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Dec. 31, 2024
Looking Back, Looking Forward: What’s Next for BP in 2025 [S7.E51]
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In a year-end wrap up, Greg and Ed discuss their favorite shows of the year and some plans for the podcast in 2025. Ed begins by waxing rhapsodic over his early year interview with David Cluck, Hollywood assistant director who has been based in...
In a year-end wrap up, Greg and Ed discuss their favorite shows of the year and some plans for the podcast in 2025. Ed begins by waxing rhapsodic over his early year interview with David Cluck, Hollywood assistant director who has been based in Bangkok for the last 10 years or so (S7, Ep. 6-7). The flow of the interview was aided by the fact that David and Ed are friends, but Ed points out that it’s rare to sit down with a friend and discuss their career in depth. As a film nerd, Ed (and Greg) enjoyed David’s experience and insider storytelling ability.
Greg then brings up our episode on Bangkok in your 20s vs. Bangkok in your 50s (S7, Ep. 29). Greg enjoys having pearls of wisdom about living in Bangkok that only come from having lived in Thailand so long, and Ed appreciated the way the city’s pros have changed for him from the early days to his (now) fifty-ish lifestyle. Next, Ed mentioned his other favorite interview show, with Ron Weaver, ‘American-Thai Guy’ (S7, Ep. 11-12). Both Ed and Greg enjoyed Ron’s personality and insights, and the fact that his experience as an African-American guy gave him a different take on expat life in Thailand.
Greg’s next favorite episode was the one on ‘Expat Math,’ our attempt to understand Bangkok with various theories and equations (S7, Ep. 16). There’s no denying Bangkok’s chaotic nature, but that doesn’t mean it’s completely random, and the guys enjoy trying to wrap their heads around the City of Angels and come up with some guiding principles. Ed’s last favorite episode was his take on Bangkok vs. Hong Kong (S7, Ep. 24). As someone who doesn’t travel all that much, Ed enjoyed being able to experience the iconic city and weigh it against his home.
Greg wraps up the favorites by bringing up our show on ‘The Limits of Mai Pen Rai,’ (S7, Ep. 40). Both guys agree this might be their ‘angriest’ episode, but defend the right to put their foot down when it comes to inaction to solve problems that result in horrible tragedies, especially when they’re in the service of improving safety for everyone.
Last, Greg and Ed discuss their plan to use the last week of every month to air an old show, rather than putting out a new show every week. The truth is the guys need a breather to help them brainstorm new material, but also think listeners would benefit from listening to many of the old gems from previous years.
Don’t forget that Patrons get the ad-free version of the show as well as swag and other perks. We also sometimes post on Facebook, you can contact us on LINE and of course, head to our website (www.bangkokpodcast.com) to find out probably more info than you need to know.
Transcript
Greg 00:00:03 On this episode, we discussed the previous year of doing the Bangkok Podcast, as well as our top three episodes from 2024.
Ed 00:00:12 So if you want to know what stood out in 2024 and what lies ahead in 2025, you'll love this episode of The Bangkok Podcast.
Greg 00:00:36 So, DeepMind and welcome to the Bangkok Podcast. My name is Greg Jorgensen, a Canadian who moved to Thailand in 2001 to learn more about Zen and the Art of tuk tuk maintenance, but ended up learning almost nothing about either of them.
Ed 00:00:49 And I met Knuth, an American who came to Thailand on a one year teaching contract 24 years ago, fell in love with the look on foreigners faces when I start to answer their question Is Thailand a democracy? So I never laughed.
Greg 00:01:03 You're like.
Ed 00:01:04 I'm basically saying, how much time do you have?
Greg 00:01:06 Have a seat!
Ed 00:01:07 That's right. Here we go. All right. I want to give a big thanks to all of our patrons who support the show. Patrons get every episode a day early, behind the scenes photos of our interviews, a heads up to send questions to upcoming guests, and access to our discord server to chat with me, Greg, and other listeners around the world.
Ed 00:01:23 But best of all, patrons also get an unscripted, uncensored bonus episode every week where we riff on current events and Bangkok topics. On this week's bonus show, we chatted about the rebounding Thai tourism numbers, a plan by the Thai police to use drones to monitor traffic, and what our plans for New Year's Eve are. Now that I've extended my trip to the US to visit family and Greg is not motivated to do much besides sit on the sofa and catch up on Squid Game to learn how to become a patron and get all this good stuff, plus full access to over 700 bonus and regular backup modes. Click the support button at the top of our website.
Greg 00:02:04 That's right. And as always, if you have a comment or show idea or just want to say hi. Happy New Year, happy birthday, whatever. Head to Bangkok podcast.com. Click the little microphone button on the bottom right to leave us a voicemail, and we will play it on the show. All right, well, in this episode we are going to do our traditional New Year roundup, basically giving us a chance to discuss a few things about the podcast from the past, look ahead to the future, and talk about what we plan on doing.
Greg 00:02:28 Basically, kind of a state of the podcast address as we move from 2024 into 2025. Man aired 2025. When I was a kid, this was far distant future talk. This was Star Trek technology talk, and I'm kind of amazed that I'm here in Bangkok to see the clock turned over. For that, I'm with you.
Ed 00:02:45 Have you ever seen that meme of it's a timeline of movies and what year they were in? And so you can see on the timeline, you know, so, so a lot of 80s movies, something like 2020 was insanely far in the future. So you can see what where we are on the movie timeline.
Greg 00:03:02 Yeah, yeah, it's one of my little pet pet peeves, actually. When you see a sci fi movie and it's it's set in the future, but it's like too close in the future. It's not even remotely possible that the stuff that they're doing on screen is ever going to be possible in 40 years. It's like, okay, maybe if this was set 300 years in the future, I could believe it.
Greg 00:03:19 Anyway, I'm getting off topic, but yeah, that's what we are in 2025. So yeah, we do this kind of, New Year show every year where we just sort of wrap a little bit about the past year and, what we're going to do going forward. And we've actually got a kind of important announcement to get a change of the schedule that we're going to talk about in a little bit here. That's right. but, I guess, here we still are, man, doing this podcast every week. And, this is season seven. We're about halfway through season seven, which is insane. And what are your thoughts on the past year of of doing the podcast 2024?
Ed 00:03:53 Well, it's been great. I still love doing it. you and I have some plans, some reorganization plans which are going to get to in a minute. but I thought it was a good year when when you asked me what my favorite shows were from the year, and I went back and looked at all of them.
Ed 00:04:09 It's really. I mean, you have mentioned this before, too, that because we have to crank out a new show every week that a lot of times we forget, you know? So I wanted to go back and look at that list. I'm like, oh yeah, oh yeah, we did a show on that. And I completely forgot about that show. Totally. Yeah, totally. but I was kind of I was kind of surprised when I, when you asked what my favorites were, and I went back and looked at them and listen to a few. Two of my three favorites are actually interview shows which which I'll, which I'll mention in a minute. And it's funny, interesting. I feel it's hard to explain when you and I just rap and discuss something. I guess it's kind of easier and maybe just more fun, you know? You know, but when I think of kind of cool content, at least for me. A lot of it comes from interviewing the right person about something that I'm interested in.
Ed 00:05:00 Maybe it's because, I mean, I'm I'm so used to talking to you about Thailand, like, you and I just we've been doing it for 20. We've been doing it for 20 years, you know, talk. You know, just, you know, expats in Thailand meet up and what do we do? We talk about Thailand. We talk about living in Thailand. so. Right, so, so for me, in terms of what like to me, the best shows are finding the right guest. that's just me. Okay. This is personally. You know, it's funny, a lot of our listeners, when I've met them at meetups, they've said that they enjoy our conversational shows better.
Greg 00:05:32 Yeah, actually, a lot of listeners have told me they actually prefer the bonus shows over the main shows because we we have a little bit of a we relaxed our, our language filters a little bit and we have a bit more of a loosey goosey. Yeah, yeah. We're just talking sort of about current events and random thoughts and stuff like that, which is a bit a bit less structured, but I guess I guess more of a free flowing.
Ed 00:05:55 Well, every, you know, you know, to each his own. So some of our listeners I think, do like the interview shows, but it does depend on who's being interviewed and if they're interested in that person's field.
