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"Nostalgia affects people differently and to kick off “WKNC’s Brain Trust”, Lucas talks with his roommate, Louis, about his feelings on nostalgia. They dive into commentary on their past memories as they discussed the idea of nostalgia and where it can come from and how it can make you feel."
A WKNC podcast that focuses on having introspective and thought-provoking discussions with guests from across NC State. Hosted by Lucas Marsh.
(Host) Lucas 0:00
Good time of day, everyone and welcome to the very first episode of WKNC's newest podcast, the brain trust. My name is Lucas, and I'll be your host with the most for the show as I tackle introspective topics with my guests and occasionally get lucky with a good joke. Now before I introduce my guests for the episode, I'd like to share a little bit about myself. My name is Lucas, I'm from Long Island, New York, and I'm a member of the freshman class of 2026. Here at state, I'm super excited to be hosting this podcast, and I'm even more excited to introduce my first guest ever is a great guy. He's a good friend, and I say he's an alright roommate, Louis, do us a favor, and please introduce yourself.
(Guest) Louis 0:42
Hi, everyone. My name is Luis Pope. I'm going for industrial engineering a freshman this year roommate to Lucas want to say that he is a great guy. And that I'm having a great deal of fun being here. And I love that I got this opportunity from Lucas to hang out here at WKNC.
(Host) Lucas 1:02
Thank you. Thank you very much, Louis. I'm glad you agreed to be on the show. Very happy to have you here. Now I got, you know, an initial question. How do you feel? How are you feeling about today?
(Guest) Louis 1:13
I'm feeling pretty good. You know, had a pretty alright day in class. I got some work done. Did some reading for my classes. I'm feeling pretty good.
(Host) Lucas 1:21
Feeling pretty good. All right. And I'm glad you're feeling good about today, because I'm feeling pretty good today, because on today's episode, the topic is nostalgia, the good, the bad, and the memories that this topic is nostalgia. And I would like to start us off. And I would ask you, what does it mean, to feel nostalgic?
(Guest) Louis 1:42
To feel nostalgic is, well it's kind of like reminiscing about the past in a way. But it's a little more complicated than that. It's, you're suddenly enveloped by a feeling like a warmth. Over the past. You see something reminds you of your childhood or a movie you saw back in the day or a toy you played with. And so it's like a feeling and wrapped your mind in like a blanket suddenly and you feel like you're being taken back to that moment. Right then and there.
(Host) Lucas 2:11
I definitely agree. I thank you for sharing. Now. Do you think it is important for people to feel nostalgic?
(Guest) Louis 2:20
Well, I think nostalgia can is a useful tool. At times, it can set up a situation where you feel some things you haven't felt in a while. Lay it's a useful tool whenever you're writing a story if you can connect to the audience's past, sorry, and things that they've experienced, too. It's a way of sharing feelings with other people. I think that's what's important. It's about the sharing of culture, and pasts. That's what I feel is about the important part of Soulja, do I think you need to experience it every day. No, not at all.
(Host) Lucas 2:53
Okay, no, I definitely, definitely agree. It's very, I think it is important for people to still feel nostalgic. But the reason you are my guest today, and you know, this reason, you saw this coming, you know exactly why you're here. And it's because a few weeks ago, we were sitting in a room, like 11 o'clock, we're both done with work in the winding down, get ready for bed. And just I don't know where you said something that really, really just really caught me by surprise. I wasn't ready for it. And what you said to me was something along the lines of I don't like nostalgia, it makes me sick.
(Guest) Louis 3:31
Okay, now to defend myself real quickly. It was late that night I was having a you know, it was late. I was tired. So, but I will defend that position. I'm not. I'm not a big fan of nostalgia. I don't like that feeling of being wrapped and being tied to the past. Because it can just happen at the worst times. Like if suddenly, I'm supposed to be working. And I get hit with that nostalgia wave all of a sudden, now that just ruins my mood.
(Host) Lucas 3:59
It ruins your mood.
(Guest) Louis 4:00
Yeah, it does.
