Ewan: They will ask why. Why did they do that? Why am I not doing it for the next generation?
Ewan: And that will cascade down the years.
Ewan: You and I, this podcast is probably going to be gone in 10 years.
Ewan: It'll be undiscoverable in 50. And our names will not be shining there in 100 years.
Ewan: But the impact we make and the impact that cascades down, that is why we do this.
Danny: Hi, and welcome to 5 Random Questions, the show with unexpected questions
Danny: and unfiltered answers.
Danny: I'm your host Danny Brown and each week I'll be asking my guests five questions
Danny: created by a random question generator.
Danny: The guest has no idea what questions are and neither do I, which means this could go either way.
Danny: So sit back, relax and let's dive into this week's episode.
Danny: Today's guest is Ewan Spence. Ewan is a freelance broadcaster and journalist
Danny: and has been the UK radio commentator for Junior Eurovision since 2013 and a
Danny: US radio commentator for the Eurovision Song Contest since 2018.
Danny: As Scotland's first podcaster, he
Danny: was nominated for a BAFTA under Best New Creative Media category in 2005.
Danny: Ewan co-founded Eurovision Insight in 2010 and under his editorship,
Danny: it has grown to become an influential force in the world of the Eurovision Song Contest.
Danny: He hosts its weekly Insight News podcast, the annual Jukebox Studio Review Show
Danny: and the daily coverage from backstage at the Song Contest every May.
Danny: So Ewan, welcome to 5 Random Questions.
Ewan: Good afternoon, good morning, good evening, as my cliched intro is done for 25 years now.
Ewan: Yes, hello, have the normal introduction. Everybody who's heard me before now feels comfortable.
Danny: Exactly, exactly. It's funny, I used to do that intro when I did the In and
Danny: Around podcasting show with my colleague over at Captivate, Mark,
Danny: Mark Askaway, if that was like what we did was
Danny: Good evening, good morning, good afternoon, good evening. Wasn't that,
Danny: it was a live stream we used to do, Captivate. Anywho, went off a little tangent
Danny: there, but I hear you there.
Danny: You've got to be there for all your audience, right?
Ewan: What is the, oh, you definitely have to be, but I'm also wondering what's the
Ewan: over-under on us going off on a tangent in this podcast?
Danny: Oh, well, we've already gone, mate. You know, didn't even get a minute into
Danny: the introduction there, but it's all good.
Danny: And being from the UK myself, I mean, I've been away from the UK for years,
Danny: but I grew up with the Eurovision Song Contest, and it was always a huge part
Danny: of me as a young lad and a young man back in the UK before I did leave.
Danny: For obviously Europeans, Brits, etc. It's a very well-known and much beloved,
Danny: sometimes much maligned institution.
Danny: But for anybody else, North Americans, Australians, anybody that doesn't know
Danny: what the Eurovision is, what is that in like a little 10,000 foot nutshell?
Ewan: I'm pretty sure most of Australia gets Eurovisioned as well.
Ewan: Oh, cool. So, you know, they've entered for the last 11 years.
Ewan: They've broadcasted it since 1980. And because they have such a large first,
Ewan: second, third generation of immigrants, you know, you'll find the Greek quarters
Ewan: of the major cities all ready and getting ready to vote and doing all of that.
Ewan: But essentially, it's the most stupidest idea in the world that would never
Ewan: get past a pitch stage in modern television.
Ewan: Each broadcaster, one from each country, chooses a three-minute song.
Ewan: They send it to an arena somewhere in Europe they
Ewan: spend millions and millions of pounds doing this great big production that tests
Ewan: new technology and broadcasts all of this music and then everybody who's watching
Ewan: decides what the best song is with no criteria judgment whatsoever and whoever
Ewan: wins it has to host the shenanigans the year after.
Danny: And you mentioned, I mean, shenanigans, I feel, is a great description for the
Danny: contest, because it is very much, I mean, you've grown up, you know,
Danny: watching it from its early days, and my early times watching it was probably the early 70s.
Danny: So I remember ABBA winning in 74, for example, Daniel O'Donnell winning...
Ewan: I just want to say, 1974, the Netherlands were robbed.
Ewan: Yeah, if de Gaulle hadn't died the week before, and France had still entered,
Ewan: the Dutch would have beaten ABBA, so...
Danny: There it is first controversy of the episode I love it, love it but it's one
Danny: of these things that you said it yourself mate,
Danny: it's not something you would ever expect to be a success but it's been gone
Danny: for decades and I mentioned myself that it's much loved but it can also be much maligned, do you feel
Danny: it's gotten less maligned and people are accepting and respecting it more now
Danny: or does it still got that sort of Terry Wogan joke feel kind to you?
Ewan: For our outside of the uk honestly we should know that
Ewan: terry wogan um was a dj um
Ewan: with uh bbc and a television host and
Ewan: certainly took quite a wry and ironic look
Ewan: at the contest i think he was said that you
Ewan: know if there's a duck on stage you have to go there's a duck on
Ewan: stage but to do it to a later degree he
Ewan: started to get just a little bit too acidic and he
Ewan: would complain that the duck was coming over to the uk and taking everybody's
Ewan: jobs so i think that eurovision reflects the broadcaster that is broadcasting
Ewan: it so for example yeah the uk has always been very sort of oh you know we've
Ewan: got much better music industry we'll just we'll just send black lace to you in 1979.
Ewan: But then there are other countries which it's not
Ewan: only just deadly seriousness it is an important part
Ewan: of their psyche so for example when the
Ewan: berlin wall fell um and the wall
Ewan: of communism waved back and you had all of these eastern
Ewan: european countries who were now countries in their own right
Ewan: and they ran to the contest they were like we want our three minutes because
Ewan: if estonia is on stage at eurovision we're estonia we're a country we've made
Ewan: it uh you know when When you're talking about in those Warsaw Pact countries in the 70s and 80s,
Ewan: people were trading blank tapes of the Eurovision Song Contest because they
Ewan: were both illicit material and what was available in the West.
Ewan: It was seen as a shining beacon to those countries.
Ewan: But in terms of controversy, obviously, you know, right now there are some huge
Ewan: issues around the contest.
Ewan: When you have something that is broadcast around the world and each of those
Ewan: performers represents a broadcaster but is underneath the flag of their country,
Ewan: then the geopolitical situations around the world, and those situations are
Ewan: beyond the scope of this podcast,
Ewan: they have an impact on the contest.
Ewan: So can it be seen as quite kitsch?
Ewan: Yes. Can it be seen as a serious musical endeavour?
Ewan: Yes. Can it be seen to holding up a mirror to society and society does not like
Ewan: the reflection that is cast back on it? It is all that and more.
Danny: No, I hear you. Like I mentioned, I'm not in the UK anymore,
Danny: but I still keep up to what's happening in the UK.
Danny: And obviously globally, my wife calls me her news beacon because she doesn't
Danny: want to watch the news or anything.
Danny: And you're right. It's like there's a lot of discussion about our country is
Danny: going to boycott the next Eurovision because of, you know, what's happening
Danny: geopolitically, et cetera.
Danny: So I completely hear you. And it makes sense that, you know,
Danny: smaller countries that have become standalone countries and got independence, et cetera,
Danny: revere the fact that they're in there and want to make, you know,
Danny: want to solidify their place as a new country, as a respected country.
Danny: So I completely hear that. and it's yeah it's it's one of these things if you've
Danny: never watched it i do implore you to watch it because there's always at least
Danny: one act that just is completely out of left field and you think this is what
Danny: eurovision is all about and
Ewan: The great thing about that is if we compare notes of the 26 songs that make
Ewan: it to the saturday night grand final i reckon that song's a bit out there.
