This Show is Awkward

Henrique is having an unexpectedly good day after weeks of house-buying anxiety, slow film-business paperwork and overdue distribution statements. He has finished his errands early, his office is finally clean and his latest microphone arm has intensified a serious case of gear-acquisition syndrome. The hosts compare microphones, remember a Star Trek-loving ice-cream man from Henrique’s childhood and welcome British Twitch listener Counselor of War into the conversation.
That live exchange turns Ep. 129 into a playful tour of England and the United States. Michelle and Henrique compare Pittsburgh’s bridges with London Bridge and the Channel Tunnel, joke about British cars and European Vacation, and explain why Henrique imagines arriving in England as a minor television celebrity after his family film A Bulldog for Christmas received UK television distribution. They also discuss public-access television franchise fees, infrastructure funding and the gap between paying taxes and seeing roads or bridges maintained.
Electric vehicles provide the next transatlantic comparison. Counselor of War describes home charging and quick acceleration, while Henrique explains the range and charging speed that would make an EV practical for his road trips. Michelle brings her home-inspection perspective to older American wiring, grounded outlets and the work required to install a higher-voltage charger. The conversation stays funny even as it touches on electrical safety, gasoline costs and the affordability of switching vehicles.
The final stretch moves through Henrique Couto’s Portuguese surname, friendly British teasing and a memorable Florida travel story involving an electric shock, an alligator and a narrowly avoided wedding. Michelle and Henrique compare Miami, West Palm Beach and the rest of Florida before closing a freewheeling discussion about British-American differences, friendship and the strange places a live chat can lead.
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Recorded in May 2022, Henrique Couto and Michelle compare a sudden burst of Ohio heat with the stubbornly cool weather near Philadelphia. The everyday weather check-in opens into a candid conversation about burnout, taking time off and the practical ways people manage long days in extreme temperatures. The occasion is also Michelle’s birthday, complete with listener greetings and Henrique’s attempt to arrange a celebratory dinner from afar.
The heart of the episode is an extended discussion of film-set safety. Henrique explains why he believes actors should never be expected to absorb avoidable injuries, how stunt performers assess risk and why even a small production needs clear responsibility for weapons, fire, heat and difficult locations. He recalls a documentary about Kane Hodder and a full-body burn that went wrong, then shares examples from his own low-budget sets involving rubber knives, controlled fire, cooling cloths, shade canopies and the all-important floppy hat.
Henrique also recalls getting heat stroke at nineteen and describes how the experience changed his approach as a director. Michelle challenges the ethics of risky stunts, leading both hosts to consider consent, financial pressure and the difference between a trained stunt professional and an ordinary cast or crew member. Their observations reflect personal experience and opinion, not professional medical, occupational-safety or stunt-coordination advice.
The conversation still makes room for movies and comedy. Henrique defends Jackass as a surprisingly creative, sentimental celebration of longtime friendship, then reviews Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness through the unmistakable horror style of director Sam Raimi. The hosts also touch on The Northman, The Green Knight and Everything Everywhere All at Once while debating long runtimes, fantasy fatigue and the difference between a bad movie and a movie that simply is not for you.
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Recorded in April 2022, Henrique Couto and Michelle begin with the anxious wait for a beloved pet to come home from a veterinary dental procedure. Michelle’s cat Gigs is under anesthesia, which prompts the friends to compare how their cats and dogs have handled treatment, shaved fur, recovery collars and the expensive cycle of animal care. The conversation captures both the worry of waiting for a call and the absurd humor people use to get through it.
The central question is what counts as a one-sided friendship. Henrique describes being accused of ghosting someone even though he had sent the last message and had simply stopped initiating every new conversation. He and Michelle talk about reciprocity, slow replies, emotional labor and the demoralizing discovery that a relationship disappears the moment one person stops doing all the work. Their disagreement is revealing: Henrique wants clearer mutual effort, while Michelle remembers being burned when she tried too hard and learned to pull back.
