0:00

Hi, this is

0:03

Rachel McElroy.

0:18

Hi, this is Griffin McElroy. And this is

0:20

wonderful. It's a podcast where we talk

0:22

about things we like that's good that

0:24

we're into. Now let's break that down. What

0:27

is podcast? Thank

0:31

you for asking that. It's

0:33

radio on demand. You get it

0:36

on your iPod by

0:38

plugging it into an ethernet

0:41

port. You know, our listeners come to

0:43

us for definitions of words. And I appreciate

0:45

that you're starting with one that is the

0:47

thing they're listening to. A lot

0:49

of the time though, when I explained to a family, like

0:51

what a podcast is, they don't know.

0:53

And so it's such an embarrassing word.

0:57

Yes. I'm so glad that

0:59

you've finally broke the seal. I

1:02

still refuse to say that I do it

1:04

when I meet people. That is true. Rachel

1:07

is so clandestine about this endeavor.

1:09

And it's not that you're embarrassed.

1:11

A little. I'm

1:13

honest. Is

1:17

it just the word if it was called something

1:19

else online

1:22

telecast? Oh, I don't know. I

1:25

don't know. I think creating anything

1:28

original is a little embarrassing. That's

1:32

an incredible sentiment for me to share on

1:35

this show. I

1:37

don't know. I don't know if there's anything you

1:39

could call it that would make me talk about

1:41

it proudly. Here on Wonderful, we are enthusiasts

1:44

about lots of different things. But

1:46

if you ask us to make

1:48

anything, that is so cringe.

1:52

I think for me, it is the pod part of

1:54

it because I think the etymology of that

1:56

is from an iPod and I

1:58

don't like. Clink, clink, what's that

2:00

sound? It's the brand cuffs that now I've got

2:03

on. People say, so

2:05

you're an Apple employee. And I

2:07

say, yes, I am. Maybe

2:11

a Zune cast, can we get

2:13

that going? Something a little bit

2:15

more. An MP3

2:19

program. I'm an MP3, I'm

2:21

a comedy programmer. Yeah,

2:23

there's no way to do it. Yeah, it's not a good

2:26

way. I've been workshopping it for nine on 14 years now.

2:29

There will be times when you and I have

2:31

performed together on a stage, but when I come

2:33

home and people ask what I've done, I will

2:35

say my husband did a show. That's, yeah,

2:37

that's something that you personally, I feel like

2:39

we need to learn. I know, I gotta

2:42

figure that out. Do you have any small

2:44

wonders for the audience to hear

2:46

now? I'm gonna say chocolate

2:49

covered raisins. Yeah, again, you're

2:51

not gonna say raisinets because of the

2:53

brand cuffs, but. I like

2:55

raisins. I mean, period. I

2:58

used to get them in my lunch in

3:00

the little boxes and I used to eat

3:02

them happily. I like a raisin. Yeah. Put

3:05

chocolate on it. Now all of a sudden it's okay

3:07

for everybody and I can admit it. Yes,

3:09

the jammer we like to

3:12

munch on when we are

3:14

feeling particularly naughty is

3:16

raisinets and some popcorn and you can

3:18

get them both in your mouth at

3:20

the same time. Every

3:23

textural beat one could

3:25

ask of food is delivered

3:28

in this crunchy, chewy, chocolatey

3:30

tree. This is something you introduced to me.

3:32

Do you remember how you found it? No,

3:36

accident. Was it a happy accident? Have

3:38

you seen other people do this? No, oh, you're

3:40

asking me. I thought you knew how I discovered

3:42

this. No. No, I mean, it

3:44

just makes sense, doesn't it? I probably did

3:46

it. I mean, I did some stuff with

3:48

popcorn while I was working at the movie

3:51

theater in Huntington. That's true, that's true. Because

3:53

they would let you take it all home,

3:55

whatever didn't get sold, instead of just throwing

3:57

it away, you could take home whatever you

3:59

wanted, which... For me, I lived around the

4:01

corner from the movie theater, so I'd just get

4:03

a big, clean garbage bag, fill it with popcorn,

4:05

take it home. Sometimes we dump a

4:07

whole bottle of Nutella in there, shake it on

4:09

up, and then get pretty high.

