The Beginner's Guide to Losing Your Mind with Shane Mauss

(upbeat music)

This is synchronous, this is synchronous.

This is synchronous, this is synchronous.

This is synchronous, this is synchronous.

This is synchronous, this is synchronous. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)

Welcome to Synchronicity. My guest this week features the return of Shane Moss. This is Shane's third time on the podcast. Shane is always one of my favorite people to speak to because I know I use that term all the time, but it's truly true. Because he not only is a hilarious comedian, not only is a dedicated psychonaut in so many ways, but he also has lost his mind a couple times, which is I think a particularly profound experience for those who have gone through it. And I think more importantly, for people who have kind of lost their resonance with regular consensus reality for a period of time, for the people who are able to kind of reconstitute themselves and be a normal person again afterwards, I think that's really a special gift that for those of us who get to experience it is really helpful in life.

It could also be disturbing and scary and terrifying, but ultimately if you're able to kind of put yourself back together again, like Humpty Dumpty, it's really provide some tremendous insight into not only your own life, but the life of those around you and just kind of the macro and the micro. So, you know, Shane is just like, and also a patient really focuses on a lot of that. And just he also, I don't wanna forget, but Shane has a new show that he's going around the country doing that's basically a mix of stand-up and science, which is awesome. And it reflects who Shane is, and he's able to weave this stuff together in such a cool way.

If you go and check out, you know, go check him out on Twitter, all of the other places, one would find a comedian these days to see if he's gonna be in a town near you. I know he's hovering around the Midwest right now, but I imagine this is something that's probably gonna expand to a lot of other cities, 'cause I'm sure there's an interest in it. So yeah, this episode fucking rules, and you're really gonna enjoy it. (laughs) Saying that matter of factly, but I'm pretty sure you will. So, I thought a decent segue, or not segue, but intro for this podcast would be, to go a little bit into something that happened last week, I was gonna do a dedicated episode for it, but I decided to take the intro of this one since it is connected in a lot of ways, and just kind of my outlook and perspective on what's going on in the world culturally and politically.

And I know you definitely do not come to this podcast to hear me wax poetic on politics. So I'm really gonna keep this as loosely affiliated with politics while also mentioning Donald Trump, and even better, that bothers you. I'm also gonna specifically mention Kanye West and Donald Trump. So if you've listened to this podcast and any of the other conversations, you know I'm a big Kanye West fan. I think his music is transcendental. I think there's some incredible stuff that he is able to synthesize through not only his music, but his words and his art in general. I also really am not an idiot and recognize that a lot of the stuff that Kanye is saying right now relating to Trump and just, he's not someone you wanna go to for political hot takes, let's put it like that.

He's not forming well-informed opinions. He's not doing the things you would wanna see. I'm not a huge Taylor Swift fan, but her cogent and thoughtful advocating for democratic candidates in Tennessee is not what Kanye West is doing. So I wanna talk about a little bit just kind of what I'm very optimistic as you can tell, not a cynicism. I am not a cynicism, it's a synthesis in any way. However, something that's kind of freaking me out a little bit is the reaction to this whole Kanye Trump thing. So I'm gonna give you my perspective of kind of what I think is going on with Kanye and kind of the reactions that have stemmed from this.

I think it's pretty clear that anyone who's been diagnosed as bipolar, thinks they're bipolar, has had any type of symptom similar to what's identified on a bipolar spectrum. You can see that Kanye is kind of having an upcycling episode where his thoughts are basically delving into mania, right? A lot of these things seemingly disconnected things to us. He's connecting in a way that are very profound for him, but he's not effectively able to communicate that to people who are listening to him. This is something that anyone who's had one of these episodes, or what we refer to as episodes, the symptoms can relate to.

And I've seen a lot of reactions from people who are bipolar in the community, celebrities, other people who generally feel a tremendous amount of empathy and potentially sadness for what Kanye is going to, going through. I think you also have to look at the situations forming around someone like Kanye West. You know, when his mother died however many years ago, that seemed to be his major tether to the world, right? And when you lose your grounding factor, the element of your life that can stabilize you to the world, right? Not going off into the angelic realms of mysticism and the ether of ideas, but having someone that can ground you, when you lose that, I can only imagine how difficult that is if you're just dealing with any degree of mental illness, let alone mental illness, for someone as talented and kind of, you know, artistically gifted as Kanye, and also being like one of the most top 10 famous people in the world.

That's like a really potent combo. And not to just whitewash basically everything that Kanye is doing, you know, he has a tremendous ego. I think that that's something that has, you know, really helped him in the world, but it's also hard him a lot. And when people see people ego flexed and not being humbled, that creates a natural aversion. So anyway, that's kind of where Kanye is coming from. He wants to go meet Trump. He meets Trump. He rambles on for 13 minutes about a bunch of stuff. Some of it, you know, almost coherent, and some of it totally incoherent. But his general message was, it seems like he's projecting a kind of a father image onto Trump.

He likes that he's kind of an iconoclast, someone who's not really, someone who's bucking the trend. And he gave him a hug and he said he loved him. And I think Kanye's overall message, and I could be misconstruing this, is that he's trying to kill Trump with kindness, which is not really what you want to do to a bully. It's just not something that makes a lot of sense, especially one who's kind of as narcissistic as Trump, but that's what Kanye is trying to do, okay? Sorry, it looks shitty if you're a Kanye West fan and you love his music and you identify with it. If you're black and you're feeling that he's alienating the community by things he's saying that are ignorant, you're allowed to feel betrayed.

I think where the serious misstep is happening for a lot of people is that the quickness in which people will turn to rage, making fun in a nasty and mean way, hating, shitting on, the quickness of which supposedly the liberal left and the progressives on the left side who don't agree with what Kanye West is doing, the quickness they can go to that personally, just personally, I think is exactly how we end up with President Trump and people who are demagogues and just really people who we probably don't want in power at a pretty critical time where we probably need competent and compassionate people in power.

And that kind of freaks me out because if the left is supposed to be the voice of reason, the people who can see that someone like Brett Kavanaugh should probably not be a Supreme Court justice and those same people are so quick to just completely shit on and hate on someone who's clearly going through some type of mental issue, that's bad. That's really bad. It's really, really, really, really bad because that means there's a fundamental polarization that is almost irrevocably broken for so many people that they can't extend like, okay, I don't like what Kanye is doing. I don't agree with anything, but can also see that maybe these aren't well formed opinions from Kanye.

Maybe they're just kind of the ramblings of someone who says, "I wanna meet the president." And then the next day he's meeting the president because of how famous he is. So it's kind of, yeah, it's a little freaky. It's a little freaky because we're supposed to be cultivating kind of the qualities of compassion and openness. And of course, like everyone has to deal with their own shadow stuff and their own lives. No one's perfect, but it's not that hard to be like, I don't agree with Kanye. I still like his music. I wish him well, I'm sending him love. I get his message that he wants people to send love to Trump too, but maybe I don't have to like full on, just destroy my idea of him as a person because he's going through a hard time.

