Echoes, Glitches, And Keeping Records Artwork

TAGQ (That's A Good Question)

Ben Johnston talks to his father Scott about improv comedy, forestry and landscaping, as well as computing, cooking, and music, and whatever else these characters are interested in.

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TAGQ (That's A Good Question)

Echoes, Glitches, And Keeping Records

December 18, 2025 • Ben Johnston & Scott Johnston • Episode 44

We stumble through an echo-filled start and end up asking what deserves to last: the files in our clouds, the paper on our shelves, and the stories we tell about ourselves and our families. Along the way we trade travel mishaps, childhood labels, and a full-throated song that cuts through the noise.

• echo chaos sparks a bigger theme about signal and noise
• guest experiments vs co-host flow and who interviews whom
• travel moments that imprint more than expected
• childhood labels, interests and how families reinforce them
• shaping passions through environment and exposure
• video vs audio and the cost of storing everything
• cloud permanence myths, backups and local archives
• journals, legacy and what you actually want found
• curation over hoarding and making keeps easy to sort
• singing with intention and finding a voice through noise

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Scott: 0:06

Glug, glug, glug, glug, glug, glug. There. I just did the sound effects.

Ben: 0:40

Really?

Scott: 0:42

You uh you in some competition?

Ben: 0:49

Competition with myself. Who's winning? Hey, Archie? I can hear myself. There's the echo. It's like I'm having a conversation with myself. You know what's going on.

Scott: 1:06

Really?

Ben: 1:06

Yeah, that's not interesting.

Scott: 1:08

I'm I'm hearing some echoes here. Like, or is that you is that you're smuttering?

Ben: 1:17

No. Well, that was just me muttering, but I didn't hear my it it is like I'm having a conversation with myself right now, and it is really distracting.

Scott: 1:30

Yeah, it's the standing on your airpods. Really? Yeah. Hold on.

Ben: 1:37

Just take them out, then I guess. Yeah.

Scott: 1:42

Now, now that doesn't work because this is just great. I'm sitting here watching you fiddle you with your earbuds, and I suppose I should edit that out.

Ben: 2:06

I just disconnect, but nothing happened. Fascinating.

Scott: 2:16

So welcome to the so many, it's a big number. Episode of this podcast. That's a good question.

Ben: 2:30

So many. Yeah. I don't even know what episode is. Oh, it's still happening! I'm still hearing myself. I think it's your call.

Scott: 2:44

Yeah. There's things going on, huh?

Ben: 2:48

Now well, that's all just happened to the old thing. It's more loud than it was before.

Scott: 3:01

Oh my goodness. Okay. Well, so what's today's question? Who's who's doing the interviewing today? That's what I want to know. Pardon? Okay. And welcome back. Welcome back to the podcast, Ben. Thanks, everybody. So this is the first time. What happened when I was gone? This is a real great start. This is the first time. I think I would have left in a while. If it was great. Yeah.

Ben: 4:04

What? If it was great. If it was great, I should have talked at the more point. And so I'm saying that, yes, it actually is great because I would have laughed a couple of times. You know what? It'd be really funny if the audio that other people hear is what I hear because it's like two bad pocket at once right now. Jesus Christ.

Scott: 4:33

So who's interviewing who? That's not really a question. Yeah, but I just tell the story for the the past several podcasts. It's been one of us interviewing someone else. Yeah.

Ben: 4:49

And so this first time and on all of my time off, like it's gone for teaching shake. But I haven't been doing my dog.

Scott: 5:02

I see. Okay.

Ben: 5:04

Interviewing my brothers down on that. Sorry that we went on our dad traveled to Minnesota and the Trump administration alcohol communications of the state of Washington and Wisconsin. And so we were talking about so maybe we shouldn't try not doing cash with it.

Scott: 5:48

Well it's the efficiency of it's a we needed to try guests again, and the slackest way to get guests was just one-on-one. I haven't produced the difference. Steve Goodwin. And then Grandma Claire. Yep. And that's the worst recording because it was with you with me.

