Daniel has been obsessing over the part of Beatles lore where tensions are high, everyone hates each other, and the only thing keeping the world’s most famous band from imploding was… Billy Preston. That launches a full tour through the guys’ own history with morale-saving personalities — the people who walk into a room and immediately make everyone behave, write better, or at least stop threatening to quit.

They cover behind-the-scenes moments from Cracked, the sets where one good vibe could salvage a 3AM shoot, the gravitational pull of Sam Richardson, the sorcery of Ben Schwartz, and the peculiar negotiations that happen with network standards when your show involves nudity, violence, or hot dogs with speaking roles.

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Daniel struggles to stop fidgeting with studio equipment and recalls a disastrous coin-based incident on another podcast. Then, the guys analyze the decline of video quality in the Zoom era and the baffling visual language of TikTok mic-holding. Later, Soren unveils his new workspace, sparking a heated debate about whether garages are actually for cars or just "stuff." Daniel shares his home inspector’s unsettling advice about ventilation, and Soren worries his new glass door will turn his driveway into a neighborhood spectacle. Plus: boxcar cigarettes, the evolution of acceptable language, and why teenage boys are more disappointing than dangerous.

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Daniel discovers two prestige TV shows that apparently materialized out of thin air, Soren admits he gets all his entertainment news from bus benches, and the guys spiral into how impossible it is to know anything that’s on television anymore. They talk canon mishaps in writers’ rooms, Roger’s theoretical bang bus arc, Haley’s secret basketball obsession, lore in Tolkien and Game of Thrones, and why Ethan Hawke might genuinely be the last cool man alive. Plus: a shocking Thanksgiving twist.

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Interesting day to debut a mustache as the guys dig in to the newly released Epstein emails, but first Daniel takes us through the big midpoint ultrasound and the creeping realization that doctors are still just tired guys with bad phrasing and weekend plans. Then Soren takes the darkest possible left turn into Jeffrey Epstein’s newly released emails, dissecting his unhinged notes-to-self, what they reveal about power, and why real-life monsters are so much dumber and more boring than any movie villain you’ve ever seen.
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Daniel takes his parking ticket all the way to Zoom Court and learns that the judicial system runs on inconvenience. Soren applauds his righteous fury, then admits he once faked photo evidence to beat a ticket of his own. From there, the guys wade into the murky ethics of parking enforcement, the secret rules of tap-dancing arms, and why some songs you love make absolutely no sense.

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Daniel and Soren spiral from a question about fatherly virtue into the unglamorous rituals of homeownership: cleaning dishwasher filters, testing fire extinguishers, inspecting crawlspaces, and worrying about phantom basement leaks. Daniel confesses to following a Redditor’s “psychotic” home maintenance spreadsheet, while Soren admits he’s never once tested a smoke detector. Along the way they cover the delicate art of writing jokes for Last Week Tonight, a formative childhood fire incident, and the existential dread of discovering a wasp nest the size (but not shape) of a dog.

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Daniel's going to be a dad, and as you can guess he's being very normal about the whole thing, which means Soren gets to be the wise elder dispensing hard-earned advice about nap discipline, phantom drowning babies, and the forbidden art of sleeping anywhere.

Thanks to ASPCA Pet Health Insurance for sponsoring this episode. To explore coverage, visit ASPCApetinsurance.com/QUESTION. The ASPCA is not an insurer and is not engaged in the business of insurance.

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Daniel and Soren wade into the Riyadh Comedy Festival mess: who showed up, who stayed home, and how much moral flexibility three million dollars buys. Then a hard pivot to domestic policy (when to wash a dish and when to call it art) before wrapping up with wasp warfare and the case for seeing what everyone on the internet actually looks like.

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The guys solve sleeve thumb-holes earlier than expected, then move on to songs that slap-- specifically cover songs that slap-or at least did slap at one point in the mid-aughts.

---- SHOW NOTES??
Hey Ya (Outkast cover) by Obadiah Parker (Matt Weddle):    • Obadiah Parker - Hey Ya Cover  
I Think I Love You (The Partridge Family cover) by Tenacious D:    • I Think I Love You  
Baby Got Back (Sir Mix-A-Lot cover) by Jonathan Coulton:    • Baby Got Back  

Read "I Didn't Need To Know All of That About Travis Kelce", article by Rachel Handler (h/t @Vulture ): https://www.vulture.com/article/taylo...

Read Murder on Sex Island by Jo Firestone: https://bookshop.org/p/books/murder-o...

Daniel's substack: https://danielobrien.substack.com/ ----

Thanks to ASPCA Pet Health Insurance for sponsoring this episode. To explore coverage, visit ASPCApetinsurance.com/QUESTION. The ASPCA is not an insurer and is not engaged in the business of insurance.

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Daniel talks through the post-Emmy afterglow that never arrived: a clean cut to Kimmel, a week of headlines, and then absolutely no industry knock at the door—no agents, no meetings, not even a polite threat. Soren matches him with his own long relationship to being un-represented on a very represented show. Plus the private logic of phones and closets: color-gradient app grids, folders labeled “Who Cares,” bottom-row dock politics, and the eternal “useful” pile. Finally, a full throated endorsement for Writing Things Down.

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