4:13

That part. That's so sloppy. How would

4:15

you eat it? Yeah, you don't wanna

4:17

know. Isn't it better

4:19

to have plausible deniability in your mind about the

4:21

kind of stuff you're- I'm gonna picture you with

4:23

a bowl and a spoon, like ice cream.

4:26

Yes, that's exactly right. I definitely

4:28

didn't eat it out of the

4:30

garbage bag with my hands, like

4:32

a bear, having the best day

4:34

of his fucking life. What'd

4:37

you smell under? I mean, look, I'm

4:39

not proud of it. I'm

4:41

not proud of it, but we

4:43

have Dipped Into Love is Blind

4:45

season six on Netflix. I

4:48

will say that show left me out

4:51

in the cold last season. Did not

4:53

enjoy it. It was a

4:55

cluster fuck for so many reasons. I think

4:57

by the time they

4:59

got out of the honeymoon phase,

5:01

there were only two couples remaining,

5:04

and that ain't good TV no matter what.

5:08

Yeah, I feel like scientists should

5:10

study this show because every season

5:12

we start it, I'm like, this

5:14

show is weird, the premise is

5:16

crazy, I don't like it, I

5:18

don't understand it. And then I

5:20

will have watched three episodes and

5:22

I will be hungrily into the

5:24

fourth. What happened in between

5:26

me now and me then? It's such a

5:28

rich vein. I feel this way about The

5:31

Circle, which I believe is coming back

5:33

next month and I'm very much looking

5:35

forward to it. Of all the Netflix

5:37

reality shows that they

5:39

make, I

5:41

feel like The Circle is the purest

5:43

form of what I like. Hold on, it's

5:45

like a game. It is a game,

5:47

which I do enjoy. But there

5:49

is something about talking

5:53

to someone without being

5:55

able to see them and the

5:57

tremendous amount of, I don't Know,

6:00

That and social cues that come out of

6:02

that that is like infinitely fascinates an M

6:04

for the circle like that's it as a

6:06

whole kit and Caboodle love is blind obviously

6:08

like you mix and romance dating site of

6:10

things and into that is. Sets a

6:12

demonstration of like projections. Yeah, this

6:14

idea that you can talk to

6:16

somebody for little bit and you

6:18

can envision this perfect match. For

6:21

yourself by. Based on these

6:23

conversations like it's unreal.

6:25

I'm not feeling confident about the

6:27

hit rate of this season so

6:29

far. About three or four episodes

6:31

in not sure that it I've

6:33

seen sparks fly. That could be

6:35

a testament to a long lasting.

6:37

A beautiful little. Know. As line a little

6:40

headline come up when I was scrolling that

6:42

suggested there is a contestant on their that

6:44

actually is in a relationship. Already a prior

6:46

to visit A yeah oh I know now

6:48

it's true. Ah I'm by yeah we been

6:50

enjoying that's rather comes back This week are

6:52

cup is about to run at our in

6:55

a way that I yeah very much looking

6:57

forward to. I go first. this week I

6:59

got mine sweeper. Am. I do

7:01

minesweepers love to talk to you about this

7:03

yet rates of taught me play minesweeper on

7:05

my phone over the weekend was a big

7:08

board. Yeah. Okay, I mean not

7:10

that big. I guess it's all like a

7:12

matter of perspective but if you know is

7:14

like that it's while by twenty four I

7:16

play. you know. Portrait

7:18

Mode. And so I like to have

7:20

a tall a tall board like forty

7:23

Eight Fifty Minds and there's something like

7:25

that are necessary. For me like

7:27

A and. I. Don't.

