The Pen Addict 5/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	5
Title:	The Daily Carry
Release Date:	March 8th, 2012
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 5
Audio File:	Audio Episode 5
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 5
Length:	2828 min <br />0.467 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: Hello and welcome to The Pen Addict podcast, the show all about pens and paper and lovely things of that analogue nature. It is hosted by Mr. Pen Addict himself, that is Brad Dowdy, and by me, Myke Hurley of the 70 Decibels Network. How are you, Brad?

Brad Dowdy: I'm great, Myke. How are you doing today?

Myke Hurley: I'm doing dandy, my friend. Good as always. Busy, busy, but that's fun.

Brad Dowdy: That's exactly right.

Daily Carry

Myke Hurley: Right. So last week, we spoke a bit about paper, and then we started to go into what we carry about on a daily basis from a paper perspective. At that point, I had to cut you off in your excitement and say that it would be good if we maybe kept it for this week and do an episode around the daily carry.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah, I think so. That's one of my favourite topics. And I know once we got started on it last week, it would have run on for quite a while. So just to recap in case someone's picking it up on this episode and didn't catch last week's episode, we just covered some general paper definitions, some types of paper, the more journal-style paper, moleskin, hardbound journal types of paper that Myke and I use and that other people have used. might like seeing. And then that kind of morphed into what we use for our daily use or our portable paper. And then that's, I think, our jumping off point for today.

Myke Hurley: Indeed. So why don't you start off? Because you probably have, as is always, a better system.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And I don't know that it's a system, but when I leave the house, my desk is one area, right? I've got, usually on my desk, I've got a large notebook, you know, like eight and a half by 11 size. We talked about, I use the Doan paper idea journal for that. And then I'll have a couple of small, I'll have a smaller idea journal and I have a field notes notebook. And they each kind of do different things for me. You know, one's kind of an inbox, some random notes, things like that. Then my large one is for more planning or meeting or organizing or notes or to do. That's the main, that's the main capturing tool. When I leave the house, you know, I'm not totally analog. I do take my iPhone with me. But I always carry a Doan paper utility journal, which is the small three and a half by five and a half. It's like a pocket notebook.

Brad Dowdy: You know, people are familiar with that size from seeing field notes or the Moleskine Cahers. I think that's how you say it. I know we had that discussion last week, too. You know, it's just, it's something that's going to slip into your pocket. You're hardly going to notice it. It's good quality. You know, it goes in a pants pocket, a shirt pocket. I carry mine in both places. I'm not too particular. One thing I do use with my Doan utility journal is I did buy one of the super nice Doan paper leather works covers, utility journal covers, which is a knockout. That slides in my back pocket like a wallet. I carry a front pocket wallet money clip, so I have room in my back pocket for a notebook like that. And really, when I leave the house, that's what I use for a notebook. For a pen, I am not too particular when I leave the house.

Brad Dowdy: It's usually going to be a ballpoint type pen just because most of mine are retractable. I like that convenience when I'm out and about. I don't have to worry about losing a cap.

Brad Dowdy: And depending on if I'm writing in some weird outdoor situation where a gel ink or a liquid ink pen may not work so hot, the ballpoint is a little more, it's a more safer choice. A lot of people will look at carrying a pressurized ink pen for their everyday carry pen, which is your Fisher Space pens and, you know, Uniball power tanks. And we can talk all about those. But for me, it's usually my like a 0.5 millimeter Jetstream or a 0.7 millimeter Acroball. And when I'm not carrying a ballpoint, I carry that Secura Pigma Micron that I talk about all the time, which is a polar opposite in effectiveness to the ballpoint. But I know if I'm, this is how weird I am. I know if I'm going to be in an indoor situation where it's controlled, I'll take the Micron. And if I know I'm going to be out and about and don't know what I might need to be riding, I'll take the Jetstream.

Myke Hurley: What's the difference for you? Like why, what's the indoor situation?

Brad Dowdy: Well, no, I just, the Micron's not a great everyday carry pen, right? I mean, it's a felt tip. It's capped. It's an awesome pen. But, you know, if it's rainy or, you know, I happen to be, you know, out in the field with the kids or something and it's dirty outside, that pen's not going to function as well as just a ballpoint.

