Or, Learn Parkour: An ADHD Podcast

OLP 009: If a Man Asks for Help, You Help Him

November 30, 2020 Season 1 Episode 9
Or, Learn Parkour: An ADHD Podcast
OLP 009: If a Man Asks for Help, You Help Him
Show Notes Transcript

In episode nine of Or, Learn Parkour... it might take us a hot minute to get there, Jordan and Lex do dive into the opportunities and resources for ADHD folks in mutual aid. Band together with us as we talk solidarity, neighborly love, Canadian comedy as a model of direct action, snuggly parkas, and also using cargo containers as brass knuckles, when need be. 

Thanks for listening!

CW/TW: Mental health, ADHD, mild language, loud noises/bleeped swears, discussions of pandemic-related isolation and natural disasters, action film violence

Credits:

Cover art by: Krizia Perito

Theme: There Is A Dark Place

Wholehearted Production Co.


Socials:

Twitter

Instagram

Ko-Fi


Mental Health Resources:

openpathcollective.org

thelovelandfoundation.org

opencounseling.com


Mutual Aid Resources:

African American/Black Diaspora ADHD Peer Support Group

CHADD Group Locator

Food not Bombs

Gig Workers Collective

Mutual Aid Hub

Idealist.com Mutual Aid Group Search

Mutual Aid Disaster Relief Network

Mutual Aid 101 Toolkit, from  Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and  organizer Mariame Kaba

American Friends Service Committee Mutual Aid Guide

(00:00:00):

[Intro Music: There Is A Dark Place by Tom Rosenthal].

Jordan (00:00:28):

Hi, I'm Jordan.

Lex (00:00:29):

And I'm Lex.

Jordan (00:00:29):

And this is Or, Learn Parkour.

Lex (00:00:32):

This is a podcast about ADHD done by two people who, who, who really do. We really have ADHD.

Jordan (00:00:38):

We have gotten our booties kicked by ADHD the last couple of weeks team, so thanks for sticking with us here.

Lex (00:00:45):

Yeah, I think we're not alone in the fact that the entire month of November, or has it just been a decade in one month? Whose to say.

Jordan (00:00:54):

The entire decade of November.

Lex (00:00:56):

Yeah, has been rough. Now imagine that, but mentally ill.

Jordan (00:01:00):

Yee-haw.

Lex (00:01:02):

Yeah. Thank you for being patient with us. Uh, we had recorded this episode and we didn't feel like it was up to our normal standard. And so we wanted to re-record this and try to get back on the proverbial horse.

Jordan (00:01:18):

We're just all aboard that Western metaphor today.

Lex (00:01:21):

You said yee-haw and I was like horses. I don't know.

Jordan (00:01:27):

We got them horses in the back as Lil Nas X foretold.

Lex (00:01:31):

I can't, I cannot stand you. I'm gonna move out now.

Jordan (00:01:34):

Aren't you so glad we have a podcast together.

Lex (00:01:40):

I hate you so much.

Jordan (00:01:40):

Love you too.

Lex (00:01:40):

Um, yeah, horses.

Jordan (00:01:44):

No, I respect it.

Lex (00:01:45):

You know.

Jordan (00:01:45):

We're sticking together on this theme and I love it and I was never a horse girl, so I'm not quite sure what material I've accumulated to keep rolling, but I'll do my best.

Lex (00:01:55):

That's fair. Yeah no, my latent horse girl energy, if it wasn't clear already, I'm here to let you know that I was in fact, the horse girl.

Jordan (00:02:02):

She sure was.

Lex (00:02:04):

Not a rich horse girl. Like not the type of horse school that could actually own horses and s*** like that. But I definitely still rode horses for most of my young life.

Jordan (00:02:15):

But I feel like the scrappy horse girl is a very powerful mood because it's not just, like I asked for a horse and I got it. It's a like I went out and did the work and found horse.

Lex (00:02:26):

Yeah. You know, me, I just went out into the wild like f***ing Pokemon at the wee age of eight years old and just found a giant hoofed animal and I was like, I'm going to ride that.

Jordan (00:02:35):

Is that not how that works?

Lex (00:02:35):

No. You would think though, from every single movie about horses.

Jordan (00:02:43):

Yeah. I didn't have wilds or like fields or prairies growing. I just had sand.

Lex (00:02:47):

Well and your family also isn't a farming family and you weren't in a super rural community and you didn't do 4H.

Jordan (00:02:55):

I did do 4H actually. But-

Lex (00:02:58):

You did?

Jordan (00:02:58):

I did, I did do 4H but it was more the like home making type stuff?

Lex (00:03:02):

Okay. So you did like the crafts and everything?

Jordan (00:03:05):

I sure did the crafts. I entered some decorated cakes. I won some things for decorated cakes. I did like a cooking demonstration. Shout out to Caitlin Forbes, my smoothie partner in crime there. Love you girl.

Lex (00:03:17):

I had a bunny named Roxy after the character in Chicago. Mind you-

Jordan (00:03:24):

At what age?

Lex (00:03:24):

I was in fourth grade.

Jordan (00:03:25):

Oh, incredible.

Lex (00:03:27):

And I showed her at the Van Buren County Youth Fair.

Jordan (00:03:31):

How'd she do?

Lex (00:03:32):

We got, I want to say fourth place.

Jordan (00:03:36):

Hey that's not. Well, I, how that's not bad. I was going to ask how many rabbits but I'm gonna let you have that.

Lex (00:03:41):

I don't, I don't remember anything. I just like remember that my rabbit had a harness and a leash and I had to learn all of the different parts of a rabbit and how to, like, you have to like flip them over and like handle them in front of the judges. And you have to like prove your knowledge of rabbit body parts. And here's the thing it's really cute when it's like a velvet rex rabbit, which is what I had when it's like a rabbit that is specifically meant to be a pet or a show animal. Um, because a lot of the rabbits that are shown at fairs are for meat. And so that's why like when you see people showing calves, steers, dairy cows, obviously don't have, you don't have to sell your dairy cow for meat because they're a dairy cow. You can, but you know, uh, you have to memorize all of the different portions of muscle and meat on all of these different animals.

Jordan (00:04:37):

It's like smacks roof of cow. This baby can fit so many meating's in it for you and your family.

Lex (00:04:42):

Yeah, a little bit. Not that callous, thank you for that. But like, it is really interesting to think about how, like I showed a calf when I was in fifth grade, or I almost showed a calf, there was some weird, I don't, my memory is so hazy when it comes to the youth fair too, because my memory is hazy about everything, but it is weird, but I, yeah, that's fair. Yeah. And also I think aging.

Jordan (00:05:06):

Also true.

Lex (00:05:06):

Yeah no, I had a calf and I'm assuming nothing good happened to her, but also I was in fifth grade so I don't know. Anyways yeah so I don't, this is wildly off topic. I just, I was a horse girl, uh, but I didn't ever run around on all fours at recess or anything. I did wear a cape once to recess in elementary school, but unrelated to horses. So.

Jordan (00:05:31):

I was going to say, I ran around on all fours at school, but it was college and that was the class. So.

Lex (00:05:37):

That's different. Like, you know what video I'm talking about, right? Like that one person who runs like a horse and like does like jumps and stuff.

Jordan (00:05:44):

Oh my God. Yeah.

Lex (00:05:45):

Yeah, no.

Jordan (00:05:47):

I think I had blocked that out until you-

Lex (00:05:48):

It is so upsetting. Yeah, no, it is so deeply upsetting. The human body moving that way is deeply upset. Um, so I never did that.

Jordan (00:05:57):

I'm glad.

Lex (00:05:57):

Did I sometimes pretend that my bike was a horse while riding around the area around my parents' house. Maybe so.

Jordan (00:06:08):

That's so valid of you.

Lex (00:06:10):

Thank you. But yeah, no, I never did like, I was never that kind of horse girl.

Jordan (00:06:14):

That's super fair. All I'm saying is you are more of a horse girl than I was, which means that your knowledge of horse terms and general western adjacent writing oriented vocabulary is going to have to keep us afloat here.

Lex (00:06:31):

Okay. Yeah. I mean like the good news is that that's not what our episode is actually about.

Jordan (00:06:35):

What is our episode actually about? So our episode is about, I guess, you know, I bet cowboys did once engage in this cause you kind of have to, when you're, that's nothing.

Jordan (00:06:47):

Sorry, cowboys did once engage in what?

Lex (00:06:49):

A mutual aid.

Jordan (00:06:51):

Ah, yes. And that's not a euphemism kids. Today we are talking about mutual aid, the community organization practice.

Lex (00:07:01):

Which like I bet cowboys did because that's how human society works.

