Pete Wright
Hello, everybody, and welcome to Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast on TruStory FM. I’m here with—oh my god—it’s Nikki Kinzer, and Melissa Bacheler, Discord Mom.
Nikki Kinzer
Hello.
Pete Wright
Zoinks, Scoob. So—
Nikki Kinzer
Hi, Melissa.
Melissa Bacheler
Hello. Sorry, I’m not used to saying hello. Usually I’m in Discord and I don’t say hello out loud. I type it.
Pete Wright
You know what? Really, you should just put your mic up to your keyboard and type everything. Every response.
Nikki Kinzer
That’s right.
Pete Wright
That would be on brand. We’re doing a very special Season 31 finale episode. And Melissa, I don’t even know why I’m talking. You are the host of our special game show finale, and we’re gonna be answering a lot of questions, and I’m very excited about that.
But first, don’t forget the usual stuff: head over to takecontroladhd.com to get to know us a little bit better. Listen to the show right there on the website, or subscribe to the mailing list—we’ll send you an email each time a new episode is released.
This is the last episode of our 31st season, but fear not: there is a Season 32. We’re obviously coming back. We’re just taking a little extended holiday break, and we’ll be back in the new year. We’re very excited about it.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t support the show and all the good stuff we’re doing behind the scenes while we’re on break. Visit patreon.com/theADHDpodcast. While we’re not producing brand new episodes, you can jump into the Discord server, chat with fellow ADHDers, and get access to the triple-secret channels depending on the level you sign up for. We would love you to be there. We need you to be there. This show needs supporters just like you.
If you’re already a supporter, thank you so much. And if you are not yet—water’s warm. Come on in. patreon.com/theADHDpodcast to learn more.
Melissa, the floor is yours.
Melissa Bacheler
Very nice of you guys to have me on again. We actually did something similar to this—it’s been a few years—where it was more or less like a quiz-show setup. And one of our community members mentioned they had recently listened to that episode and was like, “You guys need to do another one because that was really fun.” And luckily they mentioned it early enough that we could put something together in time for our final episode for the season.
Pete Wright
Actually do it.
Melissa Bacheler
Speaking of, I’m really glad you mentioned there’s a Season 32. I was nervous for a second that maybe y’all brought me on to be like, “Hey, this is gonna be it.”
Nikki Kinzer
And then goodbye.
Pete Wright
Goodbye.
Melissa Bacheler
So—mm-hmm—super glad there’s a new season coming.
I decided to do something a little different this time. There are no points involved. It’s not really a quiz show, so to speak, but more of a “let’s get to know our podcast co-hosts a little better” and ask them a few questions.
I’ve kind of sequestered the questions into a couple different categories: things like hobbies, looking back at earlier times of your life, and then a few “what if” questions. This was really just something to do that would be a little fun and allow us to unwind a bit—we happen to be right now in the holiday season, and we’re ending our podcast season—so this felt like a fun way to wrap things up.
So are you guys ready to answer a few questions?
Nikki Kinzer
I think so.
Pete Wright
Let’s do it.
Melissa Bacheler
Do you promise to answer with the truth, all the truth, and nothing but the truth?
Nikki Kinzer
Yes, I promise.
Pete Wright
Yes.
Melissa Bacheler
All right, good.
I mentioned the first category was about hobbies. I actually entitled it “Hobby Lob-E.” Meaning I like lobbing or throwing things, and I’m tossing questions at you. So it’s Hobby Lobby.
Pete Wright
Oh, that’s good. I thought all the hobbies had to involve throwing things, but I’m glad.
Melissa Bacheler
Yeah, yeah. Oh no.
All right. First question is pretty simple: what are some of your favorite hobbies or activities that you like to do by yourself?
Nikki Kinzer
All of my hobbies I do by myself because I’m an introvert.
Pete Wright
Nikki’s number one hobby is being by herself.
Melissa Bacheler
“I don’t like doing anything fun with people.”
Nikki Kinzer
I love being by myself. I have no problem with that.