Ewan: Everybody would choose a different song all of those
Ewan: songs for one person be like that portuguese song it's so out
Ewan: there and others would just go yeah they're just celebrating the
Ewan: carnation revolution this is a piece of important history for portugal and
Ewan: others would just go no no no it's definitely out there
Ewan: but it's not out is there as much as finland i would just
Ewan: go well yeah that's just standard finished thrash metal
Ewan: with a band called steel reinforced concrete yep they do
Ewan: that all the time next and that is the delight of
Ewan: music that everybody can love different things
Ewan: it's part of the the joy of the contest over its 70
Ewan: editions which is there is no genre limitation
Ewan: really the only limitation is three
Ewan: minutes six people on stage and away you
Ewan: go but you know that's the same as podcasts what
Ewan: what could be one person's podcast is being completely
Ewan: and utterly out there it's somebody else going yeah that
Ewan: that's what we talk about at university and that's what we do all the
Ewan: time and i think that when while the
Ewan: eurovision song contest is one to many the strength
Ewan: of podcasting has always been not necessarily
Ewan: one-to-one because we all like our audience but it's
Ewan: the fact that individuals can do many to many it's that
Ewan: you can individually do one to many what
Ewan: would require hundreds of thousands if not
Ewan: millions of pounds or euros or dollars or canadian
Ewan: dollars invested in in hardware you no
Ewan: longer have that i think that's one of the things that attracted me back in.
Ewan: 2004 2005 it's just like i've got a laptop i've got a basic mixing desk you
Ewan: don't even need the mixing desk to be honest but but it was there and that that
Ewan: gateway opened up and i was so happy to run right through it.
Danny: No no 100 and i i completely i could talk to you on a completely different show
Danny: and a different episode about podcasts until the cows come home.
Danny: But Mr. Spence, we do have you here to put you on the random questions hot seat.
Danny: So if you're ready, I shall bring up the random question generator and we'll
Danny: see what questions we have for you this week.
Danny: Alrighty, yeah, this is a fine one to open up proceedings with.
Danny: Question number one, Ewan, if you could invent a holiday, what would it be?
Ewan: The thing about holidays is they're all individual. Yes, everybody has a summer
Ewan: holiday, but summer holidays go to different places.
Ewan: Might be Universal Orlando, it might be a bus to Greece, it might be down to
Ewan: the pier at Margate, or maybe you mean Saints holidays.
Ewan: Actually, what I think I want here is the holiday that was invented by Billy Connolly.
Ewan: Now, Billy Connolly is a stand-up comedian from Glasgow.
Ewan: I'm pretty sure that he's known worldwide.
Ewan: But if not, just go onto YouTube, find some clips.
Ewan: He's been performing since the very early 1970s.
Ewan: Very thick Scottish humour, very improvisational.
Ewan: And if you've experienced him, you will know what I mean. And if you haven't,
Ewan: then you're in for an absolute treat.
Ewan: But Billy Connolly always said that when he was working, he originally worked
Ewan: in the shipyards, that when he worked in the shipyards, he always made sure
Ewan: that one of his holidays was his birthday.
Ewan: He would always take his birthday off.
Ewan: And that's the holiday I would make.
Ewan: In the same way that your standard contracts are, you get Christmas,
Ewan: you get New Year, you get the bank holidays. it would be part of employment
Ewan: law that you get your birthday off.
Ewan: Now, okay, if you want to do that in lieu or anything, well,
Ewan: you know, if you've got one of those unscrupulous employers who go,
Ewan: oh, you have to be in, we'll give you a day in lieu. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Ewan: You get your birthday off because that is a holiday. It's personal to you.
Ewan: It can mean something, whether that's just having a lie in in bed,
Ewan: whether that's going out for a longer walk, whether you look forward to those
Ewan: years when your birthday is on a Friday or a Monday and you go, hey, long weekend.
Ewan: And I think that everybody just taking that time for themselves is a present
Ewan: and is a gift and that should be mandated by law.
Danny: I like that. I know there's been some businesses recently, and I say recently,
Danny: the last five, maybe 10 years, that I've noticed that they will include,
Danny: you know, you get paid time off on your birthday.
Danny: And I've seen that it's not so much larger corporations because generally they
Danny: don't want you to have time to yourself.
Danny: But certainly smaller businesses, startups, stats companies, etc.
Danny: Very much geared towards work-life balance and the health and well-being of their employees.
Danny: One thing I'm curious about, and I like the idea of taking your birthday as a stat day.
Danny: There are some people, and whether it's right or wrong, I'm not here to judge,
Danny: But there are some people, understandably, don't like birthdays because at times
Danny: it can remind them that they're getting older.
Danny: And as you get to a certain age, you start to think more about your own mortality,
Danny: what you've done, what you've not done, etc.,
Danny: And I feel you've covered it with saying you can do what you want on that day.
Danny: But for people that may not celebrate their birthdays because of these very
Danny: reasons, what would you say would maybe be an alternative for them, possibly?
Ewan: I mean, the obvious answer and counter, I guess, here is Christmas.
Ewan: Some people don't celebrate Christmas, but you will still have those large offices
Ewan: closed down for the holidays.
Ewan: So there's already precedent of you're
Ewan: given a holiday for something that that you don't do uh so you know you do have
Ewan: the in lieu you do have the options for that and yes mandating everybody off
Ewan: is probably slightly too left-wing for for most people but i think that that's
Ewan: a situation where it's individual choice,
Ewan: You can do what you want on that day. You get it off. I mean,
Ewan: you could just maybe tell your work that your birthday is a different day.
Ewan: You could just go, you know, you know, I celebrate my birthday the week before
Ewan: my actual birthday because that's when my mother went into labor.
Ewan: So I have to celebrate it seven days beforehand. So there you go. You're getting your.
Ewan: Well, how about we change it? You have to nominate a birthday day.
Ewan: I like that. You might want to be guaranteed your wedding anniversary off.
Ewan: Or the time that Scotland won the World Cup.
Ewan: This is a fictional podcast, obviously. We will go out on goal difference to Paraguay, I think.
Ewan: Moldova or something like that. Yes.
Ewan: Yes, Scotland. Rubbish your mouth
Ewan: until you ask us to calculate goal difference. We're very good at that.
Ewan: So maybe we should change it very slightly away from Connolly's original idea
Ewan: and you're allowed to nominate a birthday celebration day holiday.
Ewan: But, you know, it's still going to be called the Billy birthday rule.
Danny: The Billy birthday. I like that. No, I like the fact that you mentioned.
Danny: And even the idea of a week hourly, because that's when your mum went into labour.
Danny: You know, that's also giving thanks to your mum for, you know.
Ewan: I mean, your mum won't want to be reminded of it.
Danny: Well, yeah, exactly. We've got two teens now. Our daughter's 14.
Danny: She just had her birthday yesterday, 14th birthday. Our son will be 16 in May.
Danny: So we've been there, we know the joys that you have as a parent.
Danny: So I hear you now, but I do like that. And I think that's a nice one to ease
Danny: into the random questions for today.
Danny: So on that note then, let's have a look at what question number two is.
Danny: Okay, I'm going to go over this. It has been up before with other guests,
Danny: but I feel this follows on a little bit nicely from your first question.
Danny: So question number two, Ewan, describe your perfect day.
Ewan: Apart from avoiding the obvious pun into the Lou Reed song, I think that's tough.
Ewan: And I think that's a tough one to answer because...
Ewan: I like difference. I like change. I like a lot of normality as well.
Ewan: So I can tell you right now, wherever it is, I'm going to wake up in the morning.
Ewan: It's going to be cereal. It's going to be two slices of toast,
Ewan: and it's going to be a really big cup of tea for breakfast.