Jordan (00:07:05):

Yes.

Lex (00:07:06):

Were they also engaged in some other activities? Maybe so?

Jordan (00:07:13):

Well and that, that should be mutual if you're taken care of.

Lex (00:07:16):

Okay.

Jordan (00:07:19):

We're gonna move on from this.

Lex (00:07:19):

Consent is important. Yes. Um, so I, hello. This has quickly gone so far south.

Jordan (00:07:26):

So far off the rails so quickly.

Lex (00:07:26):

Happy November.

Jordan (00:07:30):

Let's, let's uh lasso this one and rope it back in.

Lex (00:07:34):

Oh yeah. Let's uh, take this one back onto the ranch now. So.

Jordan (00:07:37):

So today we are talking about mutual aid. Uh, this is something we both thought was really important to cover with all of the uncertainty in the world right now, and the increased visibility of mutual aid in many different communities this year. We wanted to talk about it and explain a little bit of what it is. If you are not familiar with that, or you have been seeing that concept kind of thrown around, uh, share a little history and talk about why it is something important to the ADHD community.

Lex (00:08:12):

Yeah. Man now, I, I'm just thinking about like communally oriented cowboys and I'm just my heart's warm.

Jordan (00:08:19):

I feel like it's like that stone soup story but with chili, the stone soup story where like everybody brings an ingredient and throws it in the pot. Isn't that Stone Soup?

Lex (00:08:29):

I have no idea what you're talking about.

Jordan (00:08:30):

It's like a, like a folk tale where like a whole city bans together cause no one has like a ton of food and they're like, Oh, I just have these carrots. I don't want eat plain carrots. Like, Oh, I just have like a rock. I can't eat a rock. But then I like to put the rock on the fire to heat up the water and add the carrots and like everyone bands together and they make a soup.

Lex (00:08:49):

Cool. I didn't know that was a folk tale it just sounds like, uh, yeah.

Jordan (00:08:53):

Or maybe it was like a children's book or something. All I'm saying is I'm imagining that, but with chili.

Lex (00:08:57):

Okay. Hell yeah. All around the fire.

Jordan (00:09:01):

Yes.

Lex (00:09:01):

Montana skies overhead.

Jordan (00:09:03):

Hopefully some cornbread.

Lex (00:09:04):

Okay. Yep, sure. Hell yeah. I'm not a huge fan of cornbread personally. Don't-

Jordan (00:09:09):

That's alright more for me.

Lex (00:09:09):

Don't take it out on me, but okay, so please, sweet mercy. Can you take me away from this cowboy hell that I've tracked my little brain in. Can you take me out of this weird Schrodinger's cowboy in my head? Can you please?

Jordan (00:09:28):

It would be my honor.

Lex (00:09:29):

Deliver me from this.

Jordan (00:09:31):

Montana?

Lex (00:09:32):

I do. I do miss Montana.

Jordan (00:09:34):

It is a beautiful state.

Lex (00:09:35):

It's so pretty.

Jordan (00:09:35):

It is a very beautiful state but let's talk about this thing that our podcast is about. So for those of you who are not familiar with the concept, mutual aid is technically any concerted collaborative effort to provide aid within a community. It is largely horizontal in structure. It differs from charity in that it is not one group giving to another. It is interpersonal and it is marked by like giving and receiving. There's not one group that is receiving aid and there's not one group that is giving aid or in charge of the aid because they are the organized people or the rich people, or what have you. It is giving and receiving in a network largely based on your community. And in terms of these and mutual aid in social activism, it is service and organization in the community in direct response to the powers that be, that have neglected to provide the necessary resources that mutual aid is looking to provide. Does that make sense?

Lex (00:10:49):

Yeah. Can you give me that in like a elevator pitch version and by elevator pitch? I mean like a very fast elevator cause I think that was technically the elevator pitch, but like an elevator that's like going to the top of a high rise. That's just like zoomin'.

Jordan (00:11:04):

Like if there was a high speed train?

Lex (00:11:06):

Yes. And as if I was the one actually in the elevator with you, so do you need to like take it down a notch with the bigger words and just hit me with the bare bones.

Jordan (00:11:16):

Gotcha. Okay. In summary, in elevator pitch mutual aid is solidarity, not charity.

Lex (00:11:23):

Cool. Okay. Nice.

Jordan (00:11:26):

How's that?

Lex (00:11:26):

Sure thing. I am a little curious though. When we talked about bringing this to this episode, I asked you, what does that have to do with having ADHD?

Jordan (00:11:36):

I am so glad that you asked. This is an important thing to talk about, I think with any sort of mental health oriented or neurodivergent community, because there are resources for you in mutual aid, but there are also, I think, especially for folks with ADHD, some opportunities that we have to give aid that other people might not.

Lex (00:11:58):

Okay. So what you're saying is people need community and having ADHD does not make you exempt from needing community and help from other people? And, is that what you're saying?

Jordan (00:12:12):

That is so true. I see that. And I up you having ADHD automatically puts you in a community with other people who have ADHD.

Lex (00:12:22):

Okay. And so once you're in that community, you got to figure out how to give and take, right? Like you got to figure out that balance of-

Jordan (00:12:27):

Hell yeah.

Lex (00:12:28):

What can I bring to the table? And what else can people bring to this fun little buffet that I've created in my head right now?

Jordan (00:12:34):

We want a very balanced potluck. This is not going to work if everybody brings desserts. I mean it will I take that back? That would be a great potluck. It's not going to work if everybody brings drinks.

Lex (00:12:45):

Okay. Yeah, sure, sure. I was like, what is she going to say? Cause if she says like potatoes, false, we will all live off the potatoes and it will be fine.

Jordan (00:12:53):

I thought potatoes and I was like, no, that's still a good option.

Lex (00:12:55):

Yeah. No drinks though. That makes sense. Nothing substantive.

Jordan (00:12:59):

Cause that's not a food. It's good. And you need it with food.

Lex (00:13:02):

You do. You do.

Jordan (00:13:03):

But that's just a cocktail party.

Lex (00:13:05):

It's true.

Jordan (00:13:05):

It's just a different thing.

Lex (00:13:05):

It's just going to a bar. God remember that?

Jordan (00:13:14):

Aw those were the days. [singing "I Dreamed a Dream"]

Lex (00:13:14):

Okay. All right. Okay. Thank you.

Jordan (00:13:17):

Anyways. So today we we are talking about mutual aid. We are going to share a little history around it. We are going to talk a little bit about why mutual aid is gaining some traction today. And then we are going to hop into some of those things that folks with ADHD can give and take from being involved in mutual aid and some resources to dip your feet right in that. Sound good?

Lex (00:13:42):

Sounds good to me.

Jordan (00:13:44):

All right.

Lex (00:13:44):

Buckle up, everybody. Also, you may notice that it's a little bit more low energy than we normally bring for y'all and I will reiterate, we have ADHD and it's been a time so we're doing our best.

Jordan (00:13:58):

It's the holiday season and that is busy and overwhelming, in sometimes wonderful ways and sometimes very tiring ways and a lot of times both ways.

Lex (00:14:08):

Yeah. So basically we're going to do our best to be funny, but also this is a topic that we both think is really worthy of making that genuine and honest space for it because when you actually sit and think about it and face what's happening in our country and in this world, it's just so heavy. And I think that for Jordan and I, when talking about doing this episode, when things are that heavy, you can't carry that alone.

Jordan (00:14:40):

Yeah.

Lex (00:14:41):

And I think that's the whole, the whole point here. So.

Jordan (00:14:44):

Yeah.

Lex (00:14:45):

I don't want to like keep repeating everything that Jordan is saying, but like, I really just want to like reiterate, I guess of like, yeah, we're not being as goofy right now, but also this is something that can, you know, needs, this is something that needs to be talked about.

Jordan (00:15:02):

Absolutely and especially now. I say, especially now, like we haven't been practicing mutual aid since the beginning of humanity, but when talking about ways to make community right now for posterity, the end of November 2020, while we are still amidst a pandemic and many other things, making community is really hard, but it is more important than ever. And finding community and getting involved in a community you might already be technically in, is very important. And like I said earlier, operating on a base definition of mutual aid as any collaborative effort to provide aid within the community. That's how we've made it this far. That's how we've had communities that's existed since the beginning of humanity. In an activist sense the first definition of mutual aid, as we know it now was from Peter Kropotkin, who was a writer and socialist. I don't know how to define that job.

Lex (00:16:11):

Yeah. I guess, I guess technically organizer is like the modern day equivalent. Were they called organizers in the beginning of the 1900s? Whose to say.