(Host) Lucas 4:01
I mean, like I've recently been hit with a nostalgia wave. And you know this because you can hear my computer. Every time I'm eating lunch. And I'm watching Power Rangers rpm. One of my favorite Power Ranger series. By the way, you have a Green Ranger Ziggy Ziggy Grover, I recently realized that I can watch all those episodes for free on YouTube. I'm currently getting hit with a very strong wave of nostalgia for a time when I would go on Netflix. And basically just watch every single season of Power Rangers just over and over and over again. I haven't recently been hit with that feeling and it feels great. But because I get to feel good about something I enjoyed. Initially, when I got hit with it, I must admit that I was doing homework and then I got derailed from doing that homework. I now enjoy the fact that I get to watch pairings RPM I get to relive all these episodes. Well, I'm like sitting and eating my lunch, I get to enjoy it. Yeah.
(Guest) Louis 5:05
(Well, you know, sometimes it's used against you as a consumer, you know, suddenly there's a rerun of something or they remake something to and they use the soldier is such a big pole to bring you into the new film. And sometimes that, you know, sometimes it helps sometimes it's bad sometimes the movie is over reliant on that feeling of nostalgia that you had as a kid. And it doesn't really add anything to the media itself. So you could have used those resources to make a new film to connect with the new generation. But instead, you're just taking us and trying to put his black back in the same spot again.
(Host) Lucas 5:42
I don't know if you've seen the New Jurassic World movie, whatever the newest one was called the newest one that came out, you know, with Chris Pratt. Yeah. All the all the other people who I don't actually remember, because I didn't see this movie. But one of my friends who really enjoys Jurassic World movies, and actually saw all the originals a lot as a kid, obviously, not when they came out. But he still enjoyed all the movies. He went, and he saw the newest movie, and he didn't like it at all. And I was like, What do you mean, it's a Jurassic World movie? How could you not like and he said to me, he's like, they reweighed like the fate of the movie on just bringing back old cast members. I don't really know what to do about it. But he was pretty much he was pretty upset about it.
(Guest) Louis 6:29
I understand that I've been in I've read. I've watched several remakes in the past from Disney. And I really haven't been, you know, I haven't enjoyed them as much as I did the originals. But part of that's because I watched his originals whenever I was kid, which plays into the fact that I don't really like the soldier, because there's so many times where it comes back. And it creates a lesser version of that movie that I originally enjoyed. So I watched a rewatch a film, I watched as a kid and I had a great time as a kid watching that film. Maybe it was like Madagascar or something.
(Host) Lucas 6:59
I love those movies
(Guest) Louis 7:00
Right, I love those movies, because I rewatched them a lot as a child, it was a constant replaying of things. I think a lot of people can attest to the, you know, just rewatching the same film over and over again, as a kid. That was my film, Madagascar, just again, and again.
(Host) Lucas 7:15
For me, that was Megamind.
(Guest) Louis 7:19
Now watching those films again, they're still good films, I would show my little cousins that those movies and they enjoy just as much as I did back then. But I myself cannot enjoy it again to that level. And so I feel nostalgia. But I feel disappointment along with that. And so it's become an association with myself between the nostalgia and the disappointment of the reality of those films, and how I can no longer get as attached to them as I once was as a child.
(Host) Lucas 7:47
I think I'm following you here. But just to be sure, I'm gonna throw an example at you. I want to wait, I want you to tell me whether or not I'm right. Just related to what you're saying. So like, obviously, Christmas time is something you know, happens every year. Do you celebrate Christmas? Yes, yes. So because so I sell big Christmas as well. But you know, as a kid, the feeling of going down and seeing all the I don't know, do you like Legos? Yeah, I loved Legos, I would always ask for some really nice Lego set. And going down and seeing the tree. You know, the the gifts are all there. Like, we used to have a rule in my house that says you can't go down to look at gifts or anything until everybody's awake. And at this point, not everybody is awake, like me and my brother, we kind of take our time getting out of bed. So we really get down there around like 10 o'clock rather than seven. Once we all get up and start our parents, oh, Santa came Santa came, we've dropped off all of our gifts, look, look, look. And they're like, Okay, I'll be basically drag our parents out of bed to get them. But now we don't exactly do that anymore. Because we can't feel as excited about Christmas, not just because and you know, I don't get big, fancy Lego sets anymore. You know, it's become socks and like practical items that I do need that I'm appreciative of, but it's no longer the big LEGO sets or like a Razor scooter or something crazy like that. So is that what you mean?