I don't see enough people doing that. I think it's a reactionary climate that we're in, but it just to me, whenever I see it so clearly in something which is like, and also just to be clear, there's no one before talking about like Kanye Westman. No one is a Kanye West fan who didn't vote for Trump, who now because Kanye's voting loves Trump is going to vote for Trump. Do you know what I mean? Those people don't exist, they're not real people. Most people who didn't vote for Trump who were Kanye Westmans know that they shouldn't be voting for Trump anyway. So it is kind of a fucked up situation, but I think the more we can think about these things and identify how we're reacting towards things that really have no bearing on our lives.

Let's be clear, I just devoted like 10, 15 minutes talking about Kanye West and Donald Trump. This just should not really affect you. It should affect you in the way that maybe it serves as a symbol or as an example of a groupthink or mob mentality that doesn't serve us culturally, but like in terms of like paying attention and being sucked into the media vortex of this stuff, that's not like the most important thing to be doing. But if it can be a learning lesson, I think that's important. And just to be clear, like as a personal example, I don't think I gave this in, I think I just did a podcast with Yoshino for artist-decoded, his podcast, and I bring this example up, I'll bring it up here, just so people can kind of see the relationship.

So when I was kind of going through my thing where everything was a synchronicity and it was just an insane kind of state of consciousness to be in, there was one time I went into a dorm room at Berkeley, this is, you know, or 2003 or four, and I was just in a completely dreamlike state at this point. Everything is merging together, it's barely, you know, is everything a dream like not conceptually, but is everything a dream? That's how I'm thinking. And I go into this dorm room with my friend, he smokes him weed, and I start talking about how the war in Afghanistan isn't real. And I don't mean this figuratively at the time, I mean, it's not real, 'cause nothing is real.

We're in the illusory world of nothingness. You're not real, I'm not real. But again, I'm not saying this like acknowledging that, oh no, of course we're real too. I'm like legitimately stating that nothing is real. And it turns out that one of the people in the dorm room had a brother who's fighting in the war. And Afghanistan. And he of course got inferior. He got furious, like he was infuriated, which is totally understandable. And I had my other friend there who kind of had seen me shift into more like child like, I'm not trying to be mean or rude to anyone, but I just have Noah fucking idea what I'm saying.

And he says to the guys like, listen, Noah is not in a right state of mind. Don't take it personally. Take too many drugs, whatever it is to try to calm the guy down. And I'm bringing this up not because of any specific relationship I have to the example, but in this example, I'm Kanye West, right? I'm the person who's talking pretty much utter nonsense. And the other, the guy who got upset is the person who's living in the world. The people who are reacting be like, yo, don't talk shit. We were talking about my brother is in the war. You're gonna tell me his whole existence is invalidated. The same way someone who would be like, Kanye, you're supporting Trump.

He's imprisoning kids. This is un, you can't have this. And then my friend is who I'm suggesting we be like, the person who is totally cognizant of both points of view. He knows I'm not an asshole. He knows I'm saying this because in my mind, this is accurate reality. And he also knows that the other guy who has a brother in Afghanistan is gonna be offended because of course that's real. So if you can take kind of the viewpoint of the person who understands both points of view, but allows them to exist without necessarily just railing against either side, you're gonna be in a lot better position to a, figure out how you actually feel.

And b, potentially try to take some positive action in what's going on. So this is as close to wisdom as I can get at this point, but I know at least seeing based on how my friends are reacting to Kanye West and other people who I consider a relatively intelligent, compassionate individual is like, just check yourself. If you notice, you're just hating on someone 'cause of what they're doing. If it's not directly harming you or other people, and I think it's hard, the case is hard to be, it's hard to make the case the Kanye is directly hurting people because of this. Think if best people will laugh or mock him and then some people will have pity form.

Anyway, I bring this up on this episode because I know Shane can relate to a lot of this stuff in terms of just like, when you go off your rocker, things that make sense to you that even may make sense after the fact when you kind of reconstituted yourself can seem like utter madness to other people and having the ability to kind of recognize that is of course a wonderful skill, but it's also something that you have to learn. If you're getting cosmic downloads in a manic state constantly, it's hard to kind of like figure out how to interface with the rest of reality. So anyway, I thought it was somewhat appropriate for this episode and then like, just to be clear, I think if we don't check that behavior, we're gonna end up with more Trump.

We're gonna end up with whether it's Trump himself or more authoritarian people. If you try to beat rage with rage, you're gonna lose to the original rager. You don't know how to rage like a bipolar or a manic person or someone who doesn't believe in reality, trust me. So all right, that's it. I get some ads out of the way. Are we gonna do an ad books? Let's do books. Books are amazing. Read them. I've been reading Ron Chernow's books or I've been listening to them on Audible. Same thing, listen, read whatever you wanna do. They're great. I'm going through his entire bibliography. Is that what it's called?

Yeah, yep. I think that's what it's called. Remember that from school. Go check out books. No links or ads to go yada, yada, yada. I'm just saying books. You hear the music underneath? That means this is a fake ad. But books are cool. Go check them out. Good to read. Good to look at. Good to listen to. Real ad time. Meister, still going on. G-E-T-M-Y-S-T-E-R. Get Meister.com, go use the code SINK at checkout. Canada, by the way, today, has a recording this intro. Just legalize recreational marijuana for all adults. Go celebrate Canadian listeners. Go get some of these cool fucking products that'll make your weed smoke an experience that much better.

So get Meister.com, use the code SINK, S-Y-N-C at checkout, and boom, 15% off. That's it. Now I'm gonna shut up. Long intro, I know, long episode. This has gotta be one of the longer ones I've done, period. Thank you for tuning in. Thank you to Patrick Nemcek and all other Patreon patrons. You can go check out my EP that came out a couple weeks ago. Kakeon on all your favorite music places, all the ones, all of the ones. Go check that out. I love seeing the downloads and streams come in, and the feedback, love it. Amazing. Overwhelmingly positive makes me feel good in my heart. Okay, that's it.

Without further ado, here is Shane Moss. (upbeat music) Dude, thanks for coming back on.

Yeah, thanks for having me. Third time, that's in the lofty steams of synchronicity, so I appreciate it.

Yeah.

I'd love to talk about your movie, man, because all I've seen is the trailer, and--

Oh, we never sent you the trailer.

You never, no, no, I'd love to see it, but dude, just the trailer is extremely intriguing. My favorite part is when you're painting yourself with the stuff that, what is it in the book again?

Yeah, it's not MAOI inhibitor, so to extend like a DMT trip, basically.

