

up with the franchise and also bringing in. Like,

my buddy Peacock Michael has two sons. You know,

my buddy Steve, who is actually, this is his

podcast and everything else, and, you know, he

has two sons, and I'm sure at one point or another

he will have them watch some of these. He may

not have them watch Beast Wars. I mean, his biggest

thing is Beast Wars. I don't know if he'll ever

have them watch Beast Wars, but he might let

them watch this, that, or the other thing. But

again, it's... What I've noticed over the last

ten years or so is that, and I've known this

for a while before then, whomever is making the

cartoons, sometimes the point of it is they're

making it, like, you look at all the old classic

Looney Tunes cartoons. Nobody, from Chuck Jones

all the way to Bob Clampett, who was the strangest

of all the Looney Tunes directors, they weren't

making those. Hollywood film shorts for kids.

But yet here we are in the 80s and 90s laughing

our asses off at Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd chasing

each other. Or at least, you know what I mean?

So it's all about the perspective of the people

who are making them. And yes, maybe specifically

to Transformers, maybe Hasbro has a directive

of, oh, we want you to go in this direction.

We want this direction kind of thing. And you

never know. I don't know. I think that the current

He -Man cartoon that's on Netflix, not the Kevin

Smith one, the other one, the CGI one, I think

that is perfect for kids today. Just like when

I was a kid, the original He -Man from Filmation

was perfect for me. Because back then you had,

yes, you had this whole 30 minute or whatever.

Whatever. let's just say 30 minute with ads.

You had this 30 minute cartoon series, but at

the end you had a nice little message because

that was the thing back then. They had the messages

at the end of the cartoons, you know, whereas

currently I don't think the, the current CGI

He -Man has messages at the end, but it's, it's

animation styled for kids. It's got lessons in

it that kids can learn. But it's not like a,

it's not like a Blue's Clues or, you know, it's

for that 6 to 12 or 6 to 13 kind of age range.

And again, it just depends on who's, I'm sorry,

I need to shut up now. Speaking of all these

different versions of Transformers, for instance,

I think one reason why we see oligopolization

happening is companies that produce this stuff

have finally realized all the hunger that there

is for it. I was a kid watching Invader Zim.

I loved it. And then it got canceled after, I

think, two seasons. And I wanted more so badly

that I was trawling the Invader Zim version,

the wiki for Invader Zim. I was learning about

it. I think I found like pirated copies of like

the audio for, uh, for episodes that had been

recorded, but never animated. And, uh, I was

exactly the kind of person who, if they just

pumped out more content would have watched it.

Um, and I think they finally realized how much

like people get invested in, in these things.

And like, of course they'd always been making

sequels, but finally realized that like, Oh,

we could really cash in on this. And like now,

of course there there's an invaders in movie

on Netflix. um you know there's more content

like they uh and uh and so i think part of the

reason why we see this is is like there's been

this innovation where they're giving people exactly

what they always wanted which is i fell in love

with these characters and this fictional universe

i just want to spend more time there um and i

think indulging that is like is both good and

bad but like yeah i think i would have been really

excited to spend more time in the invader zim

universe at the same time like I think I got

what was most important out of the experience

of watching those cartoons. I don't think I would

have benefited a lot from just steeping myself

more in it versus going off and watching something

else. So it's giving people what they want, but

are you right to want it? I think it's a fair

question. I think it's one of those things where

as long as we have good intentions, like, okay,

there are plenty of... Because my other friend,

Kevin, he goes by at Optimus Solo on Twitter.

All one word. And he and I, since 2011, have

been covering every single episode of every single

Masters of the Universe cartoon. From filmmation

all the way up to current. The only thing so

far we have not covered is the CGI show. The

second season of the revelation show, and then

all of Shira and the princesses of power, but

we've covered everything else. We've covered

new adventures. We've covered for me. So we've

covered all of these and there are bad episodes

and things like that. But just because I say

something that I dislike on a podcast, doesn't

mean that I'm going to go to that creator or

that voice actor, or like there's a huge difference

in disliking something and expressing that versus

go. going to the person saying, I really hated

what you did with this. Why did you like, you

don't do that. You don't, you can express something

you dislike without attacking. And that's part

of the thing with some of the social media stuff

these days. Like, I don't know what it is about

social media that gives everyone such entitlement

to feel like, like, okay, we're going to talk

about this here in a second. Which I actually

agree with you on this next one, but we're not

going to get too far into this yet. But, like,

reading the news is the new smoking. Okay, sure,

fine. Just because I read that article and I

may have liked, agreed, or disliked and didn't

agree with something doesn't mean I'm going to

say, Adam, why did you, like, okay, going up

into oligopoly everywhere. And if you feel as

I do that something big has gone wrong, that

there's a vague taste of poison in the water.