(Guest) Louis 9:18
To a certain extent, yeah. I would say that it has some qualities that connect to my metaphor, or rather my you know, my example. But I feel like let's, let's move this example a little bit further. So it's more of a you know, an x to x comparison. So you were in a situation where your gifts were gradually, you know, becoming more mature gifts. You know, going from LEGO sets to maybe really good shoes for the year, or socks are like an amount of something you need. Like you have a new need because you're becoming an adult. You're moving towards your goals. You need things that to use resources should be applied to. But instead what if this past Christmas, you got a big Lego set? Would you being older now have the same level of excitement over an equivalently sized Lego set as a child versus today now? Because you're you are, you know, you're much older now than you were like, let's say six, like, imagine you were six, and you got the same massive Lego set, as you did today. How would you actually feel? Would you feel the same level? That's why I'm asking.
(Host) Lucas 10:33
I think in this case, I would want to feel that same level of excitement, but I don't think I'd be able to. I'm not entirely sure why. But if I were to get such a big Lego set like that now, I obviously be very excited to be very happy about it. But I don't know I don't think so. I don't think I'd be as excited. I can't put must put K can't put my finger on why.
(Guest) Louis 10:57
Yeah. So that feeling that wondering of why that's my feeling whenever it comes to rewatching. These films, and my level of nostalgia, and how there's nostalgia just isn't the same as how much sheer joy I received from watching these films as a kid, are these TV shows are these playing with these toys specifically, as a kid growing up? You know, I'm older now, I have newer interests. So maybe I'm not as into certain things I was. But that's my biggest problem with the soldier.
(Host) Lucas 11:28
So we've been talking about things that are like material things like a movie you go to see, or a Lego set you get on Christmas, I'm gonna throw another example at you to stir up the pot a little bit. How about, like, you went to elementary school? Right? Yeah. So you ate in the cafeteria with all your friends at the big tables. And now imagine us as college freshmen, we go back and visit our elementary school cafeterias personally, I'd be really excited to go back, I'd feel really good about I'd feel good nostalgia about being there. What about you,
(Guest) Louis 12:08
I wouldn't necessarily feel the same good feelings. I mean, you know, entering, you know, laughing about how small the seats were, in the cafeteria, or not being able to fit in them would be pretty funny for a while, like, I'd be there with my friends. Like I went there, you know, right before graduation stuff, we all went over in our cap and gowns, and we visited and we saw, you know, oh, my goodness, we, we were so small back then. Because we were tiny, and we visit all the elementary school students as they see us graduate, you know, that's our connection, as we grew up, because whenever I was a child, I didn't get to see the graduates, you know, walk through, but whenever I was in middle school, they do the same thing, you know, the walkthrough and stuff. So I saw that I was there. But after that, I wasn't necessarily feeling a whole lot of like, good nostalgia, as you were describing it, you know, the good feelings being associated with that place. I had good times in elementary school. Right, I did not have a bad time, I was not, you know, necessarily have, you know, terrible things associated with elementary school at all. But whenever I go there, and I see the same walls, I see the same paint the same chip tables in that cafeteria. And maybe it's become a little more derelict, maybe it's become less, they're like, maybe they have TVs, like you're saying, I haven't been there in a while. But maybe they do have that I would still feel a little bit somber. You could say, walking through those walls, or going through those halls and seeing those walls as they are. And I could probably describe it as a imagine. Okay, so you are going there during the day during the day. Imagine you're going there during dawn, or during as the sun is falling down. You know, it's coming down. It's drifting. It's quiet. Right? And you're just walking through that area. That's how I feel like it. Like that's how I feel about that space. If I were to go there in the middle of the day, if it was people there,
(Host) Lucas 14:05
even if there was like a full cafeteria and for some reason you went and use all the elementary school kids and just go kid sitting there eating.