Greg 00:06:06 It's interesting because, yeah, what we did was we're each going to pick three shows from the past year that we found particularly interesting or had a particularly good time doing, or fun time thinking about or researching. But it's interesting that yours are interview shows because mine are more, drawing on our experiences and how we distill those. And, and I don't know why. Maybe it's because of just I'm particularly proud of having spent almost half my life in Bangkok and, you know, it's it's it's not an easy thing to do. So being able to draw from that well is, I think, a valuable experience. Part of that is also maybe being a father and being like, oh man, I've got a lot of good advice I want to pass on to the next generation.
Greg 00:06:50 I hope he listens to me. Right, right, right, right. So I'm not sure if that plays into it. so you want to, you want to you want to pick one? I'll pick one. We go back and forth, and then you just go through our top three. Sure.
Ed 00:06:59 You want me to start? All right.
Greg 00:07:01 Yeah. Go ahead. Okay.
Ed 00:07:02 so I'm going to I'm going to talk about two interview shows, which when I look back, these are and this is totally subjective. So this is just my favorite. I don't necessarily expect that listeners would agree, but this is just us being personal and subjective. my first show I want to talk about is an interview I did, I think it aired in January, February. It was early in the year where I interviewed a friend of mine, Mr. David Clark, who is an an ad assistant director, and we did a two shows. You know, it was a two part interview and we talked about his career in film, but then in particular, we talked about how we ended up in Thailand, his experience in Thailand, and then a lot about filmmaking in Thailand.
Ed 00:07:45 And as you know, you know, you and I are both film people And so, so to me, this is just my wheelhouse. And I'm talking to a guy that I know. And so for me, this was it's gold. Like, you know, because it's weird. Like for example, it's not often you actually sit down with a friend and do a deep dive on their career.
Greg 00:08:08 Yeah, I agree.
Ed 00:08:08 And, you know, like like you have a whole like, you know, you have a whole world of travel advice and experience and your work experience. And I never talked to you about that. I never talked to you as rarely that I talked to you about your job.
Greg 00:08:22 That's actually a really good insight. Yeah. And and outside of the show where we discussed what we're doing, I never ask you about your job much either. Like, so what's, what's really bothering you these days or something like that? Like, I.
Ed 00:08:32 Teach a whole bunch of stuff that you have no idea what I mean.
Ed 00:08:36 A few of my classes we've talked about on the show, but like, you don't know what I do for a living. Jesus, dude, it's.
Greg 00:08:41 It's like that old that comedian Brian Regan, he did that bit about how he, his friend got divorced and they went and he went for a round of golf with him, and he came back and his wife's like, so how's, how's Joe doing after the divorce? And he's like, I don't know. Good. I guess you didn't talk about it at all. He's like, no, never came up. I know he got a I know he got a new car.
Ed 00:09:02 Oh, that's funny, that's funny. No, but for me to sit down with a friend and do a deep dive in their career and have it be about filmmaking in Thailand, I loved it. I mean, so, listeners, if you haven't listened to it, I mean, there's a lot of general expat stuff in there, like how he, you know, the classic how he fell in love with Thailand.
Ed 00:09:21 but then a lot on the film scene in filmmaking. so to me, it's gold. I really enjoyed it. I've gone back and listened to it, which I don't always have time to do with shows. So cluck the cluck interview.
Greg 00:09:35 Yeah, I really like that one too. I thought it was really a really good listen. And again, totally subjective because I am also a film nerd and I love hearing behind the scenes stories about film schedules and film production got him.
Ed 00:09:46 And he's meeting famous people. Stuff like that. He's got the stories. He's super interesting guy. Yeah. I am I am biased because he's a friend of mine, but he he, he. He never drops the ball. Like, if you if you ask him for film stories, he's just got them. He's got the he's got the rolling, he's got the Rolodex. So he just he just goes off, you know.
Greg 00:10:05 No, that was a good one too. I really enjoyed it. my my favorite, first, favorite one was, the one that you and I did.
Greg 00:10:12 The title was Bangkok in your 20s versus your 50s. We discussed the pros and cons. Oh, yeah? Yeah. And I really liked this topic because, again, like I said in, just a few minutes ago, I think, I think we should be particularly proud of this episode, because I don't think a lot of people have 20 plus years of comparisons to talk about when you're discussing Bangkok. Like, that's correct. That's a long ass time, man. And I think we got some good insights out of that, some valuable insight.
Ed 00:10:42 If I do remember, the idea for that show did come from moi.
Greg 00:10:45 Well, I probably did, because you are the smart one of us. That is.
Ed 00:10:49 Not. That is not true. But, No, I like I like that topic too, because there are just I think, again, we talked about it on the show. We don't have to rehash the whole thing. But I do think just Bangkok means something different. If you happen to arrive in your 20s versus 50s, you just you look at it differently.
Ed 00:11:09 You take advantage of different things, whether you're in your 20s or your 50s. No.
Greg 00:11:13 Totally. Totally. And it's a totally different city. It's like night and day. Bangkok is literally a different city in the night versus the day. I mean, a lot of cities are like that, but in Bangkok, I think it's particularly for sure, for sure. and similarly, Bangkok to a 20 year old is a whole different ball game, from Bangkok to a 50 year old, for sure. I think I think that was a really interesting insight that we were able to provide, that maybe not a lot of people can. So I'm proud of that episode. I think we did really well there. Good.
Ed 00:11:39 Good choice. Yeah, there's some pearls. Occasional. We don't have a lot of money, but we occasionally do actually say something insightful and meaningful sometimes. All right. My second one is another interview show. And again, this is pretty early in the year. I'd have to go back and check.
Ed 00:11:53 but with, Ron Weaver, American tie guy, where we talked, a lot about his life in general and his how he fell in love with Thailand. I'm just a sucker for these stories. But he is a black dude. He's an African American dude. And he talked about, what his experience has been. You know, he can't speak for all, African Americans, but just his story and his experience with, the difference between, discrimination in the US versus discrimination in Thailand. Again, to me, this is absolute gold. I'm a professor of American studies. So this type of insight, right. a guy who's a minority in the States has that whole experience, which I know something about from my education, but then having him transplanted to Thailand and now being in an Asian culture, which he's still a minority, but it's a completely different history, background, experience. And, and on top of that, he is an extremely intelligent, entertaining guy. Like, he's just easy to interview.
Ed 00:13:00 Yeah, we talked about before that sometimes we find people with super interesting careers, but that doesn't mean they're like easy to interview.
Greg 00:13:08 That's right, that's right. And it's a bit of a downer sometimes as a podcast host, you're like, wow, I can't wait to talk to this guy. And then they just throw out one word answers.
Ed 00:13:16 Yeah, I mean, no offense to any of our guests. Like they're all there. They are in fact interesting people. That doesn't mean they they have a lot of personality. and if you can say anything about Ron is he has personality. he's he's funny, he's insightful. And, I like talking to expats who don't have the same experiences that you and I have necessarily, you know, because I mean.
Greg 00:13:40 Exactly, exactly.
Ed 00:13:41 You know, as we've mentioned before, you could, you know, you could rename our show to White Idiots in Thailand. You could rename it that. So, you know.
Greg 00:13:48 So, oh, I like that.
Ed 00:13:49 And, you know, and and we happen to know a bunch of other guys who probably fit into that category as well.
Ed 00:13:55 So just yeah, just someone who's who has it coming from a different perspective, different place, who's had his own experience. And he's also made a great life in Thailand. He loves it. He's got a beautiful wife, he's got an interesting career now. He's doing a lot of Thai teaching online. I've watched some of the content. Yeah. so these types of, super interesting expats who also happen to be a great interview, who don't just know the same things I know, like, that's the key.
Greg 00:14:27 Exactly. Because there's there's a million guys here that have roughly the same experiences that I do, and they can't give me anything new. Yeah, they tell a.
Ed 00:14:35 Story and I'm like, yeah, yeah, that's right. You know, they tell the story and I'm like, yeah, exactly.
Greg 00:14:38 Yeah. Been there, done that. Yeah, I know what you're talking about. But for Ron, being a black guy in Thailand, I have zero insight into that. So I really learned a lot.
Greg 00:14:45 Yeah. So learned a lot from that one.
Ed 00:14:46 Listeners, again, if you haven't listened to the Ron Weaver interview, get on it.
