Today we celebrate Emma’s year on the show by remembering some of our favorite episodes.

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Here’s a transcript of our conversation:

Brittany: Hi, Emma.

Emma: Hi, Brittany.

Brittany: So, I don’t know if you know this actually, but it is almost your year. So it is your year that you’ve been doing this show with us, but they didn’t start airing until after, since we record in advance. So happy year anniversary of helping with the podcast. We love to have you here. So I thought it could be fun to take an episode and just kind of go through our favorite episode since you’ve been doing the podcast. So, I can start and just say some things. In fact, I think my first one was actually not one that you co-hosted with, but I’m gonna say it anyway. So, you know, I, like to do this every now and then to kind of review and kind of remind you guys, and maybe you didn’t hear all the episodes of some good ones to go look up. So, one thing that I really liked that we did this year, probably about a year ago, is I got to talk about the role that comedians play in politics. And that one was based off the history of court gestures and court gestures were literally like kings would hire clowns to come perform for them. But that’s where comedians kind of come from. Yeah. Like comedians are clowns and in themselves. But the cool thing about this is the whole point of jesters was that they were allowed to poke fun at the king in ways other people were not. Some people could be put to death for mocking the king. Right. But jesters, they were allowed to do it through like satire by being funny. And the king actually appreciated it because nobody, I mean, imagine if you’re the king, a lot of them are not very nice, but nobody’s ever gonna tell you the truth cuz they’re scared of that. So Jesters had this really important role where they were able to be like, oh, wasn’t it dumb when the king did this? And everyone left and the king’s like, Hey, wait a second. Was it dumb that I did that? So that was one of my favorite episodes we did this year. We can just kind of go back and forth, Emma. Yeah. You wanna kick it to you and you can list one.

Emma: Totally. One of my favorites that we recorded was about Operation Northwoods. Oh yes. Which, if you have not listened to that one yet, definitely go back and find that one and look it up. That is a mind-blowing episode if you’re not familiar with some of the stuff our government has done or tried to do to harm us and basically serve their own interests. That is a pretty mind-blowing story. Basically what happened, just like a ten-second version is it was the sixties, and a lot of the military leadership in America was worried about Cuba. They wanted to get people on board with going to war with Cuba. So the joint chiefs of staff, which are all of the top military leaders from all the different branches, put together an actual plan that they submitted to the president to commit fake terrorist attacks on Americans and blame it on the Cubans to get us to go to war with them. Which is just crazy. And the only reason it didn’t happen is because the president vetoed it and said, no way. We’re not doing this. So a pretty crazy story. And I think it’s just a really good reminder that, hey, the government is not always, you know, treating us as nicely as it says it is. It doesn’t always have our best interests at heart. And it’s good to remember stories like that next time they say, Hey, well we’re looking out for you, or we’re looking out for the greater good because at the end of the day, we don’t wanna just blindly trust that that’s what they’re actually doing.

Brittany: I think you’re absolutely right. That’s a, that was a fun episode especially cuz I feel like it was very applicable to things going on. You know, and I think almost there’s been at least like, not a dozen but maybe five episodes since that one where Connor and I have referenced it or you have because it is a really good example when somebody says something like, well, the government would never hurt us. And you’re like.

Emma: Right.

Brittany: And actually, that gets me into another one I didn’t have on my list, but you’ve reminded me of it. We did one about like top five times or something that the government lied and that was on there. We added that one on the burs. There was also like a, they, there was this one thing, what was it called? The Tuskegee Experiments were Yes, literally the same, center CDC the same organization that we’re trusting with COVID stuff was, experimenting on sick people and letting them die. And it’s just like, wait, what? And they admit to this. So I think these episodes, even though they’re a little bit scary cuz you think like, oh my goodness, that really happened. I think it’s really a good example to say, you know, if they’ve done it before, they’re gonna do it again. History sometimes repeats itself. So I’ll throw that one in. Totally. And then one more I’ll add in before kicking it back to you is we did one on cancel culture, which is a very important issue for me. And cancel culture is where, you know, maybe you said one, like you even said like a joke years ago on social media or you don’t believe or you have a different opinion than what this woke. I’m saying that in quotes, these woke, people think you should have then they go and they cancel you. And some people get their jobs, lose their jobs and they lose, you know, their friends and all these things and it’s really terrible. And I would like to say it’s getting better. I’m on the fence about that cause I’m in comedy and I do see a lot of people get offended even there. But that’s a really important issue and I think that’s a great episode to check out as well.