(Guest) Louis 14:12
I still feel very somber thinking about my past.
(Host) Lucas 14:17
But you have, like, I mean, I don't know about you, obviously you have good good memories associated with sitting and being like I have a lot of good memories. So as I was sitting and eating with my friends, always trading up my my little bag of chopped up celery for some reason being able to bargain my way up to a Nutella sandwich at lunch. You wouldn't think about the fact that that cafeteria, even if it's kind of beaten up, like it's kind of kind of dirty. Maybe it's just different. You wouldn't feel at least saying Oh, wow, I mean, like it's a new stain. But I still remember this cafeteria being good. Like I still have good good memories like my cafeteria might not have been the best quality cafeteria there might have been some broken Things Every once in a while, but still had good times. Like I still enjoyed myself at lunch.
(Guest) Louis 15:09
Well, to talk about my feelings here, not all of it really has a reason, right? But I can give maybe, maybe a better description, right? Those times are behind me. Right? I'll never go back to those moments. They're in my memory now. And I like that they're in that memory. Right? They're back there. They're behind me. I've grown since then. I got out of eating there. You know, I've come here to WKNC I've come a long way from there. And it reminds me where I came from. Right? I don't feel like there would be a sense of pride if I came from, I don't know, an area with a lot more history, maybe with a specific elementary school, you know, I went there, right. But I went from elementary school and gradually moved up, you know, got through high school, and here I am. And maybe I just don't associate that client with positive feelings. I associate that client with I left a worse position. Now I'm in a better position. So I don't want to look back at that worst position. I was.
(Host) Lucas 16:24
So you're saying this the overall, like feeling of like your school district, in general? Didn't like it? No, no, I liked it. The
(Guest) Louis 16:33
people were great. The staff was great. But I you know, how their levels of this, you know, you go through elementary school, you make it through, you go through middle school, you go through high school, it's always viewed as you are progressing towards something. So to look back, for me is like regressing. But you're not. But I'm not. That's the issue. It's not a logical reason. The fact that I'm looking behind me, and thinking about that past, thinking about, I had to go through that, even if it was like a minor inconvenience.
(Host) Lucas 17:06
So like, all your years Elementary School, pre K, kindergarten, were the easiest times of my life, literally, easiest times of your life. And work none. There's a new look back on that. Like, did you not have fun? I had fun in m
(Guest) Louis 17:21
I had fun in middle school, just that fact that I'm looking back. And I don't feel like I should be looking back yet. Yet yet.
(Host) Lucas 17:29
So you're what you're saying is you think there is a point in your life. When you will have I don't know how to, like, earned
(Guest) Louis 17:37
that. When I feel like I have achieved a good enough standing. Like, let's say I go through college, and I'm done with my further education. I'm done getting educated. At that moment, I'm going into the workforce, then I can look at the whole of my education with clear eyes. But right now, you're being a freshman here. And I'm still confused about a lot of things. I still have a lot to learn tons to learn. In every class, every field, every situation. I don't feel like I'm at the point where I can look clearly at my past through all my schooling yet.
(Host) Lucas 18:14
Okay, well, how about something that you have gone all the way through? I know that you used to do karate. I actually used to do karate as well. We both did karate at some point in our lives. And we were both now. Well finished with doing karate. Can you agree that for now, you're you're well finished?
(Host) Lucas 18:36
Yeah, with karate, way past it.
(Host) Lucas 18:38
So you're done. So in your education example, you're not yet done with your schooling. So you can't yet look back at your schooling. But you're definitely done with karate, thinking about karate, because we actually we recently like with us and our suitemates, all eight of us. We like to have movie nights every once in a while. And one of our suite mates will remain unnamed. He recommended this movie to us about basically it was about karate. But it was like a weird psychological horror type film. Yeah, a little bit strong. But yeah, yeah, it was weird. Like, how did like looking watching that movie and remembering your times in karate? How did that make you feel?
