Introductions

Forget “please allow me to introduce myself” or “my name is….” What if your introduction were a song, or a mesmerizing opening credit sequence, or maybe even a reference you can’t stop thinking about? This episode is about the art of introduction through music, because before a single word is spoken, music can tell us exactly who we’re meeting and what kind of world we're about to enter.

SONGS:

Terry Zwigoff’s Ghost World Opening Title Sequence (2001)

 The Adventures of Pete and Pete Intro (1993) 

RESOURCES AND REFERENCES:

Freaky Friday Title Sequence (1976)

“Jaan Pehechan Ho” from Gumnaam (1965)

Noir Meets Nawathe: Close-Up on "Gumnaam" (Bedatri D.Choudhury)

Stereothematica Get Up and Dance Playlist

Cosmopolitanism, Remediation, and the Ghost World of Bollywood (David Novak)

Three Things You Never Knew About Ghost World (Dazed Digital) 

Why a Fake Band From a 1990s Kids' Show Decided to Tour This Year (Wired)

Critic’s Notebook: Polaris rising: Mark Mulcahy’s ‘Pete and Pete’ band comes to town (LA Times) 

Catching Up with the Cast of The Adventures of Pete & Pete (Consequence of Sound)

The Adventures of Danny and Mike (podcast)

Connect with us on Instagram (to share your song picks or troll us), Spotify (for our ever-growing playlist), and Stereothematica.com (for extra fun)!

If you like what you’re hearing, please subscribe, and if you love it, a five-star rating and review would send us into the exosphere of excitement.

And email us at stereothematica@gmail.com! We will write back! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:04

I'm Christine. And I'm Christina. In 2024, I moved to Texas from LA. And to keep in touch, Christine and I started a weekly game where we each pick a song that fits a chosen theme.

SPEAKER_03 0:14

This game deepened our understanding of each other and the songs that shape us, inspiring the podcast you're listening to now. Each week we share our pics, swap stories, and dig into tracks you might love and a lot of the time have never heard of.

SPEAKER_04 0:27

Welcome to Stereo Thematica, your favorite atypical music podcast.

SPEAKER_03 0:35

Hey there. Hi Christine. So this might sound convoluted, but when I was preparing for this episode, I was thinking it would be fun if we each share what we thought of each other early on in our friendship based on something like a piece of media the other shared with the other. Oh yeah, that's fun. Does that mean that? Yeah, totally.

SPEAKER_04 1:01

Do you want to go first?

SPEAKER_03 1:02

Yeah, yeah. So, okay, for me, the thing that stands out the most, can you guess?

SPEAKER_04 1:07

I know, actually.

SPEAKER_03 1:09

Okay, so this is from the early days, I think 2022.

SPEAKER_04 1:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:13

Okay. I forget the exact context, but you sent me a clip. You can't skip lunch from Tim Robinson's I think you should leave. Do you remember this?

SPEAKER_04 1:25

I definitely remember because this was like a thing where people would ask us to have meetings during the lunch hour, which is so crazy. And you were really, you were like one of the most steadfast people in going to lunch, like literally leaving your office.

SPEAKER_03 1:42

Shut down everything by like 11:45.

SPEAKER_04 1:45

Yeah, and like leaving and going to get lunch. And so anytime I knew that you would like somebody put a lunchtime meeting on your calendar, you would be like, I don't think you're allowed to do that.

SPEAKER_03 1:57

I was furious. And then you just popped in, I think through I was it through Teams or Ben Teams. But it was so funny. So now whenever like someone has a meeting around that time, I'll say you can't skip lunch. But I say it not in the Tim Robinson's voice, but in your voice. You can skip lunch. And so I will always associate that with you.

SPEAKER_04 2:22

That is incredible. That makes me so happy and like glad that it's lived on. And also that reminds me of how because we used to communicate a lot on Teams. Then one day you were like, I'm not using Teams anymore. And I was like, that's the most like badass move you can do at work. Cause like everybody just has to use Teams. It's pretty important. Not me.

