790 – Big Farm in the Sky Season 2 Recap

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and friends beyond the binary, it's time for the podcaster, who's in a sweatshirt, but I ain't sweating. I don't know why I said, “I ain't sweating,” but I'm not. Hopefully I won't be at all any time. I'm here to put you to sleep. It's effortless exertion here and you support it, patrons. Thanks so much. 

Hey, are you up all night tossing, turning, mind racing, trouble getting to sleep, trouble staying asleep? Well welcome. This is Sleep With Me, a podcast to put you to sleep. We do it with a bedtime story. All you need to do is get in to bed, turn off the lights, and press play. I'm going to do the rest. What I'm going to attempt to do is create a safe place where you're welcome. I see you and I welcome you in. And I say, “Come on in if you like.” You could also stand at a distance. You could look in the window. You could walk around the doorway or the threshold. You could peak in. You could step in. You could step out. It's a safe place that you want to check out first probably. Kind of like pets, I guess. Have I talked about that in the intro, because I got a lot of questions about that. I always do. 

It's like, “What exactly are you checking out there before you do your business?” Maybe we'll get back to that, because I'm going to try to create a safe place. Obviously we say safe place, you go ahead. We got that covered too. Where you can set aside whatever is keeping you awake, whether it's your thoughts, your feelings, a physical sensation, changes in time or temperature, so stuff on your mind, stuff you got to do, stuff you're planning, your work. Some people here you work in the second or third shift. I know. The landscaper just got there, I here you. So I'm here to keep you company and whatever it is. If it's something else, I'm here too. Just an early reminder, if you can't sleep I'm here all the way to the end, but what I'm going to do is I'm going to send my voice across the deep dark night. I'm going to use a lulling, soothing, creaky dulcet tones. How did I forget that one? I've said it 800 times probably, almost. 

Pointless meanders, superfluous tangents. Believe me, I'm going to make you says, “Scoots, did you really need that tangent.” I guess here's an honest to goodness question, is it superfluous? In other cases it would be superfluous. In the case of Sleep With Me, it's essential. Essentially superfluous. That would be another one of my Broadway hits. That was a duet. I think I would like to do that duet with Enrique Iglesias. I don't know why, but I just feel like that would be essentially superfluous. We could dance. It could be a dance number. Maybe, I don't know if he taps, if he does tap dance. And maybe Ricky Martin could come in. It was so nice to see Ricky on TV last year. I really did enjoy it, being a great friend of the show, who produced that show, which I can't mention on this but a great show though about Versace. So, where was I?

I was just in the middle of a superfluous tangent. Essentially superfluous, is that what I said? Again, we'd have to come up … That's what I really rely on the singers to come up with something. They say, “Scoots, you can't do every song based on It's Not Unusual.” What do you mean I can't? I could say I'm essentially superfluous is what that means is … I can do it, it's just you're saying I should not do it. You're suggesting I don't. Okay, well, if you're new, one would say oh, I'm going to go off topic. There you go. I usually … Don't worry, I won't sing, just early in the show, especially thinking about that you say, I never thought about it before, I mean or I thought about it and I forgot about it. I guess I'm a bit flummoxed because you say am I going to be superfluous if it's essential to the show, I've got myself in a conundrum.

Anyway, if you're new though, this is the kind of silliness and nonsense you can expect with the show. So, let me give you a couple … Let me try to ground things. I don't think that's possible but let me try. I'm glad you're here if you're new. Give this show a few tries. There's something like hundreds of thousands of regular listeners and they all say it took two or three tries before I got used to the podcast. So, give it a few tries. The structure of the show, it starts off with business. That's how we keep the podcast free for everybody that wants to consume it and I really appreciate all the hard work everybody at PRX and Market Enginuity and Night Vale do to help us keep the show free for everybody. I really, really … And our patrons. So, if you're new though … Oh, the business isn't important if you're new, just regular listeners.

Then there's an intro. Now, we're a few minutes into this intro. The intros are around 12 to 14 to 11 to 13 to 17 to 18 to 16 to 15 minutes or so and it's a big part of the podcast because I believe you need a nice wind down as you get ready for bed and paradoxically, some people fall asleep during the wind down of the podcast. So, it's supposed to ease you into bedtime or something to listen to as you get ready for bed or as you drift off. So, it's also where I kind of try to explain the podcast to new listeners in a way that regular listeners appreciate because they never … There's always new tangents for me to go on, even ones about being superfluous or about the … I forgot what the first tangent was where I was thinking about why does my dog … Why are you getting so choosy … I mean I don't understand. I know there's a book about it because I think Roman Mars, like a couple of years ago, interviewed the author of the book, so I have to look that up. I mean not just about that, about pet behavior. I could have imagined the whole thing.

