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.

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.

This week, we sit down with a pack of hounds and talk about one of our favorite things in the world: books!

We kick it off talking about the first book we remember and then jump to the first books we ever read. Staying in the past, we then leap to discussing how important libraries were to us as children.

Stepping into the present, we talk about what we read more: fiction or non-fiction. Listen in and we'll tell you if a book has ever changed our lives.

Want to know what books have made us laugh...and find out the worst books we've ever read? We cover that before moving on to the book that has seen success that we just don't understand. Similarly, we talk about the most overrated books ever published.

It would be a travesty to do a show like this and not talk about our all-time favorite books. Find out what we're currently reading (well, at least at the time of this recording).

We wrap it up talking about authors we'd recommend before closing it out with not only mentioning the book we'd recommend for the audience, but why we recommend our particular choices over all others.

We'd like to hear what books you love (and even hate)...hit the comments and let us know!

Humans love to laugh. In recent years, we've discovered that there is some truth to the adage: "Laughter is the best medicine." We pay to watch movies that make us laugh; most people live within a drive from a comedy club (or 2...or dozens). Some of the most popular podcasts out there are shows done by funny people. What is it about comedy that we love so much? That's what we're talking about on this week's episode of Men in Gorilla Suits.

We begin by discussing the very first thing we remember laughing at...and then, the very first joke we remember telling. (Spoiler alert: Christopher once memorized the entire 101 Elephant Jokes book.)

There are certain things that are synonymous with comedy -- we talk about what comes to our minds when someone mentions comedy, and then we discuss the funniest movies we've ever seen. Books can be funny as well; we devote a little time to funny books before discussing whether or not the Internet has been a good or bad thing for the development of comedy.

Want to know what stupid thing makes us laugh every time? Listen and find out...and also find out the most wrong things we find funny.

It's a great time for comedy, with podcasts and so many other ways funny people can reach an audience. Find out who we think is the most brilliant mind in comedy right now and what our go-to sources for comedy are when we're in search of a laugh.

We wrap the episode up discussing the funniest person we know personally and what was the last thing that made us laugh so hard that we almost had an unintentional body function occur.

We'd love to hear what you think is funny; as always, feel free to share in the comments.

Gorilla Christopher's sister lived to be 38 years old. She would have been 50 yesterday (May 13). It's one of many losses in Christopher's life. Shawn and Christopher have lost a lot in their time: serious losses and...pretty damn humorous losses! That's what we are talking about his week!

We kick it all off bending time with this question: "If you could go back in time and find anything you ever lost, what would it be?" (You <em>know </em>you want to know the answers!)

It's a mostly lighthearted episode, but...Shawn and Christopher both lost uncles in recent-enough weeks. While they both deal with the loss of loved ones pretty well, some have a tougher time. We discuss why we think it's harder to deal with the loss of those close to us for some compared to others.

Death. It sucks. But life springs from one's wang, and solidified in a womb, is something else. (Huhuhuhuhuhuh...he said "wang!") While Gorilla Shawn and Gorilla Christopher are not fathers, each has lost their virginity. You <em>know</em> you want to hear the stories behind those stories! All the [humorous] details are here. (Because really, does anybody [who's honest] have a triumphant tale of losing their virginity? It's usually a tale of loss, in in masculine "victory!")

Gorilla Christopher is a fan of Premiere League's Manchester City...and NHL's mighty Chicago Blackhawks. Manchester City won the Barclay's Cup last Sunday, and who knows if the Chicago Blackhawks will be be stopped by a much inferior hockey team on their race to yet <em>another </em>Stanley Cup...taking the Hockey Town title from Detroit. If either team lost, though, Christopher would have been okay with that. Some people, though, put their own self worth into the sports teams they like. Listen to our thoughts about those people experiencing a loss of their team in this section of the podcast...and then listen to our own tales of losing in sports after that. (Except for Gorilla Shawn, because Gorilla Shawn just don't lose shit!)

If you listen to the podcast and know us well enough, it's probably no big surprise that we deal with loss rather well. But...if you want to find out what losses we've endured that actually stung a bit, you really need to listen! And after that, it's a handful of minutes dedicated to the biggest losses in our lives!

