2016 Wasn't Better & Neither Were We (minisode with Chris Lindstrom)

Emily: 00:00:45

ght at TJ Maxx that I wore in: 2016

Chris: 00:00:55

What a deal. Think of the resale value right now.

Emily: 00:00:59

I thought it was so cute at the time, and now I feel deeply ashamed.

Hello, and welcome to It's A Lot, a podcast about things that are a lot. I'm your host, Emily Hessney Lynch. This is a special episode today. It's just gonna be a fun little chat with me and my producer, Chris Lindstrom. So, Chris, thanks for being here.

Chris: 00:01:17

Hey, good morning. Yeah, it's a beautiful day, and I'm, you know, excited to. Excited to chat.

Had a great night last night, and I'm feeling good about things today, actually.

Emily: 00:01:27

That's nice. Yeah, we got some not too dismal weather, so that helps, too.

Chris: 00:01:32

It does. I mean, it's. It's a sunny day. We're out at the Behind the Glass anniversary show last night. And the amount of positivity, sometimes you need that influx of this group of people who are just excited about something. As somebody who struggles to be positive sometimes, most of the time, those nights are sometimes the ones that keep you pushing forward.

Emily: 00:01:55

That's really nice. Yeah. I'm excited for them moving into their new space. It'll be really cool.

Chris: 00:01:59

Yeah. Golden Supply. I haven't been in the space, to be honest. I saw some pictures. It looks like it just has all these little pockets of space that people can pair off and have conversation and maybe a different feel for the pictures. It's the opportunity to make something even a little bit bigger, even though it's already special, is kind of cool. It inspires me, too.

Emily: 00:02:21

Exciting stuff.

Chris: 00:02:23

Oh. So I am kind of intrigued. So we've been doing. We've been recording. How many episodes is it now that we've actually published on?

Emily: 00:02:32

It's 17.

Chris: 00:02:36

17 already?! God. It doesn't feel like it. doesn't feel like it's been that long, but it's been really fascinating sitting from the producer chair for people that don't follow the rest of the Lunchador podcast network. I host my own show, Food About Town, and I produce a number of the shows on the network in the studio here in my house.

And, you know, I talk different amounts on different ones. And it's so fascinating because I just sit here as a producer and I'm just producing and I'm paying attention so much to how is everything going? Where are the levels. How are the guests feeling? How are you feeling? How do you feel like it's going so far?

Emily: 00:03:15

It's been really good so far. I think I interviewed people so much at different points in my career that it's something I really enjoy doing.

And doing it in this format is really fun because it feels almost more personal than when I'm taking a lot of notes. Like when I did I Heart Roc, I took all my notes by hand and then I transcribed it.

Chris: 00:03:31

I forgot you did that all by hand!

Emily: 00:03:33

Yeah, yeah. I still have the notebooks. It's wild.

Chris: 00:03:36

Yeah. Because that is a very. It gives you a lot of time to process, which I know personally, sometimes I need. I don't feel things in the moment.

Sometimes I reflect on it later and I feel things. But processing quickly for, like, keeping something going or recording is something I do really well. And it has to be an interesting shift.

Emily: 00:03:59

Yeah. And it is something I notice when I interview someone who is more experienced being interviewed.

Like, a couple of the authors that I've had on the show are just so good at answering questions. Can go and go. And I'm like, I have to say something insightful or what should I say in response? And I can't think of anything.

And I'm like, "wow, great answer. Next question."

Chris: 00:04:18

It's weird when. And especially when you're like, your brain changes the more you do it a little bit. But it's so fun when. When they're so good at it.

It is a little jarring when I remember the first person that came on that just went. Just went. I'm like, "oh, this is how it can feel." But I think more that people listen to stuff. I think they know either they're trained or they do more work. It's really interesting to see sometimes if you're too trained, then you're also not bringing you. And it's. When somebody can do both at the same time, it's really special.

Emily: 00:04:53

Christy Roushey was, I think, the second episode or third, and she was one who. We had a good rapport already, and we could kind of get into, like, a very personal feeling conversation and just kind of have that flow state and go and go.

Chris: 00:05:04

oh, for sure. And it's. I guess they, like, those have been. There's that feel that happens when you're like, oh, this is going really well. And there's some where, hey, you have to do more work. Like, have you started to, like, be able to identify that earlier in a conversation now?

Emily: 00:05:19

Yeah, I can kind of feel it. And I think I over prepare for the interviews just in case, you know, if someone's moving too quickly and they've got all their scripted answers, then I want to have more things in the back of my mind to ask them, but also getting a little more comfortable kind of deviating from the questions I want to ask or going off on tangents, because that can be the most fun part of the conversation sometimes, as I think you know.