Melissa Bacheler
Nothing wrong with that.
Nikki Kinzer
Reading. I like to read. I always have a book that I’m reading. And puzzles. I love doing puzzles. I always have a puzzle on the dining room table.
Melissa Bacheler
So—clarify: puzzle as in puzzle pieces, putting together a picture?
Nikki Kinzer
Yes. It has to be 1,000 pieces. And there are particular types I like: very colorful, easier to put together, because it’s more fun. If it’s something that’s just sky and a field, I would hate it.
Pete Wright
Yes.
Nikki Kinzer
Right? I need lots of color and things like that.
And while I do my puzzles, I like to watch Dateline or 20/20—some kind of true crime—as I’m doing them. That’s usually what I’m doing.
And sometimes I’ll have some candy. Like, I had Mike and Ike’s last night with my puzzle, and that was fun.
And then the other thing I like to do by myself is watercolor. I like to paint.
Pete Wright
I like to do puzzles and search the website for locations of registered sex offenders.
Nikki Kinzer
Don’t do that.
Melissa Bacheler
Honestly, that’s really just playing it safe in your own neighborhood.
Nikki Kinzer
Right? Exactly. That’s just being cautious.
Pete Wright
Oh no.
Melissa Bacheler
Don’t go to that house during Halloween trick-or-treat.
Nikki Kinzer
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So those are the three things I try to do every weekend, or get some time in.
Melissa Bacheler
What about you, Pete? What do you like to do by yourself?
Pete Wright
I watch a lot of movies and TV shows. I do it for a series of podcasts, but I would do it anyway. I like immersing myself in those things.
I like to mess around with creative tools. And honestly, if I could, I’d spend more time just playing in my information-management systems—like Obsidian. I could do that for hours and hours for fun.
I also have a newfound love of the lathe—turning wood. I don’t do it nearly enough because I have to use my next-door neighbor’s woodshop, so it’s not like it’s in my house. But I’m making a bowl right now. I’m in bowl progress and I’m pretty excited about it.
And I think when I retire, I’ll go back to something from high school. We had a pottery studio, and I spent all my non-academic time throwing pots on the wheel. I loved that. I made plates, vases, jugs, bowls—everything. It’s probably the one thing I do with my hands that isn’t technology-related that I really, really love. I like getting dirty with clay. It’s a very Ghost kind of moment.
Melissa Bacheler
It’s not really a Ghost moment, because in that one she didn’t do it by herself.
Pete Wright
No, she didn’t. But when I do it, I imagine hundreds of ghost hands on the pot at the same time.
Nikki Kinzer
Around the pot.
Melissa Bacheler
Hundreds.
Pete Wright
Yeah. It’s a real party.
Nikki Kinzer
That’s creepy.
Pete Wright
It’s a ghost party pottery party.
Melissa Bacheler
I thought you were just gonna say you imagined you were doing it with Patrick Swayze.
Pete Wright
Yeah.
Nikki Kinzer
Yeah, but that’s creepy too.
Pete Wright
Well, it’s all— they’re all Patrick Swayzes. I mean, come on.
Melissa Bacheler
Oh okay. Hundreds of Patrick Swayze hands.
Pete Wright
Yeah.
Melissa Bacheler
Okay, that makes total sense.
Nikki Kinzer
Oh, that’s so funny.
Pete Wright
I don’t remember—was it Naked Gun 2½?—where they had a montage where Leslie Nielsen was behind whoever it was, and it was hands, and then feet came up around the pottery. It was just really gross. That was one of the funniest things for me.
Nikki Kinzer
That’s funny.
Melissa Bacheler
A lotta hands in that pottery.
Pete Wright
So many hands.
Melissa Bacheler
Well, do you guys have any hobbies you enjoy doing with other people, like in a group, or at least with one other person?
Nikki Kinzer
Nope.
Pete Wright
I think Nikki loves running from groups. That’s her hobby.