I love to see, just like you're about to light the DMT pipe, I think. Is that what that is?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, that was a spoiler alert. That was meant to be this attention grabbing scene, and it was like, and then we were later going to show that we were just doing that as an attention grabbing scene, and psychedelics aren't like that crazy looking, and whatnot. That's what the point of that scene was, but then that deal itself ended up being way more intense than what I expected, and started to be like the beginning of this, me kind of like losing my mind eventually, and so yeah, it was part of, and that's not ruining anything, or I wouldn't be saying it, but yeah, that was an interesting surprise for both the audience and the film, (laughing)

Dude, I mean, so we spoke about it last time, I think you were like six months removed from that, from like the genesis of kind of losing your mind, and we were speaking--

What was it? Do you remember?

I don't, I mean--

For something?

Yeah, it must have been somewhere like that, 'cause you were--

Because I lost my mind again.

Oh, awesome, awesome.

Early January.

Oh, a two-timer, amazing.

A two-timer.

I've been there, my friend. It wasn't bad the second time.

It was a positive thing.

Oh no. (laughing) No, it wasn't the duration, wasn't the duration.

Oh.

Like intense, it was, my girlfriend was able to talk me into taking, you know, I already had the medication with me, and I was able to, you know, self-administer and everything, and I was able to, my girlfriend was able to talk to me into doing it. The mood stabilizers, early on, before it really got too out of control. And, you know, it was really, ultimately it was only like a really bad, like, five days, you know?

What was going on? Like, what was, what happened, basically?

Well, so the first time, you know, was a whole ordeal of, like, you know, it took me a few weeks before I eventually got hospitalized. And then I was kind of like pretty far gone by that point, and that took a while to even, like, once I was out of the, out of the psych ward, it was, I was still like, I'd say I was still like tripping pretty often. (laughing) So, and, and then, and then once, and then I went off the mood stabilizers, once I was kind of balanced, but then that led to like a pretty deep depression, and then, and then I did this, my co-meditations.

I was wondering about that, 'cause right when I spoke to you, you were about to do that, and I was like, good luck, good luck.

Yeah, really well, you know, I mean, I was kind of like, I started small, and in mushrooms, it never, other than, they might, you know, I kind of think that they were the foundation of my first break. They had mushrooms by themselves have never, like I have had like a bad five minutes.

Right, right, right.

It's in like 20 years of experience or whatever, and, and like, you know, hints of like maybe like, ooh, I shouldn't be hearing voices right now. (laughing)

Yeah, yeah.

For like 30 seconds or something, like, you know, and, and so, you know, I dabbled back into it at that retreat. It went really well. But I was a little too into, things got a little too magical again, a little too synchronicistic again.

Yeah. (laughing)

And, but still like in a real positive way, and like, you know, it was a little strange. I mean, it didn't help keep me grounded that I was also with like other like facilitator.

Yeah.

Energy healers or whatever that are kind of on the fringes of these experiences themselves. Like when I'm already like sitting there by myself having like this odd, you know, synchronicistic trip of like, I feel like we've all been here.

Yeah.

Before, together or whatever. And how is that possible? And then someone coming up to me and being like, we've all done this before. And like, you know, we were in a past life together. And like, and you have this like a panther medicine or energy and I, what the fuck?

Don't tell me that, yeah.

Don't need to hear that shit right now. 'Cause I'm already thinking thoughts like that. And not, and I don't need to be. But it was all pretty positive. And then a couple of weeks later, you know, I think kind of at the end of December, I had a mushroom trip with my girlfriend, her and I. And things got really real. It was like, you know, I had been like, watching Mr. Robot and kind of became convinced that it was like a metaphor for me hacking into the universal consciousness.

Oh, sure, sure.

And, and that was still pretty positive. But it was just like, oh, speaking of synchronous. So, so it was like on that mushroom trip, I had, I had, so for example, I had this, this really strong vision and it felt like very real and synchronous that I was like this, this toy like this rag doll that like some kid, like some kid of an alien or something like that was like playing with. And it was like, it was like I was harmless enough or like genuine enough or like safe enough or whatever that like these like aliens let their kids play with me or something like that.

It's like fantastic planet kind of, do you ever see that?

I'm not familiar with that.

Oh, it'll kind of freak you out now. It's just 70s cartoon really weird esoteric kind of psychedelic cartoon, but they're these aliens, they're gigantic and they play with humans and they give it to one of their kids and like, he's batting it around and it's like, oh shit. And then they go and discover all this other stuff. It's, yeah, it's pretty cool.

Uh huh.

Yeah.

Yeah, I, well, so I had, I didn't really think that much. It was something about it just like really struck me as feeling more real than most, you know, visions or whatever.

Yeah.

And then, you know, a few days later I was in Dallas, Texas doing shows. And I had, so one of the people that I met during that Jamaican retreat, so we were like paired together like staying in these houses with the other facilitator and, and, you know, so I got, she was there with her husband and daughter and hanging out with them and, and her daughter's like, I don't know, it's probably maybe five or something like that or I don't know. And I'm like, pretty good with kids for whatever reason. And so, yeah, you know, her, her, her daughter really liked hanging out with me. And so anyway, I got a text a few days later that was like, from that facilitator like, "Hey, I just thought you'd like to,"

not like a couple of nights ago, my husband was like, gone through storage and pulled out this like old rag doll from when he was a kid and he gave it to, to our daughter. And she named it Shane.

Oh no.

And it was like the exact same night that that happened. And, and that was like, I was like, wait a second, and then like, and then a, and then, so all that was like a magical seeming or whatever, but then like right after that, I got like an amber alert on my phone and I was like, is this, is there like some, is that like some metaphor for some like, like some things about to happen and what the, and then like, it's always, all these synchronicities are all fun and everything until like any kind of fear or parent.

Then it's the worst. Then it's unceasing. I know exactly what you're talking about. I lived in that state for like a month and a half. It was truly, like we're thinking FBI agents or like NARCs were gonna teleport into my fucking shower when I was in my dorm room. Like I totally know what you're talking about.

Yeah. And so that's when it took like a bad turn.

You know, I thought I was already getting to be like a little too, like I was telling people like from stage that like it's all gonna be okay because like, you know, I had, I was, I was not being myself like, you know, like, you know, reading too much into signs from the universe that it's all going to be okay. And so it was already like, you know, upon reflection, I was already kind of heading toward or maybe already experiencing some mania. And then it just kind of, you know, once it went negative, then it was like, now I'm like, can't, you know, even crossing this tree just like, wait a second.

Does it know which way I'm going right now in the intersection? What if I go left?

Oh, I know it so well.

No, I'm just like standing in the middle of the street walking back and forth, just like getting disoriented and, you know, kind of like forgetting how to like, get around to places. And like, I went, I tried to like go rock climbing to like, get grounded and like get my head off of it. And then it was, it was like, it was like, I had this vision that like, all of these, all of these people were, were like, most of them were like in my imagination or whatever. And some of these people were just like, they're watching in like all of this place. I had this idea that this is like all in my head. And like, this was actually like, like, what, what if, what if I'm actually just jumping off of this rock and like gliding that I only think that I'm tied into something, but I'm not, like I'm imagining that and, and it was like this.

