The Mindful Activist Episode 3 – Matt and Kim
Matt Ready: …You say now, is going out.
Kim McClurg: [Whispers] I’m not going to talk.
Matt Ready: But no one’s listening. Okay.
[Laughter]Matt Ready: We might get viewers this way.
Kim McClurg: Yeah, probably weirdoes that think I’m in middle school or something.
[Laughter]Kim McClurg: This is not one of those shows.
Matt Ready: Okay. So you could arrange this in a way that it sees us. Whatever you want to do with the tripod. I’ll leave it to your judgment.
Kim McClurg: I don’t — does this go higher though?
Matt Ready: These expand.
Kim McClurg: Oh, got you. Okay.
Matt Ready: And these things like tighten like here. There is a bathroom if you want it.
Kim McClurg: Cool. Do you want it from this side or is this supposed to be like facing us?
Matt Ready: The only thing is, if we want it to be able to see the screen, ‘cos if we have guests… So I think from the side —
Kim McClurg: Okay.
Matt Ready: — it works. And let me give it some power. I got this great advice from somebody that’s helping me just right at this moment. When you have all these decisions to make, it’s, “Do what you know,” so it’s just like, just keep doing tasks that you know you need to do, and then when you get to the optional tasks, you’ll eliminate all the stuff that has to do be done, and while you’re doing these needed tasks…
Kim McClurg: That’s what I do every day.
[Laughter]Kim McClurg: Big life decision. I’m going to wash the dishes.
[Laughter]Matt Ready: That’s good. I am cool with that. All right, and just for the heck of it we’ll — this is all bonus, extra, what we’re doing right here. This is an HD video camera.
Kim McClurg: Cool.
Matt Ready: Is this a go at like three?
Kim McClurg: Yeah.
Matt Ready: We’re already live on YouTube.
Kim McClurg: Would it say if we have viewers?
Matt Ready: What?
Kim McClurg: Would it say if we have viewers?
Matt Ready: Yeah. It would say down there in that little corner. A little eye. Actually, I should go on YouTube right now and — sometimes it doesn’t work on the first try. Let me get some WiFi.
[Matt sets up the computer]Kim McClurg: I’ll silent my phone [unclear 00:04:20]
Matt Ready: I should totally have to teach you how to do this stuff, so [unclear 00:04:42] I’ll show you. So we’re going to YouTube if this darn camera would work, and right now you’re in My Channel and — so you’re on YouTube, so click on that face up there, and then click on Creator Studio. That’s the YouTube sort of creation, now click on live streaming and it says we’re live and streaming, all is good and that means we are live. So we come in here — but whenever a pop-up comes up on my screen, it blackens the video and I don’t know how to turn off those — how do I turn off all notifications?
Kim McClurg: [Inaudible].
Matt Ready: [Whispers] You are there.
Kim McClurg: Oh, that’s weird.
Matt Ready: [Whispers] You look great.
[Laughter]Matt Ready: Let’s see if I can turn off — open settings, tap notifications, tap the app, slide the [inaudible] all at once. Why does it keep… I just have to deal with it. All right.
Kim McClurg: [Unclear 00:06:38] lag. That’s interesting.
Matt Ready: Oh, yeah. The YouTube does. The Zoom does not, because YouTube — they do that for a reason, they do that like if you’re —
Kim McClurg: So they can edit it quickly if you’re doing something illegal.
Matt Ready: I think, yeah, for a variety of controls.
Kim McClurg: Shut you down.
Matt Ready: Yeah. You got it. So that’s a totally optional step ‘cos this takes actual editing, but this will be HQ video recording. The first movie with Kim. The first episode. Okay, so you should be planning your intro.
Kim McClurg: Oh, God.
Matt Ready: And we’ll have the camera we’ll have it dark, and so it’ll just be your voice.
Kim McClurg: No.
Matt Ready: Yeah.
Kim McClurg: No.
Matt Ready: And then, you could say —
Kim McClurg: Let’s [00:08:05] right here and do something else.
Matt Ready: [Laughs] Let’s find some music. There is a YouTube — there’s music we could use from YouTube.
Kim McClurg: Okay, we should find that [inaudible]. [Laughs]
Matt Ready: But we still need someone to say, “Welcome to The Mindful Activist Episode 3.”
Kim McClurg: You’re voice is much better than mine though.
Matt Ready: No way. All right. I suppose I could [inaudible]. Down here…
[Music plays]Kim McClurg: [Unclear 00:08:46][laughs]
Matt Ready: You just play a few of those, decide which ones you like the most.
Kim McClurg: Okay.
[Upbeat music]Matt Ready: Oh yeah.
Kim McClurg: Oh yeah, there we go. [Unclear 00:09:09]
Matt Ready: You have the music [unclear 00:09:21] record.
Kim McClurg: [Unclear 00:09:26] [laughs] [Inaudible speech]
Kim McClurg: You shouldn’t have put me in charge of this. I could be here for hours.
Matt Ready: I’m going to play with the location of this.
Kim McClurg: Okay. [Unclear 00:10:27] early.
Matt Ready: I’m going to go crazy here. Unnecessary complexity here.
Kim McClurg: I should send you the video that me and [unclear 00:11:13].
Matt Ready: Yeah.
Kim McClurg: I mean, she did all the video like editing stuff. [Unclear 00:11:22]. I was just never creative, brainstorming.
[Military march plays]Kim McClurg: It’s a little patriotic.
[Inaudible speech]Kim McClurg: That’s totally like the podcast I listen to, “Welcome to things you missed in History class.” Oh my gosh, so many cameras.
Matt Ready: Yeah, but they’re not all live.
Kim McClurg: Okay.
Matt Ready: That one’s just recording.
Kim McClurg: And [unclear 00:14:33] still be live?
Matt Ready: That’s still live there. 2:55. It’s all right, just pick one. Now we’re going to start the…
[Matt sets up the computer] [Pause]Matt Ready: Much better [inaudible] [Laughter]
Matt Ready: And manage participants, share, URL. 2:56, we’re not even late yet. We can actually [inaudible] this.
Kim McClurg: Yet [laughs].
Matt Ready: I need to edit this. You get to see the awesome program that I did all my coding in, it’s called Sublime Text. This is the coding behind the project.
Kim McClurg: Cool! [unclear 00:16:51] people know how to do that.
Matt Ready: I can teach you. It’s fun. That’s where we’re going. I wonder if [inaudible] I must tweak that out.
Kim McClurg: [Inaudible].
Matt Ready: Remember that’s how we’re starting the episode.
Kim McClurg: [Inaudible] activist question I don’t know.
Matt Ready: Matt and Kim, hosting.
Kim McClurg: Isn’t that a band?
Matt Ready: Is it?
Kim McClurg: I think it is.
Matt Ready: So I delete this one ‘cos it’s the wrong link, and we will go to Facebook and we’ll tell people that at least like The Mindful Activist page. We’ll tweet it and put it out on there. 2:58, we are not late yet. I’m very proud of this. And record. Now this is recording.