Myke Hurley: You want something with a rocker you can just... Yeah. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: It's a little more, it's a little more sensitive to the environment and, you know, and also this is a, this is a definite pen addict thing. If I take the Secure Pigma Micron and that's the only pen I'm carrying and someone asks me to borrow a pen, I'm in trouble because I know they're going to destroy it.

Fountain Pens

Myke Hurley: Yeah, you don't want to let somebody touch it. Like you, I personally would never let anybody touch my fountain pen. Right. Mainly because I'm a lefty. Right. So, you know, as we spoke about before, they're going to take that and they're going to use it on the right side. So it's going to ruin the, it's not going to ruin it, but in my mind, it's like, well, that's not the way that I've broken my pen in. So I don't want you to touch it.

Brad Dowdy: Right. There is some wear in with, especially with a fountain pen for a left hander, for sure. You know, it's not that the Micron's not disposable on another $2.50. It's not that big a deal. But I just know that it's not going to come back to me in the same way as it left me. So I'm weird that way.

Myke Hurley: I mean, that reminds me of quite a common thing that I say to people I work with who are losing their pens or whatever. You know, people lose pens or whatever. It's like, well, you need to spend a little bit of money on a pen. Like, even if you spent like £10 on a pen, you're less likely to then lose it because it becomes more of a possession. If you're just carrying around Bix, you're going to lose them because you don't care about them. You don't check for them. Exactly. That's something that I always say to people.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And for me, I honestly, no matter, with all the pens I own, I can't remember the last time I've lost a pen just because I'm always conscious about that.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: You know, I'll carry two if I know I'm going to be in a crowd and someone might ask me for a pen. So I'll give them the one I don't mind vanishing or them chewing on or something like that and keep mine, the one I want to use hidden away in my pocket.

Myke Hurley: In my work rucksack, I have a pencil case. And in that case, it were all the pens that I would want to use throughout the day pretty much. And then I always have a couple of cheapo pens in there for that purpose. Like, I have a couple of those. We spoke about them before. The Unible one that feels like a fountain pen. Is it a Uni one?

Myke Hurley: It was the one where I knocked stuff over. I had to go pick it up from my bag.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, yeah. It was the Uni Vision Elite.

Myke Hurley: That's the one. I have a couple of those because I bought like a three or four pack. And I just keep a couple of those on me.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. And that's when I worked at an office job. I worked in a data center. And I did the exact same thing. I had my backpack. I had my pen case in it. So if I wanted to use something, it came out of that pen case. On my desk sat a pen cup that had anything that I felt could be stolen and I wouldn't miss.

Pocket Notebooks

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: So you keep all the grabby. I like to call it the grabby hands. You let the grabby hands take the stuff you're not going to miss and keep your good stuff stashed away.

Myke Hurley: Exactly. Typical for me in my breast suit pocket. Yep. Which is currently where the, that's where the prayer is living. Ah, good. Because I'm taking that to work with Mirri Day because that is where, I mean, and then, you know, sometimes I'll break out of the show notes. But right now I'm using the .38 Muji that I spoke about last week. Okay. Yeah. I've been enjoying that, but I am also, I do also really enjoy using the prayer for the show notes as well because it's quite fine. Yeah. Especially when, because I write these show notes in a field notes book. So having a, having a final tip is good for that.

Brad Dowdy: Now, I know you like the field notes. Do they leave the, do they ever leave the house with you? Do you do that type of thing like I do? Like I always carry one in my pocket somewhere.

Myke Hurley: I always have two field notes books in my rucksack.

Brad Dowdy: Okay.

Myke Hurley: But I also, my, my main notebook for work is a Pac-Man at the moment. It's a Pac-Man special edition Moleskine. It's yellow, bright yellow. And it's got an embossed Pac-Man logo all over it. I love them. I bought a couple of them. I've got one of the small ones as the Cahiers as well, which is black. And it's got a Pac-Man logo on the front.