And then I was like feeling threatened by the universe. Like I'd overhear someone saying something and it was like, is that, is that toward me?

Yes, yes.

And, and then like, like right when I was like thinking, like this thing was threatening me, like physically, like it was going to make like, like it could drop me or what, like, like the, the auto belay device that was holding me could just disappear at any second because it's just my imagination.

Right.

That's what the universe is like. It could all just like it any second. And I'll just be the, the carpet could be pulled out from under me and, and like right when that happened to the sky, like had had this like horrible fucking injury like right in front of me.

Holy shit. Oh, that's when you start really freaking out when the thoughts and they're like.

That's what it's going to do to me and like, injuries like that don't happen in rock gym. Like it's the first one I've ever seen. Like rock climbing in a gym is like pretty, really pretty safe. And this was like fucking horrific, like the guy's leg was like mangled and, and so it was, and I just started like getting really confused and really, you know, it's once that fear takes over, man. That really, that really takes over fear, fear has this like amazing way of, of weight, of waiting. Like the costs of a potential negative experience more than what is any like logical, statistical reasoning is able to do, we all have these many drives going on in our head at the same time always.

But like once fear really takes over and like gets the spotlight, it can, it can really start messing with you.

Yeah, man, and like it's interesting your stories there though too because,

Well fear also has kind of like a gravitational pull too. Like once you kind of like tap into it, if you're not able to get out of it, it just, it kind of pushes down on you like heavily. And you know, and psychedelic states and kind of non-ordinary consciousness states, it's amplified to like such a ridiculous degree, especially when you're in like those open-minded states and like you really do believe, and no kind of anything can happen at any time based on your thoughts. So I can only imagine seeing like, oh, my carabiner could break and then actually have it happen to someone else. But what's interesting to me about that is, I just had Dean Radon on who's been doing like a lot of like size studies and he just wrote a book called Real Magic and he's talking about pre-cognitive stuff a lot and all these things and trying to statistically study them and do empirical studies against chance 'cause you can't really study this shit super easily.

It's interesting because like, you may have just been like pre-cognitively picking up on something that was about to happen in your surroundings. And I know for me, when shit got really, really like rough, when I was still kind of in like my manic mania state before I hit depression months later, it was just one of those things where anything could happen. And it just, it was such a terrifying feeling and not being able to pin down anything that was legitimately like real or not real was just fucking scary. It was just like one of those things that you don't know what is potentially going to happen and the relationship between, let's be clear here, like for as much as like this kind of like when you get untethered from reality, that may be a more accurate picture of what's actually going on.

Like we're creating all of this stuff is my, I think consciousness is like, you know, what creates everything around us. So in some ways it's not super far off to think that that implicit, you know, knowledge can have an effect on your reality. The other thing I noticed too, is like when your ego starts getting involved, that's fears like little crack in the door. Once you start relating things to yourself, more than other things so the universe is against me or if this is happening or I'm creating this, that I noticed is basically when fear or paranoia will just start flooding in. 'Cause then it's like you're making this about you rather than oh, I'm everything, everyone is everything, which is also not like a great state to be in if you're getting untethered, but at least it kind of takes the onus off of you.

'Cause I always struggled with that and I see people who have had these experiences, enough people have written into me. It's that turn when it starts becoming about the individual kind of psyche and consciousness is when this shit can go haywire. Dude, like what do you think, do you think it is, 'cause at this point, I'm sure you're asking yourself, yeah, you're taking a lot of psychedelics, right? Yeah, you're kind of like nudging yourself to some of these experiences, but also you kind of like seem somewhat predisposed to these things too, like not everyone, there are people who take shit loads of psychedelics and maybe go a little wonky and stuff, but they don't have these deep kind of mystical or transcendent experiences.

Have you tried to kind of like figure out where you are on the spectrum of people or having these experiences? Yeah, I don't know, I mean, sometimes I think that maybe just because of, you know, but my, you know, even just thinking about science all the time, it's like a lot of, I'm often visualizing these like large patterns of causation through like large evolutionary times or like in terms of like thinking about mimetics and how ideas, this untangible thing, is influencing our genes, which are these kind of more actually physical things and so I mean, I definitely, I think that I just maybe, I don't, I think that everyone kind of like has thoughts about like what's the meaning of life and whatnot and everyone where all these kind of pattern recognition machines for sure, but definitely, you know, I'm here, I met my parents house at the moment, I flew and I've shows all around the Midwest coming up, my new show Stand Up Science, a mix of scientist and comedians on the same show.

Fucking awesome.

And, but I, so I'm, you know, and I'm visiting with my family and like my brother-in-law and sister and stuff and they're, you know, they're just regular blue collar, we're in nine to five, people and getting home and watching dances with the stars or, you know, regular old sliver of, you know, apple pie in life and I mean, it doesn't seem like they're thinking about things and the levels of which I'm thinking about things necessarily or at least not talking openly about them. Like, I'm not saying like in an intelligent kind of a way, I'm just talk, I am like, as a comedian, I am paid to talk about these patterns within the human condition, whereas like my mom is paid to figure out how to supervise groups of people, receptionists and these are levels of reality that she is working within and they're a little more grounded.

Just a little.

Like human interact, like individual interactions and everything else and so, whereas like I am like a part of my occupation now in the world that I've created for myself is thinking in terms of like how advertising influences are subconscious. So I'm already kind of having these ideas anyway, so is that making, so I'll give you like, so I'm now, I would say I'm now pretty grounded. I'm a pretty grounded person.

You seem more grounded than when I last booked you just to be clear, like you seem like you're on the earth level. Okay, here I am.

Yeah, very much so and, but I mean, I still have like synchronic.

Hey man, you can't get rid of them unfortunately.

I think all of the time, and you get out of here synchronic.

Yeah.

And like you turn on the TV and then someone's like, there's too many, synchronic. (laughing) Damn it, and then, but so I'll give an example. Of kind of how I think of these experiences now, and how, and how I think I'm like more susceptible, potentially just because of the ways in which I, because of the projects that I'm working on, and how I might be susceptible, more susceptible than the average person to kind of noticing these things. So I was recently, I'm driving around LA. I'm in LA for a few days, and I was thinking about, I was kind of thinking about, I was in my car, so I had this joke idea that I wouldn't be sharing with anyone right now, because it's simply not a good enough joke, but the idea itself led to like a synchronicity thing.

So otherwise, this joke would never be seeing the light of it, not even a fully constructed thing. So I was kind of thinking about, you know, religion and like people having their beliefs and whatever else, but when people use their belief system to control others, and even worse to discriminate against others, and tell others how to live their lives, and what they cannot do. And I was thinking about, it's not Adam and Eve, it's Adam and Steve thing. And I was just thinking about like how embarrassing of an argument that is for someone to make, because like not only are you being like, kind of a shitty person, like saying like, someone else's sexual preferences are like evil, because they aren't yours, but you're also revealing that the basis of your argument is based on like, pure make believe, like you, like, and I was kind of thinking about other things a lot.