7:30

I. Have many. There's like a secret or like tips

7:33

and. Tricks that you are going to reveal

7:35

to me and I'm gonna understand how people

7:37

do it that are you mind super better.

7:39

Because. I just I feel like there is

7:41

a certain point in every game usually pretty

7:43

early on for. me where i'm just guessing

7:45

just like socket and yes click around hope

7:47

you to it when you take out one

7:50

of them big chunks with one click that

7:52

feels really really good sometimes i'll just like

7:54

quick restart i can get a big nasty

7:56

south as i commanded build off of arm

7:59

if you or if you kind

8:01

of grew up in the era that

8:03

we did where there was

8:05

sort of like the proliferation of

8:08

personal computers, certainly that had started by

8:10

the time I was born, but you

8:13

didn't get windows in every home

8:15

until I was a child

8:19

already. And I'm not sure if

8:21

you sort of had the same thing. I know

8:23

your grandma was very, very much into computers, but

8:25

you guys had a PC at home

8:27

growing up, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I

8:30

feel like folks of our era have

8:32

a certain fondness for all of the

8:35

freeware games that were included with

8:38

certain versions of Windows. I could go on and

8:40

on about 3D Pinball

8:42

for Windows Space Cadet, that's the

8:45

title of one game, or

8:48

Jezball, or Ski Free, and

8:51

in fact, I may still do those as individual

8:53

segments, but today I'm gonna talk about Minesweeper, which

8:55

is very much in those sort of like

8:57

OG set of Microsoft games.

9:00

Minesweeper, if you've never played it, it

9:03

is a numerical puzzle game where you're

9:05

presented with a large grid of blank

9:07

tiles, some of which are

9:09

secretly mines that if you click on them,

9:11

you get a game over instantly. If you

9:13

click on a safe tile, one of a

9:16

couple things can happen. Either it will show

9:19

you a number, and that number

9:21

illustrates how many of the eight

9:23

adjacent tiles surrounding

9:25

that tile contain mines, or

9:28

if it isn't touching any mines, it'll show

9:30

up as empty, and then it will automatically

9:32

open up the nearest tiles until it

9:35

reaches numbers. That's

9:38

pretty much it. That's pretty much the whole

9:40

game. You click around, you check

9:42

the numbers, and you try to deduce which

9:44

of the adjacent tiles to that number contain

9:46

mines, and once you've revealed every

9:49

safe tile, the game is won.

9:51

I used to play it when I was a child, very

9:54

much in the click, oh,

9:57

one, this must be a good spot

9:59

for a. me to just explore and

10:01

settle down and I'm gonna click all around that

10:03

or click five. No fucking way I'm getting out

10:05

of here man. I don't want to be anywhere

10:07

near the five zone. And

10:10

that was I don't think I ever

10:12

won minesweeper like once even in

10:14

my life unless you like set the board huge

10:16

and you make it so that there's only five

10:18

tiles of five mines in it and then you

10:20

click it and it just like instantly wins the

10:22

game because it automatically opens it all up. My

10:26

algorithm recently fed me a

10:28

video about minesweeper speed running

10:30

which should come as no surprise to you

10:32

or anyone who listens to the show that

10:34

that is the kind of that's how my

10:36

algorithms got me weird. I've never gotten pushed

10:38

that yeah, it's so strange that our

10:41

algorithms are so distinct. I

10:43

saw that video I thought hey,

10:45

I wonder if I can be

10:47

minesweeper now and the answer is

10:49

yes, I can the game when

10:52

you play it like properly when you

10:54

meet minesweeper on its terms. It really

10:56

reminds me of Sudoku where yeah, yeah,

10:59

things sort of lock into place and

11:01

chain together in a way that is

11:03

very methodical and very very very satisfying.

