The DNA of Us...Technically

Okay Committed Gang, this week we are diving into the world of vocal stimming and stemming - those repetitive sounds, hums, or phrases that just help you get through a tough or awkward situation. We're also peeling back the layers on the personal rituals and "anchors" that define our individual experiences and personalities. 

So, whether you're someone who constantly hums to yourself, someone who can't sleep without a specific pillow, or just someone curious about the psychology of vocal stims, this episode is just for you. 

Let's chat and yap about it!

Distribution: Buzzsprout

Editing and Production: Riverside.FM Studios

Music: "Good Things Take Time" by Otto.mp3 and Upbeat

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:03

That's not so crispy. It's not crispy at all.

SPEAKER_01 0:06

He cracked open his beer before we could hit the record button. So uh hell yeah, brother. Hell yeah, brother. Do you ever throughout your day think to yourself, damn, my whole vocabulary is nothing but a vocal stim?

SPEAKER_04 0:24

Honestly, I don't really notice until someone says something, and then I'm like, fuck.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

I can relate to that because I feel like I vocal stim in my head all the time, especially at work.

SPEAKER_04 0:37

No same.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

And sometimes I have to stop myself at my nine to five because I really would love to respond to some of these people with if I go to prison for the rest of my life, whoop-dee-doo.

SPEAKER_02 0:47

Why yes?

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Let's chat and yap about it, shall we?

SPEAKER_04 1:22

Welcome, bitches.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

Welcome, bitches. Okay, so did you know the actual definition of a vocal stem? Like prior to this.

SPEAKER_04 1:31

Yeah, because I'm autistic.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

Well, I didn't. And I was like, oh, vocal stem, that sounds fun. You're autistic too. I'm not you know what? And it's so funny because we talked about this. I was like, I've never been diagnosed as autistic. I've never had a diagnosis of ADHD. I'm just flavorful with my life, apparently. It isn't until we start talking about things like mental illness and et cetera, et cetera, where I'm like, oh fuck. Like I sleep with dinosaur hands, I sleep with flamingo legs. Um I do vocal stemming in my head. Sometimes, and when I get home, I do it out loud because I bet Jim is super sick of me doing vocal stems all the time. He does vocal stems too. Let's just be fair.

SPEAKER_04 2:16

So I had really bad uh ADHD. Um so I think it stems from that. But I think I'm slightly on the uh good old spectrum. On the spectrum, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

Hell yeah, brother. Um so for those of you who don't know what vocal stemming is, the Google definition of vocal stemming is self-stimulation behavior involving repetitive vocalized sounds or noises produced by the mouth, lips, or throat. It's common with ADHD and autistic individuals to help regulate emotions and relieve stress.

SPEAKER_04 2:49

Hell yeah. Me too, girl. Me too.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

Which is obviously why we do it. Um, we put together our top five vocal stems, and I feel like this is interchangeable as fuck because mine rotate all the time, but this is my current top five favorite vocal stems. I know you have top five too. You actually have like top 20.

SPEAKER_04 3:10

Girl, I got like a hundred. I got way too many.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

So, what we're gonna do is we're gonna play our vocal stems for you guys because I feel like if we say them, like you guys might laugh, but you if you haven't heard them, you're gonna say it and then you're gonna play it. Oh no.

SPEAKER_04 3:26

Yeah, you gotta do it. Commit, girl.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

Okay. Well, do you wanna go first, Mr. Commit?

SPEAKER_04 3:31

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 3:31

Okay, I would love to. I was very surprised you said yes, actually.

SPEAKER_04 3:34

I'm so excited for this episode. Okay, so my first one is not me, not hominy, you uh. It's from Harry Potter. And this is what it sounds like.

SPEAKER_03 3:49

Not me, not homine, you.

SPEAKER_04 3:53

I add a little emphasis onto the you.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

So when I was writing that down, that I totally forgot that part in that movie. And I was like, ey. Oh, yeah, you did.

SPEAKER_02 4:05

I forgot about that. I was like, what?

SPEAKER_01 4:07

He's like, bitch, please. Come on.

SPEAKER_02 4:09

You're white, you should have seen Harry Potter.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

I love Harry Potter. Obviously, hence, people who don't know, I live in a like a penthouse uh apartment type thing downtown. So we have super high volt ceilings, and poor Jim. I made him hang uh floating candles. It was for Halloween. They've just happened to stay up even like. It is well, cause especially because you know we don't like the big light. So when we just want like dim light, we'll turn on like the side lamp and then we'll put the candles out. It's um on the side table.

