No Bad Ideas

Sarah is out this week, but Gabriel and Zach are joined by writer, director, and filmmaker Maegan Houang for two bad ideas involving peanuts and intelligence tests!

In our first bad idea, Gabriel brings the story of a man who dutifully pushed a peanut up a mountain to break a world record. The gang turns it into a Rat Race-style eccentric millionaire-driven comedy of errors. Then, Zach presents a slippery tale of a man who was turned away from a job as a police officer because... he scored too highly on an intelligence test. Everyone struggles with how to turn that into a forward-facing story with anything approaching sympathetic characters. Then, we get to talk to Maegan about her career, visualizing songs for music videos, and dealing with the challenges of morale on film sets.

All of that, plus: reboots of Fitzcarraldo, family feuds, structural wrappers, sci-fi societies, prescient questions, and Jurassic Park for Psychopaths.

Today's Bad Ideas™: 
Idea #1
Idea #2

For more on Maegan and her work, check out her website.

Support the show: http://patreon.com/NoBadIdeas

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Sarah is out this week but we have two stellar guests to fill out the required level of madness at No Bad Ideas HQ: the wonderful Chris and Jenn Sugden have returned! 

First up, Gabriel brings us a contest that could only take place in Florida and we turn it into an underdog story of an amateur hunter who would give St. Patrick a run for his money. Then Zach gives us yet another reason for why everything is horrible and talks us through the burgeoning private lie-detection industry protecting people from honest conversations with their spouses; we then turn it into a drama of ethical dilemmas, lying liars who lie, and honest brokers who need to start lying too. 

Finally, Jenn and Chris talk about translating Victoriocity from a much-beloved podcast to an exciting upcoming novel, how their comedy background informs how they think about stories, balancing backstory for new and old audiences, how they manage writing collaboratively, and little teaser for Victoriocity Season 3. 

Plus: The pre-1950 snake-hunting code of honor, the return of the zoetrope, the end of frivolous things, lying plants, and Big Pete. 

Today's Bad Ideas™: 
Idea #1
Idea #2

If you'd like to check out the Sugdens' work, you can check Jenn and Chris out on Twitter and visit Victoriocity's website and listen to it wherever fine podcasts are downloadable. 

Support the show: http://patreon.com/NoBadIdeas

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The squad is back for a new episode, featuring murder, terrible hotels, and special guest star Octavia Bray, creator of Life with Leo(h)!

For our first bad idea, Zach brings us a twisty tale of corporate corruption, greed, murder, shady stuff, and... well, lots of incompetence. The team pitches a film about a group of investigators who think the criminals they are pursuing are way, way, way better at crime than they actually are. Then, Sarah presents an article about an aggressively awful combination hotel/art installation experience in the Swiss Alps. The team puts together a film about a scam that tries to exploits privileged white people's worst tendencies until it all goes horribly, horribly wrong. 

All of that, plus: 1% Illuminati stuff, graves in swamps, Swiss chocolate, the weight of spinning plates, and poetically just comeuppances. 

Today's Bad Ideas™: 

Idea #1

Idea #2

For more on Octavia's work visit her Twitter, and check out the Indiegogo for Season 2 of Life with Leo(h)! 

Support the show: http://patreon.com/NoBadIdeas

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The Bad Ideas crew is joined by Avery Trufelman, the creator of Articles of Interest, to tackle bad ideas featuring relief funds, online casinos, and busted stereotypical gender roles!

In our first bad idea, Sarah brings us the story of a man who received a much more generous Covid relief payment than he was expecting. The gang turns it into a film about a man who is desperately trying (and most failing) to get rid of as much money as he can as quickly as possible. Then, Zach presents a unique marketing tactic: small phones specifically designed to be put in, ahem, hard to reach places. The squad turns it into a story about a scheme to make money from within the walls of a prison, and how it helps the meanest, burliest, most manly inmates in the yard get in touch with their sensitive side. 

All of that, plus: highly orchestrated schemes, Werner Herzog, supply chain issues, emotional connections, and butts. 

Today's Bad Ideas™: 

Idea #1

Idea #2

For more on Avery's work, visit her website. For more information on the Louis Armstrong House Museum, visit their website. 

Support the show: http://patreon.com/NoBadIdeas

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We're so excited to have one of our favorite returning guests back in the NBI hot seat! The great Lindz Amer makes their triumphant return to the mayhem of bad ideas that people have had in real life and/or the Internet! 

First, Gabriel takes us to Tenerife, where a bit between a vacationing couple got way out of control and we transform it into a slow-motion horror story that makes us all uncomfortable. Next, Sarah brings us the first-world woes of a French farmer, and the gang turns it into the story of the end of the world that all comes down to American exchange students. 

Then, Lindz talks about the differences between writing for kids versus adults, the building blocks of storytelling, and their dream projects for all kinds of screens. 