Loss bothers most people, but can good come from losing? Listen to this episode and find out that answer...and also find out what lessons we've learned from losing.

Loss can be funny. Find out our funniest tales of loss.

We wrap it all up with discussing how we go about <em>not </em>losing things.

As always, we'd love for you to share your own tales of loss and how you dealt with them. We all lose things...sometimes it hurts, and other times it's funny. It's definitely an episode we hope helps some people who have a hard time dealing with those things in life that are no longer with them.

If you dig this episode, jump over to iTunes or Stitcher and leave a rating or review.

America gets a bad rap that's sometimes deserved. At the same time, there's no other country quite like the United States of America: for all its faults, it's a great place in so many ways. We kick off this episode with this question: America used to be called "the melting pot" -- do we think that's still true? After that, we discuss our first experience dealing with another culture and then discuss the most culturally diverse place we've ever lived.

"American culture" can be a hard thing to pin down...we devote some time talking about what we think American culture even is. Some countries try to keep other cultures from "infringing" on established culture. Do more cultures in one place strengthen a population, or have the opposite effect? And how has the Internet been helpful in people recognizing and embracing other cultures? After answering these questions, we discuss our favorite foreign cultures.

Some people are terrified of uniculturalism: so many cultures in one place that an area or country gravitates toward a new, single culture. We discuss examples of uniculturalism we've seen and talk about whether or not we feel it's a bad thing.

One of the earmarks of culture is language. We talk about how language has changed in America...and all over the world.

We wrap up this episode talking about what we consider our cultural identities to be and sharing what we believe (and hope) is the future of world culture. (Looking at the image chosen for this week's episode, it's probably pretty clear that we think the world, with all its different people, is a mighty cool thing!)

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

If Christopher had his way, this episode would have been called "ALL HAIL GOAT SIMULATOR!!!" But that would be a bit limited in scope -- especially when the world of video games practically knows no bounds.

We live in a time when many who complain about how much time their children play Call of Duty spend just as much time on their phones playing Candy Crush and other mobile games. Lines have been blurred from the days of the Atari 2600 and arcades full of cigarette smoke and stand-up cabinet games. Today, almost everybody in America plays digital games of some sort.

We start out in the 70s and 80s, discussing the first video games we remember seeing...and asking if they were actually the first game we ever played. Then it's a hop to the future, asking what the last game we've played is. (Hint for Christopher's last game played: "BAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!")

Video games have come a long way, crushing movie box office totals and pushing well beyond what we could imagine in their infancy. We dedicate some time to discussing whether or not video games can be art.

Since we both write, we take a side road into the writing of video games, which is often secondary...but have some games hit on great writing? What's the future of writing in games? In this section we talk about:

• The influence of video games on our writing.
• If video games can even be as interactive (or more interactive) than a novel, evoking the same experience one gets from reading a great work of fiction.
• Our general feelings about writing in video games.

Putting writing aside, video games get a bad rap for being the same old things. Is there truth to that, or are there original games? After that, we talk about how mobile devices have changed the way we look at video games.

Many people view video games as frantic, loud things, but...can they be a meditative experience? We also devote some time to these questions:

• How have video games linked us socially?
• Is there a place for video games in education?

We close this episode out listing some of our all-time favorite video games and discussing what we think the future of video games looks like.

So grab a handful of quarters and listen. If you're so inclined, share some of your thoughts about video games in the comments.

There's never been a more violent time to be alive than RIGHT NOW!!! Watch the news and it's clear: we are a doomed species, and it's all because we are violent. Never have we seen such horrible acts of crime and cruelty. Only...that is not at all true.

The truth is, we do live with violence in society, but just how bad is it? That's our topic this week.

We begin with the news...watch and you can easily believe "OMG, VIOLENCE IN AMERICA IS OUT OF CONTROL! I'M MORE LIKELY THAN EVER TO BE A VICTIM OF VIOLENT CRIME!!!" We discuss whether or not that's true. It is true that violence in America does exist, and that we have a reputation for being very violent. But are we any more violent than England, Greece, or really anywhere in Europe?