Nikki Kinzer
No, I’m kidding. I like going out on the boat in the summer with a group of friends. I love that. I love being on the water. I love having a beverage. I love being in the sun. I love chatting. It’s definitely something I like to do with a group.
Melissa Bacheler
That sounds very nice.
Pete Wright
Man, we are different, different people.
Melissa Bacheler
Pete being not a fan of deep water would probably not enjoy that so much.
Pete Wright
Oh god. You just described the worst. Can you put the boat in dry dock and then give me a beverage? I’ll be fine. I could sit on a boat in somebody’s driveway.
And for me, I love collaborative storytelling stuff. I’m part of a number of groups that involve that mentality—D&D, collaborative writing—we write chapters of threaded hyperfiction. I love it. I love working creatively with people to create new stories. Making something together like that is really fun.
Melissa Bacheler
That is really fun.
Nikki Kinzer
I like playing games with people, too. If we’re having a social event—couples coming over, family—especially around the holidays: Thanksgiving, Christmas. I like having games we can play together.
Pete Wright
For sure.
Melissa Bacheler
Okay. Let’s take one of your solo hobbies. You have to turn it into your next career, and it needs to be at least moderately successful. Somebody’s like, “Hey, I really like how you do that. Will you come do that for money?” Which hobby would you prefer to turn into a career?
Nikki Kinzer
That’s easy for me. Brad and I have already talked about it—my husband and I. We want to get a little booth at a Saturday market and half of the booth will be my watercolors and half will be his photography.
Pete Wright
Puzzles?
Melissa Bacheler
Or Mike and Ike’s?
Nikki Kinzer
No. Watercolors and photography. That’s what we want to do in retirement. Whether anything sells or not doesn’t matter. I just think it’d be fun.
Melissa Bacheler
I love this idea. Could you do watercolors of things Brad takes pictures of? Like he takes a picture of a flower, and you paint the same flower, and someone could buy the photo and the watercolor?
Nikki Kinzer
Oh my gosh, you’re asking way too much. I mean… I see where you’re going. I like to do a lot of flowers and I’d like to get into landscapes. So maybe. Who knows?
Pete Wright
Or you could send it off to Liberty Puzzles and have a laser-cut puzzle made out of your watercolor of a photograph.
Nikki Kinzer
That’s even— that’s a lot of stuff going on there.
Pete Wright
That is a lot of meta going on there.
Melissa Bacheler
¿Por qué no los dos?
Pete Wright
Yes.
Nikki Kinzer
Mm-hmm.
Pete Wright
I love that you threw in Spanish there. That was exciting.
Melissa Bacheler
Pete, what about you?
Pete Wright
I would love to write fiction full time. That would be a lifestyle I’d really celebrate. The book market’s tough, so I don’t have a high assumption of success. But I do know that people struggle with their technology.
And a friend—actually you know him, Dr. Dodge—said, “If all this podcasting fails, you should start a business called Digital Feng Shui,” where you help people take their organizational tools and digital libraries of documents and get them whipped into functional shape in a way that’s super stress-free. That’s something I think I could do really well.
Melissa Bacheler
Except you call it Digital Fun Shui, because you said “functional shape,” so it’s F-U-N-C-T shui.
Pete Wright
Yeah. But everybody knows my love for George Clinton and Prince, so it would be Digital Funk Shui. F-U-N-K. Look what we did—we just did some brainstorming and it was great.
Melissa Bacheler
We did. We did. So I’ve learned my hobby to turn into a business is to become your manager and make sure that these ideas I’m helping you create, I’m getting a piece of the action.
Pete Wright
Yes. Just a sniff off the top.
Nikki Kinzer
That’s right.
Melissa Bacheler
Is there a hobby or an activity you would do more regularly if money or time were not an issue?
Pete Wright
Travel. In my twenties and early thirties, one of my favorite things was traveling with friends to big movie locations—where movies were shot—to actually see where they were filmed. There are whole industries around it now.
If money and time were no object, I’d spend a lot of time traveling to movie locations—probably reenacting scenes. I’ve already done that with Point Break right here in Oregon. The Goonies… we could do that all day long. I don’t want it to be a career—no tours—I just want to do it.
