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 Showalter.

It's good to be here.

I'm excited about today's podcast because every once in a while, we invite a guest on

to talk about a topic that's maybe been on his or her mind.

And we've got a great guest for you today.

Before we do that, let's quickly go over the rules.

Number one, there are no rules,

and I say it every time, but I mean it. It sounds like we're being flipped, but we're not.

We really try to allow anything at all to happen, including a belly laugh or two if the situation

calls for it. The second thing is a recommendation. Let me go back. The second thing is a guideline.

And the guideline is we try to reach 80% of any given topic, which leads to the recommendation,

whatever percentage we don't get to.

We encourage you and your study groups to fill in the rest.

Michael, anything to add?

No, I think you covered everything i mean it is worth probably worth

reiterating that if while it's not the aim of the show to be funny if something funny

happens that's fine we're not going to edit that out we're not going to edit it we're not going to censor out. We're not going to edit it.

We're not going to censor ourselves.

You know, one of the things that I found in my sort of personal quest for knowledge, even before we started our own study group, known as the podcast topics, is that some of the knowledge that I best retain, I learn while laughing.

You know, knowledge itself and laughter, I think, just combined in this wonderful alchemy,

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