From there, the hosts explore the hidden frustrations of show business. Henrique uses an old circus joke to explain why even exhausting, unglamorous work can be difficult to leave, then discusses the power imbalance between directors and movie stars. Alfred Hitchcock, actors’ backstories and the pressure to keep a production moving lead to a broader conversation about control, creative collaboration and why playing make-believe for a living is rarely as carefree as it sounds.
The episode also detours through Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker and televangelism scandals; the tax complications of buying a family home; and the difficulty of turning enormous charitable promises into workable programs. These are personal reactions rather than professional financial or legal advice. Henrique closes with a recommendation for Nicolas Cage’s The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, while Michelle brings the Ice Age setting of the manga Fire Punch into one final, characteristically awkward exchange.
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Recorded in April 2022, Michelle shares a brutal one-two career shock: her primary employer is eliminating her region, while a second company no longer has enough home-inspection work to bring her on. These are business layoffs rather than performance firings, but the emotional result is still destabilizing. Henrique Couto gives her room to be stressed, reminds listeners that she has time to prepare and celebrates the prospect of seeing his best friend build something of her own.
Michelle explains why she plans to revive Our Best Home Inspections and work independently. She has already trained as a home inspector and built a website, but needs to restore business infrastructure and reconnect with service partners before seeking clients. The hosts discuss insurance, business cards, networking at open houses and the appeal of setting your own schedule. Their conversation is personal experience, not business, insurance or licensing advice, and it reflects what they understood at the time of recording.
Henrique connects Michelle’s transition with his own firing nearly eight years earlier. What starts as a debate over the difference between being fired and being laid off becomes an account of what Henrique describes as workplace retaliation, precarious part-time status, burnout and the terror of suddenly losing income. Listener stories widen the discussion to jobs that consume family time and to the imperfect freedom of self-employment: you may control your day, but taxes, paperwork and insurance still interrupt the fun.
Before the career conversation, Henrique enthusiastically explains Project Zomboid, the survival simulation whose players keep inventing new challenges long after release. He describes characters managing food, shelter, mood, carpentry and vehicle repair while creators turn the zombie apocalypse into experiments such as building a house from scratch. That playful obsession balances the heavier news and preserves the episode’s supportive spirit: losing two jobs hurts, but Michelle has a plan, practical skills and a friend loudly insisting she can make it work.
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Recorded in April 2022, Henrique Couto and Michelle confront a major change in Michelle’s working life. Her employment is shifting, and the uncertainty could force her to rely more heavily on self-employment as a home inspector. Henrique sees an overdue opportunity for his best friend to build a business around her fascination with houses; Michelle sees risk, unanswered questions and plenty of ways the plan could fail. Their affectionate disagreement gives the episode its emotional center.
The hosts talk through the appeal and fear of working for yourself, the difference between passion and conventional career expectations and the practical value of controlling your own schedule. Henrique remembers crying after he lost his last traditional job and argues that responsibility can become empowering when no one else is coming to rescue you. Michelle pushes back against easy optimism, while Henrique points to her training, her home, her music and her webcomic as evidence that she already knows how to pursue difficult goals.
That leads to a candid conversation about self-worth, authenticity and being a good friend to yourself. Henrique rejects the idea that adulthood requires conformity and tells Michelle that maintaining her creativity and identity counts as success. The discussion includes anxiety, tears and fear of failure, but it also demonstrates the practical tenderness of their friendship: Henrique secretly arranges a grocery delivery after Michelle realizes she forgot cookies and tortillas, then voices support for her next step.
The episode opens with Henrique’s enthusiastic recommendation of Everything Everywhere All at Once. He praises its multiverse story, immigrant-family drama and unexpected defense of kindness, and describes a rock-universe sequence that reminds him of his friendship with Michelle. Other tangents include anime posters, haunted houses, Fire Punch, the Andes survival story dramatized in Alive and the idea of hosting classic cartoons. Together, those detours turn a stressful career announcement into a funny, encouraging conversation about change, creativity and choosing yourself.
