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48 million people in the United States are adolescents between the ages of 14 and 24. They're working, parenting, leading, sometimes all at once.
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I'm balancing work and being a mom at the same time, and I'm still on track to graduate with my Bachelor's next year.
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So what do today's young people need to truly thrive? Tune in to good things from Lemonada Media to hear the six part Thrive series. Hey honey, it's Mom. Did you know if we switch to Verizon, we can get four phones for $0 plus four lines for $25 a line? Call me back me again. That's just $100 a month for four lines on unlimited welcome. Plus four phones. No trade in needed. Call me, it's Mom. America's best network Verizon. That's the one we're talking about. I'll send you a text.
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America's best Network based on RootMetric's best overall mobile network performance US second half 2025 four new lines and unlimited welcome and autopay. See verizon.com for details. What makes a leader worth following? What should you really care about in your job? As technology is changing so quickly, is it just gonna be about machines talking to other machines? I mean, should you quit your job and start something on your own? What would that take? What does success and risk look like when we're all at the starting gate together? These are the questions we answer each week on Lead Human with Jack Myers and Tim Spengler. Join us each week and subscribe at your favorite podcast platform and YouTube. We'll tell stories, we'll hear from some of the best, and we'll try to figure this out together.
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Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening depending on where you are on the planet. Welcome to Ill Advised by Bill Nye, and the clue is in the title. This is a podcast for people who don't get out much and when they do, they want to turn back time. It's a refuge for the clumsy and the awkward. Really, this is an invitation to squander time. I will try and answer certain questions without actually making things worse. The thing you must. You don't have to know anything. But the thing I would, I'd just like to make clear is that I don't know anything about the questions before they're sprung on me and I just react to them as they happen, live, as it were, in the studio. And also the other thing is that I don't remember anything that I've said just because I've got a really Bad memory. The other day I had. Because I want to, you know, recommend books. I'd got about five books that I thought would be good to recommend, and I ran them past my producer, Alice Williams, and she said, you've already done that one, and you've already done that one, and you've already done that one, and you've already done that one and you've already done that one. So there were five books I'd forgotten. Anyway, the point is, I never remember anything I've said on the podcast. And a friend of mine texted me the other day and said that he thought that I was the only other person he'd ever come across who realized or had noted that innuendo was. Was in fact an innuendo in itself. And that in previous times, when somebody said innuendo in his presence, he would reply in your endo, which I thought was quite funny. So I hope that was in fact. His name is Jonathan Slinger, and he's one of the most gifted actors in Britain, just for the record. Jonathan Slinger, thank you for that. Thank you for all your questions and comments. And let's have a question now.
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Hi, Bill, it's Mairead here. I'm a florist in London, and one of the most vexing questions we get asked is, could you design some flowers for a man, some masculine flowers? And after 25 years in the business, I'm still not entirely sure what masculine flowers are. And I wonder, do you know what they are? And even if you don't, what are your favourite flowers? Because that's probably the right answer. Thanks, Bill.
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Mairead, I don't think you should struggle with this question at all. I don't think there is such a thing as a masculine flower. I always resent the packaging for male toiletries, and I always buy the female ones because they're prettier. Male toiletries, like deodorants and stuff, are always in sort of black or black and red or red, and they're really, you know, unappealing. Whereas female toiletries, if you'll pardon the expression, are, you know, pretty and pale colors or pinks and blues and whatever. You know, I'm so. I'm all for that. So I don't think there's any such thing. I think it should not be encouraged, the idea that men prefer different. Anything different colors or different flowers or different whatever. My favorite flower. I don't know, Rennie. My favorite flower. I think my favorite flower is a cornflower, because, you know, I love that blue.
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Hi, Bill. Hannah here from the little island of Guernsey, love the show. My question, if I may. How do I convince my husband that getting a Highland cow is sensible? We have goats, chickens, ducks, turkeys, etc, surely a Highland cow is the logical next step. Thanks in advance.