What was I … Oh, so new listener, excuse me. I went off topic there or a tangent. So, business and then there's intro and for a lot of people, when they first listen, my voice, my tone throws them off. Something … You say this is like humor but it's not funny but it's kind of like being funny. I say yeah but that's just something that throws new people off and then the other thing that can throw new people off is the intro because you say aren't you going to get to the bedtime story and it's eventually I will get there. So, a lot of people might be asleep by the time I get there but still puts them to sleep somehow. So, some listeners that want to just skip to the story, they know and now you do too, you can just skip ahead to 18 to 20 minutes and that's fine, it doesn't bother me. I just build the show kind of in a way that I've learned over time. It can help the most people or it can be repurposed to just like I said who say skip ahead to 20 minutes and I'll say hit the story part. So, it's an intro.

Then tonight will be the recap of our lightest series like a look back, maybe a look forward, I'm not sure. Our series Big Farm in the Sky P.I. Season Two: Phantom Minnow season where I say okay, this worked or I learned this or this is what went … So, we'll do that. Then there's some thank yous at the end of the show. There's some business between the intro in the show just to keep it free for everybody and so that's the structure of the show. A couple other things, you probably already figured this out because you're so darn intelligent, you don't need to listen to me. You can kind of listen. You can barely listen. You can just kind of humor me, say mm-hmm (affirmative), mm-hmm (affirmative). We talk about this every once in a while because I think it's really … It might even be a way to interact with the podcast, just say, “Uh-huh, okay, Scoots, go … Okay, what were you saying about Enrique Iglesias is dreamy, so I … Ricky Martin, dreamy, uh-huh. Your dog going to find a spot to go, okay, uh-huh. Well, the walking around and sniffing around part, uh-huh. I could see that.”

You could see because my dog just kind of like … I say, “Wow, you're really scouting out a spot to go.” I've always been baffled by that. I forgot what it was honestly at the top of the show that I said hmm, but it is something that I always say what … Like I don't know, I guess it's something I'd like to learn more about but it sounds like too much … I say, well, I'd like to learn more about it but [inaudible 00:09:56] like I said, I'll be baffled. I say, hmm, because she could do it. She could go. She's a healthy dog. She goes three times a day and that's … Okay, yeah, enough about that. So, that's the structure of the show. You don't need to listen to me. There's also no pressure to fall asleep, which can be strange with a sleep podcast and that is another thing that can throw new people off. It's like you're supposed to put me to sleep right away, what are you talking about? And I say well, that's kind of part of the method of this show. Well, I thought there was going to be a bedtime story. Yeah, eventually there'll be a bedtime story. We'll get there.

I mean it's different than you might have expected and if you're skeptical, of course, like who wouldn't be skeptical about a sleep podcast, right? Especially about a sleep podcast working on like a musical about essentially superfluous … Or it could be like a fashion guide. That does kind of sound essentially superfluous. A guide to wearing nothing, so like that or wearing too much, I don't know which one it would be. A minimalist guide to clothing, the essentials. You just say, okay … I mean he's got to wear something, because it's a part of the social compact, so keep your minimalism indoors, people. I'm going to show you with this book, a few ways to … It's co-written with Ricky Martin and Enrique Iglesias in song but no, no, no, we won't be minimalizing our clothing during the song. That's something totally different.

Okay, I went off topic again there. So, oh, you don't need to listen to me. No pressure to fall asleep. The reason the show is over an hour or just over an hour is to give you plenty of time. No pressure to fall asleep. I'm here to keep you company because I know there's listeners out there who can't fall asleep and it's important for me to be there, to be your bore friend, your bore bae, your bore cuz, your bore sib, your bore bestie or if you're new and in this case, [inaudible 00:12:16] to bore you or to keep you company or to talk as you drift off into dreamland. So, I think that's about it about the show. I'm here to help. It doesn't work for everybody, unfortunately. I honestly wished it did, that it put you to sleep too but it does take a few tries and I do really, really appreciate you checking the show out if you're new. So, give it a few tries, see if it works. There's no pressure and the rest of you that come back, I really, really appreciate it. It's my honor to try to help so you can get the rest you deserve.

I want you to be out there in the world rested and say, okay, let me deal with this slide rule [inaudible 00:13:05] what it did anyway but now I'm rested … metaphorically … In this case, I'll just be on the nose. It's a metaphor … It's not a metaphorical slide rule. The slide rule is a metaphor … That's another book title though, I mean we just walked right into it, The Metaphorical Slide Rule: A Guide to Making Metaphors that really are only useful in making sleep … My life story, a metaphorical slide rule. The time I slid down the metaphorical slide rule … I don't even know. That's too many things. Even my brain's like hmm, I'm not sure what to make of that, but I guess what we would do if we were trying to make something of it is change around the meaning of rule, because I think a slide rule is like a ruler with a slide on it … No, not that kind of slide.

Now, my kid brain just woke up. It was sleeping. It said did somebody say something about a slide, like a super slide? I said no, I mean I did think about a super slide for a second. I'd love to go on one with you. Okay, well I just woke up with it … You're at the end of the intro anyway, so you did a good job. Oh, thanks, yeah, I was just going to say, I work very hard. I yearn and I strive and we really want to help you fall asleep. Thanks so much for coming by and here's a couple ways we keep our super slide show going.