Brad Dowdy: That's one thing I know. I didn't really bag on Moleskine last, last week, but you know, as far as paper wise, we talked about paper quality, but one thing they do do right is they do their, their, the branding and marketing is pretty cool, especially with the Pac-Man stuff. The Star Wars stuff's killer.

Myke Hurley: I've got the Star Wars ones and I want to get some of the Lego ones, but I've not yet bought them.

Brad Dowdy: They have a whole new series of Star Wars ones coming out this year.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. I've seen those. They're pretty cool. They've got like Yoda quotes and stuff on the front of them. Yeah. Yeah. I've got, I've got both of the Star Wars ones. The, um, there's one where it's just stars and it's got the, like a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Those are cool.

Myke Hurley: Um, and I've got the one where it looks like you're in warp speed.

Brad Dowdy: See, I haven't bought any because I would just, I would just buy them to, to collect them. And that's the last, I don't, you should see my stash right as it is right now.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, it's, it's embarrassing.

Myke Hurley: Um, I, but I do use, I use a combination because mainly the main thing in my life that I use notebooks for now was the show notes. Every podcast on the network has got its own book, um, ranging from field notes to moleskins. Okay. Um, there isn't really a lot of rhyme or reason for why I use either. It's just what, you know, kind of the stuff that I have around or whatever. Um, but I mean the field notes I enjoy because they're nice and small and compact and they're easier to keep. I mean, maybe in the future I will use more field notes than moleskins and because they're just easier to stack around. Um, but I, I say I use the moleskin for work mainly, but I also have a couple of field notes in there in case I may be a big project starts or something like that. And I want to keep a specific book for it. Right. Um, I can carry around the field notes in my bag without adding too much weight. Like if I had like three or four moleskins just in my bag ready to be used and my bag's going to be very heavy.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Now, are you, are you crazy like me and by all the different colors, field notes series that come out or you stick with the basic ones?

Myke Hurley: Um, I've only ever bought one pack of field notes myself, which was the, um, the ones with the transfers. They were the first few notes that I bought. Um, and then I've had, you sent me some.

Field Notes Colors

Brad Dowdy: I sent you the red blooded, which is the new, well, it's the second, it's the second base, I guess, base level field notes. Um, you know, the Brown craft paper looking one is this, the standard base level in the red, the new, the red blooded is kind of the new standard that always in stock field notes and then they had the special editions. What, what they, what field notes calls the color series. Like you were saying, you had the, the ones with the transfers on it and that you ordered. Um, I, I don't, I don't think I want to know what you spelled on the covers with your transfers.

Myke Hurley: It's all terrible.

Brad Dowdy: I actually, I don't subscribe to the color series. I actually, uh, cause I like to pick and choose and I actually skipped that one. I was like, I, you know, out of all the ones that I bought, um, I, I, I passed on that one. Interesting. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: And then I also have, um, um, Stephen Hackett sent me a, a package full of field notes books he wasn't using. Mm. So I have the Tennessee edition. Okay. Um, and I have, um, some of the white ones and what are they called?

Brad Dowdy: Uh, northerly.

Myke Hurley: Northerly. And these things are stunning. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. They're very cool. Actually. And I know, uh, I know your, uh, your cohost on cooking with, uh, Mr. Brett Kelly. He's a big field notes junkie too. Yeah. I know he has, he has all the colors and quantities and things like that. And I've ordered, I've ordered a bunch of them in the past. I actually, I've, I've really just started using them now that I work from home more. I actually kind of do like you do and separate some different projects into different notebooks and things like that.

Myke Hurley: So I, I would like to, at some point get the colors subscription, but I don't think I would use that many books. Yeah. It's one of the only things. Well, and the price is quite expensive. Yeah. So one thing I need to justify the cost and then actually have a use for all of them.

Brad Dowdy: Uh, that's what I think I was, I don't know if it was Brett was talking about it on cooking or I caught him on Twitter saying he had 70 something or 90 something field notes, no books.