Ewan: But at the same time, it may also be, you know what, we're just going to make pancakes as a family.
Ewan: So, and you know, and if it's a, if it's a weekday, it'll be brand flicks.
Ewan: And if it's a Saturday, Sunday, it's going to be honey nut cornflicks.
Ewan: But a lot of my life is both regularity, but
Ewan: a lot of it is also going away to do silly
Ewan: things or things that people
Ewan: look at me and just go really like backstage at the Eurovision Song Contest
Ewan: you know I started doing that in 2009 in Moscow and to me that is a completely
Ewan: regular thing that's done every year certainly up until the pandemic but to
Ewan: others it's just like the most amazing unique weird thing in the world,
Ewan: i i do baseball commentary in scotland now to me it's just like yeah we do baseball
Ewan: commentary for everyone else is going but it's in scotland so you know to me
Ewan: what is just a nice thing to do on a day.
Ewan: Is can be just both really out
Ewan: there or really sensible it's a bit like going back to music going back to podcasting
Ewan: and i enjoy so many different things to go what's your perfect day is is like
Ewan: asking what's the weather outside you know do i do i have bran flakes or do
Ewan: i have honey nut cornflakes straight away it's just like i can't get past the defining of breakfast,
Ewan: so i think it has to be a much more emotional answer it has to be something
Ewan: that quietly challenges me.
Ewan: Not enough that I get frustrated, but something that puts me into a zone where
Ewan: I'm learning, where I'm doing, where I'm experiencing.
Ewan: It has to be something, like, it's probably going to be something showy.
Ewan: I do a lot of stuff writing for people to read. I do a lot of stuff talking with people to listen.
Ewan: I rarely do video because I like, don't want to burn anybody's eyes out.
Ewan: And the old joke of I've got a great face for podcasting.
Ewan: Scotland's first podcaster agrees. This is the rule. It's set all the way through.
Ewan: The only Scottish person you're allowed to watch in a podcast is David Tennant.
Ewan: And believe me, you have a wide choice of podcasts to choose from.
Ewan: So it is going to be something showy like that.
Ewan: I guess it's going to be like the next step up in something that I do.
Ewan: A bigger podcast, a live podcast, a live commentary in the next tier up in sport, a larger venue.
Ewan: So it's going to be something like that of something that I do, but taken one more step.
Ewan: But i'd be struggling to actually say which one that that's that's like a you
Ewan: know if you're flying southwest airlines and the air and the oxygen mask drops
Ewan: you put it on yourself first and then you choose which child you love the most
Ewan: um and it's only in those moments that you realize oh i do have a favorite i've.
Danny: Never thought of it that way but um yeah that would be interesting to like have
Danny: your both kids either side of you okay you're first here you go but i'm i'm
Danny: wondering because obviously you've got a varied professional background and
Danny: what you do professionally as well as personally as well.
Danny: So yeah, let's see the Eurovision's held in France and the World Cup is held
Danny: in France. I think it's actually maybe in France in 2030. I could be wrong. I don't know where it is.
Danny: A bigger live stage. Maybe the winner of the contest performs live at the opening
Danny: ceremony of the World Cup final
Danny: and you're there presenting both the winners and you're also expanding from
Danny: baseball, which is strange for Scotsman to be talking about,
Danny: but expanding from baseball into football, the lovely game, the global game.
Danny: And it's our beloved Scotland that's in the final against Brazil.
Danny: Maybe that's, you know, and we win, which I mean, it's not a realistic perfect
Danny: day, but it could be a good day to spend and mix up things.
Ewan: Curiously enough, and you go there on baseball, is I'm not actually that much of a football fan.
Ewan: Um, most of my sport love is baseball has been for probably about 18 years now.
Ewan: Um, and sport wise for a long time, it was formula one.
Ewan: Formula One, let's just say that the incident in Abu Dhabi, and people who follow
Ewan: Formula One will know the one I mean, just left a little bit of a bad taste
Ewan: in the mouth, and I've kind of fallen a little bit out of love with that.
Ewan: So, sports-wise, it really kind of just sits down now at the hardball.
Ewan: The American football, if it's a Sunday night and it's on, I will put it on.
Ewan: But other than that, sports aren't really the traditional Scottish ones.
Danny: Okay, well, will you be watching the Super Bowl later this time?
Ewan: Oh, still be watching the Super Bowl.
Danny: Still be watching that,
Ewan: Yeah. And the great thing I love with the Super Bowl is whenever you go on to
Ewan: what was Twitter, I suspect we're doing it, everybody does Advert Watch.
Ewan: Have you seen Advert Watch go through? And everybody talks about what's going
Ewan: on in the big car and the Geico and everything else.
Ewan: And I love doing Advert Watch with the UK hashtag.
Ewan: And it's usually like Club 55 holidays.
Ewan: Car insurance um signing up for life insurance and we'll send you this free
Ewan: pen the real big hitters of the advertising industry,
Ewan: jet two holidays.
Danny: I remember the UK I mean I've not seen UK ads at least in the Super Bowl for
Danny: a while and I don't really watch the Super Bowl I watch it because of the halftime
Danny: shows I always enjoy the halftime shows and I remember the year when Bruno Mars
Danny: was invited and there was so many people asking why is he just a pop star he can't sing,
Danny: can't play and then he blew a lot of doubters away I'm curious about this year's
Danny: for various reasons but I'm curious about how this year's is going to go down
Danny: with both the opening act, the main act etc it'll be an interesting halftime
Danny: show i'm curious how those sense of that if need be
Ewan: I'm sure somebody will be hovering over the dump button to
Ewan: break the broadcast now in the 30 seconds i suspect with
Ewan: a lot of those what they'll do is they'll have a lot of inserts recorded from the dress
Ewan: rehearsal and if something does happen they'll
Ewan: just switch the tape over but yeah somebody
Ewan: would have to make that call very very quickly
Ewan: and with a huge amount of
Ewan: confidence and uh that would not be my perfect day hovering over the dump button
Ewan: at i've forgotten the artist's name so for example bob villain uh at glastonbury
Ewan: do you hit the dump button or not no now no yeah you're too late you've missed
Ewan: it welcome to the front page of the tabloids.
Danny: It's going to be interesting and like i say i do enjoy the halftime shows i've
Danny: watched lady gaga bruno mars is still one of my favourites to be honest you can't beat Prince
Danny: well Prince yeah in the rain classic and he continued to play even though it
Danny: was like a horrible horrible weather situation for him so yeah I will be watching
Danny: I'll try to be watching a half time shot and I'll look out for you on the old
Danny: Twitter I'm not on Twitter anymore I haven't been for years but I haven't been
Ewan: For years either over on Blue Sky here.
Danny: Oh there you go I'll look out for any live stuff that you're doing on Blue Sky
Danny: etc but okay so not quite a perfect day and completely understandable so So
Danny: let's see then if we can maybe, maybe get a perfect question for question number three.
Danny: Okay question three what was your favorite children's book
Ewan: I don't it's one of those answers i don't think i
Ewan: can narrow it down so i'm just going to name a few that spring to mind and
Ewan: then let the host work out what the follow-up question is
Ewan: going to be um but the one thing that
Ewan: i remember about books uh when you bring this question
Ewan: up is the library i absolutely
Ewan: adored going to the library growing up
Ewan: um i grew up in a mining village called cowden
Ewan: beef which is in the guinness book of world records uh for
Ewan: the uh most run of games of football at
Ewan: home without victory so um i'm very scottish very on point um so i had the library
Ewan: card there but i also had the library card for dumframan which is the next town
Ewan: over and they had they were like
Ewan: the huge central library for all of fife which is um the region and um,
Ewan: I could just go in there and just sit.
