Today's episode of Topics was brought to you by Cards Against Humanity.

They asked us not to read an ad.

Please enjoy the show.

It's Topics, the podcast where two comedians discuss serious topics in a serious way.

Although, if something funny happens, that's fine too. I'm Michael Ian Black,

joined as always by Michael Schoelwalter. Hello, Michael. Hello. Great to hear your voice,

as always. And you as well. Well, before we dive into today's topic, which is just, it's just a real

broth, just a real hearty

broth that I can't wait to dive into and just soak myself and all those juices.

Why don't we just go over some of the rules and guidelines for new listeners to topics?

The first rule, of course, is there are no rules.

And Michael, do you want to unpack that a little bit for people?

Well, it's pretty self-explanatory.

I mean, when we first started conceiving of this show, it was really important to us

that we create an environment where you and I both felt safe, open, free to talk without

any sort of self-consciousness or self-censorship, where we didn't feel the need to be funny

or the need to be serious or the need to be serious. Um,

we could just be ourselves. And so, a kind of anything goes theater of the mind. Yeah. And so we

really felt like, um, we didn't want this to be dogmatic or overstructured. And so we,

we, we, we knew it was a little cheeky when we did it.

Um, but we did sort of like the idea that there was one golden rule of the show, which is, of course, that there are no rules.

Which of course is, is, is, well, it's, it's contradictory. It's contradictory and we kind of knew that. Uh, but it, but it, it's still,'t it contradictory and we kind of knew that but it but it's still

...