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The Middle of Culture is what happens when two siblings with too many opinions and not enough chill dive headfirst into movies, music, video games, and whatever else is rotting our brains this week. It’s part pop culture podcast, part sibling rivalry, and fully unfiltered. Expect passionate arguments, niche references, unsolicited rankings, and the occasional moment of unexpected insight. If you’ve ever wanted to eavesdrop on the kind of argument you’d hear at the family dinner table—only with better audio—this is your show.
Eden
00:00
But this is our one hundredth regular degular actual daxual episode. Welcome back to the Middle of Culture. I'm one of your hosts, Eden.
Peter
00:18
And I am your other host, Peter.
Eden
00:20
Peter. It's the last day of January.
Peter
00:23
It is.
Eden
00:23
Sometimes you go through decades and a month. Welcome to the end of January 2026. How you doing?
Peter
00:30
I mean, this is just I would like to say this is the January that never wants to end, but it feels like we've had m more than our fair share of those lately. I'm tired. I'm just Tired.
Eden
00:46
Yeah. It's tie it's tie ring. Being alive in 2026 is ty ring.
Peter
00:52
It is.
Eden
00:53
And it doesn't need to be that way. That's the worst part. It doesn't need to be like this.
Peter
00:57
That is sadly also very true.
Eden
01:01
Alright. But anyway, we're here. Uh how how you doing, Peter? What's up?
Peter
01:05
I'm I'm hanging in there and uh yeah just you know just just living working uh Alex and Lily it was fun we had them over for dinner Uh last Sunday it was kind of the first, hey, why don't you guys come over for Sunday dinner since they got married? And so it was fun. It was fun to hang out with him. And then Alex bought himself an e-bike. From I guess Act Best was the company. I don't know.
Eden
01:32
It it was a I haven't ever heard of that one, but it was a very good price and and there were
Peter
01:39
There were a number of Reddit threads that were fairly complementary to it. And so he he ordered that. And then it came, and so he came over yesterday, and we spent an hour or so in the garage putting it together and getting it all set up and everything for him. So You know, it's been good. Work's been busy, but uh getting to do stuff with my family is always nice. And as I mentioned to you before. The we started recording. Thrilled to have today off, my first day off in uh just under three weeks. So But you, how are you doing?
Eden
02:16
You know, um I am very sleepy, um, but we're surviving. You know, we got a bunch of geriatric dogs, none of which sleep very well. Um, but that's okay. We're still kicking.
Peter
02:29
There you go. Sometimes that's all we can do.
Eden
02:32
That's literally all we can do. So we have a fun idea for today, but before we do that. We both are gonna do a short version of Hey, what have you been checking out? So Peter, what's a short version of Hey, what have you been checking out?
Peter
02:46
Two things that I wanted to mention. Number one is the band Creator with a K. Eden, are you familiar with the band Creator with a K? I am not. I have heard of Creator with a K for many years. They're a German thrash band. They there was a single, I think it was in 2023, maybe or 24. Lamb of God released a few singles that they did with other bands. They did one with Megadeth, one with Mastodon, and one with Creator. And I listened to the one with Creator and I liked it, but I didn't know how much of this is Creator, how much of this is Lamb of God, and then kind of forgot about it. They had a new album come out about I think two weeks ago now, yesterday. I don't know why I unfairly maligned this band by assuming that they were Euro Trashy, power metal thrashy kind of stuff. There was going to be cheese that you could turn into fondue, and so I avoided them. And then I listened to their most recent album, Crushers of the World, which again, in and of itself, kind of a cheesy little title. Crushers with a K as well. And all I'm gonna say is w why the fuck have I been sleeping on this band? They're fantastic. This is just like very aggressive, heavy thrash that is awesome. And the best part is they've been around since 1983. So I have 16 albums and of some live albums and stuff to Go and dive back into and uh yeah, creator fucking rules. So uh I'm loving it.
Eden
04:25
That's cool. I'm what is better than finding an old band like that that you can really dig into a long uh thing like that.
Peter
04:37
You know, we may talk about that in a along discography.
Eden
04:41
That's the word I was looking for.
Peter
04:42
We may this may come up again in a short 15 second I'll tell you why that's a great thing in just a little bit. The other thing that I wanted to mention, and I don't know if you saw this news, uh it wouldn't surprise me if I hadn't seen it. Other people brought it up to me, but just this week It was announced that Brandon Sanderson has sold the creative rights to his entire Cosmere books to Apple TV.
Eden
05:09
So I I did see that.
Peter
05:11
Everything in the Cosmere. Now, the caveat being that Brandon Sanderson will retain rights as both a producer and writer. And every article I read emphasized we'll have unprecedented creative control more than J. K. Rowling and George R. R. Martin ever had. And I thought to myself, you know what? I think this actually might be really good because while I soured a little bit on him as a writer, in part because of the quality of his prose. I think his stories have a potential to make really good series or or, you know, streaming movies or something like that because I think the characters are interesting and I think the worlds are cool and I think the ideas are fun, but they're not super deep and so I think that they could easily translate very nicely to uh to a visual form. And everything I have heard from all of the nerdy podcasts that I listen to, some of them tech related, but some of them specifically about, you know, m modern media and streaming. Uh it sounds like Apple TV really is kind of like if you work in the business, they're the people that everybody's like, oh, if you get to work with them, it's the best. They give you the most creative control. While they're not going to give you all the money in the world, they're going to give you enough money to do what you want, and they're not going to get in your way. And I think that's why we see really in the last few years, Apple TV having more kind of high concept, heady sci-fi stuff than any other streaming series. And I think that they could be a great fit, and I'm actually pretty excited to see what happens from this.
Eden
06:48
Yeah, I I think it'll be interesting to see what happens. I'm not I you know, we have read a Brando Sando novella once on this podcast, and that is the extent of Brandon Sanderson that I have engaged with, but You know, I I wish the best for all of my Brando Sando fandos who I know, which are numerous.
Peter
07:08
Yeah. So Those are the two things I wanted to mention. What about you? You said you had something.
Eden
07:15
The one thing I want to mention is uh I have a new podcast out, everyone. That podcast is named Devo Tease. D-E-V-O-T-E-A-S. Brilliant name.
Peter
07:28
Brilliant name.
Eden
07:29
My wife came up with it and she is brilliant. And what Devotees is is a podcast. You can find it on all your major platforms. We'll put a link in the description as well. Yep. But Devotees is a podcast where I sit down with a friend over some gong fu tea. We do a gong fu tea session. um, because that is my current hyperfixation and then they tell me about their current hyperfixation or something that is their real hyperloc interest or a bugbear for them or things that they think a lot about. So there are two episodes up already. There's an intro episode and then the first interview episode with my friend Mike. I have a bunch of other ones that are already recorded that'll be going up here shortly. Um but yeah, just kind of a uh I want I wanted it to be very parasocial, very much like you are sitting in the room. With a couple of people having tea with us. Um, it's very free-form, very, you know, loosey-goosey. Some of the other topics that we've recorded on already or are planning to record on, the history of Mountain Dew flavors. or why trucks are just too damn big in America these days. Or, you know, the evolution of Christianity over the years. These are particular things that folks have pitched to me or that we've already recorded. Um and it's a lot of fun. I've had a lot of fun sitting down and drinking tea with my friends. kind of introducing them to the process of gong fu tea preparation um and then sharing with them a thing that I really love tea um and them sharing with thing with me things that they are very interested in. So if you if you're interested in that, please give it a listen. I'm having a lot of fun and I think the folks who are coming on seem to be having a lot of fun. And I would love to have you uh come have fun with us.
Peter
09:21
Brilliant, I love it. I look forward to listening to it.