(Guest) Louis 19:26
Not great. So one is the themes in the movie itself and the dialogue it has within itself. And the overall tone of the of the movie is not positive. Oh, no, not not, not humorous, not positive, not in any general sense of the word associates karate with anything good. It is simply a means to a message. So part of the feeling of nostalgia I had was going to automatically be associated with the bad parts of karate. You know, like getting hit Not fun, not the funnest part of taking karate classes, or the feeling of conflict for the first time. Right and being, you know, like hurt, literally physically hurt,
(Host) Lucas 20:11
like I had never fought, I'm not a very confrontational person. So when I went into karate, and then we started sparring. I wasn't ready for that. I had never thought anyone before. But then they were like, Okay, everybody. Spar, like, go and fight in practice, all these things we've showed you like, I was really confused.
(Guest) Louis 20:33
So that feeling of conflict. Additionally, in the movie itself, let's go back to the film. There's a big skill gap between the, I guess you call on the protagonist, and anyone else in this class?
(Host) Lucas 20:44
Oh, yeah, he's, he's brand new in his class, just for reference for Yeah.
(Guest) Louis 20:48
And I felt that too. Whenever I entered in, it was a small dojo, and the why. And I was really the only one my age completely, I was the only one my size. So automatically I was, or there were a couple other guys my age, but eventually, you know, they left earlier than I did. And I was stuck in the in betweens. So I'd always had to go, you know, against guys taller than me. And, you know, more advanced than I couldn't really do anything else. So I felt where he was coming from that protagonist in the early parts of the film, not later on. Because we can't really go in depth about those scenes, but early on his feelings of, you know, weakness. Yeah, that's in the that's in the movie. But in real life, my senses were never like that. At no point. Were they ever like in the film, The sensei is a very, I guess, you could say, conservative, exaggerated voice in the film. But in real life, like my senses, I don't want I want, I don't want to give anyone the impression that that's the part we're associating with listening to. For those who haven't been to a karate dojo, the people there are great. They love the sport of karate, they see it as a sport. They do not see it as a molding of people, it is something you can do. It's something you could devote your life to like any other sport. So I just want to make that clear. But the things that connected to both of us were the violence of it as young children, and how we had to toughen up to get to the point.
(Host) Lucas 22:26
Like I had, I had played sports before doing cardio, out of all them even over football. Karate was the you got to toughen up, or you're gonna get beat up kind of thing. I did have to toughen up a little bit for football. But for karate. Instead of just pushing against somebody like you would in football, like you're you're trying to push past somebody but you you have pads on you have cleats you have, you have these things to protect you in karate, when you were sparring, it was just hand to hand foot, the foot direct contact pretty much all the time. So not only was it out, not exactly pushing against people, but you basically get thrown into. And it's, it's just a big, big step up.
(Guest) Louis 23:14
Took a lot of adjustment for me, you know, I'm very conflict avoidant, naturally. I never really enjoyed fights, I didn't really enjoy confrontation at all, I saw this as a way to just have fun. And so I enjoyed the other aspects of karate, Well, aside from testing, testing was stressful. I hated testing so much, what were your tests like, so you, they'd have the main senses. And sometimes they bring in an additional sensei from a different area. And then you would do your kados, which are your basically your, you could think of it as a series of steps across the pad, or we call them forms, you could call them forms as well, but we call them makaras. And you do your set kata for like Kata one, kata two all the way up to where you're at now. And he's supposed to practice that to a certain degree. And then you do an additional series of basically responses. So you'd have another person stand in front of you, this is after you've done your comments, you have another person stand in front of me and either strike you to your head, your solar plexus, you know, basically your stomach area, or, you know, down to your groin. And you're supposed to react to that, depending on which in the series of numbers of those situations you have to so they punch once and you react accordingly. Just to the point where you'd strike them so you might block and then punch, and that'd be like Kata one, and Kata to, you know, maybe to add additional move across the Kata 15. And you would learn them progressively as you went up and belts and then you would also perhaps spar, maybe just for demonstration purposes. They did not, you know force you that wasn't really a part of your grading. It was just to prove you have confidence to be in an actual confrontation. To show that you're, you know, you're developing maturity, right more than anything else. And you would go through these things, and they would stress me out. I'm talking about sweating before the test. And I'd practice right during the days because I'll be honest, I did not practice at home. I'm gonna make that very clear. This was not this is a in Dojo kind of thing, like, Okay, I'm going to Dojo now I'm gonna go to karate. Now, I might actually prepare. I was never gonna, like, invite people over to practice karate or anything. Like no way, no chance. I was gonna do this for fun, I was gonna go to karate, come back home, not think about it.