Chris: 00:05:38

I think it's also. That is such a specific skill too, and it's something that you have to work on.

I had to work a lot on is I did a lot of writing when I was starting doing like food stuff, which I think we covered in your long, long ago. The I Heart Roc days was like, I was writing and I didn't do much audio stuff and I hated writing just like so much. And it's.

You know, when you meet somebody who writes who writes good, you meet somebody who writes good, real good writing. But they're the ones where you see them sit down and there's just like the thoughts flow.

They can capture your attention with pacing and words and not words. And I'm like, oh, that's a skill that you have to get really good at. And I don't have it.

While this came easier to me was paying attention and trying to grab stuff from, you know, grab those threads. Some people can do that in writing way more. And some people are better at prepping. I just don't have it in me to prep.

I don't have it in me to write stuff down for interviews much anymore. But I love both sides. It's. It's never one is better than the other. It's. Each one's different.

But that means you have to learn different sides of the skill set, which this is. The part I love is being a producer and like running the network thing.

Emily: 00:07:06

It's interesting too. Like the things that I think are going, like some of the authors I was saying can just go and go and go. And I could listen to them for hours.

And I'm like, wow, this is amazing. And my husband Tim helps me with some of the graphics for the show. And I'll pull all these quotes and stuff and start putting them into the graphic.

And he'll be like, "this doesn't make sense to me. I don't understand what they're saying." And I'm like, "What do you mean? This is the deepest thing I've ever heard!"

But things just hit different for different people too. And it's just...

Chris: 00:07:31

oh, yeah. And that's when you're pulling clips. It's what hits you, and it's really hard. You never know. You never know what's the thing that's going to catch.

I don't even remember the last thing that was like. I was surprised at how much attention that got. I think for me, it was.

It was a couple clips from an episode I did with the guy that runs Open Face over at the George Eastman Museum. And I don't know why that one just caught. Just. It was something about, you know, maybe some nostalgia from when it was in the.

You know, when it's in the South Wedge. You know that feeling when you found that spot when people of our age were like, oh, or my age, especially like, oh, I'm out of college. I found this cool spot. I can't believe this spot exists. This is really neat. I wonder if it was that nostalgia or just like, hey, people, follow the George Eastman Museum. And that popped sometimes. You don't know.

Emily: 00:08:21

Yeah. Social media is so unpredictable. Like, some of the clips that have been really interesting and cool to me, I post and then they totally flop. And some that I'm like, I don't know if this will hit or not, take off.

Chris: 00:08:30

And yeah, it's. It's more of a mystery because I don't touch it nearly as much as you do. And I know algorithms are painful at best. Have you added anything recently? You know, whether it be. Doesn't have to be specifically about a client or anything else, but anything like, recently that you saw that you're like, oh, something algorithm that I just saw. Maybe I'm seeing it now that I didn't know it before?

Emily: 00:08:53

like, noticing the algorithm doing something?

Chris: 00:08:56

Yeah.

Emily: 00:08:57

Hmm. I don't know. I feel like all the suggested content Instagram does now is starting to drive me a little crazy because I'm trying to stay informed about politics in the state of the world and engaging with content about things that's depressing.

And then all my suggested content is more and more and more, and it's just so heavy to take all of that information and, like, I do want to know what's happening in Minnesota and care and do my part the best I can, but I don't want to see, like, hundreds and hundreds of posts with, like, blood and death. It's awful.

Chris: 00:09:27

It's. It is really challenging, especially with, I think everybody trying to mimic the, you know, the effectiveness of. I'm not saying plus or minus, but the effectiveness of the TikTok algorithm that it's so customized. To your thing. I think they're all trying to make that same thing happen.

But go on trends, and not just trends, but, like, it'll find this through line that you don't actually want, even though your brain is doing it.

Emily: 00:09:56

Yeah.

Chris: 00:09:57

And you're like, I don't want to be seen like this. I don't want to see that all the time. Even though sometimes your brain says, I'm seeing it.

Emily: 00:10:07

Yeah. And the speed of the algorithm, too, is kind of astonishing because I yesterday was searching, I need some new clients, so if anyone needs any social media or writing support, I'm available! But I was searching on Instagram for openings, and all of a sudden all of my sponsored ads became like, hiring sites, job sites, very spammy.

Like, looking for a social media manager? Click here, buy my course to learn how to be a professional blah, blah, blah!

Chris: 00:10:31

Like, did you buy the course? And how effective was it?

Emily: 00:10:35

I gotta just start my own course.

Chris: 00:10:37

And, you know, it's so weird how. How dominant that is, especially in the...I'm just going to say, like the LinkedIniverse or the extended LinkedIniverse that is now on TikTok with the shop and everything else, and how focused on the shop that. That it is now and that, you know, LinkedIn culture of. I'm the expert in my field.