All I can hear reading this is there's poison

in my boot or whatever what he says in Toy Story

or somebody. That's what it is. Somebody poisoned

the water hole. That's what it is. It's like,

you know, just because I'm reading this sentence

doesn't mean I'm going to go to you and say,

Adam, what in the world made you write that sentence

that like this whole. Yeah. So, no, like. civil

civilization folks like we can all be we can

all get along yeah and it just it drives me crazy

and it goes back again it goes back to you know

like you were saying about the invader zim and

about do i should i have a quote -unquote right

to want more of it yeah yeah sure you can always

like like me I have always wanted them to go

back to the original 84 Generation 1 animated

style and do something with it today. I know

they're never going to do that, and that's okay.

That's fine. I get it. I can still go back to

those 98 episodes and watch them if I want and

still have. But do I secretly in the back of

my mind and in my heart want more Generation

1 stories? Yes, absolutely. Just like I would

love to have what we never got. After Beast Machines

and the Beast Era of Transformers, they were

going to do Transtech, which was the next evolution

of the Beast Era. And we never got that. So I

don't know what that would have been, but I know

I probably would have liked it because I liked

Beast Wars and I liked Beast Machines. So I think,

yes, we do have a... I don't want to say it's

a right to want more. It's more of a... do we

have a feeling of like, we want more? Yeah, sure.

And that's okay. As long as you approach it in

a way where it doesn't, where you're not being

toxic, like toxicity and fandom is everywhere

now. Yeah. Yeah. Just, just look at, you know,

you ask people about heaven forbid, anybody mentioned

Marvel versus DC these days. Like seriously,

like, but it, you know, and it's not just comics,

it's, it's everything like Funko pop fans versus

non Funko pop fans. Like, you know, I don't know,

but to answer that, yes, I think it's okay to

want more, but we also have to realize in the

back of our minds with certain. Cartoons or television

shows or even films. I know they've talked about

this for years. I don't actually want it because

I think, number one, he's too old. And number

two, I don't know what story they would tell

with it. They've talked about it since 1994 or

1995, Beverly Hills Cop 4. One and two were great.

Three was okay. Didn't necessarily want to leave

off on three, but my feeling is why do we need,

like, why do we need sequels to films that are

third? Like, don't get me wrong. I love Tron

legacy. Absolutely love Tron legacy. But it took

Tron Legacy, because I was two years old when

Tron came out. So it's kind of like me saying

to you, oh, you were only three years old or

four years old when Spider -Man the Animated

Series came out in 1994, or when X -Men came

out in 1992. You know, you're only a year old.

So for me, it took me up until 2011. It took

a sequel for me to go back and watch the first

film. And I watched the first Tron, and I absolutely

dug it. I watched Legacy. I absolutely dug it.

I wanted more. Sadly, that has never happened.

And we are now at over... We're at 11 years since

Tron Legacy. Yeah. There should be a certain

time limit before you... Because the biggest

example I can give you, and I don't know how

they did this, but from 1972... Up until 1985,

Hall & Oates, greatest 80s duo of all time, put

out an album every single year from 72 to 85.

Because by 85, they kind of split up and Daryl

did his own thing in 86 and John went off and

did whatever. But for those almost 12, 13 years,

they put out an album every year. You look at

the 80s and we have... He -Man, Transformers,

Thundercats, Silverhawks, Turtles. 88, 89 was

like the beginning of the Disney afternoon. We

have all these things. Like, I moved from things.

Yes, did I want more Transformers? Absolutely.

But I moved from Transformers to Mask or from

Mask to Thundercats. And the biggest jump was

from Transformers to Turtles because by 87 it

was the TMNT craze and all that. God, I forgot

where I was going with this. I need to edit this

out. I don't think anybody's wrong to want more.