Ben: 6:23

I remember listening to the it must have been the same episode again.

Scott: 6:34

And then you with Adam, and then you with Peter. Who's with who in this continuing series? And and you're like going, no, we're both the hosts, so it's not like an interview. And I guess that's true. Maybe the Driver was feel like what? It was an interview.

Ben: 7:05

Yeah.

Scott: 7:07

You mean doing doing it with other people? Oh no, I'm saying between the two of us. Uh no. No. No. No, okay.

unknown: 7:32

Yeah.

Ben: 7:33

Not that good with the improv to begin with, so it's hard for me to think of things to say when I talk and listen on this on.

Scott: 7:45

Yeah. I don't know. It could be background noise here.

Ben: 7:51

It sounds like it's coming from your uh thingy.

Scott: 8:00

Yeah. Is it better now that the background is quieter? Maybe. No.

unknown: 8:11

Okay.

Scott: 8:12

No, it's that's the same channel. I think the hot water heater is right out that wall there. So it's maybe it's bad internet there in in your little impoverished corner of C.

Ben: 8:28

You know, it probably is because I'm actually not on Wi-Fi. I'm on my eye.

Scott: 8:39

Your phone. Yeah.

unknown: 8:43

Yeah.

Ben: 8:44

I remember what the Wi-Fi was used in Wi-Fi. Did I dream it? I can't do it. Or did they tell me like it's later? I can't remember what happened.

Scott: 9:02

Wow. No Wi-Fi yet. Yeah, I could be silly. Go go look it. Look it up. It's probably on the back of the modem.

Ben: 9:17

I see that's the thing. I don't really want to loot that. Because the chances are it's not just on the back of all the room. It's probably some silly modified as for and um I don't want to have to type in a 30 digital quote to figure that out.

Scott: 9:45

So what was the highlight of your trip from California to Washington State?

Ben: 9:54

I haven't maybe you could talk more than me.

Scott: 10:02

I don't have the table with the okay. So you gotta ask me a question. You give you a short answer.

Ben: 10:11

I've already asked you what your favorite teacher were. What was the highlight of my I don't have a highlight on a combat? Okay. Like me. There you go. But not wanting to drink a whole funnel on the plane. And I just had a whole honor because I don't care about the slide attendant. Like around that scratch. And so I just wasn't drinking spells of the ball, but do you want to tap fall that's embarrassing?

Scott: 11:13

I see. So anyway, that thing has real that's me not popping. That's real trauma.

Ben: 11:23

And then I got to watch a Super Mario movie with the two kids in front of me watching it. And so I was distracted by my homework, which was the plot.

Scott: 11:35

I see. I don't think I've seen the Super Mario movie. Maybe the one maybe I've seen it the same way in the back of other people's TV headsets on there. Yeah. Uh huh. Yeah, I'm supposed to talk more.

Ben: 12:02

Um did have already asked about whether or not you've had a favorite teacher.

Scott: 12:10

Yeah, I think so. Okay. I think you did. I probably said my fifth grade teacher. What was their name? Mr. Damsgard. Damn's guard.

Ben: 12:25

And we need some. I don't know if it's just how bad my memory is.

Scott: 12:37

We've already talked about this. Go back and read this. Yeah, we should just have an AI assistant sitting here going, oh, you talked about that in season four, episode 32. It's like seasons? We're gonna have seasons? We haven't even had one season yet. We had one. Seasonless. You know that what's his name never recorded a podcast until his last one. What's his name? Mark Marin. He like, you know, invented the commercial side of the medium and never had cameras until his last guest. And his last guest was Barack Obama. He's using it as like publicity to like it's a really good. I heard the whole podcast, but Peter was trying to show me the video, and I went like, wow, I don't believe it. Because his article of faith, never to videotape. So to like spread Obama's message, they'd like made an exception. Oh was political. Well, yeah, he's an optimistic realist. Yeah.

Ben: 14:11

Um take a sip of your tea. Pardon?