SPEAKER_04 4:47

I'm gonna get it because one of them, one of my stems is also there's two from Harry Potter.

SPEAKER_01 4:52

Oh, perfect. Go hold the wand. Okay, my first vocal stamp that has been stemming in my brain since this fucking movie came out, regardless, uh, is from a haunted house. And how it goes is I don't give a fuck, Keisha. Love that shit. I say that all the time, and I really shouldn't. Uh, but it's just how I respond to some people and their fuck ass stupid opinions. So, let me find it. I have to play that for you. I know, well, and that's the that's the fucking kicker about these, he's gonna hate. Because these are gonna have to be their own battery. Yeah. So the ones that don't turn on, he's going to have to replace the battery. No, those are all dead. That's a gym problem. That's not a me problem. Poor Jim.

SPEAKER_03 5:53

I don't give a Keisha.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

That's my favorite. That's my first. He just dropped his wand. I dropped my wand. Okay, what's your number two?

SPEAKER_04 6:06

My number two is. You have been promoted.

SPEAKER_03 6:12

You are now one of my elite employees.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

Brandon does you so well.

SPEAKER_00 6:20

But now you have been promoted. You are now one of my elite employees.

SPEAKER_01 6:33

Okay, my second one is something I say more often again than I should. And it's usually when I can't understand people or I don't know. I have no other way to explain this one. So it goes. Hello? Hero? Hibachi Beniani teriyaki? It's from a scary movie.

SPEAKER_03 7:04

Hello? Hello? Hibachi Beniani teriyaki.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

Fucking love it.

SPEAKER_04 7:18

Uh my number three is. I told you we only needed more glitter.

SPEAKER_03 7:26

Such a good one. Brother. I'm sorry. I told you we needed more glitter.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

My next one, I actually said this last night when Jim and I were going out and I was showing him my outfit. And I went up to him and I said, there we go. All finished. Do I look like a real boy, Papa? And he's just like, Yeah, you look like a real boy. I'm like, perfect. We're ready to go. Here's this vocal stem for you guys.

SPEAKER_04 8:07

There we go. All finished.

SPEAKER_02 8:12

Do I look like a real boy, Papa?

SPEAKER_04 8:19

Uh my number four is why are you gay? Who says I'm gay? You are gay.

SPEAKER_02 8:32

Why are you gay? Who says I'm gay? You are gay.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

It's so good. It's so good. My number four is Oh, Jesus Christ. It's from uh Frank Gallagher on Shameless.

unknown 8:52

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

Wow. Excuse me. That's a vocal stem, but that's not his fifth one.

SPEAKER_04 9:06

That's fine. Okay, my final one is uh from he and Peel. Uh it's one of their skits. I have to get into character.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

Get into character.

SPEAKER_03 9:19

Shut up, mom! Silence from you. Uh you are cut off from talking.

SPEAKER_01 9:29

You don't realize how hard that was for me not to laugh. I wanted you to have your moment.

SPEAKER_04 9:35

And this is what it sounds like.

SPEAKER_03 9:39

KTG sounds wonderful. Silence from you. You're cut off from talking.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

So fucked up. My fifth is from a movie that I love to play as comfort sometimes. It's from Norbit. It's when Respucia is trying to go down a slide, and the little girl says, ma'am, we have a 300-pound weight limit. And she goes, I don't weigh no 300 pounds. I'm 165. How are you during? It's my favorite. So those are our top five current vocal stems that I think we use every day or almost every day.

SPEAKER_04 10:38

Mm-hmm. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

Yeah. So I also threw together some like vocal stem scenarios for us to say vocal stems that may not be in our top five. And again, I'm gonna let you take the rein with this one, baby. So what you mean? I'm gonna let you go first. Oh, okay. Okay. So scenario number one I wrote down is if you were invited to a birthday party, but there was someone that you didn't like that was also gonna be at that birthday party.

SPEAKER_04 11:07

Okay, so Harry Potter again. I'm holding a wand currently. I love it. Um it's from like a TikTok trend, basically, but it's like I'll just do it. Um it's the death spell or the death uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:22

Yeah, I'm dying.

SPEAKER_03 11:31

Wait, hold on. So good.

SPEAKER_04 11:33

I need to I need the I need to You're gonna play it too. I'm gonna play it too.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

Okay, he's gonna play it for you guys. I will not be playing all of mine.