Jordan (00:16:21):

I have no idea and he was Russian so I have no idea what the word for that was, but in 190 he wrote-

Lex (00:16:26):

You studied in Russia why don't you know everything about Russia?

Jordan (00:16:30):

Because I was there for a month and we have translators.

Lex (00:16:35):

That's fair.

Jordan (00:16:35):

Thank you Katya. Thank you Olga. Anyways in 1907, Peter Kropotkin wrote a series of essays around this concept of mutual aid and positing that working together as a community was the most fruitful, the most healthy, the most effective way of building society and his actual quote translated is "In the long run the practice of solidarity proves much more advantageous to the species than the development of individuals endowed with predatory inclinations."

Lex (00:17:08):

Okay. Okay.

Jordan (00:17:09):

So that's I guess, to paraphrase, like keeping the power to care for the community in the hands of the community, rather than giving it to a small group of people who are not inclined to use it with other people's best interests when they could get more out of it. Does that make sense?

Lex (00:17:27):

Yeah, so like just as a, Oh, completely not related at all to our lives here. Um, so would you say, is this sort of similar to the relationship between employees and CEOs, landlords and tenants?

Jordan (00:17:42):

You know, I think you might be onto something there.

Lex (00:17:48):

Oligarchs and citizens.

Jordan (00:17:48):

Yeah little something like that.

Lex (00:17:48):

Totally unrelated to anything. I, you know, this is all just ancient history, you know.

Jordan (00:17:53):

Just tossing about there for, for education's sake, for academia.

Lex (00:17:58):

Just to you know, just to clarify, just to double check. Okay.

Jordan (00:18:02):

And I think that is a pillar, his definition of it, of the active mutual aid being specifically in response to, or awareness of the systems that are failing to provide in the first place.

Lex (00:18:18):

Oh there it is.

Jordan (00:18:18):

Yep. There it is.

Lex (00:18:19):

Okay. I see. I see.

Jordan (00:18:21):

So a pretty famous application of mutual aid was The Black Panthers in California.

Lex (00:18:28):

Hell yeah.

Jordan (00:18:28):

Yeah. They were pretty famous for their free breakfast program that served families in the Oakland, California area. They ended up feeding by the end of 1969, something like 20,000 children across 19 cities, which is amazing. I will not derail us by getting into the effects and science around how that contributes to education and every other facet of life.

Lex (00:18:54):

Yeah. No, uh it's yepp.

Jordan (00:18:58):

But on top of the free breakfast program, they also put together programs specifically to serve and empower their community, including clothing distribution, classes on politics and economics for people to take that power into their own hands and understand the system more, free medical clinics, lessons on self-defense and first aid, again, putting that knowledge back into the hands of their community instead of relying on somebody else to keep them safe, transportation to upstate presents for family members of incarcerated people an emergency response ambulance program drug and alcohol rehabilitation, and testing for sickle cell anemia. So that was a huge part of their mission and a huge part of investing in and empowering their community.

Lex (00:19:45):

Yeah, no, I mean, you know how I feel about The Black Panthers?

Jordan (00:19:47):

Yes. Yeah, no they did amazing stuff.

Lex (00:19:50):

Yeah. After getting several related degrees in political science, history, anthropology, sociology, diversity, and inclusion, etc.

Jordan (00:20:02):

Did they ever, did they ever talk about The Black Panthers, did they ever cover that?

Lex (00:20:06):

So much. And it really is wild how in general education, when you learn about The Black Panthers, it's just to talk about The Black Panther party specifically and how it related to political unrest. You, you know, you don't learn any of that stuff in school and, um, you shouldn't have to seek out higher education to learn such a formative influential piece of United States history.

Jordan (00:20:42):

Yeah, no, agreed. I didn't learn about that until the past couple years of like, not even in school. Of hearing from you and my own learning.

Lex (00:20:53):

So it's interesting because, uh, Jordan, a lot of the stuff on that list seems, uh, pretty, uh, would you say necessary for human life to be sustained?

Jordan (00:21:02):

Like food and clothes and first aid? Yeah.

Lex (00:21:07):

Yeah. And you know, we talked about how a lot of the reason that mutual aid comes about is because people are being denied or don't have access to a lot of the things that those communities work to create. So would you say, um, the takeaway here is that the systems in place that are supposed to protect citizens, aka the government that is supposed to protect its citizens, it's population-

Jordan (00:21:32):

-was not doing that in this case. Was not providing those things and was also not allowing people to try and change the rules and advocate for themselves.

Lex (00:21:46):

Well, it's hard to, quite frankly, it's very difficult to focus on literally anything when you're waiting for a meager paycheck to be able to pay one of five bills and feed like your kids. Maybe you don't get to eat, you know, like totally, totally unrelated to today though. No one can relate to that today.

Jordan (00:22:11):

Of course not.

Lex (00:22:11):

Jordan, I'll let you keep going in a sec-, like for in a second here but I do want to just like, I know that people have heard a lot more about The Black Panther party this year, especially with the collective white people, that we are a part of seemed to awaken to something. I don't know why it took so many of us so long. Um, I mean I do, I know why, we all know why, but regardless, trying to focus on the fact that people are now more aware and trying to take that and use that momentum and action to move forward. Um, so like, I, I know that a lot of y'all who are listening, if I know anything about our audience, it's that you all know these things when it comes down to like the history of it, but you know, and we're, and we're not like trying to educate people on The Black Panther party specifically, but I do, I do think that there's a pattern that we will see as Jordan continues to tell us the history of mutual aid in the United States, that the people who are forced to do this work and do this organizing are primarily black communities. And I know that we're two white people just doing our best and we have a podcast about ADHD, but like-

Jordan (00:23:36):

We can't talk about mutual aid without talking about the forces that are making that happen.

Lex (00:23:42):

Yes, exactly. And I think just sort of that, like, we are not organizers professionally, right? Like we're not professional activists by any means.

Jordan (00:23:51):

But I think that that's something that's important to note about mutual aid, is there are networks, there are definitely community organizers and people who identify as activists primarily involved in this sort of thing, but it is by definition, horizontal, small structure, community oriented. So that's, I guess one of the things that we also want to say is that we wanted to talk about it because we want to help you understand that everybody can get involved and it shouldn't just have to be the work of the people who've already been doing this.

Lex (00:24:25):

Right? Yeah. No. And, and my, my point there though, the reason I say that is just to like, let y'all know that this isn't us trying to like veer into some sort of political activist sort of role. This is us literally, as Jordan just said, explaining the resources and options that are available to all of us, because with the way that our, especially here in the United States, but generally the world is going, things are shifting in such a way that it is really becoming so apparent that the things that truly, truly stratify our society. Yes race. Yes gender. Yes sexuality but class plays such a huge role. And so if you are like us and you are squarely right in the working class and you are, you know, like I was for most of the pandemic, if you are unemployed, if you are working at a grocery store as an essential worker like Jordan and if you are tired and burnout, and if you are just so angry and so hurt by the fact that this government and quite frankly, people around the world who have money in power, aren't doing anything to help a majority of the global population like you're, you're not alone in that. And when you have ADHD on top of all of that, like we, we need each other, I guess, and I don't want to get too preachy. I recognize that I'm getting a little, like I'm moving my hands. Like AOC, Jordan can confirm there probably, um.

Jordan (00:26:05):

Very impassioned.

Lex (00:26:07):

It's just, it's just, yeah. I just want to explain, like, we're not trying to like get in anyone else's lane with education and activism. It feels irresponsible to have a podcast like we do about ADHD and not acknowledge the very unique struggles that a lot of people with ADHD are being faced with right now, regardless of where you come from or who you are.

Jordan (00:26:30):

Yes, absolutely. And I think that that brings us really excellently into why this is relevant for folks with ADHD in terms of the resources that you have available through mutual aid that you might not have been aware of, but also the things that you can do as an ADHD person. So I'm going to start with resources because that is what is next on my Google doc that I'm looking at. And-

Lex (00:26:54):

We love an organized person in this blanket fort.

Jordan (00:26:57):

There are organized people in this blanket fort? Where?

Lex (00:27:00):

You made a Google doc for this. You make a Google doc for every, every episode. Jordan may think that she's, like here's the thing Jordan may think that she is disorganized and all over the place but let me tell you that Jordan is actually one of the most neurotically organized people I've ever met in my life. You may not understand it, but she does. Anyways.

Jordan (00:27:24):

Just don't look at my sock basket or my kitchen sink.

Lex (00:27:30):

Our kitchen sink is doing okay right now.

Jordan (00:27:30):

It is right now.

Lex (00:27:31):

Our house is very clean right now.

Jordan (00:27:32):

That is because I cleaned it all yesterday night.

