This is the outside podcast.

There are many things that my co-producer,

does for this podcast.

He writes the music, all the boop-boop-wee-w-wit-wop and the

weir-re-re-r-that's him. He does the final mix on each episode, making sure the volume

is at just the right level on every little piece that you're hearing. He edits almost everything

that I write and is somehow able to tell me

what he thinks of what I wrote in a way that both preserves our friendship and makes it clear I

should take another pass. Stop turn to be clever and just say what I really mean. He is probably the

second most important person in my life, after my wife, Ellie.

Nothing you have ever heard on this show would be as smart or honest or moving without his guidance and input.

Don't get me wrong, there are things I don't like about him too.

No one should have quite such visible abs at 43 years old.

And his deal with the devil hairline is infuriating. But there was one time in particular

when Robbie went above and beyond for both our friendship and this podcast, the very first

episode of the show that we ever made. It's about the process of

freezing to death, an audio journey into hypothermia. It was based on an article in outside

written by Peter Stark, in which a fictional character drives off the road in a snowstorm,

tries to ski his way out, and nearly succumbs

to the cold. For the podcast, however, we just did all that stuff to Robbie. We crashed his

car into a snowbank. We miced him up on skis. And then we buried him in snow, shirtless, for a long

time, because it's really hard to fake shivering sounds.

...