Greg 00:14:51 all right. My number two was, called Bangkok for nerds. Understanding the chaos with some sweet math. Gotcha. And, I like this one, because one of the things I really like to do with Bangkok is squeeze it through a certain filter. So Bangkok via X or Bangkok if X, and I try to, like, apply sort of common thought processes or ways of thinking and see how they would work if they went in one inside of Bangkok and came out the other. Right. I always find that interesting, like because Bangkok is such a weird place and all these, you know, traditions and, and pastimes and norms often get flipped on their head because Bangkok is Bangkok. Sure. But what we did on this episode was, was we talked about the mathematical equations that that govern how you get around in Bangkok, whether it's, you know, fast or easy or cheap.
Greg 00:15:50 we talked about relationships between multicultural couples. we talked about my Gatorade theory of proximity. You know, the further away you get from Sukhumvit, the less likely you are to find Gatorade in a 7-Eleven.
Ed 00:16:05 No, I love these theories to explain Bangkok, and I'm also a data guy, so I like I like sometimes just looking at numbers. So sometimes I just see. I see some numbers about Bangkok and I just can't believe it. I'm like like that many people ride the Skytrain or, you know, whatever it is. so Bangkok by the numbers, that's a that's a good topic.
Greg 00:16:23 I like that, and I love how complex systems work. Like, I love airports, I love how airports work because they're like a little mini city. So applying some of these little Common rules to life and trying to make sense of the chaos that is Bangkok. I had a real fun time coming up with some of the some of the ideas for that one.
Ed 00:16:42 Yeah, excellent. Good show, good show.
Ed 00:16:44 My last one, again, being perfect, perfectly selfish and totally subjective is our show on my comparison between Bangkok and Hong Kong. And again, just being perfectly selfish. You know, I don't travel very much for a guy who's an expat. So for me, just to spend a few days in Hong Kong, a city that I've seen on screen a million times, and then and then noticing some immediate, stark differences with Bangkok and that show actually got some good feedback. We got we got, some, a fair amount of agreement from a bunch of expats who lived in Hong Kong for a long time and then moved to Thailand. But then a little bit of pushback on some of my thoughts. So I like this. I need to travel more. like, I would love to spend a couple of weeks in KL or a couple of weeks in Jakarta a couple weeks in Manila. I just don't normally do it or have the time. So I love these, Asian capitals comparison topics.
Greg 00:17:43 Yeah, it was interesting one, we did one a few few years ago to when you came back from Phnom Penh.
Greg 00:17:47 That's right. that's right. Then we did one when I came back from Kuala Lumpur. That's right. so it's always interesting to see how Bangkok stacks up. And I particularly like finding out where other capitals like, because we both love Bangkok. We're hugely biased. But I came back from KL, I was like, damn, they really do a couple things way better than Bangkok. Yeah, no, I love it too.
Ed 00:18:08 You know? Yeah, it's important for us to have a different perspective and it it helps us, I think appreciate Bangkok more. But then also it keeps us grounded when, you know, I remember when I spent a couple of weeks in Vietnam back in the day, and I was shocked at how good the food was. Like, I just thought Bangkok had that wrapped up. Oh yeah. I just thought it was just wrapped up. There's no food better than Bangkok. But man spent some time in Vietnam. The food is great.
Greg 00:18:34 Yeah, I just said this the other day to my friend.
Greg 00:18:35 I said, man, Thai food gets all the love, but Vietnamese food.
Ed 00:18:38 Oh, it was incredible.
Greg 00:18:40 It's good. Yeah.
Ed 00:18:41 So for me, Bank Bangkok versus Hong Kong, a bit controversial. So listeners out there, if you haven't listened to it, if you know something about Hong Kong, you might not like my take, but, I think I, I think I was reasonable. I said it was just based on three days. So that's my that's my caveat.
Greg 00:18:56 Well, my, my final favorite of the year was, called what are the limits of Mike Henry? Good show. And of course, Mike Henry being the being the famous Thai phrase, which basically means don't worry about it or forget about it or whatever. But, these shows are interesting to me because I, I, I appreciate you as a podcast host because you have a much more, analytical take on a lot of these questions than I do. I sort of a memorial service guy, but you really dig into the the who, what, where and why of it all.
Greg 00:19:26 So something like this is really important because it helps us understand Thai culture a little bit, and it also helps us frame it in some of some real life, examples, like in the show, we talked about a couple of, a couple of things that happened. And the main incident that drove the show was, there was a terrible bus accident back which killed over a dozen children on a school trip. And true to form, about 2 or 3 weeks after that terrible thing happened, I haven't heard a thing. I haven't heard.
Ed 00:20:02 Anything about it. Totally nothing about reforms or changes in laws. You know, these, these shows we do where you and I try to explain Thai culture. I love them as well. I think we do a good job of of being humble about it. The last thing we do ever is present ourselves as experts. But I think I think, listeners enjoy hearing expats with a different background wrestling with Thai society and culture. I mean, this is what this is what we're kind of aiming.
Ed 00:20:34 This is kind of the purpose of the podcast where where we don't want to be, we don't want to be haters or lecturers, but we also don't want to be like apologists or people who say, oh, everything's great in Thailand. Like, how dare you have a criticism? I don't want to be that either. and so no, no. And also for me, I, you know, I always say this, you know, I'm an idea guy, so everything I teach, like you said, is very analytical. So I've never studied culture. I can't say I've never read anything. I have read some stuff, but I don't have an academic background in in the study of culture. So that's why I like just talking about it with you. Because it's not academic. It's just you and I, based on our experience, trying to understand it. so I, I recommend that show to I mean, that was, you know, to be honest, that was that was one of the few shows where I think both you and I maybe me more.
Ed 00:21:25 We were kind of angry, like we were a little bit angry on on the. Yeah, the the lack of shock. I mean, there was obviously shock, but it just what that accident just wasn't handled the way it would be handled back home. And and of course you can always say, well, this is Thailand. But that's the point. Like the point is that every society can learn and change, you know, so this idea that, oh, because this is Thailand. Yeah. We can't we can't enforce regulations on bus safety. This is Thailand. That's just dumb. You know that, right? That, that that's why people like like like.
Greg 00:22:00 Every other country does. Why can't.
Ed 00:22:02 You. Yeah. Kids got burned alive. So I don't accept this. Oh, this is Thailand. I'm like, no, no, no, no, this is planet Earth. Yeah. This is we are human beings. So this.
Greg 00:22:12 No. Yeah. And you don't you don't you don't make things better unless you examine them and criticize them.
Greg 00:22:18 That's right. Yeah. And you know, because. Because then how do you find where the problems are. So when something like this happens and we get a bit angry about it. It's in the hope that it improves life for everyone.
Ed 00:22:30 Absolutely, absolutely. so I'm actually I'm fascinated that you picked that as one of your favourites. I mean, I, I almost don't even want to think about that show. It might be my, my most frustrated or most angry show. So listeners, if you want to hear us, if you want to hear us, kind of at our limit, you know, where there's just certain things that we feel like we can't stand for, you know, even though we are ex-pats and we're not Thai.
Greg 00:23:00 Right? Right. And a favorite might be a bit of a imprecise term. I think it was an important show and it helped me understand it a little bit. And I like these discussions, but also it was a reaction to something very, very real that, you know, was was terrible.
Greg 00:23:17 So again, we do shows like this, the, the desired outcome is to take part in a conversation that will improve things for everyone.
Ed 00:23:25 And again, you know, there were there were there were listeners who thought we were too critical, which is fine. Like, that's what I want to talk about. Like that's, you know, just opening up debate on it is worth it. So it's not a it's not an easy show or an easy topic. So listeners, if you want something a little more serious, not not our most light hearted show by a long shot. If you want something more serious, check out that show. Yeah.
Greg 00:23:49 So those are our favorites. good ones, top three. And there's a lot more in there that we, of course, like we like all of our shows for all of our children. That's right. But, those are those three stood out, stood out for me and Ed. yeah. So let's talk about the changes in the schedule coming up, because 2025 is going to we're going to shake things up a little bit.
Greg 00:24:06 Yep. and the very basics are we went into more details with this on the bonus show, but the very basics are for going forward. For the first three weeks of every month, we are going to have zero changes. It's going to be business as usual. But the last week of every month we are going to be rerunning an old episode from our past. Correct? and so we're only going to be doing three new shows a month, three new bonus shows a month. The fourth week will have a rerun of a main show, and there will not be a bonus show for patrons that month.
Ed 00:24:45 Correct. Now, just in case it was an odd month, we might end up with four new shows if there's like five Wednesdays or something like that. but basically the last week of the month, whatever that is, we're not going to produce a new main show. and we're not going to post a bonus show, and instead we're going to, re-air an old show. And again, we talked about on the bonus, but just quickly, we have a couple different reasons why we're doing this.