All right, everybody, it's Scoots here. We're going to be doing a nice easy recap of our second season of Big Farm in the Sky P.I. and these are kind of behind the scenes episodes, particularly good to sleep to from what I've heard where I talk about kind of the concept around the show and making it and decisions that I made and all of those things and then maybe a little bit later on, maybe a teaser or kind of conceptually where we're at for the next series coming up. So, if you listen, maybe it'll give you some insight into the podcast, maybe not but I definitely have always found these to be good and if anybody's really paying attention now for when questions come up, if you see listeners asking questions online, you can point them to this episode. You can usually share timestamps in your podcast, to say oh, this is where Scoots answered that question, because that's always helpful but let's see.

So, there are two things I was thinking about starting out with. One was like Antonio Banderas, which maybe I'll get to in a few minutes because first I was like, man, it's been 12 episodes. So, here's a couple things off the top of my head. I have no idea when I started recording Big Farm in the Sky P.I. episodes. I would assume it was like in the last couple of months of 2018, is that what … It's 2019 now and I know I lost some time because I know the goal, if you've listened to these episodes is to have like a six-week lead time minimum between recording of the episode and the release of the episode and just because of life stuff and different travels, I think we definitely fell off that with the scripted episodes but I think last year, we were on that six-week thing.

I think sometime in January, February and March, we probably lost a week, each one of those months and then April, I took a week off of recording. So, right now I'm not sure what my lead time is, but I'm going to try to stay on schedule because sometimes I'll finish a series and try to give myself like … We've talked about this too but like maybe you're new, maybe you haven't heard it, right? So, let's recap or maybe you're just chilling out but usually I write these episodes on a two-week schedule. In a perfect world, it'll be 10 days but that really never worked out because presumably, other than with this Game of Thrones season and experiment we did with The Good Place, a certain type of episode comes out every 10 days because it goes a [inaudible 00:17:23] episode, a written episode, then a TV recap episode. That's the normal rhythm of the show.

We've strayed from that rhythm for The Good Place but then I went back to the 10-day or every third episode with The Good Place and then we definitely strayed from it for Game of Drones because it's just like … It just had to stay on task because those episodes are longer. They're actually more popular. There's some people that just come in and listen to the Game of Thrones content and they're just very like … Even though it's a lot more challenging, it just … The show breathes in a certain way organically. It's like … I don't know how I got off topic of the written episodes but it just is an insight like for Game of Drones, the episodes are on Sunday and HBO, understandably so, doesn't give out any previews. So, I would watch the episode at 6:00 p.m., then immediately watch it again depending on … So, usually from 6:00 to midnight or 6:00 to 10:00 or 1l:00 p.m., I would do two or three total watches, taking notes of the Game of Drones episode. Then in the morning, do a re-watch and research or like this [inaudible 00:18:50] so that's just why Game of Drones ones come out every week.

So, what was my point? So, this next series, I'm already working on it and ideally, I'll record it next week, which will be about two weeks from the last recording of Game of … Like a written episode. This is more of a recap episode but I can't believe that however many weeks went by, like probably four or five months since I started the series and I guess part of the reason I'm surprised is it goes … Like it both goes by extremely slowly and extremely fast, so it feels like it flew by and I'm like man, we've made 12 episodes and that was kind of my goal, like I'm always testing how many episodes and sometimes a series will tell me, oh, I think we're good for 10 episodes. Sometimes the calendar will tell me because I'm like okay, how much until the holidays are coming up because we have a holiday series. So, it's like okay, when is Thanksgiving. So, that's another thing that can dictate how many episodes there are or it's just it runs out of gas.

I mean the nice thing about running out of gas and doing 12 episodes is you really get to see what happens after the car runs out of gas where we say, okay, so this season was definitely a lesson in … As it always is, of like huh? Where … Of working with the characters and the story, working together as opposed to pushing them around, which is a lesson I learn every single time and I couldn't even tell you right now. I mean I have all the notebooks. We'll even talk about notebooks maybe here because as I said, I don't even know what the 12 episodes were … I mean I know the last few, because like right now I'm like … I just mixed episode 10 and I just recorded episode 12 and episode 9 probably came out in the free feed. I think episode 10 probably is about to come out in the Patreon feed or maybe it just did. So that's like a little bit around that stuff.

Let's see, so Antonio Banderas. This came up a lot on different social networks … Whatever you call them, like places people ask me questions and a lot of questions are how did you get … What's Antonio Banderas doing on the show and how did you get him? What's he really like? And just strangely enough, this morning, I saw this super … So, he's working on a new project. So, like when I was [inaudible 00:21:38] but saw some super cute pictures of him with one of our favorite directors. So, when did he first come on the show? I have no idea. I want to say it was Get Besos and the only reason I say that is because I can hear him saying … So, it might have been Get Besos Season Two. I can hear him saying hi-ya and even … These are … Sometimes my memories get muddled but in this case, I couldn't … I said did you just do a hi-ya type sound? So, I don't know if any of that's true though. I'm not my own historian but I would presume that it was like years ago and how did he first appear? I mean I don't know.