SPEAKER_04 11:38

I can get my voice that high, but I think you did really well.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

Thank you. I love it. Um, I think mine would be from Tyler the creator, um, aka my dad. He is the best thing to walk this earth.

SPEAKER_04 11:57

Did you write this down, girl?

SPEAKER_01 11:58

I did. I wrote the beginning of it because I feel like if I got the beginning of it, then I can do it. Okay. But we're gonna find out.

SPEAKER_03 12:04

You got it, girl.

SPEAKER_01 12:05

Okay, so again, the prompt is if I was invited to a birthday party, but I knew someone that I didn't like was gonna be at the birthday party. And my vocal stem would be, you want to show up to my birthday party with the birthday present for my birthday party and my birthday present? Pshh. And then he hits someone over the head with a glass, and that's what I would respond with. Love for my vocal stem. Um, number two is uh when you didn't understand what someone said the first time.

SPEAKER_04 12:32

No, this is Patrick. Slams the phone down. Is this the crusty crab? No, this is Patrick.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

So mine would be what my number two was, which is the hello, hero, hibachi, biniani, teriyaki. And that's what I respond to. Love. Number three is when something inconveniences you.

SPEAKER_04 12:58

I'll whoop your ass. Your girlfriend look like my mom. From our uh from our dad, uh Tyler the Creator. We love you.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

We love you, Dad. Mine would be it's from Wait, wait.

SPEAKER_04 13:10

We love you, Thick Daddy 27. Thick dick daddy 27, excuse me.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

So Tyler the Creator, aka Thick Dick Daddy 27. Right. It's we quote him, not well, it's not our experience, but that's what he says. Oh, it's my experience. He again for the class.

SPEAKER_04 13:26

What?

SPEAKER_01 13:27

What'd you say? Who said that?

SPEAKER_04 13:30

I said, I said, I said, I wish that was my experience.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

Yep. Ew. Okay, so mine would be it's from Halle Grint Stole Christmas, the Jim Carrey version. And it's when he is riding the sleigh and it's like fucking up and he's bouncing around everywhere. So when someone inconveniences me, I'm just gonna say, I'm going to throw up and die. Okay, what about when someone interrupts you?

SPEAKER_04 14:04

I gotta get into character again.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

Okay, get into character.

SPEAKER_03 14:10

Shut up, mom! Silence from you! You are cut off from talking.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

That's such a great one to use for that prompt. Mine, again, is from our dad. And it's when he's doing how to make waffles. And what's her name? I can't remember what her name is.

SPEAKER_04 14:32

Uh Bonnie.

SPEAKER_01 14:33

Bonnie. And Bonnie keeps interrupting him when he's trying to explain how to make video.

SPEAKER_04 14:37

I need to watch it again. It's been so long.

SPEAKER_01 14:39

I know. How when how to like how to make waffles? And he goes, Oh my god, can you just let me do what I need to do?

SPEAKER_04 14:47

Well, the first one is like, can you shut up and let me do do what I need to do? It's the best. So funny. I love him.

SPEAKER_01 14:56

Okay, I have one more, and it's when you find out that your friend has got back with that one toxic X.

SPEAKER_04 15:02

Okay, so mine's from uh Gordon Ramsay, the chef. Uh so basically it's just like, What are you? I'm an idiot sandwich, chef Ramsey.

SPEAKER_01 15:17

Yes. Mine is so we didn't learn. So we didn't learn from the last time. It's a vocal stim from TikTok. So I think so. Vocal stimming also is obviously something that we use all the time to kind of help us like navigate just life or through certain situations. But there's also some other things that I think we have in our lives that kind of help us in a comforting sense.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 15:50

So since we're talking about the TISM and the ADHD, why not mention these other comfort items that we that we take comfort in, you know?

SPEAKER_03 16:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:01

Um again, what do you got? How many you got? Let's go.

SPEAKER_04 16:06

I let you go first.

SPEAKER_01 16:07

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_04 16:07

Yeah. I've been going first. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

Well, so this is no surprise, I think, to a lot of people in my life. A comfort thing that I love so dearly, and I think it's because it stems back to my childhood and you know, the simpler days. And that's watching pro wrestling.

SPEAKER_04 16:25

What the fuck was that? God, you're white.

SPEAKER_01 16:29

We're gonna take a break. I need to beat his ass.

SPEAKER_04 16:31

It screams, it just screams white people.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

The pro wrestling?

SPEAKER_04 16:35

Yeah, girl. And that little voice that you just did too.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

Oh, did you like that one?