Ed 00:25:11 one thing is that doing a new show every week puts Greg and I under the gun in such a way that we just don't have time to brainstorm and and come up with new ideas. And we don't feel that, it's not so much that the topics are repetitive, it's just that we don't have time to breathe and plan and and, you know, in general, you know, basically, in general, we were doing a new show 50 weeks out of the year. And it's just we're constantly under the gun where every, you know, you know, we're on a Facebook call and we got 20 minutes until the show starts and we're just brainstorming at the last minute. And, you know, spontaneity can be good. and a lot of our listeners like the fact that we're just winging it and we're not we're not going to get rid of that. But having one week where I don't have to do a new main show or a bonus show, to me it's like, it's like a it's like a breath of fresh air and like, I'll actually have time to come up with.
Ed 00:26:12 I think I'll have time to come up with better ideas.
Greg 00:26:15 I think so too. Yeah. And, just just as a really quick insight into how it's done. Like we record on Wednesday nights, usually, sometimes Thursdays, depending on if one of us is busy, and then we have Friday and then Saturday and Sunday to record or and then we have Friday, a Saturday and Sunday to edit both shows, the main show and the bonus show, as well as write the notes, come up with the artwork, and then output the final episodes, and then we have to upload them online, set them for distribution, and then starting on Monday, the the bonus show comes out. Tuesday, the main show comes out for patrons, Wednesday the main show comes out for everyone. And then we're recording again that night. So there's very little downtime. That's right. And we've been doing this for six, six, seven ish years right now. Yeah. And it's it's getting to be I was. And let me be clear, we still love doing it.
Greg 00:27:08 We're still going to continue doing it. And it's still super fun. But it would be nice to have a bit of breathing space for sure. For sure, for sure.
Ed 00:27:15 Like you said. And the other the other thing that we realized is we have produced so many shows. I mean, in total, if you include the bonus shows, it's more than 700. And when it comes to main shows, it's well over 300 main shows and that a lot of that content is just sitting there. And we know that some of you guys out there are very good at going back and listening to old shows. Some of you I've, I've talked to several fans of the show, Who's Who, who, who say they've listened to every single episode, which is amazing. but the simple. Right. But the simple truth by.
Greg 00:27:47 Them, by all those people, a cigar.
Ed 00:27:49 That's right. The simple truth is a lot of listeners just kind of jump onto the show and then follow it forward and either aren't aware of or don't take the time or don't know about older shows.
Ed 00:28:01 And you know, I love every old show, but some of them are gems, like, so we've got, you know, I don't know, let's just say in one year there's, there's, there's ten great shows that were really popular or really hit a nerve with people that we got a lot of feedback on that's been downloaded thousands of times, and a lot of our listeners just don't know about those shows. And so the idea is the idea with our new plan is that one week a month, we're going to pick one of those gems from the past, maybe some of the ones that Greg and I just mentioned as our favorites. And then that will appear as the quote unquote new show, even though it will be a rerun, and this hopefully will turn listeners on to our extensive back catalog.
Greg 00:28:44 Oh nicely done. Yeah. And this is, was was on display for us recently like a couple weeks ago. I was really, really busy for work and I didn't have time to record one week.
Greg 00:28:53 So we just reran an old show and we got a lot of responses from listeners being like, wow, I didn't know I'd never heard this show before. I didn't know you guys covered this. It was fantastic. That's right. And usually like, like we've talked about in the show before, like we've got such a consistent spinning wheel we're on. Once we finish a show, it's like I've forgotten all about it. We're on to the next one. So to have all these old shows just sitting there that we don't even do anything anymore. That's right. We'd like to bring those back into circulation. And this is a good way to do that for sure.
Ed 00:29:21 on the bonus show, I basically came up with this, metaphor of kind of churning. Churning like a pot of Tom yum or something like that. Like there's good stuff at the bottom of the pot. And, and again, some, some of you guys, like some of our listeners are great at digging through old shows, but, we think there's just, more there.
Ed 00:29:40 And, we want to encourage listeners to be aware of and listen to old show. So we're just going to put one out. So once a month we're going to air an old show. That's the plan.
Greg 00:29:50 That's right. There's some old how did it say oldies. But Goldie's in there and we're gonna put them back in the game. So I hope people appreciate that. And, yeah, we're going to also be focusing on a couple of extra things for the for the patrons. Obviously, there's not going to be a, bonus show on one of those weeks, but we're also going to be focusing on a couple more extra little tidbits to keep that for sure. Keep that love alive, for sure. Even though we don't do an entire bonus show for that third week. For that fourth week, I mean, for sure. Yeah. Anyway, that's what we're going to do going forward. So, yay for us. And, we hope everyone. Appreciates it and, and likes that new schedule.
Greg 00:30:24 Let us know if you have any feedback or any ideas. We get that if you're like one of those superfans that's listened to every show, you might be a bit disappointed not to get one in the fourth week, but, yeah. Write in. Let us know your thoughts. Send us a voicemail. You know one.
Ed 00:30:35 Thing we'd like to know if there if there are old shows in particular that you love, that you think may not have seen, you can give us suggestions on which old shows we should re-air.
Greg 00:30:46 Total goats. Yeah. There's that phrase again. I need you to punch me in the arm every time I say that. All right.
Ed 00:30:51 Through through the magic of social media, maybe I can have a, like, an AI arm next to you and then, you know, punch you that way.
Greg 00:31:00 Maybe, maybe, maybe easier just to hire a guy on Fiverr to come by and punch me in the arm when I leave my condo in the morning or something. That's it.
Greg 00:31:09 All right. Well, we hope everyone had a good new year and we look forward to the New Year going forward because it's it's going to be a fun one for sure. All righty then. Well, let's get into some love, loathe or live with where one of us takes a particular aspect of living in Bangkok, which we discussed and decide if it's something we love about living here, loathe about living here, or have come to accept as something that we just have to learn to live with no matter how we feel about it. And this weekend, I got a very strange question for you. All right. What is your impression of the selection of men's antiperspirant in Thailand?
Ed 00:31:43 Damn, that's hyper specific. My impression.
Greg 00:31:48 So let me give you just a little bit of context here, because my preferred choice of pit stick, as we call it in Canada, is the the Gillette, the Gillette ones where you squeeze the bottle, they turn the bottom and the gel squeezes through the top and you put that on.
Ed 00:32:06 Gross.
Greg 00:32:06 I hate that, really. Okay. But I found that it's really hard to get almost anything except like the little tiny blue bottles of Nivea Roll on antiperspirant that's.
Ed 00:32:18 The mainstay, which I. I'm not too picky about this, so that's usually actually what I used, what you just described.
Greg 00:32:24 Yeah, it's also usually what I use, but I don't want to I use it because it's really hard and or expensive to find another another type of deodorant.
Ed 00:32:33 Interesting that, you know, okay. This strikes me as one of those like fairly specific things where you care about that product. So in this case, I'm just I think I'm just the average Joe who I just I just grab whatever the, the main thing is, and so I can't say I love it, but I'm certainly live with it. It's never bothered me, but apparently I'm not a an antiperspirant connoisseur in the same way that you are.
Greg 00:33:00 Well, you don't need to be, because you always smell so delicious. Yeah, nothing to worry about.
Ed 00:33:04 It's another topic.
Greg 00:33:05 but, Yeah, maybe. Maybe this is a maybe this is an example of me sort of forcing my particular opinion into the conversation. Your first your.
Ed 00:33:13 First world problems. This is a first world problem.
Greg 00:33:15 It is a first world problem. My deodorant isn't as varied as I'd like it to be, but I mean, you look at the grocery store and this is a massive selection of shampoos and soaps and I mean, the women that all this like, you go to the guys thing and it's like this little tiny shelf and it's like you can three, three flavors and three essences of Nivea. And that's pretty much all, oh, this is.
Ed 00:33:34 Funny, I never noticed, but I will I will pay attention to this now. So but I'm going to have to I'm going to have to just be a live with or in a way we need we need another option which is just unaware. Like I was just ignorant of this whole issue. Clueless. Clueless. Yeah. The clueless option love, loathe, live with or clueless.
Greg 00:33:53 This is. That's right. It doesn't rhyme, but it describes a good situation, right? Well, for me, it's it's it's a live with. But only because I have to I don't know other other selection, but I do. I do loathe the fact that I don't have an option. Oh, funny to to choose my particular brand. But I guarantee you, once you start looking at this stuff, you are going to be enraged.