Ewan: Because once you got to 11 years old, you were allowed to have two books out
Ewan: of the adult side as well as your four books out of the children's side.
Ewan: And I was a straight-in voracious reader.
Ewan: And, you know, there are still books that I can pick up now and go,
Ewan: I read this 40 years ago, and it still has echoes.
Ewan: So, look, I'll give you some of the books that come to mind.
Ewan: One of them is the Kingfisher Pocket Book of Magic.
Ewan: Which was by peter eldon um and it
Ewan: was just a book of magic tricks and how to perform them
Ewan: i mean people are probably familiar you know familiar with that
Ewan: sort of style of book but this was not only
Ewan: was it geared towards a sort of young you know 11 to 13 year old group um but
Ewan: it had some really really what i now realize are complicated effects so there's
Ewan: a magic uh act called out of this world by Paul Curry.
Ewan: Now, it was in this book, and it took me a long time, you know,
Ewan: doing magic as a hobby further on to realize, oh, hold on, I learned this trick when I was 11.
Ewan: And it's an absolutely stunning trick. And the book was full of that.
Ewan: So that one and Royal Road to Card Magic, which is a much more traditional piece
Ewan: on how to learn how to do card magic. Okay, so that has to be there.
Ewan: There's a book called Heroes, which is
Ewan: basically a narrative of the space race between america
Ewan: and russia um and it's got it's the
Ewan: cover has bruce mccandles who's like the first free floating
Ewan: astronaut in a jet pack out the space shuttle it's just
Ewan: him in in black and i loved
Ewan: space and planes and i still do and that was a sort of
Ewan: the comfort book because it went through all the missions it gave you a rough
Ewan: idea of them not in a huge amount of enough depth for a teenager again young
Ewan: teenager probably this would be about 14 years old so enough depth and enough
Ewan: bite to spark the knowledge but.
Ewan: Enough that if you go out and read more you'll find
Ewan: more of the story the great thing about it nowadays is
Ewan: you can find these books and put them on on
Ewan: the bookshelves here talked about the library there
Ewan: but there was another place that i loved about books and
Ewan: that was a little second-hand bookstore in the
Ewan: shopping center in kirkody which is another town that's that's close by and
Ewan: it was like a charity bookshop it was like one pound you get you can get two
Ewan: books out of this box or three books out of of this one and again we would go
Ewan: shopping and my my mom would just go like.
Ewan: Normally you would think you'd get some money and go to the sweet shop get
Ewan: some candy and get some chocolate stuff no no it'd be like there's a pound go
Ewan: to the bookshop i'll get you in half an hour and i bought so
Ewan: many books in there because just reading so like i got a complete collection
Ewan: of the james bond pan books they were
Ewan: their favorite books they were then nowadays
Ewan: you look at them and just go wow that's that that's that's
Ewan: so problematic that's so wrong but at that point they were
Ewan: they were they were comfort rates and to a certain
Ewan: extent now they still are um the
Ewan: finding fantasy books where like do you want to investigate
Ewan: the cave turn to page 12 if you want to go and and play xylophone
Ewan: turn to page 714 um those those were wonderful the early doctor who novels Terence
Ewan: Dix now he was a again script writer but in the 70s and 80s you didn't have
Ewan: home video you couldn't watch old episodes of Doctor Who once they were broadcast
Ewan: on the television that was it they were done.
Ewan: Except the target book of novelizations existed.
Ewan: These are like 128 pages, 12 chapters, so three chapters per episode.
Ewan: Doctor Who stories are generally four-part episodes.
Ewan: Nowadays, when I look online and you see recaps going through on websites, these books,
Ewan: the target books, Terrence Dicks and the rest of the authors for Doctor Who,
Ewan: and also the James Blair Star Trek novels.
Ewan: Which were actually, they were all just essentially recaps of these TV shows.
Ewan: But when you didn't have video, when you didn't have anything,
Ewan: when these were the cultural memory, you know, Peter Davidson is,
Ewan: you know, for many people, the fifth doctor, but for people my age,
Ewan: he's the doctor with the old young face.
Ewan: Tom Baker is the one who is all teeth and curls, because that's
Ewan: how they were described in these books
Ewan: so what was your favorite children's
Ewan: book all of them just let
Ewan: children read whether it's comics or annuals or pamphlets let them read because
Ewan: reading should be joyous reading should not be a chore so don't make it a chore
Ewan: when you for for children or anybody will they graduate to bigger and better
Ewan: books and more complicated stuff maybe,
Ewan: maybe they'll just stay on comics and and read
Ewan: 2000 AD and when you're looking at the the ideas of judge dredge and judge jury
Ewan: and executioner being on the streets dispensing intense justice immediately
Ewan: under a fascist system you just go oh hold on a second maybe 2000 AD was trying
Ewan: to tell us something 40 years ago let people read simple as that.
Danny: No, it's interesting. I could feel your struggle trying to identify your favourite book.
Danny: I know if I got asked that question, I'd probably be the same as you.
Danny: I'd be thinking of different books that I really enjoyed.
Danny: We had a sci-fi bookstore. So I saw Star Wars when I was eight,
Danny: originally, when it first came out back in 77, 78, eight, nine-year-old.
Danny: And it was a sci-fi bookstore in the middle of Edinburgh on Princess Street,
Danny: or just before Princess Street, sorry where I used to live so I'd go there every
Danny: week at the weekend, my mum would take me or when I got a little bit older, I'd get the bus hop on off
Danny: Go there, pick up some comics, go to the Commonwealth pool, sit down,
Danny: get a Coke and a sandwich or whatever, start reading there.
Danny: But it's funny you mentioned that, you know, just not funny.
Danny: I completely agree with you.
Danny: It's just like kids read. During the lockdown, our son got into a really good
Danny: habit of getting books to read.
Danny: And one of the ones that he got was, it was a really abridged version of an
Danny: early part of Muhammad Ali's life, when he was still Cassius Clay,
Danny: before he became a Hound Ali.
Danny: And it kind of touched on the reason for, you know, the Vietnam draft,
Danny: what he went through, getting stripped of his titles, and it gave a little spark
Danny: of an idea as to what happened.
Danny: And it left him, it left my son wanting more details. So he then started researching online.
Danny: He went to the local library where we lived beforehand and got more books,
Danny: like the big hefty tombs as well, and really understood what Ali went through, you know.
Danny: And he wouldn't have known that if he was turned off by that original book,
Danny: which is just really, it's like a typical kid's book. It's got a cartoon version of Ali on the front.
Danny: It's maybe, I don't know, 20 pages tops.
Danny: So not in depth. And I've got a picture of my son on the chair really deep into
Danny: this and then, you know, further on in the book. So let's say,
Danny: yeah, you have to, you can't force, you know, kids, kids will pick their own
Danny: favourite books, right?
Danny: And I love the fact that you've got so many different ones.
Danny: And, oh man, the Choose Your Own Adventure books with Steve Lowenstein and that,
Danny: you know, it's like, they were times, they were times, mate.
Danny: You mentioned like the Choose Your Own Adventure books.
Danny: Were you ever like tempted because i tried that once to make my own book where
Danny: you'd go to page 17 if you did this you can go to page 31 if you did this and
Danny: it ended up me having like a big sheet and i lost track i couldn't make my own
Danny: it was just too much work to try and make my own do you ever get tempted to
Danny: do that or do you just like enjoy reading i mean going on that adventure
Ewan: Not on the book as such but you know
Ewan: one of the other books that had a huge influence me was that input
Ewan: magazine which was a part work which is
Ewan: available over 52 issues every two weeks from your local news
Ewan: agent which would build up to a collection and this would
Ewan: be marshall cavendish 1982 1983 and it
Ewan: was the rudimentary of computer programming it was
Ewan: essentially a basic language course over two years and
Ewan: the end of volume one over four
Ewan: weeks was how to program your own adventure game as in go north
Ewan: eat tiger get bone kill
Ewan: jester uh so and it's
Ewan: like because it's all open it says right okay we've shown you how to do this
Ewan: one now you can go away and change it yourself so i there is somewhere on a
Ewan: magnetic tape uh lost to time probably a tiny 12 room adventure game written
Ewan: by me so yes i did give it a go but i cheated i used a computer.