And certainly people have a right to have more.

But I think we also all have some... I think

there's a higher calling that we have as consumers

to think a little bit about the things that we

consume. And so you can spend your life getting

more of the things that you already like. And

that's fine. And I think everybody should have

some mix of that. Mixed in with some desire to

expand your horizons and do and see new things.

And I think the difference today versus in the

past is you can, if you want to, just keep consuming

the things that you already know. They'll give

you another spinoff. They'll give you another

season. Like, oh, you were sad that Breaking

Bad ended? How about a full -length feature film

on Netflix? That sucks, but, like, you can watch

it. It has all the characters. This is what you

wanted, right? Well, it didn't necessarily suck.

It just, it didn't have, for me, like, I mean,

most of that movie was about, like, can Jesse

Pinkman, like, get enough money? And I was just

like, and, like, he gets enough money and then

he loses it. I was like, this is... This is missing

the magic of the show. I just felt cheapened

by the whole thing. You were right. I did just

want to spend more time in the Breaking Bad universe.

I just like these characters. But at some point,

what makes them good is that they are limited.

You have to let it go. It's like the feeling

you get at the end of summer camp. It's like,

oh, I don't want this to be over. And if, you

know, Netflix shows up and it's like, it doesn't

have to be over. You can be at summer camp for

the rest of your life. You shouldn't actually

take the deal. Like you do have to leave summer

camp eventually. And then you can go back next

summer. But I think that the, that was the greatest

thing before that was the, I'm sorry to interrupt.

That's the greatest thing before streaming, before

streaming, you either had to. use your VCR with

your VHS tape and record your cartoons or your

shows or whatever. If you wanted to save them,

if you, you know, they talk about appointment

television nowadays, there wasn't no bigger appointment

television than Seinfeld and, and insert show

here and whatever else. Yeah. And if you wanted

to watch that, you had to either be there or

be, have it recorded. Whereas now it's like,

you know, Like I was saying earlier, from 80

to each year, something happened that moved me

through whatever. Same thing with summer camp.

Same thing with the television season. Usually

in the fall, we get new seasons of whatever shows,

or we get new shows along with the returning

shows. By Christmas, they're on break. They come

back in January. By May, they're going off for

the summer, and then you move into summer reruns.

Same thing with school. Like, school usually

starts, most places usually start anywhere from

August to the end of September, depending on

the school and the state and whatever. You have

Halloween, you have Thanksgiving, you have Christmas.

In Massachusetts, it was awesome, because we

had, obviously Halloween's usually just one night,

so it's not really a... Like, oh, you have this

off. Usually Halloween at school would be like,

oh, bring in your candy. Same thing with Valentine's

Day. It's like bring in your hearts for all the

sweethearts and blah, blah, blah. But you would

have Thanksgiving, which is usually a super long

weekend for kids. Then you'd have like two weeks

for Christmas. In Massachusetts, we had February

vacation. We had one week or two weeks in February

where we were off. And then, you know, you go

through March and by April. April is usually.

So we actually got a second winter break in February

in Massachusetts. And then we got spring break

in late March or April or whatever spring break

is supposed to be. And then by the end of May,

middle of June, whenever that is, again, depending

on the state you live in, depending on the area,

whatever, depending on the school. I would say

no later than June 20th, everybody was out until

the next. So you have this transition of going

to school, being off from school, and then you

hit summer where you, let's say you've graduated

sixth grade and you're going to the next grade

or whatever. And you have a whole summer to go

back to that summer camp and have those adventures.

So you have this circle of life. Yeah. Unintended

of. Having a routine, having a thing that happens

to you throughout the entire year. And it worked.

And now with entertainment being so accessible.

I remember when we first started, not Altered

Geek, but we started Geekcast Radio and some

other shows that we've done in the past. I used

to have a giant three shelves of DVDs between

television series and films and cartoons and

complete series of sets and everything else.

Some days I would just look at that wall and

be like, I don't know what I want to watch. I

have all this stuff, but I don't know what I

actually want to watch. And now we have all of

that at our fingertips. It's like so much choice

that we don't know what to do with that choice.

Yeah. And I think the promise of modern technology

in a lot of ways is like, oh, you don't have

to obey the laws of the universe anymore. Summer

camp never has to end for you. Like, you like

these characters that end the show, you never

have to say goodbye to them. And same thing with

social media. Like, oh, you like these friends?