Eden
09:24
Yeah, so check it out. Alright, so here is our activity for today. Like I said, it's a little goofy, but we wanted to do something goofy because this is, dear listeners, our 100th real actual Daxtual episode. Now there's a little more than a hundred if you look on like, you know, the the websites or the the feed or whatever, because there's been a couple like short announcement ones or things like that. But this is our 100th regular, degular, actual, de actual episode. So I wanted to do something fun and I wanted to do something kind of stupid. So that is what we are doing. Something kind of fun and kind of stupid. So what Peter and I have done is we have each come up with a list of 50 things that we like. Um, these are a few of our favorite things. They are not our fifty most favorite things. No. They're things that we like. Um, or just things that we're into right now. Um, and here is the silly stricture that I put on this so that we can get through a hundred things in a timely episode manner. What we are going to do is we are going to say what the thing is. Once we have announced whatever it is, a 15-second timer will start. The name is not included in it. So if I were to example say, I would never say this because I do not like this band, but if I were to say The next thing I want to talk about is the band Metallica. After I said that is when the 15-second timer would start and I would have to make my case. I can't because they're not a good band. But if I wanted to, I could take 15 seconds and make that case. Wow, coming in hot right from the get-go. We both feel that way about Metallica. Come on.
Peter
10:57
Oh no, I'm not disagreeing at all. I mean, here's the thing. That's all I have to say about it. See, I would disagree with that. I would say that three of their three good albums. I would say that three of their first four albums are pretty good. One of them is great. One of them is great. Two of them are decent.
Eden
11:16
Which one's great?
Peter
11:18
Oh, master.
Eden
11:20
See, there we go. There we go. That's the one that I would say is a good album.
Peter
11:23
Yeah. And then I I I never mind. We're devolving. I was going to talk about how I have a soft spot in my heart for the black album only because it's the first one I listened to, but it's not a good album.
Eden
11:33
It's a bad album and then everything since has been terrible. But see now we're off this is why we have a time.
Peter
11:37
This is why we're gonna have 15 seconds. It's it's a good thing we've got this stricture placed upon us.
Eden
11:42
Because otherwise we would not get through 100. We would maybe get through 20. So Peter, do you want to go first or second?
Peter
11:49
Um I'll go second. You go.
Eden
11:52
All right. So my first thing in my list is. Nichi Jo. Where's oh no, my timer. I clicked the wrong thing. My timer wasn't okay, timer. Nichijo, it's an extremely funny comic by Keichi Orawi, also one of the funniest shows I have ever seen in my life. If you want very good slice of life, it's hard to beat. I I laughed so hard I cried at my desk at work. And see, that's a set 15 seconds. That's it.
Peter
12:17
Boom. So I'm just gonna warn you, some of my titles are are a little longer, but I hope that's not cheating.
Eden
12:25
Okay, great. Some of mine are too.
Peter
12:27
I made a list and then I randomized it. So these are in an absolutely random order.
Eden
12:32
I did the same thing.
Peter
12:34
Brilliant. I love it. Okay. All right. Number one, watching my kids do something they love. I have been, I love watching my son swim, I love watching Aubrey dance, I loved watching Jess and Alex run Once the kids find something that they love and they give a crap about, there's nothing better than watching them do that and enjoy it. It's amazing.
Eden
12:54
Beautiful. All right. Number two for me, fitting, because I'm drinking one right now. Tea resin. Tea resin is an old way of preserving tea where you make a big batch of tea and then you distill it down to basically make bouillon cubes of tea, and they're delicious. And I'm drinking one right now. It is the easiest way in the world to make very, very nice tea.
Peter
13:15
Fantastic.
Eden
13:16
Delicious.
Peter
13:17
Okay, number two for me, the Mass Effect trilogy. I don't replay video games. I play a game, I move on, I get on with my life, and I kind of fondly remember it. I've played the Mass Effect trilogy at least four times. There might be a fifth time in there. I love the characters. I think the story and the world are great.
Eden
13:36
Perfect. They are great. Number three for me is Girl Oh, I don't have to do that. I get to say the name first. Number three for me, Girls Last Tour. It's such a good manga. It made me cry. Six volumes of the saddest, most beautiful, elegiac. end of the world stuff that I've ever read. It made me rethink why I do what I do, what my life means, and all those sorts of things. It's great.
Peter
14:01
Love it. Okay, number three for me, writing. I like writing stories. I like taking my thoughts and writing them down and watching them develop and clarify them and figure out. where maybe I have a good idea and where maybe I'm full of shit. And I think writing is an amazing way to do that and actually make our thoughts more clear.
Eden
14:21
Hell yes. I need to do more writing. I was talking about it just earlier today. I need to do more of it.
Peter
14:26
I love it. It's a good, yeah, it's it's great. People underestimate how what how much it helps you clarify.
Eden
14:32
Hell yeah. All right, number four. Sailor Venus I like Sailor Moon, I like all the characters in Sailor Moon, but the best one is Minako I know Sailor Venus, codename Sailor V. She's the coolest one. She is the most incredible, and I don't really have anything else to say because I don't have enough time to go into why Sailor Venus is so cool, but she is the coolest one.
Peter
14:53
You know, I'm just gonna say 15 seconds does not feel nearly as long as in my head I thought it was gonna feel.
Eden
14:59
Yep, that's why I thought this would be stupid and fun.
Peter
15:02
It's great. Okay, my next one. Walking outside when the sun is shining, but it isn't too hot. I love being outside. I love the smell of the air. I love feeling the sun, but I don't like sweating my balls off, and I'm a sweater if it's too hot. I know I'm gonna be sweaty and gross, but being outside and going for a walk when it's nice and sunny, but it's not too hot is great.
Eden
15:24
Well, I hope you don't sweat your balls off. That doesn't sound fun.
Peter
15:28
No, no, that's true. They don't sweat off, but they just sweat to a point where I gotta wash them off. There we go.
Eden
15:33
You unicking through Heavy workouts.
Peter
15:38
Brittany, don't need that.
Eden
15:40
Number five for me. Absolute Wonder Woman This is the newest uh take on Wonder Woman from DC. It's the best book DC's putting out every month. Um Kelly Thompson and Hayden Sherman are doing some Some of the best work that's been done with say Wonder Woman in decades. If you've ever wanted to read a Wonder Woman comic, this is where to start.
Peter
15:59
Excellent. All right, number five for me, metal music. I love music. I love music a lot, but metal music is really the one that I love it in a way I've never loved music before. I always grew up liking heavier music, but just I don't know. As I get older, I find so much joy and solace and comfort in heavy metal.
Eden
16:22
Nice. All right, number six for me. Working at the comic shop. You might think to yourself, Eden, doesn't that make you me mean you work fifty hours a week? Yes, but ten hours of it is really fun because I'm working at a fucking comic shop. and talking with my friends about comics and just hanging out.
Peter
16:41
I love that. Okay, number six, my beard. I like having a beard. I really, really like having a beard. It has become actually to me an intrinsic part of my personal identity. I cannot see myself without a beard and I just I really like it. I like my beard.
Eden
17:02
When's the last time you went without?
Peter
17:04
I grew my beard out once I had matched in resident, no, once I had finished residency interviews in late 20 2005. I then grew my beard out, and I have had it since early 2006, so I have not gone clean-shaven for 20 years
Eden
17:27
You don't just sometimes get the bug. You don't just sometimes be like a hyperfixation, hyperfixation, intrusive thoughts, shave the face, shave the face.
Peter
17:36
No. No, in fact, I have nightmares about trimming my beard too aggressively to the point that I have to shave it.
Eden
17:43
I just do that sometimes, about once a year or once every couple of years, I have intrusive thoughts and I shave my entire face and then I go, God damn it, what the fuck did I do that for? I look like shit.
Peter
17:52
See I know that I will look worse without it, so I just Stick to it.
Eden
17:58
Every time. Every time I do it, I regret it. And I do it like once a year. But here we are. All right. Number seven for me, my e-bike. Uh, do you know what's fun? Riding your bike. Do you know what's even better? Riding your bike up pretty steep hills at 17 miles an hour, cruising up those fuckers because, hey, you got a little bit of pedal assist. I love my e-bike.