11:06

So like you open up a few

11:08

tiles until you figure out where the

11:10

first mine is and you plant a flag

11:12

on it and you go okay. Well that

11:15

mine is touching a one tile which means

11:17

that that one tile like one mine is

11:19

spoken for all the other tiles touching that

11:21

one are safe. So you click through that

11:23

until you can go okay. Oh

11:25

that opened up another one tile that's touching that

11:27

mine. So it's clear around that. Oh that opened up

11:30

a two tile. Well this is the only other free

11:32

tile so there must be a mine there and then

11:34

you just keep on going and going and going

11:36

and going until the whole board is clear. Sometimes you

11:38

lock yourself into a situation where there's like two

11:41

blank tiles left and you have no clue as to which

11:43

one is going to be the mine and which one is

11:45

safe and you just kind of have to flip a coin

11:47

and guess which is always frustrating to lose a

11:49

game to that. But it

11:52

works in a manner that is very

11:54

much logical and very

11:56

very satisfying to kind of

11:58

creep through. and complete.

12:01

And I don't know, I have

12:04

found that it fits into, you know,

12:06

a few minutes of my day where I don't have

12:08

much else to do. I just got minesweeper on my

12:10

phone. I can crack it open and see if I

12:12

can do, you know, a board that's a little bit

12:14

bigger or a board with a few more bombs in

12:16

it. And I've been

12:18

really kind of enjoying it. It is scratching

12:20

a real itch for me in

12:22

a way that is not like, I don't

12:25

know, not the most challenging game in the

12:27

world because you're just kind of like working

12:29

off of numbers. But

12:31

it's very, very rewarding when you get a

12:34

big board clear. So

12:36

minesweeper first gained a claim after it

12:38

was released as part of

12:40

the Microsoft Entertainment Pack 1 in 1990.

12:44

When Windows first came out, it didn't have like a

12:46

bunch of bundled games. You had to buy these entertainment

12:48

packs, each of which would contain like seven or eight

12:50

games. And later they would sort of

12:53

pick the best ones from those and include them

12:55

in future editions like minesweeper from Windows

12:57

3.1 on was just included

12:59

with each Windows install. Like

13:02

Ski Free was in these entertainment packs, Jezball, a

13:04

lot of the stuff that I've already mentioned. And

13:07

so like if you sat down at a

13:10

computer that had Windows on it at a

13:12

certain point, you knew at the very

13:15

least this computer can do minesweeper and it

13:17

can do free cell. All

13:20

of these different sorts of games that were just

13:22

sort of like bog standard

13:24

included with Windows. Which was

13:26

always very exciting. Like my

13:29

mom was the secretary of the church that we grew up

13:31

going to. And there were days where I would just kind

13:33

of be stuck at the church with her until she was

13:35

like done doing whatever she was doing. And

13:38

we could go home and I could just sit at

13:40

one of the computers in one of the offices. I

13:42

could sit at the minister

13:45

of music's computer if he wasn't working. Sit

13:47

down, bust open some sea free and just

13:49

go for it. Play some minesweeper. And that

13:51

was always really nice

13:53

to have that kind of consistency in my life.

13:57

Minesweeper was preceded

13:59

By a Game of Minecraft. or Mind

14:01

Out which came out Nineteen Eighty Three

14:03

for the Zx Spectrum which is a

14:05

very very a Frodo sort of Pc

14:07

machine. Ah, current. Johnson was the creator

14:10

of Microsoft Minesweeper and he admitted that

14:12

Minesweeper was inspired by another very similar

14:14

title but that it wasn't Mind Out

14:16

for the Zx Spectrum and that he

14:18

didn't remember that of the name of

14:21

the game that inspired as as as

14:23

the Injury of My the Zebra Resume

14:25

and a serious you would think you

14:27

would remember that if you developed an

14:29

entire. Fucking game. Yeah yeah yeah

14:32

I based on another dame you

14:34

remember the name of that games.