Lex (00:27:35):

Yeah no. We, we had a pre-holiday moment of clarity and we took out all of the trash and recycling. Finally. Bit day.

Jordan (00:27:44):

Go us. Our house smells like a normal house. It's incredible.

Lex (00:27:48):

It's so good. It smells like sugared birch.

Jordan (00:27:52):

And aloe.

Lex (00:27:53):

Yeah. Thank you Target candle section.

Jordan (00:27:57):

Yeah the real dopamine trampoline. Am I right?

Lex (00:28:01):

Yeah no. We are not immune. We are not immune to the siren call that is Target.

Jordan (00:28:05):

But that actually is a good segue because with mutual aid, a lot of the way that current mutual aid's I guess, are set up is just like an opportunity for a community to come together on a Slack or a Facebook page or some way of gathering and just straight up say, here's how I can help if anyone needs that, or here's what I need. And those very often can provide you help with things like cleaning your house or getting you access to or financial help for medications or getting food to your door if you can't manage that for whatever reason, which is so understandable at this point.

Lex (00:28:55):

So valid.

Jordan (00:28:56):

My goodness, or just like any of those tasks that your mental health can complicate that executive dysfunction can complicate that underlying health conditions can also complicate. So-

Lex (00:29:10):

It's almost like Avril Lavigne, was really talking about having ADHD in her hit song.

Jordan (00:29:17):

Sk8er Boi?

Lex (00:29:17):

Complicated. Sk8er Boi was written about me. We know this.

Jordan (00:29:21):

So it's also about having ADHD?

Lex (00:29:23):

Inadvertently yes.

Jordan (00:29:26):

The real Avril Lavigne conspiracy. I'm not going to derail into that. This would be a very long podcast anyways. So those are all things that your general like physical neighbors, city.

Lex (00:29:40):

Sorry, I, you were going to wait. You were starting to go on and I was like-

Jordan (00:29:48):

Okay, committing more hydro flask crimes.

Lex (00:29:50):

Slight little-

Jordan (00:29:52):

Play it. Sing us a song.

Lex (00:29:55):

Um, anyways, uh, yeah, I thank you. Thank you everyone for coming to this open mic night, uh, that was a new track off of my EP. If anyone wants to check out where this new track came from the EP will be on sale in the back by the t-shirts and the old donuts. Thank you so much. It's called my hydro flask and me.

Jordan (00:30:26):

Were on Soundcloud. Also the drummer who plays with us sometimes does actually make candles that we have for sale as well.

Lex (00:30:37):

Yeah. And don't get them mixed up with the donuts cause they are donut shaped.

Jordan (00:30:42):

Like ironically though, they're they're shaped like capitalism eating its own tail and gluttony.

Lex (00:30:47):

You know, like a sugary dunked in frosting ouroboros.

Jordan (00:30:53):

Anyways thanks for listening, have a goodnight. Can I finish my sentence now?

Lex (00:31:00):

No yeah, that's fine.

Jordan (00:31:00):

Okay. So these are all things that are resources that are available to you through general, like location, neighborhood, community-based mutual aid. They're also things that you can offer if you have the ability or some ideas of jumping off points for what you might be able to offer to help with in your community. But there are also specific to ADHD communities because when we say mutual aid being based in a community that doesn't have to be the people who live around you physically, it can also be your community online. It can be your community, it can be your community that you have things in common with, even if you aren't physically in the same place. So that can be your ADHD community, your mental health community, your neurodivergent community. And we will definitely post these resources in our episode description.

Lex (00:31:52):

Yeah it's a chunky list.

Jordan (00:31:54):

Yes, there is a very long list.

Lex (00:31:58):

It's chunky.

Jordan (00:31:59):

It is-

Lex (00:32:00):

It is a big, big boy.

Jordan (00:32:01):

It is a hefty, hefty, hefty list. I love my lists. You know, I do. And this is, this is a big one, but there's tons of resources on there for either ADHD specific groups, resources to find those or resources to find your physically local group. Those will be in the ep description for you to check out and-

Lex (00:32:23):

Thank you.

Jordan (00:32:24):

Yeah.

Lex (00:32:24):

Thank you, Arianna.

Jordan (00:32:26):

You're so welcome. I was going for Donna Ralphio, but I'll take that. Um, we also did want to touch on some unique opportunities for ADHD folks to contribute to mutual aid cause it's not all about asking for help, even though that's an important thing you can't just give or just take in the mutual aid framework. It's very important that like that's, that's the first word in it. It's mutual aid. And I do want to stress that it is okay to ask for help. Mutual aid is here for you to ask for help. It can be very, very hard for ADHD folks to ask for help, especially when you've been getting messaging your whole life that's saying everybody else can do this fine, but you just suck it up. Just try harder. Why can't you do this? Like quote unquote normal people. I know for me that has contributed to it being really hard to say, Hey, I need help. But you deserve help and I don't know. It helps me sometimes to just know that it can be hard to ask for help, but it's okay. So I wanted to put that out there and say, if you struggle with that, you're not alone in that struggle, but you also deserve these resources.

Lex (00:33:35):

Yeah, yeah absolutely. And I think at this point, right, it's just hard to even talk to people, let alone ask for anything including health.

Jordan (00:33:44):

Yeah.

Lex (00:33:45):

That's, oh boy. But at the same time, like if there was ever a time to feel okay about asking for help, it would be 2020.

Jordan (00:33:54):

Absolutely. We all need that. And that's one thing about mutual aid that is bringing it to the forefront right now. Obviously people have used it specifically in the context of like COVID-19 relief, but there's tangible relief there, but also just having that structure of community during this time that it is really hard to feel connected, that in and of itself is important.

Lex (00:34:19):

Yeah. So you had mentioned that there's lots of things that people with ADHD can bring to their community. Can you, can you run me through some of those?

Jordan (00:34:27):

I would love to run you through some of those.

Lex (00:34:29):

Thank you.

Jordan (00:34:29):

So there's no one specific type of aid that mutual aid is supposed to give. It's all about your strengths and ADHD folks have a lot of those. Um, if you have a strength or a hyper fixation or a task that your ADHD makes you fantastic at, you can share that with your community. If you like to cook, you can provide meals or education. If you like to sew make some masks. If you have the time and energy to support a parent or caregiver of a child who has ADHD who's probably really struggling through online learning right now, that's super valuable. So yeah. Whatever your strengths are-

Lex (00:35:11):

Play to em.

Jordan (00:35:12):

Play to em.

Lex (00:35:13):

Yeah. Awesome.

Jordan (00:35:14):

That's what I had for that, uh, rumor around town and by town I mean the Google doc, you have some tips on like how to actually make this kind of thing happen.

Lex (00:35:24):

Yeah. Within, you know, my limited scope and expertise and based on more so personal experience and how Jordan and I have worked with our neighbors and with our community here in Chicago.

Jordan (00:35:37):

Yeah.

Lex (00:35:37):

Um, yeah. So like first things first again, asking for help is very important, but some of you may be like, how do you even go about figuring out how to talk to people who you live near or who are a part of the same sort of online communities as you? And the answer is you just send a little note, write a note, slap it on their front door, send an email or whatever preferred method of contact somebody may have online. I know that if you are wanting to reach out to us, uh, our Twitter DMs are, uh-

Jordan (00:36:08):

Wide open.

Lex (00:36:08):

I don't, I don't actually know if my DMS are technically open, they should be.

Jordan (00:36:12):

Mine are and we also have an email address on our Twitter.

Lex (00:36:17):

If you find us on Instagram, Twitter, email, like whatever, you know.

Jordan (00:36:21):

Yeah. You can tweet at us, you can email us.

Lex (00:36:23):

But obviously that's just us. And that's the only people we can speak for, but send that DM, send the email, whatever method of communication is most appropriate, you know, just reach out to people and you know, just have some sort of, and I, I know, I know how rough this is because I know this is something that I struggle with is like sometimes I don't understand, and I don't know what social norms even are, um, and so I know that it legitimately is so hard to, for some people, myself included to be like, what am I supposed to say to someone if I want to start creating some sort of coalition with them. And it's rough to, at least for me to look at someone's open DMs and be like, how do I say hi, I'd like to be in community with you and here's what I can bring to the table and here's what I know that you're, you know, what you have available to share with people that you've talked about. And I want to like have some sort of trade here, you know, how do you say that? That's, that's a harder one to sort of put in the list. Right? And so on that level, that's why, I guess I just stress of like, make sure that if you're reaching out to people, make sure it's methods of contact that they've openly talked about preferring. Um like, you don't want to just like jump into someone's DMs and immediately start being like, I am struggling with X, Y, Z thing, and I need this, this and this. And like, that's, that's not asking to be a part of a community that's-

Jordan (00:37:45):

That's like a fourth, fifth, sixth step once, you know, people and that they're open to that kind of thing.

