Ruin My Life

Kelsey introduces Jason to the spoken word poetry of Sarah Kay. Jason grapples with a crippling, life-long allergy to sincere performance art. In the end, hopefully, we all learn a little something about ourselves.

Jason leads Kelsey on a guided tour through the life and career of innovator/educator/human meme Kanye West.

Notes:

Listen to the playlist Jason made here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrgeWoAUk1H1-BKYvVtCH4cyp2ss3oaAs&disable_polymer=true

Read the New York Times interview here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/16/arts/music/kanye-west-talks-about-his-career-and-album-yeezus.html

And just for fun, here's "Amazing" from Kanye's episode of VH1 Storytellers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuzQ3gcQy-0

On today's episode of Ruin My Life, we're bringing you the first episode of Andrew, Ninja Warrior, a new podcast by friends of the show Sarah Sheppard and Andrew Favaloro. Sarah and Andrew are spending the entire year training together in hopes of getting Andrew onto the hit NBC show American Ninja Warrior. Gee, I wonder where they got that idea? Just kidding! They got it from us. But it's a good podcast and we think you should hear it.

Kelsey introduces Jason to the fantastical, feminist and fashion-forward world of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. Also: Jason finally figures out why people enjoy Law & Order and Kelsey stays one step ahead of the authorities.

In their (legitimately) annual holiday spectacular, Jason and Kelsey participate in a festive but non-denominational exchange of pop-culture gifts: Kelsey introduces Jason to the Irving Berlin's "White Christmas"--the movie, not the song, because that wouldn't be much of a thing, now would it--while Jason shows Kelsey her first ever episode of the Twilight Zone, the yuletide-themed "Night Of The Meek."

In part two of their journey through the Matrix series, Jason introduces Kelsey to The Matrix: Reloaded and The Matrix: Revolutions, two movies that killed almost every bit of goodwill built up by their predecessor. Together our brave and stalwart hosts will face their most challenging question yet: are the Matrix sequels REALLY that bad?

Read: Bootlegging the Matrix by Dr. Eleanor Lockhart: https://medium.com/@BootlegGirl/bootlegging-the-matrix-ccb8d6442778

If we lived in a sane and just world, this is where we would make some dumb reference like 'this week Jason gives Kelsey the red pill,' or something like that, but since we exist in a perpetual nightmare of suffering where that turn of phrase has been co-opted by the worst possible people, we'll just say that Jason and Kelsey talk about the first Matrix movie and then they talk about the 2003 anthology film 'The Animatrix.'

Jason and Kelsey re-discover the life-changing power of pop music when Kaitlin Higgins schools them on One Direction. Also: Kelsey questions the logistics a familiar boy-band trope and Jason investigates the intersection of the 1D and Morgan Spurlock fandoms.

You can listen to the playlist that Kaitlin made for us here: https://open.spotify.com/user/kaitlinhiggins/playlist/3CEglzFMgdOIKenJMMQIsO

Kelsey ruins Jason's life with the 1985 film adaptation of the board game 'Clue' -- or, as the ridiculous and unsophisticated Brits call it, 'Cluedo.' Also, Jason and Kelsey discuss the most terrifying ride in Disney World history and workshop their pitch for the Clue Cinematic Universe.

Friend of the podcast Andrew Favaloro makes his first canonical appearance to ruin Jason and Kelsey's lives with American Ninja Warrior, the nationally beloved game show/sports competition/reality TV hybrid. Also: Kelsey makes her debut as Anxiety Ninja and Jason devises the ultimate obstacle.