Peter
18:19
Hell yeah. Okay, number seven for me, having my own quote, Spotify via rune. Uh I first set it up on my network attached storage device. I now actually have a dedicated Rune Nucleus 1 whose sole purpose is to stream my 26,000 songs in my library that I have purchased in Flack Anywhere I Want, Anytime I Want.
Eden
18:45
That's so cool. At some point I need to get in a call with you and pick your mind about that, not on a podcast, because I am also getting back into purchasing and owning stuff because I needed to get off the streaming services because they're all evil as hell. Uh and I feel stupid about it and it's not easy to figure out. And like I have my little DAP, it'll be coming up. It's one of my items, but like it would also be nice if I could do it to my phone when I'm driving the car.
Peter
19:12
Happy to do it anytime. Cool.
Eden
19:15
All right. My next one is the film The Apple. You all heard me talk about the film The Apple uh last year, last March, during bad movie bros. It's fucking terrible, but also it's so funny. Uh I still think about the songs from that on the reg, and I remember putting little triangles on our foreheads uh because that's what they do in the film. It's very funny.
Peter
19:38
Very good Uh my next one. I love a good keyboard. Uh remember earlier I said I like to write. I I don't do a lot of that by hand, though I do that sometimes by hand, but when I really want to write and get my thoughts out I like to type and I love doing it on a nice keyboard. It gotta feel good. It's gotta sound good. I love them. I have too many of them.
Eden
20:00
Hell yeah. Preview of coming attractions will be returning to the subject of keyboards. Oh, number nine for me is Final Fantasy XV. You know what game probably made me cry more than any other video game ever? Final Fantasy XV. My boy Noctis, he's the rightful king, and he should be able to take his throne. And uh there's not a whole lot of kings I would say that about, but Noctus, I'd say that about him.
Peter
20:27
One of these days I'm gonna play that game.
Eden
20:29
It's so fucking good. It's really anachronistic. You uh you start the game and it starts with you pushing a car that's broken down to a Florence in the Machine cover of Stand By Me and you're like, what the fuck is this game? And then 40 hours later you'll be sobbing.
Peter
20:45
I love it. I love it. Okay, number nine. I the feeling when you finally sneeze and it has been building for a long time. Do I need to take my 15 seconds? Do I need to take, I mean, we all know the relief that you finally get when that sneeze comes flying out of you, there are few things more orgasmic that are not sex in the world.
Eden
21:07
This is what I'm saying. Like I know they call in France they call orgasms le petit mort. That's also le petit mort. That feels like oh the relief.
Peter
21:18
Oh yeah. Oh yeah.
Eden
21:20
The catharsis. Alright, next up for me. Of course these two ended up next to each other because that's how randomizers work. Uh Lightning and Sarah from the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy. Hey, do you want three very good video games in a row? Two of them starring an extremely stoic and uh very taciturn sister, and one of them starring the cutest bundle of joy sister. Uh those are the sisters Lightning and Sarah, the Farons, they're great.
Peter
21:46
Beautiful. Number 10 for me, The Mummy from 1999. I love this movie. I don't re-watch movies very often. Something about the original mummy Just is a comfort movie where I can just turn it on and just enjoy it and just be kind of overwhelmed by the chemistry between the main leads in that movie.
Eden
22:07
An entire generation's bisexual awakening.
Peter
22:10
100%.
Eden
22:11
Rachel Weiss and Brandon Brendan Frazier, an entire generation's bisexual awakening. Cassie and I were joking. There is something else that we were like, oh, this is this generation's bisexual awakening, but I don't remember what it was now. Oh well, it must not have mattered. Number 11, Pharaoh Sanders and Floating Points' Promises. This is my favorite album of all time. I have talked about it numerous times on this podcast. 45 minutes of the best jazz you've ever heard in your life. R. I. P. Faro Sanders, uh, thank you for giving me the best piece of music I've ever heard.
Peter
22:41
Very good. All right, for me, number 11, spending time with my adult children. People ask me a lot because I'm a little bit older than some of the folks I'm around. Uh what is it when do you what is the best age with your kids? And I inevitably say when they become adults and you can sit down and you can have real conversations and you can do real shit with them and you really feel like they're their own people
Eden
23:04
Hell yeah. Alright, next up for me, a bride's story. Hey, I made you read it. It's the best comic I ever fucking read. Volume 15 just came out. Still true. Uh, I've never seen anything like it. I've never read anything like it. I just convinced my friend at the comic shop, Jackson, to buy the first volume today because I was like, no, it's the best comic I've ever read. It's the best comic I've ever read.
Peter
23:25
Very good. Number 12 for me, the iPad. I love the iPad. I've had an iPad for many years. I have multiple iPads right now. I love the iPad. Yes, there are limitations that I wish the software would grow into, but I love being have having a capable thing that I can read, I can highlight, and I can carry with me easily.
Eden
23:46
I need to get my hands on an iPad for work reasons, and it's kind of been a pain in the ass, but I do need to get my hands on one because notability only works in iOS because there is holes. I need to test the handwriting capability of notability for digital accessibility reasons, but that means I need to hunt down an iPad somewhere on campus.
Peter
24:07
Yep, there you go.
Eden
24:08
Alright, number 13 for me, Ultimate X-Men. And by that I mean the new series by Peach Momoko This is the best comic that Marvel is putting out right now. It is basically a teen drama horror manga by one of the most talented creators working in comics that just happens to be called X-Men.
Peter
24:30
Very nice. Number 13 for me. Urology. I love urology. I find it fascinating. I love my job. I love the urology part of my job. Let me clarify. uh the surgeries, the the helping people, the educating med students and residents. I love it. It's fascinating and it's something that I desperately love doing.
Eden
24:54
Nice. Next up for me is community building. I love getting to know people in my community and finding and building networks. And it's something that feels that much more pressing and important to do. in 2026 and I'm glad to know people who want to do it too.
Peter
25:13
That's that's fantastic. I love that one. And I probably should look at doing more of that myself.
Eden
25:20
It's it it's harder when you don't have something like a faith community. Like you have a church that you go to, so some of that community building is kind of built in there. Yeah. To a certain extent. And so when you don't have that anymore, when you're not going to church every Sunday with this group of people and, you know, participating in that civic activity and then building that community from there. It takes a lot more intentionality and like work, but I have found it to be extremely uh worthwhile.
Peter
25:47
Very nice. Uh the next one for me, time alone in the early morning. I've always been a morning person. I've always gotten up early. I automatically wake up between four and five o'clock every morning. Unless they don't have a choice, no one else in my family does that. And I love that quiet time when it's dark and it's quiet and it's just me and my thoughts.
Eden
26:08
It's really nice. I should spend more of it not still laying in bed reading a book or looking at my phone, but I also wake up very early and then I lay in bed for two hours. Fair. It's hard to get up. Number 15 for me is the Mickey Knight series of books. I've talked about these on the podcast before. They're cool. Cool lesbian neon noir from New Orleans. Uh, I really like them. I need to finish more of them. I think I've only read the first four. Cassie's read six or seven of them at this point. I really need to go back to them. They're great.
Peter
26:40
Cool. Well, it just turns out that the randomizer put some books next for me, and those would be The Chronicles of Pradane. I love the Chronicles of Pradane. People should not read Harry Potter bullshit. They should read Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Pradane. Over and over and over again. I love them as an adult. They still make me cry at points, and they're wonderful stories. Gurgya King. Hell yeah.
Eden
27:04
All right, next up for me, number 16, the if books could kill podcast. I don't re-listen to podcasts very often because I'm always, there's always another podcast I could be listening to. I've re-listened to If Books Could Kill twice or three times at this point because it's the funniest podcast I've ever heard.
Peter
27:24
I'll have to check it out. That sounds very interesting. So next one for me, uh and I think you'll appreciate this one given what you told me uh earlier, uh, and that is sleeping through the night without an interruption. I love it. In fact, Eden loves it so much they haven't started the timer. Uh so Obviously, y you've got dogs. I've got a job that wakes me up in the night and and could do so on average 15 days out of the month. So when I sleep straight through the night and I don't wake up, it is amazing.