SPEAKER_02 2:45

Well, I'm back on teams. Oh boom. I know. Boom. Pathetic. I I had to get back on.

SPEAKER_03 2:51

But yeah. So okay, what about me? What was it that I shared with you that gave you more insight into who I was?

SPEAKER_04 3:00

Well, mine, um oddly enough, is music related. Because I remember, because we were just like getting to know each other over the summer or that first summer that I was working with you. And I remember you were putting together a playlist for someone else, but it was like you were putting together this playlist and and infusing all your, you know, your picks, which was really cool. And you sent it to me and asked for ideas. And I was like going through and we didn't, we really didn't know each other very well at that point. And I was like, wow, this is a lot of cool music, like interesting music and stuff that I was listening to, and I hadn't heard it for the I had never heard it. And so then I was sharing stuff with you, and we were kind of going back and forth and swapping music pics, which is so funny now, obviously. But I remember then being like, Oh, okay, she's cool. Yeah, yeah, and this is a cool person that like has good music taste and like can talk about why they like this stuff or like deep cuts and whatever. So that was a really nice, like you know, do you know what it like, especially when you're working with someone, when you have that opportunity to be like, oh, you aren't just like a soulless hack.

SPEAKER_03 4:11

For sure. And that's but that's also why I love you can't skip lunch. Yeah, because it's I mean, it's hilarious. So it it definitely like set the tone for your sense of humor, but it also it was just like this connection of like the craziness of like, how could people skip lunch?

SPEAKER_04 4:29

Yeah, like you got it, so totally, yes, and that is funny because that's I will say, I think you should leave is one of the things that I'm like most obnoxiously obsessed with. And so like for you to be like, oh, this reminds me of you, I'm like that makes perfect sense.

SPEAKER_03 4:46

No, for sure. You can definitely learn a lot about a person by what they like and what they choose to reveal early on, as as we just shared. But that brings me to today's theme. Introductions.

SPEAKER_04 5:01

Nice.

SPEAKER_03 5:02

I actually had to look back at the text I sent you when I shared this theme. I simply said introductions, and that it was open to interpretation, and then I added, I'm going with a movie, obviously. Do you remember this?

SPEAKER_04 5:17

No, actually, and it's funny because I was trying to look back through the text too. Like I was looking at introductions, and my phone did that annoying thing. It was like, we'll we'll share more when it's done indexing. I'm like, you liar. But I couldn't find anything, so actually, it took me forever to work on this episode. Because I was like, what the hell were we talking about?

SPEAKER_03 5:38

You could have asked me, but um I feel like you when I shared the theme, I think there was this like, oh, this is like, yeah, I was thinking of something like this.

SPEAKER_04 5:48

Oh, okay, interesting. I was thinking of something like this.

SPEAKER_03 5:51

Yeah, meaning you were you were also thinking about something like this. Okay. Maybe not in the same way that I was thinking about it, but like an introduction type thing.

SPEAKER_04 6:02

I mean, it's a good one. I'd I'd love to hear your elaboration on this.

SPEAKER_03 6:08

So I've always loved an opening title sequence. The first one I remember is Freaky Friday, the original Freaky Friday from the 70s with Cody Foster. You're familiar with that one, right?

SPEAKER_04 6:20

I think I might have known at one point, but it's actually, I'm like, what? Who is the mom? I forget her name. That's okay. Jody's the star.

SPEAKER_03 6:28

Yeah, she's clearly she was so cool in that movie. Really? Yeah, I think it was the first movie I saw in the theater as a kid, but that's like my first real memory of being like, wow, movies are so cool, and like music opening up the movie and introducing you to the characters is just like so amazing. And they were cartoons. The the opening credit sequence is the cartoon versions of them. Okay it's very cute. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 6:55

I do love a cartoon version, yeah. Opening credit. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:58

Yeah. For sure. So now my college senior thesis was basically about how Hitchcock's opening titles tell you what kind of neurosis you're about to enter. So yeah, I've been obsessed with cinematic introductions for a long time.