Remember when it launched and it was like, yeah, you could become a visible expert in your field. And now everybody says they're an expert in their field. I'm like, the hell you are! Like, not everybody's an expert in your field.

Like, I've been in, like, my day job in the same industry now for 14 years, and I don't think I'm an expert in my field. I know a lot and I'm pretty good. But like, there's these people who are in these fields for two and three years and they're writing guides. I'm like, why are you writing this? You don't know what you're doing yet!

Emily: 00:11:31

Oh, man. Yeah, it's rough. And half of it's, like, written by ChatGPT and sounds exactly the same and is meant to rage bait.

Chris: 00:11:36

You drives me crazy. I'm like, one grow up a little bit. Like, get to the point where you've gotten your teeth kicked in a little bit and then maybe you'll have something important to say to people.

Emily: 00:11:47

Yeah.

Chris: 00:11:48

on the road for months during: 2021

Emily: 00:12:04

Oh, wow.

Chris: 00:12:04

Which was a lot.

Emily: 00:12:06

And still pandemic-y then.

Chris: 00:12:08

Oh, completely. This was pre vaccine too.

Emily: 00:12:10

Wow.

Chris: 00:12:10

So I was in. It was in: 2020

But also sometimes not good is the way you end up learning things that you didn't know you were going to learn.

Emily: 00:12:47

Yeah. You grow a lot.

Chris: 00:12:48

Yeah. And not always in the ways you think you would have.

Emily: 00:12:51

inking about a lot this week.: 2016

Chris: 00:12:59

No. Are they. Are they referring to it as retro yet?

Emily: 00:13:03

Basically! people are saying it was our last good year and everyone's sharing photo dumps and being like, oh, we wore chunky statement necklaces and we went to concerts and skinny jeans are still like.

Chris: 00:13:15

What, what, what is. What is the. What's the store? The. The big was like furniture and other stuff in the mall, was it not Anthropologie or something? You know, the big, like statement stores at the corner.

Emily: 00:13:28

I think that was one.

Chris: 00:13:29

nk of that as like that, like: 2010

Emily: 00:13:45

Yeah. Right.

Chris: 00:13:46

Which is driving me crazy. So tell me about the trend. What have you seen so far?

Emily: 00:13:52

A lot of people are just sharing what their life was like 10 years ago. And for a lot of people, they didn't have kids yet, they weren't married yet. You know, they were in their 20s, they were drinking and going out and having fun and life was just very, very different. I've seen a few people jumping in on the trend, sharing like, I didn't know I was trans. Yeah. Or I didn't know I was queer and that kind of thing.

Last night, going through my: 2016

ave now I would not trade for: 2016

Chris: 00:14:59

But it's. I think that's, that's one of those things where you look back. I mean, I'm not, I don't want to speak for you, but I can see the veneer of who I am now. I can see some of those things that have the appearance of. Have the appearance of where I wanted to go. But I wasn't that yet.

ant. Even though like, I mean: 2016

And it is really interesting because I'm seeing like, I'm seeing things that I remember really, really intently because this was right in the heart, I think of. I was still, I think I was still writing for City at the time.

I had a different kind of visibility, but I'm just seeing like a picture of Niraj from Happy Earth Tea at his old shop. I'm like, oh, yeah, that was, that was a cool place. That was a good day.

Emily: 00:15:53

Yeah.

Chris: 00:15:54

But it doesn't seem like that long ago because I was, I mean I was already. I was already married at that point. We were already here. And it doesn't seem like that crazy long ago, but things have changed a lot since then.

Emily: 00:16:08

Yeah. Looking at the pictures I found last night, there were so many that were like very happy memories. Tim and I were out and about in Rochester all the time at like every new restaurant, coffee shop, our opening. And now that's like. I don't know if it was Covid or having kids. Part of me also thinks I was buying a house because we just stayed home more.

But we were doing a lot of cool things with so many of those businesses have closed now. And that made me sad, too. Like, I had pictures at Black Button and just so many different spots that are gone.

Chris: 00:16:35

Oh, absolutely. And I'm like, shockingly enough, most of my pictures are food pictures throughout, but I'm looking like, oh, that's when Fiorella opened.

Emily: 00:16:44

Wow.

Chris: 00:16:45

Right? And, like, I'm seeing pictures from, like, some of those first menus from there. I'm like, oh, and that's now a staple.

Oh, Playhouse Swillburger opening.

Emily: 00:16:54

Yeah.

Chris: 00:16:55

And like, oh, I was like, I was there all the time.

Emily: 00:16:58

I don't think Radio Social was even around yet. That was a year or two later, maybe.

Chris: 00:17:02

Yeah, no, it wasn't. And it was. They. That hadn't happened yet. That whole building was empty still.