SPEAKER_04 16:39

Yeah, it was like it kind of reminded me of like, where are you?

SPEAKER_01 16:48

I love to break out into like a British accent every now and then. Maybe that's a that's a vocal stem, I think.

SPEAKER_04 16:54

Maybe.

SPEAKER_01 16:55

Oops, okay. Anyways, I love pro wrestling. It's something I've loved since I was a kid. I even went as far, like when I was a child, to want to grow up and be a pro wrestler. Um, obviously that didn't work out in my favor. And my ankles. My ankles probably couldn't ever. If I could bust my ass and try, I feel like my ankles would stop me every time. Oopsies. Um, but yeah, if there's like if I'm overstimulated or what the fuck ever, I will put on old episodes of like WrestleMania or Raw Smackdown, etc. etc. So that's a comfort item for me. I also have like comfort shows and movies. I'm a big movie buff, I'm a big TV buff. I love pop culture in that sense. So, like re-watching Jane the Virgin, uh, rewatching On My Block and um The Pirates of the Caribbean movies. I fuck with the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. I could probably quote the first one verbatim. I love that shit. Um, I'm also really into Disney, and so my favorite Disney princess is Mulan because who doesn't love a feminist? And growing up, fun fact about myself is my very first word was Simba because I watched The Lion King so much. So The Lion King's on, I'm gonna fucking watch it 100%. And then last but not least, I have a comfort like physical item. And I've had this since I was God like seven. I had my tonsils removed, and my again, I think you guys heard me talk about my dad in the previous episode a couple episodes back, and my dad was always working, he was always doing stuff, and I remember going into surgery, and my dad wasn't there, and then I woke up and there was a bear sitting at the end of the bed, and my dad was there, and it's just this little brown bear, and he's fuzzy, and he stayed with me forever. He's actually sitting in my bedroom right now, and his name is Mr. Daddy Bear, and I swear to god, I've t I've told anyone who's ever like meant like something super close to me that when I die, rather you want to bury me or you want to cremate me or what the fuck ever, you better do it with that fucking bear. And so that's like my physical comfort item that I have. That's cute. Isn't it cute? Yeah, and especially it's more sentimental now that my dad's passed on. Sure. So it's like I still have my To keep sick for sure. I have my Mr. Daddy Bear. Mr. Daddy Bear. Yeah. What do you got?

SPEAKER_04 19:37

Um, so I have an addiction and it also feeds back into my autistic uh tendencies. Um I love playing my flight simulator. Actually can attest. Everybody in my anybody who is close to me can attest to that. Uh I play this thing on the goddamn regular, so yeah. Love that. Um this was just like a recent thing, but I started getting I started playing like Minecraft uh a lot on my Switch. Put on a little podcast, build some shit, no, just mindless activities. So I don't have to think about anything. Um Dr. Pepper.

SPEAKER_01 20:15

You're physical.

SPEAKER_04 20:19

I will shove up I will shove an entire can of Dr. Pepper up my pussy.

SPEAKER_01 20:24

Every day.

SPEAKER_04 20:24

Pussy ass.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

Mouth ears eyeballs.

SPEAKER_04 20:30

Love it. Uh that was another stim. Do you know what it's from?

SPEAKER_01 20:37

No.

SPEAKER_04 20:38

It's from uh it's from Hudson Williams.

SPEAKER_01 20:41

Oh, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_04 20:42

Yeah, because he's like, what do you think about the LG? The interviewer was like, what do you think about the LGBTQI8 plus community? Right. He's like, love y'all. Uh that part. Uh anyways. I also have um favorite movies, shows that are I can watch over and over and over again, and I never get tired of them. Uh one of them, one of them is Shawn of the Dead, which is like a It's a zombie movie, but it's more of like comedy. It's scary, but it's also more or less like a comedy aspect to it, too. It's such a good fucking movie. Um so for shows, I have Shits Creek, and I've watched it so many fucking times, it's so funny.

SPEAKER_01 21:27

David!

SPEAKER_04 21:28

Ew, David!

SPEAKER_01 21:29

Ew, David.

SPEAKER_04 21:31

Uh and then also The Office.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

You know what? You and my brother could probably quote The Office for Vader.

SPEAKER_04 21:40

I haven't seen it in a while, and but that's because they took it off of like every social platform. Boo. Streaming network. Streaming, yeah, that's what I'm saying. Yeah. Uh and then another comfort thing, another physical object is Phineas. Even though he's a goddamn monster, I still love him.