SPEAKER_04 7:15

That tracks.

SPEAKER_03 7:16

Yeah, yeah. And for me, the best musical introductions are in movies. Aside from your pick, Christina, do you have any other favorites? And it doesn't have to be from a movie, like favorite introduction songs.

SPEAKER_04 7:30

What would a favorite introduction song be if it wasn't in a movie?

SPEAKER_03 7:33

I feel like the one that comes to my mind right away is Sympathy for the Devil.

SPEAKER_04 7:38

Oh, like that sort of thing. That kind of introduction. Yeah. Oh, that's a really good one.

SPEAKER_03 7:43

I mean, that's that's another theme, and that's kind of where when I sent it to you, I thought that's not that song, but actually, maybe even that I was wondering if you'd pick that song.

SPEAKER_04 7:54

That is such a good song. And I do feel like it's I don't I do think it's so overplayed that it would be one of the things that I'm like, I don't feel like I can even choose it because it's like so ubiquitous. Yeah. But now I'm trying to think of like the only other one that I can think of where somebody's like introducing themselves is Jay-Z, you know, and he's like, Allow me. I hate Jay-Z.

SPEAKER_03 8:17

So but I do feel like there is a lot of hip-hop songs at first. It would definitely be like introductions. Yeah, good call.

SPEAKER_04 8:24

Okay, Cynthia for the Devil is a really good one.

SPEAKER_03 8:26

Yeah, no, that's it's it's funny, but you're right, it it is overplayed and and not we try to avoid those ones.

SPEAKER_04 8:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:33

Um, when possible, sometimes just exactly right.

SPEAKER_04 8:36

We can do like an I would god, I would love to do that most overplayed song that's still good.

SPEAKER_03 8:42

Yeah, oh, that's okay.

SPEAKER_04 8:44

We can do that.

SPEAKER_03 8:46

Um so anyway, I've got a lot to say about my pick, so should we just get to it?

SPEAKER_04 8:50

Yeah, jump in.

SPEAKER_03 8:51

So my choice for introductions is Dan Pei Tan Ho by the legendary Bollywood music writing duo known as Shankar Jaikashan, sung by Mohammed Rafi, originally from the 1965 Hindi language mystery movie Gum Nam, which was loosely adapted from Agatha Christie's novel and then there were none. But I've chosen this song for my pick because it brilliantly introduces us to the character Enid in the 2001 movie Ghost World. So only after I chose this as my song for this theme did I learn that the title means let's get acquainted. I mean, that in itself is so exciting to me. Yeah. But there's more. Oh, say more. Oh my god, so much more. So Gum Nam, the name of the film it originally comes from, means anonymous. So that makes a perfect pairing for Ghost World, which is a movie about people who feel alienated and yes, anonymous. So, Christina, I remember you saying that you hadn't seen this movie, but are you generally familiar with it?

SPEAKER_04 10:22

I definitely know the movie. I know there was like a big splash when it came out because it was Scarlett Johansson in one of her earlier roles, but then also um Thora Birch. Thank you, Thora Birch, who is like a child actor. So this was a fun one for her to be like a teen or however old she was. And just like kind of two, I don't want to call them nerdy girls, but they were like were they goths?

SPEAKER_03 10:47

Were they yeah, they were more like just outcasts, okay, yeah. So so yeah, very this is very much the movie. It was released in 2001. It's based on the comic book of the same name written by Daniel Klaus, who also co-wrote the script with Terry Zweigoff, who directed it. And the movies primarily about Enid Thora Birch and Rebecca Scarlett Johansson, they're just about ready to graduate from high school. In fact, the opening scene is their high school graduation, and they're just two like cynical outsiders drifting through their suburbia, mocking everyone around them. Steve Buscemi plays another outcast. He's a lonely record collector who, like, yeah, Enid befriends him and tries to help set him up. Oh. It's actually quite sweet.