Emily: 00:17:08

Yeah.

Chris: 00:17:08

Like, that whole thing. And now you have, you know, comedy, and we have that, you know, I'm looking back on. Oh, there's some bad memes. Okay. God.

Emily: 00:17:15

It did feel like a special time for Rochester with a lot of things popping off and people really loving and caring about the city in a way that felt kind of refreshing and energizing.

Chris: 00:17:24

For sure. I think it was in retrospect, it was the very start of. Of. It was kind of the start of things turning towards a little more positive.

Not to say that things are perfect. Obviously, they're not. But it seemed like there was that start of people feeling like the Rochester's an interesting place, was around there.

er college, for me, in, like,: 2005

But we all go through phases of how do we feel about it? It's not the same. It's not the same all the time. I don't feel positive all the time about Rochester. About anything.

Emily: 00:18:06

Yeah.

Chris: 00:18:07

But more often than not, maybe that there's opportunity, and then sometimes you kicked a little bit, and then you're like, oh, maybe not.

Emily: 00:18:14

ow posted a photo dump of her: 2016

Chris: 00:18:30

What a deal. I mean, think of the resale value right now!

Emily: 00:18:35

I thought it was so cute at the time, and now I feel deeply ashamed. But I will post a picture of it this weekend.

Chris: 00:18:42

Oh, God. Oh, geez. I'm seeing some podcasts we recorded here, like, in this room. I mean, take. Take a. I mean, I'm gonna, like, put it up, like, take a look at the old.

Emily: 00:18:53

here. I don't. I think it was: 2016

Chris: 00:19:00

Oh, no idea. But I think, you know, I look back and, like, oh, wow. All these moments, like, okay, oh, there's. There's good luck with Chuck and Pauly Guglielmo.

Emily: 00:19:12

Wow.

Chris: 00:19:12

and say, I want to go back to: 2016

That's where my brain goes, is, could I have done better? Because I. Could I have made a better impact with the stuff I know now, then that's the stuff I think about.

Emily: 00:19:38

Yeah. That's interesting.

Chris: 00:19:39

As a very solutions and activity kind of person. That's how I think. Always think about that as man, I could have done better. I could have been happier. That's how I think about those things. I never think that I want to go back because that was better.

Emily: 00:19:52

Yeah.

Chris: 00:19:53

It wasn't.

Emily: 00:19:53

Yeah.

Chris: 00:19:54

It was not better for me, but I could have done better is the thing I always think about.

Emily: 00:19:59

Interesting. My life was definitely easier then, and I was less tired, but I don't think it was better.

Chris: 00:20:05

Oh, I didn't have as much good coffee as I did, as I do now. Shout out to Joe Bean, the Guatemalan coffee this morning.

Emily: 00:20:13

Nice.

Chris: 00:20:13

A sponsor of the Lunchador podcast network. No, it's a. I'm a better person now than I was then. And that's.

I think that's the thing I can always look back on today, is I'm nowhere near perfect, but I'm a better person.

Emily: 00:20:25

Yeah.

Chris: 00:20:25

Than I was in: 2016

Emily: 00:20:26

We're always doing, doing the best with what we have and what we know what we can, but it's good to grow.

Chris: 00:20:31

Yeah, I hope so. If we're not, like, what's the point?

Emily: 00:20:36

One thing I was like laughing at last night in those photos was my family had a cottage in the Finger Lakes, and It was about 20 minutes from Auburn. And we would go in sometimes.

They'd have festivals on the weekends, and there was a woman I Have a picture of this dancing around in a Donald Trump mask in the street. And we all just thought it was silly. Like, we didn't think there was any chance he was gonna win. We're like, oh, what a joke. Ha, ha, ha, ha. But, like, I think she was an actual Trump supporter and not, like, making fun of him.

Chris: 00:21:02

It's such a difference. And, you know, as somebody who's. I would say, not very. I'm not saying it's even good that I do this.

I'm not a very visible person with my opinions, my deep opinions on things I do that purposefully, not in, like, the Michael Jordan, I don't have opinions because everybody spends money on my shoes kind of thing. That is certainly not why I do it is I like having in person conversations about things that I care about. I don't always think my.

My personal things need to be broadcast for me to feel them and for that to be valid. And I know a lot of. Especially, like, you know, people of my age and younger now, especially, like, the core of the. The millennial thing. There was a lot of personal blogging and a lot of those, like, big opinions out there. I don't know. I've always been very particular about that because I live in that gray area. Not. Not the.

Like, I'm in the middle of everything, but I live in the gray area because things are complicated. It's very distressing where things are today.

It's very distressing what's going on, like, you mentioned at the beginning in Minnesota and everything else. And it's always distressing. The thing that bothers me most, like I said, when I think about going back in time, it's, could I have been happier?