14:36

I'm a lot of versions of

14:38

minesweeper that have been released like

14:40

this century have substituted minds for

14:42

like flowers to the fact that

14:45

land mines are pretty horrific and

14:47

resell for some ah some atrocities

14:49

to this day. In fact when

14:51

you google minesweeper it generates like

14:53

a playable version in google ah

14:56

that is much more floral and

14:58

now I'm I'm glad that. I

15:00

return. I see, because it is. It is

15:02

genuinely a fine and surprisingly sort of seal

15:04

game that I can kind of thought into

15:06

my day. But it is also nice going

15:08

back to this like you know, Unconquerable

15:10

beast from my childhood and

15:13

realizing like oh there's actually

15:15

of there is a. There's.

15:17

A path through this. There are rules

15:19

to this that can be understood and

15:21

and sort is. Ah you know, mastered

15:23

and and I know that is That

15:25

is cool to be able to have

15:28

something from my childhood like that that

15:30

I'm able to surgery this it. Enjoy

15:32

Man. I. Think you'd be

15:34

getting beaten and excited to see.

15:36

I can see like and then the same way that

15:38

I like to do is sit alcohol on a plane

15:40

and you know, like I could see myself to the

15:42

net if I am. If. You have

15:44

nothing to the ssssss if you're stuck

15:47

as your mom's church computer. says. If

15:49

I have like no books I

15:51

can't watch anything right? can't listen

15:53

to anything. And then maybe that's a

15:55

pretty yeah. That's the that's And that's

15:57

the tagline. That's F. If there's nothing.

16:00

else maybe mine sweetie? Can

16:02

I steal your way? Yes. Hey

16:12

Griffin. Hey. It's almost springtime. I

16:14

can't wait for the bees and

16:16

the flowers. Mm-hmm. You know what else is

16:18

great in the spring? No,

16:21

I listed, I said bees, right? Uh-huh.

16:23

That's it. Flowers. Flowers too. That's it.

16:26

And riding your e-bike. Oh,

16:28

that's, shoot, you're right. I just got some

16:31

cool accessories. Electric e-bike has all this like cool

16:33

extra stuff that you can do if you got

16:35

one of those like cargo bikes. And so I

16:38

got what they call an orbiter, which is just

16:40

like a little cage you can put around the

16:42

back of your bike to stick children in. Okay,

16:44

hold on. Because this is the second time I

16:46

feel like you've done this. What do you call it?

16:49

It's not a cage, honey. It's like a

16:51

circular bar. It's a metal basket that you

16:53

put a cushion in. It's not a cage.

16:55

A cage suggests a full enclosure.

16:57

That is not the cage. I'm saying you want to

16:59

put your kids there and you don't want them to go

17:01

anywhere. Yeah. What is that if not a cage? No,

17:04

it's not. You make it sound like you're just

17:06

like a fitness-oriented baba yaga just like cruising

17:09

through the streets of DC. But

17:11

as I mentioned, super easy to install.

17:13

Yeah. I opened it up. They've

17:15

got everything online so you can like watch little YouTubes,

17:17

teach you how to do it. Not

17:20

only does it have the nice

17:22

little accessories, it's got a powerful

17:24

removable battery, bright LCD display, seven

17:27

speed gearing, and five levels of

17:29

pedal assist to power your ride.

17:31

Are you still, have you cracked into level five yet?

17:34

No, I still have it. I'm scared. When

17:36

do you stay? The hill will have to

17:38

be enormous. Yeah, sure. They need to tap into five. Explore

17:40

2024 with Electric E-Bikes,

17:43

the most accessible and

17:45

adventurous e-bikes ever. Visit electricebikes.com

17:47

to learn more and

17:49

be sure to mention that

17:52

Wonderful sent you in the

17:54

post checkout survey. That's l-e-c-t-r-i-c-e-bikes.com.

17:59

I'm Emily Fleming. And I'm Jordan Morris.

18:01

We're real comedy writers. And real

18:03

friends. And real fucking cheapskates.

18:06

We say, why subscribe to

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expensive streaming services when you

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On our new podcast, Free with

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18:36

Every Tuesday on maximumfund.org or your

18:39

favorite pod spot. Hello

18:46

everyone out there, thank you for

18:48

coming to our service. Yes.