And I have a, and I have like a Bigfoot joke, and I was kind of thinking about like, what imagining a person making all the, like in terms of like economic policy or anything else, just like using Bigfoot and all of their art. Oh, not only would it be showing like their, their lack of knowledge about economic policy, but like, but also revealing that they believe in Bigfoot. (laughing) And so I, and like the thing that went through my head, and I didn't know what it would necessarily apply to, but I was just like, it could be like saying like, it's Bigfoot, not small foot. And then like a couple minutes later, I see this enormous billboard for this movie, small foot.

And which I've now seen everywhere since then, but at the time I was like, what the fuck did I just, man, if this isn't that, how would that work for? Like, that means like going back and, you know, this movie would be creating like, would take years to create, that means it's like, my consciousness is somehow like, creating some ripple back and time that's influencing a thing and blah, blah, blah. Or is it that I've been passing by these billboards in LA, which is filled with movies all the time? This is one of the big movies coming out and I'm noticing that that information, that visual information is entering my brain and not my conscious awareness.

Right.

But it's entering my brain in enough time. So it's like it's pinging. This is kind of how marketing works. You don't maybe notice the first time, but by the eighth time you pass by the same post, you're now you're like, hey, what's this movie about? So it's kind of pinging, it's getting in there. And so this is consciousness is like, what is worth being your brain? It's like, what is worth this person being consciously aware? So there's all these weights. Like, am I thinking about going to a movie sometime soon? Am I already interested in animation type movies and like Pixar things or whatever?

Am I interested in Bigfoot? I have a Bigfoot bit. Maybe I noticed that a little bit more. And so it's evaluating all of that before you take notice of the sign, but what's interesting that I hadn't really thought about too much before that movie is how, okay, I and this can, like a maybe better example that I thought of that we've all experienced is that you walk by something and then you stop and you go, oh, wait a second, what was that? And you turn around and it was like a necklace in the jewelry store or something like that. So you actually, your visual information entered into your brain, but not your conscious awareness.

You kept walking and then your brain had this criteria. It was like, oh, you know, my anniversary's coming out. Maybe my girlfriend had like this necklace. And so it's like your brain's kind of been mauling over these decisions and putting together ideas of what a good gift would be. And so you've had an eye out for, and people say like, oh, I saw it in the corner of my eye. What they mean is like in their subconscious, like, you know, a little bit behind their conscious awareness. And so now one person might have walked by that same, might have walked by and had that necklace enter their vision at the same angle and still enter into their brain, but it would have never, maybe it never entered their conscious awareness because they're, dude, they have not interest in getting enough necklace or whatever, whereas the same guy might be shopping for his wife at the mall and now it's going to enter his conscious awareness.

And then end the same person and might have that necklace enter into their brain, keep walking, never, never turn back, but then later on, go, maybe I should get a necklace.

Advertising, right? That's what advertising is now, work it, yeah.

And so I, but what's interesting is you might walk by that necklace, like I might walk by that store, see the necklace, never realize it, but it was close enough. It was like, I am kind of looking for things. My girlfriend's birthday is coming up, never enters my conscious awareness, but it got close. There must be like levels.

Threshold or something, yeah.

Yeah, right. The various weights and there must be kind of levels of criteria that it's like passing through. And then, but maybe it's getting to a certain level where it's just at the tip of conscious awareness and then later that day I write a joke about like getting a pearl necklace or something like that having never known that it was influenced by walking, walking by that. And, but then I might walk by that same store the next day now having that pearl necklace, you know, immature sex joke or whatever on my mind. I walk by that and then I notice the pearl necklace in that window and so it's a mess in there.

It is what I'm trying, like whatever's happening in our mind. And, and I had a, you know, I had a very, I had a much more. So I think that's all like a pretty grounded explanation that most people would hear and be like, well, that is like a really reasonable idea of how the brain works. And then now I had something that's like, I would say a little almost more far fetched that even possibly more interesting and really an example if we're like, if we're here in reality, not talking about like magical synchronicities and we're talking about the nuts and bolts of the subconscious.

Yes.

Boy, it's like as magical as any synchronicity talk, you know, I, so I had a, I was waking up recently and I was in bed, I'm a slow, I'm not like a spring out of bed kind of.

Me neither, man.

And I was, I was kind of thinking about how to, oh, this is, so I was, I was in, in LA to pitch. So yeah, this is actually all relevant to like how these weights would be.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I was in LA to pitch a show, a docu-series about psychedelics in which I was thinking I was like this, this big meeting. And so I was waking up this day for this meeting and I was kind of, and I was thinking about like how to explain what the DMT experience feels like. And I was thinking like how it's almost like there's these multiple different worlds in there and they're existing at the same time, but they're, and you're always like, it always feels as if you're at the center of any of them. And it, but it's, but they all exist, but you're not like in them at the same, so like the metaphor that I thought of as like, right now we're like in the middle of a pop-up book and like you can picture like me at the center of this pop-up book doing this podcast or whatever else.

And that's like, that's a representation of where my consciousness is at. We're all at the middle of our own worlds because that's what our brain has access to and is taking in this, you know, the physical information from where we're at. And so ego-centrism is just really necessary.

Yeah.

But I don't have information about like what's happening on some street in China right now. I don't have access to that information. And then my brain is using the information that it has, which is centered around what my eyes can see.

Which is a good thing. Let's see clear about that's a good thing. It would be really bad if that wasn't the case.

Yeah, well, I mean, from some observer point of view, if you're like playing a sim or something like that, it might be, it might be just information processed on a different level. And so, but this idea of the story, and then like say you smoke DMT, it's just like flipping the book and a different reality. Now you're like some weird like a troll or something, whatever, but I was like kind of picturing this of like the parallel universes and like the idea of, or a simulation of us, our consciousness having to like be everything in every moment. So just in the next page, I'm the center like, I'm like a tree or whatever in the center of this page.

And so I was like picturing this and I was thinking about it for enough time that I was like, oh, this would be an interesting synchronicity or like experiment because confirmation bias, now I'll probably walk by a children's bookstore or something like that. And I'll notice pop-up books, but like how often do you see pop-up books?

Never.

So like outside of walking past a children's store, I mean, it would be kind of like interesting or have that kind of spooky feel to it. Like I saw a pop-up book like today like on the way to, and who knows, you know, and I kind of put that out of my mind. I go, I take some clothes out of my bag, I hop in the shower, I unfold this brand-new shirt that I had gotten and I put it on. There's this tree on my shirt and I'm like kind of admiring this new shirt.

Yeah, yeah, sure.