Ed 00:34:12 Well, when become prime minister, in addition to lowering the cost of maple syrup, you can increase the antiperspirant options.
Greg 00:34:19 That's right. I'll tell you what. If you want to give me a good Christmas gift when you come back from the US, you can bring some of that. Let me know the gel stuff.
Ed 00:34:24 Send me your your your brand preference, I'm right next to a giant eagle. Dude, I probably have 30 choices of male antiperspirant.
Greg 00:34:37 Well, that was a good one.
Greg 00:34:38 All right. That was a good one for all of our for all of our all of our people out there who like to smell good.
Ed 00:34:43 All right, a final thanks to our patrons who support the show. Patrons get a ton of cool perks and the warm, fuzzy feeling knowing that they're helping and our never ending quest for cool content. Find out more by clicking support on our website and connect with us online. Where Bangkok podcasts on social media Bangkok podcast. Com on the web or simply Bangkok Podcast at gmail.com. We love hearing from our listeners and always reply to our messages.
Greg 00:35:09 Yeah. You can also listen to each episode on YouTube. Since the voicemail through our website that will feature on the show hit me up on blue Sky at VK. Greg. Thanks for listening everyone. Happy New year! We'll see you back here next week.
Ed 00:35:20 Happy New Year and happy holidays, folks.
Ed 00:00:12 So if you want to know what stood out in 2024 and what lies ahead in 2025, you'll love this episode of The Bangkok Podcast.
Greg 00:00:36 So, DeepMind and welcome to the Bangkok Podcast. My name is Greg Jorgensen, a Canadian who moved to Thailand in 2001 to learn more about Zen and the Art of tuk tuk maintenance, but ended up learning almost nothing about either of them.
Ed 00:00:49 And I met Knuth, an American who came to Thailand on a one year teaching contract 24 years ago, fell in love with the look on foreigners faces when I start to answer their question Is Thailand a democracy? So I never laughed.
Greg 00:01:03 You're like.
Ed 00:01:04 I'm basically saying, how much time do you have?
Greg 00:01:06 Have a seat!
Ed 00:01:07 That's right. Here we go. All right. I want to give a big thanks to all of our patrons who support the show. Patrons get every episode a day early, behind the scenes photos of our interviews, a heads up to send questions to upcoming guests, and access to our discord server to chat with me, Greg, and other listeners around the world.
Ed 00:01:23 But best of all, patrons also get an unscripted, uncensored bonus episode every week where we riff on current events and Bangkok topics. On this week's bonus show, we chatted about the rebounding Thai tourism numbers, a plan by the Thai police to use drones to monitor traffic, and what our plans for New Year's Eve are. Now that I've extended my trip to the US to visit family and Greg is not motivated to do much besides sit on the sofa and catch up on Squid Game to learn how to become a patron and get all this good stuff, plus full access to over 700 bonus and regular backup modes. Click the support button at the top of our website.
Greg 00:02:04 That's right. And as always, if you have a comment or show idea or just want to say hi. Happy New Year, happy birthday, whatever. Head to Bangkok podcast.com. Click the little microphone button on the bottom right to leave us a voicemail, and we will play it on the show. All right, well, in this episode we are going to do our traditional New Year roundup, basically giving us a chance to discuss a few things about the podcast from the past, look ahead to the future, and talk about what we plan on doing.
Greg 00:02:28 Basically, kind of a state of the podcast address as we move from 2024 into 2025. Man aired 2025. When I was a kid, this was far distant future talk. This was Star Trek technology talk, and I'm kind of amazed that I'm here in Bangkok to see the clock turned over. For that, I'm with you.
Ed 00:02:45 Have you ever seen that meme of it's a timeline of movies and what year they were in? And so you can see on the timeline, you know, so, so a lot of 80s movies, something like 2020 was insanely far in the future. So you can see what where we are on the movie timeline.
Greg 00:03:02 Yeah, yeah, it's one of my little pet pet peeves, actually. When you see a sci fi movie and it's it's set in the future, but it's like too close in the future. It's not even remotely possible that the stuff that they're doing on screen is ever going to be possible in 40 years. It's like, okay, maybe if this was set 300 years in the future, I could believe it.
Greg 00:03:19 Anyway, I'm getting off topic, but yeah, that's what we are in 2025. So yeah, we do this kind of, New Year show every year where we just sort of wrap a little bit about the past year and, what we're going to do going forward. And we've actually got a kind of important announcement to get a change of the schedule that we're going to talk about in a little bit here. That's right. but, I guess, here we still are, man, doing this podcast every week. And, this is season seven. We're about halfway through season seven, which is insane. And what are your thoughts on the past year of of doing the podcast 2024?
Ed 00:03:53 Well, it's been great. I still love doing it. you and I have some plans, some reorganization plans which are going to get to in a minute. but I thought it was a good year when when you asked me what my favorite shows were from the year, and I went back and looked at all of them.
Ed 00:04:09 It's really. I mean, you have mentioned this before, too, that because we have to crank out a new show every week that a lot of times we forget, you know? So I wanted to go back and look at that list. I'm like, oh yeah, oh yeah, we did a show on that. And I completely forgot about that show. Totally. Yeah, totally. but I was kind of I was kind of surprised when I, when you asked what my favorites were, and I went back and looked at them and listen to a few. Two of my three favorites are actually interview shows which which I'll, which I'll mention in a minute. And it's funny, interesting. I feel it's hard to explain when you and I just rap and discuss something. I guess it's kind of easier and maybe just more fun, you know? You know, but when I think of kind of cool content, at least for me. A lot of it comes from interviewing the right person about something that I'm interested in.
Ed 00:05:00 Maybe it's because, I mean, I'm I'm so used to talking to you about Thailand, like, you and I just we've been doing it for 20. We've been doing it for 20 years, you know, talk. You know, just, you know, expats in Thailand meet up and what do we do? We talk about Thailand. We talk about living in Thailand. so. Right, so, so for me, in terms of what like to me, the best shows are finding the right guest. that's just me. Okay. This is personally. You know, it's funny, a lot of our listeners, when I've met them at meetups, they've said that they enjoy our conversational shows better.
Greg 00:05:32 Yeah, actually, a lot of listeners have told me they actually prefer the bonus shows over the main shows because we we have a little bit of a we relaxed our, our language filters a little bit and we have a bit more of a loosey goosey. Yeah, yeah. We're just talking sort of about current events and random thoughts and stuff like that, which is a bit a bit less structured, but I guess I guess more of a free flowing.
Ed 00:05:55 Well, every, you know, you know, to each his own. So some of our listeners I think, do like the interview shows, but it does depend on who's being interviewed and if they're interested in that person's field.
Greg 00:06:06 It's interesting because, yeah, what we did was we're each going to pick three shows from the past year that we found particularly interesting or had a particularly good time doing, or fun time thinking about or researching. But it's interesting that yours are interview shows because mine are more, drawing on our experiences and how we distill those. And, and I don't know why. Maybe it's because of just I'm particularly proud of having spent almost half my life in Bangkok and, you know, it's it's it's not an easy thing to do. So being able to draw from that well is, I think, a valuable experience. Part of that is also maybe being a father and being like, oh man, I've got a lot of good advice I want to pass on to the next generation.
Greg 00:06:50 I hope he listens to me. Right, right, right, right. So I'm not sure if that plays into it. so you want to, you want to you want to pick one? I'll pick one. We go back and forth, and then you just go through our top three. Sure.
Ed 00:06:59 You want me to start? All right.
Greg 00:07:01 Yeah. Go ahead. Okay.
Ed 00:07:02 so I'm going to I'm going to talk about two interview shows, which when I look back, these are and this is totally subjective. So this is just my favorite. I don't necessarily expect that listeners would agree, but this is just us being personal and subjective. my first show I want to talk about is an interview I did, I think it aired in January, February. It was early in the year where I interviewed a friend of mine, Mr. David Clark, who is an an ad assistant director, and we did a two shows. You know, it was a two part interview and we talked about his career in film, but then in particular, we talked about how we ended up in Thailand, his experience in Thailand, and then a lot about filmmaking in Thailand.
Ed 00:07:45 And as you know, you know, you and I are both film people And so, so to me, this is just my wheelhouse. And I'm talking to a guy that I know. And so for me, this was it's gold. Like, you know, because it's weird. Like for example, it's not often you actually sit down with a friend and do a deep dive on their career.
