PEL Presents PMP#159: Watching "How To with John Wilson"
The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast
Mark Linsenmayer
4.6 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 1 October 2023
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
https://prettymuchpop.com/2023/10/04/pmp159-how-to-with-john-wilson/Mark, Lawrence, Sarahlyn, and Al all watched the three seasons of this groundbreaking, polarizing documentary show that serves as a visual diary and collection of essays by its creator. While episode titles sound like practical advice, the investigations invariably swerve into something weird or philosophical. But did we enjoy it?
Subscribe directly at prettymuchpop.com or search Pretty Much Pop on your desired podcast app to hear our "aftertalk" to this episode (where we catch up on what we're consuming and engage in other off-topic chatter) and avoid any ads. You'll get that sort of treatment for every episode by supporting us via patreon.com/prettymuchpop or by subscribing via Apple Podcasts to the Mark Lintertainment Channel.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | If you'd like to see our lovely faces, there is an unedited video of this discussion aired |
| 0:05.7 | on the partial examine life YouTube channel. Look for the link to the video at the post for this |
| 0:09.9 | episode at prettymuchpop.com This is pretty much pop, a culture podcast, always with a camera |
| 0:24.2 | attached to our hips. We're talking about the HBO documentary show How To with John Wilson, |
| 0:28.6 | which started in 2020, just wrapped up its third and final season. This is Mark Lissomire, |
| 0:34.4 | twisting and turning, never ending up where you'd expect. This is Albaiko wondering how to even |
| 0:39.0 | begin talking about this show. You are Sarah Lynn Breck. You woke up. You had your coffee and you |
| 0:47.1 | went for your run. You tried to think of a clever opening line for this podcast, but couldn't |
| 0:52.3 | think of anything. So here you are. This is Lawrence Weir and I hate it this show. |
| 0:57.7 | Shots fired. I inflicted this upon you. This is a hundred percent Rotten Tomatoes rating. So I |
| 1:03.1 | guess you as established critic Ken Ruin that if you want to publish something. I'm not going to write |
| 1:09.0 | about it. I'm not going to write about it. I thought I actually thought about writing about it. I |
| 1:12.0 | decided not to write about it because I didn't want to mess up. No critic wants to be that one guy |
| 1:17.4 | who descends and like let everybody know that they're like not in on the joke. So I chose not to |
| 1:22.0 | write about it, but I really did not like this show. Let's try to say what it is. Al, do you want |
| 1:27.8 | to make an attempt? How to with John Wilson has a form of a kind of video diary. He's kind of like |
| 1:35.6 | a garrison killer, a millennial garrison killer in New York City. He just documents every single |
| 1:42.5 | thing that happens to him and then manages to turn it into a commentary on something or other. |
| 1:48.0 | And as Mark alluded to, the videos are styled as like how to guides. So what are some of the |
| 1:53.2 | titles? Like how to find a parking spot? How to put up scaffolding? How to put up scaffolding? |
| 2:00.1 | And the shows begin by talking about how you might go about these things, but then invariably |
| 2:05.9 | descend into some kind of commentary, some more profound than others. Descend I think is the |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Mark Linsenmayer, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Mark Linsenmayer and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.