Eden
27:59
Yeah. It really is. All right, number 17 for me, tofu. Anyone who tells you tofu is not an amazing versatile protein is full of shit. Tofu rules. Regular tofu, firm tofu, silken tofu. So many things you can do with it. Make uh a thousand things. I love tofu. I eat it all the time.
Peter
28:20
Tofu is awesome. And again, like you said, people who are like, tofu, you're just like, you're stupid and ignorant and you've never learned how to prepare it then
Eden
28:29
You just gotta prepare it. There's so many ways you can prepare it too. And like it tastes good on its own. People are like, uh, it's just so no it's not. Silken tofu's so good. I take a block of silken tofu and just put a little bit of sesame oil, chili oil on top with some scallions, and you just eat that with rice. Just a whole ass block of tofu. It fucking rules.
Peter
28:50
There you go. Next one for me, uh playing Dungeons and Dragons with my friends. Uh we started a number of years ago, and while I do enjoy the Dungeons and Dragons of it. It has been a an almost life-changing thing to just have a good reason to regularly get together with friends and experience a social uh thing that has been we're terrible at doing.
Eden
29:11
Hell yeah. RPGs are fun. Alright, next up. Girls Frontline 2, Exilium. It's the only gotcha I still play. Is it a little fan servicey? Yes. Is it a little silly that all of the girls are named after guns? Yes. Is it really fucking fun to play? Also, yes.
Peter
29:34
Very good. Uh next one for me, number eighteen, vinyl. I love listening to vinyl. I like having the big twelve inch album artwork. I like the experience of looking at the liner notes and looking at uh the different album variants and just the intentionality behind the listening experience.
Eden
29:54
I've always The thing about vinyl, I can't get into vinyl because you can get into comics or you can get into vinyl. I can't do both both of those. I can't afford both of those, and I chose comics.
Peter
30:07
Yeah, it's why I'm not into comics. That's why I'm in divinyl. Because that's the one I had to choose.
Eden
30:11
All right, number 19 for me. T-Pets You've heard me talk about gong fu tea on this before. Go listen to Devotees if you want to find out more about Gong Fu tea. I love my tea pets. I love when I sit down to have a nice tea session and either Sunny or Ju are there and I get to share that time with my little teapets.
Peter
30:29
Lovely. Number 19 for me, Brooklyn 99. I came to it very late, uh, but I love it. It's funny, the characters are good, it has a ton of heart. uh has in my opinion Captain Raymond Holt, the greatest TV character who's ever been written and performed, and I miss it, but I watch it repeatedly.
Eden
30:50
The thing that I think is the funniest about Brooklyn 99, and I think we've maybe talked about it here, is that how by the end of that show they're like, Wow, cops are evil, huh? The only cops in the world that aren't evil are the seven protagonists of this show. Every other cop is evil, and you're like, correct. Sorry about your show being a little bit of copaganda. And by the end, they also feel bad about their show being copaganda. Which is why by the end, two-thirds of them are not cops anymore.
Peter
31:16
Yep.
Eden
31:17
All right, number 20. Elf quest. Elf quest rules. You know, one of the longest-lasting, most sustained fantasy worlds that you can go enjoy 40 plus years of stories in. Some of the best artwork you'll ever see because Wendy Penny's one of the greats. It's incredible to read.
Peter
31:35
Yeah. I still need to go back and finish that whole saga. Okay, number twenty for me, ice water. Not ice cold water, ice water. It's gotta have ice in it. It could be the same temperature, but if it doesn't have ice in it, it's just not as good. But a nice glass of ice cold ice water, there is nothing better.
Eden
32:00
We are our mother's children.
Peter
32:02
Yes, we are.
Eden
32:04
All right, number twenty one for me, model kits. I love building a model kit. Even if I don't love the model kit when it's done, there's been more than once where I've enjoyed the process of building one. And it has immediately gone in the trash can because it is the act of doing it that I really like most of all. It's really satisfying.
Peter
32:22
There you go. Number 21 for me, The Gone Away World by Nick Harkaway. I I love to read. I've read many books. I had a very difficult time coming up with books because I try and read a lot of books, but no book has rocked my literary world the way the gone away world did. I finished reading it and I had to read it again before I could read another book because it was so good.
Eden
32:45
I it's still sitting on my shelf. It has survived every purge that I've had and I've still never made it through it. Someday maybe. I keep it. Aspirationally every time.
Peter
32:54
It is it is a very weird book. I also have to say to them But it is very weird. His writing style is weird. The world is weird. But I love it so much.
Eden
33:08
That's fair. All right, number 22. Borat voice. My wife. My wife if you don't know my wife, Cassandra, she's the coolest woman who ever lived. Um Peter can feel free to disagree and say that it's his wife. However, I think I think she's pretty dang cool. I think my wife is the greatest person who has ever lived. Uh, and if you don't know where you should.
Peter
33:31
Nope. She she is pretty cool. Uh number 22. Now this may feel like I'm cheating and I'm not, because it's different enough that it counts. I previously said metal music, now I'm going to specify and say thrash metal. I love thrash. I love the attitude. I love the edge. I love the anger. I love that so much thrash metal is politically and socially conscious and charged in a way That music that sounds like it's just dumb stuff shouldn't be that smart, but it fucking is.
Eden
34:01
Hell yeah. All right, next up, number twenty-three. Neurosis is given to the rising. Is it Neurosis's best album? No. Through Silver and Blood is their best album. Is it my favorite one? Because it's the first one I ever heard and I said, Oh my God in heaven, what is this music? Yes, given to the rising. It's great.
Peter
34:22
It is it is a stunning work of art. And yes, for both of us, it was the gateway drug. So yep. Okay, number 23 for me. Biscuits and gravy. I always liked biscuits and gravy, and then I spent four years in the South going to medical school. And biscuits and gravy is just the best. It's horrible for you, but it's incredible.
Eden
34:49
Oh, so good. Alright, next up 24 for me. The bad movie bros. I love to get together and watch bad movies with my friends. We do it over Google Hangouts almost every Sunday night. We get together once or twice, you know, every month or two to watch them in person. and heckle and eat pizza and drink malort and it's the best.
Peter
35:11
Yep. Sounds fun. Number twenty-four for me, my office. I did not ever have an office until I was Quite far along in my life. And now that I have an office, I love my office. It's where I work, it's where I think, it's where I write. Uh it's great. I love it.
Eden
35:33
I forgot to start a timer, but that was about 15 seconds.
Peter
35:36
That's what I figured.
Eden
35:37
That was beautiful. I was grabbing a prop for my next one because number 25 is my DAP Look at that cute thing. It's adorable. It's like a tape player. When the it's off, so it's gonna take too long to turn on because it takes too long to turn on. It looks like a tape player, but it plays my music and it's cute and it's fun and I like it a lot. Uh it feels weird to carry so many devices again, but it's also fun.
Peter
36:03
Can I tell you a secret?
Eden
36:05
What?
Peter
36:06
In that closet right there behind me, I have that dAP.
Eden
36:10
It's cute. Do you have it in pink? It is cute.
Peter
36:12
Nope, nope. I don't have it in pink. I think mine's just the boring black. My only complaint about it, and I didn't play around with it very much, and I should was that it seemed to me like it just wants to read things based on file structure and it didn't give me like I I I have other dApps and I like having being able to look at a artist versus album versus whatever instead of just looking at it in terms of folders.
Eden
36:35
The easiest way to do it on this thing is absolutely to just go to the file explorer.
Peter
36:40
Yeah. Yeah.
Eden
36:42
Which, you know, it's not ideal, but it's cute as hell and was not very expensive.
Peter
36:46
It is. I I know we're a little a little off here, but did you see the new FIO Snow Sky DAP that has been released in China and announced?