Kim McClurg: We should keep it like this all the time. [Laughs]
Matt Ready: No, and much better for viewing audience then me. What am I doing here? Oh yeah, Facebook.
[Police siren in the background]Matt Ready: They’re coming for you. Let me write something. I mean my computer is upset ‘cos I’m recording. There, I got that. Three o’clock! You know what that means. It’s time for the intro.
[Laughter]Matt Ready: So I should make sure the audio — the audio [unclear 00:19:56] recording off the audio on the computer, so that should be fine.
Kim McClurg: Does that one record audio too?
Matt Ready: Yeah, that one’s also sending audio. So now we’re going to play our theme music.
Kim McClurg: I didn’t find a good one.
Matt Ready: Which one was like the craziest? Hip-hop. Something that’s Garage music.
Kim McClurg: Garage music?
Matt Ready: Rock, happy, Into the land of rhinoplasty? Let’s try that.
Kim McClurg: What is rhinoplasty anyway?
Matt Ready: Isn’t that nose surgery?
Kim McClurg: Is that what it is?
Matt Ready: Five seconds, that was all that was. Okay, that was no good. Let’s see about this one. No.
Kim McClurg: It’s [unclear 00:20:38].
Matt Ready: Dasie Dukes? What about that?
Kim McClurg: It’s horrible.
[Laughter]Matt Ready: All right. We’re trying to pick out the intro song for this episode. R&B song. Fork and Spoon.
Kim McClurg: Not bad.
[Laughter]Matt Ready: And then we’ll skillfully turn down the music.
Kim McClurg: Fade it out.
Matt Ready: All right! Welcome to another episode of The Mindful Activist. This is your host. Bam!
[Laughter]Matt Ready: Matt Ready. I’m the host of this podcast and I am the founder of The Global Consensus Project and the developer of the hive1.net software platform, and I’m also an elected politician, a Hospital Commissioner in Jefferson County, Washington. I’m here today with an amazing guest, Kimberly McClurg. Is last your last name?
Kim McClurg: Yes.
Matt Ready: McClurg. I never said that out loud before.
[Laughter]Matt Ready: All right. We have a really well-planned episode—you’re going to have to like scoot over a little bit closer to me—very well planned, we have lots of ideas of what we’re going to talk about today, but really mainly this is yet another test episode ‘cos as you can see we are testing all sorts of things. We’re testing the software we’re using that’s enabling other people to join the show, we’re using the Zoom software and we are recording, that’s good. Using this Zoom video conferencing software up to 50 people could jump in with live video and be talking to us.
Kim McClurg: So where’s the pop-up if people do.
Matt Ready: We’ll hear a little ding and so we’ll know something’s up and then we’ll see someone appear in the list, and then we will see them if they’re sharing video and hear them if they’re on YouTube, and they will see us and they can chat. So pretty much for every episode of The Mindful Activists, as long as it’s appropriate for that episode, it’s not going to be as in-depth one-on-one interview, if it’s going to be an open discussion, we’re going to try to keep it open so people can join in and facilitate a discussion. Then, if the audience gets big enough, then we’ll start inviting people to use the hive1 software to also interact with the host of the show, ‘cos using that software we could have thousands of people sending in questions and interacting with us. Obviously, we’re not there yet. We have nobody watching at the moment.
Kim McClurg: [Laughs] Missing out, people!
Matt Ready: Yeah. This is quality entertainment.
Kim McClurg: Yeah.
Matt Ready: Since there’s no one there, it’s just up to you and me —
Kim McClurg: All right.
Matt Ready: — what we talked about today, so we normally start with an introduction. How would you like to introduce yourself to the universe of people out there that, although they’re not watching right now, someday —
Kim McClurg: Might watch later.
Matt Ready: — lots and lots of people will watch these archives, the early days of The Mindful Activist and they will be like, “Who the heck is this middle school girl?”
[Laughter]Matt Ready: So, how would you like to introduce yourself?
Kim McClurg: Well, I’m 26 first of all.
[Laughter]Kim McClurg: Let’s see.
Matt Ready: You can go on just talking, I’m going to adjust this.
Kim McClurg: I’m not really in the political sphere much. I work for a private consultant company doing environmental things.
Matt Ready: You have a degree in some sort of…?
Kim McClurg: Yes. I got my degree in Biology with Marine Emphasis, three years ago.
Matt Ready: Is that different than Marine Biology?
Kim McClurg: No, I was just being technical [laughs].
Matt Ready: Is Biology with a Marine Emphasis the correct way to say it?
Kim McClurg: Yes, that’s what it technically was. I think they have their own separate like Marine Bio degree now, but that’s what it was when I was there.
Matt Ready: And you’re a working marine biologist.
Kim McClurg: Yes, I am.
Matt Ready: Which is kind of impressive, isn’t it?
Kim McClurg: Yeah! That was my dream since middle school when I was a real middle schooler [laughs].
Matt Ready: So what’s it like to play with dolphins every day?
Kim McClurg: [Laughs] I wish I could tell you but I don’t know that.
Matt Ready: So you don’t play with dolphins.
Kim McClurg: No.
Matt Ready: Orcas?
Kim McClurg: No. Captivity is pretty cruel, so no one should really play with them.
Matt Ready: Yeah. So what do you do as a marine biologist?
Kim McClurg: At my job I help with biological reports, and surveys to assess impacts to the nearshore environment.
Matt Ready: Okay, so like construction if there’s any sort of work been done along the shoreline.
Kim McClurg: Yes, any kind of construction on the shoreline and the water.
Matt Ready: You told me before you often are just watching and observing whether or not there’s marine mammals.
Kim McClurg: For some projects. The recent one I did, done by Port Orchard West for marine mammal monitoring, but no penguins.
Matt Ready: No penguins were seen?
Kim McClurg: No.
[Laughter]Matt Ready: No dolphins, no orcas.
Kim McClurg: No, just some seals and that was about it.
Matt Ready: All right. What shall we talk about now?
[Laughter]Kim McClurg: We don’t have viewers yet, do we?
Matt Ready: No.
Kim McClurg: Okay.
Matt Ready: Shall we go to the one question of this show? Shall we do that? Are you ready for that one?
Kim McClurg: Okay.
Matt Ready: All right. Do you consider yourself an activist? … [break]…You don’t like, chain yourself —
Kim McClurg: [break – edited by censors. -DT ]…A person who chains themselves at construction equipment and that kind of thing, but since I got that quick rundown of the different activists last time I was here, I guess I’d be somewhere in between a communicator or educator?
Matt Ready: Or was that the same one? Communicator, educator.
Kim McClurg: Whatever, something in that
Matt Ready: We need Amy to explain that.
Kim McClurg: Yeah. And a nurturer I think was the other one. I guess I’m somewhere in between there.
Matt Ready: So communication, education, nurturing, not chaining yourself to…
Kim McClurg: Yes. I guess mine is a much more passive form of activism.