Melissa Bacheler
I love that you do movie LARPing.
Nikki Kinzer
Hobby: I’d love to have more time to paint—and more energy. It’s not hard, but when you’ve worked all day, it’s like, “Do I really want to get the paints out?” There are steps, and friction.
Activity-wise: I’d love to travel more. See more of the world.
Melissa Bacheler
Okay. Next category: Nostalgia Nuggets.
Pete Wright
Sounds weirdly gross and thoughtful.
Melissa Bacheler
I did that on purpose. I first typed “Nuggets of Nostalgia,” and that sounded too nice, so I switched it.
These are things looking back: early childhood, things you haven’t thought about in a while. Like nicknames. Did you have any nicknames growing up?
Pete Wright
My dad was a terrible person with nicknames, and he saddled me with one from my earliest days. He would call me “Weastie.” Sometimes “Weastie Woe-Woe.” “Weaser.” “Weaser Woe.” It was… unpleasant. And it stuck well into adulthood. He’d say, “Hey, Weastie, grab the salt,” in front of a girlfriend, and it was the end of my life.
Melissa Bacheler
Where did that come from? It doesn’t really go with the name.
Pete Wright
Nicknames are… weird. But I have Super 8 films where he’s calling me that when I’m three. Early audio tapes where I’m five and I refer to myself as that. I was conditioned early, and it just stuck.
In college, I was an RA and I had this cabinet full of weird homeopathic stuff my mom would send me. Everybody on the floor learned that if they had a pain anywhere, they’d come to me. They started calling me “Doc.” Doc, Doc P—years of that. The guys I sang with still call me Doc.
Melissa Bacheler
That’s so fun.
Nikki Kinzer
Do you have a nickname for your wife? Or does your wife have a nickname for you?
Pete Wright
Everybody calls me Pete now. It’s just Pete—except Kira and my mother call me Peter. And we’ve discovered it’s Peter when I’m present, Pete when they’re talking about me to other people.
As for Kira… there aren’t any natural nicknames. There’s that movie with Chris Pine where the daughter’s name is Kira and he says “Kira” over and over, and my wife hates it. So as a result, I do it all the time. I call her “Kira” now. Pretty zealously. It’s not going great.
Melissa Bacheler
You’ll wear her down.
Pete Wright
Like water over a stone, eventually.
Melissa Bacheler
Stockholm syndrome will kick in eventually and she’ll be on board.
Nikki Kinzer
Oh gosh.
Pete Wright
In high school they called her “Funky Fresh Kira Lee.” Kira Lee was her maiden name. So sometimes I call her Funky Fresh. It’s one of those anti-nicknames. There was no reason for it. But that’s why it’s funny.
Nikki Kinzer
My nicknames are boring. Nick. People call me Nick.
And the one Brad and I call each other is “Bug.” We’ve always called each other Bug. The kids kind of laugh because… little baby bugs.
Melissa Bacheler
That’s so cute.
Pete Wright
My son is Nick. Growing up we called him “Nickel the Pickle.” And then somehow he became “Dr. Pickle.” So I still call him Doctor sometimes.
And Sophie, when she was born, her eyes were this steel smoky blue. So I called her Smoke—Smokey. That was her nickname for years. I still call her that.
Melissa Bacheler
I love how your nicknames tie to different things—Doc, and then Dr. Pickle. And Smoke, and then Sophie was off fighting forest fires for a while…
Pete Wright
Oh, I didn’t even make that connection.
Melissa Bacheler
Okay. Enough sentimentality. Were you guys afraid of anything when you were kids? Monsters, the dark, something under the bed?
Pete Wright
I have anxiety. It manifested in funny ways. I definitely had a period where I was afraid of something reaching out from under the bed. I would run into my room and do a running long jump into bed, because I felt like if I walked up normally something would grab my foot and drag me under. There was a red zone. No feet could be in it.