18:51

We are ready to

18:53

heal you. We are

18:55

Ross and Carrie. We

18:57

are faith healers. Yes, you there.

18:59

Sir, you have a spirit of. Not

19:01

listening to enough podcast.

19:04

We have the solution for that. We

19:06

can cure you. You should listen to

19:08

Oh No Ross and Carrie. Hallelujah. It's

19:10

on maximumfund. I couldn't have said it

19:12

better myself. Yes ma'am. Yes, you

19:15

there. Gladys. A spirit of boredom.

19:17

Oh my goodness, we have the solution

19:19

for you. It is to listen to

19:21

the podcast. Oh No Ross

19:24

and Carrie. What do

19:26

you got? I

19:35

have a trip to the poetry. I

19:37

was so hoping. He

19:48

kind of he kind of went away. He was running

19:50

down a tunnel as he was singing

19:52

the song. He's got places to be

19:54

busy. Yeah. And you

19:57

know, to be fair, I didn't warn him that the poetry

19:59

corner was coming. That's. True, you gotta warm up

20:01

the instrument. It's like I have a preexisting

20:03

appointment. Right. I'll give you five

20:05

seconds and then I literally have to run out the door. I got it. The

20:10

poet I am going to talk about this

20:12

week is David Hernandez. If

20:14

you Google David Hernandez poet, you will

20:16

realize there are multiple poets named David

20:19

Hernandez. That's amazing. Perhaps unsurprisingly,

20:21

as it is a very common

20:23

name next to a very

20:25

common name. Right. But the

20:28

David Hernandez I am talking about this week

20:30

was born in 1971 and lives in California.

20:34

That should hopefully narrow it down. Google

20:36

1971 California David Hernandez poet and

20:38

you're gonna get where you need

20:40

to go. So David Hernandez, currently

20:43

alive, teaching creative writing at California

20:45

State University, Long Beach. He

20:49

is married to a writer, Lisa

20:51

Glatt, and he

20:53

has several collections of poetry

20:57

as well as young

20:59

adult fiction. Oh, cool. Which

21:02

looks really good, but I am here to talk

21:04

about. This isn't the

21:06

young adult fiction corner. But

21:10

you got plenty of other choices for shows to go

21:12

to. This is the poems one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He

21:16

has a bunch

21:18

of collections of poetry. The

21:20

most recent one just came out in March, 2022

21:23

called Hello, I Must Be Going, Colin

21:26

Poems. Did

21:29

you get that reference? Yes, but I

21:31

don't know from what? I don't know

21:33

if this is the reference. I haven't

21:36

read an interview, but it's a Groucho

21:38

Marx song from a Marx Brothers movie.

21:40

Then that's probably why I get it through

21:42

osmosis. It might be genetic from my dad

21:44

that I ended up. And

21:47

I wanted to read one of his poems. This

21:50

poem is called All American. It

21:53

is from his poetry book Dear Sincerely, which

21:56

came out in 2016. This

22:00

tiny, this statuesque, and everywhere in

22:02

between, and everywhere in between, bony

22:05

and overweight, my shadow cannot

22:07

hold one's shape in Omaha

22:09

and Tuscaloosa and Aberdeen. My

22:12

skin is mocha brown, two shades

22:14

darker than taupe. Your

22:16

question is racist, nutmeg, beige, I'm

22:19

not offended by your question at all.

