What does it mean to be an optimist? What is it like to look at the world and see not just hope, but possibility?

Yeah, we don’t know either. I guess we’ll never know.

KIDDING… kidding, of course. But here’s the interesting thing: It turns out optimism is much more complicated than we ever imagined – and it’s precisely because it is so much more than just being blindly good-natured all the time.

So this week, Tommy brings you a story of the dark side of optimism, one that ends in a crushing, embarrassing blow to his ego, and his back. And Pete comes with scales and stuff. It’s like math, and he talks about it with the same level of understanding that he brings to his math studies. That is to say, you might have to work extra hard to understand what the hell he is talking about.

Also, there’s a chance he brings up “Building Information Modeling” but fails to mention that he’s actually talking about “Building Information Modeling” as he is talking about it.

But don’t worry: the punchline of this whole episode is that the world isn’t as bad as it seems and, in spite of all the “messaging” out there, humanity is low-key kicking ass right now if you know where to look.

Bonus round: Carl Sagan drops the mic on this episode.