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Hannah, I have to confess, I'm worried about you. I don't know how much space you have. I don't know what your general situation is. You seem to have a lot of animals around the house already, and as you say, maybe a larger animal is the logical conclusion, but not necessarily. I would have thought, what you get, you get milk. I don't know that I would be able to persuade your husband. Whether you can or not, I don't know. Maybe you can. I don't think I could be. I would. I wouldn't be able to come up with any. What you call sensible reason to buy a cow. Sorry for laughing, but it just seems a slightly odd thing to do. And it's a lot of work, isn't it? But then you've got a lot of work anyway because you've got the turkeys and the chickens and the geese. If you were on a farm, if you were a farmer, then maybe, you know, what's the problem. Except that you would buy 12 cows. But I don't know why you want a cow. Maybe you could tell us more about this. This. And we could answer it more satisfactorily if we had more data. But this takes me back to a question in season one from a gentleman from Mongolia who wanted me to explain what he should do now that his horse had gone off him. And I was so either flattered or astounded that he would imagine that I would know the answer to that. I think in the end, I suggested a box of chocolates. Anyway, I just want you to know that I have dealt with, you know, large animals before, but I've never dealt with a cow. Why'd you want a cow, Hannah? I mean, we need more information. What is it that makes you so badly want a cow that you've got in touch with me, who is about as likely to be able to persuade your husband as you are or anyone in the world if a man doesn't want a cow? You know what I mean?
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Hi, Bill. My name is Esi and I'm from Nigeria. My question is how. How can one deal with imposter syndrome? Thank you, Bill.
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Essie. That's the big question, and I think you've come to the right person. I have struggled with what's called imposter syndrome, and I've tried all kinds of things. When I was young, I used to wake up and I would beg fate to not have me get paranoid that day, which is pretty much the same thing as imposter syndrome. It's just the idea that other people find you either ridiculous or hilarious or pathetic or both. Because once paranoia kicked in, it was really difficult to get rid of it. And I used to, if it happened, say, in the pub, I would go into the men's room, lock the cubicle door, jump up and down violently, and shake my head from side to side, saying, you know, profane things to get it out of my head. And then I would, you know, wash my hands and go back into the bar. I'm not suggesting you do that, Essie, because, you know, you'd be in trouble in the men's room, obviously. But there was a point in my life where I would stand in the rehearsal room rehearsing a play, and I would watch the director walking among the rest of the cast and talking and laughing. And then I would imagine him coming over to me and saying, bill, we thought it could work, but it's really not working out, and we're going to have to find another actor. And I would stand in the wings sometimes before entering onto the stage into the play. And I would think, I would assume that when I opened the door and walked on the stage, I was going to disappoint something like 800 people. And then I had to have a talk with myself because there was nothing else to do. So I had this lame conversation with myself where I'd say, well, why do you think? Think they're going to be disappointed? And I said, I don't know. I just. To myself, I said, I don't know. I just presume they will be. But then why should they be? Well, because I'm not Alan Rickman or Jeremy Irons. Why would they want to see Alan Rickman? Do you know they want to see Alan Rickman or Jeremy? No, I don't know that, but I just kind of think they're bound to. Why are they bound to prefer to see Jeremy Irons or Alan Rickman rather than seeing you? Do you have any evidence? No, I have no evidence for that. So open the door and shut the up. And then I'd walk on stage. Not the best way to prepare, really, for delivering one of what was then one of the most significant contemporary plays written in my lifetime. But just so you know, I'm no stranger to such thoughts. I was fine until I reached puberty. I Think I can't really remember, but I know that after puberty I became agonizingly self conscious, as is, you know, pretty common amongst people at that age. I remember when I found out I was shy because my brother. I had an older brother who was already at work when I was about 13 or 14, and he got some tickets for a rock and roll show and he came home from work and he said, I've got these tickets for the rock and roll show. Would you like to come? And I said no, because I couldn't face going to a rock and roll show because I was too shy. And I went upstairs and it was a small house so you could hear everything. And