22:22

Penis or vagina, yes and yes, gay

22:24

or straight, both boxes, bye not bye,

22:26

who cares, stop fixating on my sex

22:29

life. Jesus never leveled

22:31

his eye to a bedroom's keyhole. I

22:34

go to church in Tempe, in Waco,

22:37

the one with the exquisite stained glass,

22:39

the one with a white spire like

22:41

the tip of a Klansman's hood. Churches

22:44

creep me out, I never step inside

22:46

one, never utter hymns, Sundays I hide

22:48

my flesh with camouflage and hunt. I

22:51

don't hunt, but wish every deer wore a

22:53

bulletproof vest and fired back. It's

22:56

cinnamon, my skin, it's more sandstone than

22:58

any color I know. I

23:00

voted for Obama, McCain, Nader, I was

23:02

too apathetic to vote, too lazy to

23:04

walk one block, two blocks to the

23:07

voting booth. Four are

23:09

against, woman's right to choose, yes,

23:11

four and against. For

23:13

water boring, for strapping detainees

23:15

with snorkels and diving masks,

23:17

against burning fossil fuels, let's

23:20

punish all those smokestacks for eating

23:22

the ozone, bring the wrecking balls,

23:24

but build more smokestacks, we need

23:26

jobs here in Harrisburg, here in

23:29

Kalamazoo. Against gun

23:31

control, for cotton bullets, for

23:33

constructing a better fence along the border, let's

23:36

raise concrete towards the sky, why does it

23:38

need all that space to begin with? For

23:41

creating holes in the fence, adding ladders,

23:43

they're not here to steal work from

23:45

us, no one dreams of crab walking

23:47

for hours across a lettuce field so

23:49

someone could order the Caesar salad. No

23:52

one dreams of sliding a squeegee down the cloud

23:54

mirrored windows of a high rise, but some of

23:56

us do it. Some of us sell

23:58

flowers, some of us cut hair. Some

24:00

of us carefully steer a mower around

24:03

the cemetery grounds. Some of us paint

24:05

houses. Some of us monitor the

24:07

power grid. Some of us

24:09

ring you up while some of us

24:11

crisscross a parking lot to gather the

24:14

shopping carts into one long, rolling, clamorous,

24:16

and glittering backbone. Jesus. A

24:19

lot of stuff in there. There's a lot of really,

24:22

really good... I honestly, my mind

24:24

kind of went

24:27

blank after Jesus never leveled his eye

24:29

to a bedroom keyhole. Like, that hit

24:31

me so fucking right, and my brain

24:33

was like, let's sit with that. And

24:36

then you kept saying dope stuff. And

24:38

I was like, I gotta keep on rolling. Yeah,

24:41

I really like, I feel like this poem should be in

24:43

the time capsule. No kidding? Like,

24:47

it is such a good representation

24:49

of the time that we are living in

24:51

now. Oh, it's wild.

24:54

You said the book came out in 2016. Was

24:56

that pre-election 2016 or post-election 2016?

25:02

I don't know. I guess 2016, like,

25:05

before shit got so, so

25:07

bad, like, was already such

25:09

a wild and disillusioning and

25:12

exhausting year just with the

25:14

election cycle that we were in. I think that...

25:16

It feels like that poem speaks to a lot of

25:18

that kind of like... Came

25:21

out March 2016. Okay.