SPEAKER_04 11:35

Okay. And there's no problematic undertones.

SPEAKER_03 11:38

I mean, there are probably I haven't seen it since then, but since 2001. 2001. So there's likely something problematic.

SPEAKER_04 11:46

I know things were really problematic back then. Oh, yeah. I mean, they're bad now, but but it was bad back then.

SPEAKER_03 11:53

I mean, even worse before that. But but anyway, 2001, I don't have memories of it being too problematic, but I was 28 years old. And and I saw this in, I think, in the theater. And I don't know, seeing, I just saw myself in these these misfits, especially Enid, and and feeling proud for that, like, I don't know, 16, 17-year-old like Rebel that I was.

SPEAKER_02 12:16

Nice.

SPEAKER_03 12:17

Yeah. I have to admit though, I actually had forgotten about this title sequence until our friend Ognan added this song to our get up and dance playlist. Oh.

SPEAKER_04 12:28

Yeah. Do you remember that? I think I actually do. Yeah. And that's funny because I did not have any context for why the song would get added, but it is a bop.

SPEAKER_03 12:37

Yeah, totally. And we'll share that playlist in our show notes.

SPEAKER_04 12:41

Nice.

SPEAKER_03 12:41

I think it's permanently shared in the show notes, actually. Oh, interesting. It's definitely on our link tree on our Instagram. Oh, yeah. But so I remember like thinking, like, how do I know the song? Because it was so familiar and so good. And then I, you know, quick Google and the memories came flooding back. Nice. So, Christina, you have watched the sequence? Definitely. It's very cute. Good, good, good. So, for everyone who hasn't, of course, it'll be in the show notes, but it starts with the black screen, and you hear the opening drumbeat, and then you get straight to the nightclub performance that's in the movie, the original movie, Gum Num. And then the camera starts panning like through the windows of these lonely people smoking, picking their nose, watching TV in their underwear. And that contrast is just so crazy because the performers are ecstatic, they're shaking their heads, they're doing their arms and their hands thing. It's like this choreographed happy exorcism. It's so good. And then we eventually go through the window of Enid and see her dancing along with the performers, like from the movie that's on her bedroom TV, and she's wearing her graduation gown, and she's just like so in this world, and it's so glorious. But it was like a perfect introduction to her brain in a way that I completely relate to.

SPEAKER_04 14:04

That just like losing yourself into something so specific, especially before a very like annoying like group gathering as a high school graduation, or seemingly like something that is like built up to be like a really important thing that you might not feel like, oh, just like the end of this requirement.

SPEAKER_03 14:26

Exactly. I mean, it's high school graduation. Yeah, it's not that big of a deal. So there's so much going on with that sequence. I had to Google around to see like if there was a reason Swy Goff chose it as the introduction to his movie and the main character. And according to an article in Days Digital, he saw a short clip of it on a VHS tape. He loved it and just decided to use it in Ghost World. And he said it wasn't too logical an idea, but I knew I had to do it. So talk about serendipity. That was just like, I don't know, perfect. Like all these things that I'm learning about it, I'm just like, oh, it makes me giddy. I also found a piece published in cultural anthropology by an ethnomusicologist at UC Santa Barbara, David Novak, and it's called Cosmopolitanism, Remediation and the Ghost World of Bollywood. And I gotta say, it's a must-read for anyone who's fascinated by the use of this song in the movie.

SPEAKER_04 15:24

Who knew we would reference so many ethnomusicologists in this podcast?

SPEAKER_03 15:28

I know, right? We do this often.

SPEAKER_04 15:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:30

Well, I think that's that's the beauty of this podcast is we're researching and we're not just going to Wikipedia. We want to learn more and and and we like we're kind of geeky sometimes, and we like to get into the scholarly article.

SPEAKER_04 15:43

I mean, I totally agree with you, but I still think people should donate to Wikipedia.