Danny: Yeah, well, that was far above what I could do. I still can't code. I'm a copy-paste guy.
Danny: So if I have to put something on a website, I'll grab some HTML and then drop
Danny: that and probably break it.
Ewan: I was good on programming right till about 2003, 2004, and at that point they
Ewan: changed how phones worked.
Ewan: And then I'm like, that's it, I'm out. This is as far as I can go.
Ewan: I do have a lot, when I occasionally do Twitch, I do have a lovely Twitch splash
Ewan: screen and programmed and everything, but it actually runs on a ZX Spectrum emulator.
Ewan: So I've got a ZX Spectrum driving the screens that I use when I go on Twitch.
Danny: That is amazing. And for our younger listeners, I will leave a link to the ZX
Danny: Spectrum wiki page or something so you know exactly what...
Ewan: Essentially, it was a Nintendo entertainment system, but in Europe, but we could program it.
Ewan: And if it wasn't for the ZX Spectrum, there wouldn't have been a Miami Vice game,
Ewan: which meant that Denton Designs wouldn't have seen it, which means they wouldn't
Ewan: have written the very first Grand Theft Auto top of town, which means you would
Ewan: not have had Grand Theft Auto without this computer and Nintendo can't say that
Ewan: about their system I like it.
Danny: I like it extra controversy through the episode it's not controversy,
Danny: it's true and I can't even say the word, that's what I like about it but this is why I like having
Danny: guests with so many different takes on this podcast because stuff like this
Danny: I will definitely leave a link to that but I completely agree as well ZX was,
Danny: it's a beast and that's Sinclair right,
Danny: never remember was it Sinclair ZX yeah it was so I will leave a link to that
Danny: in episode show notes so be sure to have a look at them when you're looking
Danny: to find out more about the ZX
Danny: So, yeah, another random fact about Nintendo and Grand Theft Auto,
Danny: which ties in perfectly to the random nature of our episode, as always.
Danny: So let's have a look then. We're doing well here, Ewan. Let's have a look at question number four.
Danny: All right, here we go. Because this is a global thing. Most countries now have
Danny: reality TV. Reality show, sorry.
Danny: So, question number four, Ewan. What reality show would you think you'd do well in?
Ewan: Who's doing the editing?
Danny: Me.
Ewan: Because the problem with reality shows is not are
Ewan: you good at the reality show it's what you do in the edit um there
Ewan: is a lovely episode part of a tv show
Ewan: called screen white by charlie brooker and they talk about
Ewan: the you know how reality tv could only
Ewan: happen with digital editing because you
Ewan: have to take 24 hours worth of footage multiplied by
Ewan: however many cameras to get a half hour clip show for
Ewan: the original big brother for example and it
Ewan: doesn't matter what you do with somebody in a big brother house the
Ewan: edit can do whatever it wants the edit can make
Ewan: you you know if you glance over at a
Ewan: housemate the edit can either make that one of friendship one
Ewan: of romance one of stalking one of murderous intent
Ewan: so i would
Ewan: be very very reticent to hand over
Ewan: my public image to a reality tv show
Ewan: so um which one
Ewan: would i be good at well i'm gonna
Ewan: twist the question you know i would be very good
Ewan: at producing one it's only in audio i don't
Ewan: wouldn't want to be a contest i think this comes back down to the podcasting
Ewan: and everything so you know i would want to work on the other side of it because
Ewan: the craft of storytelling through reality tv through editing through presentation.
Ewan: That is where the real skill is.
Ewan: You know, something like Taskmaster, for example, which is a,
Ewan: I think that's pretty fair to say that that's known relatively worldwide.
Ewan: So much of that value is in the edit.
Ewan: When, you know, you're seeing the clips of the tasks being mixed together.
Ewan: For those of you who don't know, five panelists are given a task to do in a house.
Ewan: They do the task. It's usually something silly like make a cake can sit on it
Ewan: fastest wins and they come back and they watch it a couple months later with
Ewan: a studio audience they watch the edited clip and they all react to it,
Ewan: You and I know from podcasting that you can move a single breath.
Ewan: And sometimes we do because we need
Ewan: to set up a rhythm in an edit or we're bringing together two thoughts.
Ewan: And it's just like, I know that's how it was said, but it just needs a little
Ewan: bit, it needs another four tenths of a second.
Ewan: There's a gasp from here five minutes ago. I'm just going to lift that up and put it in there.
Ewan: And it's utterly seamless if you're good at what you're doing.
Ewan: Now yes a little bit of dunning kruger but i
Ewan: have been doing podcasting and auditing for a fair bit so i think
Ewan: it would be a reality tv show that's not
Ewan: on tv that's on radio that's on podcast uh and i would want to be the editor
Ewan: the producer working behind the scenes lifting out those stories finding out
Ewan: about these people a bit like what we're doing here with five questions um Because
Ewan: isn't Five Questions a reality TV show?
Ewan: Can we boil down the essence of what we are doing here to Survivor or Big Brother
Ewan: or Taskmaster or anything?
Ewan: TV entertainment is all about storytelling and I always love to credit myself as being a storyteller.
Ewan: So the show that I would think I would do the best in is the one where I can tell the story.
Danny: Now what I do like about that is, as you mentioned, you're flipping it and you're
Danny: making it audio, which is your expertise, your passion and where you can really guide the story.
Danny: I know there's a big push we were talking about in the green room before we
Danny: came on to record the episode.
Danny: I know there's a big push, at the moment anyway, for a lot of creators to go
Danny: to video first as opposed to audio first.
Danny: And that's fine if that's what you want to do, have at it. And if you do it
Danny: well, good for you. Love it.
Danny: But I do find that sometimes video first can struggle to make the transition to audio.
Danny: Because your video, it's a visual medium, obviously.
Danny: And what you can see happening isn't always what a listener can see.
Danny: Or hear not see is what a list can hear happening
Danny: you know um if people were talking about oh look at this
Danny: lovely decoration behind you know steve or whatever what's
Danny: the challenge there for let's say you were to make this a reality tv
Danny: stroke audio only podcast
Danny: so reality podcast i guess what would be the challenge that you feel switching
Danny: from what would typically be a tv you know first approach or a video first approach
Danny: where you can see you mentioned yourself uh the error can make a look be friendly
Danny: flirting playful demonic nasty how would you transfer that to audio only
Ewan: I think you have to look back at history um because
Ewan: essentially what you're doing is a soap opera so you
Ewan: are doing and again this is
Ewan: a reference that either 100 of listeners will get or they
Ewan: will just go what are you going on about you're essentially trying to do the archers
Ewan: which is a radio for which
Ewan: was originally of course the home service uh here in the
Ewan: uk of a soap opera based in
Ewan: the village of ambridge farming um
Ewan: but essentially a soap opera so that that is what you're doing the twitter is
Ewan: of course you're doing it on material that is being generated in real time by
Ewan: your cast and it depends on the story you want to tell so for example you
Ewan: might want to do a sort of.