And yeah, I was scared of the dark for a while, and then I realized how good you sleep when it’s really dark, and I got over it.
Nikki Kinzer
I don’t love being in the dark, but I wasn’t really afraid of it. My mom always had a night light or the hall light on.
I didn’t like spiders, and I remember one time there was a spider in the corner of my room and I was crying and I kept saying “spider,” but my dad thought I was saying “fire.” So he’s like, “Fire? Where’s the fire?” And I’m like, “It’s right there!” And he’s like, “There’s no fire.”
I had night terrors growing up, and I still do every once in a while. I’d wake up screaming. My parents eventually stopped coming in because they knew it was just a nightmare. It happened in college, in the sorority—sleeping porch—screaming. It’s happened in my twenties, thirties… even in the house I’m in now. My husband’s used to it. He’s like, “It’s okay, you’re fine,” and then I wake up and I’m like, “I’m so sorry.”
Pete Wright
Wow.
Nikki Kinzer
It doesn’t really show up during the day. It’s just these night terrors.
Pete Wright
For me as an adult, the stuff that scares me comes from the movies I watch. Manhunter—the first Hannibal Lecter movie, before Silence of the Lambs—there’s this guy who finds houses with big windows, sits in trees with binoculars, watches people inside their homes, then breaks in and murders them.
That’s my kryptonite: the permeability of homes. You think they’re safe spaces, but if someone wants to get in, it’s easy. That stuff freaks me out.
Melissa Bacheler
It’s not the fantastical, it’s the stuff that can legitimately happen.
Pete Wright
Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa Bacheler
And we take in so much garbage—news, everything—and our brains use it as crazy fuel and send us down horrible spirals.
Pete Wright
Crazy fuel. That’s me.
Melissa Bacheler
That’s why you gotta feed it with good stuff. Like celebrity crushes.
What were some of your celebrity crushes as a teenager? Or young adult?
Nikki Kinzer
As a teenager: Ralph Macchio from The Karate Kid. I thought he was a beautiful human being. It’s funny—I don’t think he’s that good-looking now, but at the time I did.
Now? Matthew McConaughey. Bradley Cooper. Brad Pitt. George Clooney. Lots of handsome men. And my husband, Brad Kinzer—so handsome.
Melissa Bacheler
Good save. Best for last.
Pete Wright
Kira was my major crush at that age and then we got married, so that’s easy.
But: Lori Loughlin from Full House. Uncle Jesse’s wife. Huge crush. She’s… problematic now, but she was quite adorable.
Winona Ryder circa Heathers. Loved that movie. Robin Wright, Princess Bride era. Ugh.
And then probably 90210 era crushes. Luke Perry, sure. Shannon Doherty.
Nikki Kinzer
I always had a crush on Luke Perry.
Melissa Bacheler
All right. Dream car question. Around the time you got your driver’s license, what would your dream car have been?
Nikki Kinzer
I didn’t really have a dream car. There was a car I liked—a Datsun 510. I loved how boxy it was.
But honestly, I was just grateful to get a car. My parents bought me a 1979 Mazda 626. I remember it was under $2,000. This was like… 1988-ish. I ran that thing into the ground. There was an actual hole by the driver’s side where you could see the floor. I had it until well after graduation—I didn’t get a new car until my twenties. It wasn’t my dream car. It was what my dad said I was getting.
Pete Wright
My first car was a Saab 900 Turbo we got from John Elway’s wife, who was selling it because she was getting a Porsche. I loved that Saab because the ignition key is in the center console—down between the seats.
I had a friend who could pull the key out while the car was running, and he’d throw it out the window. The car would keep going, so we’d have to turn around and drive back and search the side of the road for the keys, and we couldn’t shut the car off. He was a real treat.
I bottomed that Saab out and cracked the bell housing on the transmission. Lost it. Then I had a cheap pickup for a while.
But my dream car was the Ford GT40 Mk II—Ken Miles at Le Mans. I wanted that car so bad. I’ve got a die-cast model of it on the wall behind me. That era of Le Mans cars is special.