Eden
36:58
It's smaller.
Peter
36:59
Well, it's a it it it looks like a mini-disc player.
Eden
37:02
Oh, I haven't seen that one.
Peter
37:04
Oh yes. There's a new one that looks it's Another one? It's square but with a s it's a little square with a circular screen in the middle. I saw it and I lusted after it so much.
Eden
37:15
I again we're a little off on tan on a tangent, but I'm gonna allow it. Minidiscs were the coolest. Minidiscs were so cool. They should have survived, they should have won, they should have beaten the CD because then the CD is safe. How many times did you scratch a CD and then you were like, no, I can't listen to it now?
Peter
37:33
Oh, we all did. We all did.
Eden
37:35
The mini disc combined the power of the hard floppy disc. And the size capacity of the uh CD-ROM without looking kind of dumb like a zip drive. It was beautiful. I wish it had survived.
Peter
37:51
It is true. All right, 25 for me, halfway through, the Steam Deck. I love the Steam Deck. I have more powerful handhelds, but I play the Steam Deck more. Steam OS is nice. I love the start and stop and the resume instant and turn it off and pause it and it reinvigorated my love for playing video games.
Eden
38:12
I like my Steam Deck. Alright, number 26 for me, Pinky and Pepper Forever. This is the best book that Silver Sprockett published last year Two psychotic dog girl lesbians go to hell. That's it. That's great. I love it.
Peter
38:29
There you go. Okay, next one for me. Creatine monohydrate. I love creatine monohydrate. I take 15 grams every day. I'm actually working on an article that I've been researching and I'm going to turn it into a video as well over it in perfect practice. But it has made a huge difference in my mental energy and capacity, and I love it.
Eden
38:51
Huh, interesting. Alright, next up for me, my local Asian grocer chongs. Starting to shop at like small, like immigrant-owned grocers has really transformed the way that I cook, the sorts of things that I cook, and the sorts of flavors that I cook with, all for the better.
Peter
39:10
Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure. Okay, the next one for me, and this is kind of a particular thing, so it is the experience of watching the Lord of the Rings movies for the first time. I like the Lord of the Rings movies a lot, but they're a little bit much to try and go back and watch regularly, for me at least. But that experience of the first time watching them and realizing that they've been brought to life in, I think, as good a way as they possibly could have was awesome.
Eden
39:41
Hell yeah. I've been listening to a podcast where they are reading The Hobbit, um, and they're uh bonus episodes are have been they watched the first Hobbit movie. Two of the three hosts have never seen any of the Hobbit movies. Sounds dreadful. But I'm very excited for them to get back to the Lord of the Rings and be like, man, Peter Jackson used to be able to make a movie.
Peter
40:01
I still haven't watched the Hobbit movies because I don't want to spoil that experience.
Eden
40:05
I saw the first one and it was so dire that I said I will never watch any more of these.
Peter
40:10
I think that's smart.
Eden
40:12
Alright. Next up, number 28, doll houses. Do you know what's great building model kits? Do you know what's even more fun putting them in a house that you designed for them? Especially if they're robots and then you're making cute little sofas for them to sit on, having one of them reading the tw Taylor Swift biography on the sofa with a robot dog next to them. That's great.
Peter
40:34
I love that. Uh number twenty eight for me. I don't think so.
Eden
40:40
Well, I'm gonna have to send you a pick of the dollhouses. I th I've Have I not sent you pics of either of the two rune boxes I've made?
Peter
40:48
Uh you know, I think you did at some point a long time ago.
Eden
40:51
Okay, well, I'm gonna send them to you while you do your next one, because you send them.
Peter
40:55
Okay, number 28 for me, uh sitting down with a physical book that you are thoroughly enjoying reading. Look, I love reading on a Kindle, I love the versatility, I'm glad I have a Kindle. But nothing is the same as sitting down with a good physical book, smelling the paper, holding it in your hands, feeling its weight, and luxuriating in the experience of reading the book.
Eden
41:18
I agree. I read digitally a hell of a lot these days because carrying around my book's Palma is just too easy, but I sure prefer reading on paper. Alright, number 29 for me, coffee. I love coffee. I wake up every morning, I grind my own beans, I use my little pour over to make a very fine cup of coffee. I do adulterate it with uh Splenda and Kramer because I'm a baby, but I do love it.
Peter
41:46
I think that's fair. I'd have to do the same, I'm sure. Uh number 29 for me, as we previously mentioned, discovering a new band that has actually been around for years. It's amazing. You find a band, you like something, and then you go and you look. Oh my gosh, look at all this music. It happened to me recently with Krater. It happened with Exodus once I saw Slayer and I saw that Gary Holt was playing and I figured I'd listen to his other band. Kind of happened with Testament because I didn't get into them until 2007. I love finding a band that has a rich back catalog. It's incredible.
Eden
42:18
Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Uh when I found out who Terry Riley was and I was like, how much weird neoclassical music do I have to go through now? Decades? This man's been writing music for decades? It was great. Alright, next up for me, the art of the independent mangaka Anado. They are a weird non-binary independent mangaka and I love all of their work and I am so excited every time they put out another collection of weird short stories and I just recently got their latest ones and they were delightful and I love all of their work.
Peter
42:54
Cool. Number 30 for me, banana cream pie. It's my favorite treat. It's my favorite dessert Anybody wants to know on my birthday what do I want? I want a good banana cream pie. I like coconut. I like other fruit pies, but banana cream pie is, as far as I'm concerned, the king of all cakes, pies, or anything of its ilk.
Eden
43:16
Most I feel like pudding pies are not very popular. That's interesting.
Peter
43:20
Love it.
Eden
43:21
I like a pudding pie. Cassie hates them, but I like one. Alright, number 31 for me. Hikaru Utada's songs for the Kingdom Hearts games. Do I play Kingdom Hearts? No. Do I listen to other Hukaru Utada songs? Yes, I do, but that doesn't matter. Because I'm here to talk about Simple and Clean and Sanctuary, two of the greatest songs that have ever been featured in video games ever, and you listen to them and you're like This is for the shitty game with the big chewed man and Mickey Mouse? What the fuck, dawg?
Peter
43:51
Yeah. Okay. Number 31 for me. We're dipping back into the music. Well, death metal. I love death metal. Took me a little while to get there. Took me a little while to get over the harsh vocals. But once I did, I realized Oh my gosh, I didn't know you could sing in caps lock the whole time. Why did we not just do this all the time in every song ever? Fuck yes.
Eden
44:16
Hell yeah. All right, number 32 for me. Digital accessibility. Is this me talking about my job the same way Peter was talking about urology? Yes, it is. Do I think it is super cool, super important, and do I get mad when people try to minimize it? Yes, I do. Uh it's cool and it's important and you should do it because it's a civil rights issue and this is a moral and ethical stance to have.
Peter
44:36
A brief aside here, really quick, because I think that this is an important thing for us to bring up. I, you know, I'm more I'm working on this YouTube channel and this newsletter, and I have made a number of videos about some of the e-ink tablets and devices that I have used. And one of the big ones that I liked, uh thought I wanted to like, and then I got rid of was the Remarkable Paper Pro. It uh I hated the way it felt to write. But one of the knocks against it was when you put EPUBs on there and then you go into read them. And you know, an advantage of an EPUB is you should be able to adjust the font, its size, it's different, that kind of stuff. And I criticized harshly the Remarkable Paper Pro because changing the font while on a Kindle or something is almost instantaneous. On this, it took four to seven seconds each time you went made any adjustment. And I recently had a criticism, a comment on one of the on that video where I I criticized the remarkable paper pro for this. And the comment was the following. It was, why do you even care? I don't ever change the font on my Kindle. You just use the font that comes and you should this isn't a big deal. Shut up. And the reason I bring this up is because I don't care if you don't want to be able to change the font on that. But there are people who should fucking be able to do it to make it more accessible for them to read the stuff. in a way that is better for them and that is the advantage of having it digitally and people don't think about it because they don't use it and that doesn't mean it doesn't fucking matter. It fucking matters.