Myke Hurley: And I was like, yeah, I gotta go. One of the earlier episodes.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Yeah. I said, I gotta go count mine. I'm like, do I have more than that? And I went and counted and I sent a photo. I'll send it to you, send the link to you. I had 52. So it's not, it's not quite, uh, in Brett Kelly's realm, but, um, yeah, 52 individual field notes. I've actually been going through them a lot here recently. I just closed one out today and started a new one. I use it a lot for my, as my inbox on my desk instead of, you know, you know, a digital note taking app or something like that. That's everything goes in there. And I mentioned this before, everything goes in there. Then I'll move it out somewhere where it needs to be afterwards.

Digital Note Taking

Myke Hurley: One day we need to talk about, um, digital versus paper note taking because I do that, but digitally digitally because it works better for me. So we'll have to talk about why we do that.

Brad Dowdy: Okay. Yeah. I think that's a good idea. Yeah.

Myke Hurley: So yeah, my, my daily carry is, is not as exciting as yours. And I kind of, um, I don't have like a, a pen type at the moment really that I carry around with me. It's kind of whatever I'm enjoying the most. Um, so at the moment I'm carrying around the prayer. But I mean, I have a pencil case, which has, um, has a Uniball, uh, Kuru Toga, like the Unikuru Toga. And I have a couple of, um, just like random gel pens, which are just in different colors because I need sometimes red or green or blue for work and to mark up different things. So it's not as exciting, but that's what this show is doing is building on that. And my collection is becoming more exciting.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And mine's not that exciting either. Um, if it wasn't for the, the, the leather case, I keep the, uh, don't utterly journal in because I'm not that, uh, I'm not too hardcore about the pen that I take when I leave the house, except it's probably nine times out of 10 retractable just because that's, that's easier.

Myke Hurley: That, that, when I first saw that dome, uh, leather case, I mean, that thing is, that is pretty. I would like something like that for field notes because then I think I would use them more if I had something which is more keepable because what drives me crazy about field notes is that they open up. Yeah. When you put them down, that drives me mad. I know. So that's so like OCD, but like moleskin, even if you don't pull the elastic band over them, they shut because they've got the cardboard, like the heavy cardboard covers, but the field notes are flimsy, which is part of their selling point. But because they don't close, it drives me mad. Like that's where you see, like, I have like a rubber band, like a field notes, rubber band that I use to keep them all together with. But, and I've seen like, I've seen people use like bulldog clips and stuff like that to keep them closed.

Brad Dowdy: For sure. And then they, they definitely do it. And that drives me crazy too. I'll always, if I have like the one I'll use on my desk, I'll always set something else on top of it just because that bugs me seeing it flipped up like that. I seriously had, it drives me crazy. I'm looking at one right now.

Myke Hurley: Because that's what, what I really like about the moleskins is they open out flat on their own. That's really important to me, but then also stay closed on their own as well. Yep. So it covers both bases, but what you can't do with a regular moleskin is fold it around.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, that's true. I mean, you have the, the paperback, like the, the, the soft covers. Right. All skins. And because they're sort of, they've got like a thick sort of faux leather cover and they do keep, not completely closed, but they keep more closed than field notes. So that's the kind of best of both worlds. I do actually like the soft cover ones, but I don't use them as much. Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: And there, there's a couple other ones I've, I've tried. If people are looking for the other, other, um, everyday carry type notebooks, the real flexible, um, pliable cover type notebooks, like the field notes and the dome paper. I've used, um, uh, the ecosystem. I've tried those out. I wasn't crazy about those just because they're the grid pattern. I like, we've talked about how I like grids. Their grid lines were very dark. Um, almost too dark for the inks. I like, you know, for black ink, it was almost, it was a really, really dark, dark gray, almost black ink. And it was too dark. Um, it got in the way of the writing too much. Um, cause I didn't care for that one as much, but I, I have used the, um, Behance action cares, um, which I don't know if you're familiar with the Behance action method. They do, um, they do one that's got their, I believe they have one that's got the action method pages in it, which is kind of like a to-do list, you know, checkbox system on one side of the page. And then a dot, just a dot pattern on the other side page. And then they make some that are just dotted, like a fully dotted notebook. Um, those are pretty cool. They're a little bit bigger. Um, it's like, I think Doan and Field notes are three and a half by five and a half. Don't quote me on that, but, uh, I think that's right. But the, the action Behance action methods are four by six. So they're just that tiny bit bigger, which is, um, you know, good if you're, if you're writing a lot, it's, it's a good, um, it's a good format. I like it. So those are some other options I've used besides, um, Field notes and Doan for everyday carry type, type paper.

