Downers

We take care of the mail this week. The mail was wet and we air them out. THEN we pick terrible thing #29 from Jack's list of terrible things and it's... nationalism. Along the way we talk about flags and the pledge of allegiance. Also we say nice things about America.   Plugs this week: concertinas (Hao), rubber plugs (Jack), sunscreen (Jack), encouraging your friends to visit in beautiful months (Kate).   [downersradio@gmail.com // @downersradio // please take your hands off bradley]

EPISODE 28 // We are proud to present the first installment of our "Sadness Spacewalk" trilogy, wherein one of us dives into an especially meaningful episode of television. In this hour Jack presents "THE INNER LIGHT" (1992), a high-watermark episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" exploring the nature of memory and history. Bonus: Patrick Stewart drops by to deliver sentences that only he could say.   Plugs this week: Warp + Weft women's jeans (Kate), the movie Her (Hao), and "Star Trek: TNG" after the first season (Jack).   [@downersradio // downersradio@gmail.com // stay safe out there]

EPISODE 27 // We devote an entire hour to things that make us happy, starting with Rebecca Sugar's song "Here Comes a Thought" from "Steven Universe." Some Wonderful Whims are chosen as we take a look back at the things we listed for ONE HUNDRED HAPPY THINGS (episode 5). Hao briefly defends the consumption of well-prepared beef liver.   Plugs this week: Janette Sadik-Khan's "Streetfight" (Hao), haggis (Jack), Birkenstock women's sandals (Kate).   [@downersradio on Twitter // downersradio.libsyn.com for full archives // email downersradio@gmail.com]

EPISODE 26 // What is San Diego and what has Jack overheard while living there? We find out, in a special Overheard in San Diego. It becomes Current Event Corner (Skirting the Edges). Then we talk about nuclear war. Plugs this week: USA's spy dramedy "Burn Notice" (Hao), Bongard problems (Jack), watching an entire season of "Top Chef" in two days (Kate, while sick). [@downersradio on Twitter // downersradio.libsyn.com for full archives // volcanos vs. climate change, who would win? email downersradio@gmail.com]

We devote this entire episode to one entry in Jack's terrible-things.txt: the internet as an amoral frontier. Is the internet just a tool? Is it for good? Is it for evil? We fell in love with the internet and the internet broke our hearts. We also talk math.   Plugs this week: vacations with French people (Kate), reluctantly playing Guitar Hero in Chinatown (Hao), and Final Fantasy VII speed-runs (Jack) on Awesome Games Done Quick.   @downersradio on Twitter // downersradio@gmail.com on gmail.com // find full archives on downersradio.libsyn.com // #cluffx

EPISODE 24 // We take a trip to Future Earth to revisit our old friends Oxy and Gilgamesh. This is part two of our ongoing mini-tabletop RPG game. In this entry you will hear tales of electrical sound equipment being safely set up, speeches (multiple speeches) delivered to teenagers, and feats of great bravery and dexterity. All this and Ooga Chaka, here on Downers. Plugs this week: Twitter poll results (Kate), sweet gherkin pickles w/ sandwiches (Jack), and Mbubar (sp? Hao). @downersradio on Twitter // downersradio@ on gmail // downersradio.libsyn.com on libsyn.com

EPISODE 23 // We devote this entire hour to sandwiches: veggies, spread, meat, and bread. What do these marvelous snack packs have to say about who we are? In What's Up, birds interact with Jack's pajamas.   Plugs this week: time.is (Jack), sprouts (Jack), book clubs (Kate), librarian scientist Melvil Dewey (Hao). @downersradio on Twitter // downersradio@ on gmail // downersradio.libsyn.com on libsyn.com

EPISODE 22 // We take a foray into YouTube Live's chat boards (people still say chat boards, right?). We ask people what their age, sex, and location are. We talk about people talking about drugs. We listen to Simpsonwave through an iPhone speaker because Hao forgot to match the mono output with the mono input. All this and more! Plugs this week include: David Sedaris' essay entries Theft by Finding (Hao), a nameless clay/plastic-bag/itchy-plastic-casing heating pad I bought from CVS this morning (Kate) oh and by the way you have to use it with a towel because it is very itchy, and the YouTube video "Sunday School" and the song "Teen Pregnancy" (Jack). @downersradio on Twitter // downersradio@ on gmail // downersradio.libsyn.com on libsyn.com

EPISODE 21 // The animals in San Diego are committing suicide and by gosh if we aren't going to say something about that. Work pants are making ampersands, and there might not be enough ramps. We pick a Terrible Thing and devote the back half of the episode to it: . Plugs this week: SEF.org (a public-access Unix system), making your voice heard and calling your representatives, and Ursula Le Guin.   tw @downersradio | email downersradio@gmail.com | archive http://downersradio.libsyn.com