I mean to be honest, like this show … Is pastiche a right word? Is that even a word? But I do like the show to be an amalgamation. Is that a word? Of like old school stuff and new school stuff and pushing out against those sides of the balloon or whatever and there's also this idea that there's … So, there's the intro to the show. Then there's the intro to the series, which maybe I could talk about a little bit too. I don't know if I've fleshed that out a lot. But then there's the transition from me setting up the series to whomever is narrating the series or whoever … And whether … That's a bit like whatever the narration situation or the dialogue situation is and there's always a transition and it's also like because of the range within the vocals of this podcast, over the years, it's changed but the range has kind of … You're like I don't know … I want to give it a nice transition space I guess is the main thing to help you transition from me, Scoots, saying hey, this is what our episodic modular series is about to the episode starting and I guess we don't have like an introduction.

We did … We used to have, a long time ago, within the first year or two of the podcast, we had the theme music for the show and then we had the theme music for the series and people didn't like that over time. Some people did but not the majority of people and then we tried transitional music that was like a continuation of the original theme of the podcast [inaudible 00:24:18] did, and people didn't like that because they said well, there was music and then there's 15 minutes of no music, so it just threw people off. So, I don't know if these are [inaudible 00:24:32] but at some point, I said okay, it just needed some as transition. This is me trying to explore what really happened. I don't think this was one plus one equals three but at some point, I got Antonio Banderas in the studio and I said, “Why not? Let's just see how this goes,” and you might say, “Scoots, how did that happen?” And I'll say … I'll tell you a story.

Once upon a time, there was a lovely actor named Antonio Banderas, possibly, he was driving across the island of Alameda and he was headed to work at the old Alameda Naval Air Station and he was on a street that I lived on and he had some vehicle … This is, again, could be fiction but vehicle situation … Maybe it was the gas, maybe it was the tire. Maybe it was just his gut said huh? Maybe the car … Maybe he has synchronicity with his gut and his car and the next thing I know, I look out the window and I see that … I don't know what you'd call it, ponytail, the slicked back hair, kind eyes, handsome face … I don't know, devastating jawline. Then I said, hey, [inaudible 00:26:02] what's with that dude walking down my driveway and looking around like he needs some help? I better cover myself in my covers because I don't want to get involved but then someone said to me, well, maybe he just needs directions and you could send him on his way without having to have a conversation and anything. And then I said, “Excuse me, can I help you?” And next thing I know, he opened with, “My friend.”

Of course, Ray got involved. That's how it happened really but I did make initial [inaudible 00:26:46] Antonio contact. I said, “Hey, can I help you, sir? What's up?” Well, he told me his situation, asked for some water. Then Ray showed up and they made friends. Ray told him about the podcast. I said, “Oh, I'm just about to record the podcast” Believe it or not, this was back in the day, “Oh, what's a podcast?” And I explained it to him and I said, “Why don't you pop in the studio. I could … I got a little role for you,” and the rest is written in history. It's a love of boardgames, his creaky elbows, his clicky throat, his loud chewing, his inability to sit completely still, the way his knees and his ankles make a slight clicking noise at some points, his ability to consistently win at boardgames against me, which pleases me but he still gives me enough competition and conversation to make it fun, his generosity with time and the fact he's willing to drive here even though I think he likes it except for the 12-18 hours he spends in his vehicle, 100% green vehicle, of course.

And so that's kind of maybe how it happened. It fits the style and the nature of the show, so it works. So, can keep coming back. I'll buy another board game if you don't like this one. I also make jokes with him. I say I'm gonna invent silent ice and noiseless glass, a straw that you can drink your drink through without that pinging sound. Can you just close your nostrils when you drink, maybe that's where that noise is coming from. We've done experiments. You should see it. I mean that doesn't get on the podcast … Okay, let me go get the recording equipment while you drink water and I say let's go in and see what a scientist has to say about this and say it's perfect or they ignore most of the sounds of a devastatingly handsome man drinking water and they say, what about the rest of us and [inaudible 00:29:09] I'm kidding. That's like [inaudible 00:29:10] and I said, well, it's too loud.

So, anyway, that's the story of how … And then it gets … Next question would be well, why wouldn't I have him on, right? Well, I mean it is a little bit embarrassing for me because I do come across a little broodish in how I take him for granted but that's the playfulness of our relationship really. I think it makes him … When I am unappreciative, it lets him know I appreciated him and his time but it's also just the mechanics of a sleep podcast. You see I can't have you pinging … Okay, what about this? Can you just drink your water when I … I'll whistle or clap my hands when I'm taking a break and then you can drink water, just don't drink it any other time. And also he learned quickly, like okay don't drink water … Towards the end of the recording you can drink water because then I'll be done in case you know you have to naturally do things and again, a lot of people that don't record podcasts believe this is all … Like they say it … They say, for a sleep podcast, it can't be … My parents didn't believe it and they've come to stay with me twice and I said it's not … Like honestly it's not easy.