Matt Ready: Have you ever gone to a protest?
Kim McClurg: I happened to be around with summer going on, I kind of walk by and observe I guess but didn’t actually actively join any.
Matt Ready: So never? Never held a sign, walked in a march?
Kim McClurg: No. I don’t think I have.
Matt Ready: It’s fun. It’s an experience. I highly recommended it.
Kim McClurg: Yeah. I’ve lived in pretty small towns for a while, so nothing like that really happens much.
Matt Ready: And obviously you haven’t been in Port Townsend long enough to have seen some of the activism that’s going on here.
Kim McClurg: No, just like two and a half years now.
Matt Ready: So you missed —
Kim McClurg: I missed the Occupy Movement.
Matt Ready: Occupy Port Townsend, there were some fun stuff happening during that.
Kim McClurg: Yeah, but you were a part of it.
Matt Ready: Yes, I was.
Kim McClurg: So I was told, [dramatic pause] by you.
[Laughter]Matt Ready: Many times. Do you know I was part of Occupy in Port Townsend? Today’s episode I sort of promised Kim it wouldn’t like go real heavy and deep into politics or into heavy topics. That means, in addition to sort of testing the software, we’re going to be very flexible about what we do and what we talk about. We could use the first part of the episode to brainstorm different topics we could go into, and it doesn’t have to be heavy or political or activist oriented. It has to do with meditation.
Kim McClurg: Meditation.
Matt Ready: No, I’m just kidding.
[Laughter]Matt Ready: It could be anything. What do you think?
Kim McClurg: Are those like previous ideas you have here?
Matt Ready: This book is filled with —
Kim McClurg: Doodles?
Matt Ready: Filled with — this is my Global Consensus project note book, so it has many, many ideas for how this — I mean, I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, and I do, if we like opened up the Hive software, I have like a show-idea-list, a list of ideas of different topics that I could do a whole show about. So we could look at that list and scan down it. Since we’re going to use this computer, it will keep videotaping. That’s fine. They’ll just see us looking at the computer screen. So we are going to the hive1.net software and we’re going to go into The Mindful Activist. I don’t even have the words for it, the Hive part, the Hive for The Mindful Activist I guess it’s a way to say it. I guess I could screen-share this, that might be…
Kim McClurg: Can you do it while you’re [unclear 00:31:17].
Matt Ready: Yeah. Let’s do it, that’s a good idea. Share screen. It didn’t record very well though when I did it before.
Kim McClurg: Oh, or you just like jot something down real quick I guess that you see on there.
Matt Ready: I think once it recorded well, once it recorded like garbage. So this is the center stage.
Kim McClurg: Is that stuff you’ve posted before or that just kind of come up —
Matt Ready: No, I posted all this.
Kim McClurg: Okay, I approve the George Carlin video. Good choice.
Matt Ready: Yeah. George Carlin is amazing. Way ahead of his time. I mean that would be a comic I would love to have on the show.
Kim McClurg: Oh, I know. Can you imagine? That would be awesome.
Matt Ready: I wonder what he’s talking about in this clip. I wonder if the audio will come through recording a screencast? I think we’re overtaxing my computer here.
[George Carlin video plays]Kim McClurg: [Unclear 00:32:38] computer.
Matt Ready: At some point I’m going to [crosstalk] with this computer so I have like a beefy machine that can do everything.
Kim McClurg: Do you have a favorite quote from George Carlin?
Matt Ready: I have a clip where he talks about there’s a reason that the US Government, the powers that be will never really invest in our education system, because they want everyone to be stupid, and they don’t want you to be in power and he’s really —
Kim McClurg: Makes sense, only the rich people can afford to go to private schools.
Matt Ready: Yeah. He was an amazing comedian activist. Do you have a favorite Carlin quote?
Kim McClurg: Yeah. Someone got me one of those day-by-day calendars, rip-off calendars with like quotes from him, and one I really liked was — I’m pretty sure it was him [laughs], “Inside every cynic is a disappointed idealist.”
Matt Ready: Yeah, I think that’s really —
Kim McClurg: It’s like, that makes a lot of sense!
Matt Ready: Inside every cynic is a disappointed idealist. I feel that’s true of — when I ask someone, “are you an activist?” and people say no, especially they say “no, not at all,” and they have any sort of like energy behind their “no” it’s usually because the idealistic activist part of themself has been so crushed and disappointed with their inability to affect the world and how horrible the world is that they just keep that part of themselves just stifled down [laughs].
Kim McClurg: Yeah. It’s just dealing with the disappointment every day.
Matt Ready: Well, you know, it’s like how do you — you mean it’s like psychotically necessary.
Kim McClurg: We almost have to numb it, otherwise you go nuts.
Matt Ready: Unless you figure out a way to actually take action that makes you feel like you’re accomplishing something. There’s really powerful and clever forces at work to prevent change.
Kim McClurg: Yeah.
Matt Ready: But I think we’re more clever than them together, I mean collectively. I think the masses just have to like figure it out. This is the section where about what ideas for other upcoming episodes of The Mindful Activist, so there’s The Mindful Activist interview, which is going to be like whatever my standard questions are, and then egalitarian facilitation is a topic I might talk about, and then miscellaneous other questions.
Kim McClurg: Lots of mindful things.
Matt Ready: Some. Well, yeah, okay. There are a few mindful things.
Kim McClurg: [Unclear 00:35:31] [Laughs]
Matt Ready: [Inaudible] memes? Original universe, Hive game night, that could be quantum mechanics glitch in The Matrix stories maybe.
Kim McClurg: I wish that people tune in and talk about that. That would be cool [unclear 00:35:47] people stuff.
Matt Ready: [Unclear 00:35:48] best movie of all time for genre. You’re right, we do need to add memes.
Kim McClurg: Memes, m-e-m-es.
Matt Ready: Memes. We should put that as an answer.
Kim McClurg: My sister’s called them me-mes for a long time [laughs] instead of memes. Is that not charging?
Matt Ready: I think it’s charging. Let’s see what happens when I do this. I think you’re right. I think it’s not charging.
Kim McClurg: Yeah.
Matt Ready: Does this have power? Yes, that has power. Okay, now it’s charging. Well, I’m going to go — unless you want to dive into one of these topics.
Kim McClurg: What other ones are there?
Matt Ready: Lot of stuff on mindfulness, tactics, communication, we can talk about power. Power is pretty juicy one. And these are just my ideas. If you want to like throw an idea out there or topic you’d like to go into.
Kim McClurg: Okay.
Matt Ready: A new impression. They’re all pretty heavy. I tend to brainstorm on pretty heavy topics.
Kim McClurg: So what’s — does that mean like two people —
Matt Ready: That means there is two children underneath it so that means I put these — I guess I had these two thoughts on power, I made sure I put them in there. It’s not important who wins a particular battle, it matters who wins the war. The most powerful person is often the most quiet and true power doesn’t need an announcement.
Kim McClurg: That’s pretty accurate.