You never have to say goodbye ever again. They're

always your friends. on Facebook, you, uh, you

never have to be bored again. You can always

take out your phone and look at it. You never

have to be alone again. Like you could always

take out your, out your phone and like text somebody.

And like all of these things I think are really

false promises. Like, uh, you don't actually

get the thing that you really want. You get like

this weird shadow version of it. Uh, so like,

yeah. Uh, Oh, you like the Sopranos? You can

have the many saints of Newark. Like that's what

you wanted. Right. And it's like, no, it's like,

oh, you had fun at summer camp. Don't you want

to like message people on Facebook afterward?

That's the same thing. Right. And it's like,

it's not like you can't actually get more of

the things that you truly wanted. You can get

worse versions of those things. And sometimes

the worst version is better than nothing at all.

And sometimes it's not. Yeah, sometimes it's

not. So I think we're going to take a quick break.

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am shocked and dismayed. Well, now you can't

be both. You'll be shocked. I'll be dismayed.

All right, folks, we are back here on Altered

Geek. And I hope people have enjoyed this because

I've enjoyed it. This has been a fun conversation

with you, Adam. This has been awesome. It's been

great. I appreciate you having me. Yeah, absolutely.

And we're not done yet, folks, because the third

thing we are tackling tonight is another article

Adam wrote back in June of this year. Reading.

The news is the new smoking. I quit. I feel great.

You can too. Yeah. Before I even read this and

the whole reason why we're even talking about

this is because I don't feel like as a podcaster

that myself or Steve or anybody that records

with us, we're not reporting the news. We are

getting sources from insert website here for

this topic here. And we are reacting to the news.

We are giving our, like, what got announced at

San Diego Comic -Con this year? Whatever that

is, insert that here. We then give our reaction

to that news, whether we like it or whether we

dislike it. What's going on with HBO Max and

Warner Brothers and Discovery and ZazLab and

Batgirl? Okay, fine, we can read an article briefly

and tell you what the information is. And then

we basically just give you our thoughts on what

that is. So we're not actually like we're not

sitting behind a news desk looking at a prompter.

You know what I mean? We're not news reporters.

We're news reactors. So when I read this, reading

the news is to do smoking. And I have never smoked

a cigarette a day in my life. My mom smoked my

whole life. And I just never. like i said earlier

i was a dare kid i was a drug abuse resistance

education kid and i never have like i've drank

alcohol in the past but i i don't generally i

don't drink i don't do anything like the thing

that's probably going to kill me is too much

diet coke and ice cream or whatever you know

what i mean like like i you know so But you're

absolutely right because I cannot stand the news.

Any news. I don't care what it is. Like, I will

sit here and I wish Google, as smart as Google

is, I wish they were a little smarter. I haven't

even clicked on this, but from the direct 13

hours ago, this is the top headline of my Google

feed. Daredevil's Rosario Dawson breaks silence

on Disney Plus reboot. Okay. Isn't it just a

new season of the show that transferred from

Netflix? It's not technically. And that's my

other problem. Like, this is a reboot. That's

a reboot. No, it's a continuing. But like these

headlines, it's like. Thor Love and Thunder is

an 80s kids movie, and that's great. I haven't

seen Love and Thunder. I don't know. But just

like, you know, the news is everywhere. With

social media, with all of this stuff, it's everywhere.

And you start off part of this and say. During

the 2016 administration, you would devour news

of that president's latest impropriety and imagine

yourself throttling one of his supporters. Why

did you do this? You know, I would shout squeezing

the life out of them. And then you started to

feel like maybe this was a bad thing. Yeah. And

that's the thing. We are, again, like we've said

in the last hour or so, we are so inundated on

social media with everything. And, like, look,

I want to be loyal to certain things. Like, I,

you know, and when I say that, it's like I lived

in this city, so I want to follow this city's

news channel. Like, specifically on Facebook.

I follow WCVB Channel 5 from Boston. I haven't

lived in Massachusetts full -time since... 2001?