Ewan: Teenage focused and the pressures
Ewan: that they're going under um just during their
Ewan: life for example whether they're going through exams so you might want to
Ewan: do an exam uh so you
Ewan: know there's there's going to be a different flavor to that
Ewan: for example if you decide to follow um
Ewan: six people who are going through
Ewan: grief for example um and for
Ewan: those of you who aren't aware the carrie ed lloyd podcast the
Ewan: grief cast absolutely fantastic listening um go
Ewan: find the archive of it that tells you
Ewan: a different story you know are you doing this with
Ewan: them staying mic'd up all the time are you doing it through an interview base
Ewan: look personally i would be doing it through an interview base it's like what happened
Ewan: today tell me what happened today um so it
Ewan: would come back as multiple interviews going through
Ewan: so there's probably
Ewan: a a complicated media university
Ewan: term for that one but i would probably bias towards
Ewan: something like that um i would want
Ewan: to choose people who are already going through a journey so you've got a natural
Ewan: storyline that you can build on whether that is going to be um uplifting or
Ewan: or depressing let's just just take those for example whether it makes you think then it's that so.
Ewan: Okay. You know, what, what is, we're coming back now to that question of what is reality?
Ewan: Is it a group of people? Is it a single person? Is it, you have to see their
Ewan: lives? Is it, they talk about their lives?
Ewan: What would the sponsors be interested in? Uh, probably has to,
Ewan: unfortunately come into that conversation as well.
Ewan: So what would it be? I mean, look, I've come up with, with podcast ideas that
Ewan: I've never made it past that that would be fun stage.
Ewan: Um i did an in just just during the last half of lockdown i did a podcast called
Ewan: my cat's tail um and question one was tell me about your cat um and that was
Ewan: it we would talk for half an hour about one person's cat now is that reality
Ewan: audio podcast yes it is is it about cats yes,
Ewan: was it hosted by david tenet no so it didn't go any more than a year,
Ewan: it depends on what you want to do and the delight of doing it as podcast is
Ewan: you don't need to find a huge audience you don't need to find tens of millions
Ewan: of people tuning in every night you need to find like if you want a really big number five thousand,
Ewan: if you can find five thousand people and that people are starting a podcast
Ewan: if you don't have that sort of star power energy to go with that takes a bit of time to build up.
Ewan: It would be something like that it would be those lines of staying honest with
Ewan: minimal editing which is probably why i want to do it in the interview format
Ewan: after they've done something because,
Ewan: every time you cut with an edit you're taking away some of the truth and if
Ewan: you look at reality tv nowadays there's a huge amount of editing there's a huge
Ewan: amount of cunning which means,
Ewan: they get further away from the truth and further towards a story that is pre-written by the cast,
Ewan: but not by the cast, by the crew. I wouldn't want that.
Ewan: I'd go the other way. I would want to be as close and inside as possible.
Ewan: I think I'm describing something that is called a documentary.
Danny: I know, I like that, and I love that you went so deep into that to explain exactly
Danny: how it would work and why it should be that way. And I agree,
Danny: I feel as much as it's fun for TikTok, Instagram Reels, etc.
Danny: I'm sure my age, because nobody probably watches Instagram Reels these days.
Danny: But as much as people, you know, veer towards that short-term content and really,
Danny: you know, that quick fix, that quick dopamine hit,
Danny: it does take away because now you're trying to make that perfect little 30-second,
Danny: 60-second snippet for clicks, views, etc.
Danny: As opposed to really just letting a story breathe and you know I love the fact
Danny: that you mentioned that edit can take away from that you know you've got to
Danny: be really careful that you don't take away from the essence of what a conversation
Danny: was about because that does ruin and spoil everything
Danny: I also love the fact that you mentioned the archers there. Now,
Danny: I'm of an age that I remember the archers. I know what you're on about.
Danny: And it's funny that you mentioned Billy Connolly out there because one of my
Danny: favourite skits of Billy Connolly, of many, many, many, many,
Danny: many, is when he's on about we should change because our national anthem,
Danny: or the British, English national anthem, whatever way you want to look at it, is so dull.
Danny: So when you go to the Olympics, you know, we've already lost because all these
Danny: other countries have got these grand, you know, trumpet-laden national anthems
Danny: and we've got this guard, save the king or queen or whatever,
Danny: we should replace it with the archers theme.
Danny: And we're just like marching along, parump into the archers theme.
Ewan: This is what a sketch I'm familiar with. It's quite an early one.
Ewan: It's before 1985, 1986, and that Five Nations season with Scotland playing rugby against England.
Ewan: Because now, of course, Scotland has Flower of Scotland.
Ewan: Now, Scotland actually doesn't have an official national anthem, but
Ewan: uh there are various adoptions quite a few people
Ewan: still go with scotland to brave um but essentially the
Ewan: rugby fans chose flyer of scotland and that's become
Ewan: scotland's anthem and if anybody hasn't heard a
Ewan: scottish sports crowd joining in the anthem go google uh euro euro scotland
Ewan: anthem the um the when it opened up in germany with the euros and scotland was
Ewan: drawn to do the opening game and the anthems come up and.
Ewan: Every scottish fan will sing um and
Ewan: i don't mean in a sort of stand up put
Ewan: your hand on your heart um because you need to do the
Ewan: pledge of allegiance you need to sing the anthem um every
Ewan: morning i know i mean sing i mean that emotional
Ewan: core and depth and
Ewan: yes the united kingdom of great
Ewan: britain and northern ireland does have god save the
Ewan: king but we have flower of scotland and we are scotland and yet at that point
Ewan: it hadn't been chosen it hadn't been played that moment at five nations where
Ewan: flower of scotland kicked off and basically england lost the game of rugby beforehand
Ewan: because we sang the enthusiasm out of them,
Ewan: We have that anthem now, Billy. We have that strength and power,
Ewan: and we are known for it. We're still rubbish at sports.
Danny: But we've got a damn good national anthem.
Ewan: We're good at curling. There are some sports that Scotland is good at.
Ewan: We're probably some of the best Canada-Scotland at the Winter Olympics as the curling final.
Ewan: Yes, please. I'll watch that. Thank you very much.
Danny: No, no, I hear. It reminds me, I think it was 1990, that was the Grand Slam
Danny: game between Scotland and England
Danny: normally you run out on the pitch and it was at Murrayfield so obviously it
Danny: was like the home crowd so England's players ran out on the pitch as expected
Danny: and then the Scottish team marched out when Florida Scotland and I think at that moment
Danny: it almost sensed that we've got this is our day so I completely hear you and
Danny: that's just given me a little bit of tingles so thank you for bringing that back as a memory It
Ewan: Always surprises me that nobody at the Super Bowl does that as well if you have
Ewan: all the great, the pomp and the circumstances, they're right out, yay, yay.
Ewan: And I think if you'd just taken one of those teams and you'd just marched out,
Ewan: stood on the halfway line and looked at the other team, they would just be, what are they doing?
Ewan: What's going on? If anybody's seen like the New Zealand All Blacks,
Ewan: you know, they start playing the game of rugby long before the whistle blows.
Ewan: And I think Anthems play a huge part in that.
Danny: Well, I agree. A hundred percent. A hundred percent agree. you and i i
Danny: love that question to kind of almost ease us out of your time in hot seat but
Danny: we do have one more for you so let's have a look at what one we're going to
Danny: take you home with all right let's go with this one question number five do
Danny: you think you would survive a zombie apocalypse um
Ewan: It would answer one of my favorite questions for pondering though so it's,
Ewan: Let's say, right, you get zombified, whatever the technical term is,
Ewan: you have become a zombie.
Ewan: If you're pregnant, does the baby become a zombie?
Danny: Well, that kind of almost answered in season, was it season two?
Danny: It was season one, actually. So The Last of Us TV show based on a video game, the same name.
Danny: It showed the main or one of the main characters, Mother Sock.
Danny: Ellie is the young lady in the TV show game.