Greg 00:08:08 Yeah, I agree.
Ed 00:08:08 And, you know, like like you have a whole like, you know, you have a whole world of travel advice and experience and your work experience. And I never talked to you about that. I never talked to you as rarely that I talked to you about your job.
Greg 00:08:22 That's actually a really good insight. Yeah. And and outside of the show where we discussed what we're doing, I never ask you about your job much either. Like, so what's, what's really bothering you these days or something like that? Like, I.
Ed 00:08:32 Teach a whole bunch of stuff that you have no idea what I mean.
Ed 00:08:36 A few of my classes we've talked about on the show, but like, you don't know what I do for a living. Jesus, dude, it's.
Greg 00:08:41 It's like that old that comedian Brian Regan, he did that bit about how he, his friend got divorced and they went and he went for a round of golf with him, and he came back and his wife's like, so how's, how's Joe doing after the divorce? And he's like, I don't know. Good. I guess you didn't talk about it at all. He's like, no, never came up. I know he got a I know he got a new car.
Ed 00:09:02 Oh, that's funny, that's funny. No, but for me to sit down with a friend and do a deep dive in their career and have it be about filmmaking in Thailand, I loved it. I mean, so, listeners, if you haven't listened to it, I mean, there's a lot of general expat stuff in there, like how he, you know, the classic how he fell in love with Thailand.
Ed 00:09:21 but then a lot on the film scene in filmmaking. so to me, it's gold. I really enjoyed it. I've gone back and listened to it, which I don't always have time to do with shows. So cluck the cluck interview.
Greg 00:09:35 Yeah, I really like that one too. I thought it was really a really good listen. And again, totally subjective because I am also a film nerd and I love hearing behind the scenes stories about film schedules and film production got him.
Ed 00:09:46 And he's meeting famous people. Stuff like that. He's got the stories. He's super interesting guy. Yeah. I am I am biased because he's a friend of mine, but he he, he. He never drops the ball. Like, if you if you ask him for film stories, he's just got them. He's got the he's got the rolling, he's got the Rolodex. So he just he just goes off, you know.
Greg 00:10:05 No, that was a good one too. I really enjoyed it. my my favorite, first, favorite one was, the one that you and I did.
Greg 00:10:12 The title was Bangkok in your 20s versus your 50s. We discussed the pros and cons. Oh, yeah? Yeah. And I really liked this topic because, again, like I said in, just a few minutes ago, I think, I think we should be particularly proud of this episode, because I don't think a lot of people have 20 plus years of comparisons to talk about when you're discussing Bangkok. Like, that's correct. That's a long ass time, man. And I think we got some good insights out of that, some valuable insight.
Ed 00:10:42 If I do remember, the idea for that show did come from moi.
Greg 00:10:45 Well, I probably did, because you are the smart one of us. That is.
Ed 00:10:49 Not. That is not true. But, No, I like I like that topic too, because there are just I think, again, we talked about it on the show. We don't have to rehash the whole thing. But I do think just Bangkok means something different. If you happen to arrive in your 20s versus 50s, you just you look at it differently.
Ed 00:11:09 You take advantage of different things, whether you're in your 20s or your 50s. No.
Greg 00:11:13 Totally. Totally. And it's a totally different city. It's like night and day. Bangkok is literally a different city in the night versus the day. I mean, a lot of cities are like that, but in Bangkok, I think it's particularly for sure, for sure. and similarly, Bangkok to a 20 year old is a whole different ball game, from Bangkok to a 50 year old, for sure. I think I think that was a really interesting insight that we were able to provide, that maybe not a lot of people can. So I'm proud of that episode. I think we did really well there. Good.
Ed 00:11:39 Good choice. Yeah, there's some pearls. Occasional. We don't have a lot of money, but we occasionally do actually say something insightful and meaningful sometimes. All right. My second one is another interview show. And again, this is pretty early in the year. I'd have to go back and check.
Ed 00:11:53 but with, Ron Weaver, American tie guy, where we talked, a lot about his life in general and his how he fell in love with Thailand. I'm just a sucker for these stories. But he is a black dude. He's an African American dude. And he talked about, what his experience has been. You know, he can't speak for all, African Americans, but just his story and his experience with, the difference between, discrimination in the US versus discrimination in Thailand. Again, to me, this is absolute gold. I'm a professor of American studies. So this type of insight, right. a guy who's a minority in the States has that whole experience, which I know something about from my education, but then having him transplanted to Thailand and now being in an Asian culture, which he's still a minority, but it's a completely different history, background, experience. And, and on top of that, he is an extremely intelligent, entertaining guy. Like, he's just easy to interview.
Ed 00:13:00 Yeah, we talked about before that sometimes we find people with super interesting careers, but that doesn't mean they're like easy to interview.
Greg 00:13:08 That's right, that's right. And it's a bit of a downer sometimes as a podcast host, you're like, wow, I can't wait to talk to this guy. And then they just throw out one word answers.
Ed 00:13:16 Yeah, I mean, no offense to any of our guests. Like they're all there. They are in fact interesting people. That doesn't mean they they have a lot of personality. and if you can say anything about Ron is he has personality. he's he's funny, he's insightful. And, I like talking to expats who don't have the same experiences that you and I have necessarily, you know, because I mean.
Greg 00:13:40 Exactly, exactly.
Ed 00:13:41 You know, as we've mentioned before, you could, you know, you could rename our show to White Idiots in Thailand. You could rename it that. So, you know.
Greg 00:13:48 So, oh, I like that.
Ed 00:13:49 And, you know, and and we happen to know a bunch of other guys who probably fit into that category as well.
Ed 00:13:55 So just yeah, just someone who's who has it coming from a different perspective, different place, who's had his own experience. And he's also made a great life in Thailand. He loves it. He's got a beautiful wife, he's got an interesting career now. He's doing a lot of Thai teaching online. I've watched some of the content. Yeah. so these types of, super interesting expats who also happen to be a great interview, who don't just know the same things I know, like, that's the key.
Greg 00:14:27 Exactly. Because there's there's a million guys here that have roughly the same experiences that I do, and they can't give me anything new. Yeah, they tell a.
Ed 00:14:35 Story and I'm like, yeah, yeah, that's right. You know, they tell the story and I'm like, yeah, exactly.
Greg 00:14:38 Yeah. Been there, done that. Yeah, I know what you're talking about. But for Ron, being a black guy in Thailand, I have zero insight into that. So I really learned a lot.
Greg 00:14:45 Yeah. So learned a lot from that one.
Ed 00:14:46 Listeners, again, if you haven't listened to the Ron Weaver interview, get on it.
Greg 00:14:51 all right. My number two was, called Bangkok for nerds. Understanding the chaos with some sweet math. Gotcha. And, I like this one, because one of the things I really like to do with Bangkok is squeeze it through a certain filter. So Bangkok via X or Bangkok if X, and I try to, like, apply sort of common thought processes or ways of thinking and see how they would work if they went in one inside of Bangkok and came out the other. Right. I always find that interesting, like because Bangkok is such a weird place and all these, you know, traditions and, and pastimes and norms often get flipped on their head because Bangkok is Bangkok. Sure. But what we did on this episode was, was we talked about the mathematical equations that that govern how you get around in Bangkok, whether it's, you know, fast or easy or cheap.
Greg 00:15:50 we talked about relationships between multicultural couples. we talked about my Gatorade theory of proximity. You know, the further away you get from Sukhumvit, the less likely you are to find Gatorade in a 7-Eleven.
Ed 00:16:05 No, I love these theories to explain Bangkok, and I'm also a data guy, so I like I like sometimes just looking at numbers. So sometimes I just see. I see some numbers about Bangkok and I just can't believe it. I'm like like that many people ride the Skytrain or, you know, whatever it is. so Bangkok by the numbers, that's a that's a good topic.
Greg 00:16:23 I like that, and I love how complex systems work. Like, I love airports, I love how airports work because they're like a little mini city. So applying some of these little Common rules to life and trying to make sense of the chaos that is Bangkok. I had a real fun time coming up with some of the some of the ideas for that one.
Ed 00:16:42 Yeah, excellent. Good show, good show.