Lex (00:37:52):

Yeah. Yeah. So I guess basically just be considerate when you're asking people about those sorts of things or reaching out to people. Um-

Jordan (00:37:58):

So like-

Lex (00:37:58):

I was just going to say like another way that you can signal that, right, is on your own social media bio, uh, bios on Twitter or Instagram or wherever you find yourself, openly talk about like, here's some skills that I have that I want to share with community. And here's the communities that I'm a part of. And you know, if you're interested in XYZ thing, like let me know and follow people on social media, like, especially in such an online day and age, follow people, follow people who are friends and followers of those people make friends, if you can like, and that's so hard right?

Jordan (00:38:36):

Yeah.

Lex (00:38:36):

But so much of communities, friendship, and building relationships with people like that's the crux of it. And so I understand that that can be really intimidating and difficult. It's hard, but it's so worthwhile to put yourself out there like that.

Jordan (00:38:50):

And I think to speak to that as well, you don't have to be like, I am doing a mutual aid, who would like to mutally aid with me?

Lex (00:39:01):

I mean you could.

Jordan (00:39:01):

You could.

Lex (00:39:01):

More power to ya.

Jordan (00:39:03):

You can just start by saying, hi, this is me. I mean, and like you have an example of that, that's what we did with our neighbors.

Lex (00:39:09):

Yeah. Like with our neighbors, we just wrote down our names, numbers, and like a quick little like, Hey, we just moved in, let us know if you need anything and whatever, what have you. And now we have a really decent relationship with, uh, the other people who live in this house. You know, we all work collectively on the backyard in the garden. Our second floor neighbor has a dog who we just get to play with. That's not like a aid thing. We just get to play with the dog, which is just a bonus. Um, yeah, like we've, we've watched, uh, the cat for our downstairs neighbor a few times, you know, and we, we know that if we were in need of anything, we could reach out to them as well. And so, you know, that's a very small thing, but-

Jordan (00:39:53):

It's mutual aid.

Lex (00:39:54):

It's mutual aid. That, that's mutual aid baby. That's it. Yeah. Uh, another very concrete step that you can take is do what you're probably already doing and work on the things that bring you joy, because the more that you work on your own skills and hobbies, the more you'll be able to provide for other people. If you want to learn how to garden, or you just started learning how to garden, or you've been gardening your whole life, put your hands in the dirt, work on those skills, work on those hobbies, work on those things that bring you joy.

Jordan (00:40:26):

You know, I don't, I don't believe in cure-alls as a concept, but if there was one I think it would be putting your hands in the dirt.

Lex (00:40:33):

Yeah. Like, Oh.

Jordan (00:40:35):

And you can do that as a community too.

Lex (00:40:38):

You know? Like, it's so interesting to talk about mutual aid. Right? Cause it's so important. But what I feel like we're literally just telling people right now is like, make sure that you're staying in touch and being in relationships with people and your like community and the planet that we live on. Make sure you're in connection with others around you. And it's like well yeah, that's kinda the whole thing, but like a lot of people at this point don't have that, and/or that's not always a worldview or sort of core value that a lot of us are raised with you know what I mean?

Jordan (00:41:10):

Yeah and well going back to that comment that you made earlier about how, if you are living paycheck to paycheck or struggling to do that, and your main worry is like, how do I feed myself? How do I feed my children? How do I keep a roof over our head, that can so easily and so understandably become your main focus that doing these things can become hard and that's super understandable.

Lex (00:41:32):

Oh yeah. Other concrete things that you can do, uh, I'm hoping that this list is helpful and not just adding anxiety to, you know, uh, an ever-growing list of things that you feel like you need to do or need to not do or anything like that. Um, so just take all of this with a grain of salt.

Jordan (00:41:47):

A big, big pinch of salt.

Lex (00:41:48):

Yeah. No, this is really just based on my personal experience and Jordan's experience as well that we talked about. Um, another big thing is that if you have friends who are friends with other people in your sort of general community or area, just ask them if you can hang out with that group, right? Like hang out with them in the discord or see if there's some sort of like events that they might be planning coming up. Because I think cliche is, this is what it is about who, you know, a lot of the times. So like, if you have friends who are already doing this stuff, that's a huge leg up for you. Um, but if you have nothing and no one to go off of right now, that's okay.

Jordan (00:42:27):

So these are, these are all really great ways of like getting into your community so that you can see the needs, that mutual aid-

Lex (00:42:34):

Yeah.

Jordan (00:42:35):

-can address is that what I'm?

Lex (00:42:36):

Yeah sorry. I thought that's what my was, was I thought that's what it was introduced as. Just like how to actually do it.

Jordan (00:42:42):

Yeah.

Lex (00:42:43):

Um, because I don't have concrete advice as to how to start like an official mutual aid fund cause that's not what Jordan and I are talking about right? In this episode. This is about taking care of yourself and taking care of others around you.

Jordan (00:42:56):

And we do have, we do have some resources that will be in that-

Lex (00:43:00):

That big old list.

Jordan (00:43:00):

That darn thick list.

Lex (00:43:03):

Yeah. But we, we could read it off to you, but that's bad audio, that's a bad podcast.

Jordan (00:43:10):

Some people might be that, but that's not, that's not our thing. Just know that there are resources that are like the practical how to start a mutual aid crew. But what Lex is giving us are a lot of great ways to get into your community so you have a better idea of what the needs might be and your connections to give and receive. And those are all fantastic. Did you have any more of those you wanted to?

Lex (00:43:36):

Um yeah roundhouse kick. Um.

Jordan (00:43:38):

Yes.

Lex (00:43:38):

Redacted right in the face if you see him, Stitch TaChonnel.

Jordan (00:43:48):

Yeah he's not great at his job is he?

Lex (00:43:48):

Uh it's. I'm pretty sure it's illegal to encourage or incite violence towards elected officials. So if you heard me say that, no you didn't, but uh, if you are able to take direct action so to speak do it.

Jordan (00:44:03):

Yepp so that's what we've got for mutual aid.

Lex (00:44:06):

Yeah. Yeah. Uh, I have a few quotes that I kind of set aside because when Jordan and I were talking about doing this episode and especially considering the historical advent of mutual aid, as we know it in our society now starting with The Black Panther party and in more recent years, the response to Hurricane Katrina, Occupy Wall Street, that's, you know, there's a lot of people in communities who have used mutual aid as a concept to take some of their power back and that's awesome. But as we touched on a little bit earlier, and as I think I pointed out, but I do want to just reiterate mutual aid throughout history, but especially in more recent times, as we see it in the US it is a clear reaction to a complete disregard for sanctity of life. But what it really comes down to is that the government that rules this country does not take care of many people.

Lex (00:45:02):

And that is especially, especially true of black communities and indigenous communities in our country. And I just, I really think that we can't ignore that and we can't ignore the work that black people and specifically a lot of black women and indigenous communities around this country have done the work to just take care of one another better. And it is so, so deeply sad that we live in a world where this is the way that we have to take care of one another, because there are a few select people who have all of the resources and power. And instead of using any of that to distribute amongst the community of people who are lifting this country and this whole globe, like the fact that that's not a thing that happens just normally, just off the cuff, the fact that that's radical, that's batshit to me.

Jordan (00:45:55):

Yeah.

Lex (00:45:56):

And so to honor that I was trying to find a few of my personal favorite quotes about the idea of community, just to sort of leave y'all with like, um, obviously we're going to link some resources and we gave you some like, you know, pretty basic tips and tricks and a pretty basic outline of what mutual aid is. But I think the more that Jordan and I are discussing this, and the more that I'm talking, the more I'm realizing that this episode is less about like, here's how you can get involved with mutual aid. And this is more about like, this is why this is so important, but these are some of my favorite quotes about community. The first one is from Bell Hooks in "Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics," she says "one of the most vital ways we sustain ourselves is by building communities of resistance, places where we know we are not alone."

Lex (00:46:43):

I know, I know, um, Audre Lorde once said, "without community, there is no liberation, but community must not mean a shedding of our differences nor the pathetic pretense that these differences do not exist." I don't feel like I need to like, do a literary analysis of all of these things.

Jordan (00:47:00):

Yeah no, they, they speak for themselves.