Eden
46:11
Amen. As I said, this is a civil rights issue. And people don't think about disability that way, but disability is absolutely a civil rights issue. So if you're out here saying, Oh, we shouldn't accommodate or make things accessible for disabled people, then you are on the wrong side of civil rights. And I bet you're not out here being like I would've you're out here like I would have marched in Selma, except I hate these cripples who think they deserve to have a parking spot. Yeah, then you wouldn't have been marching at Selma, baby.
Peter
46:37
Yep. Agree. People don't think about accessibility and they don't think it's an important an important thing because it doesn't pertain to them and they're stupid and they're wrong.
Eden
46:47
Yeah, there was one time I this is I'm going off on a tangent, but this is in my own.
Peter
46:51
This is an important tangent.
Eden
46:53
There I was at a conference and I was presenting at this conference. And this guy was like, I don't know why I have to do all this digital accessibility stuff because uh, you know, I teach digital art. You it's p impossible to be blind and teach digital and learn to do art. digitally. And luckily there was an instructor from another university there who teaches digital art and who had a master's student who was blind. So she was able to push back on him. And I was so grateful for her voice there. And then afterwards I went up to talk to her and she said, Well, that guy's kind of a bigot, huh? And I was like, Yeah, he sucks. I hate his guts.
Peter
47:32
Anyway. Yep. All right. Back to to the task at hand. I love the book, The Trilogy, Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn by Tad Williams. I know a lot of people go back and they read The Lord of the Rings every year, every few years, and that's great, that's fine. I'm happy for you. I don't. But you know what I do read about every five years? I go back and I read Memor Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. They're not widely read as much, but they're great. And I think that it got me into medical school at least in one part to Duke. So there we go.
Eden
48:01
There you go. Number 33 for me, Tilly Waldens on a Sunbeam. When people ask me, what's the best single-volume comic you could ever read, Eden? I say Tilly Waldon's on a sunbeam. It's sad, it's beautiful, the art is incredible, it tells a compelling story, it's just quiet and beautiful and wonderful.
Peter
48:22
Nice. Uh number 33 for me, Taskmaster. I love Taskmaster. We have finally finished it all all 20 seasons. all champion of champions, all New Year's treats, but it made me laugh so hard. I loved it. And I'm trying to figure out how long I have to wait till I can start watching it again without my wife thinking I'm crazy.
Eden
48:44
I think you could start it now. It's fine. She doesn't need to who cares if she thinks you're a little crazy. All right. Number 34 for me. This might be recency bias. The thing. I just went to a grindhouse showing of The Thing last week. Do you know what movie's great even on the big screen? Maybe even better. 1982's The Thing. One of the greatest movies ever made. Maybe my favorite horror movie. It's very good.
Peter
49:09
I am scarred for life by it.
Eden
49:11
It's f great.
Peter
49:13
Yes, and our father should not have let me watch it when I was seven years old.
Eden
49:18
Absolutely not.
Peter
49:20
Number 34 for me, lifting weights. I love picking up heavy shit and putting it back down again. It's great. I love the way it makes me feel. I love what it can do to my body. I love lifting weights. It is probably the first time I've ever had a type of exercise where I'm like, hell yeah, I'm gonna do that.
Eden
49:39
That's good. It's very hard to exercise if you don't feel that way about it.
Peter
49:43
It's true.
Eden
49:44
That's why it needs to warm up a little bit so I can get back on my goddamn bike. Yeah. Gotta stop having these, you know, eight degree high days. Number 35 for me, Godspeed You Black Emperors F Sharp, A Sharp, Infinity. It's their first major album. It's not their best album, but it's my favorite. And uh it starts with that weird haunting monologue at the far that start that because one of them's a failed filmmaker was supposed to be the monologue to the opening of his film and instead they made one of the greatest uh post rock albums ever made.
Peter
50:17
You know, that is a band. Every time you bring it up, I think to myself, I need to go listen to them, and then I forget.
Eden
50:24
Yeah, they're they're good. They won't be to your taste, but they're very good.
Peter
50:27
Yeah. I don't think it's going to be something I'm going to love, but it's something I want to experience.
Eden
50:31
You should.
Peter
50:32
So uh number 35, the people I work with daily. Uh I have an amazing work partner. He's awesome. I have two incredible PAs. I have a wonderful office manager, and I have front office staff and nurses who are just They're great people, they care a lot about our patients, but they're fun to talk to, and they are good friends because they're good people.
Eden
50:55
That's so important. It makes your job so much easier if you like the people you work with.
Peter
50:59
Absolutely does.
Eden
51:01
All right, number 36 for me. Feels a little redundant based on other things I've talked about. Tea. I love tea. I love coffee. But I love tea in different ways. It does things that are different for me. At 8 a. m. , 7 a. m. I want coffee. The rest of the day, I drink a lot of tea. I love tea. Prepared every possible way. Grandpa to gong fu and everything in between.
Peter
51:24
And you know, I despise hot beverages in any and all forms.
Eden
51:29
Have you seen the trend going around where they're like, I am here to inform you, you are now Chinese. And so everyone is making jokes about how they're now Chinese? Have you seen any of this on social media? I have not. Anyway, one of the big things they joke about where they're like, well, you're Chinese now. I'm here to tell you you're Chinese now. That means you don't drink s cold beverages anymore. So you need to start drinking hot water. Uh and I don't do that because I'm not Chinese. I'm extremely white and I am extremely the child of Becky Jones. So I need my water to be so cold it hurts a little when you drink it.
Peter
52:02
100%.
Eden
52:03
But tea, oh, I love tea.
Peter
52:05
There you go.
Eden
52:06
You feel I I'm going a little long, but I think this is okay. You feel like you are part of an uh of a thousands years long cultural conversation when you drink tea because every single culture has made a beverage of this ilk putting leaves or or other, you know, vegetable material into water, turning it into a beverage and then drinking it. Cacao in the Americas, mate in South America, Mormon tea in North America. Coffee in Ruibos in Africa, tea all through Asia, different types of tea. And it feels like you're part of the human conversation when you're drinking these beverages. And I love that about it.
Peter
52:50
There you go. Uh this one is my longest title, so I apologize. When you blow your nose and you finally knock loose that big old booger and suddenly you can breathe freely. I don't need to say anymore. Everyone knows what I'm talking about. You just you feel it and then you blow, you blow, and then all of a sudden you hear that as it shoots out, and then you go. Relief. Yep.
Eden
53:18
Alright, we've talked about I don't watch a whole lot of TV, but the next one is my favorite TV show, Babylon 5. Oh hey, did you ever want to watch a long-running sci-fi show with really pertinent themes made on a budget of approximately three dollars per episode, Babylon 5 is there for you. Uh it's so masterfully done, it doesn't even matter that it looks like shit and uh cost three dollars. It's great.
Peter
53:42
Cool. Number 37 for me. I love listening to interesting and or informative podcasts. I like smart conversations from smart people. I like learning. I like understanding things. Some tech podcasts I listen to are a little bit over my head technically, but I still find it fascinating. Uh I just like learning from smart people and hearing how they think.
Eden
54:06
I listen to a lot of podcasts. It's my primary thing that I do while I'm working or while I'm playing video games. I like podcasts a lot.
Peter
54:13
Yeah.
Eden
54:14
Alright, number 38 for me. I'm in love with the villainess. I've talked multiple times about why I love this series so much. It's still true. It's one of my favorite book series of all time. I'm trying to figure out how to make a tattoo based on I'm in love with the villainess, because I love those characters so much. And I'm trying to figure out what should be the little thing that I get to tattoo on my body, because I love that series so much.
Peter
54:36
Very nice. Number 38 for me, and remember this was randomized. That's why this is as low as it is. Spending time with and laughing with my wonderful wife. Uh last night I was helping her run some lines for a play she's in. We were doing it in Hoity Toity British Accents, because that's what it's supposed to be. And then for some reason I started to read the other lines. in a Mater accent. And the next thing we knew, we were both laughing so hard we were crying and couldn't breathe as Mater was saying these posh British things.