Like, haven't lived there, but yet I still follow

them because certain stories they do pertain

to the city and the state that I grew up in,

that I was born in, born and bred. You know,

so I want to follow them. Or I want to follow

this... city that I lived in for 25 years, Louisville,

Kentucky. And you know what? As I'm looking through

my Facebook feed, the Louisville station and

the Boston station sometimes have the exact same

story. Yeah. Yeah. Why am I like, you know, like

all of this, like I just, I recently moved from

Washington state here to Indiana. I am now following

one local Indiana news channel. on facebook i

have since removed all of my likes on most of

all of the media from washington because whatever

happens in washington doesn't affect me right

now in the state that i'm living in because i'm

not living in that state you know what i mean

like yeah that's what i mean about loyalty like

i felt like i needed to stay connected to this

but then again if they're just gonna all report

Some of like, it's more than national stories.

Like every news station in every city, even the

smallest city, even the smallest television station

or newspaper or insert, whatever media you want

here is going to have the same national news

story. Yeah. They may write it up differently

because you have different people at different

stations, but the news essentially is all the

same. Yeah, and I do think that it is that national

news that I think is the most damaging, that

a lot of those news stories are just like, this

bad thing might happen, or this political figure

said this outrageous thing. And what I found

in my own experience was just like, I experienced

bloodlust reading those stories, and it didn't

actually change anything about my behavior. It

distracted me from the good that I think I can

do in my life and in my own communities. And

it just seems like you should feel the emotion

of bloodlust very sparingly. You shouldn't do

it every day, repeatedly, over and over. And

that's why I stopped. And I think some of the

local news, I think, is less damaging, in part

because it is about things that might impact

your behavior more closely. and people that you

could conceivably interact with. So I think the

more local, probably the less bad it is to read.

And I think, I mean, look, if it's related to

something that you're interested in, like if

you want to know what's coming out on Netflix

or what's coming out on Steam or whatever, I

think it also makes sense to follow that. And

that really feels like something different to

me than this constant running stream of like,

here are the big bad things that have happened

everywhere in the world. And here are the bad

things that might happen. And here are all the

bad people. Let's check in with them again to

see what horrible things they're doing. That

I think leads to a biased view of the world.

I think people come to see the world as filled

with bad people. And in fact, this is some of

the work I did for my dissertation was about

how people think that people are less moral than

they used to be, less kind and less honest and

nice and good. And the model that we've built...

that we think explains part of why this happens

is because people are always getting fed information

on how bad the world is. Plus there, there's

this quirk of human memory where the badness

of bad memories fades faster than the goodness

of good memories. And if you put those things

together, you can, you get, uh, you get people

who always think the world is bad, but they mistakenly

remember it as being better than it was. And

I think the news is a critical part of producing

that illusion. Yeah. So that's part of why I

stopped. And I feel pretty good. And I know it

makes some people upset because I think you have

a moral obligation to follow these things. And

I think you really have a moral obligation to

try to be a good person and do the good that

you can do. And I think it is an illusion to

think that even a tiny bit of the good that you

do is reading about bad things happening in the

world and feeling upset about them and then switching

the tab and watching some Netflix. Yeah, I mean,

that's the thing. I have all the respect in the

world for police officers, firefighters, EMS

people, doctors, nurses, everything else. But

just because a mass shooting happens or this

happens or that happens again, and I don't mean

to sound like I'm an asshole when I say this,

Does that affect me? Yes, absolutely. It's sad

as hell. It's whatever. But what can I do to

affect change so that doesn't happen again? I

can't do anything because there is nothing I

can do. And especially when you – There is –

Yeah, sorry. Well, just like when you think of

how many people there are in the world, billions

of people, that means that there's always going

to be someone somewhere doing some crazy thing.

And like that's not just news. That's just like

– a thing that's going to happen with that many

people being alive every day. And in that sense,

the news story about that doesn't really mean

anything. To say that someone got struck by lightning

today, it's newsworthy if there's only 10 people

in the world. If there's 8 billion people in

the world, somebody's going to get struck by

lightning today. That's going to happen. And

so really what you want to know is you want to

have someone step back and go like, okay, well,

are there more lightning strikes on people like

per capita than there used to be? And you're

just not going to get it from these single stories

about these bad things happening, even though

they are bad. And we wish they didn't happen.

If I could vote against them happening, I definitely

would. But unfortunately, nobody's asking me.