I'll see you now. And I was like, I'm gonna wear this one to this meeting. It's this new cool artsy shirt that I'm excited about. I'm kind of looking at it and I was thinking about like, you know, I've read some Japanese quote about, about like life being like, you know, when you die or whatever, it's just like a leaf falling off of a tree of life and blah, blah, and I'm like, thinking they saw some looking at the shirt and I kind of, it's a brand-new shirt and I like looked down a little closer and at the bottom of the shirt, there's like this little cartoon boy. And I'm like, what's that boy doing that?

And I look, and he has a pop-up story book that the tree is growing out of it. I'm like, what the fuck? Like I didn't even leave the house.

Right, right.

And I just got that and that shirt was inside out. Like I didn't--

Yeah, you didn't see it in confirmation. Yeah.

Yeah.

And I had never noticed it before but now here's what's really interesting is what if, so this is a new shirt. You know, I was excited about this shirt already. I would be shocked if my brain at some level didn't notice that there was a boy with a pop-up story book in it. I just consciously didn't. I just saw this cool tree on it. And within what my brain's trying to put together, these stories of how to explain a DMT experience and at the same time by noticing what shirt to wear that day and has information about that shirt that my consciousness does not have. And that's like all feeding into one another and putting these weights on them.

That's the shirt that I end up picking up or maybe I want to picked out that shirt, had the story book, the idea not popped into my head. And so there is just like some really complex, some really interesting, strange stuff that is still in a very grounded level of--

For sure.

And neurons that we can talk about all of these things happening. And I don't know like, is that less special or incredible than like manifesting things with our mind, whatever that means? Or is it fundamentally different, right? I mean, that's, just using that example and thinking about the implications of life, just going, waking up every day and doing things. I mean, what I think is happening here, this is my speculation, wild speculation, is that maybe because you're a comedian and that's a really interesting thing, how you notice patterns that maybe other people won't go by so you can bring to light funny things, maybe you're just analyzing things and have opened your mind to more kind of layers of reality, not in like some weird mystical way, but like you're paying attention a little bit more.

That's basically what you're doing. So you can notice these things. That's exactly what happened to me when I went on my own synchronicity, losing my mind thing. I just had more access to things. So I think that's why everything was a synchronicity. It wasn't like, all of a sudden, oh, I have these magic powers. It's like, no, I'm just a little more aware of what's in my surroundings. So if you think about the implications of that and decision-making, is it really all that different? I mean, whether we call it kind of waiting, certain visual sensors for filtering it into our mind and putting together some idea or whether we want to call it magic and synchronicity and mystical, transcendent experiences, I don't know that it really, it's just kind of like nomenclature, right?

I mean, I don't know that there's some necessarily two fundamental different aspects at work. And I mean, what's crazy about that is like, that's kind of what is going on. I don't think, we like to think because it's easier for us. I mean, this is the function of our mind in filtering things out. It's not like just cruel joke on us that we can't have access to other layers of consciousness. It's just like, we need to filter shit out. Like if I have to go to the store and get a thing milk, like I need to be able to tune out like all of my crazy fucking thoughts so I can get that done. So it's kind of like an evolutionary thing.

You know what I mean? You know, when I was in Texas and like all of it was happening all at once, like I was in the grocery store trying to get things like milk. It was like, it was the longest trip to the grocery store I had ever taken. Not the fucking song being the thing to me. And like, I passed by some toy and that's like, am I just a toy? (all laughing) And it's just like fucking I just need some food.

Yeah. (all laughing)

But it is like, I mean, every single thing is connected within our minds and within our perception because it cannot be any other way. You know, this is all, yeah. A giraffe and the idea of time travel might be too very extremely different things but they still exist in my mind and have to. And so like there is this connectome, there is this like everything's connected with it. So I do and then knowing that we tend to project our inner world on our reality, it might be that we tend to project more connectedness on the physical world than there actually is. And it seems like, you know, Apophania is a fairly well studied thing.

It seems like people connect causation more than there actually is.

It is, yep.

There are like cognitive biases that are fairly well studied. And so, you know, I go back and forth a lot.

Yeah.

You know me.

I do.

I am like, I am a pretty like unshakable skeptical person in this current incarnation of my soul. (laughing) But I mean, I still like, I'll say all this and like, I'll get off the Skype thing and then I'll like see some time traveling giraffe on TV. I'll be like, what the fuck, you know?

Well, here's the other thing, man. Like we know just like talk getting it back into the scientific realm. We know quantum mechanics work fundamentally different than everything we see at the Newtonian level, right? We know that things like the future influencing the past is an observable phenomenon which shouldn't happen. Something in a distant part, remote part, super far away from another thing can have the same kind of effect on it. So what's always kind of blown my mind, no pun intended, is that the synapses and the distance between our synapses, which create, I don't know, it's our mind, that's on the quantum level.

It's 1/1000th of an inch or smaller. So that to me really proves that we live in two different worlds at once. I mean, probably a lot more. So--

I think the quantum, isn't the quantum level like magnitudes of smaller than like the size of like a neuron, though?

So 1/1000th of an inch.

Like a neural transmitter?

Yes, exactly. So 1/1000th of an inch though is the like threshold for what's quantum. It's the plonk, Planck, Max Planck, the guy who basically said this is, you know, started sketching out the theory of what quantum mechanics would be. So--

I don't know my quantum--

I'm not like a couch quantum mechanics guy. I'm not like, I've read Brian Green's book and like, you know, watched a few things. I try not to get too like into the woo-woo stuff with quantum just because like it's so easy to take something like the observer principle and be like, oh yeah, everything is crazy. It's like, no. But the gaps, no, they are at the quantum level. What's going on in our synapses? They're in minutely small in terms of where the signals are being passed back and forth from each other. So the implications of that also truly, truly just like a sound me because again, when you're talking about projecting a reality out there from our mind, I go back, I certainly, especially when compared to you, I am probably your opposite in terms of, I'm more mystically attuned, right?

I love science. I don't think it's like some bullshit that like these people are perpetrating on us to keep us enslaved or anything. I just tend to based on experiences and where my mind goes, believe in the more mystical side of things. However, I don't ever, ever, ever wanna be one of those people who's just completely untethered from the practical reality of our world because I don't think we're here incarnated in this form, just willy-nilly. I think there's an importance of being grounded in this reality and it took me a long time to realize that too. And like, I get that you're getting it now too.

Like that groundedness for people who have the propensity to kind of like go off, it's the most critical thing 'cause I think a lot of people are trying to escape their ordinary consciousness, their kind of regular state of mind, whether it's uncomfortable or they have a mental kind of, you know, flaw, so to speak. So a lot of people are trying to get out of this and for those of us who kind of naturally or with the aid of psychedelics can have those experiences you know, we don't hear very often like be grounded, like make sure you remember your zip code, like make sure you can go to the store and get milk.

So it's kind of this interplay, like I personally, my cosmological belief in what we're experiencing here is, I think this shit is basically a dream. I don't think it's like a dream in the way that like we go to sleep and that's what it is, but I don't think it's as substantial as we like to believe it is. I think that's kind of like an evolutionary function for us who have survived in linear time to this point. Like that's the function of it, it's so.