Matt Ready: Yeah. You want talk about — take a tangent to power struggles and power?
Kim McClurg: Sure. In what context? I guess.
Matt Ready: How are you when you are in a — I have to do this, and make it bigger, probably more interesting. Let’s go back to — screen sharing is paused. Stop sharing. So how do you react during power struggles, like if someone tries to exercise power to push you around in some way to get you to do something, raising their voice or even like, you know, pounding their fist on the table or something.
Kim McClurg: Like is this just kind of an everyday like scenario I guess?
Matt Ready: Well, I mean it’s —
Kim McClurg: Angry person at the store or things that are out of line or something like that? [laughs]
Matt Ready: Sure, you can start with that. Say it’s a random person that just starts yelling at you.
Kim McClurg: Well, if they would just probably yell at me and I didn’t really know them, I would probably just kind of ignore and walk away [laughs].
Matt Ready: And does it impact you? Does it cause an emotional reaction inside you?
Kim McClurg: I think it might initially. I’d probably just be kind of shocked and then maybe slightly angry depending on what the situation was, if I felt like it just came out of nowhere and it was unprovoked I would probably just kind of shrugged it off and be like whatever.
Matt Ready: So what if it’s in a more, a situation where you actually know this person and what they’re trying to use power to manipulate you over is actually a decision has to be made about it.
Kim McClurg: I would try to resolve it, you know, talk it through, but if it’s with somebody who is not interested in having a reasonable discussion about it and they just basically want to dump all of this anger on me, I’d just kind of tend to walk away and say, you know, see you another when tensions [laughs] aren’t so high. I’m not really big on getting into yelling matches with people and making a big scene because that’s what a lot of people just want half the time. They’re not interested in actually talking it out in a reasonable manner.
Matt Ready: So how do those situations tend to resolve if it’s a person that’s willing to use what I would call violent language, violent communication which is just raising your voice, or body language, or looking down at you or whatever, you would let them cool off and then try again later to talk about it? In your experience, does that work that you end up being heard, and it ends up being like an equally shared decision? Or do they still end up trying to bully you?
Kim McClurg: I think for the most part, once people have a chance to cool down, you can get much more out of it, and I think people would leave feeling better about instead of being mad and pissed off by the situation.
Matt Ready: Maybe you should demonstrate. Maybe I should like raise my voice at you and you should show how you would use your Kim communication skills
Kim McClurg: [Unclear 00:42:27] just walking out of the room really [unclear 00:42:29] [laughs].
Matt Ready: I don’t know about that tactic, ‘cos in my experience if a person wants something, their opinion is strong enough that they’ll raise their voice at you, walking out of the room — okay, I’d do the same thing if someone — ‘cos I’ve had like a boss say, ” I’ve been I’ve been doing this for 20 years, I know the answer and we’re going to do it this way,” and I’m like, that’s fine, you’re the boss, and I had to walk out. I’ve told them they’re wrong, and then they do cool down and they come back, if they come back. They usually, usually I’m working for reasonable people and they come back, but some bosses don’t.
Kim McClurg: Yeah, that’s hard.
Matt Ready: Sometimes you only have 15 minutes, you only have this window of time to talk to someone, and this is it; and they are choosing to use violent communication in this moment. It’s like you can’t extend it.
Kim McClurg: I guess you just have to pick your battles, and if it’s something that — if you don’t have much control over it, like it is a boss and they’re set on doing something this way and you’re trying to tell them you think it would be better if you did it this way, but if in the end it’s their butt on the line and not yours, then you go ahead and you know [laughs] most people dig their own grave, right? [laughs].
Matt Ready: I was just curious like if you had to continue engaging with someone, like what would you use? What would your tactic be if you couldn’t leave the room? It’s like you had to resolve it. Have you not been in that situation very often?
Kim McClurg: Not very often, no, but I guess if I had to I’d just try to keep my cool and appeal to the logic side as much as possible, even though that’s usually rarely where people go when they get upset. I don’t know. It’s really hard. Half of my energy just goes into trying to keep myself calm, so I don’t escalate it and start yelling because that doesn’t turn out well for anybody. I don’t know. I really don’t have to deal with it too much. I guess I don’t hang around a lot of angry people.
Matt Ready: You should run for office. You should become a politician, because then you get to be around —
Kim McClurg: [Unclear 00:45:03] afraid of conflicts. I don’t know, maybe I’m just too lazy to put up much of a fight because a lot of it in the end it doesn’t really matter. If someone wants to yell at me over a parking spot or something like that… A lot of everyday conflicts just don’t stick around me enough to like make me upset. I don’t know. I can’t think of anything like everyday situations.
[Pause]Kim McClurg: [Laughs] You’ll just edit this part our, right?
[Laughter]Matt Ready: I mean I could if I ever edited these, but I just release them.
Kim McClurg: What?
[Laughter]Matt Ready: Editing takes a lot of work.
Kim McClurg: I’ll do it then. Teach me how to do it. I’ll edit this for you.
[Laughter]Matt Ready: Edit yourself —
Kim McClurg: I’ll edit myself down to one or two coherent sentences.
[Laughter]Matt Ready: Okay. You are welcome to edit this episode.
Matt Ready: We’ve talked a little bit about power. What else should we go into? What would be a good topic for us to riff on for the world? Shall we talk about memes? Shall we talk about —
Kim McClurg: Sure! We can talk about memes.
Matt Ready: We could like — Let’s talk about memes. I know you’re sort of like an expert in memes.
[Laughter]Kim McClurg: I don’t know about expert.
Matt Ready: You seem to use memes as a way to communicate.
Kim McClurg: They’re almost like the modern like cave paintings [laughs] You kind of leave in your mark, but it’s online which isn’t, you know, as permanent as a cave.
Matt Ready: It might be more permanent. I mean everything that we record online it might like end up going to other planets and spreading out eventually, you know? In like 20 years, everything that’s been put online up until now is going to fit like on a flash drive and you’re going to be able to just like send that to Mars when we colonize Mars.
Kim McClurg: It will be like, what’s these people’s obsession with these four-legged furry critters?
[Laughter]Matt Ready: The cat obsession. The worshiped cat. Maybe that’s what it was with the Egyptians, they just had memes.
Kim McClurg: Yeah.
[Laughter]Matt Ready: They were just like, “Oh, this will be so funny!” and they carve it.
Kim McClurg: Yeah. All those walls in the temples, it’s like the comment section you know.
[Laughter]Matt Ready: That’s right. They would just comment. We’ve just increased the speed at which we can create our memes and get them out there.
Kim McClurg: Yeah. May be people wouldn’t be such assholes about it if they had to chisel out each comment. They’d have to put a lot more thought into it.
Matt Ready: That’s a good point. Do you have a favorite meme, like one that just seems to sum it all up for?
Kim McClurg: Oh, I don’t know. It seems to switch once in a while depending on the situation, how my day’s going. No, I can’t pick a favorite one off the top of my head.