Eden
55:04
I I love that. You know what? We're lucky folks. We married good women and we're pretty lucky. And to be honest, they're lucky too, because we're pretty good partners. So I think we try.
Peter
55:16
I think that's the thing. So I I I am comfortable saying we both do our damnedest to be good partners.
Eden
55:22
Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Alright, number 39 for me. The 1970s and 80s, I mean they're still around, but they were big in the 70s and 80s. Jazz fusion band Cassiopeia. Uh sometimes you just want to listen to some weird jazz fusion from the late 70s, and that is when you put on Cassiopeia's self-titled debut, one of my favorite albums of all time. Keep in mind this is spelled C-A-S-I-O-P-E-A, not like The uh star, uh what do you call those things? Constellation.
Peter
55:52
There you go.
Eden
55:53
It's a Japanese band who didn't know how to spell the word Cassiopeia, so they spelled it funny. And it's spelled like a Casio keyboard, because that's what you play.
Peter
56:01
There you go. Perfect. Number 39 for me. I love smelling good and wearing nice cologne slash parfume. I have a lot of different good smells that I put on myself each morning, and people that I work with really like it as well. And I get lots of comments about how good I smell each day when I go to work, and I like that.
Eden
56:22
You know, me too. And I think it was because of a conversation you and I had. I think it was when we went to Comic-Con together and you were talking about uh like using clones and stuff, and I was like I think I want to start smelling good too. And so I all I subscribed to like a monthly box where they send me a scent every month. It's a different scent.
Peter
56:41
Yep.
Eden
56:42
And I love not knowing what it's gonna be. It's always been good.
Peter
56:45
Yeah.
Eden
56:46
But I totally it encourages me to put it on every day because I know I've got a month's worth and I gotta get through it because I got a backlog now. Because I'm not actually good about putting it on every every single day. There's some days where you're rotten in bed and you don't necessarily put your perfume on. But uh yeah, no, I I tend to gravitate. I do I did sign up for it and they were like, do you want this for ladies or for guys? And I was like, give me them lady smells. I want to smell floral. And so sometimes you smell like a sultry, sultry lady. And sometimes you kind of smell like a grandma, but I don't care. It's great.
Peter
57:19
Very nice.
Eden
57:20
All right, number 40 for me. Uh Keichi Arawi's City, the sequel to Nichi Joe. Even more madcap, even more wonderful. The show was great. The comic was great. Do you want to laugh your head off? Go read andor watch City.
Peter
57:35
Cool. Number 40 for me, the album Slow Forever by Cobalt. We've talked about this more than one occasion. It is my most listened to album over the last decade since it came out I am saddened that we will never get another cobalt album. There is a a rawness, there is a pain, there is a just tiredness with the world in this album that speaks to me deeply.
Eden
57:58
Hell yeah. All right, number 41, echoing one you did earlier. A clicky mechanical keyboard. Oh yeah. I love my clicky mechanical keyboard. It drives my wife crazy. And all I can say to her is, aren't you glad I don't got blues in there, babe? Aren't you glad I got some Ruby Reds? Because I love the clicky clicks. And every time I have to use a membrane keyboard, it makes me sick inside.
Peter
58:21
Yup. Yep. Number 41, my bed. I have a very nice bed. that has a very nice temperature-controlled mattress topper. It was a lot of money, but I spend enough time in my bed that it was so, so worth it, and I love it. It is wonderful.
Eden
58:41
Our bed is getting on in years. Um We got it before we moved to this house? I think we got it before we moved into our house. So it's like a da decade plus old. It's still holding up. But at the time it was A big purchase. We were poor and it was a big purchase. But you know, we do spend a lot of time in it. I don't spend three I don't spend a third of my life in it like uh either you're supposed to. I do spend a quarter of my life in it, so it needs to be good. All right. Next up for me, number forty two. Mariner by Cult of Luna and Julie Christmas. I just wanted to put a metal album on here and guess you know what's really fucking good because I remembered about it when I was putting it on my dab the other day? Mariner by Cult of Luna and Julie Christmas. God damn that's a fun album to listen to.
Peter
59:33
Oh my gosh, it is it is so good. It actually interestingly ties directly into my next one, which is post-metal music. I love postmetal. The build, the atmosphere, just everything about it. It is it is haunting. It's often heavy as fuck. It is so good. Neurosis, cult of Luna, the old band ISIS, just Post metal is amazing.
Eden
59:58
I threw Mariner on today at work and then afterwards the Spotify just plays related albums because that's how they've got it set up on the iPad at work. Yep. So they was playing Isis. It was playing Eurosis. It was playing uh you know all sorts of other deep cuts. I think they had the ocean on there at one point. I think it had Rosetta on there at one point. And I was just like Damn, it feels like going home, man. I ain't been listening to a lot of this lately for reasons that we'll get to later on in this list. Uh my next up, number 43, again, proof that these are all randomized. My dogs. I do they drive me crazy? Yes. Um do they cost too much money now that four out of five of them are on daily meds? Yes. Uh, do I love them to death, even though they're all uh on the precipice of uh even though they're all one to two feet in the grave? Yes, I do. I love my dogs.
Peter
01:00:50
Yep. Number 42 on a much more frivolous note. I love that I can wear scrubs at work all day every day. Scrubs are comfy. There's a reason people like to wear scrubs. I have the excuse that I'm either in surgery or I am doing procedures even when I am in the office. So that is my excuse to basically wear pajamas all day, every day.
Eden
01:01:12
That's living. All right, number 44 for me. Adachi and Shimamura. I it makes me cry every time I think about volume 99. 9. Uh I've never read a book series that made me feel that emotional about a romance as Adachi and Shimamura. Volume 13, please come out. Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on.
Peter
01:01:34
Uh number 44 for me. I love getting a new tech gadget. I'm a gearhead. I'm a gadget person. I love it. It's fun. I like getting a new tech gadget. I like playing around with it. I like checking it out. I like putting it through its paces. It's just fun. And sometimes it means I get tech gadgets I don't need, but it's fun.
Eden
01:01:52
Truer words never spoken. All right, number 45 for me. And this is gonna be a silly one, but I picked it anyway, and it's proof that these are a list of favorite things, not my number. Fifty favorite things. Nineteen ninety eight's Godzilla, starring Matthew Broderick. Yes, you're asking yourself Eden, why you love Godzilla? Why did you pick that Godzilla movie? In fact, you made Peter watch a number of superior Godzilla movies on this exact fucking podcast. And I'll tell you why, because I love that little lizard boy. I remember sobbing in the theater with you at that theater that was over in North Salt Lake across from the Kmart and it was like us and one other person and I was sobbing when he was getting shot by the missiles and I loved it.
Peter
01:02:33
Yep. I remember that too.
Eden
01:02:38
One of the best set tie-in soundtracks that has ever.
Peter
01:02:41
Oh yeah. Oh yeah.
Eden
01:02:43
They got Rage Against the Machine to come and say Godzilla, pure motherfucking filler. To keep your mind off the real killer. And they put that on the album. They put Rage Against the Machine saying, this is fucking bullshit, trying to disguise the way capitalism is taking everything from you. And then they put it on the album. And we all spent $14 to buy it.
Peter
01:03:04
That's true. We did. Okay, number 45 for me. I love a nice pen and a good notebook to write by hand in. Uh again, I've been on a long journey looking at e-ink tablets and all this kind of stuff, and I keep finding myself coming back to just a nice notebook with good paper and a good pen. There is something just Primal about that in a way that it feels better.
Eden
01:03:30
Yeah, I'm with you. Alright, number 46 for me, RC from the Transformers. She's a cool character. She's got cool designs every single time. I got a whole box behind me in the video that you can't really see because it's too far away of every RC figure that I own. She's cool. And uh I like Arcee. I think she's a great little character.