I say, okay, the first time they stayed with me, I said, “Okay, I don't know what we're going to do because I have to record,” and I guess just like Antonio, I guess I was like they're different and they're two people. I said, “What if you just take a nap?” If someone told me at 2 o'clock to take a nap, I would say sounds great or lie in bed and take a nap or read but much like children, they said, “Well, we're not tired,” or “We don't feel like reading, we'll just …” And I say, okay, well, if my experience with Antonio's taught me everything, this is … So, then I say, okay, well, so really, when you listen to the podcast, it's not when I'm talking to Antonio, it like goes for other guests as well, you say, okay, … And usually people give you this smiling look like you're joking or you're being too retentive and you say, no, no, this is not a joke. It's a podcast to put people to sleep. I can't have pinging or throat clearing or whatever that game is where you pop the bubbles like with the multicolored bubbles like the sound effects for that or people reading out like crossword things that they say like crossword hints, those are no go's or penciling and then [inaudible 00:32:02] oh. That's not a vowel. Can't have that.

I mean I'm kidding mostly but so I don't know if I've over explained. I've had the opportunity to over explain the whole Antonio Banderas thing but I mean I guess, for me, a lot of times, it goes … Does it fit the sensibility of the show? Does it serve a purpose and does it add something and is it beautiful like in some generalized way and I say okay, that's a yes to all of those in that situation. So, I mean I realize that doesn't … Like again, the podcast is just made by human beings. So, you say okay, well, I loathe Antonio, that part. I say, okay, that's why we work so hard to keep the variety in the show and to try to keep it free so you also have things to choose from. So, yeah, you don't have to like Antonio being there but I just like … I don't actually get … Like of all the things … Almost everything on the show has people with thoughts about … Strong thoughts about it, even … Line particularly, like everybody, regular listeners and Antonio is one who's more inquisitive.

I mean I have gotten a couple strong thoughts about it and what I do is I just mail them an autographed picture of [inaudible 00:33:28]. No, no, I'm kidding. I don't. I don't. I imagine I do. I was going to say Antonio but I mail them a self-addressed, stamped envelope inside of a self-addressed … Not a self-addressed … So, I make a self-addressed, stamped envelope for them, put it in an envelope addressed to the Banderas Head Shots, P.O. Box whatever, whatever. Okay, so that's a little bit about Antonio.

Also, they don't get … I don't see I've gotten … Maybe I've talked about this, maybe I haven't, but one aspect of the show, of these series is they become episodically modular and less and less serialized, though some of them have serial … Throughput, like … Well, that's the impact of the creative side but over the years, I've really enjoyed the top heaviness of the recap for anybody that never listened to another episode before and I don't know when that started, probably pretty early on and just like Antonio, that serves a purpose of reducing anxiety because that's one thing I learned and then as we got rid of the serialized stuff, or kind of downplayed the seriality and up-played the episodically modular aspect, which I'll explain that vocabulary just in case but as we did that, I don't know, I say … Oh, because I would [inaudible 00:34:57] said well I can't just listen to episode four and I say, I totally understand. So, that's how that came about.

And then yeah, me making these long winded five or eight minute recaps of the show, where things stand, I don't know I do find that amusing because it's kind of ridiculous. It's only … would be something you would only kind of do in a sleep podcast. So, it's not like an inside joke, it's just kind of like wonderful ridiculousness … I don't know how else to … That's when I'm making a show that's like okay, this is ridiculous and that's [inaudible 00:35:33] awesome that I could recap in … Almost every time we make an episode, recap the entire first two seasons again in a few minutes and set up the characters again and again, I don't know. It just seems like … It also seems like something that someone that just doesn't … The podcast doesn't work for, it would further clarify that … Well, usually they don't make it that far anyway. So, yeah, so those have become a big part of the show. I mean for a while now because I say okay, if you're new, you want to know what this series is about, right?

If you sleep through it, let's just say you're a regular listener but you fall asleep during the intros or you're a patron and you fall asleep during the intros, you wouldn't know what the series is about but then one night you can't … It's just a little bit harder to sleep and you're going to listen to the series, I want to make sure it's a safe place, right? I guess that's a part of building a safe place or … It's a part of the, again, the sensibility of the podcast. It fits the style of the podcast and it's just goofy, say okay I'm going to explain what big … Then I have what Big Farm is, then you got to explain why Simon could come back to Earth. So, you have to explain what the conceit of the series is, who Simon is, where … Okay, then that takes a little while. Then why can Simon go back to Earth and those things, like in that who are Gee and DK and all of that and then some of it can be repetitive and some of it can be new and some of it I say did I forget to mention this.