Ed 00:16:44 My last one, again, being perfect, perfectly selfish and totally subjective is our show on my comparison between Bangkok and Hong Kong. And again, just being perfectly selfish. You know, I don't travel very much for a guy who's an expat. So for me, just to spend a few days in Hong Kong, a city that I've seen on screen a million times, and then and then noticing some immediate, stark differences with Bangkok and that show actually got some good feedback. We got we got, some, a fair amount of agreement from a bunch of expats who lived in Hong Kong for a long time and then moved to Thailand. But then a little bit of pushback on some of my thoughts. So I like this. I need to travel more. like, I would love to spend a couple of weeks in KL or a couple of weeks in Jakarta a couple weeks in Manila. I just don't normally do it or have the time. So I love these, Asian capitals comparison topics.
Greg 00:17:43 Yeah, it was interesting one, we did one a few few years ago to when you came back from Phnom Penh.
Greg 00:17:47 That's right. that's right. Then we did one when I came back from Kuala Lumpur. That's right. so it's always interesting to see how Bangkok stacks up. And I particularly like finding out where other capitals like, because we both love Bangkok. We're hugely biased. But I came back from KL, I was like, damn, they really do a couple things way better than Bangkok. Yeah, no, I love it too.
Ed 00:18:08 You know? Yeah, it's important for us to have a different perspective and it it helps us, I think appreciate Bangkok more. But then also it keeps us grounded when, you know, I remember when I spent a couple of weeks in Vietnam back in the day, and I was shocked at how good the food was. Like, I just thought Bangkok had that wrapped up. Oh yeah. I just thought it was just wrapped up. There's no food better than Bangkok. But man spent some time in Vietnam. The food is great.
Greg 00:18:34 Yeah, I just said this the other day to my friend.
Greg 00:18:35 I said, man, Thai food gets all the love, but Vietnamese food.
Ed 00:18:38 Oh, it was incredible.
Greg 00:18:40 It's good. Yeah.
Ed 00:18:41 So for me, Bank Bangkok versus Hong Kong, a bit controversial. So listeners out there, if you haven't listened to it, if you know something about Hong Kong, you might not like my take, but, I think I, I think I was reasonable. I said it was just based on three days. So that's my that's my caveat.
Greg 00:18:56 Well, my, my final favorite of the year was, called what are the limits of Mike Henry? Good show. And of course, Mike Henry being the being the famous Thai phrase, which basically means don't worry about it or forget about it or whatever. But, these shows are interesting to me because I, I, I appreciate you as a podcast host because you have a much more, analytical take on a lot of these questions than I do. I sort of a memorial service guy, but you really dig into the the who, what, where and why of it all.
Greg 00:19:26 So something like this is really important because it helps us understand Thai culture a little bit, and it also helps us frame it in some of some real life, examples, like in the show, we talked about a couple of, a couple of things that happened. And the main incident that drove the show was, there was a terrible bus accident back which killed over a dozen children on a school trip. And true to form, about 2 or 3 weeks after that terrible thing happened, I haven't heard a thing. I haven't heard.
Ed 00:20:02 Anything about it. Totally nothing about reforms or changes in laws. You know, these, these shows we do where you and I try to explain Thai culture. I love them as well. I think we do a good job of of being humble about it. The last thing we do ever is present ourselves as experts. But I think I think, listeners enjoy hearing expats with a different background wrestling with Thai society and culture. I mean, this is what this is what we're kind of aiming.
Ed 00:20:34 This is kind of the purpose of the podcast where where we don't want to be, we don't want to be haters or lecturers, but we also don't want to be like apologists or people who say, oh, everything's great in Thailand. Like, how dare you have a criticism? I don't want to be that either. and so no, no. And also for me, I, you know, I always say this, you know, I'm an idea guy, so everything I teach, like you said, is very analytical. So I've never studied culture. I can't say I've never read anything. I have read some stuff, but I don't have an academic background in in the study of culture. So that's why I like just talking about it with you. Because it's not academic. It's just you and I, based on our experience, trying to understand it. so I, I recommend that show to I mean, that was, you know, to be honest, that was that was one of the few shows where I think both you and I maybe me more.
Ed 00:21:25 We were kind of angry, like we were a little bit angry on on the. Yeah, the the lack of shock. I mean, there was obviously shock, but it just what that accident just wasn't handled the way it would be handled back home. And and of course you can always say, well, this is Thailand. But that's the point. Like the point is that every society can learn and change, you know, so this idea that, oh, because this is Thailand. Yeah. We can't we can't enforce regulations on bus safety. This is Thailand. That's just dumb. You know that, right? That, that that's why people like like like.
Greg 00:22:00 Every other country does. Why can't.
Ed 00:22:02 You. Yeah. Kids got burned alive. So I don't accept this. Oh, this is Thailand. I'm like, no, no, no, no, this is planet Earth. Yeah. This is we are human beings. So this.
Greg 00:22:12 No. Yeah. And you don't you don't you don't make things better unless you examine them and criticize them.
Greg 00:22:18 That's right. Yeah. And you know, because. Because then how do you find where the problems are. So when something like this happens and we get a bit angry about it. It's in the hope that it improves life for everyone.
Ed 00:22:30 Absolutely, absolutely. so I'm actually I'm fascinated that you picked that as one of your favourites. I mean, I, I almost don't even want to think about that show. It might be my, my most frustrated or most angry show. So listeners, if you want to hear us, if you want to hear us, kind of at our limit, you know, where there's just certain things that we feel like we can't stand for, you know, even though we are ex-pats and we're not Thai.
Greg 00:23:00 Right? Right. And a favorite might be a bit of a imprecise term. I think it was an important show and it helped me understand it a little bit. And I like these discussions, but also it was a reaction to something very, very real that, you know, was was terrible.
Greg 00:23:17 So again, we do shows like this, the, the desired outcome is to take part in a conversation that will improve things for everyone.
Ed 00:23:25 And again, you know, there were there were there were listeners who thought we were too critical, which is fine. Like, that's what I want to talk about. Like that's, you know, just opening up debate on it is worth it. So it's not a it's not an easy show or an easy topic. So listeners, if you want something a little more serious, not not our most light hearted show by a long shot. If you want something more serious, check out that show. Yeah.
Greg 00:23:49 So those are our favorites. good ones, top three. And there's a lot more in there that we, of course, like we like all of our shows for all of our children. That's right. But, those are those three stood out, stood out for me and Ed. yeah. So let's talk about the changes in the schedule coming up, because 2025 is going to we're going to shake things up a little bit.
Greg 00:24:06 Yep. and the very basics are we went into more details with this on the bonus show, but the very basics are for going forward. For the first three weeks of every month, we are going to have zero changes. It's going to be business as usual. But the last week of every month we are going to be rerunning an old episode from our past. Correct? and so we're only going to be doing three new shows a month, three new bonus shows a month. The fourth week will have a rerun of a main show, and there will not be a bonus show for patrons that month.
Ed 00:24:45 Correct. Now, just in case it was an odd month, we might end up with four new shows if there's like five Wednesdays or something like that. but basically the last week of the month, whatever that is, we're not going to produce a new main show. and we're not going to post a bonus show, and instead we're going to, re-air an old show. And again, we talked about on the bonus, but just quickly, we have a couple different reasons why we're doing this.
Ed 00:25:11 one thing is that doing a new show every week puts Greg and I under the gun in such a way that we just don't have time to brainstorm and and come up with new ideas. And we don't feel that, it's not so much that the topics are repetitive, it's just that we don't have time to breathe and plan and and, you know, in general, you know, basically, in general, we were doing a new show 50 weeks out of the year. And it's just we're constantly under the gun where every, you know, you know, we're on a Facebook call and we got 20 minutes until the show starts and we're just brainstorming at the last minute. And, you know, spontaneity can be good. and a lot of our listeners like the fact that we're just winging it and we're not we're not going to get rid of that. But having one week where I don't have to do a new main show or a bonus show, to me it's like, it's like a it's like a breath of fresh air and like, I'll actually have time to come up with.
Ed 00:26:12 I think I'll have time to come up with better ideas.
Greg 00:26:15 I think so too. Yeah. And, just just as a really quick insight into how it's done. Like we record on Wednesday nights, usually, sometimes Thursdays, depending on if one of us is busy, and then we have Friday and then Saturday and Sunday to record or and then we have Friday, a Saturday and Sunday to edit both shows, the main show and the bonus show, as well as write the notes, come up with the artwork, and then output the final episodes, and then we have to upload them online, set them for distribution, and then starting on Monday, the the bonus show comes out. Tuesday, the main show comes out for patrons, Wednesday the main show comes out for everyone. And then we're recording again that night. So there's very little downtime. That's right. And we've been doing this for six, six, seven ish years right now. Yeah. And it's it's getting to be I was. And let me be clear, we still love doing it.