Peter
01:03:51
Excellent. Number 46 for me. Uh breathing during the night while I sleep. I love my CPAP machine. I thought I was going to hate it. I resisted it for far too long. And now I desperately love it. I I love not waking up with a headache in the morning. I love waking up feeling like I got oxygen and it's great.
Eden
01:04:16
When I hear about people who don't use their CPAPs because they're like, it's so much effort. It's so worth it's so much it's so annoying. I don't care. I don't care that there's a big tube. I don't care that I have a stupid collapsible arm that holds this hose up so that it doesn't get tangled on me in the night. You know what? I sleep and I can, you know, the fact that Liza wakes me up three times in the night to let me take her outside and piss. I can still get enough sleep I can function the next day. Because you know what I couldn't do before I took the C got the C Pap? Even though I was sleeping the whole night? Because this was way before we had dogs that were senile old bitties who needed to go outside three times a night. I wasn't sleeping. I was falling asleep and in class or driving a car or all of these dangerous places where you shouldn't be falling asleep.
Peter
01:05:06
Uh-huh. If I sat down, I felt I was asleep. Yep. And I and I and I got a stomach ulcer Because of the ibuprofen I took, because I'd had a headache every single day for I don't know, I don't even know how many years. And within like a week The headache was gone.
Eden
01:05:27
I remember I went and did the sleep study and it was in person. It was uh old long enough ago. It was before they started doing the kits that they send to your house, which is how basically everyone does it now. But we had a sleep study place here in town. So I went and I did it and they came and cause, you know, like the when you do it they they do at least an hour of reading and then if you are up above a certain amount per hour, I think it was like thirty per hour, thirty apnea per hour, then they would fit you that night instead of having you come back for a visit and then doing it again. They woke me up at one hour on the dot because I had over a hundred in one hour. And so they were like, put this on literally right now, dog. And then I remember waking up that next morning and I had only gotten about like four hours of sleep.
Peter
01:06:14
Right.
Eden
01:06:15
But feeling rested in a way that I had not felt rested in years. And I remember going home and just crying when I got home. And being so despondent that I then had to wait for them to process this stuff and send it to insurance. And it took like two and a half weeks for me to get the CPAP after that. It was two and a half weeks of hell because I knew what I could feel like once I had the thing.
Peter
01:06:36
Yeah, see, I I will admit I did not have that because I just didn't. I grabbed a a a nurse practitioner who worked in our sleep clinic and I said, yo dog, I know I have sleep apnea. Will you just write me a prescription? And he said, sure. He said, we don't have to program it.
Eden
01:06:53
They're all um All the APAPs, yeah.
Peter
01:06:56
Exactly. They're all APAPs. He was like, don't Just here. And I ordered it from the cpapshop. com. And for me, that was like the long wait. Because once I had made my mind up, this is something I need to do. I just wanted it. And yeah, like again, it's the reason I have a travel one. It's the reason like I won't fall asleep without it unless I am sitting straight up. in a chair. Then if it happens accidentally, okay. But if it's a planned I'm gonna fall asleep, I don't even care. If I'm taking a nap, I will go grab my travel one and I will throw the travel one on and kick back in my recliner for a half an hour.
Eden
01:07:33
I can't I can't nap because A, sun's up and my body's like, you don't sleep, sun's up.
Peter
01:07:38
Oh yeah. B I mask.
Eden
01:07:40
B I I have to I have to have the CPAP on.
Peter
01:07:43
Yeah, 100%.
Eden
01:07:44
All right. Number 47 for me. Uh, reading the apothecary diaries aloud to my wife. I like these books. I think they're very fun books, but rereading them to her and experiencing them again through her eyes and having that intimate moment of just like sharing it with her And you know, we do it when we're laying in bed and we're getting ready for bed. And she's like, hey, read some Mau Mau to me. And then we read some apothecary diaries. And it's been a delight. We're most of the way through book six at this point.
Peter
01:08:13
Nice. Number forty seven. My homemade cinnamon rolls and how much my family loves them. I make these on Christmas morning. I make them on Easter morning. That's the only time I make them. They're very labor intensive. They have so much butter and sugar. They are horrible for you. They are absolutely incredible and my kids absolutely love them and just the smile on their face when they have them ever those two times a year is priceless.
Eden
01:08:38
Nice. All right, 48 for me. Book club. I love the book club that my friends and I all have where we don't all read the same book. We all get together at a bar, have some drinks, and talk about whatever it is we've been reading. Is it an excuse to hang out? Yes. But do we j also talk about books? Also, yes. But really it's just an excuse to build community and hang out with my friends
Peter
01:09:00
cannot under or overstate how important it is doing that.
Eden
01:09:04
So it's so good.
Peter
01:09:06
Number 48 for me, Indian food. I love Indian food. If I could only pick one particular ethnicity or type of food or whatever to eat for the rest of my life, if I had to, I would choose Indian food. I absolutely love it. It's amazing. It's wonderful.
Eden
01:09:22
What's your favorite dish?
Peter
01:09:23
Uh, you know, it I don't know. Sometimes I love a Sog Paneer. Sometimes I love like a chicken corma. Um I like a I love a butter chicken. I I mean, I just I don't know. It depends on the day. I love them.
Eden
01:09:38
Fair. All right. Number 49 for me is oddly enough, also food. Uh tomato egg, which is a Chinese dish. It's kinda silly. You make some tomatoes and then you add a bunch of stuff to them and then you add scramble in some eggs and You eat it with some rice, but it's so good. It's one of my favorite dishes that I make. Uh also steamed eggs, Chinese steamed eggs, but tomato egg is my favorite.
Peter
01:10:04
Very good. Uh number 49 for me. I love learning new skills. Uh I'm approaching 50. I try and keep my brain as young as possible and I love learning new things. Part of the fun thing about this whole YouTube and newsletter has been learning how to use Final Cut Pro, learning about video editing, learning about making a video and thinking about it. And uh I love just whatever a new skill is, I love learning new skills.
Eden
01:10:29
Hell yeah. Alright, number 50, my last one. Um, this is maybe not the one I would choose to end on if I hadn't used a randomizer, but here we are. Uh the members of Blackpink's solo albums, because apparently I'm a K-pop girly now. Uh guess what's great? Lisa's solo album. Guess what's also great? Jenny's solo album. Guess what's also great? Rose's solo album. Guess what also great jungu's bow gee woo's solo album they're all very good go listen to them if you want to listen to some good k-pop there you go
Peter
01:11:02
Uh I'm actually ending on a music one as well. Thank the randomizer. I love a good live album. Uh I started listening to Creator. They have a 2000, a 2023 album that came out. titled uh live in Chile. It's really good. It's an excellent look back at their career. I love Exit Stage Left. Rush. I love all the world's a stage. Rush. I love a show of hands. rush. I love Alive in Athens from uh Iced Earth. I like Fate's Warnings live albums. I just a good live album is awesome to hear a band and go, they have the chops 'cause they can reproduce it live.
Eden
01:11:40
Hell yeah. Well, that's it, dear listeners. We made it. Only 75 minutes. That's pretty impressive. You know, I'm impressed by how quick we got through this. Um, but I hope this was fun. Uh I thought it was a blast. Um I've had a lot of fun just chatting with you about things that we really like.
Peter
01:11:55
Uh yeah, me too.
Eden
01:11:57
But that doesn't mean this is the last episode. It just means it's a milestone episode, and we will be back in a couple of weeks with some other silly idea. talking about something else fun. But until then, you can rate us and review us on your podcast platform of choice. Go check out our other shows, Generations, the show Peter hosts with his daughter Aubrey. Devotees again D-E-V-O-T-E-A-S uh dot transistor dot fm if you just want to go straight to the website. Um check out our shows. Um You can write us an email at feedback at the middle of culture. com if you feel so inclined. And again, we'll be back in a couple of weeks with something else fun.
Peter
01:12:35
Bye