Also, one thing that is interesting about making a sleep podcast, both maybe from the audience side and from the creator side is continuity. Like we have a vague familiarity with continuity I'd say. Oh, I was going to explain what … Let me explain what all these words mean just in case … We've got plenty of time here, right? Like [inaudible 00:37:54] tuck you in there. Okay, so okay, so serial episodic and modular. So serial is like a story told over a number … In my words … This is just my words, over a number of episodes that tells a story and Sleep With Me, it's never been critical for you to listen to all the episodes in order but they're all sequentially related and there's kind of an essential plot running through them. So, Lady Witchbeard was pretty much a serial like you could listen to the episodes in any order but the plot was very difficult to grasp anyway, in season one of Nuns in Space, both seasons of Get Besos, or if there were three seasons of Get Besos, I can never remember but those were all serial, like so you said episode one, episode two came after it, episode three, so episodic for the most part means that each episode can stand alone.

Big Farm in the Sky P.I. Season one was an example of that. Each case was more or less unrelated to the overall lives of our characters and could be listened to in any order and modular … I don't even know if that's like a word with production of entertainment. I always think about it as modular classrooms and modular furniture but it means … For me, it means the episodes you could kind of move them around or listen to them in any order and you'd still have understanding. So, even if it was episodic and serial, you could still have a general understanding of the entire series listening to it in any particular order, which again, this is just a big part of a sleep podcast versus … Because I mean like literally, I can see statistically, like here's an interesting thing about the statistics of the show. So, let's see … podcast statistics are kind of becoming more and more nuanced but for the most part, they've stayed very much the same over the … Just some of the methodology and stuff has changed and then we've gotten a little bit more granular info but for the most part, podcast statistics follow like the number of downloads an episode get and you keep doing that because that's kind of how … Also that's kind of how the distribution is covered by bandwidth.

But anyway, let's not get into that. So, for the most part, almost all of our episodes other than like over the years, The Good Place and Game of Drones get the same amount of downloads as episodes or/and Star Trek was the opposite, like it got … It would get the same number of downloads and I don't know, I'm not going to give out our download numbers but let's just say that episode had … We'll just use small numbers, so like all our episodes were getting 10 downloads, so 10 people were listening. Maybe one episode, 11 people would listen, maybe one episode, nine would listen but almost all the episodes, no matter what they fall in a pretty close range. Other than when I said Good Place or Game of Thrones. Those would get like … Instead of 10, 11, 12, they would be getting like 14, 15, maybe Game of Drones 16 but that's not a percentage, so maybe only … And then Star Trek was getting like a significant percentage less, not a ton less and I still don't understand exactly what that was, it's just some sort of … I mean it doesn't mean I'm not going to do Star Trek: The Next Generation, but it just was weird that it was statistically undeniable.

You say, oh, well all those episodes are 20% less and that's what I'd say, yeah, those are 20% less. Good Place would be 20% more, maybe 15% more and Game of Thrones/Drones would be like 30 or 35% more and I don't know if that's true right now. That's historically, even though Good Place is in our recent history. What was my point though? Oh, but also our show … I don't know if this is exactly what [longtail 00:42:19] is but all of our episodes in the feed are being downloaded and the newest episodes are getting the most downloads and as the show grows, the newer episodes will get more downloads overall than the episodes preceding them but even in the middle of our back catalog and in the earliest episodes, usually the first few episodes of the feed, like so the oldest ones would get a lot of downloads and then all of the newer ones but even the middle ones in the feed still get thousands of downloads a month, I think.

Actually, I don't think. I think the last time I looked at it was like … So, I just always keep that stuff in mind. I guess that was my point is that people could be … People are jumping around. Also, what's weird and this was when the … So, Apple started to give us more granular stance in how episodes are consumed and this wasn't something … I think this has been available for maybe a year or 18 months and Apple keeps your information private, so this is totally detached from you as a person, it's just generalized info but it can also see on every episode, what percentage of the episode is consumed and in Sleep With Me, what this means is like how much of it is re-consumed. So, I can look in my Apple statistics and see the average for an hour and now this is just an average but I think on average, an episode of Sleep With Me is consumed by an average listener on Apple podcast consumes 130% of a Sleep With Me episode in our current ones and so what that means is if … What is it, 130%?

What's 30% [inaudible 00:44:10], so if a show is 100 minutes long, is that right? Well, if your show is an hour long, they're consuming an hour plus 30%, so an hour and 20 or an hour and 18 minutes, so those parts are getting re-listened to. You can't necessarily really tell with great clarity what parts … I mean I assume the intros and the stories are getting re-consumed. Now, here's what's even more interesting is during the time like there's like … So, we don't really take any time off for shows but we'll do all intro episodes for the big holidays here in the US, just because that way I can take like a week or two off over the year because I'll build up like whatever, that's the equivalent of like six episodes, I think like we run six or five maybe. I guess we run five all intro episodes over the year or so, about … Around those times, you could see that episodes in front of them and behind them, they get consumed even more. So, it would go up like if a regular was like 125% consumption, it'll bump up to like 140% consumption and that's all regular listeners. They're kind of the backbone of the show and then if the show spikes in popularity or something, those numbers will go down.

So, for our average is like 125, 130. If all of a sudden, we get an influx of new listeners, it will drop down because some people are checking out the show and they're like oh, I don't like this and so that's it and then maybe like a natural question, I think there's another company we have for statistics and I don't know exactly … I think like over the top of my head, it's like we're just about to cross it, like so every month, this isn't like how many downloads we get or how many downloads we get per episode, but this is like the number of people that listen to at least one episode a month is I think like in the US, it's just around 500,000 people and then overall, the whole globe, it's like another 250, so around 750,000 but out of 750,000, like there's probably like a third of those are regular hardcore listeners and the other 66% are like very casual listeners. I mean it would be good to know in the future as podcast statistics get more granular, especially for Sleep With Me because it is like who are the … How many people are super users and I would put that at like a significant number, like 50% of those regular listeners are probably super users, meaning they listen to like every single episode every month and even more than that.

So, it's just a little bit of statistics because all those statistics do inform oh, how do I make this show or what's not working like in the biggest things the statistics revealed to me was like oh, okay, Star Trek: The Next Generation, we'll have to do it in shorter chunks because it's just not as appealing as everything else we do to the majority … To a percentage of our listeners but it does have like a deep fan base, so we're not going to turn away from it totally either and then like episode titles like the only other statistical anomaly will be if an episode title … This rarely happens because I'm pretty good at it, I've been doing it a while but these [archetypally 00:48:07] off-putting that will statistically underperform because people will say well, I don't want to listen to that with that title. It's not going to help me sleep and last time that happened, where was it … Like the impact, it was a long time ago was … I don't even know which series it was but it was named after … The name of it was … And I still don't know what I was thinking, The Most Dangerous Game was the name of the episode.

I think I changed even the name of the episode eventually because it was like what were you thinking. I think that was like an early Get Besos episode maybe but then when like … It was like holy cow, like if I mess up a title, understandably, people aren't going to listen to it. So, that, again, goes into the … I don't think the episodically or modular thing was based on statistics, it was more based on feedback but now looking back at the statistics and seeing how many people consume older episodes or re-consume episodes, it makes me think oh, it's important to focus more on the episodic versus the serial, though there can be a serialized component to it. I don't know, so that's a little bit about that.

Continuity, that was another thing that came up. Continuity means like if something is true in the first season of a series, it's going to be true in the second and that's not always the case for Sleep With Me. I try to be generally aware of all that but like I don't have the luxury of time when I'm making the show because I'm working on episodes that come out in like six weeks or eight weeks or sometimes less than that and between the pre-production, production and the post-production of the show, that's like, for me, like two full time jobs or one and a half and then the managing of the podcast is … I don't know but it's so … I don't … 

Because I have like listening time before I make season two of the Big Farm in the Sky to listen to season one, it's just like because I'm always listening to episodes before they're coming out, so sometimes continuity doesn't throw listeners off, I mean that's the good thing about making a sleep podcast but it does throw me off because I say what is the rule with Simon and Big Farm and Earth and actually like making more as I close the season. I said, okay, let's lock in these rules a little bit better than … because I don't remember what the rules were when we started and this is kind of an essentially piece of the storytelling and actually the looseness of the rule worked for this season but it doesn't work overall, so and then okay, so then let's see …

So, let's talk about the goal of this season or what I thought. So, I came up with the title, this summer, I saw … I was going through some cleaning out, helping my siblings clean out their cabin, my brother, Dan's cabin and some old furniture and I said, okay, you want me to go through this old furniture before I put it out to be donated and he said yeah and I found this old fishing lure box. I don't even know if there's a fishing lure in it but it was called The Phantom Minnow and that spoke to me. I said that is a brilliant name of a fishing lure and that made me think of Simon and I said okay, there's the title of the … 

Because at that time, I was probably like what are we going to do next? Like I kind of had plotted whatever, Nuns in Space holiday series, what's next? Maybe that's what it was this summer, I don't know. And I said that sounds like a comic and a super hero kind of thing and then as I sat down to start … Then I came up with the concept, okay, like what if we have it happen on Earth with Gee and DK and then it kind of was like okay, what if it happens in this retirement community similar to The Villages called The Towns, that would be interesting and it would be interesting to have Gee and DK solving cases, which would make sense and then … So, I said I had that concept and then okay, but Simon wants to do this Phantom Minnow thing and there is always like my brain is serialized, so even if the show isn't serialized, I do like to make a season having some sort of throughput or threads or arcs or season acts or season journey and C-O-N-F-L-I-C-T and like desires … and themes driving the season keeps the season going.