25:24

That feeling of like, wild disenfranchisement

25:26

that came from that whole year

25:28

really, I don't

25:30

know. Obviously, it speaks to an experience that

25:32

I do not, you know, that I

25:34

have not lived, but it is wild

25:36

to me that poem came out in the year

25:39

that I did. Yeah, I

25:42

really, I like... I

25:44

mean, I like listy poems, you

25:46

know, especially if they're

25:49

exploring a lot in that list,

25:51

which I think is exactly what

25:53

he's doing. Right. And

25:56

yeah, I just, I feel like it's

25:58

a big... Task to undertake

26:01

to write a poem called all American and to

26:03

try and cover a lot of ground and do

26:05

it in a way that feels Unique

26:09

and that's exactly what he did. Yeah I

26:14

found an interview with him from

26:19

It's an interview that was in the rumpus

26:23

and it's talking to him Right

26:26

after or shortly after that book dear

26:28

sincerely came out that the poem is

26:30

from and he said David

26:33

Hernandez said my poems are partially autobiographical

26:36

to put a percentage on it Honestly,

26:43

it depends from poem to poem some are

26:45

more informed by events in my life while

26:47

others are less so here's the thing When

26:49

I'm writing a poem that's based on an

26:52

experience from memory. I don't feel beholden to

26:54

the facts That's the job of journalists. I'm

26:56

more concerned about conveying an emotional truth with

26:58

making art through language If the

27:01

poem is telling me look, I know

27:03

you had bananas this morning in your

27:05

cereal, but blueberries is sonically more interesting

27:07

I'm going with blueberries. That's really

27:09

good. I feel like that's that's like a

27:11

nice I

27:13

don't know a nice touch point when

27:15

you think about the poem I just

27:17

read of just like his willingness to

27:19

to just double down on this idea

27:21

that that he is both sides He

27:24

is everything right. Yeah, and to feel

27:26

okay about that even though like as

27:28

a country We are so strongly divided

27:30

on a lot of those things you

27:32

talked about. Yeah, of course So

27:35

yeah, David Hernandez a poet. I just

27:37

found I'm excited that he

27:39

has so many collections. Yeah and Want

27:43

to share well, thank you. It's always a delight

27:45

to be in the corner. I actually

27:47

left my keys here last time Oh,

27:50

you just found him. I just found him. Yeah In

27:53

a couple months now you can finally leave

27:55

the poetry house. That's true. Yeah, I

27:57

tried I Have

27:59

been captivated here for a while. Does that make

28:01

sense? Would there be a poetry corner

28:03

in a poetry house? No. What would

28:06

the house be? The

28:08

house is love. Oh.

28:11

The house is us.

28:13

Can you tell you what our

28:15

friends at home are talking about? Yes. Got

28:17

one here from Miss B from NKC who

28:19

says, my small wonder is my students trying

28:21

to read Romeo and Juliet with as many

28:23

accents as they can try. Cowboy Tybalt is

28:25

my favorite. That is

28:27

very, very good. That's fantastic. I

28:30

got another one here from

28:34

Will who says, my small wonder

28:36

is when Rachel mentions anything from our hometown

28:38

of Webster Groves. I graduated in 2005 around

28:40

the same age as Griffin. Yep, exactly the

28:42

same. It sounds like. So I

28:44

usually recognize her ultra local references. I

28:47

had Dane Williams as a band teacher at the

28:49

theater, which no longer exists, and as a guitar

28:51

teacher at the high school. I haven't

28:53

been able to go to any live shows, but any

28:55

general STL culture is great too. Oh, that's

28:58

awesome. Thank you for reading that one to

29:00

me. Yeah. Yeah, 2005

29:02

we wouldn't have crossed paths at any point.

29:04

No. But you obviously would have had pretty

29:07

much the exact same

29:09

experience. That's cool. Thank

29:11

you to Boenn and Augustus for these for theme song

29:13

Money Won't Pay. You can find a link to that

29:16

in the episode description. And thank you to Maximum Fun

29:18

for having us on the network. Max Fun Drive is

29:20

coming up very soon in March. We have some exciting

29:22

stuff to share with you later on. I genuinely

29:25

am so stoked for this Max Fun Drive.

29:27

We have done some truly wild BOCO

29:31

for you this year, and I cannot wait to talk

29:33

more about it. We have

29:35

some merch over at macroymerch.com, and it's

29:37

almost March, which means we're going to

29:40

be deploying even more new merch

29:42

there. So check it out now. Sometimes

29:44

it rains in Trap Nation. I adore

29:48

some fungalore stuff up in there

29:50

too. And again, more

29:52

coming down the pipe. That's it

29:54

for this week's episode of Wonderful.

29:59

Thank you for listening. to this week's episode

30:01

of Wonderful and we hope you'll join us for

30:03

next week. This was an episode

30:05

that we created that was

30:07

called Wonderful. And now it's

30:09

as we say in the

30:11

podcasting business in the can.

30:51

Maximum Fun, a work-around

30:53

network of artist-owned shows supported

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directly by you.