I mean, I definitely think that within, sorry, I cut you off.

No, no, no, no, please go.

I mean, I often, one of the things that I go to a lot is that, I mean, I definitely think about, I think about like, we run these simulations within our minds and these ideas take shape and form and I picture myself right now, I'm picturing myself having to pee when we're done with this podcast, but that's like, I believe that that's like on some level of perception. Like on say a dream, like if I had a dream, that of me peeing, like that would feel real, it would be setting off the same neurons and I might even wet my bed because of it.

Sure.

You know, and I think that like right now, there's a guy in my head because I'm visualizing this who is like, as far as he knows, he's just like this shame, like, doo doo doo yep, gotta pee right now. And he has no idea that he's just the simulation of like, of this, what I'm, this layer of me is about to do. And I think it's possible that all of this is just, you know, a simulation within like some other processes that is like, you know, I think that there is a moral kind of to all of our stories that is like, you know, it might be, it might be that like at the end of like all of this, I go and I like get hit by a bus or whatever.

And then that just like pops up on the level of whatever processing system this is actually a part of. And it's just a reminder that that thing needs to like catch a bus that day, something like that. And that's all, all of this was, you know?

Yeah, I mean, I think I'm kind of noticing similarities from what's going on with you in terms of when that, all this shit started happening to me. Like you have to reconstitute beliefs once you lose your mind. That's something that like people don't really think about, but like you have to put it in perspective in order to move forward, right? You have to say, all right, what do I believe? But I think like what's really cool about you, Shane, is that you're so open to so many, like the infinitude of possibilities that like that, it makes you a great comedian. And it also makes you just like an amazing storyteller and like share of experience.

But I can get how that's got to be like, damn man, like I see why when you take mushrooms a few times over the course of few months, like you can get launched into a state because like you're open to all of this stuff. I think kind of what grounded me over the years. And I'm not the most grounded person, but I have a kid, I have like family and all this stuff. I think I just kind of cosmologically zeroed in on things and experiences and that basically reinforced certain ideas. So when I read about the idea of samsara or Maya in Buddhist and Hindu cosmologies, respectively, and that lines up with personal experiences, I can say, you know what, I'm not gonna wholesale just take these people's words from it, but this shit lines up with this shit, it lines up with that, it lines up with that, it lines up with my personal experience.

And it gives me a viewpoint, but what's been interesting is I also really constantly challenge that. I don't want to fall into the trap of confirmation bias kind of on a metaphysical level where I'm just like gonna believe whatever someone else is saying cause I had an experience that kind of matched up to it. But I will say the idea of this world being more malleable, magical, whatever you want to call it, the more I kind of accept that idea, the more it is shown out in the world. So whether that's just me projecting something or I'm just getting more insight into how the nature of reality actually is, I don't know, but it certainly seems to be the case that like whatever you're thinking of in your head, if you have kind of the intention in will, whatever those two kind of nebulous terms mean, whether you call it manifesting or just putting the pieces into place so things happen, it seems like there's a correlation there.

I don't know that it's causation. I would never say that this is causation, this is why it's happening, but it seems like once it's kind of, and it also kind of explains the principle of synchronicities. Like when you're open to them or when you're experiencing them, whether you want them or not, the fact that you're aware of them kind of keeps them self-propelling. And I'm sure you experienced this too. I have periods where like, I won't get a ton of synchronicities and then they'll be like a month. Or it's just like, and I'll know it in my head, I'll be like, oh shit, here it comes. Like here they come, like, oh, this person hit me up when I was doing this and then that happened and then this happened and then this thing appeared all of a sudden.

So it does seem like there's a resonance effect to a lot of these things too. And it's just, it's interesting to try to kind of like, hack away at it because I don't think in the West, and especially in kind of the scientific, we don't have a ton of language to deal with this stuff, right? Even before when you were saying like, you know, if I have to accept the fact that there's maybe a ripple effect, if I went into the future, it's easier to pass that off as something like, no, that's probably not what's happening, whereas it could very well be happening. We don't know that. We experience time linearly.

We also know for a fact now that time can flow backwards in certain instances. So it's kind of just trying to like put it together and figure out like, what the fuck is going on? And for me, personally, just to boil down my core belief system, I don't think this reality is very real. I don't think it's a simulation in the sense that there's a computer somewhere running this. I think it could be called a simulation because it's not that substantial. And then finally, I think truthfully, the point of being here, since everyone seems to kind of have the same shade of problems, you know, everyone kind of has similar problems.

We're all greedy sometimes, you get angry, like everyone knows the vices and just uncomfortable suffering that can happen in life. For me.

I'm perfect, but go for it. (laughing)

No, you too. Okay, I was talking about other people.

Yeah, I know.

But truthfully, like, I do think this world, this reality, whether it's a simulation, a dream, whatever we want to call it, it feels like a training ground. It feels like we're here to kind of work on similar problems. I don't know what the ultimate point of that is. I don't know if that we're going to ascend after we die into another reality. I don't really--

I sometimes think that I'm stuck in like a person's head that's like in a coma. But now, like the reason why I'm like going and talking to all these scientists and like learning about like Alzheimer's and how the brain works and all this, is it's just like a brain trying to wake itself back up. And that's like--

I think that's a pretty-- Dude, but that's like, that's not that crazy because that's like the cosmic mind, right? I mean, that, I do think what you're tapping into with that type of thinking is that, I think you hear mystics say this all the time and I don't mean this to be like, whoa, but like, we're not different. We're all the same. We're all part of one, whether you want to call it ecosystem or mind, that exists. This is one of the things that blew my mind when I was reading Carl Jung, when I was a teenager, when he identified the collective unconscious, I'm like, wait, what? You're saying that everyone shares a collective mythology that we can all kind of like tap into at any time.

That's fucking nuts. And that's just like a glimpse at potentially what's going on on a larger level. So I mean, I do think that that, what you just said, like, you know, I'm trying to learn about all these things so I can wake myself up and get out of the coma. I think that's kind of like the shared mission of everyone here, just some people have experiences or proclivities to waking them up to that, not waking up in the new age sense, but just being like, all right, yeah, like this is kind of what's going on. And it's weird because like culture for the past, however many decades, hundreds of years, we're not, no one's talked, that's not what we're doing.

Like this, no one is being like, yeah, I'm trying to wake myself up from the cosmic delusion that we're all separate. You know, people who say that, you're like, oh, that guy's homeless. That guy's homeless, that guy's homeless. So I mean, it does, to me, that has kind of been like the stabilizing factor for my own psyche is I'm a person. I like regular shit that people like in this country. I eat hot dogs sometimes, even though they're fucking disgusting and I shouldn't be doing it. I'm a regular person, but I also don't have as strong of a belief that I exist as I did when I was like a teenager.