EPISODE 20   This episode is our return to form. We dedicate this entire hour to KOREAN FOOD, a small but nonetheless important part of this podcast's premise we've long ignored. A handful of Korean restaurants are reviewed and then assigned white cabbage leaves. In Mail Corner we pore over news of Beatrice and corners. We also talk about cartography, extensively.   @downersradio on Twitter | downersradio@gmail.com on STMP | downersradio.libsyn.com on HTTP | #cluffx

EPISODE 19 In this episode we abandon the traditional format of the show to play a mini-tabletop RPG called MECHANICAL ORYX (by one Grant Howitt), winner of the 2017 200-Word RPG Challenge. Join Oxy (Kate) and Gilgamesh (Jack; no relation to the actual Gilgamesh) and Omniscient Impartial Narrator (Hao) as they journey through the ruins of a once-great Earth. This episode of Downers is brought to you by random.org. Warning: This episode contains a light amount of body-shaming humor, but it is done in character and the emotional reactions it provokes are both sincere and honest. Also, at one point Kate reference-snipes Beyonce's Lemonade; it's great and it's my fault I didn't pick up on it.     @downersradio on Twitter | downersradio@gmail.com on STMP | downersradio.libsyn.com on HTTP | #cluffx

In this action-packed episode we take a trip down memory lane in Update Corner, where we revisit hashtag dad couplets and Fermi's paradox. Then we spent the rest of the hour tackling the heady controversial world of FAKE NEWS. What is fake news? Where does it come from? Does it necessarily involve babies? These are but just a few of the questions we never get around to answering.   @downersradio on twitter | downersradio.libsyn.com on http | downersradio@gmail.com | #cluffx   Downers is a production of Only Children, Inc. Podcasts made by children without siblings, for children without siblings.

We promised it and now it's here! In this travel-themed podcast we journey to Sweden, Canada, North Korea, China, and beyond. We also carve out time at the top of the show for Kate to respond to last week's You Mold It, You Sold It! madness.   @downersradio on twitter | downersradio.libsyn.com on http | downersradio@gmail.com | #cluffx

Jack and Hao structure an episode around, like, a half-pun? We talk Neutral Milk Hotel and tell stories about ... mold ... from our lives. At the end we pitch ideas for a THEME SONG.   Editor's Note: when we come back from the break we make a reference to talk of suicide in Act I. We did in fact talk about 13 Reasons Why in the original recording, that Netflix show about suicide, but neither one of us could come up with the correct title of that show so Hao cut all of it out. Hao, for the record, hates the show.   how's your morning     @downersradio on twitter | downersradio.libsyn.com on http | #cluffx

This week we devote the entire hour to talking about one short story by John Cheever in a special, extra-sad edition of Book Club. Plus, there's mail from Bradley in Mailbox Corner!   Downers is a production of Only Children, Inc. Subscribe; rate us on iTunes; stay cheevos out there. Follow us @downersradio on Twitter or email us at downersradio@gmail.com. #cluffx

On this week's episode of Downers we check in with Jack's adventures in composting, read our listener's feedback in Mailbox Corner, and discuss the multiple immense islands of trash in the Pacific Ocean. We pick a terrible thing from Jack's list and it's Silicon Valley tech culture.   Downers is a production of Only Children, Inc. Subscribe; rate us on iTunes; stay cool out there. Follow us @downersradio on Twitter or email us at downersradio@gmail.com. #cluffx

The Downers kids are at it again. On this special 13th episode we dive into THE SUPERNATURAL. We argue about luck. We argue about aliens.   Downers is a production of Only Children, Inc. Subscribe; rate us on iTunes; stay cool out there. Follow us @downersradio on Twitter or email us at downersradio@gmail.com. #cluffx

In What's Up, we find out Jack is a Butter Boy and Hao is a  Butter Man. We pose hypotheticals to each other in a brand new segment we call Would You Rather? We pick a terrible thing and it's the botched deinstitutionalization of psychiatric patients in the United States.   Downers is a production of Only Children, Inc. Subscribe; rate us on iTunes; stay ant-free out there. Follow us @downersradio on Twitter or email us at downersradio@gmail.com. #cluffx

The science door parts and fog whorls outward, revealing two experimental segments you have never clapped eyes onto before. In the first act we Talk Cars in a segment we call Car Talk: scheduling cars, buying cars, burrowing into cars. In the second act we take a journey to Infrastructure Junction as we tackle the ransomware attack on the National Health Service.  Downers is a production of Only Children, Inc. Subscribe; rate us on iTunes; stay copacetic out there. Follow us @downersradio on Twitter or email us at downersradio@gmail.com. #cluffx

It's finally happening. Jack is moving to San Diego so this his last Brooklyn recording. In Book Club Corner we read the preface to "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men." After the break we discuss the ineffable sadness of change.   Downers is a production of Only Children, Inc. Subscribe; rate us on iTunes; stay awake out there. Follow us @downersradio on Twitter or email us at downersradio@gmail.com. #cluffx