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Henrique Couto tries to save a trip to the groomer by trimming Chicano and Henwolf’s nails at home—and turns an ordinary chore into a late-night panic. Chicano’s dark nails make the quick difficult to see, but his small nick stops bleeding. Henwolf kicks during the final clip, leaving Henrique with a bloody paw, a trail across the floor and a terrifying wait to see whether the bleeding will stop. The dogs, meanwhile, remain far calmer than their horrified owner.
Recorded in April 2022, Henrique recounts holding pressure on Henwolf’s paw, ordering supplies and fruit through a delivery service and staying beside her until the crisis passes. He also describes the strange aftermath: the dogs sleep peacefully while he scrubs the carpet and periodically discovers another missed spot. Listener stories about stepping on pets, clipped nails and a farm cat hiding in a car engine turn the frightening experience into a larger conversation about the guilt and fear that come with caring for animals.
Michelle answers with a painful kitchen story of her own. A plant labeled as a sweet Asian pepper turned out to produce Serrano peppers, and a dried flake found its way into her eye while she prepared dinner. She describes trying to feed Gigs and search for help while unable to keep the affected eye open. Henrique compares the incident with accidentally touching his eyelid after handling habaneros and with unpacking a shattered bottle of extremely hot pepper sauce.
These stories include improvised responses to animal bleeding and eye irritation, but the hosts are sharing personal experiences—not medical or veterinary instructions. Around them, the friends debate browser-tab overload, Henrique’s diet and where people physically feel hunger before ranking bell peppers, poblanos and New Jersey long hots. The original dog-paws-and-peppers idea survives intact, now with the specific mishaps that made both halves of the conversation memorable.
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Recorded on March 30, 2022, Henrique Couto and Michelle react to the announcement that Bruce Willis was stepping away from acting after an aphasia diagnosis. Henrique revisits the criticism surrounding Willis’s many direct-to-video roles and the earpiece visible in some recent performances, arguing that those choices look different in light of the family’s news. The hosts compare his workload with Nicolas Cage’s run of VOD movies and reject the idea that a creative professional must treat every paying job as a prestige project.
That defense of commercial work leads to potboilers, young-adult horror and R.L. Stine’s extraordinary publishing pace. Henrique recounts how Stine moved from comedy and Eureka’s Castle to Fear Street and Goosebumps, sometimes producing new books on punishing schedules. He and Michelle debate formulas, sparse character descriptions, ghostwriters and whether declining quality is evidence of deception—or simply what happens when a publisher keeps demanding more.
Then Star Trek turns the episode into the accidental politics discussion promised in the original notes. The hosts disagree over whether casting political figure Stacey Abrams in Star Trek: Discovery is reason enough to avoid the series, compare Picard with Deep Space Nine and argue about when allegory becomes preaching. A listener’s comment about socialism in Star Trek expands the debate into capitalism, anarchism, taxation, healthcare, scarcity and the replicator economy. These are personal opinions from a 2022 livestream, not medical, legal, financial or political guidance.
Around those subjects, the friends discuss diet changes, vegan and Mexican food, intermittent fasting, the McDLT, birds nesting in hair, retail jobs at Hot Topic and Spencer’s Gifts and how they first met through mutual friends on MySpace. Even Michelle’s iPad alert makes its cameo. The conversation is messy, lively and surprisingly civil: hosts and listeners disagree sharply, clarify their positions and keep talking about Star Trek, creative work and the kind of future they hope people can build.
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Recorded in March 2022, Henrique Couto celebrates an unlikely grocery-store victory: after weeks without seeing Diet Sprite, he finally finds Sprite Zero in stock. That small discovery starts a wide-ranging soda conversation about pandemic-era supply disruptions, 7UP and its store-brand relatives, Diet Coke, Fresca, Dr Pepper, cream soda and the regional names for mixing every fountain flavor into one cup. Michelle likes soda, but her indifference to Henrique’s prized Sprite becomes part of the joke.
The episode then becomes an informal tour of microphones and musical instruments. Henrique demonstrates a vintage Sennheiser broadcast mic, explains why some voice microphones also work well on drums and compares owning several microphones with a guitarist keeping instruments for different sounds, tunings and jobs. Listeners join in with guitar collections and session-work stories, while Henrique and Michelle discuss acoustic guitars, bass, ukulele, violin, mandolin, harmonica, banjo and keyboards. Yes, Michelle is still “too good” to play bass.