Listener Emails

Myke Hurley: Cool. Yep. And we got a good email this week.

Brad Dowdy: We got a very good email. This is actually, um, the fourth email in this series, um, that I've traded with our, our, our podcast listener, Lucas. Um, and what started this email chain, which I, you were, I think you were on some of them. I don't know that you got all of them, but what started this, um, this recent chain, he's emailed us before. Um, he's German and he jumped in on my pronunciation of Loist term, which I think is a more, I think I was close last time, but he actually was kind enough to do an MP3 recording of how to pronounce it and email it to me. So that was like, that was seriously cool. And, um, he put in an email about how all the pins he was currently using and like a huge description of each one, like the pilot Acroval, why he liked this, this, and this about it. And, you know, since he was a student, he tried out the pilot friction and, you know, it, it really helped him. So he was, he was thanking me for that. And then it got onto the topic of his, he was like, by the way, you know, in Germany where I'm at, you know, in school, we're brought up using fountain pens. And I mean, I'll read it, read his email real quick. Um, Lucas says, another thing came to mind yesterday that I wanted to ask you when you go to school in Germany for the first 10 years at age six to 16 in school. And for homework, you have to write with a fountain pen. No kids should write with a ball pen or similar writing devices because it is supposed to mess up your handwriting. When I was that age, 80 to 90% of my classmates, including me had Lammy fountain pens. When we, when we then entered the last three years of school, we were allowed to use ball pens and everyone switched to ball pens. The free ones that you get everywhere. The reason is simple. For most people in Germany, a fountain pen is a pen for children because it is the device you learn writing with. Um, he's in university now and he hasn't seen a single fountain pen in lectures or exams. Um, and I just found that fascinating. Um, that it's almost looked down on for older students to use the pen that they grew up with, where you and myself were like fascinated with fountain pens. And, you know, especially the Lammy's that, you know, the Lammy Safari was, you know, I knew the history of it. It was made for students. I mean, that was the whole purpose of that pen. That's why it came in the bright colors. And, you know, like the, some of the first colors I think were the primary colors, you know, red, yellow and blue barrels. Um, you know, cause they were, they were, they were making them for kids, but I didn't realize that there was this after effect, um, of just totally shutting out the fountain pen, um, for a while. So that whole topic was really interesting to me. I don't know how, how you grew up, you know, if you were forced to use any pen or anything like that. I know I sure wasn't.

Myke Hurley: No, I mean, in my primary school for the first few years of primary school, we could only write in pencil. Mm hmm. Yep. No, I do remember that. Yeah. And then you had to, um, you had to prove that you could write in pen. Like if your handwriting was deemed to be okay enough, like if you could do joined, um, or cursive, I believe it's called cursive in America.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Yes.

Myke Hurley: Um, we just call it joined up. Um, if you can do that, then you, you, um, get like promoted to a felt tip type pen, a fine felt tip. Um, or like, um, even one of those or more, uh, more primarily, do you know the, the B roll, is it B roll handwriting pen? Or it's like a plastic tip type pen. Yes. Right. And we'd use those. Right. Um, and then after a couple of years of that, you could kind of just use what you wanted. But it's interesting because a fountain pen, um, is kind of the exact opposite to the second pen you'd want to give a child.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. It gets everywhere. I would think so. And the, the maintenance and the refilling, I mean, if they're, you know, actively using them every day in school and for homework, they're going to run through a lot of ink and they probably have to have hundreds of cartridges in the classroom.