Matt Ready: We could actually Google memes and we could pull up ones that we — you want to?
Kim McClurg: Sure.
Matt Ready: All right, we’re back to the share screen.
Kim McClurg: You’re making all yours lately, do you have a meme generator in your phone?
Matt Ready: Yeah.
Kim McClurg: That’s what I thought.
Matt Ready: Yeah.
Kim McClurg: I do love the Star Trek guy, Patrick Stewart.
Matt Ready: The Patrick Stewart.
Kim McClurg: What’s his character name now?
Matt Ready: Picard.
Kim McClurg: Picard, yeah. I really like the Picard ones. I have a lot of that that I like; like, “Why the f…?” Can I curse in here?
Matt Ready: Yeah.
Kim McClurg: I do feel like I already have.
Matt Ready: Yeah, you already did and you can. It’s just if it’s going over the local TV station then I would actually have to edit it out.
Kim McClurg: Okay.
Matt Ready: All Kim’s swearing.
[Laughter]Matt Ready: Already you’ve hit, I think you’ve done the first two curse words of The Mindful Activist [laughs].
Kim McClurg: I think it’s only been two or three. Hey, you knew the risk when you invited me on [laughs].
Matt Ready: This is true.
Kim McClurg: Maybe that’s probably a good thing where you’re not peppering or something or arranging a podcast ‘cos there’s way too much…
Matt Ready: There’s a lot of potential swearing, playing volleyball.
Kim McClurg: Yeah.
Matt Ready: So that’s the other way Kim and I know each other; Kim is an amazing volleyball player and she lets other people play with her sometimes.
Kim McClurg: [Laughs] Please, Matt lets people play with him.
[Laughter]Kim McClurg: ‘Cos he’s the amazing one.
Matt Ready: No, no, no. You’re the amazing one.
[Laughter]Kim McClurg: You’re right. I could give you good setups for hits, so…
Matt Ready: Uh-huh. And you’re quite a defensive star. All right, so we are on Google Images and we are going do a meme search, so first we do this. What’s the greatest meme of all time? For me it would be a Matrix meme.
Kim McClurg: [Laughs] Yeah, The Matrix memes. The one with Morpheus? That one?
Matt Ready: I really like that one. I sent that one out twice. “What if I told you this side of the USB symbol will always be the top side?”
[Laughter]Matt Ready: There’s one —
Kim McClurg: I do like the memes that are like combined here with other ones. Those are great.
Matt Ready: I also like this one, “I did three movies about The Matrix and you still don’t get it.” Do you think we’re living in a matrix?
Kim McClurg: Uh, that is an interesting concept. I don’t know. What if it was though? What if everything was a simulation? If you knew it was, would you change anything about your life then?
Matt Ready: Hmm, if I knew that it was — it depends how I know, because if you know it’s a simulation that means somehow something has told you that. If I got like a phone call and a guy was like, “Hey, you’re living in a simulation. I can prove it to you. Watch! I’m going to make your computer disappear,” and they made it disappear, I’d be like, “I’m living a simulation, could you do me some other favors?” Then I would be like, “Is there some other way you can hack reality that could like let me fly?” I’d like to be able to fly, or —
Kim McClurg: What if that’s all the information you got though, and he showed you proof you were in a simulation.
Matt Ready: See, I’m a skeptic so if like yesterday that happened, a guy called me and my laptop had disappeared because he told me and he made it disappear and reappear, I would have now a memory of it and I’d be like, this is what my memory is telling me happened, but I don’t know if my memory accurate, I don’t know if is absolutely did happen. Maybe somebody slipped something into my drink and I hallucinated that, and I do have a couple stories that I could tell you that are kind of weird like that. It’s like Joan of Arc, she was walking in a garden and she had a vision of I think it was like two saints or something, and they spoke to her and they told her —
Kim McClurg: It was like St Catherine and… who’s the other one?
Matt Ready: I’m just amazed you got St. Catherine, like this is your catholic education coming through.
Kim McClurg: It’s catholic, I’m down. I must’ve picked some of it up. Catherine and… I can’t remember the saint though.
Matt Ready: You know, we’ve got the source of all knowledge right here.
Kim McClurg: Yeah, you can Google it.
Matt Ready: On this incredibly overtaxed computer.
Kim McClurg: Okay, finish what you said. I want to hear about the Joan of Arc.
Matt Ready: Well, it’s just that if I was walking in a garden and two saints appeared and I saw them and they like did magical stuff and they told me a whole bunch of stuff that I was supposed to do with my life and then they disappeared, I’d come here and be like, “I had this really trippy vision,” but I wouldn’t be like… A magical being appearing at the foot of my bed every day at 4 p.m. is not enough to make me believe everything that that magical vision says. I would listen to it, I would talk to it, I’d find it very interesting, but —
Kim McClurg: You’d see if you weren’t mentally ill or something? [Laughs]
Matt Ready: I would, yeah, I would see a doctor.
Kim McClurg: Okay, well, let’s say you knew it wasn’t all in your head, you had irrefutable proof you were living in one. You know. So like I guess, I don’t know, how would you, would you still live life the same or would you just do whatever you wanted? Right? ‘Cos everyone around you, all the people you know they’re all just computer programs. No one’s really real. Kind of like The Truman Show, but everything’s like digital, right? You’re in this like made up world.
Matt Ready: That would be tough, so that would mean like you’re not real. You’re a computer program.
Kim McClurg: Yeah. What if I wasn’t real. Like, would you live your life like Grand Theft Auto? Like just take cars, like just make mayhem, or just kind of go back to your life still?
Matt Ready: Honestly, that’s already kind of the way I see people.
Kim McClurg: Yeah?
Matt Ready: Yeah. I already kind of see people as “of questionable reality.”
[Laughter]Kim McClurg: Well, some people live in their own reality, so that’s not too far of a stretch I guess.
Matt Ready: No. I mean you don’t know, I don’t know how real you are, how alive you are in here, and honestly I actually don’t know if my consciousness really is completely dependent on this brain that I think I have. I don’t know that I’m even in a body, so I might be a software program in computer. If we’re in a matrix, I most likely am software program, as well as you. It doesn’t mean we’re not alive, it just means we don’t actually have these bodies, it just means we are in these giant computers, for some reason, someone built these computers. I’d really, really be wondering about that. Why? And I would probably spend more time doing like what we’re doing now, like talking to the world, but I would be talking to the makers of The Matrix and I’ll be like, “Hey, makers of the matrix! Why are you doing this? Why did you make all this?
Kim McClurg: It’s just like one big experience. They’re just kind of letting you, like you’re the only living —
Matt Ready: Are you a representative of The Matrix? Is this — finally, someone’s telling me the truth, that it’s just a big experiment just to watch us do whatever?
Kim McClurg: It could be.
Matt Ready: I mean, seriously I wonder about this all the time.
Kim McClurg: Really?
Matt Ready: I wonder about this all the time, like whether or not we’re living in a matrix, we could be — this is bugging me to have it still on there.