I heard my brother saying to my mum something like that ungrateful little bastard. Sorry, Martin, you may not have said that, but it was something along those lines. That was the tone, you know, I got him these tickets and he won't come. And my mother said, you know what he's like. He's shy. And I was upstairs and I heard this and I thought, shy. And on top of everything else that I had, I was dealing with at the time, it seemed really unfair. And so now I'm a shy person. And it was like. I remember finding out I was tall because I was late for an appointment at a railway station and I heard the person I was supposed to meet asking someone if they'd seen me and they said, he's tall. And I thought, fuck, I'm tall. Which was a revelation at the time because, you know, you don't know if you're tall. And then I remember a friend of mine saying once, as if I'd known it all along, he said, well, you know, you're highly strung. And I was thrilled because, you know, it sounded so cool, you know, highly strung. And it was just something to know about yourself because when you're young, you don't know anything about yourself and you're hungry for facts. And that would seem to me to be a great fact, that I was highly strong. It sounded like a pretty cool thing to be, you know, like twang kind of thing. Like the young used to say tonk when they meant buff. I always used to like tonk. It didn't last long, tonk, but it was what you meant when you meant like ripped or fit. And they would say, tonk, he's well tonk. Which I thought was quite a good word, but it didn't last very long. My nickname when I was young was nervous, you know, If I made a phone call, people would say, Nervous is on edge. There are still a couple of people left alive who might call me Nerve. They used to call me Nerve for short. Not because I had any. Quite the reverse. People used to beg me to sit down because I never used to sit down. I'd always pace around and I would keep my coat on. They'd say, take your coat off, and I'd say, no, no, no, because you never know when you've got to leave. You never know when you've got to be. I was always in transit kind of thing because I couldn't settle, because I was. I guess it was just another expression of all the anxiety. I've struggled with self doubt like most people well into my. What's laughingly referred to as my adulthood. And as I say, I've tried all kinds of things, but because I am of an advanced age, I can tell you that all of the negative propaganda that happened in my head, all of the paranoid imaginings of me being, you know, about to be humiliated, it all turned out to be lies. It was all cruel, cruel, fantastical lies. There was nothing wrong with me. I was a perfectly average person and I was capable of doing, you know, the normal things in life which I'd invented myself as incapable of. And you can always call us, Essie, just call us, because it's always a lie. Hi, Bill. I have a quandary I'm hoping you can help with. How do you feel about being invited over to a friend's house for drinks and nibbles, only to be asked to remove your shoes once you're through the threshold of their home? I personally find the prospect of standing around in my socks making small talk unsettling and humiliating. So should I literally stand firm on this and refuse? Thanks, Dan from the great city of London. Dan, I don't know if you're a regular listener to Ill Advised by Bill Nye, but the word, and I don't really want to say it, and my colleague in the room with me has just put her jumper in her mouth again because she fears me saying the word. But the word is Nibbles, my friend is now bent double with tears coming out of her eyes. She's ruined her makeup and it's your fault, Dan. It's all your fault. Well, Dan from the great city of London. Yeah, Nibbles is on the banned list. We banned it some time ago, but that's okay. We're going to go on to your question, which is a very, very good question. It reminds me of when I was a young boy. I was an altar boy in a Catholic church, and I was a very enthusiastic Catholic and I was a very keen altar boy. And at Easter, the parish priest would find, I think, I suppose, it would be 12 local men to come up on the altar and he would get down with warm water and a cloth and wash their feet. And they were short of a man from the local community and they needed one more. And I was the altar by on that day. And so they said to me, you will be the 12th man. Or I think it was 12. So I had to take my shoes and socks off on the altar, and I was absolutely aghast because I hadn't washed my feet and I thought my feet might smell and that the parish priest would, you know, recoil because, you know, I was a bit of a stranger to soap as a young altar boy. So it just reminded me of that. Yeah, I don't like taking off. I mean, if you live in a house where you have to take your shoes off to walk in the door, I mean, something's not working, surely, if the carpet is worth so much money that you can't risk a shoe, I don't know how you can dare to put it on the floor. I don't know what to say, really. It's a very