SPEAKER_03 15:47

Yeah, I know, I know. And and oftentimes I will start with Wikipedia and then they reference something and then go to that. So exactly right. Yeah, yeah. No, I I love it. But so for for Novak, the song Jan Pei Chan Ho keeps being repurposed across contexts from Gum Nam to VHS collector culture to underground music scenes to ghost world. And he says it's about people forming identities through these acts of reuse, which we're kind of seeing with Enid's character. But he talks about Bollywood musical numbers being kind of built to detach from the plot of the movies. So when Chan Pei Chan Ho appears in Ghost World, it's using something already made for reintroductions, which I don't know. I like to think about it like that. It's it just makes perfect sense in an in a very confusing way. Also, as you can kind of hear, the song is an Indian cinematic fantasy of Western music with its use of the serve guitar. So in Ghost Worlds, Zwigoth is reintroducing a Bollywood reimagining of Western pop back into American culture. Does that make sense? It's Laird. Yeah, no, I mean, David Novak, that's nice thinking there. So um Mohammed Rafi was one of the most influential playback singers of Hindi cinema. And Novak's article says that viewers are used to hearing like these famous voices emerge from many different screen bodies, which creates a productive split between body and voice, and that singers like Rafi are familiar but different presences, like these voices that return across many actors and many scenes. So again, in Ghost World, Rafi's voice enters before we understand the characters or even the context. But then, okay, there's the composer duo, Shankar Jaikashan, who are so renowned that the Indian Postal Service even released a stamp in 2013 bearing their image. Nice. Yeah, it's it's a cute stamp. So this composition is just so rich with the surf guitar, but also that big band brass orchestration. And the rhythm really does tell you, thanks, Ognan, get up and dance. I I don't know, I just I can't get over how great it is. Like Ghost World begins with a song that literally says, let's get acquainted, life will be easier. Then it gives Aid a person who desperately wants to be recognized, but like rejects almost every available way of belonging. I don't know, how perfect is that? I think Shalendra would be proud.

SPEAKER_04 19:01

Right? I mean Yeah, it's almost like um, no, I don't know. There is something there that it feels like, what did you say? Like the simplicity and depth. Like there's a lot of depth, but there's also that superficial element to it.

SPEAKER_03 19:13

Yeah. I think that's part of the nature of those like Bollywood dance numbers, like like Novak was saying. But then in this case, it's just like so powerful in how it like kind of just previews what we're going to experience weirdly. No, no. Nice.

SPEAKER_04 19:30

It's a good introduction.

SPEAKER_03 19:31

Yeah, right. Yeah. So um, I'm very curious to learn more about your introduction.

SPEAKER_04 19:39

Totally. And you know, listener, as you'll know, I have now with my foil, I am in very less deep on my pick. And I went my own way, I think. Because when you said introductions, I I truly can't remember back to that experience, but I am now like, oh, this is a good intro theme song.

SPEAKER_02 19:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 19:59

So in that vein, I picked Hey Sandy by Polaris, which was the theme song that played during the opening credits for the 90s kids' TV show, The Adventures of Pete and Pete. So you are confirming that you did not know anything about this show.

SPEAKER_03 20:16

Nothing at all. Before I share this with you. Yeah, okay. And in even in watching the intro, still nothing. Like nothing, it's not like a dog deni memory.

SPEAKER_04 20:24

That's it. But it was very cute. Yeah. And it I would love for anyone who has not seen the show or is not unfamiliar or maybe loved the show and hasn't thought about it in 30 years to go watch the link that we'll share because what you see in these opening credits to Pete and Pete, which I'll just call from now on, because that's what I called it when I was a kid, too. It's a montage of the show's characters, brothers, Big Pete and Little Pete. So they are brothers, but they both have the same name. I was wondering about that. Yeah. I mean, it it's such a god, I can't wait to talk about this show. It's so zany. So, okay, there's Big Pete and Little Pete, their mom, the plate in their mom's head, their dad, Big Pete's best friend and sort of crush, Ellen, Artie, the strongest man in the world, Nona, played by Michelle Trackenberg, R.I.P., and Petunia, Little Pete's Sailor Jerry style tattoo. And they're all this montage is all like showing up while this band, Polaris, is rocking out in the front yard of a home. So I love it because it just feels so perfectly this era of the 90s to me. And it just really takes me back to my childhood and that time frame, which felt you know a lot simpler and a lot more just careful. Free and whatnot. But one thing I did not know about this band, Polaris, is it's actually a fake band that formed us for this television show.