Emma: Absolutely. Yeah. It’s cancel culture’s a scary one cuz it’s all over the place even if we don’t totally see it. Another one that I loved that we did was an episode about our routines and why they’re important to us and what they mean to us. Routine is something that I have really over the last year kind of taken from this thing that I tried to do to a thing that I really stick to. So maybe it’s a good one to revisit now because when we did that episode about what our routines are, I didn’t have like a super clear routine of stuff that I have like on a checklist that I do every single day. I kind of had my stuff that I naturally did or that I kind of did without thinking about it. But when we recorded that episode, it got me thinking a little more intentionally about what my routine is. Maybe are there other things I should be adding in or doing or not doing as much of? And that was a really fun one cause I gotta be introspective and I got to actually kind of take some of our own advice that we give out here. And I revisited my routine and have since worked on a couple of other things that I think are important. So that was a favorite one of mine. And maybe we’ll have to do an update sometime on, you know, Hey, have our routines changed at all? What are we doing?

Brittany: That’s, I like that, that’s a good idea.

Emma: That Might be fun. Yeah.

Brittany: So another one I liked, we did one about how public schools don’t train you for the way the world actually works. And I think this is really important, especially for our listeners that maybe do go to public school, right? Cause I’m sure some of you do. It’s important to remember that, you know, not everything you hear from your teachers is true. And I’m sad to have to say this, but I think it’s possible that now more things you hear are untrue because teachers have tried to become very political. And instead of teaching you, you know, math and English, they’re teaching you how to think and what opinions to hold. And that to me is very, very scary because, you know, only, I mean, even your parents should be instilling their values in you, but I think most of, especially if you’re listening to the show, most parents wouldn’t be like, you need to believe this. Right. Yeah. They present you with the facts and you make your own, opinions from those. But it’s gotten pretty scary in public school. And even little things like you have to only learn one subject for an hour and then you have to quit or you know, you have to sit at a desk for eight hours a day or you can only talk with people your same age during class time. Like, that’s not how the world works. So that was another episode I really liked. Cause I think it touched on some important things.

Emma: Yeah, totally. Speaking of important things we saw it was that last summer when the Afghanistan stuff was happening. Was that late last summer or maybe early fall?

Brittany: I feel like early fall. Wow. This year can’t just be flying right by.

Emma: Yeah. The seasons are all like blending together in my mind. But anyway, we saw some really crazy stuff happen in Afghanistan over the last year. Basically, very, very quickly our military pulled all of our forces out of Afghanistan. We had a pretty significant presence there for the last 20 years. We’ve been there basically as long as I’ve been alive. And it caused all sorts of problems and basically, the Taliban took over Afghanistan like very, very quickly.

Brittany: Quickly, like immediately.

Emma: Like basically immediately after we left. And it’s a really sad thing because the Taliban obviously does not see civil liberties the same way that we do. But ultimately the name of the episodes about this were called Ron Paul was Right. We did two episodes on this and we talked through how Ron Paul actually has tried many, many times to warn people about blowback and about this idea that if we are constantly involved in other countries’ affairs, which we have been in the Middle East since the seventies, since a very, very long time ago. And it’s completely destabilized our relationships with these countries and made us basically the bad guy to people that live around the world where we have a presence. So it was a really interesting episode to dive in on and talk about. And, I think it’s just a really important thing to remember again because now we have this Russia and Ukraine conflict that’s happening as we’re recording today. And I think it’s that wisdom of his is not only applicable in one part of the world, I think it’s important to remember with any kind of foreign conflict. So that one, meant a lot to me. And I was, you know, I was happy to record that and I always wish that we weren’t saying, oh, Ron Paul was right, we should have known. But it’s, I feel like, all right, well what else are we gonna see that he turned out to be right on? You know? Yeah.

Brittany: That’s, is a scary thought. So I’ll give my last one. So, we’ve talked a lot about the 14th amendment and not just the 14th, but issues around it. And the 14th Amendment is what guarantees us equality before the law so that the government cannot treat us differently because of the color of our skin. And it’s funny cuz it’s taken a little bit of a different form as time has changed, where before, you know, there was a lot of racism against minorities in the country and now we’re kind of going through this reverse thing where it’s like, okay, now we wanna give you special privileges because you are a minority and because historically there was bad things done. And that’s so weird to me cause it’s like, wait a second, the goal was equality and now things are relatively equal cons, you know, considering other times in history, and now wait, now we wanna give special favors. So I think that’s a really important, lesson. I think it’s gonna be an issue that keeps coming up as unfortunately as time goes on. So that was one of, yeah, my favorite couple of favorites. Cause we did a few.

Emma: Absolutely. Yeah, I completely agree. Well, this is a fun one to do. Maybe we should do these more where we kind of look back and recap stuff so that we don’t all forget all the cool things we’ve been talking about. But we will wrap it up here today. Guys, thank you so much for listening and we will talk to you all again soon.

Brittany: Talk to you soon.