(Host) Lucas 25:40
So tests hit hard. Yeah, tests were frustrating. How were your test specifically, were
(Guest) Louis 25:46
they similar structure,
(Host) Lucas 25:48
we didn't have the cars like that we would have, we would have three sections of the test, there would be a form you have to learn for the belt. And it's, it's sort of similar to Kata is like, it would get progressively more difficult. Like you just have more steps in it. Yeah. But you would have to learn and memorize and basically perform a form exactly where whatever belt you were in, then you would have to spar somebody, and you'd have to win. If you didn't win, you pretty much would fail the test. So you have to win. And then you would have to this was like, the third step was pretty much that was more towards the higher level belts. But you would have to do, basically another form with a certain, like a certain weapon, like a bow staff. And it was very annoying, because I don't have the best memory. So I would practice these in my basement. And I never had enough room in my basement. So come test time. I was always worried, like, I don't know what to do, because I'd never had enough room like the testing. Like the rooms are in a lot, big padded floor area,
(Guest) Louis 27:02
you don't have that much room was never ready. And I never had padded floors ever. During my time. It was wood floor, or we had this weird asphalt material that you know, it acted like asphalt for your feet. So it was pretty tough. But we practice there. And I'd sometimes practice the day off for tests. But what I want to connect this to specifically for nostalgia sake, is how testing for belts. Remember, we only test to achieve another
(Host) Lucas 27:27
belt, right? This isn't just like a thing they do you have to do it to earn a new belt to earn a new belt
(Guest) Louis 27:31
or earn a new stripe. For me. It was like if you had a stripe, you had to achieve that then the next belt, right? And in the movie, we are watching this film, and we see someone attempt to get a belt. And it sends us way back in our feelings. Right back to those days whenever we'll look when we're little kids. Oh, yeah. Back to test days,
(Host) Lucas 27:54
hated test days. There was actually a character in the movie, who was expecting to like in the movie, he didn't have like a test they had to do. But they had like a ceremony where you basically the sensei is like this person has really exemplified everything it means to be a blue belt, so they move up. And there was a character that didn't get that belt, but he had overheard that he would be like somebody would be moving up to like the special night class, they'd be moving up in a belt, they'd be earning that stripe. And he didn't earn that stripe and from that point on my feelings towards the movie were just sour. Yeah, because it happens so many times.