Yeah. And the thing is, as I'm reading through

your article, after I finished it, my questions

that I wrote down was, we've kind of already

talked about this, you've already just explained

it all, so no more news for you, huh? And then

the follow -up to that was, which is what I'm

going to say here, news hurts my head half the

time. Do you remember the news story that broke

your brain? The one that made you go, that's

it. I'm done. I'm not following it. I'm not.

Yes, I pay attention. Look, we all have to pay

attention to some news. We all have to, you know,

you know how I don't know if you see this stuff

on Facebook. I see it all the time, especially

in the last month and a half or so. What's the

first news story you remember as a kid? For me,

the biggest news story I remember as a kid is

two things. Even though I was born, but I remember

it happening because my mom would talk about

Lennon dying, Lennon getting shot, or however

the hell John Lennon ended up dead, and the Challenger

explosion. The Challenger explosion is the first

major news story I remember as a kid. When you

were writing this article, when you say you're

done with it, do you remember if there was a

specific news story that just broke your brain?

Yeah, it was the summer of 2020. Enough said!

I need to focus on the things that I think are

important and that I think I can actually affect.

And I think I say this in the post as well, but

I teach students. And when those students are

in that classroom with me, I have a pretty big

impact on their world. And if I do my job well,

their lives are noticeably better. But if I'm

distracted and I'm like, man, there's all these

issues in the world. I got to work on them. It's

a zero -sum game in terms of my time and attention.

That is time and attention that I'm not putting

toward the place where I can make the biggest

impact. And so that was kind of the moment for

me, even though it wasn't like, oh, this news

story is so dumb. But it really felt like this

is an opportunity to think about what is the...

Like, what is the point of my efforts? What is

the positive change that I want to make in the

world? And like, let me double it down on that

rather than being pulled in every direction with

every new bad thing that happens. Yeah. So that's

what did it for me. Yeah. And the sad thing is,

is that it seems like it's a 95 % to 5 % ratio

of 95 % bad news, 5 % good news. Yeah. Like,

you don't ever hear of, like, very rarely do

you hear about... I'm... What was that? Was it...

Which Jim Carrey movie was it where he was the

reporter? Oh, God, I don't remember. Anyway...

Whatever. But, like, seriously, you know, you

take any whatever and, you know, you have news

reporters that, like, cover, like I was talking

about earlier about interviewing Big Ed from

Big Ed's Barbecue in Waukegan, Illinois. That

was a good positive thing I wanted to do because

I wanted to bring light to. what he was doing

by giving this Thanksgiving dinner at his restaurant.

And also on top of dealing with people coming

into the restaurant, he was having people deliver

dinners to people's homes who couldn't get to

the, like there aren't, I know there are a lot

of charitable organizations out there that do

that kind of thing. Yeah. But you don't hear

about it every single, like, yeah. it just sucks

that we are in a world now. And we've been in

this world for a while where the bad outweighs

the good. And I don't like it. Yeah. Uh, and,

and I think like, I think there's like so much

good in the world and, and like, what is it fair

way of like, how can you survey the world in

a fair way and like add up all the good and the

bad and see like, does it average out? I just

don't think there is a way of doing that. But

certainly, a wrong way of doing that is to rely

on the news to do it for you. Because their job

isn't to give you a random sample of all things

happening in the world. They're going to give

you the things that they think you're going to

click on. And most of those things are going

to be bad things. But if you look around your

corner of the world, the people that you know,

the things that you do every day, does it seem

mostly good? For me, that answer is resoundingly

yes. In some of my studies, I find that people

don't think the people that they know have gotten

worse. It's all those people out there who have

gotten worse. Of course, everybody that you say

is out there for you is in here for someone else.

Can it really be the case that everybody's little

circle is getting better, but the whole circle

is getting worse? I think that has to be an illusion.

And I think it's an illusion in part maintained

by having these constant stories about people

doing bad things to one another. Yeah. And the

thing is, is that, you know, now that we are

still living in the time of COVID, because I

don't think we're out of it yet, personally,

that's my personal opinion. In the last... Since

I've moved to this apartment, so let's say from

the end of May of this year to right now in,

what the hell month is this? August of 2022.