Danny: And she's with a guy called Joel. They're trying to get Ellie to somewhere where
Danny: she's meant to be the cure for the zombie apocalypse.
Danny: Her blood is immune.
Danny: And the reason that they showed that was they had a spoiler alert.
Danny: Stop listening here if you've not seen it.
Danny: But the reason that she was that is it showed it at the start as her mum,
Danny: as she was given birth, was attacked by a zombie and was bitten.
Danny: And that mixed the bloods up. and that's why she became this...
Danny: Immune person if you like so i'm not sure if you become a zombie probably not
Danny: a zombie but maybe there's a mix of human stroke zombie there if that makes sense
Ewan: But that's during birth yeah now i've not seen last of us
Ewan: so but that's during a birth yeah that's correct yeah okay
Ewan: right so that doesn't matter because what i'm getting at here is while
Ewan: you're in the womb and the blood placenta barrier is still
Ewan: in effect that's you know that is weakened during
Ewan: birth so i would say worth well things are going to break down
Ewan: there uh on on on both sides so um
Ewan: no i don't think that answers the question at all um swine
Ewan: oh trust
Ewan: me i've been through lots of these ones it's the same question about
Ewan: vampires as well if you get turned into a vampire and you're pregnant the baby
Ewan: become a vampire what if the baby becomes a vampire and you don't
Ewan: is that possible and if that's the case what i know
Ewan: lots of funds on that um surviving
Ewan: a zombie apocalypse well it kind of depends on what you need kind
Ewan: of depends on how long the zombies are going to be earned it depends if they're
Ewan: fast or slow zombies um lots of things uh for example if zombies are dead does
Ewan: that mean that there's no living bacteria in them and if that's the case then
Ewan: they've only got the energy that they've got when they die which means you've
Ewan: only got to get through about three days,
Ewan: so if the question is can i hide from the world for three days pretty sure i can get a boat.
Ewan: Pretty sure I could go up a mountain. Pretty sure I could go into the middle
Ewan: of a football stadium in Cowden Meath because nobody would think of going there
Ewan: because Cowden Meath can't play football.
Ewan: So, can I survive three days of a zombie apocalypse? Yes. Can I pronounce it?
Ewan: No. But that's fine because I would want to be really, really quiet while doing it.
Ewan: Longer term, then there are bigger questions about infrastructure.
Ewan: So, let's take power, for example. How is power going to be generated?
Ewan: Are we going to have to rely on portable generators?
Ewan: Are there going to be people who can still run nuclear power plants um are there zombies,
Ewan: there's the other thing will zombies still want
Ewan: to go to work you know is it just like oh we're going
Ewan: to eat okay you've eaten now what are you going to do um um well
Ewan: you know i was making a nice model spitfire from
Ewan: an air fix kit well you're a zombie that doesn't stop you
Ewan: carrying on doing modeling oh yeah i'll
Ewan: go do that then tell me when you're hungry we'll get you some more food oh right fine
Ewan: fair enough you know the idea
Ewan: that zombies are constantly going and constantly eating
Ewan: i could disagree with because
Ewan: as i said they're dead and if they're dead
Ewan: nothing works and if nothing works how do they process food
Ewan: you know do they eat food it just goes all
Ewan: the way through they just leave trails of tiny mashed
Ewan: up bits of human behind them if that's
Ewan: the case yeah my three days are still good so in my science fiction world either
Ewan: a zombies all die out after three days it's a i know it's a bit hg world's war
Ewan: of the worlds but yeah bear with me um or the second one is yes there are zombies
Ewan: but they don't have an insatiable lust for food,
Ewan: and even if they did we've got manjaro now you know what happens if you give a zombie manjaro,
Ewan: oh i'm not hungry anymore oh what do you want to do race cars great you want
Ewan: to put a seatbelt on No, don't be silly. I'm a zombie.
Danny: It's it's an interesting fact i've never thought of it that way to be honest
Danny: mate um and you're 100 correct obviously it's like no
Ewan: No no i only sound 100.
Danny: Well okay yeah you sound you've you've like convinced me i can
Ewan: Say things with confidence and they will make sense until somebody moves on
Ewan: to the james o'brien podcast next in their feed and then they go hold on a minute
Ewan: he was talking rubbish wasn't he yes so was human yes.
Danny: No i like it and like you say though
Danny: you're dead so you're not going to be hungry I don't even know why the original
Danny: reason to eat brains came about, I'm sure it must have been Georgie Romero's classic 60s,
Danny: early 70s, you know, Day of the Dead, Dawn of the Dead movies that that came out and happened
Danny: it's funny though, you mentioned about how fast are they and how clever are
Danny: they etc, there's a little cartoon like meme kind of thing or whatever that
Danny: I saw just the other week there actually last week even maybe,
Danny: and it was about if the zombie, how to survive the zombie, well not to survive
Danny: but if the zombie apocalypse or if you get attacked by zombies here's how to
Danny: beat them and basically you're just in your house but all the way around your
Danny: house is like a moat of treadmills,
Danny: you know, so if you try to get the zombie on the treadmill, they're just going
Danny: nowhere for days, right, they're just running and it's the same idea, it's like,
Danny: as you say there's no real reason to rhyme to zombies really, and if there is,
Danny: why can't it be normal after that building an airplane you know taking a dog
Danny: a walk as a dog a zombie as well are they are they real they're going to try
Danny: eat the zombie bones whatever so yeah
Danny: I'm going to start thinking that way if I get asked about zombies and such as
Danny: but I would recommend watching The Last of Us certainly season 1 season 2 I
Danny: wasn't quite as sold on season 1 really really good
Ewan: To slightly paraphrase Adam Savage, I reject your zombie apocalypse and I replace it with my own.
Danny: And for anybody that doesn't know Adam Savage, I will link to that in the show notes, obviously.
Danny: One of the cool things that episodes show notes do, they give you all the links
Danny: to details about everything that your host and your guest is speaking about.
Danny: So always check them out.
Danny: But I like that. And I feel it's a nice way, that sensible answer is a nice
Danny: way to ease out your time in a random question hot seat, mate.
Danny: But this is only fair, because I've had you in the hot seat for almost an hour
Danny: now, it's time to hand over the question Asking Baton to you.
Ewan: Do you know how difficult it is trying to come up with one question?
Danny: That's why I use a random generator, mate.
Ewan: No, five. I'd be good with five, probably, because I could do a structure and a story.
Ewan: And I have been thinking about this one. So I've decided to go back to my favourite question.
Ewan: And it's one that I tell people when they ask how to do interviews and podcasts
Ewan: or YouTubes or whatever.
Ewan: It's one that I've used certainly going back according to family mythology till
Ewan: I'm about four or five so um it's just like okay let's go with that one let's
Ewan: not try and do anything sneaky,
Ewan: let's not try and go oh I've read your LinkedIn and I see that you that you
Ewan: once finished third in a Crufts look-alike pedigree chum contest what you know
Ewan: what about that one not going to do any of that although i will ask you that
Ewan: one when we get back into the green room right i'm.
Danny: At it why just why yep
Ewan: That's yeah that's the question why why.
Danny: And i've got to come up with a thing about why
Ewan: You've got to answer the question i think that's the rules of the podcast that.
Danny: Is the rules of the podcast okay why let's see why not
Ewan: Oh, somebody's looking at the term and going, I want to get this under an hour.
Danny: Why not? No, I think it's like anything, mate. It's like, I mean,
Danny: that's a really obviously open-ended question. It could cover any, any, anything.
Danny: But I think at the end of the day, it's why not? Why ask that girl or guy out? Why not?
Danny: Why put that thing in your mouth when it tastes horrible? Why not?
Danny: I've never tried it before. Or why jump out of a perfectly working aeroplane
Danny: with just a piece of material in the back of you to keep you alive?