And I think that is in a weird way, grounded me in a way that it's like hard to explain. It's kind of like a paradox because I'm saying I don't exist and that's grounding me, but it allows me to kind of like move through situations in a way that I don't wanna say skillful, but it doesn't get me bogged down with the things that can either lead to fear or paranoia. And also like, I don't, I mean, be curious to hear your thoughts on this, but like I'm not super afraid of losing my mind anymore. Like I've done it, I've done it multiple times. And it's not a pleasant experience necessarily, but I think it's kind of a needed one.

Like you're gonna lose your mind when you die. Like everyone is. So like it's one of these things that I think like, it is an experience that if you have, well, it can be terrifying and traumatic. I think it's like fundamentally an amazing thing.

Right. - Yeah. Thanks, though, as well. Yeah. - Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, either way, like any way in which you look at it or perceive it, like this is, there's some very, and exceptionally complex stuff going on. And I do think there's like a level of arrogance. Like I don't, I don't like when people are like, wake up, like everyone, like Republicans are like, wake up sheeple and then like the psychedelic community's like, this is an awakening. - Yeah, yeah.

I'm being woke. I'm like, is everyone just fucking tired all the time? I think we actually just maybe need a fucking nap is what more people need. So I don't know like why that's this thing that like permeates culture so much and why that's like a metaphor for something that's going on in our inner world. But it does break my heart that a lot of people don't take interest in the world in some whatever way that you wanna look at this. And interest, I mean, like applying a curiosity.

Yes. - And wanting to dig a bit more into it. There are a lot of people out there that are just like not interested in investigating their reality any further on any kind of a level. And I think that they're doing themselves as much of a disservice doing that as you would be like not getting your, you know, three days of cardio in and a week or whatever the doctor recommended.

It's a healthy, a healthy curiosity is, I mean, like I personally think that's when people check out when they die from like old age is lose their interest in life. And that's kind of like, all right, we don't need to be here anymore. But I know you're thinking about going to the bathroom. So I'm gonna let you go, dude.

But I have, I know how speaking of like how the subconscious works.

Yeah.

And now have like the don't go chasing waterfall. (laughing)

Playing.

I'm gonna let you go chase the waterfall, man. You know, this thing that it's raining outside it right now. There's like a real inception. (laughing)

Oh, shit.

Dude, it's too funny.

I'm gonna go and pee and eat a hot dog and smoke all completely on my own free will. I am in complete control of all of those decisions. I have made them on my own. (laughing)

Man, thanks for coming on.

Just briefly, what is your upcoming show? Like, I know you said it's scientist and kid, but just give me some details on it. So people don't know.

Yeah, I'll get an even not brief version.

Yeah, awesome.

My new show is called Stand Up Science. It's a live show that I'm doing a trial run of eight cities. The first one is this Thursday. I don't know if this comes up on time, but.

It'll be out Thursday probably, so.

11 in Madison. And then I'll be there following me. I'm doing it in Minneapolis, Chicago. Then Milwaukee and Des Moines. And then I'm doing it in the northwest in Portland, Tacoma, Washington, and Seattle, maybe adding another something in the northwest for November. And that's just a trial. So what it is, is it's me to academics. A lot of them are past guests of my podcast and another comedian. So it'll be like doing some science jokes and like sharing some thoughts, like, you know, an experience that I just had with like thinking about the mind of like the small foot thing. Like those are the kind of thoughts that like I want to be sharing like in front of a crowd where it's like not quite stand up, but like kind of funny and also an observation.

Like I'm trying to create a space for that kind of a conversation. And then academics giving like 15 minute like TED talkie, kind of things, hopefully a little less toward the motivational and like corny, like toast mastery side and a little more to anyone. But that's the idea of it and a comic in between. So me, scientist, comic, scientist, and then all of us on stage for the last half hour doing like a Q and A and a group conversation. So the audience gets to be involved. And the idea is, is that any of these, any of these shows, if this works out in any of these cities or all of them, hopefully, I'll be making it into a quarterly show in all of these cities and expanding and adding a new city as well.

So I'm hoping if these eight shows or even if say like five of them, if more than half of them do well and it makes it sustainable, I will be launching a nationwide tour of this next year and you know, be picking the top 20 to 25 cities to make this a quarterly show. Hopefully is my big ambition with it. And I've been, you know, just the last step is figuring out all of the marketing of how to get the bots in seats. So anything, if anyone knows anyone in those cities that would be interested in thought provoking and fun comedy slash science show, I think it's going to be a pretty unique event.

Yeah, man. That sounds fucking awesome, just to be clear. And any help you need getting the word out, what limited capacity I can do that, please lean on me for that, man. I think we need more stuff like that than some of the other things that are going around in the world. So really fucking cool in there.

Awesome. Well, thanks for having me on.

Yeah, man. Always a pleasure. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)

Thanks for listening to that episode. I know it was a long one. If you made it here, you listened past a lot of stuff. Shane is awesome. Go check him out. You know where to find people on the internet these days. Go Google him. Go on Twitter, on Facebook. People are everywhere these days. Go try to check him out at one of his new science and stand-up shows. It's really fucking cool. I wish I could go. There's nowhere near me now, but when he comes by, I'm gonna go see him. Thanks again to everyone on Patreon supporting the show. Listen, some people out there are doing shit on Patreon all the time.

They're giving you bonuses. They're giving you exclusives. They're giving you these special things. That's cool. That's all right. I'm not the hugest fan of gating content, but I'm not gonna be doing any of that. All you're doing is saying, "You know what? "No, you put this out every week. "I dig it. "I got a few extra shekels. "I'm gonna send 'em your way." And that's cool. If you can do it, great. If not, no worries. Rating and reviewing the show is very positive. I believe I saw someone gave me another two-star review. Fuck you. No, I just can't. It really doesn't bother me as much as you think it might, depending just regardless of how much I talk about the negative reviews.

Do it. If you think this is a two-star show, by all means, go to start. I think it would be weird if you listen to "Damn near two hours of the show" and you thought it was two-star. That seems like self-flagellation. But of course, if you haven't rated the show and you do like it, go on iTunes and do that. I have no fucking idea, truthfully. If the numbers of the show, I check them so infrequently at this point. And when I do, I don't even really analyze them to see the correlation. I just know when I feel good about doing the show, I like doing the show. And I feel pretty damn good about doing the show.

Also, MindPod Network. Go check out some of the other shows on MindPod Network. You want some favorites right now? I'll tell you. Go check out Rameen Nasr's Electric Brain School. Fucking awesome. Go check out, Oh, Shawn and Cass from very eight. Not only are they doing very eight podcasts, they're also doing a new podcast called Church of Chill, where they're basically doing like a radio show with cool music. And if you've ever listened to their show, you know they have impeccable musical days. So go check out MindPod Network. Lots of stuff there, cool things, not bullshitty. That's all. Love you and I will see you next week.

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