Greg 00:27:08 We're still going to continue doing it. And it's still super fun. But it would be nice to have a bit of breathing space for sure. For sure, for sure.
Ed 00:27:15 Like you said. And the other the other thing that we realized is we have produced so many shows. I mean, in total, if you include the bonus shows, it's more than 700. And when it comes to main shows, it's well over 300 main shows and that a lot of that content is just sitting there. And we know that some of you guys out there are very good at going back and listening to old shows. Some of you I've, I've talked to several fans of the show, Who's Who, who, who say they've listened to every single episode, which is amazing. but the simple. Right. But the simple truth by.
Greg 00:27:47 Them, by all those people, a cigar.
Ed 00:27:49 That's right. The simple truth is a lot of listeners just kind of jump onto the show and then follow it forward and either aren't aware of or don't take the time or don't know about older shows.
Ed 00:28:01 And you know, I love every old show, but some of them are gems, like, so we've got, you know, I don't know, let's just say in one year there's, there's, there's ten great shows that were really popular or really hit a nerve with people that we got a lot of feedback on that's been downloaded thousands of times, and a lot of our listeners just don't know about those shows. And so the idea is the idea with our new plan is that one week a month, we're going to pick one of those gems from the past, maybe some of the ones that Greg and I just mentioned as our favorites. And then that will appear as the quote unquote new show, even though it will be a rerun, and this hopefully will turn listeners on to our extensive back catalog.
Greg 00:28:44 Oh nicely done. Yeah. And this is, was was on display for us recently like a couple weeks ago. I was really, really busy for work and I didn't have time to record one week.
Greg 00:28:53 So we just reran an old show and we got a lot of responses from listeners being like, wow, I didn't know I'd never heard this show before. I didn't know you guys covered this. It was fantastic. That's right. And usually like, like we've talked about in the show before, like we've got such a consistent spinning wheel we're on. Once we finish a show, it's like I've forgotten all about it. We're on to the next one. So to have all these old shows just sitting there that we don't even do anything anymore. That's right. We'd like to bring those back into circulation. And this is a good way to do that for sure.
Ed 00:29:21 on the bonus show, I basically came up with this, metaphor of kind of churning. Churning like a pot of Tom yum or something like that. Like there's good stuff at the bottom of the pot. And, and again, some, some of you guys, like some of our listeners are great at digging through old shows, but, we think there's just, more there.
Ed 00:29:40 And, we want to encourage listeners to be aware of and listen to old show. So we're just going to put one out. So once a month we're going to air an old show. That's the plan.
Greg 00:29:50 That's right. There's some old how did it say oldies. But Goldie's in there and we're gonna put them back in the game. So I hope people appreciate that. And, yeah, we're going to also be focusing on a couple of extra things for the for the patrons. Obviously, there's not going to be a, bonus show on one of those weeks, but we're also going to be focusing on a couple more extra little tidbits to keep that for sure. Keep that love alive, for sure. Even though we don't do an entire bonus show for that third week. For that fourth week, I mean, for sure. Yeah. Anyway, that's what we're going to do going forward. So, yay for us. And, we hope everyone. Appreciates it and, and likes that new schedule.
Greg 00:30:24 Let us know if you have any feedback or any ideas. We get that if you're like one of those superfans that's listened to every show, you might be a bit disappointed not to get one in the fourth week, but, yeah. Write in. Let us know your thoughts. Send us a voicemail. You know one.
Ed 00:30:35 Thing we'd like to know if there if there are old shows in particular that you love, that you think may not have seen, you can give us suggestions on which old shows we should re-air.
Greg 00:30:46 Total goats. Yeah. There's that phrase again. I need you to punch me in the arm every time I say that. All right.
Ed 00:30:51 Through through the magic of social media, maybe I can have a, like, an AI arm next to you and then, you know, punch you that way.
Greg 00:31:00 Maybe, maybe, maybe easier just to hire a guy on Fiverr to come by and punch me in the arm when I leave my condo in the morning or something. That's it.
Greg 00:31:09 All right. Well, we hope everyone had a good new year and we look forward to the New Year going forward because it's it's going to be a fun one for sure. All righty then. Well, let's get into some love, loathe or live with where one of us takes a particular aspect of living in Bangkok, which we discussed and decide if it's something we love about living here, loathe about living here, or have come to accept as something that we just have to learn to live with no matter how we feel about it. And this weekend, I got a very strange question for you. All right. What is your impression of the selection of men's antiperspirant in Thailand?
Ed 00:31:43 Damn, that's hyper specific. My impression.
Greg 00:31:48 So let me give you just a little bit of context here, because my preferred choice of pit stick, as we call it in Canada, is the the Gillette, the Gillette ones where you squeeze the bottle, they turn the bottom and the gel squeezes through the top and you put that on.
Ed 00:32:06 Gross.
Greg 00:32:06 I hate that, really. Okay. But I found that it's really hard to get almost anything except like the little tiny blue bottles of Nivea Roll on antiperspirant that's.
Ed 00:32:18 The mainstay, which I. I'm not too picky about this, so that's usually actually what I used, what you just described.
Greg 00:32:24 Yeah, it's also usually what I use, but I don't want to I use it because it's really hard and or expensive to find another another type of deodorant.
Ed 00:32:33 Interesting that, you know, okay. This strikes me as one of those like fairly specific things where you care about that product. So in this case, I'm just I think I'm just the average Joe who I just I just grab whatever the, the main thing is, and so I can't say I love it, but I'm certainly live with it. It's never bothered me, but apparently I'm not a an antiperspirant connoisseur in the same way that you are.
Greg 00:33:00 Well, you don't need to be, because you always smell so delicious. Yeah, nothing to worry about.
Ed 00:33:04 It's another topic.
Greg 00:33:05 but, Yeah, maybe. Maybe this is a maybe this is an example of me sort of forcing my particular opinion into the conversation. Your first your.
Ed 00:33:13 First world problems. This is a first world problem.
Greg 00:33:15 It is a first world problem. My deodorant isn't as varied as I'd like it to be, but I mean, you look at the grocery store and this is a massive selection of shampoos and soaps and I mean, the women that all this like, you go to the guys thing and it's like this little tiny shelf and it's like you can three, three flavors and three essences of Nivea. And that's pretty much all, oh, this is.
Ed 00:33:34 Funny, I never noticed, but I will I will pay attention to this now. So but I'm going to have to I'm going to have to just be a live with or in a way we need we need another option which is just unaware. Like I was just ignorant of this whole issue. Clueless. Clueless. Yeah. The clueless option love, loathe, live with or clueless.
Greg 00:33:53 This is. That's right. It doesn't rhyme, but it describes a good situation, right? Well, for me, it's it's it's a live with. But only because I have to I don't know other other selection, but I do. I do loathe the fact that I don't have an option. Oh, funny to to choose my particular brand. But I guarantee you, once you start looking at this stuff, you are going to be enraged.
Ed 00:34:12 Well, when become prime minister, in addition to lowering the cost of maple syrup, you can increase the antiperspirant options.
Greg 00:34:19 That's right. I'll tell you what. If you want to give me a good Christmas gift when you come back from the US, you can bring some of that. Let me know the gel stuff.
Ed 00:34:24 Send me your your your brand preference, I'm right next to a giant eagle. Dude, I probably have 30 choices of male antiperspirant.
Greg 00:34:37 Well, that was a good one.
Greg 00:34:38 All right. That was a good one for all of our for all of our all of our people out there who like to smell good.
Ed 00:34:43 All right, a final thanks to our patrons who support the show. Patrons get a ton of cool perks and the warm, fuzzy feeling knowing that they're helping and our never ending quest for cool content. Find out more by clicking support on our website and connect with us online. Where Bangkok podcasts on social media Bangkok podcast. Com on the web or simply Bangkok Podcast at gmail.com. We love hearing from our listeners and always reply to our messages.
Greg 00:35:09 Yeah. You can also listen to each episode on YouTube. Since the voicemail through our website that will feature on the show hit me up on blue Sky at VK. Greg. Thanks for listening everyone. Happy New year! We'll see you back here next week.
Ed 00:35:20 Happy New Year and happy holidays, folks.
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