121: The Gold Medal For Restraint

They said it couldn't be done, but here it is: an episode of the podcast that's just one hour long. Jess and I breeze through the site after a mutually busy month, covering stuff from September 8th through October 4th.

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Helpful Links

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Misc.
- Facts about 121
- self-driving trolley problems
- on Death and MetaFilter

Jobs
- Take my picture! by unannihilated
- A small job, but a very sensitive one by scottymac

Projects
- The Corey Press by robocop is bleeding
- Unknown Pleasures Album Cover Gif Generator by dreyfusfinucane
- From Garching to Innsbruck in 7 days by wachhundfisch
- I built a multi-plane animation stand by tessmartin
- May Your Fave Be Unproblematic by Juliet Banana
- Guided By Voices song title bot (@favoriteGBVsong) by yukonho

MetaFilter
- 3,536 exhibitions online by OmieWise
- Sparkling Water by me3dia
- A tiny vestibule of literary happiness by adept256
- Constrained Synthesis by tocts
- WIN THESE SWELL PRIZES (59 years later) by Etrigan (working news link BUT IS IT A MYSTERY?!)
- The story of a new name by tavegyl
- "All I know is American Airlines loves me." by jessamyn

Ask MeFi
- Doctors/Scientists/Researchers Whose Work Involved Their Own Condition? by sevenofspades
- Comfort me with comfort food by Kitteh
- Should we name a kid after a dead guinea pig? by kendrak
- Please help us spell this name by Anonymous
- I take measurements, you mail me clothes by megancita
- The visually impaired leading the visually impaired by Promethea
- What must I do with misdirected mail? by primethyme
- What are your favorite transcendent, gives you the chills, performances? by Gosha_Dog

MeFi Music
Featured in this episode:
- wrong color for a heart by ajryan
- Crunky by ultrabuff
- Passing By And Thought I'd Drop In by signal
- totally generic action by Grangousier
- Worry About The World (cover/mashup) by aspenkf

MetaTalk
- jbickers has passed away by cortex
- In celebration of mefi connections by ActionPopulated
- Any chance of resurrecting this favorites pony request? by limeonaire
- The Election Debate Logistics Thread by restless_nomad

posted by cortex (staff) to MeFi Podcast at 1:31 PM (19 comments total)

They said it couldn't be done, but here it is: an episode of the podcast that's just one hour long.

This transcriber thanks you.

I'm over halfway done with 120!
posted by zamboni at 2:56 PM on October 4, 2016 [3 favorites]

First line of the wiki article on the number 120 says: "121 (one hundred [and] twenty-one) is the natural number following 120 and preceding 122." Really? No shit.
posted by marienbad at 3:32 PM on October 4, 2016

Oh hey my AskMe is on there
posted by Kitteh at 4:40 PM on October 4, 2016

I just added a pre-action shot of the Mothman board ready for use. The tourists in the graveyard were not that keen on the idea and I could not find a volunteer to help me plumb the depths of the darkest ether.

Most of my work is up at Naumkeag Ordinary in Salem (gastropub behind the Bewitched Statue and/or the Little Free Library I built in Lappin Park) if you happen to be touristing nearby. Rather than use stain on the frames for those pieces, I stuck with the calamity theme and used a flamethrower to char the wood.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 5:23 PM on October 4, 2016 [3 favorites]

I don't think of my name as being all that common because I've only known like three other Johns in my life, but I totally understand that an international celebrity like jessamyn must be smothered by hordes of admiring Johns. Wait, that doesn't sound right.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 4:22 PM on October 5, 2016

I just added a pre-action shot of the Mothman board ready for use.

Things had to be shifted to make room of the Mothman, of course.

Yes, that goes without saying.

Pedantry: is it redundant to include both "invoke" and "call the Mothman" on the board? Or are you just increasing the potential to call on the bringer of REVELATION and/or CALAMITY?