Scott: 14:18

I said we took a sip of our team simultaneously. Yes, that's true.

Ben: 14:25

Yeah. Question. Mom said that it is photo called me when I was a baby. Or maybe three or with my gun. And then I had that said I think it would worm with the server worm. And I wonder like so young. I wonder how much that had to be with how much I fell in love with bugs.

Scott: 15:06

I think it was the other already the other way around.

Ben: 15:10

I asked I asked how it's problems. And then Aaron said, maybe problem because of that. Sure! And then I said that's what I was thinking. And she responded to how much we could think about it. And she said all the while thing.

Scott: 15:38

Yeah, I wouldn't be sure of that conclusion with you and my experience about it all.

Ben: 15:44

Is it just a quick sense?

Scott: 15:46

Or I no, I think I think we noticed things about you guys first. You know, yeah, it feels like we had no radar at all because how I goofed up on ketchup and mustard. Ketchup for you? See, I don't even remember. And mustard is mustard for us.

Ben: 16:17

That's a little more numbers than like a guy's meal time again.

Scott: 16:22

Well, you kind of also were the same thing. You squatted down and looked at the small buttons on the VCR. You know?

Ben: 16:31

Even before I needed the biases.

Scott: 16:34

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you just you just showed an attention to detail that was different than your older brother who didn't care anything much more for a VCR than the slamming in a tape and it's playing, you know.

Ben: 16:57

But you're interested. I wonder why they decided to become a connected year.

Scott: 17:03

Oh, I thought I thought you were more into yeah, yeah. I thought you were more gonna like Peter was animals and you were gonna be techie. It's not quite how you always thought techie. You were more into live wear and yeah. Much more into live wear. Peter spends all his time on a computer. Oh yeah.

Ben: 17:41

Do you think that's possible though if you say you buy more shirt that had anything on it?

Scott: 17:51

Reinforced it? Do you think that I've changed my trajectory? I wonder if uh just confirmed it, you know. It's like you it is it's like you show your interest, here's here's a here's a t-shirt that reflects that interest, that's all.

Ben: 18:20

There's a thing we borrow where you would have ad bolts and like go on the bottoms and your ads or yeah.

unknown: 18:30

Yeah.

Scott: 18:31

But I'm saying if you think children can be molded based on what features you bought for them. No, based on whether you like get them out on a hockey rink when they're four years old, you know, on skates, pushing around. You know, have you seen Aaron's pictures of uh Ray getting ready to play hockey? It's like I haven't seen a picture. That yeah, that's grooming, man. Yeah. She's like dressed up like a goalie in hockey gear on skates, pushing this like like a toddler's version of a walker around on ice. So you can't fall, you just you know, hold on to it and then skate and move this walker on ice. Yeah. No, I mean, and she'll probably, you know, fall on the other hand. But will would will she have shown that she had a natural love for hockey before? She was totally immersed in it? Probably, probably not. Well, she might like it. You know, as opposed to bugs. She maybe maybe her parents see that she. Has that, you know? It's like, oh, look, you you you got this. I mean, she is Aaron's kid. It's like she might have that. She likes to throw the ball. She likes games that are you know physical. Just like just like Adam used to like to roll his red-wheeled truck into the fence again and again and again. Adam likes we show it. Um Adam's case it didn't. Yeah, it's a feature that I didn't look in on the future. So if I lean back, the camera eventually adjusts to tracking our eyes to run into your eyes. There it is. No, I'm messing with it. What's your thought? Okay, you got another question, or can I no? What's your thought on the distributing video of these podcasts?

Ben: 21:28

No, it's just uploading. The amount of data in the world is insane.

Scott: 21:34

Yeah.

Ben: 21:35

It's crazy. It's like and we just think it's like it's always turned every cloud. But you need to build a giant data center in the middle of the year.

Scott: 21:55

You have feelings about the amount of things.

Ben: 21:56

And if you wanted to keep your photo out.

Scott: 22:03

Yeah.

Ben: 22:16

Yeah. Not tenderly condemned. Your eyes are closed.