SPEAKER_03 22:09

Yeah, I've never heard of them, which I haven't heard a lot of a lot of the things that you share. So that wasn't making me think something was up. But totally.

SPEAKER_04 22:22

But I had no idea either. And like I just had assumed like this is a band that exists. And you know, you can you can hire cool bands to like play for your TV show or whatever it is. Yeah, friends. I mean, right?

SPEAKER_03 22:36

Friend, I don't even know the band.

SPEAKER_04 22:39

That is funny because that would be a really good trivia question. Yeah, I also don't know.

unknown 22:43

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 22:44

I don't know. Uh Thomas is like yelling at us right now. Yeah, I know. Some listener is also screaming. Anyway, I the one thing I like, of course, I like this song, but like I think the band actually sounds pretty good and it's pretty on par with like what the music style was at the time. Sorry, my mic. And I like that it was being utilized on a kids' TV show because can I admit something a little bit corny? I think I like that there was this cool band element to a kid's show because it made me feel cool as a child while I was watching it. Do you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03 23:19

Of course. Yeah, I could totally see that.

SPEAKER_04 23:21

Yeah, it's almost like yeah, like I'm I'm cool too. I like Pete and P, you know, and I'm yeah, who knows? I think it came out like in '93 when I would have been like five and watching it. Okay. So I probably watched it on reruns, but still it was like kind of one of those. It was formative though. Yeah. And the thing that's really funny about this show is that it wasn't really fluffy. It was actually very funny. It was very weird. It gave kids credit for knowing more than some might assume, you know, which is also one of the reasons why I love peanuts. But it challenged kids to think or maybe even just be exposed to the absurd.

SPEAKER_03 24:00

Can I say something? Yeah, please. Because again, I've only watched the opening credits, but as I'm watching it, I'm thinking like this formed your sense of humor in a way. Probably. Because it's very, it's very silly and and absurd.

SPEAKER_04 24:17

Yeah, extremely silly, extremely absurd. I mean, and that was something that I love that it was like for someone my age, but you could tell that if the parent wandered into the room or were watching it, or some college kid was watching it while they were, you know, smoking a joint or something, then they get a kick out of it too.

SPEAKER_05 24:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:34

But yeah, I think you're totally right. And a little background on the show is that it actually began on Nickelodeon in 1989 as like minute-long and 30-second shorts that aired as interstitials, but it aired as a full-fledged half-hour TV show from 93 to 96. So not even like I think four seasons maybe, but pretty short run and very what I opine is to be a high impact. But Polaris, that band, you know, the made-up band and the opening credits, they're actually members of an existing band, or there was an existing band at the time called Miracle Legion, which was a New England band who the show's creators, Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi, liked and wanted to work with for Pete and Pete. So as the show's house band, Polaris ended up producing 12 songs over the three seasons, including the theme song called Hey Sandy. The funny thing, too, is that based on their like success, I would say, or maybe just their experience with this show, they went on to release an album of the songs that they created for the show called Music from the Adventures of Pete and Pete. And then in 2014 and 15, they actually went on tour as this band playing music from the album and then released new music under this project, as well as releasing that album on vinyl. Mine is more like the intro to a show. I love that this actually sets the tone for what the kids' TV show will be about, which is introducing kids to some fun music and an experience that feels like maybe not so kid-ish. Yeah. So it could be like an introduction of, oh, this is the first time somebody's like, you know, treating me, I don't want to say like an adult because that's too much, but just not treating me like a little kid, which I like. And I do want to highlight some of the cool guest stars that they had on this show, just because it was a very fun, weird, funky show. But they had Debbie Harry, Richard Edson, who was Sonic East's original drummer, Janine Garofalo, Juliana Hatfield, Luscious Jackson, LL Cool Jay, Alicia Keys when she was extremely young, Kate Pearson from the B-52s, Michael Stipe, and Patty Hurst. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03 27:10

This is a very hip show.