(And flamethrower justified, indeed)

[New future MeFi handle "flamethrower justified," which is open to so many potential interpretations]
posted by filthy light thief at 8:47 AM on October 6, 2016

"Call the Mothman" addresses the user, while "Invoke" is to the Mothman. But then again given his history with crank calling people, maybe we should give him a taste of his own medici
posted by robocop is bleeding at 9:09 AM on October 6, 2016

R̸̵͝ǪBO̸ÇO̶̧͞P͏̴ ҉̀͞IS̸ ̢͡͡B̶͟L͠E̸͘E͠D͝͡I͏N̸̢G ́IS̨ ̛BU҉S͠Ỳ͘͟ ̸͏Ŗ͡I҉͏̕G̀͜͢H̕͠Ţ̶ ̶N̢Ó̀̀W̡—̵̢P̡Ĺ̛̛EA̛SE҉͏ H̴O͏LD̷̀͝ ̸͘͘F̀̕O͏̢R̶̨ ̀͟T̡͜H̛E̴ ̵N͏E̶̷X͘T̶̡ ͏A̢̨V̵͝A̕IL̛͘ABL̡͠È ͟҉M̸O̸҉Ţ̸̀ḨM̴̴A͞N̨͏̵
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:15 AM on October 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

I know that posting this right before the veep debates may not have been the best timing, but I've noticed that comments on the podcast threads have dropped off precipitously in the past few months and I'm wondering if it's just a normal ebb/flow or if people's interest is waning and if the latter, what we should do to change it up a little? We definitely made this podcast a lot shorter, tried to reign in a bit of the rambling, and we'll try to get back to having guests, but is there anything people would like from a MeFi Podcast that maybe they're not getting? I mean I know *I* enjoy them (and I even listen to them afterwards) but it shouldn't be just for me.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 7:48 PM on October 7, 2016

The transcript is open!
posted by Pronoiac at 6:27 AM on October 8, 2016

I'm enjoying the podcast, and I really appreciate the shorter time as I have so many pods to listen to these days. I suspect the election threads are soaking up a massive amount of attention and writing energy on Mefi right now, so I wouldn't conclude that there has been a notable drop-off, unless cortex has noticed significantly lower download numbers of late.

I always thought it'd be nice if you spoke to people involved in the posts or comments you talk about - not necessarily for the entire podcast, but maybe just for a few minutes (and maybe just one of you, for convenience's sake). But I know it can be hard to organise such things.
posted by adrianhon at 8:22 AM on October 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

That's a great idea!

jessamyn: "So I really liked this project/song/post and I talked to the poster about it."
cortex: "ROLL TAPE"
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:31 AM on October 8, 2016

I like that idea too, it might take a bit more organization than we currently have, but I bet we could do that. I'd like to hear more MeFites than just me and cortex as well, as much as I do love talking with him.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 10:10 AM on October 8, 2016

Yeah, and honestly the idea of some segmented "and here's mefite x talking to mefite y about cool thing they did/made/saw/discovered" just being tossed into the podcast is pretty cool by me. There's the danger there of having really poor audio or the need for serious editing, but it'd probably be more fun and more interesting to risk that and see how it goes than to shy away from it out of an overabundance of preciousness about podcast production quality on a show where we're already just hitting record over Skype.

We've talked a few times, and I keep not organizing, having another call-in type show where folks can leave voicemail, and I still like that idea too.

I'll think about putting up a MetaTalk specifically for podcast brainstorming next week if there's any air left in the room outside of the election madness; might ironically be easier to get more folks talking about what they do like or would like from the podcast in a thread that's not attached to one of the eps.
posted by cortex (staff) at 10:45 AM on October 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

So have podcast downloads declined along with the comments, cortex?
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 1:16 PM on October 8, 2016 [1 favorite]

Personally I have been commenting less because classes started up again. But I still pretty religiously listen to the podcast as soon as it's out each month.
posted by ocherdraco at 11:15 PM on October 8, 2016

I still enjoy the podcast! I probably should comment as soon as there's something I want to comment on in the podcast, but I often don't. Then, because I listen to a single podcast in ~6 sessions over the course of a month, I often forget what I wanted to say by the time I have a chance to comment again.

One thing I use the podcast for is as a filter because I find it too much to sift through all the stuff on the site. If you promoted it as a summary outside of the site, you might get a lot of listeners that drifted away from MetaFilter because it was just too much.

If doing a voicemail call-in segment turns out to be too much, you could scale it down to just reading people's emails about the podcast and responding. Idle Thumbs calls their email-from-the-listeners segment "Reader Mail", and it is sometimes the best part of the podcast.
posted by ignignokt at 7:55 PM on October 26, 2016 [1 favorite]

Transcript! Get yer transcripts!
posted by zamboni at 9:07 AM on January 3, 2017

As ever, you rule.
posted by cortex (staff) at 9:59 AM on January 3, 2017