After a very busy pumpkin-filled week, aka the Morton Pumpkin Festival, aka P-fest, we have our most meticulously planned episode ever...jk. We planned nothing! For our non-Morton listeners, P-fest is a multi-day autumnal extravaganza, and we share our experiences from this year and years past. We talk about our childhood memories of listening to the radio and our experiences with winning (and not winning) radio contests. Jordan shares her awareness of smartphone use in adults out in the world, especially in those moments of waiting. We then dive into the diverse world of grocery store options and what our preferences are. Naturally a discussion all about groceries leads to Jordan sharing her past dating app misunderstandings and then her current existential crisis dealing with the idea of what “home” truly means. It’s a bit unhinged, but Helen and Jordan certainly had a gourd time.

In episode 8 we are talking about all things AI...well, at least some things AI. We start with a fun podcast update: we have new theme music written by none other than Brian Spicklemire! Jordan talks about her latest interview about the Wait Until 8th movement on the Morton school district podcast, CareU, and Helen shares her exciting adventure in an amateur pumpkin baking competition. And then we just start to scratch the surface of the many topics surrounding the presence of AI in our lives. Helen references Janelle Shane’s You Look Like a Thing and I Love You and shares several points from John Warner’s More Than Words to help us understand how AI works and the ethical, moral, and environmental concerns it poses. Jordan also shares a disturbing recent finding dealing with the Character.ai platform that exposes minors to harmful, violent, and sexually explicit content. There is so much more to discuss regarding AI, and we hope this is the first of many future discussions.

In episode 7 we’re responding to not one but two listener emails! For the first email, we address the reasoning behind the desire to review educational apps due to potential safety and privacy concerns. Our second listener email came from a local business owner who shared their thoughts and concerns based on our episode 5 discussion on attention & focus; this listener shared how when hiring employees, critical thinking and communication skills are greatly lacking from new college graduates. We also talk about ways to bring back the classic “away message” in our day-to-day lives. We address how the internet used to be a place you went to, and now it feels that today’s expectation is to always be online and accessible. We also question whether or not we could stop using social media in our lives or not (spoiler alert: we are still using it!).