Lex (00:47:03):

Yeah. And this last one is less about community and more about agency and what we can do by ourselves, but more importantly, what we can do together. But Dr. Angela Davis says, "you have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world and you have to do it all the time." And I just thank y'all for being so patient with us. And thank y'all for letting us talk into your ear holes about mutual aid. We have to take care of ourselves in the best way possible and the best way possible usually to take care of ourselves is to take care of each other. Absolutely. I hope if you take anything away from this episode, it's that there is a community for you that needs what you have and has what you need.

Lex (00:47:49):

Speaking of working together, being in community. Can you take me, not to the dopamine trampoline?

Jordan (00:47:56):

Can you take me to the shatterdome?

Lex (00:47:57):

Yeah. Yes. Okay.

Jordan (00:47:58):

Oh boy. I would love to.

Lex (00:48:04):

This is in fact the dopamine trampoline.

Jordan (00:48:06):

It is. Brace yourselves for this one team, this is one of my all time favorites.

Lex (00:48:14):

It's so relevant. It's so relevant to this week's episode.

Jordan (00:48:18):

It is. No, that's the thing like that's why this is eternal dopamine for me. Today my dopamine trampoline and my all time favorite movie is Pacific Rim, the film directed by Guillermo Del Toro. And this is so related to our topic of community, because that's why this film is brilliant. And that's why this film punches me right in the heart every single time I watch it.

Lex (00:48:46):

It's true. Sob. She sobs.

Jordan (00:48:48):

I, you know what I do. It's really powerful. Okay.

Lex (00:48:52):

It's so good.

Jordan (00:48:53):

It's so good and like that's, I will admit I will be the first person to say when I first saw the trailer for Pacific Rim, I was like, this movie looks dumb.

Lex (00:49:10):

Nope.

Jordan (00:49:10):

Okay. I'm going to stop that. Now. I just saw like this hole in the ocean and some robots wrecking things and it looked really dramatic. And I was like, that looks stupid. But then I saw it and I was like, okay, this movie has everything.

Lex (00:49:26):

Tell me.

Jordan (00:49:27):

It has, a kick ass soundtrack with one of the sexiest basslines ever. You cannot tell me that the Pacific Rim theme does not get you pretty hype.

Lex (00:49:37):

Oh, definitely. There are definitely songs that get me more hype for sure.

Jordan (00:49:42):

That's fair, to each their own.

Lex (00:49:43):

But it is a, it's a very hot bassline.

Jordan (00:49:46):

It's a very powerful sound. It has gorgeous cinematography. It is so colorful. It is so creative.

Lex (00:49:54):

Yeah. Get outta here with that post-apocalyptic washed out bulls***.

Jordan (00:49:59):

It's all dark and sad and boring and it's like, you don't have an excuse for that anymore. Guillermo Del Toro said not uh, no time for that. That's not the world. That's what the movie is about is like it's visually, it's really bright. That's what the movie is all about though. It's, it's about the resilience of humanity. It seems ridiculous, but it is such a human impulse and is so delightfully stupid and brave that they were like, Oh, these giant space alien monsters that we know nothing about are coming up out of the Pacific Ocean. We're not going to lay down and die. We're not going to give up. We're not going to run away. We are going to build giant robots and punch them. And I just think that's neat. And I think it speaks to our generation a lot, because it is this resilience and this bravery in the face of a very scary world. It is about making the best of that situation and following your heart. It is about the mortifying ordeal of being known, but instead of that getting you like a boyfriend or whatever, it gets you a giant robot powered by love.

Lex (00:51:12):

Yeah. So for those of you who haven't seen Pacific Rim, or don't know what is happening right now, uh, the general, the general plot line, as I understand it from the few times I've seen it, I'm going to try and I'm going to, I'm going to walk myself. I'm going to walk it through just to see how it goes for you. Tell me how it hits.

Jordan (00:51:28):

I will, I will.

Lex (00:51:28):

Okay. So aliens come out of the ocean. They're called the Kaiju. They're bad. Like they might be like neutral, but for the intent and purposes, intents and purposes of this film, that is the antagonist, is the giant monster alien things coming out from like the core of the earth or whatever. And then this isn't supposed to be factual. Let it go. I can see the, I can see the grimace.

Jordan (00:52:01):

It's not a grimace. It's a like, Oh, but it's really interesting because like, there's the Kaiju, but then there's the precursors. And there I'm going to take it back now.

Lex (00:52:10):

If no one, if people haven't seen Pacific Rim, they're like, what is, huh? So these aliens, they start to destroy cities and kill people and do all of the big, bad apocalyptic, alien invasion type stuff. And so in response, because they can't be taken down by like any of our other military inventions as humans, like nothing else seems to really do the trick so they build giant robots that are about the same size as a lot of the Kaiju and because those robots are so large, you have to have two people piloting them. One piloting each half essentially. And so for people to be able to pilot these robots, which are called Jaegers, they have to be quote unquote, drift compatible. And I will let Jordan explain further. But just so you know, that's what's happening here is that these are literally, literally robots powered by people being in some sort of relationship with one another. It's literally soulmates creating the power to destroy the apocalypse.

Jordan (00:53:20):

It's soulmates picking up a cargo container and using it as brass knuckles to punch an alien into space.

Lex (00:53:28):

Yes.

Jordan (00:53:29):

It's incredible. And here's the thing about drift compatibility.

Lex (00:53:31):

I wasn't going to take this one away from you.

Jordan (00:53:33):

Thank you.

Lex (00:53:35):

Thanks for letting me give the layman sort of explanation.

Jordan (00:53:36):

No and you did good. I think that that was a very good intro to Pacific Rim. Now we're going-

Lex (00:53:42):

I just wanted to like catch everyone up a little bit as to like what's happening. I appreciate that. And now, now we are going into like the Pacific Rim grad seminar.

Lex (00:53:51):

Okay.

Jordan (00:53:52):

The drift compatibility is how able to people are to like literally get on the same brain wavelength. And they share a what's called in the film, a neural link. And that makes them able to pilot in tandem. So you have like the power of two people, but because they are connected by this neural link, they're piloting together. It's not like one person's doing half and the other person's doing half.

Lex (00:54:18):

Okay, that's where I was like, wait a minute.

Jordan (00:54:20):

That's okay. I knew we'd get to it. And I think that, that's the thing about Pacific Rim that really, really just butters my parsnips is how deep and like very literally powerful. Like these people are powering a nuclear reactor with their love, but like how expansive drift compatibility is because it's not just like, like there are people who are drift compatible who are married, like the Kaidonovsky's who pilot Cherno Alpha. That's the Russian Yeager. There are co-pilots who are drift compatible, who are siblings. There are pilots who are drift compatible, who are parent and child. There are pilots who are drift compatible, who are coworkers who just get along really well and work together really well. There are people who are drift compatible, who are platonic soulmates. There are people who are drift compatible because they're in love and they've been working together for 10 years, but they haven't talked about it yet.

Lex (00:55:22):

She's fine.

Jordan (00:55:22):

I'm fine. And I think that, that is so like really genuinely, I think that that is so powerful to acknowledge the value of all of those relationships in a society that wants to categorize them and put them in a hierarchy and say like, your spouse is the most important. And then below that is your kids. And then below that is your friends. And then below that, is your coworkers, it's acknowledging that any two people can have that power and make of it whatever they want.

Lex (00:55:57):

Yeah. I mean, Guillermo Del Toro is just as always a revolutionary. I think. If you disagree with Jordan, that's fine. You're wrong and enjoy that. Enjoy being wrong, but-

Jordan (00:56:09):

Drift compatibility is the most important thing in the world.

Lex (00:56:13):

Yeah. Well, and I think about other Del Toro films, right. And not to get off on a tangent, but so much of his work is so centered on human connection and what lack of that can do to people versus what overindulgence of false affection, false love, false relationship of any type. Right. And I mean, yeah, I mean, y'all know. This is the person who brought us Shape of Water and Pan's Labyrinth. And you know, I, again, I don't want to get off on a tangent, but it is really, it's really revolutionary this idea that Jordan's talking about of like, and I know this is Jordan's dopamine trampoline, but it is-

Jordan (00:56:59):

But I love that you're here with me.

Lex (00:57:01):

Yeah well, I mean, it's one of those where I like Pacific Rim. I have seen both movies and I have enjoyed both movies quite a bit. And I see it. And I'm like, yeah, that's rad as f*** like, there's something so powerful. And I know maybe this is easy for us to say because Jordan and I are such good friends.

Jordan (00:57:23):

We're absolutely drift compatible.