Myke Hurley: Like I, I used to love, I've always loved fountain pens. I don't know why, but I used to, I had a couple of fountain pens when I was, when I was quite young. Um, and I was, I had to put newspaper down whenever I wanted to write with it at home because my mom was terrified I was going to ruin the carpet. Yeah, for sure. So I had to put like a sheet of newspaper paper on the floor and then I could put my paper down. Oh, I didn't. Also, as well, obviously the ink runs through and stuff.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And my kids come home from school as it is now with, you know, paint and food and everything all over their uniforms. I can imagine fountain pen ink all over everything all the time. I mean, that, that would be a nightmare. But, um, I don't know. Do Germans have better handwriting than us?

Myke Hurley: Maybe.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, maybe so.

Myke Hurley: Although Lucas does say, um, that his handwriting is terrible.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, he says his handwriting, yeah, his handwriting is still bad.

Brad Dowdy: So, but that, that was funny. We've, we've gone back and forth and I explained to him that no, we didn't, we didn't have anything like that at all. And in fact, you know, we weren't as, I don't even recall being as strict as, uh, you know, what you went through having to, you know, kind of graduate up a lot. A little bit into, you know, certain types of pens. I think, you know, we were forced to use pencil for probably a few years. And then after that, I think it was more open.

Myke Hurley: Right.

Brad Dowdy: Um, you know, no, no proving of, of writing style or, or anything like that. So.

Myke Hurley: Like I remember when we used to have handwriting lessons and they'd make you write in italics. I used to hate that. I used to hate writing in italics.

Brad Dowdy: Mm-hmm.

Myke Hurley: It's like, why would you do this? I remember as a kid, I was like, why would I write? I'm never going to write like this. Why are you teaching me it? I know.

Writing Style

Brad Dowdy: I know. And I'm getting off topic here, but did we talk about how, how do, how you write? Do you write in, in, in cursive or do you print or, or what's your writing style?

Myke Hurley: But I do, I have a very random mix of both. Okay. There is no rhyme or reason. Sometimes I write in block capitals, sometimes in, in joined up or cursive, but even in the same sentence that can change.

Brad Dowdy: Wow. Wow.

Myke Hurley: No idea why.

Brad Dowdy: That's crazy. Cause I'm, I'm strictly print. If I had to write cursive right now, it, aside from my signature, it would be tragic. I mean, it would, it would be a real struggle. Um, and, and my print style is, is, I mean, everyone who's been to the pen addict seen my print style. It's pretty much all caps in different, uh, height, you know, but, um, you know, I don't write in lowercase and I write and kind of print all caps. Um, I don't know how that started. That's just something I've always, I, that's something I've always done. It's been since I've been in high school, probably that I've written in cursive.

Myke Hurley: There you go.

Brad Dowdy: So I could not do it if I tried right now.

Listener Contact

Myke Hurley: So how can, um, if, if like Lucas, people want to send in emails to the show, how can they do that?

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. Uh, like Lucas hits me up at the pen addict at gmail.com. You can email me. I've been getting lots of emails. It's been, uh, a lot of, uh, pen recommendations and things like that. So I'm, I'm glad to help you guys out and I'm glad everyone that's emailing in likes the show. Um, they always have kind words to say, and you can catch me on Twitter at dowdyism as well. D O W D Y I S M where I'm, uh, quick to respond as well. So I try to get back to you as soon as I can.

Myke Hurley: Cool. Um, I'm also on Twitter. I'm at I Myke, I M Y K E. And you can also go to 70 decibels.com forward slash contact to get in touch with us there as well.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. And last week we talked about, um, the ratings and the reviews and iTunes and I read everything that's in there. And I just want to say thank you to everyone that's, that's written in it and given the, um, pen addict podcast or review and a rating. I really appreciate that. Um, it helps us out a lot.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. That's a big deal for us and we appreciate that.

Myke Hurley: So there you go.

Brad Dowdy: All right, sir. I think that's about covered it for today. Indeed.

Brad Dowdy: Good deal. Until next time. Yeah. I'll go, uh, dig out from the pile of paper that I'm under.

Brad Dowdy: I'll talk to you later. Cheers. Cheers. Bye. Bye.

Myke Hurley: Bye. podcast is a 70 decibels production in conjunction with brad dowdy brad is an employee of jetpens.com who do not have any affiliation with this podcast