Scott: 22:23

Well it is it is broadcast with some sort of permanent record. I mean, that's what that's what YouTube is. It's just like this. Okay, this is what humans do now. They broadcast video. And it's a huge record. And I wouldn't trust it to last forever. You know, you might want to keep your own copy. Right. That's what I was wondering about. Yeah, there's no there's no natural guarantee that it will last forever. Yeah.

Ben: 23:08

Maybe at the end of the day, it's just there's still stuff that has to be stored.

Scott: 23:18

Right? Yeah. I mean it's kind of it's is it's like there'll be this cliff in, I think we've talked about this in the podcast, but this cliff of data that once things went digital and then once they went in the cloud, it's like then in theory, nothing ever gets lost again.

Ben: 23:45

But it's like every other day, I totally access documents. Right. And if it's like I have no idea how that works. So yeah. Okay. Every time like we upload it, like all computers are two now. How does this hard pattern work?

Scott: 24:30

It's it's probably more reliable to like trust Apple to store your photo library indefinitely. Maybe there'll be problems ahead, I don't know. And I'd still would like a local back. And they facilitate that, they don't fight that. Oh, I just need a dream scrapbooks. Yeah. You? You and your mom? She's got a lot of photos. You just guys gonna need a rock band to play in front of your photo gallery. Can we can I can I apply? You just put together all the photos and I'll just sit there and play really loud drums. I'll play really loud drums.

Ben: 25:33

It's for entertainment purposes while we put together the floor.

Scott: 25:37

If you're trying to get people off the street to come in and see your photo gallery.

Ben: 25:42

No.

unknown: 25:43

Okay.

Ben: 25:55

So that it becomes really difficult for my children, burn children to my house when I die. So they can just be like, here's the book, here's the box, scrabble, everything else, just get it out. Just get it out of my face.

Scott: 26:14

Okay, very considerate. That's why I wanted to. Let me let me know how it goes. Have you ever thought about what we're gonna do with all your journals online?

Ben: 26:27

Yeah. This episode is occupied by paper, by the way. It's very analog. Don't worry about the cloud.

Scott: 26:39

Yeah, I I would I would hope. I know. You'd have to curate it, but there's some space to keep works by me at the cabin. But you gotta curate things. Do you ask me if I expected? Yes, what I expected. That's what I expect.

Ben: 27:20

This is like our friends are gonna die this year. I don't know what the protocol is. Well, it's different different for each person.

Scott: 27:36

It's different for each person. Not everybody has a perpetual is trying to put a piece of property in perpetual trust to which they can give their library, you know. I guess it just means just on a more basic level. How did it feel about it? How do I feel about it? I like the idea of preserving some record. I mean, my journals are like in some of my most inspired inspired times, you know, that's maybe that's part of why I feel positive about it. They're not full of of of I didn't journal when I was depressed. Oh well. Yeah.

Ben: 28:50

No, I don't know if I've ever gotten it. Like deep confusion and like stress. But a lot of it's just around all of this stuff that I I don't want to read, let alone know someone else. But then maybe somehow good be so attached to it like I am.

Scott: 29:17

That would be fun. Yeah, I mean, you're actually just asking how much paper do you want to haul around? You know, and it's like, yeah, yeah, keep keep a keep a favorite box or something. I would say maybe more than paper. I don't know if the thing last. Yeah, I've had times when I've carried several boxes of paper, and then after a while you go, like, why am I doing that? You know, old magazines, all right. Well, every time you move, you go through and go, like, yeah, I haven't looked at these things in 20 years. Am I ever gonna look at them again? Nope. You know, the the the the timeline kind of compresses. But some things you look at and go, I'm glad I kept that. Like what I said, my my filter is probably for things that seem creative that I'm proud of. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Illustrations that or whatever. Did you answer what no? What was the other one? Okay, listener. Phone in now and tell us what the other question was. Yeah, we got a little lost there in the middle. What do you mean? Oh, just that experience of talking and not realizing you're talking. I don't know. I I guess I shouldn't say we. I should say me. So I'm just telling you, listener, that it wasn't me and everything in the middle there. It's somebody else talking. It was more Scott, actually. It was Ross Scott.