Kim McClurg: But I mean, would that change your perceptions of like what’s ethical, what’s moral?
Matt Ready: No, not at all.
Kim McClurg: If you didn’t perceive anything as real around you, like —
Matt Ready: Well, I mean you are still real, you know, you are still —
Kim McClurg: Yes. I realize, thanks.
Matt Ready: If I thought you were a robot, if I thought you were a robot that actually didn’t experience pain, that there was actors controlling you remotely, that would… yes, that would affect me, but I don’t — I think it’s possible —
Kim McClurg: Well, it’s like The Matrix, so you’re just like [unclear 00:57:10] and be nice, but like you’re still, you’re not [unclear 00:57:15] real, right?
Matt Ready: Well, it would depend if I felt like you, like were lying to me when you like [unclear 00:57:22], you know, hit you and you experience pain. I mean, yes I’d basically say that. If I feel that someone is lying to me about things I treat them differently, but if I feel like someone is being honest, you know, like in a matrix, like animals, you know, it’s like would I be cruel to animals? No, ‘cos I trust that they actually are experiencing pain and I don’t enjoy other things or other people suffering. I’m not fixated on like, you know, taking care of everyone in the world or something, but I don’t — but anyways, that’s all me, but more importantly, what about you? What would it do — do you think we’re living in a matrix? You seem to ask those questions pretty strongly.
Kim McClurg: It was just kind of coming to me,
Matt Ready: It was just coming to you?
Kim McClurg: I don’t know, I think it’s interesting to like play out.
Matt Ready: Do you think I’m a computer program? Do you think I’m a real —
Kim McClurg: It could be.
Matt Ready: Yeah, it could be but what do you believe?
Kim McClurg: Probably not.
Matt Ready: You think I’m a real human being?
Kim McClurg: Yeah. I think every person I’ve ever seen are real, but maybe I’ve just bought into it so much I just don’t question it.
Matt Ready: Is there a test in the — have you ever seen that movie with Harrison Ford, Blade Runner?
Kim McClurg: No, I haven’t watched Blade Runner yet.
Matt Ready: So there’s a test in Blade Runner. They do to see if a person is a robot but mainly they find this magic thing in your eye [laughs] and they watch your pupils and they ask you questions, and somehow you can tell. But maybe we could — what would be a test or a question we could ask each other? Ask a question that would like prove whether or not —
Kim McClurg: Would it be like one of those tests they do for like artificial intelligence? That kind of thing?
Matt Ready: It could be. Ask a question that would be difficult for a simulated matrix entity to answer.
Kim McClurg: I don’t know, it’s something like a riddle or something like that? I don’t know. I don’t know Matt, my mind is total blank.
Matt Ready: How… all right. I’ll go first.
Kim McClurg: Okay.
Matt Ready: What’s the most important thing in life?
Kim McClurg: And if their head explodes then you know they’re not real?
[Laughter]Matt Ready: I don’t know. I’m just stabbing in the dark, we’re doing matrix test questions. Maybe we’ll find the right one.
Kim McClurg: What was the question again?
Matt Ready: What’s the most important thing in life?
Kim McClurg: I think you asked me that once before, didn’t you?
Matt Ready: It’s quite possible. I only have like three questions I ask people.
[Laughter]Matt Ready: I just keep asking everyone the same question. I’ve been asking that question since college, and I actually stopped for 25 years asking it, but I used to ask people —
Kim McClurg: What’s the most important thing?
Matt Ready: Yeah.
Kim McClurg: Like what, food and shelter, that whole baseline? [Crosstalk] Are those needs taken care of?
Matt Ready: I’m asking you. I’m asking you. [Laughs]
Kim McClurg: Apologies, Matt. [Laughs] I think from the most —
Matt Ready: Are you trying to get like the teacher —
Kim McClurg: I’m getting to check the goal.
Matt Ready: You’re asking for hints on what the answer is but the answer is whatever you say, unless you’re like a software program and you don’t know how to tell the answer.
[Laughter]Kim McClurg: I can’t compute it.
Matt Ready: There’s nothing important life ‘cos you’re not alive.
Kim McClurg: You’d need emotion and…
[Laughter]Matt Ready: Are you refusing to answer the question and we move on? Is that what you’re doing?
Kim McClurg: No, no. I’ll answer. I think the last time you asked me I said laughter is the most important thing.
Matt Ready: That’s an interesting answer.
Kim McClurg: ‘Cos a lot of good things come from that.
Matt Ready: Do you have a like — so what does that mean about you and stand-up comics, do you feel like comedians have a special place in the universe? Do you think laughter is the most important thing in life?
Kim McClurg: Maybe the good ones [laughs].
Matt Ready: What makes you laugh? Memes? Anything besides memes? [Laughs]
Kim McClurg: Anything that’s funny, I mean obviously not in a very cruel or deprecating way to somebody else, at someone’s expense.
Matt Ready: Yeah. That’s not your type of humor.
Kim McClurg: Well, sometimes, but you know, I try not to be a dick about it.
[Laughter]Kim McClurg: Sorry. Okay.
Matt Ready: She also said that.
[Laughter]Kim McClurg: We should make notes like that. Thirty minutes in, and Kim cursed again.
Matt Ready: And you should be thinking of the question that — I asked you a question to test you, you can — if you have a question back to try to figure out if I’m like a software program in a matrix, you’re welcome to ask that anytime.
Kim McClurg: How about like a morality question?
Matt Ready: Sure, whatever.
Kim McClurg: If you will. So I just read one this morning about about like, you have a train and it’s going to run up to a fork and you have five people tied up on the track on one side and on the other side it’s one person. It’s going to hit the five people unless you make the choice to switch the track to the one with only one person. So you decide, do you take out five people all at once? Like let that happen, or do you save them [inaudible] one person. You think a program would be able to?
Matt Ready: That’s a great question. You don’t need to analyze the question, you just ask it.
Kim McClurg: Yeah, sorry.
Matt Ready: And don’t apologize. [Laughs]
Kim McClurg: I’m not sorry.
[Laughter]Matt Ready: Okay. That’s actually a classic philosophical question. I’m just delaying now from answering it.
Kim McClurg: I think it would be pretty easy from a computer point of view.
Matt Ready: For me, it totally depends who the people are.
Kim McClurg: It’s just random strangers.
Matt Ready: Random strangers.
Kim McClurg: Yes.
Matt Ready: I don’t know —
Kim McClurg: You don’t know any of them. They could be the worst people on the planet for all you know.
Matt Ready: Okay, the train is going to run over the group people, five people?
Kim McClurg: Yes.
Matt Ready: Or I flip it and it’ll run over the one.
Kim McClurg: Yup.
Matt Ready: Honestly, this is honestly the way it would work with me. Do I see them? Do I see the people? Because that means the one person I would see and the group I would see, and so I’d be immediately getting a lot of information about how old they were, gender they were, do they look like jerks…
[Laughter]Matt Ready: This would all impact me making this swift decision.