Plus: #SponsoredContent, a Call of Cthulhu place, the creepier Kool-Aid Man, a new TikTok genre and the origin of the Zombie apocalypse.   

Today's Bad Ideas™: 

Idea #1

Idea #2

For more of Lindz's work, check out @lindzamer on Twitter and Instagram, and you also check out their work at Queer Kids Stuff and their new show, Rainbow Parenting. 

Support the show: http://patreon.com/NoBadIdeas

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Today: we don't have a full episode of No Bad Ideas, we'll be back with some great episodes starting next Monday. But to tie you over, we present a never-before-head (on the main feed) Patreon extra: the story of an obsession that goes too far, and the man who has to compete with an irresistible force: Adam Driver. 

Today's Bad Idea™

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It's our 200th episode! So we decided to do something we've never done before: we watched a bad movie and then tried to figure out how we might turn it into a good film! So sit back, relax, and laugh as we make ourselves reckon with that classic 1989 film... Weekend At Bernie's! Spoilers for the film found within. (But we strongly suggest you don't care.)

All of that, plus: underused dead bodies, neat moments of cinematic humor, corporate ladders of success, rocket science, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind machines!

Today's Bad Idea™

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Unfortunately, we're short a Gabriel this week but we've tricked one of our favorite people in podcasting to come join us for a dose of silliness at NBI HQ: the great Lauren Shippen is here!  

And there's plenty of silliness to go around. First, Zach brings us a small town conspiracy that definitely does not involve Banksy, and we spin it into a story of CC that also, definitely, does not involve Banksy. Then Sarah brings us the story of an author who probably shouldn't have written an essay about committing a murder, and we turn it into the story of a writer who burned out who needs to hit the best-seller list and is willing to die, or kill, trying. 

Then we talk to Lauren about the origins of her latest show, Mirage Diner, and its journey to the Tribeca festival, the various ways one can go about creating ideas for podcasts and the different ways they can come to fruition, the advantages of owning what you make, the reasons to leave series alone when they're done, and even more. 

Plus: Murder Zines, a mix of Catch Me If You Can and Lemony Snicket, scathing commentaries on municipal funding, real vibes, and a gcal sync across the multiverse.  

Today's Bad Ideas™: 
Idea #1 
Idea #2  

To listen to the premiere of Mirage Diner at the Tribeca Fest on June 8th in New York, head here for tickets! For more of Lauren's work, you can check out all the quality shows by Atypical Artists. You can also find her on Twitter and Instagram. 

Support the show: http://patreon.com/NoBadIdeas

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We’re delighted to have not one guest this week, but two! Phillip Thorn and Øystein Brager, masterminds behind The Amelia Project, have come to NBI HQ put their considerable talents (and cocoa) to much sillier use. 

We start with an idea from Gabriel about the way a couple can exert the ultimate pressure on their child to have grandkids, and turn it into a stealth Failure To Launch reboot that none of us wanted or needed. Then, Phillip and Øystein bring a bad idea of their own! We take the antiquing score of a lifetime and turn it into a sculpture with an ancient curse that reverberates across many lifetimes and an opportunity for Adam Driver to return to his sleezebag roots. 

Finally we talk to Phillip and Øystein about their podcasting journey: what they’ve taken from their theater background, how they come up with characters, and even get an exciting announcement from them about future seasons of The Amelia Project! 

Plus: Bizarro courtroom dramas, hidden deadlines, 16th century tails, a suitcase full of seashells, and a polycule with Robert De Niro, Clint Eastwood, and Dame Maggie Smith 

Today’s Bad Ideas™: 
Idea 1

Idea 2

To check out the show, visit their site, and for more of Øystein and Phillip, find them on Twitter! 

Support the show: http://patreon.com/NoBadIdeas

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The Bad Ideas team is hard at work on some new episodes, including our very silly 200th episode extravaganza. (Coming soon!) But in the mean time, we wanted to re-share this classic episode from our archives.

We’re joined this week by one of our absolute favorite podcast creators, the head writer of Wooden Overcoats, David K. Barnes! We completely squander David’s talents, first, in turning the tale of one of the most incompetent thieves we’ve ever seen into one of the strangest heist plans we’ve ever concocted. Then we start a war… kind of, and turn a European military mishap into a game of spin doctors that, of course, spins wildly out of control.

Plus: The Lost Boys gritty reboot, clumsy escape attempts, Hitchcockian suspense, Czech Jean Dujardin, and the strangest variation on the prisoner’s dilemma we’ve ever heard.

Today’s Bad Ideas:

Idea #1

Idea #2

If you’d like to follow David’s work, and why wouldn’t you?, check out Wooden Overcoats, visit his website and follow him on Twitter.

Support the show: http://patreon.com/NoBadIdeas

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