Ben: 32:00

Ross. Yeah.

Scott: 32:04

Yeah. Yes. My journals. Wow. Do you have a community? I just got pardon.

unknown: 32:18

Did I?

Ben: 32:19

Did you have any islands?

Scott: 32:21

Oh, okay. Wow. Turn it back on me. Well, I went to open mic on Friday night and s sang a song while playing guitar while accompanied by Mike. That was unique, unique new experience for me. It's like uh not it was doing it in that crowd and doing that song and doing it with full-throated voice, which took a few bit of lessons to figure out how to do it. That was fun. And I'm glad you were there to see it.

Ben: 33:12

Yeah. I had no idea the first song brought it.

Scott: 33:18

Also, is that an street term? Street term. No, it's just like when you use the whole voice, it like you're not repressed for some reason. And most of the times, like when I'm singing in the car, I'm just like, you know, I don't because if I do it full, Peter, no, well, there are those who would say stop. So you've been receiving full throated button. Yeah, yeah. When I took the lessons in whatever singing lessons for those who know how to sing. No, that wasn't it. Yeah, something like that. And yeah, and you had to stand up in front of the class and sing a song. And then the director, Rick, would work your voice, like, do this. Change how your mouth is open this way, change, think of the air flowing through your head this way, and all these terms. And it's good at it.

Ben: 34:31

Acting class. Is it about how you send your voice? And then the acting class. And then the actors critiques advice.

Scott: 34:51

Yeah, right. Yep. So my the song was I Am a Man. No, sorry. Man of Constant Sorrow. And it's I think it's a folk tune, but uh we did the soggy bottom boys version, the one used in Oh Brother, we're out thou the movie by the Comb Brothers who are from Minnesota. We could sponsor them. We could sponsor the uh I already sponsored someone. Who was it? Oh no, I did not not hear that. Was this another?

Ben: 35:43

It must have been you left.

Scott: 35:49

Or maybe some words aren't coming through.

Ben: 35:53

It's been paper. I wonder if you're all getting it like the fact that this flag and that they're just repository. I don't know what we could talk.

Scott: 36:13

It's weird. About two and a quarter seconds after me. Yeah, that's annoying.

Ben: 36:21

You must actually be able to do it. You probably can't hear me. You probably don't hear him.

Scott: 36:27

Yeah. Well, paper. I I'm I'm I'm I'm good. We paper is good for writing things down in a way that doesn't require computers to save it. So though I'm saying paper. And you don't need a giant design of paper. I only use paper accounting. With accounting on computer, it's like I'm not sure I can do it, but if I have a paper trail, I can do it. I I guess that sh means I'm whatever. From the OG pre-computer Luddite. What's a Luddite? Someone that doesn't like it. I don't hate computers. Yeah.

unknown: 37:30

Yeah.

Scott: 37:31

Well hate is a struggle. What's the title of this podcast? This episode.

Ben: 37:41

Don't you have AI do there?

Scott: 37:45

Is it that an interesting? No. Oh, you come up with the one. No. AI is a lot of people. Usually AI is a good one. Well, maybe that's a good thing to do at the end. It's like, well, what was what was this episode about? You know, kind of or is that looking backwards? It's like the podcast was about. Okay.

Ben: 38:09

And this fact that there's this fucking hand in the room with us today. It distracted me for 40 minutes straight.

Scott: 38:17

The talk back. The talk back guy. Okay. Well, say goodbye to him. Yeah, that's that's a that's a trope.

unknown: 38:31

Yeah.

Ben: 38:31

Well, he's gonna be lost to the last data centers, just like everything else, essentially.

Scott: 38:39

Somewhere it'll disappear in twenty twelve when that all happens. Oops. I guess we're by twenty twelve.

Ben: 38:47

Um twenty twelve.