SPEAKER_01 21:55

Finn! Shut up, Finn! Damn, I ain't shit. I did not put my cats down. And you want what's so crazy is that I don't think I would be able to live my life the way I live my life without my cats. So um honorable mention, I guess. Um Binks and Thackeray, I love you, and then uh Brasura, my my little girl, she nah she is a bitch, but then that's Jim's cat. But I love her so dearly.

SPEAKER_04 22:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:21

Yeah. So shout out my three black cats.

SPEAKER_04 22:26

One's laying in your purse right now.

SPEAKER_01 22:27

Hey, I can't believe he's still in my purse.

SPEAKER_04 22:29

He's sleeping in your purse.

SPEAKER_01 22:31

I think he's autistic.

SPEAKER_04 22:34

Look at Binky over there.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

And then Binks is on the chair. The beanbag chair. You know what? And that's a bitch to clean because they're black cats and that one's ivory.

SPEAKER_04 22:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

Ugh.

SPEAKER_04 22:44

No, you shouldn't have got that color, girl.

SPEAKER_01 22:46

You know what? And I was just telling Jim this because we're talking about new furniture and stuff. And I said, the couch that we have, we love. We won't want to get rid of it for a while. The only problem I have with it is that it's the quote unquote, the color is fog, which is a mix of like a green and a gray.

SPEAKER_03 23:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:06

And it's so hard to color match.

SPEAKER_03 23:08

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 23:08

I would have to. I told him, I said, we're gonna have to go back to Ashley Furniture and buy the extra sets of that brand.

SPEAKER_04 23:16

I was gonna say, if you want to get rid of it, um, I will happily take it.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

You'll have to probably fight. She loves this couch.

SPEAKER_04 23:24

I don't give a fuck.

SPEAKER_01 23:26

Every time she comes over, that's the first place she goes and she stays. She does not move from that couch. It is a nice couch. It was a very expensive couch.

SPEAKER_04 23:34

I got dibs, motherfucker.

SPEAKER_01 23:36

You heard it here first. Sorry, Gurrid.

SPEAKER_04 23:39

She's gonna fight me one of these days.

SPEAKER_01 23:40

No, she will most likely throw hands. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:44

But I'll No I won't wait.

SPEAKER_01 23:47

Womp womp.

SPEAKER_04 23:48

I'll try though.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

You yeah. But you want to we always say that she's the mouth because she does have a fat ass mouth on her. And I'm the hands. So You are the hands.

SPEAKER_04 23:56

You are indeed the hands.

SPEAKER_01 23:58

She's like, I never have to worry if I was to get into an altercation with someone because I would just talk the shit and then I say, hands, where are you? And then here I come. I love that.

SPEAKER_04 24:08

Ready to fuck some shit up. Yeah, literally.

SPEAKER_01 24:11

Alright. So this was kind of a short episode, but it was so fun. We've been wanting to do this. Yes. Um, so again, speaking of comforts, we're kind of closing it out. We're starting it, and we're gonna keep it going. What's your rotation song of the week, Papa?

SPEAKER_04 24:26

Hmm, um, I'm gonna say Imposed by Bad Omens.

SPEAKER_01 24:31

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_04 24:32

Very good one. Very good. Yeah. Bad Omens is just such a good thing. We love her and we love Noah. Yeah. Noah could we get into that. What about you, Mary?

SPEAKER_01 24:43

So I've been into the song called The World The World Will End for Us by Moral. Um, again, it's another like sexy, slutty, heavy rock. I don't know, it just does something to me.

SPEAKER_04 24:56

Cunty. Very much so. You want it also's cunti?

SPEAKER_01 24:59

What is that?

SPEAKER_04 25:00

Next week's episode.

SPEAKER_01 25:02

Ooh, uh, get to sabe. The thing about next week's episode, actually, is Mr. Um Brandon, my lavender husband, he is actually gonna be in Vegas doing fun things. So it will actually be the first episode I do by myself. So everyone listen and be nice to me so I don't cry.

SPEAKER_04 25:22

You'll do great, sweetie.

SPEAKER_01 25:23

I go.

SPEAKER_03 25:24

We're doing amazing, sweetie.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

We're doing amazing, sweetie. But, anyways, another stim. Another stim. Until you guys tune in next week. I'm Ashley.

SPEAKER_04 25:33

And I'm Brandon. And this is Committed Technically.

SPEAKER_01 25:36

Okay, bye.