In that time, throughout the summer, and luckily

they've recovered from it, but obviously they've

suffered from it. I have known personally eight

to ten people. that all had COVID almost at the

same time of, of some of my best, like my buddy

Ryan up in Canada, he and his wife got it. They've

recovered. Thankfully, you know, another friend

got it, another friend, but like literally as

I'm doing this move across the country from Washington

here to Indiana to my new apartment and everything

else. I'm hearing all this news from my friends

and I'm like, Oh my God, I wish there was something

I could do. What can I do? And I really can't

do anything. Cause I'm not a doctor and there

is no, I mean, technically there is no proven.

I mean, yes, there's the vaccine and all that,

but even people that are vaccinated have caught

it again. And it's like, Holy crap. What in the

Sam? You know, it's like, That's why I said earlier

a second ago about 95 % to 5 % between bad and

good, and it just sucks. For me as a podcaster,

when I do review shows, I want to focus on what

I enjoy. I want to tell people why I like this.

I'm going to use this example, and I know probably

even though we're an hour and 32 minutes into

this, I'm sure people are going to tune out when

I say this. Was it 2017? Yeah, 2017 was the last

new album. In 2017, Nickelback released Feed

the Machine, their latest album. Okay, I've listened

to it. I've been a Nickelback fan since 2001.

Well, yeah, 98, somewhere around there. Whenever

the state came out, which is 98. Anyway, the

point is that I've been a Nickelback fan for

the longest time, and I always get attached to

it. I'll come on and I'll say, this is why I

like this, this, and this. Oh, and maybe I didn't

like this part or that. And this goes to anything,

not just Nickelback, but it's just anything.

But there are certain topics and there are certain

things where it's like if I sit here and post

any of the old Nickelback content on social media

and I say, hey, go back if you want to and hear

why I like this from them. I'll get at least

seven people in the comments. Nickelback's the

worst. And that's not just Facebook. It's Twitter.

It's everywhere else. But we're talking about

the news and how there is more bad news than

good news. Some of these people, especially with

some of these hard -hitting, like any educational

issue, anything in the education department.

you said you teach students and things like that.

So you may or may not know about this, but like

say a school makes a decision that people don't

like, they will sit instead of going to the school

and complain, which is what we would have done,

which is what my mom would have done when I was

a kid in the eighties, instead of going to, and

I know we didn't have social media back then,

but instead of going to the school and complaining,

they'll sit there and type on Facebook, like

it, like. I'm not a parent, but say I was and

I say, oh, well, my kid needs this and I don't

like what the school is doing here. Somebody

will come back at me saying, oh, you don't like

this. You don't like that. Well, you're a bad

person because you don't like their decision

to do that. And I'm like, oh, my God. And this

will devolve into a back and forth on a news

post on whatever news insert news channel here.

Like a 13 comment thread on Facebook versus actually

going to the school. And saying, hey, I don't

like this. What can we do about it? It's like,

oh, my God. It's like people don't have anything

better to do than just argue on social media.

I try my best not to do that. I end up doing

it sometimes, but I really try to avoid it. Yeah.

Some of my other work is actually on things like

this. And we find that people think. that they're

going to be able to convince other people to

change their minds in arguments like this. And

that like, of course, they're wrong. Because,

you know, ask people, has your mind ever changed

by engaging in one of these arguments? And people

will be like, well, you know, maybe they can

come up with like one time once. So, okay, it's

not impossible, but it certainly doesn't happen

nearly as much as people try to make it happen.

And I think try to make it happen with the expectation

that they're going to be successful. I think

much like tuning out of the news in order to

focus on the things that I think I can affect,

so too with arguing with people about things.

I think you've got to pick your battles very

specifically. Oh, absolutely you do. I think

I re -shared it recently. Somebody somewhere,

I don't know, I've had this for a while on my

Facebook feed. I saw a Facebook post that I didn't

like or I didn't agree with or I just kept scrolling.

You can do. Yeah, you can. You don't always have

to stop and, you know. Yeah, it's a superpower.

Yeah. You'd think. If only. Yeah. All right.

So no more news cigarettes for us folks. This

has been a blast. It has been awesome talking

with you. I'm sure half the things that are in

this podcast, people are not going to agree with,

but that's okay. That's all right. But this has

been fun. Yeah, this has been fun. This has been

great. You'll have to, I'll have to keep updated

on your, on your site to see what else you're

going to be doing. Because seriously, like some,

like. That oligopolization, you're not wrong.