And now? I actually really love the car I drive. It’s hard to fantasize about insuring the kind of car I’d really want. The modern GTs are… ridiculous.
Melissa Bacheler
Did you ever name your cars?
Nikki Kinzer
No.
Pete Wright
Weirdly, my Saab was called Doctor Turbo.
Nikki Kinzer
Of course it was.
Melissa Bacheler
Doctor Turbo is amazing. Did you have John Elway autograph the dash?
Pete Wright
No connection. My dad’s friend Peter Hoppmeyer ran a big used-car wholesale business—he knew John, helped him with cars. We just got the car.
Melissa Bacheler
Okay, final category: What If Fantasies. First question is for Pete. If you could have any fictional character as your ADHD coach, who would it be, and why?
Pete Wright
Mary Poppins. Because I think there’s a real hole in what Nikki brings to the show: occasionally Nikki should start singing. Sometimes we deal with hard topics, and I think she should break into song. Mary Poppins is that same kind Nikki energy, but with more singing.
Nikki Kinzer
With more singing, yeah.
Pete Wright
That’s where I think we would end up.
Nikki Kinzer
I think you should be the singer. You were in a group.
Pete Wright
Not when Mary Poppins is around. I’m just sitting around eating spoonfuls of sugar.
Melissa Bacheler
Which is super great when you’re trying to coach someone with ADHD.
Pete Wright
Yep.
Melissa Bacheler
Okay, next scenario. Imagine your co-host is no longer able to host the show with you. Abducted by aliens, vow of silence, whatever. The show must go on. You need a new co-host. They can be living or dead, real or fictional. Who’s your top pick?
Nikki Kinzer
First of all: if anything did happen, the podcast would probably be no longer. If one of us couldn’t do it, Taking Control: The ADHD Podcast would come to an end. That’s the truth.
In a fictional world… I don’t think I’d have a co-host. I’d have random people come in—Ari Tuckman, Sharon Saline, James Ochoa—people we like. But not weekly.
And honestly, the first thing I thought of was an AI version of Pete.
Pete Wright
That is the perfect answer. Because my fantasy is: I want to be uploaded to the cloud. When I’m on my deathbed and I’ve eaten all the Twinkies and Ding Dongs I can eat, I want to be jacked in and uploaded. So yes: create an AI version of me. You have my permission. The show will go forever.
Melissa Bacheler
And when Nikki’s ready, she’ll be uploaded too.
Pete Wright
She has not given permission. We’re just gonna do it.
Pete Wright
My fantasy would be: ADHD celebrities whose ADHD is worse than mine. I want to be the super grounded one on the show. Rotating cast: major celebrities whose ADHD is off the hook.
Melissa Bacheler
I love that you didn’t stick with one idea.
Pete Wright
I love that.
Melissa Bacheler
Final question. If an album was created as a soundtrack for your life: what songs or genres would play during different portions of your life? Early childhood?
Nikki Kinzer
I don’t know if I listened to music in early childhood. I remember my parents’ music: Linda Ronstadt, Bee Gees, Little River Band. So probably that.
Pete Wright
I went and built the album you asked for.
For little kid era: “Rainbow Connection” (Kermit), “Pure Imagination” (Gene Wilder), some Kenny Loggins—even though “House at Pooh Corner” came out later, I’d put it there retroactively. And Neil Diamond, because there was a ton of Neil Diamond in my house.
Nikki Kinzer
Oh yes—“America.” I remember seeing that with my parents.
Pete Wright
Yep. The Jazz Singer.
Melissa Bacheler
Teen years?
Nikki Kinzer
Easy. Depeche Mode, The Cure, New Order, Erasure—alternative at the time. Loved it all.
Pete Wright
Mine’s a superset: Jane’s Addiction, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, Smashing Pumpkins, They Might Be Giants. And in my teens I found Prince. So every era has Prince.
Teen Prince: Purple Rain, When Doves Cry, I Would Die 4 U, The Beautiful Ones.