Danny: Why not? Never done it. Never will. I'm not that brave.
Danny: But I think that would be my answer, mate.
Danny: It's like, unless it was like a specific why this, why that,
Danny: why that or whatever, I think it always comes back to why not.
Danny: Because there's always a reason to do or say something, you know,
Danny: and it could be personal beliefs, could be political beliefs,
Danny: This could be giving a voice to voiceless, you know, thinking the current times, etc.
Danny: I think it comes down to why not? That would be my answer, I think.
Danny: And I hope that's OK, because that's such a good open-ended question that no
Danny: one has ever come up with before.
Ewan: Ah, yay!
Danny: What would yours be, out of curiosity?
Ewan: I have asked that so many times. You know, it was one of the questions I,
Ewan: you know, my next rename when I was growing up, who said oh here comes you
Ewan: and why um because i would just go what are you doing that for
Ewan: why are you doing that why are you doing that why are you doing that and it is it
Ewan: is a curiousness it is an instinctiveness it's
Ewan: i think it's just a sort of general question to just
Ewan: ask yourself anybody around you you know why are you doing something why did
Ewan: you do that why are you making that decision why am i doing that thing i think
Ewan: it is a a lovely encapsulation of the human condition it can be a very personal
Ewan: question it can be a wonderful question in a group as you said it is open ended,
Ewan: but it is just something that will always advance what you're doing.
Ewan: You know as you've seen here you know one word
Ewan: why led to your answer you why not and then
Ewan: yes i can see what you've done i've done this long enough you've
Ewan: thrown the same question back at me that's fine because it
Ewan: allows you know why why it advances
Ewan: conversation and if it advances conversation it
Ewan: advances understanding and if it advances understanding
Ewan: then it advances compassion and empathy
Ewan: it advances emotion it advances
Ewan: togetherness you know we are as a
Ewan: species so shattered so broken
Ewan: and the the challenges that are facing the world are immense and the only way
Ewan: to solve those challenges are for people to band together to ask why to come up with sensible,
Ewan: well-thought-out answers, emotional answers, you know, to challenge people,
Ewan: to not only hear the answer to the question why, but to also go why.
Ewan: I mean, if you stop going me or this in any of the circumstances that are happening
Ewan: today and just go why and then challenge the answer.
Ewan: And the easiest way to challenge a why answer is just to do it again.
Ewan: Why? Why are you doing this?
Ewan: And that is how we evolve. That is how the human condition grows.
Ewan: That is how, as Douglas Adams, we get out the trees.
Ewan: That is how we get digital watches. That is how we make this world a little
Ewan: bit better than how we found it.
Ewan: And if everybody does that, if everybody makes one tiny positive change by simply going, why?
Ewan: Why should you do that? because the world will be in a better place and you
Ewan: will leave it in a better place for the next generation.
Ewan: And then they will ask why. Why did they do that? Then why am I not doing it
Ewan: for the next generation?
Ewan: And that will cascade down the years.
Ewan: You and I, this podcast is probably going to be gone in 10 years.
Ewan: It'll be undiscoverable in 50.
Ewan: And our names will not be shining there in 100 years.
Ewan: But the impact we make and the impact that cascades down, that is why we do this.
Ewan: That is why I do this. This is why we create art or jobs or science or creativity.
Ewan: It's because we want to take another step forward. And everybody who tries to
Ewan: take it a step back should be challenged at every single moment.
Ewan: And they should be said, why?
Ewan: And if they do not come up with an answer, you challenge them again and again
Ewan: and again. And that is how we get out of the hole that we're in right now.
Danny: And I think that is a fantastic place to close this episode off.
Danny: If that doesn't give listeners a reason why to check out your stuff that we're
Danny: going to ask about right now then there's no reason because that's the perfect
Danny: reason and I love that explanation and as a dad I've got two kids I've got two
Danny: teens I do have concerns about what the world's going to be like for them
Danny: when I was a young man's age like when I was in my early 20s what's it going
Danny: to be like for them in say 10 years time and I think that's perfect mate I think
Danny: that asking why and challenging back like you said there
Danny: Perfect. And a perfect way to end this time on the hot seat.
Danny: So I appreciate the question and I super appreciate your extended answer.
Danny: When I cheated a little bit and asked why, why not, but I asked you to expand on that.
Danny: So Ewan, for people that want to know more about you and hear more of your thoughts
Danny: like this, hear more of your stuff on Eurovision, baseball, maybe read your
Danny: blog, because I know you have a blog that you posted on again.
Danny: Anywhere that you've got awesome, cool stuff going on. where's the best places
Danny: to either catch up with that listen read or even connect with you mate
Ewan: This has been my weak spot for for all the time i'm creating stuff
Ewan: getting the proper marketing behind it that's a little bit
Ewan: more tricky so the obvious places start off with the blog
Ewan: which is you and spence.co.uk slash blog um there's
Ewan: a bit there for social media links so that will link you to the the
Ewan: blue skies the links in the the youtube the other
Ewan: sites and stuff so that's how you would get in touch with me um
Ewan: in terms of the the projects that we have mentioned let's
Ewan: run down those just now so eurovisioninsight.com or
Ewan: escinsight.com but both urls will will work
Ewan: there's over a thousand podcasts there most of
Ewan: them feature me but it is essentially a collective so
Ewan: you will find other voices going on in there um
Ewan: in terms of baseball two places i'll give you youtube.com slash ampersand baseball
Ewan: scotland and some number search for baseball scotland on youtube um it's the
Ewan: scottish amateur league we started to do youtube and streaming two years ago
Ewan: i had to rapidly teach myself how to be a baseball commentator so you will find my efforts there.
Ewan: It's the off-season, so I'm carrying on doing baseball commentary by commentating
Ewan: on historical games from the 40s, 50s and 60s because we still have the paper
Ewan: record of what happened, so I could pretend to be a commentator.
Ewan: From the 1940s, welcome! The Gillette Safety Reservoir Company welcomes you
Ewan: to Kaminsky Park and today's... and all of that stuff.
Ewan: That's classicbaseballradio.com, or again, search for that on Spotify,
Ewan: podcasts and YouTube as well.
Ewan: I mentioned the Cats podcast. So a lot of my older podcasts are kind of like only running,
Ewan: intermittently you'll find that the podcast corner.com um
Ewan: my cat's tail is in there the um the edinburgh festival
Ewan: fringe podcast is in there that only really runs in august
Ewan: because that's when the festival is on um and there's another couple more dawning
Ewan: in there but yeah if you get the social media links um from the blog if you
Ewan: just search for you and spence.co.uk on blue sky that's probably the place for
Ewan: for the immediate thing yeah i'm about not very visible which.
Danny: Is a shame Like a good Scotsman, you're about. You're not just here,
Danny: there. You're everywhere, mate.
Ewan: So just stand in a room at a web conference and shout, why? And I'll go, oh, that's me.
Danny: That's Ewan. Say hello. But as always, I will leave all these links in the episode show notes.
Danny: So whatever podcast app you're listening on, or even listening to this on the
Danny: website, just check the episode show notes out.
Danny: It will link out to the good and average stuff that Ewan is doing.
Danny: So be sure to check the notes out.
Danny: So again, Ewan, thanks for taking the time today to appear on the 5 Random Questions hot seat.
Ewan: Lovely. Thank you very much. been a pleasure.
Danny: Thanks for listening to 5 Random Questions and if this was your first time
Danny: here feel free to hit follow and check out past episodes if you enjoyed this
Danny: week's episode i'd love for you to leave a review on the app you're currently
Danny: listening on and if you know someone else that would enjoy the show be sure
Danny: to send them this way it's very much appreciated until the next time keep asking those questions