It's just a sad state of affairs. Yeah. Thanks

for having me. It's been great to talk to you.

You can always find me online. My blog is Experimental

History. I publish there every other week. If

you like this stuff or if you hate this stuff

and want to send it to an enemy, there will be

a new one every Tuesday, including tomorrow.

Although by the time this goes out, tomorrow

will be in the past. So it'll already be there.

And that's great news. That's news we can all

get behind. There you go. That's a cigarette

we can smoke all the way down to the nub. Oh,

God. All right, folks. Once again, we're going

to take a quick break. Come back to close the

show after this. On the Simplistic Reviews podcast,

we talk movies. We talk TV. We talk... Hello,

Julie, what the heck are you doing? Trying to

make our spot sound more exciting by adding explosions.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure you could have got the

point across with sound effects, not the real

thing. Car, car. Download this show on iTunes

or at simplisticreviews .blogspot .com. I'm sure

your insurance company will cover that. No, they

won't. No, they probably won't. Discover a world

of vintage and modern toys that's more than meets

the eye with the Triple Takeover ToyCast. Hosted

by toy writers and photographers Toybox Soapbox,

Sixo, and TF Square One, this informal and chilled

-out series of discussions cover everything from

vintage Transformers to Mask, Diaclone, Microman,

and more, be it nostalgic or current. Whether

you're a seasoned collector or a casual robot

enthusiast, all are welcome. Triple Takeover

ToyCast. Oh, hey! I got something! Since 2009,

we have been the premier cartoon podcast here

at the Geekcast Radio Network. We are ToonCast.

From taking you beyond the cartoons we grew up

with to seasonal saucy ToonTalk, and now we get

the origins of Toonsters everywhere as we ask

guests 30 questions about their cartoon -watching

experiences, plus so much more. ToonCast is back.

Join me, TFG and Mike, and the rest of the GCR.

crew as we give you all the toon talk you will

ever need only on the gcrn and wherever you consume

your podcasts we are beyond good beyond evil

beyond your wildest imagination we are all toons

all the time here on tooncast Toy cast is back.

We are talking toys once more here on the geek

cast radio networks, toy and action figure podcast

from breaking into the display case to our toy

topic, talk and the brand new origins in toy

collections, where we get guests to tell us.

their toy story of how they got into toy collecting.

ToyCast is the only toy podcast you will ever

need. Find us on geekcastradio .com and any podcatching

client you choose to use. Now go forth, transform,

and transcend your toy collecting today while

listening to ToyCast. Boil them, mash them, stick

them in a stew. I love when a plan comes together.

All right, folks. That's this episode of Altered

Geek. I have been TFG1Mike, and you can find

me on all the socials at TFG1Mike. I believe

Twitter is at TFG1Mike. Facebook is at TFG2Mike.

Instagram is TFG1MikePresents. What are your

socials, Adam? Uh, I'm on Twitter. Uh, I am a

underscore M underscore Mastriani. Good luck,

uh, finding me, uh, uh, uh, otherwise I don't

do the, uh, Instagram, Instagram, LinkedIn, Friendster,

all that stuff. Uh, but you can find me on Substack,

uh, experimental history .substack .com. Uh,

I'm always there and you can find the rest of

me through that. Very cool, very cool. His Twitter

and his experimental history links will be in

the show notes, folks. So be sure to visit geekcastradio

.com and look in this post to be able to contact

or get in touch with Adam or read some of his

amazing, amazing articles. Because, wow, I couldn't

have written that stuff. Very well done, sir.

I appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Yeah,

absolutely. This has been a blast. This has been

fun. This kind of conversation that we've had

in this podcast is the kind of conversations

I've wanted to have for a while. And I said to

you off air, this is kind of why I have the whole

GCRN origins where I have like for toy collecting.

I have 42 questions because, well, 42 is the

answer to everything, isn't it? And number two,

it's like I wanted to have. as in -depth and

as specific questions as possible all about toy

collecting from childhood to adulthood and in

between kind of things. So absolutely love that.

I'd like to thank Adam for taking the time to

chat with me here in this special Altered Geek

interview only on the Geekcast Radio Network.

Remember, folks, get altered, get geeky with

the Altered Geeks, and we'll catch you next time.