(Guest) Louis 28:40
Yeah, like I failed certain belt tests like you have and those were frustrating days. Those were tough, tough days just going home and not being able to fully explain to your parents like why you feel that bad because to them it's just another test. Like you literally you're just going to karate kid and it's not to be but to us we had created you both you and I had associated our value then and that moment to achieving that next belt and stressed the heck out of the situation
(Host) Lucas 29:15
so much it was definitely really frustrating. I do get it now what you're talking about like you know like false or like negative nostalgia. I got it. Basically yesterday, let me watch that movie. Just because the fact that my my karate memories, a decent amount of my karate memories are not positive memories. A good amount of my memories for karate are bad memories like failing those tests, like not getting those Famous Amos cookies after I passed the test, not getting the cookies feeling really bad about it. Or watching one of my good friends passed tests with ease and breezed by me and belts felt terrible and I know I think about I never actually thought about of my time in karate in such detail until we saw the movie literally yesterday. Yeah, that's
(Guest) Louis 30:06
now negative nostalgia, as I mean, I kind of just talked about it, there's a better term for it, I imagine. But we couldn't really think of it. It's, and this is my one of my points that I brought up earlier to Lucas, about there can be good nostalgia, you know, warm feeling, right. And then there's just bad nostalgia. Usually, it's like a wet towel, it just hits hits you right in the face. And you sit back, you're sweating. You're thinking about those terrible moments. It's like, Now I personally had way more positive feelings about karate than I did negative way more. I love the people there. And they were great to me, my family, and everyone in that Dojo knew each other, it was great. But there are negative memories associated with two really strong stuff. It's this feeling just being taken back? Well, we don't, we don't like it. And so you feel it for just negative histology. I feel it for sometimes what we labeled as false nostalgia to if we can move into that. So talking honestly, real quickly, have you ever watched an old film, right, and it's just grainy. And suddenly, you're taken back, and you feel nostalgia for a time you've never experienced? You see an old film, like, let's say from the 70s. And it's kind of Old Bay, you just get a weird feeling like you've felt this before.
(Host) Lucas 31:43
But I have seen some old movies in some movies, Boys and 70s, and things like that. And I think I have I have definitely have felt this, like false nostalgia as you as we're calling it. But not necessarily because of the thing that they're doing whatever the activity is, like going to a disco, we aren't really many discos around anymore. But like not necessarily, because the thing they're doing is specific to the 70s. But because of the feelings, the emotions that are conveyed through going to the disco in the movie, like they go to the disco, they have a really great time. And I'm feeling nostalgic, not because I've been to a disco in the 70s Because I've said is not alive in the 70s. So I there's no way I could have been to disco in the 70s. But my, my thing is, I feel nostalgic for the emotions conveyed with those scenes of like, maybe there's the like Breakfast Club, the ending of breakfast club, I kind of felt for the ending of Breakfast Club, because I've had times like that with me and my friends where we're all just really bonding and really experiencing new things together. And we didn't get the tension together. We weren't in school together in the 80s. Whenever that movie came out, I think it was the 80s. But we weren't. They didn't didn't directly happen to us. It was just the emotions conveyed through the scenes, like of old movies, because obviously, human emotions are really complex topic, there's a lot going on. But over time, especially only like a few decades, it does it can't have changed that much. People do a lot of the same things. They go in out in drives with their friends, they go and they experienced that a teenage life and they go and they have fun. I feel nostalgic for those things, because I've done those things, but not in the 70s.
(Guest) Louis 33:35
So let me move a little bit. So your points made a lot of sense. You're connecting to the emotions of the situation, and things like that, as a child growing up watching old VHS movies my grandma had, I mean, for they're not that old. But you know, VHS tapes and things, seeing the graininess on her very small TV, the box TV that we had, and just the picture quality, and things like that, and the old ads that would play on these VHS tapes she had, it would take me back to a time that she experienced herself, you know, as she purchased these films, and that my aunts and father have seen you know, all these films, she's showing me here. I'm enjoying these films by the same time. I just feel a sense of connection to them that I know I shouldn't be. For the first time I ever saw let me make this clear. I had not seen these films before as a young child, but I was connecting to the feeling of the VHS tape the sounds and the grayness of the picture. In a way I knew I shouldn't be able to because I you know I was watching things on DVD with much clearer quality. And that feeling of falseness Dodger, Soulja bothered me.
(Host) Lucas 34:57
But how can you How about now Now, now, so imagine right now, you were to think back on the time that you like, did you enjoy watching those movies? Were they at least like good? Yeah, those were good films. Right? So you had a good time with your family watching those movies? What about now, if you were to think back to those times, how would your family How would you feel about that?