Lex (00:57:24):

So, so totally drift compatible. But like Jordan and I both are of sort of the opinion and worldview of like our friendship is just as important as say, like my relationship with my partner, like my romantic partner, like there, there are two different types of relationships, but they're both equally important and they're both equally, you know, at least in my life they're equally deserving of attention and effort. Right? And so it is really just so in this day and age to see, it's just so powerful to see media where people are, you know, using human connection to further human resilience and human survival. Like it's just it's-

Jordan (00:58:04):

And the fantastic thing too, is that the film doesn't put any of those relationship dynamics in a box, either. It doesn't say being a parent and child looks this way because Stacker Pentecost and Mako Mori have a very interesting, unique, nuanced relationship that it becomes a plot point almost that other characters don't quite understand. Raleigh and Yancy have a different relationship than the Wei triplets, you know, the Kaidonovsky's have a different relationship than Newt and Hermann. And that's also a thing I love about this movie is that first of all, Burn Gorman and Charlie Day are fantastic in it, they're my favorite characters. I love them both so much, but I love that there's a movie where like the scientists are good people and they're right. And they get listened to like, I feel like not-

Lex (00:58:55):

You can only have one.

Jordan (00:58:56):

Yeah. I know. It's like a, it's like a choose two, but worse. You can only choose one. I also love, I just, I, I love his parka that's way too big. I just, yeah. Yeah. I do. The dog. There's a really good dog in it too, Max the pitbull. It's just this, movies got everything.

Lex (00:59:18):

It really does.

Jordan (00:59:18):

This movie’s got everything. It is my number one favorite film. And that's my dopamine trampoline.

Lex (00:59:27):

I am so happy that you brought that.

Jordan (00:59:32):

What I would like to know now is-

Lex (00:59:35):

I mean, we established, we are drift compatible.

Jordan (00:59:37):

Oh yeah obviously. And as much as we work together, well, I can't actually see what's in your head so can you tell me what your dopamine trampoline is this week?

Lex (00:59:48):

I for sure can. It's time. It's time everybody.

Jordan (00:59:51):

You're dopamine trampoline is time?

Lex (00:59:53):

No, it's okay. Wow. Well maybe, but not now. No. Um, jot that down for another idea. No, I say it's time because I feel like this has been a long time coming. This is only episode nine, but I feel like it's been nine episodes coming. It is time for me to talk about Letterkenny.

Jordan (01:00:14):

Really?

Lex (01:00:15):

It is.

Jordan (01:00:16):

This is that Letterkenny episode were really doing it?

Lex (01:00:16):

This is the starter. This is the beginning of what I assume will be many callbacks. Um.

Jordan (01:00:23):

I know we've already had a few. We've already had some peppered in there, but for everyone who's made it this far, let's enrich them. What is Letterkenny?

Lex (01:00:32):

Letterkenny is a Canadian TV show, previously a Canadian YouTube series that is hosted, uh, currently on Crave and is in US internet land on Hulu. And Letterkenny is a TV show about rural life in Ontario, Canada in a small town called Letterkenny.

Jordan (01:00:57):

There it is.

Lex (01:00:57):

Now stick with me. Okay. Stick with me. The reason that I figured it's time is because 1) an episode where we talk about community really felt, you know, felt on the nose a little bit. But if-

Jordan (01:01:10):

You could have talked about the show Community, that would have been more on the nose.

Lex (01:01:13):

I guess, but this is a show about a small community that takes care of one another. Even if they don't always like each other that much.

Jordan (01:01:20):

This is true.

Lex (01:01:22):

Um, but the reason that I wanted to talk about it really is because the news dropped that season nine will be dropping on Christmas Day in Canada and Boxing Day here in the US. Obviously I will be playing around with my computer a little bit and trying to get that all sorted on Christmas cause I will not be visiting my family or anything. So I will indeed want to have Letterkenny in my life.

Jordan (01:01:49):

Yes.

Lex (01:01:49):

Jared Keeso and Jacob Tierney are the writers and considered the two great minds behind this show. I know I've briefly talked about Letterkenny and I think in our bonus episode about suicide prevention and awareness, um, I didn't get super in depth, I don't think, but Jared Keeso and Jacob Tierney are two dudes who are from Canada and Jared Keeso specifically is from a small town where he grew up, uh, and he was almost in a professional hockey sort of NHL level stuff, but then he decided to do acting instead, um, which is like-

Jordan (01:02:24):

Coming from somebody who decided to do acting as well, dude why?

Lex (01:02:29):

But also like seeing him do both and be so good at both. I'm like, how is that fair? Uh, so here's the thing-

Jordan (01:02:36):

Yeah no that was more me being like I didn't even have the option of being good at hockey, why did you get both?

Lex (01:02:41):

Yeah, I think it's probably because he's Canadian, is my guess. But this show is about a few different groups of people who live in Letterkenny. We have the hicks, we have the skids, the hockey players, and a few other assorted characters who get sprinkled in throughout the seasons. Uh, we, you know, we start to see people who live in the big city. We start to see people who live in Quebec. We see a Michigander in the eighth season.

Jordan (01:03:07):

Did you feel seen by that?

Lex (01:03:09):

No. Because he's the worst. Uh, we also have a lot of actual indigenous actors playing indigenous characters because there's a lot of overlap in the plot with the nearest reservation, a to Letterkenny and so that's like a huge thing. It's about these different groups of people. They don't necessarily all get along. Uh, a big thing with Letterkenny is that it's very fast paced, full of really obscure and niche Canadian slang, and also just full of a lot of weird cultural references that are old and new. You never know what's going to come out of any of these characters' mouths. It is genuinely one of the hardest to follow at first shows. But as soon as you get into that rhythm, a couple episodes in it is hands down, to me anyways, one of the funniest shows on television at this point, like it's pretty much nudged its way into my favorite TV show of all time slot tied with like Avatar the Last Airbender at this point.

Jordan (01:04:09):

What a range.

Lex (01:04:09):

Thank you. But the real crux of this show, it could be argued, is not the humor. It's not the niche Canadian rural experience that as someone who grew up in a very rural area of Michigan, a lot of it is very deeply relatable to me. But it's not necessarily about that. Right? Like that's all good. It's all funny. It's great. There's incredible cinematography. The fight scenes, because a big plot point is that these people will just like brawl and the scenes, the sh, like the shot for shot. Oh man. Like pound for pound. Each shot is just packed with so much delicious content.

Jordan (01:04:48):

Oh, it's gorgeous. Like from a fight choreography standpoint. I'm just like drooling.

Lex (01:04:53):

It is from episode one right out the gate, it is so, so incredibly good. You know, it's just so interesting to see this dichotomy of like very funny, fast paced dialogue. Uh, very funny physical comedy. The comedy is all over the map. Like you have everything from fart jokes and beer jokes to obscure references to Canadian politicians from several years ago. There's hockey, there's pop culture humor. It's-

Jordan (01:05:18):

I will say their callback game-

Lex (01:05:19):

Oh, so good.

Jordan (01:05:21):

Incredible.

Lex (01:05:21):

So good.

Jordan (01:05:22):

Impeccable.

Lex (01:05:22):

Uh, always just the right amount of the joke. Not too much, not too little. It is so good. But the main thing about this show that really drew me in before I even knew it, I found myself at the end of season eight, the most recent season to have come out, which had a, just an absolute banger for a finale. It was incredible. I wrote an entire essay on it.

Jordan (01:05:45):

She did.

Lex (01:05:45):

I tweeted about it. If you feel like searching through my Twitter to find it, that's fine. We could also probably share it, but I don't want to get too thirsty for people to read it. Um, but I will, I will say Jared Keeso liked it. So we'll see, we'll see all that said, I didn't even realize until I finished the show as it was out how much I grew to care about these characters, how much I grew to care about their dynamic together, how much I grew to love this community in this show that is full of the most disgusting humor and also the most intelligent humor at times. Like just the range. The range of the show is incredible. Incredible. And I know I talked about like the cinematography of the fight scenes don't even get me started on any time that they do hockey game scenes because those shots are, Oh my gosh. And the soundtrack, the soundtrack absolutely slaps. There's a couple of different playlists of people who have like sorted through like just the music that the skids dance to. Cause the skids are like the people who were all black and do meth and deal drugs and are like quote, unquote burnout, washed up people who kind of stayed in the small town. Uh, the hicks are, you know, right what it says on the, on the tin. They're the people who work and live on farms and who are for all intents and purposes kind of set up as the protagonist group.

Lex (01:07:06):

And then we have the hockey players who are just in, canonically just so, so, so, so, so stupid. Like canonically, the biggest himbos, all of them, the whole lot of them, the hockey players are just like one collective himbo.

Jordan (01:07:22):

Like ir himbo really.

Lex (01:07:24):

Really it's Oh, it's the alpha and omega of himbos is the Letterkenny Irish hockey team. Is um-

Jordan (01:07:33):

Bless 'em all.