Could I have been better? The thing that distresses me most is that we were like, post facts. Like, we're past what facts mattering. We're past science mattering.

We're past experts mattering and all the effects that come from that. When we can watch a video that is like, all right, I can see all the angles. I'm seeing what's going on. The analysis is obvious. And it's really.

Then we're just gonna lie and that facts are irrelevant anymore. That's what bothers me. I mean, decorum, obviously, I don't like, we're all about respect, right?

I mean, think about the conversations that you've had on the show. How many of them are just, like, respecting people where they are?

Like, it's what half or more of the shows in one form or another, about you're living a different experience. Let's talk about it. Let's respect your journey. Let's learn about that. That's everything like that. That's everything. It's respecting facts and truth.

It's very sad. And that's the thing I can look back on, not with nostalgia, because the roots of it were already there to go where we are today.

And it was always there, just was not nearly as visible. I do look back at that and say, oh, we still. There was still that thought that facts mattered and science mattered.

That's the stuff I look back at, not fondly, but that's the stuff that distresses me. And that's the stuff I wish I was maybe more visible about with these kind of things.

Emily: 00:23:43

Just listening and being curious and open is so important. And it feels like a lot of people have lost that ability now. Or like I talk about empathy on the show and nuance, and I think the internet has made that collapse a lot. And we don't have those nuanced, empathetic conversations with a goal of actually understanding. Everyone just wants to yell and make their points and not care what the other person is saying.

Chris: 00:24:04

Yeah. It's because I. I don't know everything. Like, I know that I'm not. I'm not an expert in West Asian politics. I'm not an expert in the history of the region. I have thoughts, I have opinions. I want to learn from people. I want to. I want to be better about that.

But I have no interest in being cajoled into putting my opinions out in public. I don't think that's productive. I don't think it's useful in any way. I am happy to tell people what I think. Me talking is never the problem.

Emily: 00:24:35

No, I totally get that. A lot of people are like, you have to speak up. You have to say something about every issue.

And it's like, you might not be informed about every issue. You might change your mind.

You might, you know, like having real in person conversations about things, I think matters a lot more than saying something in a performative way, because people want you to.

Chris: 00:24:52

Context.

Emily: 00:24:52

Yeah.

Chris: 00:24:53

And context is important. We all learn things over time. We all hopefully are learning more and becoming more informed about the world and history and good things and bad things and joy and terror. Like, knowing context is important. It's kind of why I love doing this and why I've loved so many of the conversations that we've had on the podcast.

Look at that transition. Wasn't that good? That was slick, right?

Emily: 00:25:19

Nice.

Chris: 00:25:21

It's hard. I Don't. It's not a favorite. But was there one of the conversations that stood out where you're like, oh, that was.

You know, I learned something through this conversation, even though I was writing questions and knew the person somewhere. Like, you learned something interesting that you still think about.

Emily: 00:25:39

I think a couple of the recent ones come to mind, like talking to Leanne about bipolar disorder, because I didn't know much about what that was like, so I learned a lot about what that was like for her. And then Chloe talking about gender dysphoria.

That's something that I've always thought, like, yeah, I guess I kind of get what it feels like to not be in the right body. But her description of it was just so vivid and intense and really, like, brought to life what that feeling was like. So those were two for sure.

Chris: 00:26:05

Yeah. I gotta say, like, as somebody I knew online a little bit, it was great to meet Chloe in person. Like, how dynamic. I just love.

Emily: 00:26:13

She's awesome.

Chris: 00:26:13

I just love her personality.

Emily: 00:26:15

Yeah.

Chris: 00:26:15

Like, it's like. It's so there. And that's the thing that always, for me shines through the clearest, is all the people that I know through.

My wife Carrie is a traveling artist. She sells at the furry conventions all over the country.

CrazyDude.com she's in Boston right now, but I travel to a few of the conventions, and I've had just the great joy and pleasure to meet more people where I was in favor of. I mean, in favor is a dumb way to say it. Like, supportive. That people should be who they are, but you don't know that many people.

And then you go and you meet more people. Like, oh. Oh.

There's a spectrum of where people are on their journey and that people are learning about who they really are through that journey, and that everybody's trying to be the most self they can be. Like, that's the thing. Because it's never a light switch. I mean, it is a light switch, but there's still that journey.

And I love that we talked about that gray area that it wasn't perfect, but then you can find that contentness through that. That's inspiring. Yeah.

Emily: 00:27:24

When I asked.

Chris: 00:27:24

Cool.