SPEAKER_04 27:12

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. And it's just so funny. Like, I have to imagine maybe people were like, ooh, I want to be on Pete and Pete too. Yeah. You know. Oh my God. That's great.

SPEAKER_03 27:22

Um are you able to watch this anymore?

SPEAKER_04 27:24

I think you could probably watch it on YouTube. Yeah. I actually am I'm gonna check it out tonight and see if there's something I can watch. But because of I think their success and like the indie appeal, the band had a little bit of a cult following, and just like the show did. And they even played several Pete and Pete related shows on top of their own tour, like reunion type shows, including, yeah, the Pete and Pete reunion event at Cinna Family, where they were like truly delighted to see so many audience members like singing along to the music and then participating in Comic Con in New York City. So even though they had their own thing going with Miracle Legion, I think it's just so fun that this kid's show was too cool for its own good and even introduced this band to a whole new audience.

SPEAKER_03 28:14

So a little bit of a left turn, but yeah, I know, but it but not in a way, it's it's still about setting the tone and introducing characters and the feeling and what it does to you. And I I feel like we I don't know, very similar situations.

SPEAKER_04 28:32

And I think that's like the fun part too, is like you can watch a TV show or maybe even a movie intro, and it can make you either want to watch it or not. And if I were like truly, even today, if I had never seen this show and I watched this introduction, I would be like, I'm gonna watch an episode of that.

SPEAKER_03 28:51

Yeah, that's how I felt I'm like, oh, this is really cool.

SPEAKER_04 28:54

Yeah, so it's a nice, it's it's so important. It's like the make or break. That's why we didn't even talk about this. Our intro music to this podcast. It was a big discussion for us.

SPEAKER_03 29:05

Oh, yeah. We went, we like considered many different choices. We had one and then we're like, no, and I had another, and then we had no. But I I do feel like this one is is the best. Well, cool, cool theme. Yeah, and no good good selection. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for for playing along with me.

SPEAKER_04 29:25

Totally.

SPEAKER_03 29:26

Always so now can I give you some unsolicited advice? Uh, what is it now? Embrace the takedown book, especially when written by an astrophysicist. Uh, okay, I'm listening. Are you sick of hearing about the impending singularity? Did you gag a bit when you learned what a polycule was? Are you over billionaires who think civilization can be fixed with Mars colonies and looks maxing while jerking off to their transhumanist expansionist fantasy?

SPEAKER_04 30:00

Uh, any chance effective altruism is part of this equation?

SPEAKER_03 30:04

You betcha. And if you're not willing to succumb to the tech bros bullying you into thinking they're cool, then the book More Everything Forever. Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley's Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity by astrophysicist Adam Becker is for you. I like the sound of this tech bro takedown. And if the title doesn't win you over, maybe the fact that Becker doesn't treat this dystopic future as inevitable will. Though I haven't finished the book in the process, I feel like he's reminding us that we do have the power to choose a more just and humane future.

SPEAKER_04 30:42

Amen.

SPEAKER_03 30:43

Advice over. Christina, do you want to give the listeners a hint about next week's theme? Yes.

SPEAKER_04 30:50

Next week we're getting grungy.

SPEAKER_03 30:53

Thanks for listening to Stereo Thematica. If you like what you're hearing, please consider a review, a rating, or sharing with a friend.

SPEAKER_04 31:00

And follow us on Instagram at Stereothematica, where you can share your favorite introduction songs. Of course, we've also got our Infinite Spotify playlist linked in our show notes.

SPEAKER_03 31:10

And visit stereothematica.com for more fun.