Kim McClurg: But you only have like say 10 seconds to take this information in as you see them.
Matt Ready: Well, it’s like dating. You only need like a look at someone and you can — you have cast all these impressions and judgments. We can take out that if you say I can’t see them. If you like eliminate me being able to see them.
Kim McClurg: No, that makes it easier I think, if you can’t see people.
Matt Ready: All right. So I would totally —
Kim McClurg: [Laughs] You’re like, “Oh, look at that guy, he’s wearing skinny jeans. I’d be doing him a favor here.” [Laughs]
Matt Ready: Okay, in a split second, I probably would save the group, unless, you know —
Kim McClurg: That sounds like something a robot would say. Like [unclear 01:04:51] of I-Robot.
[Laughter]Kim McClurg: Do you save the greater probability of lives there?
Matt Ready: Well, wouldn’t you do that?
Kim McClurg: For the greater good! [Laughs]
Matt Ready: I mean, most likely. It’s definitely — I wouldn’t enjoy that.
Kim McClurg: But that means that means that you’re choosing to kill that other person.
Matt Ready: Yeah. Although I would probably switch it and then do something to try and save that person, and then I would like make it part of my life’s mission to explain to people, “Don’t stand on the railroad tracks,” you know, “That is a really dumb thing to do.”
Kim McClurg: Well, these people are tied up. This is like some sick Matrix simulation experiment.
Matt Ready: So this is like Saw. This is like that movie where they’re setting up these horrible situations, like Dr. Phil and Shaquille O’Neal are tied on to pipes
[Laughter]Matt Ready: … and they have to cut their feet off or something to get out of there.
[Laughter]Matt Ready: Do you find these kind of like sick scenarios entertaining?
Kim McClurg: Well, no.
[Laughter]Kim McClurg: I figured a morality test would be a good one to do.
Matt Ready: All right. So we’ve each asked one question and do you think I’m a robot?
Kim McClurg: Well, you did guess [unclear 01:06:14] I figured a robot would probably guess.
Matt Ready: Only a human would just kill the — it seems like robots would just choose the brutal sociopathic answer and that way he would sound human.
Kim McClurg: That’s true. Well, I’m just going by the rules from the Will Smith movies. It could be different in the whole matrix scenario.
Matt Ready: All right, I’ve got a question. This will test whether or not you are human or a machine. Can I borrow $10?
Kim McClurg: [Laughs]
Matt Ready: Right now.
Kim McClurg: I don’t have $10.
Matt Ready: Do you have any cash?
Kim McClurg: Two dollars maybe?
Matt Ready: I’ll borrow $2.
Kim McClurg: It’s over there, so just take it.
[Laughter]Matt Ready: All right, I don’t know, that didn’t work. Maybe I need $100 or something —
Kim McClurg: Whatever, computers they know.
Matt Ready: I don’t know. I just try to give it some consequences.
[Laughter]Matt Ready: Okay, do you have another one? Or should we move on to our next topic that we planned out a long time ago?
Kim McClurg: Sure. Do you want to introduce the topic of it Matt?
[Laughter]Matt Ready: I don’t know. I think you should introduce the topic.
Kim McClurg: Have we had any viewers at all so far?
Matt Ready: None there, and no one — no, we haven’t had any so [inaudible] —
Kim McClurg: Okay, cool.
Matt Ready: So no one’s watching.
Kim McClurg: Cool.
Matt Ready: If I’d had another device going, I could have like put it on to YouNow and we might, you know, you’ve seen that, we might have had some drop-ins. So Kim, why don’t you go ahead and intro this topic?
Kim McClurg: I thought you would intro it?
Matt Ready: Okay. Well, I’ll give you the first part, so Kim and I have been planning this podcast for weeks, and we brainstormed a lot of different topics, and this topic Kim thought would be really interesting, and fun, and thought-provoking, and so why don’t you just take it from there?
Kim McClurg: Uhm, [laughs] [unclear 01:08:18] [Laughter]
Matt Ready: [Unclear 01:08:21] you know.
[Laughter]Kim McClurg: I don’t know. We can do the movies genres?
Matt Ready: Movies? Yeah. We could do movies. All right. Greatest — what do you want, greatest — let’s start with the greatest movie of all time. What would work out —
Kim McClurg: Oh, no, that’s too hard.
Matt Ready: No? All right, just — how about this, can you name a single movie —
[Laughter]Matt Ready: That will make it easier. Kim, name a movie.
[Laughter]Kim McClurg: See, I wasn’t introduced to TV until five years ago.
Matt Ready: What?
Kim McClurg: Just kidding.
[Laughter]Kim McClurg: How about, oh! Okay, how about what is like a movie you love to watch but you would be super embarrassed to tell anyone actually like, guilty pleasure movie?
Matt Ready: Guilty pleasure movie. Grease.
Kim McClurg: What? That’s like a classic. Who’d be embarrassed to admit they watch Grease?
Matt Ready: A guy.
Kim McClurg: I hate musicals and I would admit I love Grease. I own the soundtrack.
Matt Ready: I like musicals. West Side Story.
Kim McClurg: Oh, God! [Inaudible] [Laughter]
Matt Ready: Little Shop of Horrors.
Kim McClurg: That’s not bad, yeah. [Unclear 01:09:34].
Matt Ready: But I mean, I’m not really like embarrassed to say I like these, but —
Kim McClurg: If there was this one though that you’d never admit, you could even edit that out so that no one would know.
Matt Ready: I like dancing movies like Footloose, and Dirty Dancing, and Flashdance, and —
Kim McClurg: Those are not like horrible movies. Like is there any kind of national [01:10:03] movie or something that you would like never admit you actually liked? If you’re in a group of people, and someone’s like, “Oh, that’s maybe the worst ever,” and you’re like, “Yeah, totally,” but you’re going to watch it [unclear 01:10:11].
Kim McClurg: I like Superbad, you know, that’s a good movie.
Kim McClurg: Yeah, it’s okay.
Matt Ready: And like Tootsie, you’ve ever seen Tootsie?
Kim McClurg: That’s with Dustin Hoffman?
Matt Ready: Yeah.
Kim McClurg: He dresses up like a woman?
Matt Ready: Yeah.
Kim McClurg: That’s actually pretty good.
Matt Ready: It’s amazing.
[Laughter]Kim McClurg: That’s all you’ve got? So all your guilty pleasures are widely accepted that it’s good.
Matt Ready: Dances with Wolves.
Kim McClurg: No!
[Laughter]Matt Ready: It’s a Wonderful Life.
Kim McClurg: I’m sorry, your list of movies [unclear 01:10:43] watch anything horrible or embarrassing to admit.
[Laughter]Matt Ready: I’m just, you know, did you have one?
Kim McClurg: Music? Is there any music?
Matt Ready: That I’m embarrassed?
Kim McClurg: That you would be embarrassed to listen to? Like Britney Spears or something like that.