difficult one, Dan. I mean, obviously you have to do it, or you have to say, I'm not prepared to come in your home without my shoes on, which is not much of an option, really. So I don't know what the answer is, but I can only offer fellow feeling and solidarity and say that I, too, don't want to make small talk in my socks. It's now time for this week's you Don't Understand. Cause I'm like Wib da Band, which is our feature where we invite contributions from people that used to have an embarrassing band with an embarrassing band name and with some embarrassing lyrics for their, what we like to call signature song. And this week is from Jason in London, and he admits that he used to have a rock and roll band at school and they were called the Big Orange Dogs. Well, I don't know. You know, of all. Anyway, I haven't. I have. I don't know what to say about that, Jason, really, except it's got a very big laugh in the room here. You don't know, because they're doing it silently. But there are two grown women here who are finding it difficult to breathe. And you had the lyrics to your song Armitage Shanks. I hope everybody remembers what Armitage Shanks where would you see that? You'd see it in the men's room. Okay. And this is called Armitage Shanks. And it goes, a vase of consumption, our God of the day. Without your great service, where would we play? And as Jason puts underneath terrible. Jason freely admits. And I have to say, I mean, they've, you know, they're funny, but strictly speaking, they're terrible. And now it's time for this episode's playlist, which is called sure, There's Shame in My Eyes, But I Still Function, and I'm not going to elaborate on that. And it starts with a song called Morning show by Iggy Pop, which is one of my favorite Iggy Pop songs. And it also, you know, I have done the Morning show, so it's a good way of speaking about what that whole thing is like, you know, when you have to go out in public and kind of, you know, present yourself, particularly first thing in the morning, where they usually have a purple sofa and bright yellow floor tiles, and everybody seems to speak just a little bit louder than they would in normal life. And they go, good morning. And you're like, yeah, okay, okay. Hi. Anyway, this is called the Morning show, and it's about that, and it's about when you don't feel like it. There are four lines in it that I particularly like, which go, the hurt that's in my face didn't come from outer space. I'm crispy on the outside and juicy where I cry, which I think is sort of perfect pop lyrics. It's a great tune. And then there's a sweet love song about two high school lovers from Donald Fagan, who was one half of Steely Dan, you may remember, I'm sure, you know. And it's called Maxine, and that's a sweet song about early love. And then there's a song by Buzz Skaggs, and if you're not aware of Buzz Skaggs, I think the album to start with is called Dig D I G. And this is a track from Dig, and it's called Desire, and it's about how we are persuaded into wanting things. And it's very, very beautifully expressed about how we are. How they arrange for us to be dissatisfied so they can sell us stuff which won't actually satisfy us, that thing. So that's cool. And then there's a song by Jasmine with a Z, Jasmine with a Z. Sullivan, who I particularly like, who writes songs about all kinds of stuff, like Unlikely Things. This one is not so unlikely, I suppose, but it's called Roster R O S T E R and it's about she's speaking to a lover and she's saying, you know, yeah, it's fine, sure, let's do that. But you have to go on the roster because, you know, I've got a lot of other things going on and as long as that's okay with you. Then, you know, put your name down, which is kind of refreshing. And then there's a song by Andrea or Landria Johnson, which is a song about hoping for better times and it speaks for itself really. And then there's a song called Twinkle by a young man called Heather. Well, it's not his name, but his, as it were, band name is H e T H E r Heather. And that kind of speaks for itself as well. It's a love song and it's cute. So there you go. That's this week's playlist. Sure, there's shame in my eyes, but I still function. This week's recommended book is called Mrs. Caliban and it's by Rachel Ingalls. I n G A double L S. All of these titles you don't have to remember because they will be included in the show notes after the program. I'm going to read a bit of Mrs. Caliban she came back into the kitchen fast to make sure that she caught the toasting cheese in time and she was halfway across the checked linoleum floor of her nice safe kitchen when the screen door opened and a gigantic 6 foot 7 inch frog like creature shouldered its way into the house and stood stock still in front of her, crouching slightly and staring straight at her face. She stopped before she knew she had stopped and looked without realizing that she was taking anything in. She was as surprised and shocked as as if she had heard an explosion and seen her own shattered legs go flying across the floor. There was a space