Emily: 00:27:25

Yeah. When I asked Chloe about going out as a woman for the first time, I thought it was gonna be like, "wow. I felt like me finally. And I cried tears of joy." And she was like, "it was a horrible night! It was terrible. I got blah, blah, blah"

Chris: 00:27:36

I think that was my favorite moment of the whole episode. Because that's real. Because it's never it's never so clean. It's never so easy. I think that's.

That's my favorite part of any conversation is, man, what did you learn? What did you learn from that? Because you learned something about yourself or society or someone. And also, I was just looking up.

You mentioned the bipolar episode. I know. I did an interview for previewing Fringe. There's an artist named Amanda Andrews who's.

She's trying to get into, like, the big Edinburgh Fringe right now. She did a, like, one. One person stage play. Actually. She had a company, a live accompanimentist, which was awesome. It was called.

The show is called Bipolar Coaster, and.

Emily: 00:28:20

That's a great name.

Chris: 00:28:20

Oh, it's a tremendous name. It's so good. And she's. She's got this, like, big musical energy.

You know, sometimes you meet those people who are big musical people and the whole show. Yeah. Oh, 100%. And it had that vibe to it, but it still told a story of how do you get better at living with that and reckoning with it and having accepted it are all different things. It was such a fun show. But that up and down and finding a community that might understand you is.

That's the one from that, it's like, oh, yeah, now we talk about it. Now we have, you know, people will come and talk about him. Like, what a great thing.

Emily: 00:29:04

That's awesome.

Chris: 00:29:05

That's cool.

Emily: 00:29:05

Yeah. Two of my other favorite episodes I wanted to shout out were Ella Dawson last fall and Jon-Stephen Stansel.

lowed online since, like, the: 2016

Chris: 00:29:27

That's awesome.

Emily: 00:29:28

And then Ella and I are, like, actually friends now and we text and she sent me a copy of her current novella to, like, be a beta reader for. So that's really cool.

Chris: 00:29:36

Yeah. And I say both of them. Those felt so easy from the producer chair. Those just felt so. So simple.

When they feel so easy, sometimes those are the ones that just, like, they just flow.

And it helped that both of them, like, we were talking about earlier, they're pros, like Jon-Stephen, like, oh, you're getting, like, complete thoughts for every question you asked. Both touching on history, but somebody who knows how to do this. Those are such a delight. I'm like, oh, geez, I don't even have to Think about this.

But both of them also gave really good answers. I mean, Ella was very straight, you know, very forthcoming about the ups and downs of doing that.

But both are great and so interesting, dynamic people too. I mean, who doesn't want to learn about James Beast and all the stuff that he gets into?

Emily: 00:30:26

What a character.

Chris: 00:30:28

What a wild guy.

Emily: 00:30:29

I'll tell you a story that I might cut, I have to see if Ella's okay with me sharing it, but she told me that...I'm always feeling like these videos are kind of going out into the void when I share them.

Chris: 00:30:38

Yeah.

Emily: 00:30:38

One of the clips we shared on social was about her being childfree by choice. She had someone slide into her DMs and say, "a friend of mine's really having trouble like dating because he doesn't want to have kids. And every woman is like, oh, I'm not going to pursue this because we're not going to have a future." They got set up from that because this girl saw her video and they went on a date and seems like it's going well so far. So...

Chris: 00:31:00

look at that! You know what this is the new tagline for? It's a lot. It's a lot: it's also a matchmaking show!

Emily: 00:31:04

unexpected outcomes.

Chris: 00:31:09

I love that. But I think what is everybody in the end, what does everybody want?

And I hate using the terminology just because like it can be toxic if it's used too much this way. But the mentality is still the same is what does everybody want? They want to be seen for the most them they can be.

And I think a better way of, the way I like to think about it is when you're, when you find the right person, you are the most you that you can be while still being good to everybody else. That is, that's the peak of those things.

But especially at the beginning, you want them to see you for who you are and not what you're just putting out there. Not just the veneer of all those things.

When you bring something personal like that and you're making that choice, that's the life I'm living as well. That is that choice.

And having somebody not just like begrudgingly accept it, but they respect you for knowing that that's who you are, that that's the start of potential. It's not the solution, it's not the only thing, but at least it opens that door that they respect, that that's your, that's.

That's the way you want to live. It's not begrudging, it's not fine. I like you more than I like that. That's not what you want. You don't want that begrudging. You want somebody to be.

Yeah. Cool. Great. Me too.

Emily: 00:32:32

On the same page, embracing it wholeheartedly.

Chris: 00:32:34

That stuff feels good. I don't know. It's. There's nothing I like more than seeing Carrie be the most herself. She can be like she's weird and goofy and like I want her to be goofy and me to say too goofy for me. Like that's what. What a delight. What a. What a happy thing.

Emily: 00:32:52

Yeah.

Chris: 00:32:53

That I get to be my most curmudgeonly self and she gets to be goofy and you know, doing weird things and like that's what a delight.