Nikki Kinzer
Early teens, middle school: Prince, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper. High school: more alternative.
College/twenties: more pop-radio stuff, and in my mid-twenties I got into country—Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney, Faith Hill, Dixie Chicks. That’s when I started going to concerts.
Pete Wright
My college/twenties: Matthew Sweet, David Gray, The Postal Service, Arcade Fire. And Prince: “7,” “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World,” “Money Don’t Matter 2 Night,” “Nothing Compares 2 U”—Sinead did it, but I was listening hard to Prince.
Melissa Bacheler
Thirties?
Nikki Kinzer
Still country. And also Jason Mraz, and people around that vibe—Ed Sheeran, Sara Bareilles. Forties: pretty similar.
Pete Wright
Thirties: The Killers, Coldplay, Muse, Death Cab. Prince in my thirties: Musicology, Black Sweat, Cream, Gett Off. By then I’d seen him live like five times.
Forties: Bon Iver, The National, Wilco, Elbow, more Death Cab… and now, weirdly, I’ve found a new fandom: Lawrence. I’m obsessed. My kids don’t like them, but Kira does, so we’re a Lawrence house.
Also: Vampire Weekend, LCD Soundsystem, Beach House, and still Prince—Breakfast Can Wait, Cloud… I made a playlist.
Melissa Bacheler
You should post that playlist. I’d listen.
Pete Wright
I will. I’ll put it on Spotify and Apple Music.
Melissa Bacheler
Nikki, what are you listening to today?
Nikki Kinzer
Taylor Swift, definitely, after I watched the Eras Tour movie. Still some country, but not as much—I don’t know the newer people. I watched some of the CMAs last week and realized I don’t know who a lot of these people are.
Melissa Bacheler
You know Beyoncé.
Nikki Kinzer
Yeah, but I don’t think she’s country at all. She won country album of the year, which is ridiculous. Come on, people. She is not a country singer.
Pete Wright
I’ll throw in Lizzo—I’m fascinated by Lizzo. So talented. Also Sabrina Carpenter—I’ve been watching her since Girl Meets World. She’s legit funny and her music videos are great. And AJR—I listen to a ton of AJR.
Melissa Bacheler
That’s my son’s favorite group.
Nikki Kinzer
I like Maroon 5.
Pete Wright
Absolutely. Maroon 5.
Nikki Kinzer
We need to get Adam Levine on the show.
Melissa Bacheler
All right, I’ll add that to my holiday time-off list: get Adam Levine.
Nikki Kinzer
I would die.
Pete Wright
There we go.
Nikki Kinzer
All right. Well thanks, Melissa. This was fun.
Pete Wright
Good job, Melissa.
Melissa Bacheler
Thanks. It was a lot of fun. I feel like I learned a lot about you today. And Nikki, I think Pete and I were surprised when you said you liked country music so much.
Nikki Kinzer
Oh. Yeah. I liked it a lot for a long time. Still do. Chris Stapleton is one of my favorites. That man has a smooth voice.
Pete Wright
I like Garth Brooks. And I really liked the album he released under his other persona—Chris Gaines.
Nikki Kinzer
That’s what it is. Yeah. I also was a big Chris Isaak fan in my twenties. I saw him a few times in concert.
Pete Wright
Wicked Game. Wicked Game.
Nikki Kinzer
Oh, that’s a great song.
Pete Wright
Oh, Chris Isaak, you crooner.
Nikki Kinzer
Yeah. Yeah.
Pete Wright
All right. We gotta hang it up. This is our longest episode ever in the world.
Nikki Kinzer
I know. We gotta go.
Pete Wright
Thank you so much, Melissa, for hosting this quiz-show-not-quiz-show. We appreciate you.
And thank you everybody for hanging out with us—listening to this episode and the entirety of Season 31. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your time and your attention. We’ll be back in the new year.
Have a great holiday season. Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, and all the other things I’m forgetting. We hope your holiday season is full of peace and grace and judgment-free good times. Thanks, everybody.