Henrique also explores musical memory. A trip to a former rock quarry brings Fiona Apple’s “Red Red Red” back into his head even though he has not played it in years, reminding him how quickly he learned orchestra pieces by ear. The hosts learn the word audiation for hearing music internally, compare songs that return without warning and discover that both can voluntarily tense an inner-ear muscle to create a low rumbling sound.
Around those themes are new glasses, browser problems, wind chimes, the dogs on camera and stories about learning instruments without chasing technical perfection. The hosts’ casual health and diet remarks are personal opinions from the recording, not medical guidance. What begins with a missing soft drink becomes a warm conversation about sound: how beverages and music acquire memories, why the right tool can make creativity more inviting and how even silly regional nicknames for mixed fountain drinks can carry a history.
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Recorded in March 2022, Henrique Couto and Michelle ask a deceptively simple question: what is the hardest thing you have ever had to finish? Henrique is closing out one long-term movie project while preparing to complete another, and he describes how technical problems, artistic choices, pandemic disruption and his experience with COVID-19 changed a skill that once felt like his calling card. Michelle pushes back on the idea that her albums were easy, turning the original episode note into a candid exchange about the hidden labor behind creative work.
The hosts compare their processes for declaring a project finished. Michelle recalls rerecording much of Sidewalks after an early version did not feel right, then explains why she checks mixes on different speakers and listens for problems rather than perfection. Henrique remembers panicking over the sound of his album Uke or Consequences before discovering that a loose iPod cable was playing only one channel. Together they discuss time management, deadline fatigue and the point where another revision stops helping.
A listener’s unfinished movie opens an extended conversation about independent filmmaking and found footage. Henrique argues that the format can turn limited gear and experience into part of the storytelling, comparing supposedly recovered video to novels framed as journals or diaries. The discussion ranges from Dracula and H. P. Lovecraft to Henrique’s own found-footage productions, while emphasizing the work required to complete even a deliberately rough-looking film.
Elsewhere, the pair revisit The Batman, Spider-Man: Homecoming and superhero stories with universe-sized stakes; celebrate the chemistry of Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black; and coax a sick friend into attempting the movie’s rap on the livestream. Henrique closes with film-distribution history from Sam Sherman’s When Dracula Met Frankenstein, including stories about Al Adamson and distributor Jerry Gross.
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Recorded in March 2022, Henrique Couto arrives with what he realizes are literal blue suede shoes: a new pair of turquoise suede moccasins. That small purchase sends Henrique and Michelle into a cheerful tour of collecting, fandom and the objects that become funnier as they get less glamorous. Henrique shows off a Terminator 2 mug, trading-card memories and the prized centerpiece of his collection—a giant Italian poster for Shocking Dark, the movie once marketed as Terminator 2.
The poster story has everything a collector fears and loves. Henrique describes making a low offer online, discovering that the Italian double sheet was far larger than expected and then spending more on a custom frame than on the poster itself. Along the way, he explains why original movie posters should not be permanently mounted and recalls other favorites from Tourist Trap, Hard to Die, Not of This Earth, Chopping Mall and Scanner Cop.
Then the original notes’ sandwich mystery takes over. Is bread between bread still a sandwich? Does a hot dog count? What about a cheesesteak, calzone, open-faced pizza, cereal, oatmeal or ice cream? The hosts and livestream audience test each definition until Michelle again refuses to reveal what she thinks a pizza actually is. A food thermos filled with miso soup and macaroni, the infamous “fork sandwich” salad and favorite food aromas all join the increasingly hungry debate.
The conversation eventually reaches horror-comedy territory through Motel Hell, cannibal movies and the famous Farmer Vincent’s fritters. Henrique also recommends the music of Ray Mattis, whose credits include Ouija Room, Girl in the Crawlspace and Scarecrow County. The hour closes with food smells, garlic, Earl Grey tea and a characteristically awkward disagreement about whether cannibalism is ever acceptable.
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