Will This Be On The Test?

On this, our 100th Episode Mattie and Austin switch things up. Instead of researching our own topics, we each researched a topic for the other to cover.

Mattie wrote a segment for Austin to read about his least favorite genre of anything. Listen as  Austin slowly realizes she researched bluegrass music, and hear the annoyance in his voice as he talks about banjos and why the mandolin should just go away.

Then Mattie gets a wall of musical terms and German names to try to pronounce while she covers Austin's topic, the original musical sex symbol Franz Liszt.

We are also taking our annual break from recording for the next two weeks to improve the background stuff of the podcast, so watch out for our triumphant return at the start of October.

After a tough week, we record an episode at the last second and just manage to get it out. so we are a little rougher than usual. But I still think we are funny.

Mattie gives us feedback on feedback. like the best practices for feedback in work, schools, and telling Austin to stop dancing.

Austin then talks about a 600-year-old riot at Oxford and how Medieval England had just zero chill.

This week Mattie and Austin saw many goats! We here at Will This Be on the Test LOVE goats, Mattie and Austin got married at a petting zoo because that meant there would be goats at the wedding and a park near our house hired goats to eat all the weeds. It was an exciting weekend.

Ok, now that we have your attention with a beloved animal that almost everyone loves, Austin talks about Killer Whales (another beloved animal that almost everyone loves) and how they are not so secretly cold-blooded (ok, warm-blooded. they are mammals after all) killers who do some incredibly fucked up things in nature, like toss baby seals around like a volleyball, terrify sharks, and how a serial killer Orca was a tourist attraction at SeaWorld for years. We also realize that most of the movies we loved as kids came out in 1993.

Then Mattie talks about Eidetic memory, photographic memory, and Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM.) we learn about how memory is formed, how people with superior memory don't always think it is a good thing, and absolutely nothing about the hit Musical Cats and the Classic song Memory. I can't believe we forgot about that.

This week, after seeing something either totally amazing or tragic at Costco, Mattie and Austin only ramble for like 10 minutes before the episode starts.

Why do we hate poetry? and more importantly what exactly is poetry? Mattie tells us all about how we might not like it because it is taught in a strange way and people gatekeep the ever-living shit out of it. She also blew Austin's mind by telling him that the most taught poem does not mean at all what we think it means. it was wild.

Then Up in the Sky! It's a Bird! It's a Plane! No, It's Austin talking about Superman! Why is Austin in the sky? he is nothing like a bird. this intro is confusing. we didn't think it through. But Austin heard a celebrity say something stupid and so he had to talk about an amazing time when activists teamed up with the writers of the Superman radio drama and stopped the KKK in their tracks. 

This week Mattie and Austin are still excited to be on upcoming episodes of Mythstorie (8/18) and Storyshout! they are both a lot of fun and you should give them a listen.

Austin got perplexed by why there was a bear, just a whole ass bear standing there, on California's state flag. this led him down a rabbit hole of the most intensely American story he has ever heard. Mattie also makes a great bare-ass pun that Austin completely misses, but listening back it was super good.

Then Mattie tells us that it is okay to accept a compliment. then goes into some, not all, of the weirdness we put around compliments, and tips on how to give and just as importantly accept compliments. We would also like to compliment our listeners who clearly have amazing taste.

Mattie and Austin actually went places and did things this week! and naturally, we both got inspired by real-world events for our topics this week.

Mattie talks about the 1899 newsies strike because we went to an amazing community theater production of Newsies. the real story has less singing, probably less dancing, and certainly no dance fighting.

Austin talks about the University of Wisconsin's Humanities building after a friend sent a series of text messages about being lost there. It is nicknamed the labyrinth and may or may not be a riot-proof bunker built to disorient student protesters in the late 1960s.

And best of all Mattie and Austin have a guest spot coming up on the Mythstorie podcast on 8/18! we know you can't get enough of us here, so check them out and listen to us talk about the lil cryptid that captured our heart and gave us Phil Collins. The Squonk.

This Week, our problematic fave is back and we watched Love is Blind After the Alter. and is Jessica no longer the villain? Is Mark a butthead? and Why do they keep bringing on people from Too Hot to Handle? are we going to have to watch this show now? Are they laying the groundwork for a Netflix reality show extended universe?

anyway

Austin talks about the most suburban shit ever (Other than crocs and socks, overcooking steak on the grill, and being unhinged in Nextdoor,) and goes into lawns. why do we have them? what do they do? and can we just get rid of them? he also yells at Thomas Jefferson for the second week in a row.

Then Mattie concludes her three-part series on the Mercury 13, when politicians got involved and things got worse. She also uncovers a part of NASA's history they really tried to cover up. if you listen closely you can hear Austin's mind being blown and his heart breaking at the exact same moment.

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this week Mattie and Austin have to flee our unventilated and poorly insulated recording studio/ oddly shaped walk-in closet due to extreme heat. but we adapted, overcame, and recorded an episode that only sounds a little like we recorded in a cave. because we do in fact live in a cave. We probably should've mentioned that earlier.

Then we get into Part 2 of 3 of Mattie's segment of the Mercury 13, and how it became a toxic dramatic workplace, a bit of a reality TV show, and witness one of the top 10 power moves I have ever seen in history. like better than when Caesar came back and executed the pirates that kidnapped him.

Then Austin talks about Mt Rushmore. It is more than just an underwhelming tourist trap in the middle of South Dakota. it is insulting to Native Americans on so many levels And the sculptor has some pretty shocking ties to the worst people in America.

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This week we start off strong with Mattie's strategy for becoming the office's undisputed cryptozoology expert. A lofty professional development goal we should all aspire towards.

Then we get into Austin's segment about an absurd art movement from the early 20th century that challenged how we thought about art. Austin also holds it responsible for Maureen in Rent. he may never forgive art for this.

Then, in part 1 of a 2 part episode, Mattie talks about something super important that we should all know more about but probably will get overshadowed by some Billionaires playing Astronaut. She talks about The Mercury 13 and the brave pioneering women that fought to be a part of Space exploration in the '50s and '60s. Including Wally Funk, who will be on the flight along with the worst person alive Jeff "I had to buy a newspaper just to get people to say nice things about me" Bezos.

We also talk about how buying a home is the worst, and why Mattie should not be allowed in art museums.

This week, Austin reveals the true horror of being married to Mattie. She made him watch Rent. The Movie version. It was bad, consider this a content warning. for Rent.

Then Mattie gives us helpful life skill information that we should've learned in school but were not taught and goes in-depth about what is and isn't covered by HIPAA ( The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) and what your rights are. Naturally, Austin gets distracted by bees.

Then Austin talks about something he did learn about and is super salty that people take it seriously. The Philosophy of Ayn Rand (Austin refuses to learn how to correctly pronounce her name) and why it is dumb and the people who follow it are probably assholes who just identify with her Capitalism fan fiction Mary Sue characters and have never actually thought about the content of the books. 

Tangents include Psychics, Crystals, Bees, Sex Sent Me To the ER, and Katanas.