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Brooksie Skittles and the Great Granite Glow-up

If you’ve ever thought “My life would be so much easier if I just changed my name to Wanda Milkshake,” then you already understand the energy of this episode. Kyle has an existential crisis about his last name, which, as it turns out, is basically a bureaucratic cover-up from Ellis Island. Misty makes an airtight case for Lucille Ball not just as a comedy legend, but as the secret godmother of Star Trek. Pete reveals that Steve Jobs personally ruined his ability to touch a Windows machine without crying, and Ryan teaches us why Spider-Man should never give a TED Talk while being punched in the face.

Along the way, we invent an entire pulp noir character—Brooksie Skittles—because apparently none of us can be trusted with free time. We also discover that your true adult-entertainment name is your grandmother’s first name plus the last dessert you ate, which is both hilarious and a devastating reminder that you’ve been eating Pop-Tarts for dinner.

But beneath the jokes, there’s a point here: inspiration is weird, inconsistent, and often arrives from places that make no sense at all. Whether it’s bittersweet sitcoms, Brené Brown’s radical vulnerability, or Prince literally existing as a one-man thunderstorm, these are the figures chiseling away at our creative DNA. And if that means our Mount Rushmore ends up looking less like granite and more like a fever dream carved out of pudding, well, at least it’s honest.

Mentioned in the Episode

  • Scrubs (TV series)
  • Mission Impossible 3 (film)
  • The Gone Away World by Nick Harkaway
  • Spider-Man comics (assorted runs)
  • John & Hank Green (Vlogbrothers, authors)
  • Douglas Adams (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy)
  • Prince (musician, icon)
  • Steve Jobs (Apple)
  • Frances Marion (screenwriter)
  • Lucille Ball (I Love Lucy)
  • Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag, Killing Eve)
  • Brené Brown (Daring Greatly, shame research)
  • Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing)
  • Dirk Maggs (audio drama producer)
  • Peter David (comic/Star Trek novelist)
  • Jane Espenson (Buffy, Battlestar Galactica)
  • Dying for Sex (Hulu series & podcast)
  • Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros
  • Adults (Hulu/Disney+)
  • The Residence (Netflix)
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Join Misty, Pete, Kyle, and Ryan — a ragtag team of creative types — as they dive into the joy, frustration, and beautiful mess of the artistic process. From the spark of inspiration to the reality of “I actually made this,” they’ll share honest stories, epic wins, total flops, and the weird, wonderful chaos that comes with being possessed by a new idea.
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