Hope you’re having a nice week! We have a couple special live shows coming up tomorrow (and one that happened last night that you can rewatch now). BUT before we get into that, I wanted to highlight some of the really important work our shows are doing to explain what’s going on with coronavirus and debunk some myths circulating about it. I’ve been holding off on mentioning them too much to keep this newsletter light and distracting, but they deserve a serious shout out. If you just can’t think about virus stuff right now, I get it. Please feel free to skip on down to the live show section. <3 If you’re ok to hear more about it, these episodes are absolutely worth your time.
MaxFun Shows Focusing on Coronavirus
The hosts of Oh No, Ross and Carrie (Ross Blocher and Carrie Poppy) have been investigating spirituality, fringe science and claims of the paranormal for nearly TEN years. For the past few months, they’ve focused on debunking dangerous myths about coronavirus and calling out spiritual leaders who claim to be able to cure it.
If you’d like to learn about a bunch of the bogus things people are saying about coronavirus, check out their mega episode where they disprove a ton of different stuff (it’s not 5G, y’all). They’ve also just started a series where they dive deeper into some ‘healing’ classes being offered right now. If you only listen to one of these episodes, I’d recommend Carrie’s interview with Shakuntali Siberia, a guru who claims to be able to heal those suffering form the virus. It is pretty extraordinary. Ross and Carrie are so good at approaching things with an open mind and genuine interest, and from a place of kindness and understanding, but when they run up against people whose claims are actively hurting others, they step in. Their investigative work is helping people in a real way and you should give these episodes a listen.
Speaking of helping people – when she’s not podcasting, host Dr. Sydnee McElroy is out helping save lives at the hospital. Sawbones usually focuses on archaic medical practices from history, but since we’re currently experiencing medical history in the making, they’ve pivoted to discuss what’s happening with coronavirus. They’ve done episodes on a wide variety of topics that pertain to the virus, so I’m going to list some of them here:
- Masks: All about ’em! (Maybe you watched the video Sydnee made last month about How To Wear A Cloth Mask? If you haven’t you should! I found it really helpful.)
- The Most Dangerous Parade: The parade that spurred on the second wave of the 1918 influenza epidemic
- Dr. Anthony Fauci and Coronavirus Myths
- Ignaz Semmelweis: And the advent of handwashing
- Hydroxychloroquine
- COVID Lies, Darned Lies, and Statistics: Fighting the narrative that the pandemic has been overblown by hospitals in order to get more money. (Spoiler: It hasn’t).
If you’re looking for content that may be able to help you through quarantine that doesn’t deal with the virus as directly, check these out:
- Triple Click did an episode all about The Best Quarantine Video Games.
- Shmanners outlines good Zoom etiquette in their episode on Video Conferencing.
- Reading Glasses did a whole episode on books to read while in isolation. They also have a new choice for their Isolation Book Club, so check that out and join for their discussion on May 24!
Just a reminder, we have two awesome events coming up tomorrow! Dead Pilots Society is doing a live online taping at 5pm PT featuring the pilot “Elsewhere” by Corinne Kingsbury and Noelle Valdivia! It features Tig Notaro, Martin Starr, Kate Walsh, Ego Nwodim, Humphrey Ker, Asif Ali, Craig Cackowski, Carla Cackowski, Nichole Bloom, Ayden Mayeri, and more! Be sure to get your tickets soon!
The whole crew from Who Shot Ya (Drea Clark, Alonso Duralde, and Ify Nwadiwe) are assembling online with special guest Jordan Morris to have a watchalong of The Avengers tomorrow at 1pm PT/4pm ET. Click here for details on how to join the fun!
This past week:
Mission to Zyxx Mailbag Ep
McElroy and McVarney Together Again for the First Time
We Got This: Clean Slate Live
Travis McElroy and CUSS: Jackbox for a Cause
Clint McElroy Stories from Your Gaffer
John Hodgman’s Get Your Pets
Coming up next:
Today:
John Hodgman’s Get Your Pets
Clint McElroy’s Stories From Your Gaffer
Saturday, May 16:
Who Shot Ya’s Live Watchalong of The Avengers with special guest Jordan Morris
Dead Pilots Society Live Taping Featuring Tig Notaro, Martin Starr, and more!
Sunday, May 24
Reading Glasses Isolation Book Club
Be sure to sync the MaxFun events calendar to your own!
We’d like to hear from you!
Email april@maximumfun.org with your photos and stories about what you’re up to when listening to MaxFun or just in general. We’ve got a blog post that we are continually updating with some of the fun stuff that MaxFunsters are doing.
Here’s what MaxFun staff members are up to!
Stacey Molski, Manager of Audience Development and Communications (that’s me)
“Right around the start of social distancing, I asked my landlord if my boyfriend and I could fix up our little outdoor space in front of our 4-plex. That’s how we ended up with this tiny little garden jammed up against our apartment in LA. We planted strawberries, cucumbers, tomatoes, spinach, peppers, and a little clementine tree – all in containers. I was immediately super emotionally attached to them, while also doing little to no research on how to help them grow (they are!) or not get eaten by bugs (they are!), and assuming they’d all probably die pretty quickly. So far the only thing that’s really died is the spinach we trashed after an outdoor cat pooped on it.
The first night after we planted, I asked my boyfriend if he thought the plants would sleep ok outside. A few days ago, I looked at the little vines that our cucumber plant had carefully wrapped around the wire support, and asked if he thought that if I stood out there with my finger out for 4-6 hours if the cucumber vine would hold my finger. Just normal stuff. I have googled a lot of things like “how does baby clementine grow,” “does strawberry come from flower,” “is praying mantis garden friend” (we have one living on our pepper plant!) and other things like that, as though I am a person who just learned that food comes from the ground. The wild thing is that I spent most of my teen years working on a living history farm, dressed like it was the 1890s, farming and gardening for the public. You’d think I’d remember how to do it.
If I can grow things, you can grow things – give it a try! It’s given me a lot of joy and taught me that it’s possible to do a lot with a little, that some stuff perseveres against all odds, that having one tiny strawberry a day helps a lot, and that sometimes your thing gets pooped on and you just gotta start over.”
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