between him and the place where she was standing. It was like a gap in time. She saw how slowly everything was happening. She felt that he was frowning at her, but he hadn't moved yet. Her mouth was slightly open, she could feel that, and waves of horripilation fled across her skin. A flash of heat or ice sped up her backbone and neck and over her scalp so that her hair really did seem to lift up and her stomach hurt. Then, swimming among all the startlingly released fragrances of her shock and terror, she caught the slight scent of burning which warned her about the toast. That was the reason why she'd been rushing in the first place, and without thinking she darted forward grabbed a potholder, turned the gas off, dumped the little pieces of toast onto the plate that had been set out for them, and slid the grill tray back into the stove. The creature made a growling noise and she came to her senses. She took a step backwards. The growling increased. She took another step and bumped into the table. At the far end of the table lay the celery, carrots and tomatoes, the head of lettuce, and her favorite sharp knife, which would cut through anything just like a razor. She reached out her hand. Slowly, slowly, she reached further forward. She kept her eyes fixed on his. His eyes were huge and dark, seeming much larger than the eyes of a human being, and extremely deep. His head was quite like the head of a frog, but rounder, and the mouth was smaller and more centered in the face like a human mouth, only the nose was very flat, almost not there, and the forehead but bulged up in two creases. The hands and feet were webbed but not very far up, in fact only just noticeably. And as for the rest of the body, he was exactly like a man. A well built, large man, except that he was a dark spotted green, brown in color, and had no hair anywhere, and his ears were unusually small, set low down and rounded. She stretched way out across the table, took her eyes off his for an instant and picked up the long stalk of celery next to the knife. The growling stopped. She took a step forward slowly and held out the celery in front of her. Once again we say goodbye. That's the end of this episode of Ill Advised by Me. And I hope we've successfully enabled you to waste at least a part of your day, which is I feel healthy. And if we have, we're proud and pleased. See you next time. Ill Advised by Bill Nye was produced by Alice Williams and Kira Gregory. Assistant producer was Angelique Soma, pronounced Soma, and it's an ipod production. And Bill Nigh remains an executive producer, and that is the correct pronunciation of Bill's name. He'd like me to say that there's a lot of people going around saying all kinds of funny things, but it's Bill Nighy, and that's final.
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48 million people in the United States are adolescents between the ages of 14 and 24. They're working, parenting, leading, sometimes all at once.
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I'm balancing work and being a mom at the same time, and I'm still on track to graduate with my bachelor's next year.
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So what do today's young people need to truly thrive? Tune in to good things from Lemonada Media to hear the six part Thrive series. Hey honey, it's Mom. Did you know if we switch to Verizon we can get four phones for $0 plus four lines for $25 a line? Call me back me again. That's just $100 a month for four lines on unlimited welcome plus four phones. No trade in needed. Call me. It's Mom. America's Best Network Verizon. That's the one we're talking about.
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I'll send you text America's best network based on root metrics Best Overall mobile network performance us second half 2025 four new lines and a limited welcome and autopay. See verizon.com for details. Acast Powers the World's Best Podcasts here's
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the show that we recommend
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if you've ever dreamed of quitting your job to take your side hustle full time, listen up. This is Nikayla Matthews Akome, host of side Hustle Pro, a podcast that helps you build and grow from passion project to profitable business. Every week you'll hear from guests just like you who wanted to start a business on the side. If you can't run a side Hustle, you can't run a business. They share real tips and so I started connecting with all these people on LinkedIn and I saw Target supplier diversity was having office hours. Real advice. Procrastination is the easiest form of resistance and the actual strategies they use to turn their side Hustle into their main hustle. Getting back in touch with your tangible cash and sitting down and learning to to give your money a job like it changes something. Check out side Hustle Pro every week on your favorite podcast app and YouTube. Acast helps creators launch, grow and monetize their podcasts everywhere.
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Acast. Com.