Matt Ready: I like some Britney Spears.
Kim McClurg: Well, her earlier stuff was good. I must admit that.
Matt Ready: Yeah. [Crosstalk] What are you doing out of frame? Get back in frame.
Kim McClurg: Oh, sorry.
Matt Ready: Jeez! They don’t want like me on camera.
[Laughter]Kim McClurg: Slowly edging my way out.
Matt Ready: You’re like slowly like —
Kim McClurg: These wheels on this chair!
[Laughter]Matt Ready: Beautiful wall over here for you to look at.
Kim McClurg: Here, I’ll just write a [unclear 01:11:20].
Matt Ready: All right. This is like the video is so far behind us, I wonder how it’s doing with this recording.
Kim McClurg: Sorry.
Matt Ready: I’m trying to think of music that I find embarrassing. The Big Chill was a great movie. Great music in that.
Kim McClurg: The Big Chill? I haven’t seen that one. Is it a storm movie? Is it that one [unclear 01:12:04] like in a sky lodge or something?
Matt Ready: Well, yeah ‘cos somebody dies. They are like all friends in college and then a guy commits suicide, it’s actually by Kevin Costner.
Kim McClurg: So it’s not the same movie I’m thinking of.
Matt Ready: Well, Kevin Costner’s not in the movie. He’s the body in the casket, You never see his face. It was his first movie.
Kim McClurg: Really? [laughs]
Matt Ready: Yeah. [laughs.]
Kim McClurg: It’s just like a Kevin Costner trivia.
Matt Ready: So they all hang out at this cabin for a weekend, and they rekindle some romances and stuff, and I do think they smoke pot at some point in that movie. I don’t think that makes it a stoner movie but…
Kim McClurg: [Laughs] Okay. I think I’m thinking of a different one anyway.
Matt Ready: But it has the most amazing soundtrack with like, “Joy to the World”, and all these like, “I heard it through the grapevine”, old classic ’60s. Is it ’60s music? I’m not really sure.
Kim McClurg: Is that one [unclear 01:12:57] Elvis? Was that ’60s or ’70s?
Matt Ready: Yeah, ’60s. Creedence Clearwater.
Kim McClurg: Yeah. I like Creedence.
Matt Ready: Guilty pleasures, come on. What is — or how about this? A movie or a song you’re incredibly embarrassed to tell the world that you like, or an anecdote that’s incredibly embarrassing to share with the world, or anything that’s really embarrassing that you don’t want to tell the world but you should tell the world right now. [Laughs]
Kim McClurg: Wow, if you put it that way, how could you not want to? I don’t have many embarrassing life moments but I’ll just pick one out.
Matt Ready: I would just pick one, or we’ll just go through all of them.
[Laughter]Kim McClurg: We really don’t have so much time Matt.
Matt Ready: Yeah, I don’t even — that I don’t have. I don’t have a timer going. That means we must have been going basically an hour.
Kim McClurg: We have like 5 minutes left.
Matt Ready: And the recording is still going, I thought that only went — Okay, so…
Kim McClurg: Okay, well the first one that pops to mind is, I think I was in high school. Did you ever have to do those tests when you were in school where you like had to fill this questionnaire related to drugs and alcohol and stuff, you know, like really how often you did it, how much, whatever, for like state’s statistics I think it was for.
Matt Ready: Maybe.
Kim McClurg: Anyway, we had to do one of those. It was like four pages long. They just spread us out in the gym to like work on these and fill these out, and I was sitting cross-legged doing mine the whole time. I was finally done and I was one of two people left sitting on the floor in this huge auditorium, and everyone else was up in the bleachers that was done, so they just kept us all. Like I was in a high school with like 70 people, so we were all just hanging out in the auditorium. So everyone’s up in the bleachers who’s done, and it’s me and one other person sitting down on the floor filling this out, and I got up to give mine in, and my legs had fallen asleep this whole time I was doing it, but I didn’t realize it. So I got up and I took one step and just face-landed on the floor.
[Laughter]Kim McClurg: It was like one of those movies, everyone was cracking up.
[Laughter]Kim McClurg: I would have been more embarrassed if the feeling was coming back and so I just felt like my legs were being stabbed with needles all over and it really hurt, so that took a lot of the focus away from the embarrassment.
[Laughter]Kim McClurg: So I just laid there waiting for my legs to feel again and then the person got up to hand theirs in and I was like, “Hey, can you hand this in for me?”
[Laughter]Matt Ready: That’s good.
Kim McClurg: Yeah, that was…
Matt Ready: That’s nice. That was a good one. Well, thank you for sharing that.
Kim McClurg: You’re welcome.
Matt Ready: You don’t have a video of that, right?
Kim McClurg: No.
Matt Ready: You do have a video though that maybe next time you come on we could share. A video you said of your public speaking of something like, you know —
Kim McClurg: Oh, I think it has been long lost.
Matt Ready: But what was it? It was a video of you doing some sort of presentation?
Kim McClurg: My public speaking presentation.
Matt Ready: Like at what age?
Kim McClurg: I think it was my sophomore years of college, so like 20.
Matt Ready: Maybe we can find that for a future episode.
Kim McClurg: Maybe. I don’t know if I could look it up. I wonder if my teacher would still have it? I’m friends with her on Facebook. She probably keep all these for a laugh. [Unclear 01:16:06] with a glass of wine and just watches like the worst presentations she’s ever seen.
[Laughter]Matt Ready: I can see that.
Kim McClurg: Or maybe not, ‘cos she’s a good person. She’s really nice.
Matt Ready: All right, so shall we wrap up the episode?
Kim McClurg: Okay.
Matt Ready: Okay, so thank you so much for co-hosting another episode. This seems like if everything worked pretty well. Let’s see how the recording comes out. Every time we do this it makes it easier for us to do future ones. And to anyone that ends up watching this video clip, we are going to keep doing this and eventually, as we get our technique down and we get our viewership built up, we are going to invite more and more people to join us and participate in the discussion. You can go to the hive1.net website and into The Mindful Activist node to see what different topics we might have for future episodes, and you can even vote on topics there, decide which ones you want us have us talk about in future episodes. I think that’s about all. Shall we do some closing music?
Kim McClurg: Yeah! We should, pick a random one I guess or something.
Matt Ready: So we will. I’m going to stop the video and share a closing song. All right Kim, go ahead and start singing.
[Laughter]Kim McClurg: No, I won’t [unclear 01:17:36].
Matt Ready: [Inaudible].
[Music plays]Kim McClurg: [Unclear 1:17:45]
Matt Ready: They’re still going. Nobody [inaudible]. Maybe you should do like a closing dance.
[Laughter]Kim McClurg: No way!
Matt Ready: How about the wave?
Kim McClurg: The wave?
Matt Ready: Yeah, just like this.
[Laughter]Matt Ready: There you go. I like it.
Kim McClurg: There you go.
Matt Ready: All right! Signing off! And to everyone out there on YouTube and no one watching, we will say goodbye.