After that, we move on to ourselves, discussing whether or not we are, or have ever been, violent individuals. Find out where we stand on violence in media (television, movies, video games, and music). Can these things influence violence in society? Then we move on to this question: "What do you think causes someone to be a violent person or to commit a violent crime?" (Does one necessarily have to be a violent person to commit a violent crime?)

There's no denying that some people have a certain obsession with violence, whether it's being violent themselves, or attracted to violent things. We ask each other why we think that is before talking about the first violent thing we remember seeing.

The stories of some lives are told in scars -- we can both point to scars on our bodies as reminders that we were once young and stupid and willing to try things we knew would most likely fail. But do we carry any scars obtained through violence? Find out! Also find out, on a scale of one to ten, how much we fear violence being committed on us or on someone we love.

One cannot deny America's obsession with guns. Does gun ownership or a lack of gun control contribute to violence? Also, will humans ever grow out of being a violent species (or are we even a violent species now)?

We close out the show with two questions about violence:

• Is violence a necessary evil?
• Is violence necessary at all?

We'd love to hear your thoughts about this episode and your feelings about violence. As always, feel free to comment!

There's a good chance you're listening to this podcast at work...or on your way to or from work. If you saw any social media posts about this episode, you probably saw them during work hours, on breaks from tasks at hand. Most of us work a lot; it's something we've talked about on Men in Gorilla Suits quite a bit in passing, but we've never dedicated an entire episode to working. That changes today...

We kick it all off by talking about the first job we ever had, and then we roll into the best job we've ever had. Of course, if we talk about the best job we've ever had, we really should talk about the worst job -- and we do!

If you've watched the teaser for this week's show, you know that at least Christopher has had a lot of different jobs. Shawn is no different. Neither of us are strangers to manual labor. We devote a little time to discussing what we've brought from construction and warehouse jobs over to our office gigs. After that, we share some good job interview stories.

A good manager or shop foreman can make even a not-so-great job better. We talk about what makes a good manager and whether or not we've ever worked for people fitting our descriptions of a good leader in the workplace.

Work enough, and you're going to meet some people you'd probably never have met on your own. We spend some time talking about some of the more "interesting" people we've ever worked with and share some of our stranger on-the-job stories.

We spend one minute each in a lightning round, listing as many jobs as we have had in 60 seconds. (Christopher racks up over 30 in that minute. Check out this video for a sneak peek.):

Some people almost seem bred to complain about work. We devote a bit of time to why we think so many people complain about their jobs, and then we talk about our dream jobs...and why they are our dream jobs.

With many jobs being automated or shipped overseas, we discuss what we think is the future of jobs as we know them before wrapping it all up with the dreaded job interview question: "Where do you see yourself in five years?"

We'd love to know where you see yourself in five years -- feel free to share your work stories in the comments.

Now...get back to work!

Beam aboard this week as we talk about...Star Trek!

We begin by talking about our entry points into the world of Star Trek...and then discuss our first memories of the show. We round out our geeky intro with a few minutes dedicated to our favorite incarnations of the series.

After that we talk about how much of the approximately 727 hours of filmed Trek content still holds up. From there, it's on to the worst thing about our favorite versions of the show. Who's the best character (and worst) in the history of the show? Listen and find out! We close this section out with some talk about what frustrates us about Star Trek.

Find out why we think the franchise has survived as long as it has, and why it keeps going. The "What's the most fan boyish thing you've ever done in relation to Star Trek?" section is a riot when it's Shawn's turn to talk. He wasn't kidding when he said, "No matter how fanboyish you've been about Trek, Christopher -- I have you beat!"

If you listen for no other reason, listen for the answers to this question: "Why is Worf so easy to beat up?"

We close out the episode on a couple more serious notes:

• Does the world Star Trek has created for itself actually work?
• What do you think is the legacy of Star Trek, and is it any different to the legacy of other big science fiction franchises (Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, etc)?

Assimilation is futile; take a moment out of your day to talk about the best (and worst) of Star Trek in the comments.