Lex (01:07:33):

Yeah. So these communities are so different, right? They have these groups and there's so much conflict within them, but by the end of the show, as it's out now, there's more coming, can't wait. Um.

Jordan (01:07:42):

Merry Christmas.

Lex (01:07:42):

Merry Christmas. Um, it's about protecting your people, taking care of your people, being in community. And what better way to celebrate something like mutual aid than to look at the show where a constant quote that is thrown around through every single season is "if a man asks for help, you help him". That is a core tenant of these people.

Jordan (01:08:09):

It is.

Lex (01:08:09):

Is that they may fight internally. They may have their own interpersonal conflicts, but as soon as somebody tries to hurt them or someone they care about, all bets are off that is like protecting their community is the most important. And Oh, it's just so good. It's just so good. I mean, yeah. Like every TV show, it's got some issues here and there because it's media. If you want to, if you want to watch a media, that's completely unproblematic, I don't know what you can see because we're humans. That's just-

Jordan (01:08:42):

You can't possibly know every single person's story.

Lex (01:08:44):

Exactly. And so, you know, if it's not your thing, that's fine. But for me, Letterkenny is so deeply a part of my personality at this point, which like, if you think that's an issue, like literally our personalities are made up of our interests. Some people just have more socially acceptable interests than others. So like get off my back. But yeah. It's about the love.

Jordan (01:09:04):

Yeah.

Lex (01:09:05):

My whole essay was about the love of this community and what they have for one another. And specifically one character who is deeply wronged in the season finale of the most recent season. And it's incredible, you know, I think personally, this is one of the greatest season finales of any show, hands down bar none, is the season eight finale of Letterkenny. That close out scene left me speechless. And before I could figure out what was happening, I realized I was just crying, just, you know, so deeply impacted and also like M83 they just seem to go into hibernation and then like once every couple of years, one of their songs will be used in a commercial or a movie and-

Jordan (01:09:49):

Just go completely off the-

Lex (01:09:51):

They just, yeah.

Jordan (01:09:53):

It's incredible.

Lex (01:09:53):

It's incredible.

Jordan (01:09:53):

That song goes so hard.

Lex (01:09:56):

Yeah. It's backed by "Do it, try it" by M83, which I think if I listened to it before watching Letterkenny I wouldn't have necessarily had that same impact, but that coupled with the pound for pound satisfaction of that last scene. Oh, it's just so good. And I know that I'm, I'm all sorts of fired up today, but it's about the love. It's about the community. It's about taking care of ourselves and taking care of one another because they are the same f***ing thing. And this year has sucked ass.

Jordan (01:10:25):

Yeah.

Lex (01:10:26):

And we, and by we, I mean, me and Jordan making this podcast has been one of the few silver linings I would say of this whole year for us. And I think a huge reason as to why it has been actually such a, you know, not, not just cause we get to just be goofy and, you know, talk about stuff that's important or sometimes less important, right? Like we can talk about whatever we want cause it's podcast. But the thing that has struck me the most as one of the most beautiful things is that we've gotten connected to so many other people. You. We've gotten connected to you, our audience, other people who have ADHD, who have loved ones who have ADHD, who maybe don't have diagnosed ADHD but you think you might, and you know, some of y'all who are just like, Oh, you're funny and I'm having a good time and so I'm here to support and that's great. And I think that's the whole point here.

Jordan (01:11:13):

Yeah. I don't have anything to add to that. I think you articulated that really well. I'll just throw in my thanks as well to everyone who is listening or reading along.

Lex (01:11:23):

Yeah. And fingers crossed, we will all get through this trauma. And if you're not getting through this trauma or, you know, people who haven't gotten through it, I'm so sorry. Like this just sucks and it's okay to grieve, but also like it's okay to find joy where you can. Uh, and so do it.

Jordan (01:11:41):

Do it, try it.

Lex (01:11:42):

Do it, try it. Like literally f*** around and find out. Um anyways. Yeah, we love y'all. Thank you so much for listening.

Jordan (01:11:52):

Yeah. This has been Or, Learn Parkour from Wholehearted Production Company.

Lex (01:11:57):

Yeah you can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, et cetera. Places where cool people find their podcasts.

Jordan (01:12:02):

We're even on Podchaser now too. So that's thirty, flirty and thriving. Uh, you can review us too there as well, but we'll, we'll get to that later. I do want to say a special thanks as always to Krizia Perito for our cover art. You can find her at Petal Hop. That's P E T A L H O P on Instagram and Twitter and Etsy. She has some very cute Christmas stuff up now. Check it out y'all.

Lex (01:12:30):

On the thank you train. Thank you to Tom Rosenthal for providing us with our intro and outro song. "There is a Dark Place" off of the album "Keep a Private Room Behind the Shop."

Jordan (01:12:38):

You can follow us on the social meds @orlearnparkour on Twitter. @wearewpc on Instagram and on the worldwide webs at wearewpc.com.

Lex (01:12:50):

All of that and more including transcripts, sources, resources, and any other fun things that we might want to just throw your way will be in our episode description.

Jordan (01:13:01):

They sure will. If you are enjoying this podcast and we hope you are, please don't forget to subscribe to this feed on any of the pod apps. Is there a word for apps where you listen to podcasts?

Lex (01:13:15):

I think they just-

Jordan (01:13:15):

Podcast apps?

Lex (01:13:15):

Podcast apps, I don't, yeah.

Jordan (01:13:17):

I heard there's like podcatchers, podcatchers. That's it. I heard someone say that the other day, but all that to say, you can subscribe to us on your favorite podcatcher.

Lex (01:13:27):

Neat. Yeah. And, uh, on the note of supporting us, you can rate and review us on Apple podcasts. You can rate and review us it sounds like on Podchasers now, uh, share with friends and family, if you feel so led, uh, share with your social media following, if you don't have friends or family, you want to share with share it, if you want to. Um, and then if you were able, which right now, if you aren't, so valid, but if you are able, if you are able, we do have a Ko-Fi and the link to that is in our link tree, which you can find on both our Instagram and Twitter.

Jordan (01:14:00):

That is so correct. Before we scoot it along out of this one, I do have one last question for you Lex.

Lex (01:14:08):

Okay.

Jordan (01:14:08):

Since we did establish that we are in fact very drift compatible. What would our jaeger name be?

Lex (01:14:17):

I'm thinking-

Jordan (01:14:18):

It can only be two words though.

Lex (01:14:20):

It has to be two words?

Jordan (01:14:21):

That's the system. Cause it's like-

Lex (01:14:23):

I hate military stuff. Like generally I, but-

Jordan (01:14:26):

It's like Cherno Alpha, Lady Danger, Crimson Typhoon.

Lex (01:14:33):

Well do you have one?

Jordan (01:14:33):

Um.

Lex (01:14:34):

Cause like I'm not the Jaeger expert here, apparently.

Jordan (01:14:39):

It's the closest thing to a technical skill I have. Pair robots with science. I did have a long time to think about this and then didn't come up with anything. I'm gonna say like-

Lex (01:14:47):

The weight, the weight is on me for this ending. Oh no.

Jordan (01:14:51):

I'm trying, I'm thinking of like words that I like, like Bravo's a good one. If we're looking at the like alphabet words you know?

Lex (01:15:01):

I don't know what any of those are. Except for like-

Jordan (01:15:01):

Like alpha, bravo, charlie.

Lex (01:15:04):

What's W?

Jordan (01:15:04):

Whiskey.

Lex (01:15:05):

Whiskey. Oh yeah. Whiskey, tango foxtrot.

Jordan (01:15:07):

Yeah.

Lex (01:15:07):

Right.

Jordan (01:15:08):

We were all on the internet in the 20teens. I'm going to say like, can I say rainbow tango?

Lex (01:15:14):

I was gonna say like, wango tango, but that's a song from the 80s I think.

Jordan (01:15:18):

I'm gonna say rainbow tango.

Lex (01:15:20):

Rainbow tango.

Jordan (01:15:21):

Yeah.

Lex (01:15:21):

I don't know, dude, um, I'm thinking something momma mia related. And so I'm trying to like lead it there. It's just Colin Firth. Our Jaegers name is Colin Firth. Oh no, it's correct though and it's done. It's just Colin Firth.

Jordan (01:15:30):

You said it and I don't want it to be true but it is. Welp, I'm Jordan.

Lex (01:15:49):

I'm Lex.

Jordan (01:15:49):

We are Colin Firth and this has been Or, Learn Parkour. We'll see you next week.

Lex (01:15:51):

It's just the Jaeger shows up and it's just-

(01:15:59):

[Outro Music: There Is A Dark Place by Tom Rosenthal].