Emily: 00:33:01

That's very healthy and wonderful. I'm glad you guys have that.

Chris: 00:33:04

Yeah. And I get to be my stable, analytical, monster self and she gets to make me cringe with bad jokes. I'm like, makes you happy.

Emily: 00:33:13

self is looking forward to in: 2026

Chris: 00:33:21

Yeah. So where I really want to end up this year. One is I always say more consistency and I never want to lose that. That drive to try to do more frequent.

I'm kind of looking forward to doing more non food discussions. We have our kind of. Our network show Just Can't Not that I'm looking forward to doing more. I don't know what I want it to be. And we have the opportunity to have conversations about anything. I kind of want to do that a little bit more because I love the food and drink conversations but I want to do more of that.

I really enjoy having a personal conversation with somebody regardless of topic. So I want to do more of that. We're looking for more community. Community sponsorships or community relationships.

I'd say is the better way of saying that. Trying to be more visible but in a way where we're being visible in the way we would like to be.

What I can say is we have one that's actually coming up in February which is really exciting. Is. And I don't again, I don't think this is a game changer, but one that feels good and it might be steps towards other things is we're doing.

We're doing an ad share with connections on WXXI in February where you know, Lunchador is going to be on the podcast feed as like in the mid roll for probably half of the shows for February. That's really cool. And same thing like you're going to hear ads for Connections on Lunchador for February. How cool is that?

Emily: 00:34:50

That is really neat.

Chris: 00:34:51

Why shouldn't we be amplifying those things like Connections and WXXI are an important part of the Rochester community, having them support something like Lunchador. But we can support that too, because that's an important.

It's an important venue for learning about local politics, learning about how, you know, local things tied to the rest of the country and the rest of the world. That's really important that they're doing that for two hours every day. It's an important show.

And I'm really excited that we get to have that little partnership for the month and hopefully we'll maybe do some more stuff. But those are the things I'm excited about, is what else can we find? What other ways can we do that side of this?

Yeah, we want to be more visible, but that way I don't want to just throw money at it and I don't want to get. Have to chase the biggest guests every time. I want all the shows to do these cool, different, specific things and be their most selves.

And if we can facilitate more people listening by making those partnerships or short relationships, that's the thing I want to do more of. I think that's kind of where I'm focusing this year and seeing what else I can do to make people happier doing their shows.

And begrudgingly, we're going to start posting more whole videos on YouTube because that's where things are. Don't really have a choice.

Emily: 00:36:10

Are you going to encourage all the shows to do that? Like...I feel resistant to do that.

Chris: 00:36:14

We will offer. We will offer more. A little bit of assistance with that. With, you know, some of the software is a little easier for editing now.

We're gonna set things up where you can do it, where you can add like logo and put ads in the middle and stuff like that. We're gonna build that out. It's not mandated by any means. I'm doing it begrudgingly. I love audio podcasts.

Emily: 00:36:35

Me too!

Chris: 00:36:35

But it's where things are. And I mean, we're recording with video right now and it looks good. It's good to put that out there. And we'll do that because it's part of the deal.

I. I'm admitted I'm not excited about it, but if more people see us and know us because of that, I think that's why we have to do it.

Emily: 00:36:53

Do you watch many podcasts on YouTube yourself?

Chris: 00:36:55

None. zero.

Emily: 00:36:57

Same! my students do. Almost all of my students watch podcasts instead of listen.

Chris: 00:37:02

Carrie does, and she watches some I know that are closer. They're like, you know, the single person talking to a camera. Like visual essay things.

I don't think those is part of those as podcasts, but they're not. Not. But she watches a few. But I think she has that There's a relationship to seeing somebody talk that I don't think about.

Like, the voices are enough for me to have that relationship. But for her, she needs to see how they move and see their. See their posture and see what all that stuff. And I get that. That makes sense. I just don't usually do, like, that second screen podcast thing.

Emily: 00:37:36

I just don't have the free time for it, I guess.

Chris: 00:37:38

Yeah, that's fair.

Emily: 00:37:40

I guess I could, like, wash dishes and have a podcast on my phone on YouTube on the ledge? I don't know.

Chris: 00:37:46

Just seems weird. Also, the YouTube algorithm to speed up audio is garbage. It's really bad.

Emily: 00:37:52

What speed do you listen to podcasts at?

Chris: 00:37:55

2x with gap shortening.

Emily: 00:37:56

Oh, wow.

Chris: 00:37:57

So the one I use, I've been using the same software for probably 10 years called Overcast. It's the best speed algorithm I've ever heard. So it speeds it up to two, and then the gaps in between words get shortened.

Emily: 00:38:10

Wow.