(Guest) Louis 35:20
I have warm feelings associated with, you know, hanging around on my family on those summer days where we all come together across the state of North Carolina, sometimes visiting from Texas and such, and we all sit around the TV, watch an old film, maybe a John Wayne film, for instance, depending on who had control of the controller. And we sit there and we watch the film. And I remember having good times with that time, you know? Yeah, with my family, but my family made that clear. But still, VHS quality, let me make that clear. I am not a fan of nostalgia bait, if you were to add a VHS quality, and random, what did they refer to it as? Like, pixel pixelation and things of that nature, you know, errors in the screen and stuff. I don't really enjoy it whenever I see edits that online. Okay, so moving to a modern state. So if I were to see something similar day, I would associate that with like, a cool edit. Let's say some something cool happens in a sports things like five years ago, and so they put like a VHS filter overtop, and weird graininess. I'm not like, wow, that's really cool. I'm like, I can see less of this image now. I can see even less than this.
(Host) Lucas 36:46
So you just don't like the fact that a VHS quality was terrible.
(Guest) Louis 36:49
Yeah. Those are some fire edits though, I'll give them that. Whoever made those edits of those sports things. But those were not during the time of VHS, I need to be able to see what's happening.
(Host) Lucas 37:00
Well, why why would you? Why do you think that you feel this way towards nostalgia?
(Guest) Louis 37:07
Hmm, well, you're putting me on the spot here.
(Host) Lucas 37:09
So the point of view is the point just as a guest to be put on the spot about these questions.
(Guest) Louis 37:15
And to pinpoint a reason is very difficult. I think it connects to what I consider my, my TV shows versus those things. Right? What I experienced growing up versus what I know, I didn't experience growing up. So if there's a time period, right, so Okay, let's say I'm in elementary school, and I'm watching a show about people my age, but in the past, right, not for educational reasons. It's for entertainment value. And if I just can't get a joke, like at all, like they make some joke about the heater, and the system about the heater, and it's a big joke in the film, right? And I just don't get it. I'm not going to associate a positive haha moment with that film. Part of it's just how much I can relate to the medium. Maybe that's it. My inability to relate to past instances. But I can relate to films of my time, like early 2000s of movies. I can relate to clearly no matter
(Host) Lucas 38:21
about flip phones versus jokes about like, brick phones, kind of Yeah,
(Guest) Louis 38:27
a bit. Yeah, exactly. So those films I could enjoy. And I can enjoy those films from across the world. During that time period, I can relate to a lot of them, right, even though I'm not from those places, I can enjoy them. Right. But if I go farther than that, I, I am going to not be able to connect to the characters as well. Even if they're from let's say, North Carolina, this is a just a film in North Carolina, my age group being on screen. But just 50 years ago, I'm not sure how well I'd be able to relate to the cast.
(Host) Lucas 39:04
Right, I see what you're saying. I definitely agree. But that looks like that's all the time we have for Episode One. So Louis, I like to thank you for coming on to the show for the very, very first episode of the brain trust. Again, just I like to thank you for being here. I like to thank you for sharing your opinions. And I'd like to ask you when you can take the trash out.
(Guest) Louis 39:27
Well, I want to thank you very much Lucas for having me on. And I apologize to the audience. I will not be able to answer that question tonight. Thank you, Lucas for having me on. I had a great time tonight. I hope that the audience was able to enjoy my opinions and to our future guests. I hope we are able to share all the introspective dialogues that we can in the future of the brain trust.
(Host) Lucas 39:53
So thank you very much, Louis. Again, please take the trash out. It's getting a little filled But to anybody listening or to anybody who just accidentally stumbled upon this first episode of the brain trust, I'd like to thank you all for listening. Thank you for lending me your time. And if you ever want to check out new episodes want to stay updated with things always you can subscribe and you can check us out@wknc.org forward slash podcasts. That's podcasts with an S plural. That's wknc.org forward slash podcasts. So today's intro and outro has been provided by JT of local band moving boxes. I'd like to thank him and shout them out real quick. Check them out. Then somebody's done some really amazing work for us here. braintrust here WKNC So thank you JT and moving boxes. And with that,
(Guest) Louis 40:52
good day,
(Host) Lucas 40:53
good day. There you go.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai