Men in Gorilla Suits
Men in Gorilla Suits Ep. 73: Last Seen...Obsessing

Everything in its right place. Sitting in one place for hours, toiling away at the thing you can't not do. The urge to not just know a little bit about something, but instead: turning your life into the pursuit of learning all you can about the interesting new things that come your way. Obsession has driven some to create work that has withstood the test of time. It has also driven some mad. That's what we're talking about this week.

We begin by asking each other if we consider ourselves to be obsessive people. Find out if we have any obsessive tendencies. Also find out the first thing we had more than just a passing interest in...before moving on to discussing the first time we can remember a person showing obsessive behavior.

It's become a pretty popular thing to say "I'm OCD about things"...when that's rarely the case. Find out if we've ever met people truly diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder?

After that, we move on to talking about if we've ever become obsessed with a book, a film, or TV series.

If you want to know what one thing has to be done in our lives "just so," listen in. You'll also find out the most insanely obsessive we've ever been about anything.

Obsession can be a strange thing: what one finds normal, others may find strange. We talk about obsessions we've seen in others that we just don't understand.

No matter how much a person might like to believe they are exceptional -- that their quirks and actual obsessive tendencies are theirs and theirs only -- people are rarely so different. Find out if we believe everyone is a little obsessive in their own ways.

We wrap up the episode wondering if a little bit of obsession is healthy...and how much is too much.

As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts about this week's topic in the comments below...

Direct download: migs73.mp3
Category:Pop Culture -- posted at: 6:54am CDT

Men in Gorilla Suits Ep. 72: Last Seen...Being Private

The government is reading this. They can hear your thoughts; they have hidden microphones in all American homes. They track your every move. They've been doing this for decades...

Some people actually believe this, even though the closest thing to truth in these lines is that all Internet traffic passes through government systems. That's a lot of data, and the vast majority of it is not even actually read. Google and Facebook know more about you than the government, and many find that unsettling. (Especially when companies are so willing to turn data over to the government.) It's not as bad as those in tinfoil hats make it sound. Still, we do not have as much privacy as we once did, and that's the topic this week.

We begin the episode with two simple questions:

  • In your house growing up, were doors and windows open or closed?
  • How about now?

The need for privacy, or even a feeling of privacy, differs from person to person. Find out how much privacy we feel like we need in the physical world. What things do we need absolute privacy to do? (The episode kind of degrades into poop talk, here.)

But back to privacy. With the rise of the Internet, is privacy eroding or going away entirely? Is that a good or bad thing? Is anything one puts online fair game for the general public? Many people go to great lengths maintaining a physical persona and an online persona. Find out if there's a big difference in what we share in real life vs. what we're comfortable sharing online.

Conspiracy theorist or not, the NSA monitors phone calls, text messages, and email. Find out if it bothers us that the government is invading our privacy. Find out if Google, Apple, and Facebook tracking as much as they can about people bothers us.

After that, we move on to where the line is crossed when it comes to the government or companies going too far in needing to know our personal information. Have we crossed that line yet?

We wrap the episode up with this question: What's the future of privacy -- both online and in the real world?

As always, feel free to chime in about privacy in the comments below. The government and Google already know your thoughts -- there's nothing to hide...

Direct download: migs72.mp3
Category:Pop Culture -- posted at: 7:44pm CDT

Men in Gorilla Suits Ep. 71: Last Seen...Talking about Money

Ah, money. It's probably safe to say everyone reading this, or who listens to the podcast, wouldn't mind a bit more money than they have. Some say money -- or the love of money -- is the root of all evil today. While we don't believe that, we examine the good, bad, and the ugly when it comes to cash in this episode.

We begin by talking about our first memories of money and then jump right to answering this question: "If money were no object and you could buy one extravagant thing, what would you buy?"

Some people seek financial gurus for money advice, some people listen to podcasts, but books have always been a big place where people turned for financial advice. We discuss if there are any financial books that changed the way we looked at money -- and if so, what the books are.

Some people instantly think if someone has money that they are worthy of respect. Find out how we feel about that -- and if a large pile of money impresses us.

You're online right now, or at least listening to something you grabbed from the Internet. There's a big trend online among some to monetize everything one does: blogs, podcasts, ebooks, and other things. Find out if we're fans of that mentality -- before finding out how important money is in our lives.

Then it's back to a "what if" talking point; this time, if we had Bill Gates levels of money, how we think we'd act.

Stress about [the lack of] money has led to more than a heart attack or two in the course of history...it's been known to break up marriages. Find out if we've ever been stressed about money. Then we spin it: can having a lot of money lead to stress?

Some people put making money before most things in life. How much money is "enough?" -- find out what we think.

We close the episode out with two questions:

  • What's more important to you: time or money?
  • Can money buy happiness?

So hold on to your wallets and let us know how you feel about money in the comments below.

Direct download: migs71.mp3
Category:Pop Culture -- posted at: 6:50pm CDT

Men in Gorilla Suits Ep. 70: Last Seen…Spotting Aliens

Little green men from the red planet. For years, b-movies shaped our view of alien life. But where did the stories come from? Could there really be life on other planets? Has life from other planets already visited us? This week, we're talking all about aliens: from ridiculous tales of anal probes to the probability of life on other planets...

We begin the episode talking about what introduced us to the concept of alien life, and then...we waste no time discussing whether or not we believe aliens exist. After establishing that (spoiler alert) we believe we are not alone in the universe, we answer this question: Is there intelligent life in our own galaxy? Then we move on to those trying to find alien life and our thoughts about the more respectable searches.

But what show about aliens wouldn't delve into the more outrageous aspects of UFOs and little green men? Next topic: find out if we think aliens have ever visited Earth at some point in history. Hell, find out if we think Roswell was an alien crash site or if aliens have visited us even more recently! Have we ever seen something in the sky we could not explain?

But what you really want to hear us talk about is alien abduction, right? Find out if we think alien abductions are real, a cry for attention, or a very specific mental disorder.

We wrap up the episode talking about whether or not we think we'll see first contact with intelligent life in our lifetimes...and if we'd want to be around to see it.

Whether you look at the night sky and think of bigger things or are wearing a tinfoil hat at this very moment, there's something for you in this episode! And, as always, we'd love to hear your thoughts about aliens in the comments.

Direct download: migs70.mp3
Category:Pop Culture -- posted at: 7:41am CDT

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