Chris: 00:38:11

And it tracks how much time you've saved over time. Let me see if I can get to the number. It is problematically large. SmartSpeed has saved you an extra 2,680 hours beyond the speed adjustments alone.

Emily: 00:38:26

Wow.

Chris: 00:38:27

I listen to a lot of podcasts.

Emily: 00:38:29

That's crazy.

Chris: 00:38:29

I listen to podcasts basically all day, which, you know, I'm kind of obsessed with. Like, I love. You get to know people through it. There's this personal feel, which is why I love producing the shows too, is I get to facilitate that for somebody else.

Emily: 00:38:44

Yeah.

Chris: 00:38:44

And maybe somebody else is gonna find that. Hey, It's a Lot is their show. That's cool.

Emily: 00:38:49

It was cool seeing the Spotify wrapped at the end of the year. I think I was the top. Like the top number one show for five people, which.

Chris: 00:38:55

No way! Cool!

Emily: 00:38:56

Yeah. And I think I was in the top 10 for 13 people.

Chris: 00:39:00

That's

Emily: 00:39:01

And there were like 50 people that I was in their top 15. Yeah. So it was pretty cool to see.

Chris: 00:39:06

What a delight.

Emily: 00:39:07

Yeah.

Chris: 00:39:07

And you never expect to see something like that. But that's. That's cool.

Emily: 00:39:12

I don't know how Spotify's analytics are because they seemed janky to me, it said that one of the favorite podcasts of listeners of It's a Lot was the Joe Rogan Show.

Chris: 00:39:20

Oh, perfect.

Emily: 00:39:21

Like, that doesn't seem like we'd have ANY crossover.

Chris: 00:39:24

I mean, I remember when we first met, you're like, that's the audience I want to go after. I want to do two and a half to three hour podcasts that are slogs and that. Hey, I know what you said. You just wanted to ask questions. You just needed to ask them.

Emily: 00:39:39

Just asking questions!

Chris: 00:39:40

You just had to ask them. Oh, God. Well, I don't know. I just enjoyed chatting with you on this Saturday morning. This was fun.

Emily: 00:39:48

It's fun to catch up! Yeah.

Chris: 00:39:50

And it's. This is. This is the kind of stuff we always like to do as well, is. Let's just talk about, hey, where are we at this? It's fun.

I love this side of it where, I don't know, we just get to have a real conversation for no reason. But I guess we'll record it. It's okay.

Emily: 00:40:04

I'm going to see if this year. I've been thinking a little bit about the model of not doing an interview necessarily, but there's one podcast I really enjoy called A Bit Fruity with Matt Bernstein, and he finds whatever current event is like, really buzzy and does deep dives on it with a guest who's usually a friend that he has some rapport with.

Chris: 00:40:21

Yeah.

Emily: 00:40:22

Or some kind of expert, but they keep it pretty funny but informative as well. So there are always different topics or discourse that I'm like, oh, I wonder. Like, I always feel like I can't do an episode on the fly that quickly about something like that. But if I find a person or two who I could tap for certain topics and we could do one like, that could be kind of cool. So we'll see if that works out.

Chris: 00:40:41

No, I think so. I. And what I'll say is, like, I'm always available just because I won't always make an episode ever. I don't. I don't make episodes about stuff like that. I do love that opportunity, though, because it's. It is fun talking about all the different aspects of life and society. But, yeah, I love that. I think that'll be fun.

Emily: 00:40:59

Yeah, we'll see.

Chris: 00:41:02

Well, before we close out, I just kind of wanted to let everybody know. If you haven't listened to other shows on Lunchador, go to lunchador.org to check out all the other shows.

We have two new shows coming soon, which I'm really excited about Plants and Beats by Rob Bell, who's doing lofi music and talking about plants, which is really cool.

If you're into the local coffee scene here in Rochester, Rory Van Grol from Ugly Duck and his co host Greg Benoit from the Irondequoit Public Library do a show about hardcore music and how it's affected people called Common Threads. That's great. We also have a new show coming out hopefully in the next couple months talking about books, which will be really cool.

Thanks for helping hook that up, by the way!

Emily: 00:41:44

I'm looking forward to that one!

Chris: 00:41:46

What a great introduction that was. It's really exciting. Something I've wanted to do from the beginning. So way more coming from Lunchador before we go. Hey, put out your own plugs. Anything you want people to know about?

Emily: 00:41:56

Check out the back catalog of It's a Lot! We've got some great episodes coming out next month for Rare Disease Month, so those will be really interesting.

And again, if anyone needs social media, digital strategy support, you know where to find me! I'll put put the link to my website in the show notes.

Chris: 00:42:10

That's awesome. And we'll be back next time with more It's a Lot.

Narrator: 00:42:15

This has been a presentation of the Lunchador podcast Network.