So, I said okay, so we'll have Gee and DK doing a P.I. business in Florida. That would get them through 10-12 episodes without a doubt and that would be a journey for them from when they start the business to when it ends. So, that was a little more straightforward. And then I said okay, Simon wants to be this Phantom Minnow. Then I said well, what's the conflict? Why are things going back to Earth? Why wouldn't Simon just keep on living Simon's life? So then … And what does this Phantom Minnow have to do with it and then I kind of came up with this idea that eventually it kind of played parts in episodes of some other person that had this business startup or whatever, Heavenly Solutions, and Simon was like in the mail room. I mean I thought that was a nice starting point and then why he would want to leave the Big Farm to help Gee and DK other than that he cares about them deeply but the Phantom Minnow thing just never developed I think just because I didn't have a clear reason for it and also looking back on how the season developed, it became clear by the time I ended it, oh, okay, this season's just not about …

So, this season's about Gee and DK and Simon helping them and it just doesn't have enough room other than to touch back and forth on Simon and what he wants. It's more about what … You know what I mean? I don't know, like so I didn't want to shoehorn in this extra plot and I did think it could play a role in solving the cases but then you get into the whole idea of realism or magical realism, deus ex machina like when it comes to mysteries and that I didn't want to take any agency … I mean it's hard enough giving the characters agency in a sleep podcast. I mean enough agency or whatever but if that's the right word but I just didn't want to have to steal any of that from Gee and DK. I wanted them to have their own business built with their own hands and their own minds and not have Uncle Simon coming in as the Phantom Minnow and saving the day, like maybe having him as a part of the solutions but Gee and DK are just so on top of it that they can ask and a lot of times vocalize the help they need and a lot of times they just needed someone to listen to them as they're brainstorming, not this active problem solver.

So, I don't know that's like what happened with the Phantom Minnow but then by the end of the season, I said oh, okay, wait a second. We'll see if there'll … At some point there probably will be a season three because we teased it at the end of the thing. It's like Simon does need to be back in his world, I think, and he does need to be solving cases. That's his thing. He's not an Earth person anymore. Realistically, Gee and DK have to go back to school but also just like me, the character Simon says, well, I'm not sure I want to give up on this idea of the Phantom Minnow totally because it seemed to be a big thorn in Scoot's side. I said, great, thanks. So, we'll see if that'll come up when we do season three. That would probably be like 18 to 24 to 36 months away, even though we don't have anything else on the schedule. I mean tentatively, I haven't even written up the release schedule but so I'm starting to work on the next series.

I don't know if it'll be 9, 10, 12 episode series or maybe less, maybe more. I mean I don't think it'll be more just because 12 in one recap is like the max now that we're on this two-week release schedule. It's just I want to give … I like to keep the schedule balanced so it's like we're doing … In a perfect world, we would do two series a year and a holiday series and depending on how the schedule falls, it'll be like a mini-series or something else or just take a couple weeks of doing random episodes. So, that's what I actually have to do next, is like work backwards from Thanksgiving to now and say, okay, how many episodes do we have space for and then even that can change or even Big Farm, I thought, we were going to do 12, then I was writing episode 10 and I was like this feel like episode 12 or maybe that was episode 11 and I said maybe it'll end here. Maybe I'll write episode 12 and then write episode 11 or maybe it was like … I don't know, those 10, 11 and 12 but then things clarified.

I said no, no, this is definitely episode 10. I think I thought episode 10 was going to be episode 12 but that led to episode 11 and then it all fit. I said okay, yeah, Gee and DK's story is finished here more and less and then we'll finish up Simon's part of it. So, I mean the main thing about the series is … I mean I think this one's a little bit different than other series. Like Stan and Scooter love one another greatly but they had a little bit more of an antagonistic like relationship because Stan's not 100% human or like their relationship … I don't know they had a very … No, I guess not, they weren't antagonists but inadvertent antagonists sometimes maybe where Gee, DK and Simon, there's nothing like that. I mean it is like … I guess it's not idealized because the circumstances aren't ideal and like you'd say well, if it was ideal, he'd be here with us but it is like … And I mean there is something … I mean later in the episode, I could tell you subtextually like that just to me adds like an emotional juice to it in that someone that like lives in a world of layers anyway.

You say well, now like that you're detached from the world or that these two young women or that Simon … [inaudible 00:59:59] and it's like well, I have the coolest relationship with one of my relatives as a mentor, as someone I can talk to but they're not around or Simon has like this parental role or connection to them that's very fulfilling but it's … There's a vast distance but in some sense like the vast distance that separates them or disconnects them also allows them to be connected. I mean that sometimes happens, like sometimes when things aren't going good, we get along great. I don't know but really, it came down to like the foundation of the show is the characters' love and respect for one another and not only that like a trust and willingness to grow and learn from all three of them, I feel like or that's just what I enjoy about them and just to barely tease the next series. That won't be the case with the next series, I mean in a good way.

It's like sometimes you can't have characters that get along … You can have characters that get along and love one another and respect one another and it just … And sometimes you need characters that are a little bit more at odds or are more comical I guess like so … Not necessarily comical but the next series will be two characters that aren't related and that are just friends. So, yeah, hopefully you'll enjoy that. I enjoyed talking to you about this and I'm glad you listened or you lied there and rested. Thanks so much for coming along for the ride this season. I really appreciate it.